Harry Potter is Bella Swan Ch.2 (HP/Twilight)

Bella stepped out of the small airport terminal and spotted her dad almost instantly. Charlie was hard to miss as he was one of the only people waiting for arrivals. He was driving an old red truck that stood out just a tad. At least he was easy to find.

Bella paused for a second. If her life was following the plot of Twilight, that truck would be a gift for her. Billy Black's old truck, to be specific. She was curious to know if the Quileute Tribe had any magics other than their wolf-shapeshifting.

Charlie was a fit man of average height with short, black hair, and an iffy mustache. To each their own, Bella shrugged. In her last life, she was hardly a paragon of fashion. She wondered if Witch Weekly ever had an article about how Harry Potter dressed like a homeless street urchin.

In this life, while she would never win any beauty pageants, she had taken more of an interest in clothing, makeup, and fashion to enhance her natural beauty. She knew that she differed from the 'Bella' of Twilight in quite a few ways. Even while she was purely 'Bella' and had no memories of her past, her old life still influenced her.

Bella's mannerisms were similar to Harry's. She gravitated towards seemingly mundane things with amazement, which now made sense. In this life, she'd never been chained. Nobody had manipulated her, coerced her, tricked her, or tried to control her fate. She was free to be an ordinary girl who liked ordinary things. 

It was a damn shame that after all she'd been through magic was a fundamental part of her very being. Without it, she lived a half-life at best. Thankfully, she was whole once again, maybe for the first time since James and Lily Potter were murdered.

She stroked her new snake that refused to be parted from her. The rattlesnake was a little far away from her natural habitat in the Arizona desert, but Bella could just use magic to make her new familiar comfortable. She liked the serpent and decided to adopt her.

Thank Merlin she'd had nothing to do but study and learn new magic during the year she was on the run. Between the library at Grimmauld Place and Hermione's tutoring, she'd mastered more magic than she had ever imagined existed.

She owed her best friend quite a bit. Hermione had convinced the lackadaisical twelve-year-old Harry Potter to enroll in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy as electives, rather than Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.

Harry really should've listened to Hermione more often.

Bella missed her fiercely but took comfort in the fact that she likely lived a long life after the defeat of Voldemort. One day, she hoped to find a magic that would let her see what happened in her old reality.

Thanks to Hermione, Bella had every piece of magic needed to live as an independent and fully functional witch.

As she walked up to Charlie, Bella noticed that he gazed right past her like she wasn't even there-

Right. The muggle repelling charm. She didn't want to be caught out with her wand in her hand in addition to the snake, which would no doubt shock her father enough on its own. She felt the Hallows tattoo on her hand heat up and, despite her empty hands, it was as if she wielded the elder wand.

She thought of casting a finite to dispel the charm and made to summon her wand. Before she could do more than twitch a finger, her magic surged, and the spell dissipated. Wandless, intent-based magic appeared to be a perk of the Deathly Hallows. At least she would be getting something tangible out of becoming connected to Death.

Charlie perked up and his eyes cleared. To him, it was as if he was lost in thought and Bella walked up while he wasn't paying attention. The mind magics were a strange and esoteric art. She didn't think most obliviators should've been allowed anywhere near people's minds, but what did she know? She was only the bloody Chosen One.

"Hey, kiddo," Charlie smiled. He had missed his daughter. She usually came to visit for at least a couple weeks every summer, and he was glad that he would have a couple years with her, living as father and daughter.

Bella moved to hug him, but as he took her appearance in, he finally noticed the damn snake and, as predicted, freaked the fuck out.

"Bella!" Charlie jumped back and before he could think, his hand reached for his concealed sidearm. Even off-duty, he wouldn't ever be caught unarmed.

Bella took a quick step back, a little astonished. Before Charlie could say anything, she jabbed her finger at him, "What the hell do you think you were going to do with that, dad?" she asked, exasperated.

She wasn't mad at him. She got it. It was a giant venomous snake, after all. She just wished his first instinct wasn't to pull a gun on his daughter. Geez, dad. Way to make the police look bad.

"Relax," she admonished, "She's friendly. Her name's Gemma," Bella stroked her snake and tried not to be weirded out by the fact that she'd never stroke her snake ever again. At least she was hot now. Reincarnation may have been the best thing to have happened to her. She felt refreshed, like all the sorrows of her past were finally behind her.

Charlie looked at her like she was crazy. "Uh... Bella, sweetie, listen. That's a rattlesnake. I read up on the local wildlife when you and your mother moved out to Phoenix-" Charlie tried his best to explain to his daughter about the dangers of venomous snakes, but Bella had already tuned him out.

She was a little distracted by the fact that she had a father. Bella had never appreciated that simple fact of family before. Now that she had some perspective, she could only look at him in awe. This was her dad.

Awesome.

"-Bella? Are you even listening to me?" Charlie went to shake her shoulder, but the presence of the big-ass snake made him flinch back. The snake was so calm and content sitting on Bella's shoulders that he wasn't sure what to do.

Bella smiled, but held up her hands in surrender, "Listen, dad. She's completely fine. She won't hurt a fly, I promise." To prove her point, she turned away from her dad, leaned in close to the snake and hissed, "This is my father. You are to never harm him and protect him from any threats. Understood?"

The snake flicked its tongue and nodded its head in an eerily human-like fashion. 

"Yessss, ssspeaker~" the snake hissed, obediently.

Bella was always blown away by the intelligence of snakes. She and Hermione had researched it in their second year and learned that it was a parselmouth's magic that permanently evolved the minds of any serpent they met.

Even a basilisk, king of the serpents, would be nothing but a mindless beast if it had never met a parselmouth. That was why parseltongue was always translated into the native language of the speaker. The magic invaded the snake's mind directly, providing meaning and knowledge. The snakes of this planet would likely go through a great evolution now that she was here.

Bella's inner marauder woke up at the nervous energy that was practically pouring out of Charlie. He was so wound up and she wanted to help him chill out. Her mischievous side, that was previously suppressed, awoke in full force. As dozens of ideas for pranks rushed through her head, Bella almost felt pity for such a serious man like Charlie.

Oh, well. Bella shrugged. He would come to appreciate her antics... probably. If not, she was pretty sure she read somewhere that daughters were meant to drive their fathers insane. She was only playing the part of a proper, dutiful daughter. Yep, yep.

Bella stepped close to her dad and held out her arms like she wanted to pass the snake, "Come here, dad. She won't bite," she assured. When Charlie looked at her like she was crazy, she did something she'd never done before.

Bella's face screwed up into a pout and a glimmer of tears appeared in her eyes as she gave her best puppy dog face. "Don't you trust me, dad?" she asked, innocently.

Charlie pinched his thigh, and he wasn't gentle about it. His eyes widened at the pain and Bella was sure his face would be stuck looking gobsmacked for the rest of his life.

Charlie wasn't asleep and this was no dream. His stoic, quiet daughter wanted him to hold her snake? Her venomous, lethal snake. Great. Charlie hadn't had the most peaceful life. Between his job as a sheriff and growing up as a brother in all but blood to Billy Black he had ample opportunity to do crazy shit that risked his life.

So, if his daughter wanted him to hold the fucking snake, he'd hold the fucking snake. Even if every instinct in his body told him to shoot it, his daughter was too damn cute at the moment to even consider rejecting. He couldn't remember the last time she'd asked him for anything! It was time to man the fuck up!

He held out his arms and Bella grabbed his hand. The snake wound its way around their arms, slowly transferring itself from daughter to father. Charlie could barely hold himself still, every instinct in his body firing and warning him about the potential death that was coiling its way up his shoulder, towards his head.

A few agonizing moments later, Charlie had a snake wrapped around his neck and shoulders.

"You two look so cute together!" Bella held back her laughter and encouraged her dad with as much enthusiasm as she could muster.

Charlie managed a small, obviously terrified smile, but he couldn't bring himself to speak. It took everything he had not to scream and toss the snake as far as possible. The things he did for his daughter...

By the time they pulled up in front of their home, Charlie was used to Gemma's presence. However his daughter had done it, that snake was tamer than a puppy.

Bella opened the door as soon as Charlie parked, and Gemma unwound herself and slithered down onto the ground.

"I will hunt, massster~" Gemma announced as she made her way into the forest without a backwards glance.

She was a big snake, so Bella let her go, but not before tagging her with a tracking spell and a modified impervious charm, designed to protect babies and toddlers from any potentially fatal accidents. Human children, magical or no, always seemed to find the dumbest ways to nearly kill themselves. The charm wouldn't do much against a real threat, but her snake wouldn't be eaten by any random animals.

Charlie watched the snake slither away into the forest and let out a small sigh of relief. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to keep it in the house, but remembering Bella's mischievous smile, he didn't hold out hope.

He stepped out and patted Bella's shoulder, "Welcome to Forks, sweetheart."

She grinned happily, if with a hint of Bella's original shyness. She was overcome with emotion and had to stop herself from tearing up. This moment would make for a patronus-worthy memory, without a doubt. It was good to be home.