21-Jul-2002
Parallel A Harry Potter/Gundam Wing fanfic by Stormy
Chapter Two: GW - A History
Rating: R
Pairings: 1x2 (more to be announced)
Warnings: Shonen ai (1x2), possible SBxRL (haven't decided yet ^^)
Spoilers: TPS, CoS, PoA, GoF (HP), Endless Waltz (GW)
Summary: Strange nightmares have been keeping Heero Yuy awake at nights and he doesn't know what they mean, or what has triggered them. Then a strange man appears who seems to know Heero very well. Who is this person? Why are they so happy to see him? What's all this about magic? Who is Harry Potter -- and why do they think he has something to do with his disappearance?
It was about a week later when the strange man approached him. Heero had been working late the past few nights, trying to wear himself out a bit as a way of possibly getting more sleep without resorting to drugs or the Louisville slugger Duo kept hinting at in the closet.
The sun was nearly set by the time he had cleared most of the paperwork on his desk. The thing about being caught up on your work one day, meant it was just as quick to stockpile the next day. Heero had had a very strange yet vivid dream about little elf-like creatures coming into his office in the middle of the night without anyone seeing them and erasing all of his hard work, starting him back at the beginning of the paper pile. The mass amount of work that seemed to grow exponentially almost had him convinced that the elf-creatures were real except for the fact that in his dreams they were led by Duo who thought it the greatest prank ever when in real life, the American was starting to gripe about how much time Heero had begun spending away from home.
Heero pushed the last stack of papers to the side and stood up, stretching slowly. Glancing over, he stifled a smile at the sight of his lover curled up on the small couch that lined one room of his office, fast asleep. Duo had his own office across the hall but preferred to spend his free time -- and most of his not-so-free time in Heero's where the paper and junk piles weren't yet high enough to be called a potential fire hazard. Heero walked around the large desk and stopped over him, reaching out with one hand to shake him awake.
"Come on Duo... your bed's waiting at home... OUR bed's waiting at home..." he let his voice trail off, laughing quietly as Duo licked his lips before opening his eyes.
"I heard that," he yawned sleepily. "No fair teasing, Yuy."
Heero shrugged and pulled him to his feet. As he did so, he casually whirled around, his gun appearing in his hand like magic. Duo mimicked his movements exactly, trusting Heero's instincts implicitly. The two pressed against the wall.
"Whoever's out in the hallway, drop whatever weapons you have and put your hands in the air." Heero's voice was like an arctic wind, cold and impossibly chilly. There was a surprised gasp from the hallway and then an amused voice called back.
"I'm not armed."
"Uh-huh," Heero muttered. The voice told him approximately where their surprise guest was. With a nod to Duo, Heero took a deep breath and then launched himself out the door, rolling across the hallway and coming to a stop on one knee, his gun cocked and aimed at the intruder who had their hands in the air. "Don't move. Duo?"
Duo stepped out of the office, the brim of his cap pulled down over his eyes and his gun pointed unwaveringly at the man before him. "Who are you?"
The person had his eyes fastened on Heero like a starving man at a feast. "It's really you..."
Heero rolled his eyes at the clichéd line and studied the man. He was dressed oddly, covered in long, dark robes. His hair was long and black, hanging in loose waves around his pale face. His eyes were like burnt coals, staring at Heero with such intensity, the perfect soldier could feel it from there. He kept his gun trained.
"Name?" He asked coldly, making a show of squeezing the trigger lightly.
"S-Sirius Black." The man licked his lips, looking a little stunned. "You..."
"Duo, call security." Heero eyed the man, deciding he didn't look very dangerous. He relaxed on the trigger and put the safety back on before tucking it in the waistband of his uniform.
"Right." Duo turned around but the man called out.
"Wait!"
"What?" Duo spun back around, exasperated. "You break in, we kick you out. But Lady Une has been on our backs about following procedures lately, so instead of dropkicking you out the window, you should be grateful we're getting security to manhandle your ass. Capiche?"
"I need to talk to you," Sirius said calmly. The initial shock that had stunned him seemed to be wearing off and he straightened a bit. Heero's eyes watched him like a hawk. "Please. Just give me five minutes of your time."
"Your call, Hee-chan." Duo put a hand on the office door, looking back at the Perfect Soldier.
Heero studied the man intently. He seemed desperate to talk to them, his hands kept twisting and wringing. His eyes were bright and intelligent but they shone with an excitement that reminded Heero of when Duo found a missing issue for his comic collection. He nodded once, curtly.
"Five minutes."
"My name is Sirius Black," he repeated. "Do you remember me?"
Heero's eyes narrowed. "I don't know who you are," he said shortly. "And I'm not in the mood for guessing games. Four minutes."
"I can't believe you don't remember me... but Albus did say the spell would have caused disorientation... but it shouldn't be like..." The man rambled to himself for a few minutes and Heero exchanged a raised eyebrow with Duo. Sirius looked back up. "Well, do you know who YOU are?"
Duo let out a laugh. "Oh that's rich. Well, Hee-chan? Do you?"
Heero calmly reached over and smacked the back of Duo's head. "Heero Yuy. Preventor first-class, and not so pleased to meet you."
The man suddenly smiled as though he gained some kind of understanding. "I see."
"See what?" Heero growled, starting to sound frustrated. "Who are you? Why have you been following me? You have three minutes and then to hell with procedures!"
"That proves it then," Sirius said softly. "That you could detect me even though I was using... or maybe because of it." He smiled at Heero. "I'm sorry, it's just that I was so sure you'd recognize me once I revealed myself. You're Harry Potter. Do you remember now?"
Heero was now certain the man had lost it. "I'm who?"
"Harry Potter. Boy-who-lived. My godson."
Duo made the sign of a crazy person, circling his head with his index finger. Heero was hard-pressed to disagree. "Uh-huh. Duo, call security."
"Wait!" Sirius took a step forward and Heero reached behind his back for his gun. Duo had his out again.
"Don't move."
"Wait, please! I wasn't expecting you to not recognize me! But it is you, you're Harry Potter! The saviour of England! The tracking spells kept leading me to you but the fact that you look so different kept throwing me off!"
"You're one loony bird," Duo said. He jerked his head at Heero. "Saviour of the world I could buy, seeing as how he pulled that stunt off last year. But Harry? England? Does he look British to you?"
"That's what threw me off," Sirius admitted somewhat sheepishly. "But he is Harry Potter. I have a story to tell you that will prove it if you'll let me."
"You have two minutes left." Heero said calmly. Sirius shrugged.
"Fine. I'll get you back for this when your memory returns." He locked gazes with him. "You're a wizard."
"A... what?" Of all things he was possibly expecting the madman to say, this was the least of them.
"A wizard. With magic and everything. That's how you were able to sense me over the last few days."
"Well, if you're the one that's been making Heero so jumpy the last few days, then I owe you some payback of my own," Duo said with a growl. "Do you know how much work it is tailing after Heero when he thinks he's seeing things? It's bad enough staying awake all bloody night--"
"That's right," Sirius said in wonder. His gaze jumped from Heero to Duo and then back again. "I forgot. You two are... together, aren't you?"
Duo glared at him. "And if we are, so what? You got a problem with that?"
"If you think I'm saying yes to that when both of you are pointing what I assume are loaded weapons at me, then you're crazier then I am," Sirius said flatly.
Duo looked at him oddly for a minute and then burst out laughing. Heero blinked in surprise as Duo put his gun away and motioned for Heero to do the same. "Oh come on Heero -- if he was going to do anything, he would have done it by now. He seems okay to me." He whipped his head at Sirius. "Except for the tracking thing. But you were about to explain that, weren't you?"
"Of course," Sirius nodded, looking relieved.
Heero waited another second before nodding and putting his gun away again. It went against every procedural rule Lady Une had ever written and passed out but then he and Duo were no strangers to rule breaking. And Duo had a knack for reading people. It wasn't like Quatre's space heart that made him mildly empathic, but it was enough that Heero trusted his partner's judgement. He motioned towards the office. "Inside."
"Fair enough." Keeping his hands where the two agents could see them, Sirius entered the office and took the chair in front of Heero's desk. Heero took his own seat and Duo perched himself on the edge of the desk, folding his arms and watching their guest with interest.
"Speak now or forever hold your Reece's," he quipped.
"Reece's?" Sirius furrowed his brow before his face lit with understanding. "Ahh yes... a muggle candy, right?"
"Muggle?"
Sirius chuckled. "It's part of the story I have to tell you." But instead of getting on with it, he stared at Heero who actually twitched under the scrutiny, drawing a snicker from Duo.
"Why do you keep staring at me?"
"You didn't hear what I said, did you?" Sirius said softly. "You're my godson, among other things. I got little enough time with you before this whole mess started, and now you don't even know who I am."
Harry felt his insides twist, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Duo give him a sympathetic look. Heero was no stranger to hardship. He had grown up under the supervision and tutelage of a man who treated him as a very valuable science experiment. His real name was a mystery, as was his parentage -- if he even had parents. As far as he knew, Doctor J had taken a page out of the Winner family book and had just brewed him up ala test tube and plunked him down in front of a mobile suit simulator as soon as he hatched. While he had come to terms with it years ago, especially with the help of Duo who had told him in no uncertain terms that your background didn't matter -- it was your current actions that did, it was still a sore point of contention with him. Sometimes he preferred to think he'd been genetically engineered -- he didn't think he'd ever want to know that his biological parents had given him to a mad scientist to be trained as a killer.
"I don't have any parents, let alone a godfather," he said steadily, flatly. Sirius flinched.
"Yes you do. Well, did, at any rate." He winced. "Your parents... died, many years ago, when you were just a baby. They had named me your godfather."
"Are we starting at the beginning here? Duo questioned, looking confused. "Wouldn't Heero know if any of this were true?"
"Not if I was a baby," Heero shrugged. Sirius blinked.
"But that's just it -- you should have your memories. I mean, you've only been missing about six weeks at the most--"
"Okay, now you've lost me." Duo threw up his hands. Heero's eyes narrowed again.
"Impossible. Six weeks ago we were on... assignment. I do not recall seeing you, nor do I have anything in my memory regarding my parents, if I in fact had any."
Sirius gave him an odd look. "Of course you have parents. Everyone has parents."
"Not unless you have genetic donors and a lab capable of cloning," Duo deadpanned. "Otherwise I'm going to have to have a chat with Quatre about his father -- the man deserves a posthumus award for living life to the fullest if all those kids came naturally."
Sirius didn't look like he understood but he nodded anyway. "Right..."
"You said you were going to explain yourself." Heero was tired of beating around the bush. "Get on with it."
Sirius sighed. "I don't even know where to begin."
"The beginning is usually a good place," Duo volunteered." And when you get to the end, stop."
Sirius finally chuckled. "Sounds like a plan. Harry -- uh, Heero, you were born Harry Potter to James and Lily Potter sixteen years ago. They, along with Remus Lupin, were my closest friends in the world -- family, really. I would have done anything for them, but when you were born, they named ME your godfather. "His eyes softened. "You were such a happy baby -- always smiling and laughing..."
"Heero?" Duo goggled. "Surely you jest." But he reached down and gripped Heero's hands, which had suddenly gone cold, rubbing his knuckles gently.
"He was," Sirius protested. "He was my little partner in crime -- James used to complain that I came over to visit Harry and not him or Lily." He smiled. "He was partially right. Lily swore I was going to spoil you rotten.
"But like everything else that's perfect, it didn't last. In the wizarding world--"
"Wizard?" Duo interrupted.
"Didn't you hear me say that? I told you, Heero's a wizard. You might be too -- you've got a strange aura around you," Sirius told him, frowning. "In the wizarding world was a dark wizard named Voldemort but people tended to call him You-Know-Who out of fear that saying his name would call his attention to them."
"Garbage," Heero snorted. "And fantasy too, but that is garbage."
Sirius smiled. "At least one thing hasn't changed... Anyway, Voldemort had a legion of supporters known as Death Eaters and they were terrorizing both the wizard and the muggle world."
"There's that word again," Duo pointed out.
"I'm sorry -- a muggle is what we call a person with no magic. Voldemort hated muggle-born wizards and their families and was on a killing streak." Sirius's eyes darkened. "And one night, he came after James and Lily."
"My so-called parents were muggles?" Heero asked. He tried to remain aloof but something had clicked in his memory. The story Sirius was reciting at him had the sound of being an old one, as though he'd told it many times. Perhaps he'd interrogated too many people and just instinctively knew when people were lying to him, but he had the feeling that whatever the truth was, Sirius honestly believed what he was saying. Heero tried to push back the growing sense of unease building inside of him and nodded at Sirius. "Go on."
"Your mum was, Har--sorry, Heero. Your father came from a long line of wizards, a pureblood to the fullest extent." Sirius smiled. "He got in ten kinds of trouble when he married Lily, let me tell you."
"Uh-huh." Heero exchanged another look with Duo.
"Anyway, Voldemort came after you and your parents." Sirius closed his eyes. "Your parents had been expecting this to some extent. There was a prophecy that spoke vaguely of their offspring causing the fall of the Dark Lord. Normally, such prophecies are regarded as gibberish -- Divination was never very seriously taken -- but Voldemort wasn't known for letting things like that go. The Potters needed to be protected, and so Albus Dumbledore -- the headmaster of Hogwarts, a famous school for wizards -- taught them the Fidelius Charm to choose a Secret Keeper.
Having a Secret Keeper meant that no matter what, was done, the person being protected couldn't be found or detected by any means unless the Secret Keeper told where they were. That meant even if James and Lily had been standing right next to Voldemort, he wouldn't even know they were there unless their Secret Keeper told them."
Sirius took a deep breath. "I was supposed to be their Secret Keeper."
The dark sadness seemed to radiate from Sirius; one didn't need to be an empath to feel the sorrow in the room. Heero was surprised to feel his heart racing, lub-dubbing so hard he was surprised it wasn't flying out of his chest. He took a deep breath.
"And?"
And I made the stupidest mistake of my worthless life!" Sirius snarled. Sorrow turned to self-hatred in an instant and angry tears welled up. Heero and Duo both blinked in surprise.
"What did you do?" Heero asked after a minute.
"I convinced James and Lilly not to make me their Secret Keeper, "Sirius spat out, closing his eyes tightly. "I was their best friend -- surely Voldemort would have known I'd be their first choice. I asked them to make another friend--"Sirius spat the word out as though it tasted foul in his mouth. "--their Secret Keeper. Peter Pettigrew. Peter had been a part of our group for years -- me, James, Remus and Peter. We were known as the Marauders -- notorious pranksters extraordinaire. I never in a million years thought Peter would betray James like he did. Me yes, Remus possibly -- but James and Lily?" Sirius clenched his fists. "That little rat told Voldemort where they were and he went after them."
"So that's how they died?" Duo asked.
"Yes. James was killed first. He tried to fend Voldemort off long enough to let Lily escape with you Har-Heero. But he couldn't do it and Voldemort your parents."
"Even if I considered believing any of this, why didn't he kill me too?" Heero asked sceptically. "Especially since I was reportedly prophesied to be his downfall."
"Your mother sacrificed her life for you. You told me yourself how she begged for him to spare your life." Sirius smiled faintly. "The power of love is a serious thing, Heero. Your mother's love for you protected you. When Voldemort tried to kill you using one of the forbidden Curses, it rebounded off you, striking Voldemort, weakening him so much that for the next eleven years, he was thought to be dead."
Duo shook his head admiringly. "You've got one hell of an imagination buddy, I'll give you that much. This sounds better then one of my comic books--"
"Green lightning..."
"Huh?" Duo turned to see Heero staring at his desktop, his eyes distant, his face pale. Instantly he shimmied off the desk and crouched next to Heero's seat, gripping the Japanese pilot's hands in his. "Heero?"
"Green lightning... laughter..." Heero slowly lifted his head, his eyes completely confused. Duo glanced back at Sirius and saw him watching Heero with a hopeful expression, his eyes pleading. He turned back. Pale skin and wide blank eyes were signs of shock on a normal person. On Heero they were cause for full-scale panic. Duo could recall several cases of broken limbs and extreme blood loss that had made the medical staff toss their cookies but had barely warranted a grunt from Heero before he demanded the return of his laptop so he could write the injury report himself. Heero just didn't go into shock -- or at least, not from hearing the story of a crazy person.
"Heero, talk to me." He turned Heero's head to face him, meeting his eyes sternly. "No blanking out Soldier Boy. What's going on?"
Heero looked at him with wide eyes. "He's describing the beginning of my nightmare."
Duo blinked. That was something new. He was of course familiar with the night terrors that had been plaguing the other boy for the past few weeks but Heero had never given him any details. He would simply wake up in a cold sweat, gasping for breath and trembling hard enough to make the whole damn bed vibrate. Duo found the easiest solution was to rub his back soothingly -- something he knew no one had ever done for him before, reminding him of where he was and soothing him back into sleep. Heero may have been the Perfect Soldier all his life -- but in the middle of the night when the shadows on the wall seemed to come to life, there simply was no substitute for genuine, reassuring human contact.
He proved this theory by taking his free hand that Heero wasn't returning a death grip on, and rubbing it in soothing circles along his spine. True to form, he felt the iron muscles loosen somewhat, and some of the colour came back into his face.
"You with me now?" Heero nodded, looking vaguely embarrassed at forgetting himself. Duo ignored it. "Good. Now, what's this about green lightning?"
"In my dream -- it's like he said." Heero gestured at Sirius. "Someone -- I don't know who, has red eyes like those bright contacts you wear sometimes -- points a stick at me and shouts at me. I think it was Latin. Then green lightning flashes out of the stick and then my dream jumps to the next scene, so to speak." He blinked, surprised at himself for rambling. Duo was looking at him a little oddly but there was more concern radiating from him then anything else.
"You're dreaming of the night your parents were killed," Sirius nodded, his eyes still wide. "I found you and gave you to Hagrid who took you to Dumbledore. He and another Professor took you to your mother's sister's house and she and her husband raised you until you turned eleven and came to Hogwarts." Heero came back to himself with a start, and he glared at Sirius.
"Wouldn't you think I'd know if this were true or not? Mother's sister -- who are you talking about? I was raised, if you can call it that, by Odin Lowe to be an assassin, and then by Doctor J to be a Gundam pilot. When I was eleven I was in Japan being hooked up to Gundam flight simulators and being worked on, on the genetic level, so I could handle Wing Zero. My Gundam. The mobile suit I spent the next four years piloting until the end of the war marked its destruction!" Heero was trembling again. Something inside his head was pulsing, fighting to break free of whatever restraints were in there and he was deathly afraid of what it was. The green lightning was flashing behind his eyes in mockery. "Magic, Dumbledore, Hog's warts -- me having parents! I think we should have just called security from the very beginning!"
Duo had pulled his hand free from Heero's death grip and Heero's other hand was crushing the arm of his chair, leaving finger-shaped grooves in the plastic. Duo was watching him with wide eyes, and Heero couldn't blame him.
Heero had always been the very model of self-restraint. He had never needed to be unusually vocal before -- his intimidating demeanour complete with his icy blue gaze that Duo had labelled his death glare, and his gun that he could make appear virtually from thin air were more threatening then any words could ever be. He was not given to chattering, and for the longest time, preferred solitude to company, where he didn't have to speak continuously. It had taken Duo a long time to break through the walls Heero had erected around himself, keeping the outside world at bay. A long time of talking, sometimes endlessly to the sound of his own voice when Heero refused to talk back. A long time of dragging Heero out of the safe houses they holed up in, and later on, the apartment they shared so that Heero could 'learn to be sociable', Duo called it. A long time of deciphering the grunts, Japanese phrases and monosyllabic answers that made up 'Heero speech'. Sometimes Heero thought about the patience and determination Duo had shown in trying to get through to him, and it honestly moved him that someone could care so much about another human being, let alone him. For Duo to hear Heero snap and ramble away at a perfect stranger, it had to be like something out of the twilight zone.
Heero took several deep breaths, focusing on calming down. He was reminded of watching Wufei control his breathing during his mediation at one of Quatre's residences, and he used that as a focal point, drawing the air in, holding it in for a second, and then releasing it, envisioning the tension draining out of him. It worked. A minute late, he opened his eyes, feeling a bit better. He smiled awkwardly at Duo.
"Gomen nasai.[i]"
"Nan demo nai,[ii]" Duo waved at him. The concern hadn't left his expressive violet eyes but the outward alarm had subsided. Sirius looked at them, confused.
"What did you say?"
Duo looked at him calculatingly. "That was Japanese. I know some, but Heero is fluent." He smirked. "Kinda puts a damper on the whole 'Heero is British' thing, doesn't it?"
Sirius frowned. "Something's not right."
"Well, DUH! I could have told you that -- in fact, I did, we both did, come to think of it." Duo glared and stood up straight.
"Look, it's been a barrel of monkeys but I think you better scram before I decide to do the right thing and have someone haul you away. I don't know why you're trying to upset Heero but--"
"Please! If I offer you proof, will you come with me?" Sirius interrupted the American, rising himself. "This needs to be sorted out, and quite quickly. There's someone who can check everything but we have to go to him."
"Proof?"
"Of what I've been telling you. Of magic, of Harry, of the scar Voldemort's attack left on his forehead - everything."
"What scar?" Heero brushed the fringe of his bangs back and Duo scrutinized his brow. "There's nothing there."
Sirius smiled. "It's there -- it's just hidden." He pulled a long, slender stick out of his robes. Duo eyed it carefully.
"What's that?"
"My wand." Sirius chuckled at the surprised look on Duo's face. "May I?"
Heero shrugged. Sirius muttered something under his breath and a swirl of sparks breezed gently out his wand. They soared through the air, caressing Heero's face, gentle as a lover's kiss before disappearing into thin air. Duo blinked and did a double take.
"Holy shit!"
Heero felt a tingling on his forehead and reached up. His fingers brushed against an uneven mark on his brow, of what felt like half-healed scar tissue and he turned to Duo who gaped at him. He grabbed Duo's wrist and pulled it forward, looking into the shiny surface of his watch. A jagged lightning bolt-shaped scar now graced his once perfect skin.
"How did you do that?" Duo asked, unable to keep the amazement out of his voice.
"Magic," Sirius said quietly. He reached under his robes again and pulled out a silvery grey blanket. "And this is another type of magic."
He twirled the material around his shoulders and his entire body disappeared from view. His seemingly decapitated head floated in mid-air, watching them with undisguised amusement. Duo was goggling at him, his earlier animosity forgotten, and Heero was frozen in his seat. Somehow, he'd known what that blanket was, what it could do. Somehow he knew that the story Sirius had been telling them wasn't all fabrication.
Suddenly, for the first time he could remember, Heero was afraid.
End Chapter 2
Additional Notes: For those of you screaming at the top of your heads about Harry being British and therefore can't possibly be Japanese, all will be explained later on. For those of you who are suffering from terminal impatience, all I can say is that this was indeed inspired by something that can be summed up in one word: Psylocke. Take that as you will (or do your own research) but that's the only hint you get.
[i] I'm sorry
[ii] Nothing; it was/is nothing
Feeback please?
Stormy
Please send comments to: dingostorm@hotmail.com