24-Jul-2002
Parallel: A Harry Potter/Gundam Wing fanfic by Stormy
Rating: R
Pairings: 1x2 (more to be announced)
Summary: People introduced and memories explained.
Warnings: Shonen ai (1x2), possible SBxRL (haven't decided yet ^^)
Spoilers: TPS, CoS, PoA, GoF, (HP) Endless Waltz (GW)
Additional Notes: ^^ Just as a side note no, there will be no Harry x Ron in this fic. I don't mind that pairing I find it rather sweet actually but I like Ron with Hermione even better. If I were going to pair Harry up with anyone, it would be Draco but Harry/Heero is quite firmly smitten with the loveable Duo Maxwell. ^^ Just thought I'd let you all know. ^^
Dumbledore simply projected the aura of being the all-time grandfather, radiating a soothing stream of warm and friendliness. Heero couldn't help but be somewhat receptive to it, and he knew that Duo had already relaxed a bit. It was unnerving.
The rest of the group had filed in silently after the girl Hermione, Heero recalled had admonished the redhead Ron Weasely and had taken sitting positions around the room. Even though Heero kept his eyes on the one called Albus Dumbledore, he could feel all their gazes locked on him, and the sheer expectancy of their looks made his fists clench.
Duo glanced at Heero and then the surrounding people before smiling suddenly. "Whoa. Intense."
Sirius chuckled, and even Hermione cracked a smile. Dumbledore peered through his half-moon spectacles at Duo, smiling kindly. "And who is this?"
"Duo Maxwell sir," Duo said politely again. Dumbledore nodded, looking at the close proximity between him and Heero and his eyes crinkled.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Maxwell," he said reaching out and shaking Duo's hand with a grip that was unusually strong for such an elderly gentleman. Duo's face now held a mixture of amazement and respect. "I suspect you are both a bit confused about what is happening."
"You could say that," Duo shrugged. "But I've found with Heero, the unexpected isn't quite so unexpected."
Dumbledore laughed. "I suspect that's quite true, even more so then you think."
Heero growled, low under his breath. "An explanation?" The tone was one that Duo recognized as 'I am seriously getting pissed off and I am about to start waving my gun if I don't get answers NOW.' Duo looked at all of them with a sheepish yet strained smile.
"Ummm... yeah. Explanations would be a good thing right about now. The last time he used this tone of voice, the payroll people refused to come out of hiding for nearly a week." Heero glared at him and Duo raised his hands in self-defence. "Well, they didn't! Lady Une had to bribe them with extra vacation time!"
Heero knew Duo was diffusing him through sidetracking, a skill the American was very good at, but he went along with it anyway. It was something familiar in all this strangeness. "Well, they should have just paid us the two days they owed us. I didn't overreact."
Duo pulled away and placed his hands on his hips, ignoring their spectators outright as he fought to keep a grin off his face as he lectured Sank's most famous war hero. "You pulled your gun on them and threatened to kill them if they didn't fork over the bloody check Heero! Poor Jim was hyperventilating for an hour!"
Heero sniffed and folded his arms, looking away. Duo finally cracked and let a chuckle escape him as he slid back over, wrapping his arms around Heero's waist and resting his chin on his shoulder. "No sulking now Hee-chan."
"I am not sulking," Heero said with some dignity. "Perfect soldiers don't sulk."
"What did you call yourself?" Dumbledore asked. He and the others had been watching the by-play with no little amusement, even if the public displays of affection seemed to weird out the sallow-faced man and the redheaded boy, but now he intervened. Heero looked back at him, completely at ease with a braided boy clinging to his torso.
"Excuse me?"
"You called yourself a perfect soldier," Sirius clarified. "What does that mean?"
Heero went still, and Duo looked up guardedly. "It's a kind of nickname from the War," Duo said, looking at Heero to get his permission. Heero nodded, staring at some far off point on the wall. Duo continued. "Heero was raised, trained and somewhat... uh, modified to be the perfect soldier."
"What do you mean by modified?" Hermione sat up a little straighter, looking genuinely interested. Duo shrugged.
"It means he's a stronger then normal people as in able to bend steel bars with his bare hands, that kind of thing. He's got perfect aim on a shooting range- well, he does, when no one's distracting him anyway..." he grinned innocently. "Lightning-quick reflexes, abnormal rate of healing, able to control his breathing and to some extent, his heart rate which REALLY comes in handy when you need to play dead." Then his eyes darkened. "Able to survive impossible odds..."
Heero flinched. "That's enough."
Duo nodded and curled closer to him. Dumbledore had a pensive look on his face at Duo's revelations and both Hermione and Sirius looked vaguely astounded and horrified at the same time. Everyone else looked a little confused. Heero growled again.
"You are supposed to be providing ME with an explanation, not the other way around," he said coldly. Having his past brought up to what could be considered perfect strangers always made him edgy. "I don't even know half your names."
The friendly-faced man in the worn robes chuckled. "He's right, you know. "Standing, he made his way over, standing next to Sirius. "I'm Remus Lupin, Heero. I'm pleased to meet you."
Heero saw the encouraging look on Sirius's face and for some reason, went with his instincts, reaching out to shake the man's outstretched hand. Then he stiffened, his eyes narrowing. "What are you?"
Remus's eyes opened wide. "What?"
Heero couldn't explain it. As soon as he'd moved forward to take the man's hand, some kind of alarm had sounded in the back of his head. But, frustratingly, it had directly conflicted with another instinct within him to trust him, as though there were both some aspect of the man he knew he both could and could not trust. "There's something... different about you. More then, well..." he waved his hand in a general arc around the room. "Like I can trust you but sometimes I can't." He shook his head and met Lupin's steady gaze. "What does that mean?"
Remus chuckled even though his face had gone a bit pale. "It means you're very perceptive. Believe me when I tell you that you can trust me. You'll understand everything soon enough."
Heero didn't like that too much. He preferred to have 'all the cards on the table' as Trowa had once told him. Remus saw his narrowed gaze and sighed. "Please Heero?"
Duo tugged his arm gently and Heero nodded once. "Fine." He then focused his gaze on the two remaining people in the room still without names, raising his eyebrow pointedly.
The woman stood up, holding herself in a regal manner. Her face was stern yet her eyes were kind as she approached him. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. I am the head of Transfigurations at Hogwarts."
"Transfigurations?" Heero echoed.
"The ability to turn one object into another," she said simply. "A subject you're actually fairly good in, with the help of Miss Granger."
Heero looked at Hermione and saw her smile self-consciously. He put that aside and looked at the thin man watching him with a sneer on his hawk-like face. "And you are?"
"I am Professor Snape," the man said shortly. "Head of Potions, which I'm afraid you're quite abysmal at."
Heero shrugged, not particularly caring what this man's opinion of him was, but Duo couldn't help but growl, glaring at the man with dangerous eyes. It wasn't wise to insult Heero Yuy in front of Duo Maxwell, not if you wanted to live to tell about it. Snape eyed the braided boy with a hint of trepidation and returned to his seat that he had claimed. Duo subsided.
"What subject do you teach?" Heero asked Remus next. The man shook his head.
"I'm not a teacher anymore. I used to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts but I became... indisposed." He smiled ruefully.
"I'm here to lend moral support, you could say. I knew your parents they, along with Sirius were my best friends at Hogwarts when we were younger."
"That's what he said," Heero nodded, nodding his head in Sirius's direction. Remus snapped his head to look at Sirius in shock.
"What? You were supposed to approach them only! What did you tell him? What if"
"Remus, calm down!" Sirius snapped. He raked a hand through his hair in a nervous gesture. "I had to say something. I had to give them something if I wanted them to come with me for god's sake, they were pointing loaded weapons at me!"
"It is unfortunate that they chose not to fire," Snape remarked snidely. Sirius whirled around and gave a remarkably realistic growl at the professor before Remus had his hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.
Heero watched with thinly veiled interest. He was starting to see the group dynamics fall into what seemed to be well-established patterns, the longer he viewed them. He noted the satisfied gleam in Snape's eyes and concluded that the comment had been said specifically to antagonize Sirius, and that the black-haired man had fallen for the bait, hook, line and sinker. A quick look around the room saw that Hermione and Ron had been suckered in as well, glowering at Snape even if they kept quiet. Even Minerva was scowling heatedly. But Dumbledore had a knowing look in his blue eyes, and even Remus had a resigned expression, as though the fight he was currently trying to prevent was one that he had plenty of experience in dealing with. Another quick look at Duo confirmed that the American pilot had come to the same conclusions, watching the room with amusement.
Albus Dumbledore cleared his throat and instantly Snape and Sirius quieted. Heero was impressed at the command the older man had.
"It's time to let Heero know what we've been jabbering about," he said with a smile. "And it's actually quite a long story. Perhaps if you told us a bit about the nightmares you've been experiencing?"
Heero shot a glare at Sirius who looked away, whistling innocently. "I'm not sure where to begin."
"I seem to recall some pretty good advice I was given," Sirius remarked, staring at the ceiling. "Start at the beginning. When you get to the end, stop."
Duo snickered.
Heero sighed and nodded resignedly. The sooner he told them, the sooner he could get some answers to this whole mess. "It starts off with screaming, a man telling a woman named Lilly to run..."
The room had a most solemn air to it when he finished chronicling the details of his nightmares. The expressions ranged from shocked to amazed to knowing to uncaring (Snape) to anguished, and Heero himself felt drained by the time he'd finished speaking. Dumbledore nodded knowingly and waved his hand in the air. A large pitcher suddenly appeared in mid-air, and goblets materialized in everyone's hands. Duo swore in shock, to Sirius's amusement and Minerva's disapproval, and nearly dropped his.
"Warn a guy next time!" he groused. Heero sniffed the golden-colored beverage inside. It was vaguely familiar. He raised his eyes to Dumbledore's.
"Pumpkin juice," the Headmaster said with a smile. "I believe you'll find it quite tasty."
Heero shrugged and sniffed once more. There was no hint of drugs that had any noticeable smell and he tipped the goblet back. His eyes widened. It tasted like golden sunshine pouring down the back of his throat, and it surprised him so much he didn't even remember to study the after-taste for any kind of narcotic. Beside him, Duo was making noises of delight.
"That's good!"
Dumbledore smiled. Heero took another sip and then set the goblet down on the floor. Dumbledore waved his hand and it disappeared. Duo reached for the floating pitcher and poured himself some more, grinning when he let go of the handle and the pitcher remained in the air.
"Well," Ron said after a minute. "I think we can guess what the man with two heads and the mirror is all about."
Hermione nodded. Heero quirked an eyebrow at her and she hastened to explain.
"That happened during our first year, Harrysorry," she blushed. "Heero. That was our adventure with the Philosopher Stone. One of our teachers, Professor Quirrel, was a Death Eater in disguise. He was housing Voldemort in his body and always wore a turban to keep anyone from seeing Voldemort's face in the back of his head. Voldemort has red eyes, and your reflection in the Mirror of Erisid placed the Philosopher's Stone in your pocket, to keep it away from him." She smiled. "You told us it was actually quite disgusting to see Voldemort's face all stretched out along Quirrel's skull like that."
"The wind passing through you was Voldemort's spirit trying to attack you," Dumbledore added quietly. "You told me about it when you woke up in the hospital wing."
Heero grunted something noncommittal. Ron went on.
"And the second part about hissing snakes and golden eyes and all that well, that was the Chamber of Secrets from year two." His eyes darkened. "My sister Ginny had been kidnapped by You-Know-Who and hidden in the room below the girls bathroom. We were able to enter because you used your Parslemouth ability's to open the door."
"Parslemouth?" Duo asked.
"The ability to talk to snakes," Remus explained. "Apparently as a result of the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort when Harry was a baby, Harry acquired several of Voldemort's abilities, one being the knowledge of the snake language."
"It's considered a sign of darkness in a person," Hermione continued. "And for a long time, most of the students were afraid of you because of it." She sounded vaguely apologetic, and Heero shrugged, motioning for her to go on. She looked at Ron.
"We went into the Chamber with another teacher, Professor Lockhart," Ron said, snorting at the memory. Sirius and Lupin smiled and even Snape shook his head in amusement. "Lockhart was a bloody twit he was afraid to go in even though he'd bragged he knew how to handle any kind of danger. Lying, he was. Well, he tried to make us forget that he'd told us he had lied in his books and ended up using the memory charm on himself. The wall caved in while we were arguing and Harry had to go on to face the Basilisk alone."
Dumbledore took over. "Harry you, Heero battled a Basilisk. Your loyalty to me summoned my phoenix to you, and Fawkes brought the Sorting Hat a mystical object used to separate the students of Hogwarts into their proper Houses. You were able to summon the Sword of Godric Gryffindor and defeat the Basilisk, returning Miss Weasely to her family, safe and sound." He winked. "I was most impressed."
Heero shrugged again. As much as their explanations seemed to make sense, it was still like being told a story, as though what they were saying could never really have happened to him. It felt like he was being told someone else's life story, and he had the feeling that if he admitted as much out loud, he'd be getting looks of disappointment instead of the ones he'd already gotten.
Duo frowned at Heero. "So you can talk to snakes? How come I didn't know?"
"Because I've never tried, for one thing," Heero shrugged. "For all I know, they could be making it up." Except somehow I know they're not. "I leave the talking to animals to Trowa."
"Black spectre watches over you, cold chills when the hood falls back that's the Dementor's from third year," Hermione said resolutely, ignoring the byplay in front of her. "Silver light well, that must represent Harry's Patroneus."
"Strongest one I ever saw," Remus nodded. "But who's dead but not dead?"
"Barty Crouch Jr," Sirius put in. "Remember? He was supposed to have died in Azkaban but as it turned out, Crouch Sr. used polyjuice potion to make his wife look like their son and smuggled him out. Dead in the eyes of the wizarding world, but not dead after all."
Duo blinked. "They're speaking gibberish again Heero," he said in a low tone. He poked him in the arm. "Make them stop."
"I'm not saying anything," Heero shrugged. "This stopped making sense a long time ago."
"He's not an enemy that's Sirius," Ron continued. "The whole, time-is-slippery thing though..."
"That's about what me and Harry did when we rescued Buckbeak and set Sirius free," Hermione cut in. "Remember? We used the time turner to prevent Buckbeak from getting killed, and then we flew him up to the tower Sirius was being kept in. He escaped on Buckbeak."
"So the next part, the Chosen One, is about year four and the Triwizard Tournament," said Professor McGonagall. The temperature of the room seemed to drop a few degrees but after a few minutes everyone shook it off.
"You won't do it alone so you'll condemn another, "Ron repeated, a bit sickly. "Oh Harry..."
"He doesn't remember it now, so let's just leave it alone," Sirius said sharply. Heero had the distinct feeling that he was being excluded out of something he'd normally find very important, but the whole thing was getting a bit too surreal and so he chose not to argue.
"So what does all of this lead up to?" he asked, a little impatiently. More glances flew around the room and he stood apart from Duo a little, glaring at them. "I asked you a question. Are you going to answer or not?"
"What, pray tell, will you do if we do not?" Snape asked idly.
Heero stared at him. "Absolutely nothing. Duo and I return to our apartment for some much-needed sleep, and then we go back to work first thing in the morning, leaving you all to sort this out for yourselves."
"But you can't" Hermione began to protest.
"I can and I will," Heero stated firmly. "Nightmares are nothing but products of my imagination, and sooner or later, they'll go away. Beyond that, before today I had never heard of anything you've spoken of. Some things may have sounded similar, but so vaguely that I imagine I can easily ignore it. I have a life, a full life here that I can get back to any time I choose. If you could say the same thing, you wouldn't be here now, so desperate to get me to listen to what you have to say." He smiled coolly. "One good thing about being a terrorist and then a Preventor Agent for so long is you learn to be observant and draw quick and accurate conclusions. I can survive without you telling me anything more, even if Duo does die from simple curiosity." Duo grinned. "But you are here because you obviously either need me, or need something from me. If you choose not to tell me anything, I simply deny you what you need by going home." He reached down and squeezed Duo's hand reassuringly. "Despite what you have told me so far, you haven't convinced me. So convince me now, or I'll leave and whatever mission you were on, fails."
"That's my Heero," Duo chuckled. "I was wondering when you'd get down to the threats, love."
Sirius, Hermione and Ron all looked like they wanted to rush Heero and tie him down so he couldn't escape. Remus and McGonagall exchanged knowing looks, and Snape looked vaguely impressed. Dumbledore let out a throaty chuckle and nodded.
"Very well, m'boy." The smile shrank a little, clouds entering pale blue eyes. "I shall tell you the final chapter of our story. The story of Harry and Voldemort's final battle, and the conclusion of that battle that has led us here to you today." His eyes looked saddened for some reason. "I can only hope you can forgive me for taking so long."
Heero was confused but he nodded and returned next to Duo. After a minute of arranging themselves on the couch behind them, they looked up at Dumbledore to hear what he had to say.
End Chapter 4
Is this progressing too fast? Too slow? I'm trying to make this as realistic (well, as realistic as fanfics involving magic can be) and it's hard trying to visualize everything that's happening but I'm doing my best. ^^
Also, thanks to everyone whose reviewed so far. I'm glad you're enjoying the fics crossovers aren't as popular as they used to be, so it's nice to see I haven't quite yet frightened off everybody.
Check out my page for tons more fics and fan art. I also have a mailing list for my site but since the next big update isn't until the weekend, Parallel won't be up at the Witch's Domain until Sunday.
Feedback please? Honestly, it encourages me to write faster!
Stormy
Please send comments to: dingostorm@hotmail.com