Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Peace, Love, and Family: The Story of the Vanuli Three ❯ Zacharias vs. Neville ( Chapter 36 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The term "mother-in-darkness" and the like are not mine. They come from the book Anno Dracula, written by Kim Newman.

Disclaimer: I do not own any things Harry Potter-the characters, setting, plot, everything belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling and whomever else she decides. I do not own anything Gundam Wing-the characters, setting, plot, everything belongs to (I think) Bandai and Sunrise.

Spoilers: This fic contains spoilers for books 1-5 of Harry Potter and all of the episodes of Gundam Wing. This fic does not include Endless Waltz.

Rating: NC17

Pairings: Neville/Harry, 2x1, Relena/OFC, OMCx4, Zacharias/Harry

Category: crossover, fantasy, general, drama

Author: Selune

Author's site: livejournal.com/users/selune2

Summary: Two years ago, the One Year War ended. At this time, the five heroes-the Gundam pilots-disappeared from the Muggle world. Three of them-pilots 02, 03, and 05-reappeared shortly after in the Wizarding world, as students at Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry. Now, twenty months after the fact, Heero Yuy and Quatre Winner are coming to Hogwarts, and they're bringing all of their secrets with them. The world-especially one Harry Potter-will never be the same.

Peace, Love, and Family:

The Story of the Vanuli Three

Chapter 36: Zacharias vs. Neville

Friday evening

December 6, 197

7:27 PM

Sank Palace

Relena looked around the ballroom and sighed in resignation. Three hundred and two people-most foreign dignitaries of some kind, all Muggle-littered the grand room, chatting, dancing, and all-around having a good time.

It was Franz Hubert's 16th birthday-a very important year to Muggles and Wizards alike-and as the son of newly appointed Ambassador Hubert from the L3 colony, Relena was obligated to throw him a party. Which she did to grandiose proportions. Every Muggle diplomat in Sank was invited, as were their children (fifteen and older, only), important members of OECA (Organization for Earth-Colony Alliance), and a few of the higher up Preventers. Of course, reporters were invited, as well, both Muggle and wizard, to record the night-and Relena's great work as hostess over the whole shebang.

Normally, Relena would be in her element at the moment, dancing up a storm and unwittingly drawing the focus away from the birthday boy. Tonight, though, Relena just couldn't get lost in the spirit of things. Everything she did, she wondered, Is thisthe thing that gets me and Tashpi caught? Or is it this?She was so high-strung with worry that the guests around her began to lose their own party moods.

Relena reached out to Tashpi, stopping her hand before she could brush away a wayward curl. Reluctantly, she settled for giving a quick squeeze to her fiancee's shoulder. "I need to powder my nose, Natasha," she said. Everyone knew that "Natasha"-no last name-was Relena's personal bodyguard, so no one would think twice about their closeness. Hopefully.

Relena hated having to hide what she was and who she was in love with! It made her want to just let loose a tantrum worthy of the ancient gods-many from whom she was descended.

"Of course, Miss Peacecraft," Tashpi said, not touching Relena in the slightest. Normally, there would be some small touch-a brush of hands, hair trailing over a shoulder, something-but with the threat of imminent exposure hanging over their heads, even that small comfort was taken from them.

Relena started making her way to the door, stopping every few minutes to chat with a guest or two. She wasn't going to be a bad hostess just because she was worried. Besides, it would look suspicious if she didn't talk to the guests, and suspicion was not something Relena wanted to have in her life just yet.

"Give your wife my love," Relena said to Ambassador Luxen from the newly rebuilt L5, finishing their conversation.

Finally, Relena had a clear shot to the door. Confident that Tashpi could keep up, Relena began walking briskly toward the door. No one moved to stop her, and she was finally in the Grand Entrance to Sank Palace.

Relena turned in a hall just to the right of the ballroom. It led to a small powder room, the larger, public ones being situated nearer to the ballroom. Relena banged open the door and entered the pink room. The walls were pink, the carpets were pink, the vanity was pink, even the padded bench was pink.

Relena slumped down on the bench-which was installed with its back to the wall-and waited for Tashpi to catch up. She didn't have to wait long, because Tashpi came barreling into the room mere seconds after Relena.

Tashpi locked the door-using both the latch and a Vanuli locking charm-before striding over to Relena and kneeling in front of her. Relena spread her legs, hiking her pink and white bouffant dress over her knees, and Tashpi moved into the opening. She lay her head on Relena's exposed thigh, her arms wrapping around Relena's left leg.

"I love you," Tashpi said, with a tenderness only Relena knew existed. Growing up in the Warrior clans, Tashpi had been taught to not feel-or at the very least, not to show her feelings. Tashpi learned her lessons well, and before she was chosen to be Relena's Naiyama, she was well on her way to being a ranking officer with the Enforcers. Relena was the only one for whom she would drop her mask. "I'll protect you until the end of time, if I have to."

Relena slid off the bench onto Tashpi's lap. "I love you more." She wrapped her arms tightly around Tashpi's neck. "No one will ever hurt you, or they'll have to answer to me. And I can be a raving she-bitch when angry."

That got a quiet snort from Tashpi. Relena crushed herself against Tashpi and pretended the world-and danger-didn't exist.

***

Kayla groaned and wiped the mud from her eyes. She and the werewolves-her captors-were hiding from the rain in an abandoned cave somewhere in Great Britain. She didn't know where, though, as they blindfolded her whenever they were on the move. At least, those times she was conscious. The werewolf pack doped her up most of the time, giving her sleeping potions and, occasionally, hallucinatory drugs. All in all, it made her feel quite uncomfortable and contributed to her not knowing exactly how long she'd been captured. Of course, it could have been the concussion resulting from being bashed over the head by a werewolf with a rock. By the ripeness of her clothes, Kayla figured she'd been with them for between three days and a week and a half.

Kayla didn't expect a rescue. The next time she saw anyone working for Dr. J or Dr. J himself, she would be killed without question. It was the number one rule: Don't get caught. The number two rule, of course, was If you happen to get caught, self-destruct immediately. As Kayla had no weapons-the werewolves had relieved her of them after knocking her out, going so far as to snap her wand-she had no means with which to end her life.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the young wolf-cub stray near her. Smirking to herself, she stood up on her legs-still shaky from her last drug-induced haze. She grabbed a handful of pebbles at her feet and yelled out to the boy. "Hey, Cub!" she screamed at him, readying her projectiles. He turned towards her. Good. She spoke in a very steady voice. "When my master finds out about your betrayal, he will punish you greatly. He's very creative in what he does with prisoners. He might even give you to me. After all, I'm very creative. Do you want to know what I did with...to the last person who betrayed the cause?"

Cub stood there, his own morbid curiosity would lead to his downfall-and her freedom.

"I didn't do much, to begin with," Kayla said, weaving her web. "I started out by stripping her naked. Nudity makes people feel vulnerable, you know?" She almost whispered the last. "She was chained up, blindfolded, helpless."

Kayla walked as far to Cub as her magical restraints would allow. "I didn't have the Cruciatus Imitator then, so I had to use something else. Have you ever heard of the Melting Charm? It's a household charm, mostly used on pots and pans after the food has dried on them. It melts the food, making it easier to scrape off.

"Research Team II had studied it two months prior, and discovered a new use. A human use."

Kayla stretched out her hand and beckoned for Cub to come closer. He did, but not nearly close enough. Damn. "The Melting Curse, as they called it, does just what it says. It melts any part of the body the user specifies."

Kayla held her hand up to the magical barrier, and a blue light glowed in front of her. "I melted her feet first. The squish as her bones melted was such a wonderful sound. I did her lower legs next, and then the upper. Her screams intensified a hundred-fold as her arms melted, her skin holding the liquid in like a Ziploc bag. I kept her pelvis bone intact and moved onto her ribs. I melted each one individually. By then, the only thing keeping her alive were the spells put around the room. Eventually, after melting every other bone, I moved onto her skull. She couldn't scream anymore, her throat collapsing mere moments before. The fear in her eyes was the last thing I saw before I melted her skull. Her head shrank like a balloon letting out air. And she was still alive. I stabbed her in her stomach, and her liquid body exploded, covering the entire room in the bile. There wasn't much for the janitors to scrape up after that."

With a look of horror on his face, Cub stepped nearer to Kayla instead of away. Quietly, she threw her rocks at him, one of the bigger pebbles knocking him unconscious. With great happiness and care, Kayla knelt next to the werewolf, now fully within the barriers of her restraints. She leaned in close, to make sure he was breathing. Her hand came to his-to find a pulse-and just as her hand flexed to touch Cub's, she was-

THROWN back to the far wall, steel chains wrapping around her wrists and ankles.

"Damn wards," she cursed, kicking a flurry of pebbles onto Cub.

***

Dr. Jeremiah Jenkins sat at his desk, sipping his coffee. It was strong, just like he liked, with one sugar and no cream in it. He read the newspaper, stopping every few minutes to savor another reference to the Dark Lord, his partner in crime. Dr. J would usually never lower himself so much as to actually interact with such lowlifes, but the Dark Lord had resources Dr. J was salivating to use. And of course, it was never wise to fight a war on two fronts. After You-Know-Who finished off Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic, Dr. J planned to use the Dark Lord's temporary magical depletion to his advantage-and kill the bastard.

It would surprise Dr. J if You-Know-Who wasn't planning on doing the same to him.

Dr. J put down his newspaper and went back to the files Beta-6 had brought to him fifteen minutes ago. They contained the identities of a few people who could take over Omega-2's duties while she was "indisposed." It had been a calculated risk to send an eighteen year-old girl out-alone-with twelve werewolves supposedly on his side. Luckily, his plan went perfectly, and Kayla was with the enemy. In a few days, Omega-1 and Omega-12-c would find and recondition her, making her safe to be around-and to spill forth all of her knowledge about Dr. J.

Except for one thing. Deep in her mind, Omega-2 had an idea implanted into her subconscious. It would allow her to fight the reconditioning, giving him something very important. A trusted spy in the lion's den.

***

Zacharias stood by his usual table in the library, waiting for Harry to leave his group-Hannah and Weasley, for Divinations, which had to be awkward-so they could begin their nightly tradition. It wasn't that old of a tradition, seeing as how they had only been seeing each other for a week. Zacharias planned on them being together for a lot longer than that.

Harry sprinted up to Zacharias, his bag halfway over one shoulder, parchment sticking out every which way, an apologetic look on his face. Harry stood on his toes and kissed Zacharias in the hollow under his lower lip.

Zacharias smiled-but not too brightly, or his friends would get on his case even more than usual when he got back to the dorms.

"I can't see you tonight," Harry said, pulling Zacharias back to Harry.

The "Why the hell not?!" was almost out of his mouth before he stamped it down. He would not be angry. He would not be jealous. He would not be paranoid. In a word, he would not be Neville. Zacharias was cool, calm, collected, and-most importantly-able to let Harry spend time with his annoying friends.

"I'm sorry," Harry said. "I was looking forward to it, but I have to ch-spend time with He-Ron. I've not seen him much this term."

Zacharias just nodded, not really trusting himself to say much. Harry's explanation was screwy. He'd changed his mind twice, and that was plenty suspicious. Zacharias decided to ignore it and trust that he didn't need to know what Harry was really doing. Not at all. Zacharias kissed Harry and let him go, calling out, "I'll see you tomorrow!" Which earned him a stern look from Madam Pince.

Trying to not blush at her reproach, Zacharias gathered up his books, determined not to let Harry's secrets get to him so much. If he couldn't be with Harry, he would go play Exploding Snap with Ernie and Justin.

That would be just dandy.

***

Neville watched the interaction between Harry and Smith with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Every day, he watched the two of them grow closer and closer, and every day, the feeling of wanting to rip Smith apart with his bare hands grew stronger.

People say that love is blind. For the longest time, Neville thought they were right. Neville's love for Harry-and he did love him, terribly so-blinded him to Harry's flaws. The lingering looks between him and those Vanuli brothers of his. Harry trusted them right off the bat. He spent more time with them than he spent with Neville-Hell, than he spent with Ron and Hermione, his best friends. By the time Harry-and Quatre-confessed the whole story, Neville was already suspicious of their true relationship. They just had to confirm it. Harry was with Heero and Quatre, even while he was with Neville. And if he wasn't, it wouldn't be too long until it happened.

Neville loved Harry very much. Despite the lying and the cheating, Neville still loved Harry. And a part of him wanted to just ignore that Harry was going to leave-and soon-and go back to him. Beg Harry to take him back. But it wouldn't be any different. Neville would still be the insanely jealous boyfriend (he realized his flaw, and as much as he didn't like it, it wasn't about to change anytime soon), and it would, once again, hurt everyone involved. Especially Harry.

If only he could go back to when he and Harry first got together, Neville would do it all differently. Specifically, he would stick his fingers in his ears and hum loudly when Harry started to confess anything that didn't involve Neville, strawberries and cream, or Quidditch. He would go back to how he was then-the happy, clumsy, lovable, Neville he always was, and Harry would take him back, and they would be together, and they would be happy, and nothing bad would happen between them.

But that would never happen, and Neville couldn't get Harry back. But Neville could follow Harry's new boyfriend out of the library, trailing him to an empty corridor.

***

Someone was following him. Zacharias knew it, and he knew who was doing the following. Zacharias didn't stop. Instead, he lead his rival through several populated corridors, finally finding a nice empty one in which he could kick Longbottom's arse. Longbottom had been staring at him and Harry for the entire week, and it was beginning to piss Zacharias off. Zacharias liked to think he was hard to anger, but really, stalking was just going too far.

Zacharias drew his wand and turned around to find Longbottom's wand also drawn.

"Well, hello, Neville," Zacharias said, emphasizing the use of Longbottom's first name. "Fancy meeting you here. What do you want?"

"Smith," Longbottom said. "I want you to leave Harry alone."

Zacharias laughed. "Harry doesn't want to be left alone. I like him. He likes me. It's a good match."

"Yeah? Well, I-" Neville surged forward, stopping mere inches from Zacharias's face. He wasn't quite as tall as Zacharias, but he was a respectable height, reaching Zacharias's eyes. "I don't care." Neville shoved Zacharias. "Leave him alone, or you'll be sorry."

"You leave him alone!" Zacharias said, pushing back. "When you were with him, all you did was hurt him. You had your chance, and you blew it. It's my turn now, and I haven't waited this long just to give it up!"

Longbottom's face got steadily more purple, and by the end of Zacharias's speech he did a very surprising thing for a pureblood wizard-he punched Zacharias square in the nose.

Zacharias saw red-literally, his nose was bleeding-and hit Longbottom back. He dropped his wand to the ground and lunged at Longbottom, knocking them both to the floor. The boys grappled with each other, neither having the upper hand for long. Zacharias finally got back on top and held Longbottom's wrists with one hand, punching him wherever he connected, drawing blood onto Longbottom's already bloody face-and onto his bloody hand.

Footsteps in the next corridor distracted Zacharias long enough for Longbottom to regain dominance. Longbottom punched Zacharias's stomach, taking his breath away. Crazy with hate, Zacharias pulled Longbottom's hair, his fist coming away with great chunks of it. Longbottom cried out, and Zacharias wrestled Longbottom under him. As Zacharias pulled his fist back to pummel Longbottom one last time, a hand from behind caught it.

Zacharias was bodily lifted from Longbottom, clawing and growling at his captor like a trapped dog. Neville tried to lunge at Zacharias, but Ernie caught him easily. Zacharias fought his captor-Justin, it seemed-just as Longbottom fought Ernie.

"This isn't over Smith!" Longbottom yelled, almost breaking out of Ernie's grasp.

"Yes, it is," Hannah Abbot-one of Zacharias's best friends and Extremely Strict!Head Girl-said, coming out from behind Justin.

The sight of Hannah, in all of her detention-giving glory, calmed down Zacharias enough that Justin let go of him. Ernie let Longbottom loose, too. Longbottom scowled at Zacharias and his friends, but outnumbered, he wisely chose to walk away.

When Longbottom was out of view, Hannah turned to Zacharias and smacked him upside the head. "What were you thinking?" she yelled at him.

"Um, I... He started it!" Zacharias said, knowing it was a weak argument.

Hannah looked at him with that Look that she always used when her friends were being idiots. "Really?" Ernie and Justin started sneaking down the corridor, taking the opportunity to get away before Hannah really got into it. "And what happened? Exactly?" Her voice dripped with sugar. It was terrifying.

"He followed me," Zacharias said, "and, um, he's been staring at me and Harry all week! It was annoying."

"So you decided that hitting him would make him go away?" Hannah asked.

"He hit me first!" Zacharias protested. "And he was saying all this shit about me staying away from Harry!"

"Ah," Hannah said, that one word saying more than anything else could. He had just told her exactly what she was waiting to hear. "I expected something like that would happen sooner or later." She patted him on the shoulder. "Just be happy it was me who found you this time and not one of the prefects or professors. I'll forget about it this time, but next time, I'll help you out."

"Thanks," Zacharias said, blushing. Hannah was the only person who could ever make him blush. She was a good friend, and she completely supported his crush on Harry.

"No problem," Hannah said. "It's about time you got what you wanted, seeing as how you screwed it up enough the first time."

Zacharias's blush deepened. It wasn't his fault his first meeting with Harry went horribly, horribly wrong. Hopefully, it was so far behind them that Harry didn't quite remember what a jerk he was. Er, used to be.

***

Lacey Skeeter-second cousin of Rita Skeeter on her father's side-was a reporter for The Sankian Star, the local wizard newspaper, and the only witch reporter at Mr. Franz Hubert's sixteenth birthday gala. She didn't care about Hubert, of course, as he was a Muggle, and nobody really cared about Muggles except Muggleborns and other Muggles. Lacey was a pureblood-she would trace her lineage all they way back to Merlin's time. No, the reason Lacey actually showed up at this swank party was to see who would be escorting Queen Relena.

For the fast five political engagements that Queen Relena attended, she did not bring a date. In fact, the only member of her entourage to attend had always been the queen's personal bodyguard, the beautiful and mysterious Natasha. Normally, that wouldn't mean much , but ever since Queen Relena was accompanied by Duet Winner-not related to the W.E.I. Winners-to her own seventeenth birthday party, Lacey had become suspicious of Queen Relena's relationship to her bodyguard. If Lacey was right, the scoop would put her career in overdrive, and she'd never have to write the gossip column, Letters to Lacey, ever again.

***

Lillith winced at the loud music blaring out across the room, the result of a Sonorous Charm. She was, disgustingly, in a human club. A wizard club, but human all the same.

"Give me a double!" she shouted to the bartender as the band started up a new song. She lifted her glass to him, so he could see her drink. A Bloody Mary-hold the Mary.

A tall, dark man in a sweeping trench coat sat on the stool beside her, twirling around in his seat.

"What did you find, Azrael?" Lillith asked, stopping him mid-spin. She was beginning to get just a little frustrated. "And where's Echo?" That girl got into trouble faster than untreated blood spoiled.

"She's with Rastafarian," Azrael said, flashing her a grin sure to show his enlarged eyeteeth. "He'll keep her out of trouble, for now." Azrael spun around, stopping as his mouth hit her ear. "You'll never believe what I'm going to tell you. It'll toss the Boss and his little Tease off their rockers."

"Just tell me!" Lillith snapped, growing tired of Azrael's game. She snatched her newly-filled glass of blood off the counter and downed it in one gulp. "You've got ten seconds." She couldn't wait to get out of this place.

"Okay, but-"

"One," she said, catching his eyes and giving him the Look that made him wither. She was his mother-in-darkness, his Maker, and he would do best to remember that.

"All right, all right. Just-"

"Two."

Azrael threw up his hands. "Fine! You know, you have no sense of theater, of timing. Why-"

"Thr-"

Azrael leaned in and whispered the news.

Lillith gasped in shock. "But how can that be?" she asked. "Who could've done such a thing? We should find that out, too, before we tell Quatre."

"I already know," Azrael boasted, eagerly. "It was Quatre's little brother."

"You mean, Heero did such a horrible thing?"

"No, no," Azrael said. "Not Heero. The other one. Harry."

Lillith was glad she wasn't holding her glass, because she surely would have dropped it, vampiric reflexes or not.

Harry Potter had Turned You-Know-Who into a Vanuli?

***

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Harry asked. He was sitting on his bed, and Heero sat beside him, holding a needle. A very large needle. Which he meant to jab through Harry's ear in just a few moments.

"Relatively sure," Heero said. "It'll definitely be worth it if it works, won't it?"

Harry and his brothers had just spent the past hour and a half modifying two pair of Extendable Ears. If they did it right, they would end up with a virtually invisible, long-range communication device. The first thing they-Harry-had done was charm the Ears to be wireless. It took all three triplets' magic, but eventually, they were able to get the range of the Ears to extend to fill all of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. At least, they thought they had. They had no way to accurately test it. The final step, of course, was to disguise the Ears. Heero had the perfect idea to transfigure them into earrings, which would be overlooked as decoration and close to their ears.

Quatre sat off to the side of Heero and Harry, laughing at Harry's reluctance to get his ear pierced.

Heero grabbed Harry's head and held it still. "Come on, Hare. It won't hurt." Heero grabbed his ear, and Harry felt a pleasant numbing sensation. He closed his eyes as Heero rushed forth with the needle, not opening them until the earring was in and his ear was healed.

Selune