Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Gundam Wing Goes to Hogwarts ❯ End of Term ( Chapter 20 )

Chapter 20: End of Term

“My skin is still raw!” Ron grumbled irritably.

“You do look a little like you have a rash,” Hermione said. She studied him curiously. “Is it really… all over?”

“Hermione!” Ron exclaimed, scandalized, his cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

“Oh yeah, he's red pretty much everywhere,” Harry said breezily.

“Harry!”

“Maybe you should wear a kilt or something,” Hermione suggested.

Harry nodded in agreement. “She's right. If you go traditional, you know, commando style, it might be more comfortable.”

“Can we please stop discussing the state of my personal parts?” Ron demanded loudly.

“We're just concerned about you, Ron,” Hermione said, trying to put on a sympathetic expression.

Harry was not so kind. “Don't be so sensitive,” he snickered. “And besides, I saw Roku licking your…”

“Ok! Fine!” Ron shouted. “I think we've quite exhausted this topic of conversation!”

Roku chose that particular moment to saunter into the Gryffindor lounge, padding silently down the stairs from the boys' dormitory. “Who wants to take a bath?”

“Augh!” Ron cried. He leaped to his feet and dashed out of the room in a panic, his mournful cry of “No more baths!” trailing behind him.

Roku blinked. “I meant in the tub.”

Harry broke up laughing. “I figured that.”

Hermione struggled to suppress a grin. “Can't you do anything about his skin, Roku? He's too embarrassed to go to Madam Pomfrey.”

“I can if he ever lets me anywhere near him again,” Roku chuckled. “So, you guys want to bathe?”

“Uh, not right now,” Hermione said quickly.

“Sure, I'll go,” Harry said. “See you later, Hermione.”

As they stepped out through the portrait hole, Roku turned to the left.

“That's not the way to the bathroom we usually use.”

“I know,” Roku said. “But Draco's this way. Since he's hanging around, I thought we could take him with us. He was pretty fun playing Mobile Suit Attack last time.”

“You nearly drowned him.”

“But he likes being with you.”

“Don't start that again.”

“He kissed you, remember?”

“I'm trying not to.”

“You should give him a tumble. It would make him really happy.”

“Do… what?!” Harry stared with his mouth open.

“He'd probably let you go on top.” Roku paused. “Why is it that blonds are always the bottoms?” Harry gaped silently. “Of course, Papa Duo and Papa Wu-Fei go both ways, so I guess it isn't one hundred percent. But then,” he continued speculatively, “is one technically a bottom if one does go both ways? And in Papa Duo's case, since he'll do girls, too, I'm really not sure. Now Hadeya likes doing boys and girls, so I think he's just bi. But of course, does that term really apply to a demigod? Because I think gods and demigods are allowed to screw pretty much whomever they want. But getting back to the original point about blonds always being bottoms, I think we should do a study. Maybe there's a genetic link.”

“Unh…”

“Unless you want to be on the bottom.”

“I don't want to be on the bottom!”

A group of students passing by them on the stairs stared at Harry as they went by.

“What do you suppose Potter's shouting about?” someone whispered.

“Who knows? He's a little cracked, they say,” someone else whispered back.

Harry hung his head. “Would you stop making me say such weird things?” he mumbled.

They found Draco at the bottom of the stairs trying not to look like he was hanging around waiting for anybody. “Oh, it's you, Potter,” he said diffidently. “Off to visit Hagrid, are you?”

“Actually, no,” Harry said. “Um, Roku was wondering if you'd like to take a bath with us.”

Draco looked nervously at the young tiger. “I don't know. It's pretty dangerous, I think.”

“Nonsense,” Roku said. “The tubs are shallow and you can swim. How bad can it be?”

“I was coughing up water for an hour last time.”

“It couldn't have been more than ten minutes. And you never stopped breathing.”

“I'd have gotten less water in my lungs if I had!”

“See!” Roku cried gleefully. “You know the technique! Let's go!” He grabbed Draco's sleeve in his mouth and started dragging him up the stairs.

“Harry!” Draco cried.

“I'm coming.” Harry trudged up the stairs after them, trying not to make eye contact with Draco.

Roku dragged Draco all the way to the bathroom. “Let's get naked and wet!” he cried and leaped into the water.

“You're already naked!” Harry complained. “And now we're wet!”

“So take your clothes off and get in.”

Harry stripped quickly, took off his glasses, and plunged into the tub. Draco undressed more slowly, keeping his back to the other two. Then he scurried to the side and slid into the water quickly, his cheeks scarlet.

“Shall we do a melee or two on one?” Roku asked. “I don't mind if you want to team up against me.”

“Let's do that!” Draco said quickly. He edged closer to Harry, watching Roku nervously.

“Ok,” Roku said. “Let's do a Cancer mobile suit underwater battle. That's always fun.”

Draco paled and grasped Harry's arm. “Promise you'll revive me if I drown.”

“You're not going to drown.”

“You say that now,” Draco said worriedly.

“Ready, set, go!” Roku shouted and he disappeared under the water. A second later, with a squeal of fear, Draco was yanked out of sight. Harry dove underwater and torpedoed into Roku's side, causing him to release Draco's ankle from between his jaws.

Harry bounced up to the surface. “Attack his other side!” he shouted at Draco, who was floundering on the surface, kicking wildly.

“Doesn't he have to breathe?!”

“I don't think so. Let's go!”

They both dove under the water. The battle raged for several long seconds before all three exploded to the surface.

“I think we're winning!” Harry exclaimed, and then he was swamped under by twice his weight in wet tiger. Later, when all three were collapsed on the cool damp tile by the side of the pool, their chests heaving, Harry groaned. “How could we lose? There were two of us!”

“I've had more practice,” Roku said matter-of-factly. He licked a paw. “And it didn't help that Draco started drowning at the end there.”

“I wasn't drowning!” Draco gasped out. “There was just more water than air in my lungs!”

“I think that's the definition of drowning,” Harry wheezed.

“Anyway, it was pretty fun,” Draco continued after another fit of coughing. “I wouldn't mind doing this again.”

“Well, you'll have to do it without me, I'm afraid,” Roku said. “We'll be going home at the end of the term.”

Harry sat up. “And you won't be coming back?”

“No. It will be Alexa's turn to pick the next vacation. She hasn't gotten to yet.”

“What do you mean, vacation?” Draco asked. He sat up on his elbows.

“Um… When we time travel, we usually return to just after when we left, so it's kind of like going on a vacation.”

“But you've been here for months!”

“I know, but how long we stay somewhere doesn't affect how long we're gone. We go back to whatever day we want. When Alexa was born, we were only gone overnight.”

“That's really weird. Don't people notice you getting older?”

“Sometimes.”

Draco shook his head.

“Excuse me a minute.” Roku closed his eyes. “It's Papa Duo. Professor Dumbledore wants to see me. It's probably about Peter Pettigrew. I suppose they want him back now.”

“Is he still in your storage space?” Harry asked.

“Yeah.”

“How long can he live in there?”

“Indefinitely.” Roku stood up. “I better go. You two should play some more. It's good to relax after finals.” He trotted out the door.

Harry glanced at Draco and looked away.

Draco sat up and moved closer. “Uh, Harry? Do you remember that night my father beat me up?”

“Yes.”

“Are you mad at me?”

“No. Why?”

“Well, you were kind of surprised when I kissed you.”

“Who wouldn't be?!” Harry swung around and faced him. “Why did you kiss me?”

Draco blushed. “I've kind of always wanted to. And that night, I thought… I don't know.” He ducked his head. “Would you mind if I did it again?”

“What?!”

“I mean, if you really don't want to, I'll understand.”

Harry swallowed. This was a very uncomfortable conversation to be having buck-naked with another boy who was also buck-naked. He swallowed again. “I guess, if you really want to, I don't mind. It's just… well… are you… that way?”

Draco blushed so hard even his scalp turned scarlet, making his pale hair look pink. “I didn't think I was, but…”

Harry sighed. “How did you want to…?”

“Close your eyes.”

Harry closed his eyes. A moment later, Draco's lips pressed against his. He had to resist the urge to pull away at first. But after that, it started to feel kind of nice. And after that, it started to feel really nice. Draco pulled away and Harry opened his eyes.

“How was that?” Draco asked anxiously.

“Ok, I guess.” Harry flushed. “It's kind of embarrassing to be asked a question like that after getting kissed by a guy.”

“I suppose.” Draco studied his face. “So can I do it again?”

“Um…” Harry blinked nervously.

“You know,” Draco said softly, “your eyes are pretty without your glasses.” He touched Harry's cheek. “And I think you're really cute.” He kissed Harry again, and this time he pushed him down onto the tiles.

“This is getting out of hand!” Harry thought to himself. But he did not stop Draco from kissing him, and in fact he kept kissing back.

A few hallways away, Roku grinned. Not long after, he arrived at the foot of the hidden staircase leading to Dumbledore's office.

Professor McGonagall was waiting for him. “I think you should change into human form, Mr. Winner,” she said.

Roku shifted to human form and followed her up the stairs. There were several older wizards in Dumbledore's office, including Cornelius Fudge and Lucius Malfoy.

Duo was also there, lounging in a chair with an amused grin on his face. “You need to teach Harry not to broadcast,” he whispered to Roku, chuckling.

“Like you don't when you're being naughty,” Roku whispered back.

“But everyone expects it from me.”

“Hush!” Roku shushed him.

“Ah, Mr. Winner,” Dumbledore said cheerfully. “Thank you for coming.”

“Is it about Peter Pettigrew?”

“Indeed it is!” Dumbledore beamed at him. “Would you mind presenting him to the committee?”

Roku slipped a hand under his left arm and produced the skinny, mangy, flea-bitten rat, holding him out by the scruff of the neck. Pettigrew squealed in panic and struggled in his grip, his beady little eyes flicking around the room in alarm. Dumbledore pulled out his wand and tapped the rat once. Instantly, the little body expanded into a dumpy, middle-aged man with graying hair and protruding front teeth. His tattered, out-of-date suit looked like it had not been washed in decades.

“There you are, ladies and gentlemen,” Dumbledore said. “I present the very-much-alive Peter Pettigrew as evidence that he was not murdered by Sirius Black.”

“But that still does not prove Black was not responsible for the deaths of the Potters!” Lucius exclaimed. He glared at Pettigrew. “It only proves that this… rodent… has been hiding for years like the coward he is.”

“Hiding from what?” McGonagall asked icily. “Black was in Azkaban. He could hardly attack Pettigrew again, if he ever did attack him. I am inclined to believe Black's version of what happened, as reported by Mr. Maxwell.”

“Mr. Maxwell is a telepath,” Dumbledore added. “He would have known if Black was lying.”

Lucius turned his glare on Duo. “And what makes you think this muggle isn't lying about the whole thing?” he sniffed.

“Because I have no reason to,” Duo said. “None of this really matters to me and lying takes effort.” He winked at Lucius. “And I know what the term `death eater' means, too.”

Lucius stiffened. He cleared his throat. “Of course, I'm only an observer in this situation. I'm only offering my opinions.”

“Of course,” Dumbledore said. He turned to Fudge. “What do you think, Cornelius?”

“Well,” Cornelius said, a little fussily, “it would be better if I could take testimony directly from Sirius Black. But absent that, I will accept Mr. Maxwell's deposition in his stead. With the testimony we will extract from Mr. Pettigrew,” he glared pointedly at that unfortunate gentleman, “I think we can resolve this matter to everyone's satisfaction. Place Mr. Pettigrew under arrest. We will turn him over to the dementors and withdraw them from the school grounds.”

“Finally!” McGonagall muttered.

“No!” Pettigrew cried, but Dumbledore quickly wrapped him in a restraining spell and he was led away. Most of the other wizards filed out at that time, leaving only Dumbledore, McGonagall, Duo and Roku. Lucius Malfoy was the last to leave, and he glared darkly back at them until the turn of the stairs took him from view.

“I hope he doesn't look for Draco,” Roku murmured. “I don't think they're finished yet.”

Duo chuckled. “First-timers just can't seem to get enough.”

“So I understand you will be leaving soon,” Dumbledore said.

“That's right,” Duo replied. “When the students leave, we'll be heading home, too.”

Dumbledore nodded. “I have to admit, I'll miss you. Your group has made this one of Hogwarts' most interesting years.”

“It has been fun,” Duo agreed.

“And what about you, young Mr. Winner? Did you learn everything you hoped to?”

“Yes, sir,” Roku said. “I've enjoyed studying at Hogwarts very much.”

“Good. Of course, you're welcome to return next year, but I'll understand if that won't work out for you.” He made eye contact with McGonagall and she rounded the others up.

“All right, time to let Professor Dumbledore get back to work,” she said. She shooed them down the stairs and closed the entrance behind them.

In the hall, Duo grinned at Roku. “There's supposed to be a pretty big feast tonight to celebrate the end of term.”

“And then everyone goes home right after, including us.” Roku sighed. “I'll miss Harry and the others.”

“It's not like you can't visit them again if you want to.”

“That's true.”

“Well…” Duo patted his stomach. “I wouldn't mind a snack before dinner. What about you?”

“A snack sounds good.”

“I know how to get in the kitchen.”

“Let's go.”

At the end-of-term dinner, the Great Hall was festively done up in red and gold decorations to reflect that Gryffindor had once again won the House Cup. The Gryffindor table was understandably rowdy, but not so much so that Harry could not hear when Roku leaned over and whispered into his ear, “You look satisfied.”

Harry flushed redder than the stripe in his scarf. “How do you know…?” He quickly looked around. “Don't tell anyone!” he squeaked in alarm. “I mean… with a guy… and a Slytherin at that…”

Roku grinned. “I won't tell. But someone may figure it out anyway if Draco doesn't quit staring at you.” He nodded toward the Slytherin table. Draco was leaning on one hand, idly consuming a piece of fried chicken and staring at Harry with a completely blissful expression on his face.

“Oh, lord!” Harry gasped. He quickly looked away. “What have you gotten me into?”

“A very satisfying relationship, from the look of it.”

Harry buried his face in his hands. “I'll be kicked out of Gryffindor if anyone finds out.”

“People take lovers from different houses all the time.”

“But a Slytherin?!”

Roku chuckled. “But you like him, don't you?”

Harry groaned. “It felt so good!” he finally whispered hoarsely. “And he's not so bad when he isn't being all arrogant.”

“You'll be good for him,” Roku said. He patted Harry's shoulder. “He probably just needed to get laid all along.”

“What are you two talking about?” Ron interrupted. He was sitting on the far side of the table across from Harry, well out of Roku's reach. Hermione was seated next to him, and she was studying Harry's face curiously.

“Nothing!” Harry said quickly. “Roku was just saying that he and his family will be leaving right after the train pulls out tomorrow.”

“Will you be back next year?” Hermione asked. “You aced all your finals.”

“No, unfortunately,” Roku said. A commotion started just down the table when a little black panther appeared between the plates, trying to make off with a whole roast chicken. “Jett!” Roku admonished. “I told you no changing at the dinner table.”

“Aw!” Jett mumbled.

“You can keep the chicken, just change back.”

“Oh, alright.” The panther shimmered back into Jett, who slid off the table back into her seat beside Alexa. “But I couldn't reach it and no one was passing.” She grinned. “I didn't wanna shout.”

Roku grinned back. “Well, that's all right, then.”

Everyone was staring.

“Your sister is an animagus, too?” Percy exclaimed. He was feeling much better these days since Penny had finally forgiven him, although there were rumors this was due to his vigorous and repeated efforts to outperform Hadeya.

“She just learned how,” Roku said. “It runs in the family.”

Hermione scratched her head. “But I thought Mr. Maxwell was her, ah, mother?”

“But she has genetic material from all of them, like I do.”

“Genetic material…” Percy stammered. “From… all of them? How is that possible?”

Roku opened his mouth but Harry clapped a hand over it. “Don't ask! He might actually explain it.”

There were vigorous nods all around. Quite a number of Gryffindors had been on the receiving end of Roku's explanations.

Percy cleared his throat. “Well, it's certainly been an… experience… having you here, Roku. I'm sure people will be talking about this year for a long time.”

“I certainly won't forget,” Harry muttered.

“I had a good time,” Roku said. “Thank you, everyone, for being such good friends.”

Up and down the table, cups were lifted in a toast. “You're welcome, Roku!”

The next day was both happy and sad as people prepared for the long train ride home. Even though he had been given control over his lycanthropy, Remus decided to resign anyway to preserve peace at the school. As he explained it to Harry and the others, “Severus would make everyone's life a living hell if I stayed, and besides, I want to go look for Sirius. We have some catching up to do.”

The Gundam pilots and their kids went to the train station with all their baggage just like everyone else, but they did not get in the train. Instead, they stood on the platform and waved goodbye as the train pulled out. When it was gone, Quatre looked around.

“So, that's it, then. Time to head back to Mars. Gather up all the stuff.” But he really did not need to tell anyone that. They were used to the routine by now. “Alright-y then; here we go. Let's return two weeks after our departure at midnight.”

“Why midnight?” Duo complained. “We won't get a full night's sleep!”

“Because no one is up at midnight,” Quatre said pointedly. He flipped open his spell book. “Everyone ready? Very good.” He read the spell and the world fluttered away. They came to rest in the middle of their living room, exactly as they left it. Quatre smiled. “That went smoothly.”

Wu-Fei sneezed, a thin jet of bright yellow flame flickering between his lips. “Sorry! I'll go take my meds.” He trotted to the bathroom.

Heero shouldered his and Wu-Fei's bags. “We may as well unpack. It was morning when we left. I must say, it's kind of nice not to have to make fake records as soon as we get back for a change.” He nudged Duo. “Get your stuff.”

“Right.” Duo hefted his bags and trailed after Heero.

“Do you mind unpacking for me, Trowa?” Quatre said. “I want to catch up on what's been happening in our absence.”

“No problem.” Trowa grabbed their bags and headed for their room.

“We should get back to our place,” Treize said the Zechs. “I want to call up the security cameras in the farming dome and see how my vineyard's doing.”

“Sure.”

Zechs, Treize and Alexa left, leaving Roku, Jett, Hadeya and Quatre alone in the living room.

“That was a fun trip, Mama,” Roku said. “Thanks for taking me to visit a book.”

“You're quite welcome, Roku. I had rather a good time myself.” He lifted an eyebrow at Hadeya. “I daresay you did as well.”

Hadeya flushed. “About that,” he said uncertainly. “Those young women I, ah, coupled with were fictional characters. So does that mean I really did it?”

Quatre rubbed his chin. “Good question. It might fall into the category of a wet dream. But there's no question you banged Duo, so I'm afraid you are definitely no longer a virgin.”

Hadeya flushed. “Yes, of course,” he said quickly. “Please excuse me.” He scurried away to his bedroom.

Jett frowned. “I'm hungry.”

“Me, too,” Roku said. “Let's have some cereal.”

“Yay!”

The two youngsters went into the kitchen and Quatre was left alone. He scratched his head. “Well, time to get back to work.” He sat down at the computer terminal and logged into the main computer. “Here's wishing for a few quiet months of solid scientific work.”

 

-o- The End -o-

 

And thus ends another installment of the exciting adventures of the Gundam Wing pilots! As you know, this was the first cross-over in the series, and I had so much fun writing it that I'm going to do it again! That's right! The next entry in my Gundam Wing series is a three part epic: The Lord of the Gundams! First up will be The Fellowship of the Gundam, followed by The Two Gundams, and finishing out with the climactic The Return of the Gundam! Stay tuned!