Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ What Goes Around ❯ Revelations ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: Ansela

Harry grimaced and tried to close his eyes against the bright light that threatened to sear his eyeballs from their sockets. Someone must have seen the reaction as the lights dimmed, allowing him to open his eyes and look around him. To his horror he was in the first room he'd woken up in, and the Chinese boy who wanted to take him back to the Dursleys was still frozen on the floor.

Harry rubbed his eyes and looked back at the boy again. His face was covered in multi-coloured make-up that made him look like some one had thrown him through a make-up factory. He laughed soundlessly, forgetting the imminent danger as the boy got angrier by the second. He was yelling something at someone else in the room, and didn't like the reply if his reactions were anything to go by.

“Ignore Wu Fei. He'll calm down once he's threatened my hair a few times.” Harry looked at the person who handed him the note; a braided boy with a violet eyes and a mischievous grin. There was no question about who painted Wu Fei's face in that manner.

“My name's Duo by the way. The other two are Trowa and Quatre. Quatre's the one you knocked out, but Trowa says that he's fine. Good job on knocking them out. Many's the time that I've walked in on them and wanted to do the same thing, though probably for different reasons than you. Heero, he's the last person who lives here BTW, says that no one on Earth or in the colonies is as addicted to playing pranks as I am. Such loving remarks, don't you think?” Harry's head was swimming by the time he'd deciphered the messy scrawl that was Duo's handwriting. He was treating him like an old friend, despite Harry's previous actions.

“I'm sorry about before. I didn't mean it and I won't do it again. Please don't be angry at me. Please don't send me back there.” Duo frowned when he looked at the note, showing it to a now quiet Wu Fei before standing and stretching.

“I'm going to speak to Quat and Tro. I'd say don't move, but you seem like you want to stay here. Don't worry, none of us will hurt you.” Duo left, leaving behind a confused Harry and an angry Wu Fei.

-~-

“Tro, I'm concerned about Harry.” Trowa looked away from his examination of Quatre to regard Duo. The normally loud American was leaning wearily against the doorframe; worry turning his usual goofy smile into a tense frown.

“As I am Duo.” He took the note Duo held out to him, green eyes scanning the writing that was almost as untidy as Duo's or Heero's. Once he finished reading it for a second time he passed it to Quatre to get the Arab's opinion.

“He's terrified of going home? Why? Home is where you should always feel safe and wanted, where you go to escape from the dangers of the world.” Having grown up with twenty-nine older sisters, Quatre couldn't understand why anyone would be too terrified to go home. Despite their occasional mood swings and desire to treat him like their dress up doll, the younger ones anyway, he knew that he would always be safe in the Winner house. Trowa and Duo knew better though.

“Quat, sometimes a loving home is just a front for other things. It looks like he's ended up in a bad place, but he's too scared to tell anyone what's going on.” Duo placed an arm around the smaller pilot's shoulders. “Trust me, I'm not sending back to somewhere that'll leave him in this state again.” Trowa silently agreed, understanding his friend's motives.

“What can we do though? He's deaf and mute, so security isn't an issue as long as we don't leave anything written around. We can't keep writing everything out for him though, as it will take far too long to say anything and his writing's as bad as mine is. Hey, anyone know where the spare laptop is? Maybe he types faster than he writes. Even if he doesn't it'll be easier to read. That's a good idea.” Duo ran towards the bedroom he shared with Heero, determined to find the spare laptop and take it to Harry. Trowa and Quatre watched him go, used to the short attention span of Deathscythe's pilot.

-~-

“Hey, this is much easier, isn't it?” Harry stared at the computer before cautiously reaching out to it. Hogwarts wasn't exactly the height of technological sophistication, heck he doubted that half its inhabitants even knew what a light bulb was, and the Dursleys had never allowed him to use the computer at home. The last time he'd used one was in Year Six at Little Whinging Community Junior School, before he'd gone to Hogwarts, meaning that he was probably worse than useless at typing.

“I guess. I'm not very godd typer.” Duo grinned, the open smile making Harry feel slightly more comfortable. “I am very soory for causing trouble.”

“Don't be. I cause trouble all the time. The other guys are always threatening to get me back, but they never do. Well, Quatre never threatens but he's too nice. You'd like him I think. Everyone does. Well, nearly everyone. The few people that don't like him are complete assholes. He's rich as well. He bought this house for all of us to live in, even though Wu Fei and me are just going to end up trashing it by chasing around and slamming into things. Hey, I just remembered that I wanted to ask you about you. Your parents, school, friends, you know? Just general stuff.”

Duo did a mental victory dance. His diarrhoea of the mouth, or hands in this case, was putting Harry at ease where it would normally encourage people to chase him madly through the house. He'd moved so that the smaller boy could read what he was typing as he went to save time, and he gave the laptop just a small nudge over to Harry's lap.

“Er, well, there's not much to say. My parents were killed when I was a baby. I've lived with my aunt and uncle since then. They didn't get on with my parents so they don't like me much. They make me go to St Brutus' Institue for Incurably Criminal Boys, even though I get in less trouble than my cousin. I do all chores when at home, but it was fine until this summer. I was returned home early because my godfather dies and a professor who went to school with my dad and hated him told them this. My godfather was going to adopt me and take me away and they were scared of him. Now they have nothing to be scared of so they can do what they want. Aunt Petunia doesn't know what's going on though. Uncle Vernin won'y tell her and I can't. Dudley, my cousin, knows but he joins in so he's no help. They say that they won't send me back to school in September. My friend won't worry until then because my uncle makes me send letters to them sayinf that I'm okay. Don't make me go back to them. Please.” Duo forced himself to stay relaxed, not wanting to alarm Harry by going into a rage. Wu Fei watched as violet eyes turned dark and cold, signifying that the braided pilot was slipping into Shinigami, his battle mind that allowed him to ruthlessly slaughter any OZ soldiers who crossed his path. Duo reached over to the laptop and saved the text, before slipping the computer out of Harry's grasp and wordlessly leaving the room.

-~-

Heero slipped into the silent house, senses on alert as he looked for any sign of life in the gloom. Only one light was on and he headed towards it, gun held loosely in one hand.

“…find them and make them pay.” Quatre's cold voice made Heero pause. The barely controlled fury in the words reminded him of the battle in space, the first time Quatre had used the insanity-inducing cockpit system.

“We can't' Harry only gave us names, not an address, and I think that's all he'll give. He's terrified of them, and he'll probably try to run away again if we ask for an address.” Duo looked round at the door. “Oh, hey Heero.”

“What are you guys talking about?” The four pilots all began talking at once, telling Heero about Harry and showing him the laptop that still had Harry's words on the screen. Heero made no sound as they spoke, but his knuckles grew white as his grip grew tighter on his gun.

“Find out where he lives and get revenge. There can't be many people around here with those names. Find them and do whatever you want to them.” He placed his gun back in his waistband and looked straight at Duo. “Where is he? I want to speak to him.”

“I'll show you Hee-chan. You'll need the laptop. He's deaf-mute and so I've been using it to talk to him.” Heero took the device, Prussian blue eyes drilling into Duo and willing him into silence.

“Why don't you use sign language?”

“We didn't think of that. Things were pretty chaotic around here earlier, since Wu Fei scared him into trying to run away and he managed to freeze Wu Fei, stun Quatre and drag me to the ground by my braid. Gotta ask how he did that. The freezing and stunning I mean, not the braid pulling. That was damned simple.”

Harry looked up as the two of them entered the treatment room, eyes wide as he shrank away from Heero. Duo grinned and sat on the bed next to him, typing a quick message onto the laptop that calmed him down slightly. Sliding away from the bed he grinned at Heero a final time before slipping out of the room. Heero heard his footsteps retreat down the hall as he sat next to Harry.

“How did you do what you did?”

“What?” Harry was shocked? This guy obviously had no intentions of being gentle with his questions. “I don't know what you mean?”

“Freezing Wu Fei in place and knocking Quatre out. How did you do it?”

Harry bit his lip, not sure what to do. Magic was a secret; he would get in trouble if he told anyone. But Dumbledore had abandoned him to the Dursleys, not even sending one person to check on him since Snape had brought him home. What allegiance did he owe him or the Order? “it's a pretty uinbelievable story. Even if I told you, you might not believe me.”

“Tell me anyway.”

“I'm a wizard. Not one of those guys who pulls rabbits out of hats and does card tricks, but a wand-waving, broomstick0riding, potions-brewing wizard. I go to a school for wizards, not for criminal boys like I told Duo. My parents were magical as well, which is why my anut and uncle hate me, because they don't like anything that isn't normal. I don't know exactly what happened earlier but I was scared, so it was probably accidental magic that I used ro freeze your friend. There was magic left over so I used a Stupefy, a stunning speel to knocxk the other one out. Someone;s menat to watch over me during the holidays but if they're there then they don't seem to care what's going on this year. I shouldn't be telling you this, but they've abandoned me so I refuse to do as they would want.”

“Please, what is Duo going to do to my relatives. They're horrible and all that but he can't kill them. It's their blood connection to me that stops a group of evil wizards from finding me. at least that's what I was told after my godfather was killed. I don't think its accurate though, as Voldemort, that's their leader, used my blood to ressurect himself so he has the same blood as me. that probably voids any protection, but Dumbledore, that's my headmaster, wouldn;'t listen to me when I tried to tell him this.” Harry's typing became more erratic as he continued, and Heero eventually pulled the laptop away from him so he could calm down before he became incoherent.

“Duo and the others won't do anything yet. They don't know where you live, but it will probably only take them a few days to do so. Is there anything you want from your relative's house before they go there?”

“Yes. My school stuff is in a trunk underneath the stairs. and underneath my mattress is a loose floorborad. I keep some stuff there, wrapped up in a cloak that makes anything under it invisible. Whoever fetches it will need to feel around for it in order to find it. My wand is there, a few schoolbooks, a broken mirror and a piece of blank parchment that's really a concealed map. The address is 4 privet drive.”

“Thank you. I will go with Duo to collect your belongings.” Heero left, mentally preparing himself for what he planned to do. Even Perfect Soldiers had feelings when it came to instances of abuse and neglect.

-~-

“This is too easy. I know it's not an OZ base, but I was expecting some security at least.” Heero and Trowa glared at Duo, willing him to be quiet. The American was being too loud for an infiltration, even if the target was a civilian. They'd left Quatre and Wu Fei at the safe house, as Wu Fei had no interest in `petty revenge' and Quatre didn't trust himself to keep his temper if any of the family woke up and discovered their presence. “I thought they'd have a security alarm at least. Even a 'hood like this has to have some crime.”

“If you don't quiet down we might wake them up. Then we'll see what they're capable of.” The hissed warning had no effect on Duo, except to make him look even more excited. Trowa glared at Heero for encouraging the prankster, knowing that he wanted the occupants to wake.

The three pilots found the cupboard under the stairs easily enough, and the lock on the door was little challenge for them. Locating Harry's room was just as easy, and Heero easily undid the seven locks on the door while the other two were retrieving the heavy trunk from the cupboard. The room was practically bare; a mattress, a bucket and a set of chains were all that lay on the wooden floor. There wasn't even a cover on the bare mattress, which weighed barely anything as Heero lifted it to find the loose floorboard that Harry had mentioned. Footsteps outside the door made him still, listening to see where the person was going. Too heavy for either of his companions, he hoped that whoever had woken up simply wanted to use the bathroom and would go back to bed immediately before things got out of hand.

Heero shrunk into the darkness as the footsteps stopped outside the door, willing whoever it was to leave and not enter the room. Unfortunately his luck wasn't that good, and someone slowly opened the door and peered in. Heero knew his chances of being seen were poor; the room was unlit and he was dressed in dark clothing that hid his form. The person in the doorway reached in and flipped the light switch, blinding Heero with the sudden burst of light. Before he could recover his vision and move away he found himself pinned by his arms and legs by a much heavier person. As hands moved to his waistband he took the only option available to him. He yelled as loud and hard as he could.

Duo and Trowa also fell silent when they heard the footsteps, hands flying to where their guns usually sat. When the movement stopped they let out the breaths they'd been holding, until Heero's angry yell broke the silence. They ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time as they raced towards the only lit room. Duo's battle cry joined Heero's yell as he kicked the whale-like man's head, forcing him away from Heero and into the wall. Trowa stayed in the hallway, throwing knife in hand, to discourage the other two inhabitants, the whale-like boy from the park and a horse-like woman, from joining the man in the fight.

-~-

A hooded and cloaked figure watched as the group of drunken men stumbled out from the secret, and illegal, drinking parlour and towards the police station. His memory charm would ensure that they wouldn't remember him, while the compulsion on them and the Veritaserum mixed with their drinks would have them telling the police everything about their illegal activities.

He was glad that no one who knew him could see him at that moment. His daily persona was one of intimidation and unpleasantness, the complete opposite of his current self. For twelve years he'd spent his summers hunting down and punishing those that would use children for their own twisted entertainment. A memory charm here, a piece of forged paperwork there and the perpetrators found themselves in prison and the children ended up with the proper authorities. None of them remembered how it happened, only that it did. He couldn't afford for anyone to know, nor did he want anyone to know.

Once the men were out of sight he apparated away, determined to track down the children mentioned during their confessions to him. Three more children would be saved that night, and maybe he would be one step closer to redemption in his own heart.

-~-

Who is this mysterious stranger? And what will happen to the Dursleys now that they've gotten the pilots angry? Why am I asking all these questions? I already know the answers.

R&R if you want to know. Guesses on who Mr Mysterious is are welcome. Virtual Sandrock plushies to anyone who gets it right.