Disclaimer: If you recognize it, then I don't own it.
This is the second installment in my Christmas series of one-shots. I'm very far behind... So, "for the 11th day of Christmas, I gave to Dear Harry..."
Eleven Bots a-Learning!
"Galloway has been replaced?" Optimus Prime stared in surprise at Secretary Keller upon receiving the news. The man had arrived earlier, insisting that there was an important announcement to make that would impact both the 'Bots and the soldiers of NEST.
"Yes, the President and I agreed that he was unsuitable as a liaison and an advisor, only succeeding in causing tensions and being a poor representative of not only our country, but of our species. We were, however, able to agree on a replacement for him. We've chosen a war hero from another country. His name is Harry Potter, and he is from England. He comes from a special group of people who specialize in secrecy, and so we felt that he would be the best option in securing your own safety and working with you as our guests on this planet."
The leader of the Autobots ignored the cheering of the men around him as he turned to look at his own fellow mechs. They all seemed to be just as pleased as the soldiers to no longer have to worry about Galloway harassing any of them, or making rude or snide comments towards them. However the Cybertronians understood that this new unknown could be just as problematic as the one that they had just lost. Still, it was understandable that they were willing to give their new liaison and advisor a chance. After all, how much worse could it be, after Galloway?
"Very well," Optimus told the secretary of Defense. "When is he intending to come and meet us?" After all, Galloway tended to want to just arrive and expect everyone to fall over themselves trying to deal with his sudden appearance.
"Well actually," the government official admitted, "he had asked me close to the exact same question, wondering when you would feel more willing to have him visit you. He wasn't sure how comfortable you would be with him merely arriving and so wanted you to select the appropriate date and can come as soon as tomorrow." Already the Autobots respected their new ally, who was more concerned with being polite and respectful to those he would be working with.
Sergeant Robert Epps grinned as he approached the group in conversation with Will at his side.
"By the way, me and the men were thinking, seeing as it's Christmas in two weeks, maybe we should invite him to our Christmas party, too. Let us get to know each other outside of the professional environment!" The men cheered again, though whether or not it was because of the replacement of Galloway once more, or because of the idea of a Christmas party.
"Christmas party?" Ironhide interrupted, already skimming over information on the holiday on the internet. "Why do you have a party for a holiday that celebrates spending time at home with your family, waiting for an elderly, overweight man to sneak into your house and bring gifts for the children?"
"Well," the sergeant explained, "not all of us get to go home and see our families. Not only that, but we see each other as our own brothers in arms, just as we see you as our bots in arms. That's why you are, of course, expected to be there as well. As for the rest of it... That's a weird way of thinking of it, but scarily accurate..." He trailed off, no doubt considering the Topkick's words.
"What are we supposed to do? Do we bring something, do we have to look a certain way?" Jazz questioned. He had thankfully been able to be healed upon the arrival of the Ark to Earth. it seemed that whenever Megatron had ripped the frontliner in half, he had barely missed the silver mech's spark chamber. Ratchet had been able to piece him back together, but had needed some of the technology and supplies that were kept on the Ark in order to properly reboot Jazz's systems. First Aid had been a huge help in this as well.
"And when is this Christmas party supposed to be?" Jazz was obviously excited by the idea, and Optimus had no doubt that the saboteur would be searching the internet for appropriate appearances for his holoform, which was why the Autobot leader had asked. They had to make sure they had enough time to work out any flaws in their holoform generating systems.
"Traditionally, it's held on December 21st, so that those of us who can go home, can spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself with our families." Will looked around at the bots gathered in the area. "As for how you should look, well you can come as you are. Nobody minds, in fact that's kind of what we consider normal now. To see you as something else might throw most of the men off," he joked, even as the soldiers called back that they could handle changes like that. "If you guys really want to help out, it'd be great if you could help with the decorations, if nothing else. You can reach things we can't, after all, and will no doubt have everything looking great much faster than we can." Then Epps paused, thinking for a moment. "Except, maybe not Mudflap and Skids... Maybe keep them away from all of the decorations..."
Immediately, this got the affronted attention of the twins.
"Whatcha talkin' 'bout, Epps?!" Mudflap cried out. "We do great decoratin'!" Next to him, Skids nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, man! Have you even seen the Medbay today?!" This, unfortunately for the two mechs, was heard by the resident CMO of the Autobot faction, who bristled furiously, reaching for a wrench.
"What did you two do to my Medbay?!" he snarled, and the afternoon devolved into Ratchet chasing the twins around until they agreed to clean their mess, and Optimus working out the details of their new advisor's visit in a few days.
Harry Potter had been pretty bored after the war. He had no desire to be an Auror, and even less to be a famous celebrity. So when he'd been approached by the Minister, whom had been approached by the President of the Magical States, with the request of helping a group of individuals that had lost their home and were trying to hide from the rest of the world, he'd been willing to try anything. Upon learning that this group might also know the secret origins of all magic, Hermione had been practically foaming at the mouth with demands to ask all he could regarding the topic. It had taken Ron distracting her for the wizarding savior to manage an escape.
When he'd first arrived at NEST headquarters, he'd been unable to do anything but stare in awe at the group of large robots, and he easily understood why he had been warned that likely nothing had prepared him for this experience. Giant snake with deadliest poison in the world? Seen it. Angry mama dragon protecting her eggs? Done that. Massive walking, talking robots who were older than their very civilization? Totally new, and totally amazing.
The Cybertronians, however, had been left watching the small human with something akin to a mixture of confusion, hope, and awe. Not that he knew it, of course. After all, when they had allowed their new liaison - who was already much better than Galloway had ever been - to attempt to shake their hands (more like the touched their index servo while they moved it in the slight up-and-down motion they had observed other humans doing), it had been somewhat similar to being near the now-lost Cube. The energy was there, though fainter than the AllSpark had been. It made them question if, perhaps, the Cube hadn't simply rested on the planet, but released small torrents of energy that altered some of the human and animal lifeforms on the planet. During the tour, Advisor Potter (who requested to be simply called Harry, a sign of informality and companionship from what the 'Bots could tell), had informed them about creatures that the internet reported as being mythology and legend, including the race of people known as Wizards and witches, which only helped to confirm their suspicion.
Now, though, it was the day of the Christmas party, and Harry had arrived a little early, eager to help with any final preparations, much to the soldier's surprise and relief. Even more surprising, though, was the presence of a group of unknowns that arrived not long after the Autobots left. Epps had hurried over with Will, ready to either arrest the men, if need be, or bring them to Harry for Obliviation if need be, only to have everyone staring in surprise when Jazz's voice came from one of the men.
"I know I look fine, but you don't gotta all run over to me at once!" he declared with a grin on his handsome face. Unable to help it, Harry stopped decorating mid-garland-raise, leaving about half of it to fall and land on one of the men who'd been helping him, resulting in a surprised yelp. Harry made his way over in time to hear the explanation of holo-forms, and who each one of them were. It really made things more interesting, in a way, since no one had to look up so high their necks ached for hours afterwards, but also no one had to crouch down and basically crawl to make the squishy humans feel better. It really was the least demeaning to the Autobots, who explained it was a way to help relations between them and other species in the universe when they came across them.
Soon enough the party started, with the humans eating while the Cybertronians insisted they had their energon earlier, and were therefore not hungry. There was music playing in the background, and some people had been able to bring their families who were already involved, like Will's wife and daughter. Ironhide was busy keeping them entertained, while Optimus was trying to be polite to all, speaking with them briefly before moving on to the next. At some point, Harry ended up practically attached to the man's/bot's side, listening and offering his own part to the conversations that were being held. When he met Mudflap and Skids, he laughed and pointed out that they reminded him a little of some other pranksters he knew, except they had always known better than to mess with a medic.
"After all," Harry explained to the confused twins, "A medic is required to know how to put you together. Which means that they also know how to take you apart. You could go in needing your legs put back on, and Ratchet might just choose to leave you like that for a while, since it means you won't be able to run around and mess up his medbay." Both twins looked horrified at the idea, no doubt envisioning the endless orns of boredom that awaited their possible next visit to the Medbay.
"That's a very good idea, Harry," the CMO realized, processor no doubt racing with all of the new ideas of ways to punish the twins by doing nothing other than ignoring them.
"No way, Ratch! You wouldn't do that to a mech, right?!" Mudflap asked, obviously concerned with the medic's consideration.
"Perhaps. It does seem to be very effective, and it would mean I'd have my medbay clean for a while longer..." He began to wander off, still focusing on the concept, and both twins followed, begging the older mech to reconsider, and swearing to do everything from scrubbing the medbay every orn, to pranking people who won't come in for their regular check up. Beside Harry, Optimus began to chuckle, and looked at the smaller-than-average human.
"I do believe you've terrified those two. But that might not be a bad thing. Thank you, that might bring us a little peace around here." Unable to help himself, Harry snorted in disbelief.
"Oh no, they'll still prank everyone, they'll just avoid Ratchet and the medbay. I know, the twins I knew were the same. They'd prank everyone but those who could do the most damage back to them." The raven-haired man smirked up at his taller (even in holoforms, everyone towered over him!) friend. "Of course, I think I might be able to prevent them from doing a few things, at least..." He twirled his wand, already thinking of the impervious charm that had been placed on his glasses. Surely it would also repel paint, and he could get some Weasley products to help prank them back...
Optimus let out a very pleased laugh and patted Harry's shoulder before using his grip to steer the now here-to-stay young man towards another, secretly enjoying the feeling of the energy radiating from the younger man, which brought him so much hope for their people. "I believe I speak for everyone when I say that we are all very pleased to have you here, Harry. Your presence is truly a Christmas gift we will all be able to appreciate." Harry blushed a little at the compliment, still unused to such things, then grinned and shrugged, unable to help but add his own opinion, which resulted in laughter from those who heard.
"Well, perhaps everyone but Galloway."
Merry Christmas!