FOREWORD

One of the weirder Japanese franchises that I've come across is Durarara!, about the various twisted characters that inhabit Ikebukuro, part of Tokyo. A number of crossover fics have been made crossing this over with the Potterverse, with perhaps the most prominent being Game of the Future, by ShinichiKudoOwnsMySoul. While not a favourite fic of mine, it certainly made an impression.

I've read the first few volumes of the manga, and I'm currently making my way through the first novel. So I decided to answer the 'Dullahan Challenge' set by whitetigerwolf, where a certain character is actually Lily Potter. This is the result.

Anyway, time for the usual disclaimers. First, there will be spoilers, not to mention that it's an AU of both works.

Finally, the following is a fan-based work. Durarara! and Harry Potter are the properties of their respective owners. Please support the official release. Otherwise, Shizuo might just punch you right out of your clothes...

KITH AND KIN

The parking garage was like many scattered throughout Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Square columns of monolithic concrete supported the roof, white lines on the ground delineated parks and driving zones. It was not a place of beauty, but of function and purpose.

It was also a place where covert dealings of many kinds happened. One was about to take place even now.

Waiting were a pair of young people, both dressed in motorcycle outfits, standing next to motorbikes, Europeans too. A young man with dark hair and green eyes wore a pitch-black biking jumpsuit that seemed to eat at the light, and the motorbike he stood next to seemed to do the same. A helmet dangled carelessly from the handlebars, painted in red, with a lion, like in heraldry, on it in gold. A young woman stood nearby, her jumpsuit somewhat more colourful, looking like an explosion in a rainbow factory, only tasteful. Her hair was blonde, her eyes wide and pale, and she had an air of dottiness about her. Her helmet was as much a riot of colour as her jumpsuit.

"I hope she got the message, Luna," the man said with a sigh. "Assuming that creepy guy gave us the right phone number."

"Izaya would screw someone over if it entertained him, but we paid enough for the right number," Luna said. "I wonder how the local DMLE are going, dealing with Yagiri Pharmaceuticals?"

"Taking them to the cleaners, I hope," the young man said grimly. "Doing what they did to a magical being…that weird woman and that brother of hers…the Obliviators better wipe every last trace from their minds."

Luna nodded. "I'd call it cruel, ripping the only woman he ever loved from him…but even after we explained it to him, he wouldn't budge. Though I guess his sister's going to try and jump him anyway."

"Too much information, Luna," the young man sighed.

"No such thing for a Ravenclaw, Harry," Luna said with a smile. "Unless Euclid goes bye-bye and tentacles and slime start exuding from the walls. Anyway, you weren't complaining last night when I put those interesting researches into good use."

"Yeah, but can we have the discussion of our sex lives be kept to an absolute minimum when she comes? I mean…"

"Embarrassed, Harry?"

"Of course! Wouldn't you?"

"No. If my mother was alive, she'd be giving me tips on what to do. You're lucky, I guess."

"Hmm. Have you still got it?"

"Of course. You know, it's strange. From what Izaya told us, she does deliveries all around this city. And yet, we're delivering something to her."

"That's the way it is. Hey, wait. I think that's her."

There was the bestial roar of a motorbike motor, and then, a pitch-black steed of metal and rubber roared up to them. The rider, like Harry, wore a pitch-black jumpsuit. The shape of the rider was slender and, if one paid attention, feminine. The rider wore a yellow helmet with cat-like ears, the visor a mirrored darkness, giving no hint of any face behind it.

The rider brought her motorbike to a halt, and stepped off it. As she fumbled around in her jumpsuit, Luna held out a wand. "Celty, we can make it so you don't need your PDA to talk." She murmured a few syllables, and there was a brief flare of light.

A voice emanated from the helmet, a woman's voice, low and gentle…and having a somewhat confused tone. "What…what was that?"

"Magic, obviously," Luna said with a smile. "You should be more than acquainted with magic, being a Dullahan. Not to mention your past."

"…Wizards," Celty said in realisation. "What do you want from me? Is it because I left Ireland?"

"Not exactly," Harry said. "It is, in a way, because you left Britain, but we're not with the Ministry of Magic in either Britain or Japan. We're here for…personal reasons. Reasons that concern you directly, Celty."

If Celty had a visible face, she would have blinked in astonishment and confusion. "…Why do you seem familiar?" she asked Harry.

"I'll tell you. But maybe I should tell you a story first," Harry said. "It might help you understand before we dump the unbelievable stuff on you…"

Once, there was a Dullahan who had become disenchanted with her life. She begged the Unseelie Court of the Fae to allow her to be born again, as a human, to experience life from the point of the view of the beings whose deaths she was meant to herald. Her request was granted, and she was sent to a family who wanted another daughter.

This Dullahan gained a new name: Lily Evans. And because of her being a Dullahan, she had enough magic reserves to be a witch. She eventually went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where she caught the eyes of many. Few suspected the truth, let alone knew it. A friendship was sundered, and another was born in its place, one that led Lily Evans to marrying James Potter. And then, a Dullahan child was born, the subject of a prophecy that would make him the target of would-be Dark Lord Voldemort.

Lily had yet to realise what she once was. But some instinct allowed her to use her abilities, and the latent ones of her son Harry, to set a trap for Voldemort. After all, Dullahans were emissaries of Death, and the Killing Curse could do little to those.

Even so, when the time came, the magical backlash caused Lily to apparently die. And when she was buried, her body was found by her familiar, and taken back to Ireland for recuperation, and once she had recovered, she could go and help her son. But someone stole her head before she finished recovering. And it was that which led that Dullahan to a fateful encounter with a gasmasked doctor and his son.

A meddlesome old man called Dumbledore only realised Harry was of Dullahan blood when Harry's head fell off while Dumbledore was about to leave him at the Dursleys. Panicking, he sealed Harry's Dullahan abilities, intending him to be as normal as any wizard could be, at least growing up amongst abusive relatives. And this was also an opportunity, Dumbledore realised. Having control over a Dullahan would be a considerable boon to him, especially when Voldemort rose again.

To recount Harry's adventures here is to take too long. But shortly before the final battle, Harry learned the truth. And he managed to unseal his abilities, using them to wipe Voldemort and most of his followers out. But the revelation of his dark powers turned many in Magical Britain against him. He still had some stalwart supporters, true, and he found an unlikely kindred spirit in Luna Lovegood.

Luna's mother was a Dullahan who befriended Xenophilus Lovegood, and became his lover. Unfortunately, due to the fear of Dullahans, Pandora Lovegood was targeted for assassination. Pandora managed to vanquish her foes, before placing the knowledge that she and Luna were Dullahans under the Fidelius Charm, and then perishing.

Harry and Luna eventually married. They needed to leave Magical Britain to avoid unofficial pogroms against them a few years later, their escape aided and abetted by Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. They began travelling from country to country, going to Ireland first to try and track down Harry's mother. Local Fae pointed them in the right direction, though it took some time to track down where she ended up. Until they heard rumours of a Headless Rider in Ikebukuro…

Celty looked at them, or at least she gave the impression through the visor of her helmet. "You think that I am your mother?"

"I know you are. Look, I don't mind calling you Celty. But, if you want proof…" Harry lifted his hands to his head, and gently lifted it off his neck, black smoke, like a living shadow, emanating from the stump.

Luna promptly did the same, before yelling, "Hey, Harry, think quick!" The headless body of Luna Lovegood threw her head over to Harry, who barely managed to catch it with one hand. "Well-caught!"

"Luna!" Harry chided.

"Harry, don't lose your head, my dear husband," Luna said with a cheeky grin. "Now, you know what I want."

Harry sighed, before his body gently brought the two heads it was holding together, lips pressing up against each other. The kiss was long and slow, before Luna's body waltzed over and took it back. Harry placed his head back on his shoulders. "Yeah. Sadly, my life hasn't gotten that much weirder since I learned what I was…"

"Oh, must try harder," Luna said, still carrying her head under her arm.

"Anyway, when we got here, well, Luna could sense where your head was, so we did some infiltration of a place called Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. As it turned out, your head was there, floating in a jar filled with liquid. What's more, your head had an admirer, and not in a good way. Seiji Yagiri, the younger brother of one of the chief scientists there, Namie. Unfortunately, Namie had a twisted incest thing for Seiji that would make any Pureblood back home proud, and had tried to vivisect your head more than a few times, but it regenerated. We found a law with the local DMLE: Japan tends to treat magical creatures better than in Britain, and they raided Yagiri Pharmaceuticals. We had to send Seiji and Namie to the Obliviators, though. They were too obsessed with your head."

"You have my head?" Celty asked.

Harry nodded. "We asked around for your contact details. Some creepy guy called Izaya Orihara sold us the info."

"I've worked with him before," Celty said. "He tends to have an effect on people. He either creeps them out, or angers them."

"We know," Luna said. "We met his nemesis, Shizuo Heiwajima. He's a nice guy when he isn't flipping his lid."

"I've met him too. We talk sometimes. He's nice when he is calm," Celty said. Then, rather more impatiently, she asked, "Do you have my head?"

"Of course we do," Harry said. He gestured to Luna, who, after placing her own head back into place, took a box out of the bag, and went over to Celty, who had to resist the urge to snatch it from her. Instead, she gingerly took the box, and opened it. There, cushioned on velvet, was the head of a red-haired young woman, eyes closed in gentle repose.

For a moment, Celty seemed to hesitate, before she took off her helmet, revealing a stump of a neck, exuding the same shadowy smoke-like substance that had come from Harry and Luna's necks when they had taken off their heads. She carefully took her head in her hands, only to suddenly convulse and spasm. The eyes on the disembodied head of Celty Sturluson opened wide, revealing emerald orbs just like Harry's, and a keening wail emitted from her lips, a wail of pain, of distress, of even release.

Harry rushed over, as did Luna, only for Celty to sag. She then, gingerly, placed her head on her neck. Gingerly, she then felt her face. "I…I was not expecting this. I don't have all my memories back yet. Just those from when I was Lily. When I was…" She suddenly threw her arms around Harry. "Oh, Harry! I'm…I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay, Mum. If your head hadn't been stolen, I'm sure you would have come back for me when you remembered," Harry said quietly.

Celty Sturluson then looked more closely at her son, tears running down her face, even as she smiled. "You've grown. You look just like James, but you have my eyes."

"So I'm told," Harry said, a little wryly. "I think we have a lot of catching up to do."

"That we do. We all do," Celty said. "Still, I think we had better head back to my place. I'm sure we can roll out a couple of futons."

"Actually, Harry and I have a magical tent," Luna said. "For when we're not staying at hotels."

"Maybe that can work, though Shinra will want to see how it works," Celty said. "Shinra's a back-alley doctor I live with. His father was the one who found me in the first place, brought me to Japan."

"And did a whole lot of other things besides," Harry said with a scowl. "We found out a few things via Legilimency. But that can wait."

"Yeah, it can," Celty said, smirking before she put on her helmet. "So…you want to have a ride as a family?"

"Sure!" Luna said. "I can get to know my mother-in-law. Harry's a better rider than you'd imagine. Then again, he was a brilliant Seeker at Quidditch. Maybe he got it from both his parents. One a Quidditch player, and the other, a fast rider."

They could all but hear the grin behind Celty's helmet. "Let's put that to the test."

Harry and Luna looked at each other, before they put their helmets on, and mounted their motorbikes, in reality, their familiars. The bestial roar of motorbike engines echoed through the parking lot, and soon, the three bikers were roaring into the night, a mother and son reunited at last, and, accompanied by the love of the son's life, they roared into a shining new future on the strange streets of Ikebukuro…

THE END

ANNOTATIONS:

Okay, this one was just short and sweet. I didn't know how to expand it beyond a one-shot, especially as I've effectively derailed the events of the first book. Yamie and Seiji are in the custody of the DMLE, and Mika Harima didn't get turned into a Celty clone. Still, it was a nice reunion that needed to be done, and I hope you liked it.