Disclaimer: If you're reading this, then you've got time to go back to chapter one and read the disclaimer there; I'm too lazy to type the thing over and over again, chapter after chapter.

Sirius: At least you admit to being lazy.

Meh. Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.

Sirius quirks an eyebrow

What? I got that off of one of my t-shirts. I like it.

Sirius: I find that it suits you absolutely.

Hey!

Harry: Can't we get on with the story? I feel naked without my wand, you know.

Sirius: opens mouth

Thank you, Sirius.

Sirius: closes mouth

By the way, Harry, you've still got Gryffindor's Sword.

Harry: Oh yeah. I'd forgotten I had it on me when Ron turned that Playstation on.

Sirius: What's a Playstation?

Maybe when you're older.


A voice came on over the intercom, saying, "Last train out of Sector 8 Station. Last stop is Sector 7, Train Graveyard. Expected time of arrival is 12:23 AM, Midgar standard time..."

Harry blinked, his vision clearing, and found himself sitting in a seat on a grungy train car as it hurdled down its tracks. Unlike the Hogwarts Express, there weren't any compartments; rather, just a bunch of seats along the wall, and gripping bars running along the ceiling (though within easy reach of anyone standing). He jumped slightly, reaching for his wand, when several people suddenly burst in through the door in the back, one after another.

The first person to come through was a large bear of a man, with dark skin, a shaggy beard, and a crew cut. He was clad in green trouser shorts and a stained leather vest, which was open, revealing a very muscular torso. Two metal bands served as belts, and on his arm, where his right hand should have been, was what looked a lot like what Harry thought to be a machine gun.

The second person was more normal-sized; he was a bit pudgy, wearing dark blue denim jeans, a yellow-white t-shirt, and a red bandana. He carried a small gun (Harry thought it might be a pistol) in a holster that hung over his hip off a shoulder strap. He immediately reminded Harry of Neville.

The next passenger to come in was a bit taller, and definitely thinner than the pudgy one. He wore dark brown combat boots, equally brown slacks, and a green sleeveless shirt. He also had a bandana, though his tended to blend into his brown hair. A rifle of some kind was slung across his back.

The fourth person was a girl, light brown hair and goggles on her forehead. She also carried what looked like a pistol, but looking down, Harry noticed a knife handle sticking out of her right boot. She was wearing non-descript clothing of bland colors, and though her bandana was brown, it stood out more than the last guy's headpiece.

The final person to come through was a guy wearing a purple bodysuit, with a heavy shoulder pad on his right shoulder. A massive sword was secured to his back. It was the sword, and the spiky blond hair, that told Harry who this guy was, even if he didn't know his name.

It was the guy on the front cover of the game's case. And, Harry admitted to himself, he looked more formidable in person, as opposed to being in a picture and looking somewhat comical.

A well-dressed, official looking man stood up, catching Harry's eye. He slipped toward the other door, toward the front of the train. "Hoo, boy," Harry heard him whisper, "hooligans. This is why I hate the last train." With that, he opened the door and stepped through, shutting it firmly (if a little shakily) behind him.

Harry decided to play quiet and listen to the conversations around him in order to figure out what was going on. He didn't hear much of anything interesting until he heard someone next to him say, "You see the headlines in the Shinra Times?" Harry started when he realized the guy was talking to him.

"No, I only just woke up myself." Well, Harry thought, it's kinda the truth.

"Oh, well, then you haven't heard. Anyway, the terrorists that blew up the No. 1 Reactor are rumored to be based somewhere in the slums," the man whispered to him, as though he was telling Harry about some conspiracy or another. "Man, blowing up a reactor? They sure put some thought into this one."

The words flew out of Harry's mouth before he could stop to think about them. "They must have a real calculating leader, to pull something like that off." The man nodded in agreed vigorously.

Harry suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling of being watched. He slowly turned his head in a calm manner, his eyes landing on the large black man with the gun-thing on his arm. The man's eyes stared at him in a scrutinizing manner for a minute, before turning away to bellow at the blond guy in purple.

"Hey! Stop actin' like a damn kid. Si'down an' shu'up!"

The blonde shrugged dispassionately at him and turned back to the brunette that had started talking to him. Harry discreetly scooted closer and listened in.

"Hey Cloud, you want to look at this with me? It's a map of the Midgar Rail System," she said. So I'm in Midgar, Harry concluded.

"Here, I'll explain it to you, Cloud. I like this kinda stuff. Bombs and monitors...you know, flashy stuff." Harry heard her tap a few buttons. "This is a complete model of the city of Midgar. It's about a one ten-thousandth scale. The top plate is about fifty meters above ground. A main support structure holds the plate up in the center, and there are other support structures built in each section."

The girl suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper; Harry scooted a bit closer and strained his ears to listen. "Psst...The No. 1 Reactor we blew up was in the northern section." She suddenly talked normally again. "Then there's No. 2, No. 3, all the way around to the No. 8 Reactor. The 8 Reactors provide Midgar with electricity."

Harry could hear a frown as she spoke more. "Each section used to be a town, with its own name. But no one in Midgar remembers them anymore. So, instead of names, we refer to them by numbered sectors. That's the kind of place this is. Phew," she took a breath to catch her breath. "This is next. Look!"

Despite the temptation to do so, Harry kept looking straight ahead, feigning disinterest in the conversation next to him. "This is the route this train is on. The route spirals around the main support structure. We just passed the center area a bit ago. There is an ID sensor device at each checkpoint. It can check the identities and backgrounds on each and every passenger on the train by linking it up to the central databank at Shinra headquarters."

At those words, Harry's heart leapt to his throat. He didn't have any sort of ID, and despite his reaching for it ages ago, he couldn't find his wand. He did find Gryffindor's Sword, however, so he wasn't completely defenseless. Though, how much good a sword can be against a gun, Harry was sure it wouldn't be much. Harry heard the girl say something else, but he didn't catch what.

Harry suddenly heard the large man speak again, over the soft snoring of one of his comrades. "Look...you can see the surface now. This city don't have no day or night. If that plate weren't there...we could see the sky."

'Cloud' walked over and looked out the window. Harry glanced out, too. "A floating city...Pretty unsettling scenery."

The gun-arm man stood up and smirked at 'Cloud.' "Huh? Never expect that outta someone like you. You jes' full of surprises." He took a deep breath and began to growl. "The upper world...a city on a plate...It's 'cuz of that effing 'pizza,' that people underneath are sufferin'! And the city below is full of polluted air! An' on toppa that, the Reactors keep drainin' up all the energy."

"Then why doesn't everyone move up onto the plate?" 'Cloud' asked reasonably.

"Dunno," Barret replied, calmly. "Probably 'cuz they ain't go no money. Or, maybe...they lover their land, no matter how polluted it gets."

'Cloud' nodded in understanding. "I know. Nobody lives in the slums because they want to. It's like this train. It can't go anywhere except for where its rails take it."

A few minutes of terse silence followed, broken the sound of screeching brakes. The train came to a grounding halt, and all the exit doors opened. The passengers filed out of the train car, followed by the group of terrorists. It must be these guys that bombed the Reactor...but I don't know enough about this place to know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Seeing that he was the last one left, Harry stood up and patted the hilt of his sword before stepping toward the door. Before he could step off, however, he was shoved backwards as the large man with gun on his arm came back in and shut the door. "Hey! What gives!" Harry grunted, getting back to his feet.

"Yer not bad at teh stealthy stuff, kid," he said calmly, crossing his arms and studying him closely. "You were a bit obvious 'bout listenin' to Jesse an' Cloud." Harry didn't say anything; though he ready to run down the car and through the door at the other end, but something made him want to hear this guy out. "Lissen...I know ye know abou' the Reactor. What do you think of it?"

Harry hadn't expected that. Nevertheless, he thought for a minute, then remembered his earlier thoughts. "I don't really know. You could say I'm new around here; I don't know anything about this place. I'd rather not decide anything for certain until I know more," he answered truthfully.

Harry recognized the look in the man's eyes as he started lecturing Harry on what the Reactors were doing to the planet. It was the same fiery gleam that was in Hermione's eyes whenever she started on about S.P.E.W.

At the end of his lecture, the man (he introduced himself as Barret) asked, "Get all o' that?"

Harry nodded slowly. "So these Reactors are sucking out the 'Life Energy' of the planet, and without this energy, the planet withers and dies. Right, I got it. So, what are planning to do about it? Surely just blowing up the Reactors won't stop Shinra by itself."

"I've got it all planned ou'." Barret looked at him a bit more closely. "Hey kid, do you have a weapon?"

Harry considered this. "Well, I don't have what I normally use to defend myself, but I do have this sword...why?"

"'Cuz there be monsters in them thar hills," Barret snickered. "You'll be safe from monsters while in a populated area, but once you leave a town, you'll be confronted by wolves and robots and the like. Even some bandits, mebbe. Can't be too careful."

"Right..." Harry nodded slowly. "So...what are you doing?"

Barret shrugged. "I don't normally do this sorta thang; trying to bring down a company like the Shinra with only a few good hands requires a lot of guerilla tactics and some distrust towards the general population." He looked at Harry again. "But somethin' tells me you can be trusted. You want in AVALANCHE? We can always use some more people workin' fer us."

Harry thought over his options. He was being offered a job of sorts – a dangerous one, to be sure, but he had faced plenty of danger before (he had beaten Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in over a century, after all!) – and would probably have a place to stay at night (whenever it seemed night actually fell; Barret was right, Midgar didn't have a day or night, not underneath the upper level). He was also being offered some allies.

On the other hand, if he refused, it was quite likely that he'd be killed so that Shinra couldn't get any information from him should they catch him. And, video game or not, Harry wasn't sure what would happen to him if he died in here – it certainly felt real enough, and he was sure his bum was a little bruised from being pushed to the floor of the train. He also knew that, in a fight, this Barret would pulverize him since he didn't have his wand. Sure, he was probably faster than Barret was, but Barret had a gun on his arm. Not even his Firebolt was likely to outrun speeding bullets!

Harry looked up, his decision made. "Why not? It'd give me something to do, and a steady source of information besides. Where do I sign my name in blood?"

Barret looked at him quizzically for a minute, then chuckled. "There be none of that," he chortled. "Jes' come wif' me."


Ron flipped through the pages of Hermione's spell book savagely (Hermione quickly mended the small rips and tears he made with a silent Reparo charm). Ron soon stopped on the pages he was looking for, pointing out the spells he had used on the Muggle device.

"I see," Remus said, looking over his shoulder. "Well, it would be a bad idea to try to enchant the device to let Harry out. Especially without a proper understanding of how it was made to work to begin with."

"So what do we do, Remus?" Ginny asked worriedly. "Who knows what Harry could be facing in that thing!?"

"Anyone watching the TV, Ginny, that's who," Tonks replied. She pointed at the TV where Harry seemed to be talking with a large black man who, Tonks realized, looked somewhat like that Muggle actor she once saw in commercials over in the States, a man named Mr. T. Reading the words as they came up on the screen in a blue text box, she could even imagine what he sounded like as he spoke.

Ron and Hermione had immediately called for Harry's friends and (surrogate) family as soon as they realized Harry was inside the Playstation 2. However, only Remus, Tonks, Ginny, and the Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt had been able to come right away.

"So what? It's not like we can help him or anything," Ginny shot back.

"Not yet, anyway," Remus replied, bemused. At first, he had thought that Ginny and Lily couldn't be more different, despite their similar appearances. But as he got to know Ginny (both as Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts and as a friend) he came to see the same fiery disposition Lily often displayed (usually towards James and Sirius, though Remus himself had caught his fair share of glares from her). I'm starting to think that the Potter men have a thing for passionate red-heads, Remus thought, unable to completely hide a chuckle. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice it.

Ron sighed in relief. "You know, in a way, I'm kinda glad that Mum and Dad aren't here right now. Dad would be fussing with that thing, trying to take it apart and see how it works, while Mum would screaming everyone's ears off yelling at me. It won't help any of us to have that much extra pressure, you know?"

Ginny looked askance at him. "You know what, Ron? You're really not quite as dense as you look."

Ron frowned. "What is it this, Pick-On-Ron Day?"

"Well, it is kinda your fault for this whole mess. You did charm the thing, after all," Hermione sniped.

"I know, 'Mione, I know." Ron sighed. "And it's tearing me up right now."

Those who knew Ron the best (that were in the room, anyway) fell into shocked silence. "What?" he asked.

"You..." Hermione paused, straightening her thoughts. "Normally, you don't accept the consequences of your actions this quickly."

Ron blushed. "Well..." He scratched the back of his head. "It's kind of hard not to, knowing that something I've done has directly put my best mate in danger. And he doesn't even have his wand to protect himself."

"He's not without a weapon, though," Tonks suddenly spoke up. "He just said he has a sword with him."

Hermione looked at the screen. "It's probably Gryffindor's Sword. Or, at least, a sword similar in size. Otherwise, we'd be able to see it, whether it was inside his robes or not."

"True dat," Tonks said, earning strange looks for her use of American slang.


Sirius: I don't like this. Harry's acting all...Slytherin-y.

He's just using his head and trying to stay alive, Sirius. Just because someone thinks before they act, doesn't make them a Slytherin. You might try thinking sometime, rather than acting on impulse.

Harry: I second that.

Sirius: Impulse has served me well before.

Except for taunting your cousin.

Sirius: Yeah, well...nobody's perfect.

Harry: True dat.