Chapter one- A touch of darkness
Mrs. Figg was a very odd character, and Obi-Wan had met many an odd person/creature.
For one thing, she owned an alarming number of cats. Whenever he met the woman on the street, she was always accompanied by a herd of clawed creatures with luminous eyes.
Not that he had anything against the little earth creatures! Not at all! But cats were clearly meant to be solitary creatures, and so many together was just asking for trouble. Bouncing Leia on his hip, Obi-Wan fearlessly broached the shifting wave of felines as he strolled down the street. Luke kicked his little feet into his back while an inquisitive Leia reached up to snag his hair, obviously wondering at its texture and weight. Obi-Wan tried to liberate his hair from her grasp as well as dodge another clawed blur as a tabby cat darted between his feet. He waved hello to Mrs. Figg, who was crossing the street with some groceries, before shifting closer to see if she required help.
"Do you remember me, Mrs. Figg? I'm Ben, I moved in a week or so ago…these are my wards Luke and Leia…Leia, honey, stop chewing on my hair…there's a girl…"
The old lady gave him a slightly batty look he was beginning to realize seemed to be her natural expression.
"Oh, of course now, of course…Ben, wasn't it? Just moved in, I hear…" She plonked her groceries down and absently stroked a cat he could have sworn she called Mr. Tiddles.
Reaching down with his free hands he picked up a bag full of cat food and began to walk with her back to her house, another carbon copy of all the other houses in the street. She seemed to have been here a while, and could help him with the 'lay of the land'. As well as perhaps letting him in on the mystery that was the unhappy young mind he had touched not long ago.
Sigh. If only he could just march up to the Dursley's door and search through their house. He was almost positive the signature had come from there. But he wasn't a Jedi here, and he had to play by the rules…
"What marvelous cats you have, my lady. May I enquire as to their breeds?"
Obi-Wan left the cat-lady's house with a lot of useful information, as well as a brand new sandy colored kitten with barely open eyes he instantly named Ani and planned on presenting to the twins as a pet. He wondered what cats needed to eat. Some kind of meat, no doubt.
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The wobbly little kitten slowly got used to his new home- and the fascinated attention of the twins, who although unable yet to crawl were able to use very rudimentary Force skills to 'drag' their new 'toy' towards eager little hands. The bewildered little creature skidded across the carpet, tiny claws outstretched, until Obi-Wan took pity on it and let it perch on his shoulder, stroking its tiny head with gentle fingers until it rumbled all over with content purrs. It had very bright green-gold eyes, and was cautiously curious about the two little children, and utterly adored Obi-Wan, who fed him and petted him and rescued him from the invisible 'hands' of the little tormentors.
Just as things were beginning to settle down in the Kenobi/Hikari household, things changed again.
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It started with Mrs. Figg being put into hospital after she finally tumbled over one of her many cats, and with the Dursley's traveling away for a business trip. (Or so Petunia proudly prattled on, anyway, to anyone who stood still long enough to listen.)
Everything seemed very ordinary, but shivers in the Force kept Obi-Wan on edge all day as Summer began to wane, until he opened the door as evening began to find a nervous and fitful Petunia Dursley on his doorstep.
"Can I help you, Mrs. Dursley?"
"Petunia," the woman corrected absently, but Obi-Wan's attention was caught by the little boy within her arms- a boy very obviously not Dudley. Large green eyes blinked up at him under a shock of untidy black hair, through which Obi-Wan caught a glimpse of an odd, jagged scar that filled him with foreboding. More than that, though, Obi-Wan recognized the feel of his young, unfocused mind as the source of the misery he had been trying to locate.
"And who is this?" He lifted his eyes to Petunia, who shifted her feet uneasily. She was nervous.
"This is…that is, this is my…nephew. Harry. In my care for the moment, I'm afraid. His parents were killed, some sort of drunken accident, I expect." Obi-Wan felt one eyebrow arch itself.
"How kind of you, Petunia, to take in your orphaned nephew. What a sweet little boy." Sarcasm was barely audible in the first part of his sentence and completely lacking in the tail end of it. Harry did seem a very sweet little child, with lovely eyes. Nephew? The lucky child obviously had no visible resemblance to the woman who held him, or his cousin, the round Dudley.
"Harry, you said? Why haven't I met him before this? I would have thought you would have introduced us before this, what with Dudley coming over and all." The woman shifted again, looking away.
"Didn't want to bother you, is all," she offered vaguely, and Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed as he looked at her closely, then again at the little boy in her arms who stared up at him with soulful eyes. He reached a little deeper with the Force…ah, so that was the way of it.
He kept his face carefully clean of any sign of disgust, even as she held the little boy out from her body a little, as if he carried some sort of disease she was afraid of catching.
"I'm delighted to meet little Harry, Petunia," he declared, and reached out and plucked the infant easily from her unresisting grasp.
"I expect you'll be wanting him to join our little play dates," he went on cheerfully, squashing the part of him that was viciously vindicated by this turn of events, turning the tables and refusing to let her interrupt.
"Harry seems like a delightful little child. I just know he'll get along famously with the twins."
Petunia Dursley finally seemed to get her bearings, staring at the beaming man with the too-bright, ever changing eyes.
"That's…great. Er, that is, I need a favor, Ben. You see, my Vernon has a business trip up country, and we'll be away a week, and see, I wanted to know…if maybe…"
He gave into pity. Damn his sense of honor and morality…
"Oh, I'll be more than happy to look after Dudley and Harry for you! Don't you worry about a thing! We'll all get along just famously until you get back. A week, you said?"
The woman was shifting again, her gaze darting away as she twisted her shirt hem between long, bony fingers. She coughed.
"Er, thankyou Ben. But Dudley will be coming with us. It's just the boy- Harry- that needs a sitter. Normally Mrs. Figg looks after him…but with her in hospital and all, well, I'm sure you understand." She tried for a breezy smile.
He understood all too well. His expression didn't change at all, although his eyes hardened just a little.
"I see. Well, then, Mrs. Dursley, I hope you enjoy your trip. We'll see you in a week." And smiling he took a great deal of pleasure in shutting the door in her face.
"Evil, repulsive woman," he muttered as he walked into the lounge, before sitting down to have a good look at his new charge.
"Hello there, Harry," he whispered, brushing inky black hair back tenderly, fingers hesitating over the vicious, Dark scar on that innocent little forehead. He hissed, drawing back a little, before he deliberately flared his fingers over the scar- how by the Force had he gotten such a mark?- and fell into the Force, wide blue-green eyes staring sightlessly into emerald.
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Evil that had no place anywhere near any child churned beneath his fingers, burning to his senses, dark and bubbling, a terrible sickness of the soul that curdled his stomach.
Old. Angry. Broken.
In his arms, Harry began to whimper, tears pooling in his exquisite green eyes.
Blue-green eyes hardened and he pressed down, brutally, shoving the darkness back.
Whimpers trailed away.
He hissed in annoyance. Whatever this darkness was, it refused to relinquish its hold. For a moment, Obi-Wan faced it, a Jedi Master of no small skill and power, ready to purge the darkness into the infinite flow of the Force, and then he sighed and pulled back into himself. The darkness was tied to the little boy's shining spirit. Obi-Wan could destroy the Shadow, but to do so would utterly destroy Harry as well.
I will not allow the darkness to have another innocent child.
He contained the evil within the child's scar, blocking the edges of it where darkness bled into the spirit of the child with his own power in the Force, a sharp smile curving his lips as an outraged shriek resonated through the Force.
Didn't like that, did we?
Done and done.
Then Obi-Wan blinked, breathing out gently as the boy blinked back at him, before the shy little boy reached up gingerly for his shining hair.
It must be a universal child thing, he mused, allowing the boy to catch a long lock of hair, smiling gently and sending a wave of love and warmth to him.
Green eyes filled, but the little hands latched on with more certainty, a sad wistfulness in green depths as he tugged on his hair, as if it wasn't quite right.
Not quite the right shade of red, see.
The boy was almost a year older than Luke and Leia, but quite small. As the boy was distracted by his hair, Obi-Wan gently removed his smudged and dirty shirt, eyes darkening several shades as he took in the sight before him, a finger trailing over ribs that should not have been visible, eyes going yet another shade of dark turquoise as he wiped gently at the dirt on his little shoulders and realized they were in fact bruises.
Bruises. On a child barely a year old.
He closed his eyes and reached into the Force, wrapping it around himself and the little boy in his arms. A trickle of Force he channeled easily into the tiny form, eyes half-closed in concentration as he healed the marks away carefully. Babies were so delicate, everything so unformed…there. He opened his eyes with a smile, then stood up, heading towards the bathroom. There was time to get this little one cleaned up before Leia and Luke woke from their afternoon nap. He hummed softly under his breath as he shifted the little boy to his hip, holding his head to the side obligingly so the little boy could continue to play with his hair.
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Harry stared up, trying to take everything in. The new person was looking at him, and not with the hard eyes of the big man, or the narrowed glare of the woman who was not Mommy, but with soft warm eyes a blue-green shiny color that was sort of like Mommy's. Gentle fingers that did not pinch or bruise brushed through his hair, and he found himself sleepy, but fought to stay awake so as to savor this peace. Then something warm and wonderful seemed to be all around him, but his head hurt, it hurt so much, and he began to whimper, quietly, so as to not bring back the nasty not-mommy. The new person heard, though, because there was a gentle touch on his head and a wonderful warmth swept through him, and the pain was gone and through that warmth there was an angry yell somewhere close and yet also far away…
Then it was all over and he was staring curiously up at the face much bigger than his own, mesmerized by those soft eyes and his shiny hair. He reached out, then faltered, remembering sharp slaps and shrill voices.
The man smiled encouragingly, and he tentatively snagged a soft piece of hair, shiny and pretty, although it wasn't the soft red like Mommy's. No sharp blows came and he gained confidence, and then the warmth and love was back, like one of Mommy's hugs, and his eyes filled because it was so nice and everything had been so bad.
He barely noticed when his shirt was gently tugged off, relinquishing his grip on his hair only briefly, and then the warmth was back and the pain gone.
He stared in wonder.
Harry was too young to understand- if he was older, he would have said it was like some sort of wonderful dream.
And he was being held close, and the nice man was humming, then singing something in his soft voice, and he was getting awfully sleepy…
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Harry practically slept through his bath, with Obi-Wan supporting him gently with one hand as he gently sponged the dozing boy. When he was clean he dressed him in one of the simple shirts he's bought for a rapidly growing Luke. It was a little shirt, but was sadly loose around the boy's tiny wrists, and he had to constantly feed his emotions into the Force now, he was so angry.
Finally properly clean in the first time in what was evidently some time, Obi-Wan took Harry into the darkened room of the twins, wrapping the now sleeping boy in warmth and love again before laying him gently down next to Luke.
None of the children stirred.
Good.
He crept out of the room again before returning to the lounge, where he began to pace, one hand folded over his lightsaber.
What to do?
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The week was idyllic to begin with. There were a few moments with the twins, who seemed a little jealous of the interloper, but Obi-Wan was stern with them- the Force was not a tool and they could not use it on poor Harry, no matter how weak their control was yet, or sporadic its use. No, all of that was quite normal. Even the shy boy's behavior was expected, considering the downright abuse he had suffered for who knew how long.
What happened between Harry and the twins one fine evening, however, wasn't.
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It has been established that the twins were hardly impressed with a new child taking up their Obi-Wan's time. Little Leia was the most demonstrative, and a distracted Obi-Wan, trying to take care of three children, wondered briefly if such young children were supposed to scowl like that. Harry was an incredibly quiet child, and Obi-Wan had to work with him constantly, sending him love and warmth and safety to convince the child to join in with the twins games, or even to touch the soft toy Obi-Wan had designated his.
Slowly, however, the boy began to relax, playing with his bear, and a smiling Obi-Wan began to get a glimpse at quite a different child- the child he must have been before whatever 'accident' killed his parents.
He'd looked deeply into that scar. He highly doubted his parents had died in an 'accident.'
Luke and Leia slowly warmed to the little boy, but like with all children spats were not uncommon. However, the shocking blue shade Luke's previously blonde hair suddenly developed, was unexpected. More shocking was the knowledge that Harry had somehow done it.
Obi-Wan knew the Force. Knew it well enough to know that no-one would ever truly understand it. But nowhere had he seen or even heard of an untrained Force user turning someone's hair blue in a fit of childish anger.
Ever.
And the thing was…Harry wasn't Force sensitive. Not really. There was a trace there, but not enough to be trained. So it was impossible for him to have used the Force in a hitherto undiscovered way to dye someone's hair.
Which left something else. Bouncing a hiccupping Harry on his hip, Obi-Wan regarded a wide-eyed Luke and fought the urge to burst into laughter. His lips twisted.
"There, there, Harry. I know you didn't mean it, now," he soothed.
He looked at Luke again and coughed, again suppressing the urge to laugh.
"It's quite an impressive shade," he murmured.
"I wish your parents were here, little one. Perhaps they could shed some light on this."
As Harry finally calmed, Obi-Wan deposited the boy back on the floor next to Leia, and picked Luke up.
"Well, now, little man, that will certainly teach you to use the Force to steal Harry's bear, now won't it?"
It really was the most remarkable shade of blue. He reached out with the Force, and his eyes widened with surprise as instantly the blue color seemed to bleed back into Luke's normal sandy blonde.
"Well, now." Whatever young Harry had done seemed to be susceptible to the Force.
Interesting. And definitely worth investigating further. For all he knew, this was quite normal for children of this planet.
He doubted that, though.