All Too Complicated

By SilverWolf7007

Chapter the Second – In Which Harry Reminisces a Lot

A long time ago, there was a little boy.

Okay, so it wasn't that long ago, in fact it was only a few years.

The point is, when I was a kid, Mrs Figg wasn't always available to baby-sit me when the Dursleys were going places. Plus I think Aunt Petunia began to suspect that the crazy old cat lady was a little 'odder' than most inhabitants of Little Whinging could guess at.

So Aunt Petunia asked around for a competent, cheap baby-sitter.

She found Corey.

At the time, Corey wasn't a Mediator. He was, in fact, a fairly normal Muggle teenager. Well, I thought he was. Turns out he was just learning his magic through correspondence courses with the Melbourne Academy of Magic, the only school that offered them.

I was six, he was fourteen, and I'm fairly sure that I spent more of the next five years with him than with my 'family'.

And then I got accepted to Hogwarts. Corey had been like an older brother to me, and still is, so I was heartbroken to be leaving him. It hurt even more to be unable to tell him the truth about where I was going.

Corey, being virtually secluded from the magical community, hadn't heard much about the Boy Who Lived, so he certainly didn't realise that I was a celebrity in that world and thusly didn't realise that I was a wizard.

I still saw him over the summer, of course. While I was at Hogwarts he was taking his later courses actually at the MAoM. The MAoM, despite being in Australia, has the same holidays and term times as Hogwarts. No one is entirely sure why.

When I was thirteen, Corey was twenty-one, graduated, and drop dead gorgeous. I hadn't realised I was gay until I realised that I was drooling over my 'big brother'. I'd well and truly gotten over it by the time I left the Dursleys that summer, but that was the last time I saw Corey until the day I met Toni.

Turns out he was apprenticing at the MAoM as a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. At the very end of that year, he became a Mediator, and spent that summer learning about his skills. Over the next year he continued his apprenticeship, stayed at the school over the holidays and finished it up over the next year.

The summer after that he came back to Britain to escape winter (he doesn't do cold well) and moved in with Maxine, Brad, Rowan and Dana.

Of course, he took his spirit guide with him, and it wasn't long after I got settled that I met him.

Well, not exactly met. We had met before, after all.

"Max, Brad and Dana aren't here at the moment," Corey told him as they carried the trunk upstairs. "Rowan's gone shopping, so he wont be back for a bit yet."

Harry just nodded. They had just reached a door and stopped.

"This is your room. For the moment, you'll be sharing with Toni. She needs to bond to you – it's a spirit guide thing. Plus you're practically her brother now, so you get to take care of her."

Dropping his trunk, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Nice room. Very large."

Corey snorted, sweeping his gaze over the room. "Yeah, but we figure it's about necessary for you two. We've got one hyper little girl, and one teenager who used to be a hyper little boy."

Harry poked his tongue out and pushed his trunk to the bed with the black doona and sheets. He figured it was a safe bet, as the other sported a bright pink, purple, blue, green and yellow striped theme.

"My room's right across the hall, I share with Max's guide, Rowan. Max and Brad are next to me, and my guide is next to you guys with Dana on his other side."

He was about to ask for something about Corey's spirit guide, like his name, but was interrupted by Toni's excited voice.

"Cedric, Cedric I found my Mediator!"

Harry froze as he heard a familiar laugh and an even more familiar voice. "You found him, huh? Was he lost?"

"Nooo, but he's here now!"

"How about you introduce me to him?"

"Sure!"

Harry distantly noted the confusion on Corey's face, but couldn't even address it in his own mind, as Cedric Diggory had just been dragged into the room.

Cedric's eyes widened in shock. "Harry?"

"Cedric," he replied, swallowing. "So, you're a spirit guide now? How's that working out for you?"

"Uh, good. Yeah, it's great. I just…really wasn't expecting to see you."

Harry snorted. "You weren't expecting it? At least you knew it was, you know, possible."

"You guys know each other?" Corey said blankly.

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "I told you about Harry, remember? Guy who saved my life several times?"

"Got you killed, you mean," Harry muttered.

"No, I don't mean that," Cedric replied sharply. "Harry, it wasn't your goddamned fault! And neither was what happened to Sirius, by the way. I like to think we can blame both on Dumbledore and Voldemort."

"Wait…Harry, you're that Harry?"

Harry sighed and turned to Corey, ignoring the growing lump in his throat. "Yeah, if you mean Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived and all. Always have been, always will be. Nothing I can do about that."

"Huh. We'll talk later. C'mon Toni, let's leave these two to catch up."

Toni pouted, but nodded. "You two will play with me later," she informed them.

Harry and Cedric shared an amused glance before nodding solemnly. Toni seemed satisfied as she left the room.

Cedric turned and raised an eyebrow at Harry. "So, have we covered the emotional and guilt aspects properly, or should we angst about it some more?" He paused and eyed the expression on Harry's face. "Ah. Right. I see. In that case, should I be running?"

"That will not be necessary, Cedric."

"Um, okay. Harry? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing at all, Cedric."

"Can I ask a question?"

"Go ahead, Cedric."

"Why do you keep saying my name in that creepy tone of voice?"

Harry gave an eerie smirk to go along with it. "Because it's unnerving you, Cedric."

"Of course. Could you, maybe, I dunno, quit it?"

"Maybe later, Cedric."

Cedric smacked his head on the nearest wall.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm just not sure how to handle this whole thing, you know?" Harry sighed and sat on his bed. Cedric sat across from him on Toni's. "I mean, the whole mess of guilt about you aside, apparently I'm a Mediator now, and I don't know what that means for my future. And can you still use magic?"

Cedric blinked. "Wow, that was somewhat off the topic."

Harry shrugged. "What can I say; I've been cultivating my randomness."

"I think I'm worried."

"You probably should be. But I'm done ranting and being uncertain about my future for the moment, so you can go ahead and answer. I'm curious."

"Isn't that what gets you into all those tricky situations?"

Harry glared.

Cedric cleared his throat. "Right, yes. Okay. Magic. It's…well, I can use magic of a sort, but as I'm dead and not technically a wizard anymore, it isn't the same kind. Humans of any kind can become Spirit Guides, not just witches and wizards. Rowan, Max's guide, was a Muggle. We have certain abilities, as guides, mainly so we can try to keep our Mediators from getting themselves killed. Or turned into giant cauldrons."

"It was once!" Corey's voice snapped from outside the door.

Harry snickered. "I knew he was listening in. Can Muggles be Mediators?"

Cedric shook his head. "Apparently not. You have to have a certain amount of innate magic to be able to develop the ability. I know that a few Squibs have been Mediators in the past, but from what I've been told, all the current ones are witches or wizards."

"All right then. I think that's enough learning, angsting and feeling guilty for now. Why don't we let Corey participate in the conversation before abandoning him in favour of playing with Toni?"

Laughing, Cedric stood up. "Sounds perfect. You hungry?"

"Starved," Harry replied with a rueful grin. "Almost literally."

Cedric rolled his eyes. "Well Rowan will be home with food soon, but don't hold your breath on actually getting a decent meal. The only person alive or dead who both lives in this house and can cook is Brad."

Harry snorted and opened the door, 'accidentally' kicking Corey as he stepped from the room. "Don't worry; I think I can manage to cook something passable once I have food to work with."

Corey hopped a little and rubbed his shin, but disregarded the pain in favour of grinning in delight. "We're saved! Harry, I love you!"

"Me too!" Toni added from the top of the staircase. "Cos Corey, Rowan and Cedric can't even cook ice cream properly!"

Harry gave her a blank look. "You don't cook ice cream."

Toni nodded sagely. "Exactly."

I honestly never thought I would finish this chapter. I got stuck about halfway several months ago. But now, here it is, all finished.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Please review.

Love Wolfie