AN: It has been brought to my attention by Nonjon (you can find him in my fav authors) that not everyone who reads this has scene Firefly or Serenity. That is a crime. Buy it rent… buy it and rent it. Get it. Watch it. Love it. That is all.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Firefly 'verse
Chapter Three
Deposits and Withdrawals
It was late…or early. Depending on which planet's time you were on. It didn't really matter at the moment because either way Simon and Kaylee were worn out. Simon lay propped up on his bed with Kaylee spooning his mid-section. As he casually stroked her hair he stared intensely at the hand held screen in front of him. The warrant for Harry Potter flashed on the screen. Simon stared intently at this person. He knew him. He was sure. The only question he had was from where.
"Watcha look'n at?" Kaylee asked through a yawn.
"The warrant for Harry Potter. I feel like I know him from somewhere but…" Kaylee looked up from her resting place.
"Can't place him?" She asked. Simon sighed before nodding. Kaylee saw that he was about to go all introverted again and a quiet broody Simon wasn't one she favored.
"Ya know, Simon, if I knew half the things you said in bed, I never woulda bugged you 'bout cussin'." Kaylee yawned out. Simon smiled softly at the cute mechanic's tired face. He playfully pinched her nose. With out opening her eyes Kaylee smiled and went to grab something for herself. Simon gasped, and the monitor of a boy with green eyes was forgotten.
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"Ooooohhh!" Harry moaned as he stretched out his locked up joints. Sleeping against a wall will do that to ya. Not to mention sorting through over nine-teen years of memories. It took hours, but he finally got his memories sectioned off into to two groups. Group A were the memories he felt he could trust. There were far fewer of those. He only had about 12 odd years of memories in that section. And then there were the memories he couldn't trust, a little over nineteen years of memories. It was hard to contain them that way, but he feared he had no choice. He couldn't walk up to someone and 'ask how many galleons to ride a spaceship?' No, that would make him stand out horribly. The only problem he had with his theory of ,this side of brain good this side bad, was that a lot of what he learned at 'Hogwarts' seemed to actually work. He had memories as a child being able to 'apparate'. That's what made him so useful to the Independents, but he could even perform some kind of…magic? Just like he'd done in the fake world. Other than that he was right as rain.
He was ready to walk out of the alley to find out exactly where he was when River barked.
"What is it girl?" Harry asked petting the dogs head. The dog seemed to be nodding at him. Harry looked towards himself and realized he was in some kind of hospital clothes still. Paper thin pants and shirts tend to stand out not to mention being bare foot. Sighing he raised his right hand over the clothes and concentrated. If an outsider had seen this he surely would have thought himself crazy. As if it suddenly turned to ash the clothes disintegrated, but rather than reveal bare skin it broke away to reveal a blue button down shirt tucked into khakis. Harry panted when he felt the job was done. Now that took some energy. Looking up and down at his new clothes he realized he still needed shoes.
"Damn." He muttered. Just when he was about to go look for more stuff to change, River butted her head against his leg. She bowed her head in order to drop her load. Three small rocks clanked to the ground. "Such a smart girl!" Harry praised reaching for the rocks. There were three though… he looked at River and finally noticed she had no collar. That was also an easy way for them to get noticed. Harry smiled and concentrated on the three rocks like he had the clothes. Much quicker this time they began to change. The first two rocks lengthened before the crumbled away revealing a pair of leather shoes. The last rock flatted itself before to crumbling away to reveal a red collar with an official looking tags. He was highly surprised at how much easier it was to alter the rocks than the paper and made a mental note to check that out later.
Harry carefully placed the collar on River. She wagged her tail in thanks. As Harry put the shoes on he questioned his sanity again. Could this dog be a figment of his imagination or was she really that smart. Just as Harry started making his way out of the ally River barked once more to catch his attention. He looked over to see a flyer pinned beneath her paw.
"Whatcha got there?" He asked as he lifted the paper.
WANTED: HARRY POTTER, FOR CRIMINAL ACTIVITY
ALIVE- 20,000 CREDIT REWARD DEAD-10,000 CREDIT REWARD
The picture was a few years old at least, but it was still him. This set him back. He looked across the alley catching his reflection off the wall, but then again. He closed his eyes.
"Please work." he whispered. Slowly he opened his eye lids to reveal brown and not green eyes. Smirking Harry closed his eyes again. No way was he gonna get recognized.
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River stared blankly ahead as she navigated Serenity. Harry Potter, the name was familiar. His image seemed to always hover in her subconscious, but not in the highly painful way Miranda did. It was pleasant… like a dream she had forgotten.
"I figure it's gotta be somethin' big to keep your mind stumped even for a minute. So what's toublin' ya, mei mei?" Mal's voice was concerned, but a note of humor rang through. River looked away from the vastness ahead of her for a moment.
"The boy." Her answer was simple but it hardly cleared things up for Mal. He followed her gaze until it fell upon the warrant for Harry Potter.
"What about him?" Mal asked curiously. River's eyes began to water, but she held back her tears.
"I remember. They took us." Mal quickly made his way behind River to rub her shoulders in a gesture of comfort.
"Harry was with you at the academy?" Mal asked nervously. River nodded. A shiver went down Mal's spine at the haunted look in River's eyes.
"Mal?" He was both annoyed and grateful for Inara's inquiring voice. Turning away from River his breath caught in his throat at the sight Inara presented. She was dressed for bed in a silken robe. It was mostly modest, but with each rise and dip in the fabric as it pressed against her skin was a mocking dare to guess what lay underneath.
"Mmm-hm…" Clearing his throat Mal answered. "Uh- yeah?" Inara gave a ghost of a smile at his typical boyish behavior when caught off guard.
"I've made contact with some close friends with fairly high political connections. For a wanted man, Harry Potter certainly keeps a clean record. They couldn't find a birth certificate, social security number… not even a library card. There was a bank account with Independent Universal, coincidentally the only surviving non-centralized banking system." Mal raised his eyebrows.
"Makes sense. River just told me that he was at the academy with her so that would explain why he don't exist, and his parents didn't trust the Alliance so it would make sense they had an account with Independent."
"I do have some good news though." Mal raised a questing eyebrow. "The warrant for River and Simon has been dropped. The Miranda broadcast has put some heavy pressure on people who like to be kept comfortable. I don't think they want anyone inquiring too heavily into what Simon and River's offenses were exactly." Mal smiled his first genuine smile in what felt like years.
"Simon will be happy to hear. Plus that leaves us in the clear…mostly." Mal thought of the cargo they'd lifted off the Alliance when that hwoon-dahn operative let them patch up Serenity.
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Zoe grunted as she settled the weights back onto the rack before staring off with a slightly dazed expression. Jayne watched as he almost effortlessly did pull up after pull up on the two rope loops attached to the catwalk above. He quickly finished his set before dropping to the ground with a grunt of his own. He stared at Zoe full of suspicion.
"What's the matter?" Jayne asked. Zoe snapped out of her trance to look at Jayne inquiringly. "Ya only did half yur usual reps." Jayne noted surprisingly observant. Zoe nodded.
"Just thinking." Jayne raised a curious eyebrow.
"'Bout what?" Zoe looked at him queerly.
"Since when did you care?" Zoe asked sarcastically. Jayne for the most part looked unfazed but there was some obvious hurt in his eyes.
"What say I do care?" He mumbled turning back to the stirrups, though he faced away as he continued his work out. Zoe sighed.
"Sorry. Feel'n a bit sick lately." Jayne grunted his acknowledgment as he continued his work out. After finishing the set he dropped back to the ground. He looked at Zoe carefully.
"You do look peaky. Maybe ya should see the doc?" He asked as he made his way up the stairs towards his bunk. Zoe sighed as she lay back down to do another set. Maybe she would if she didn't already know what was wrong…
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A decent looking bloke casually made his way down the street. He had darkish hair almost black with a slightly lighter skin tone. His brown eyes glinted with confidence as did his posture. He fit in perfectly with the rest of the crowd as they busily went about their day. His only companion was a pretty pup that trotted along side him in an almost possessive manner.
"Alright first things first, I'm gonna need some money." The muttered as he turned a corner in the direction of Universal Independence Bank. He was pleased to see it was in the exact same spot as when he'd last seen it. It was a large building and stuck out like a sore thumb. Unlike the surrounding structures, this one wasn't built to fit in or merely out of efficiency. This was a work of art. The men who built this had pride in what they did. It appeared to be made of stone which clashed against the surrounding giants of steel and glass. Intricate carvings bordered the roof, and huge pillars gave off an impression of importance and at the same time a sense of timelessness. Shaking his head he reminded himself that he had half the universe out to kill him or worse, and headed into the bank after making sure River knew to stay outside. He was more than pleased when there was no sign warning off thieves under threat of death. So far so good.
The bank was mostly empty so it was easy to find a teller.
"How may I help you, sir?" The woman's voice was bored, but polite. She doodled on a note pad with a set of bank branded pens, while occasionally looking up at him. He smiled politely.
"I would like to access some funds." The woman swiveled in her chair to face a monitor.
"Account number?" She asked. God it had been ages since he had heard it.
"411-231-0600." She quickly pressed the number in. She raised her eyebrow at the account before her. It was against company policy not to mention Alliance laws to have pseudonymous accounts, but there were a few acceptations which only applied to those with very high connections. It was dangerous to keep things off the books when the Alliance came knocking so if you were one of the few on the list to not be on any list than you were important to someone.
"Access number, Sir?" She asked with a quiver in her voice. She watched curiously as the attractive young man bit his lip as he rubbed a hand through his hair. If she knew what he was thinking she'd of been on the floor laughing.
'What the hell is the access number? My birthday…when the hell was my birthday!? July 31, 1980… no. Gorram Alliance wouldn't even let me remember my birthday.' His eyes widened as a thought hit him. Reaching into his pocket he withdrew the wanted poster River had found. He quickly scanned it. 'Considered armed and dangerous….blaa blaa blaa… ah here we go.'
"73199." One again she pressed the numbers into the monitor.
"Ok, how can I help you today, sir?" She asked politely. The man smiled sheepishly.
"I'd actually like to know what my balance is. It's been a couple of years since I've used a non-government bank." The woman nodded and looked at the screen.
"I can see that. You've been building interest for almost eight years on the untouched original deposit. Let's see… here we are your balance is 6,501,240.66 platinum sir."
"Great." The man's voice was tight with surprise. "I'd like to make withdrawal of five-hundred platinum and I'd like to covert 50,000 to creds and be placed in a separate account so I can use a card to access the funds."
"No problem. This will take a few minutes so if you'd like there are a few seats over there were you can make yourself comfortable." Harry looked in the direction she pointed to find a few leather chairs. They did look comfortable.
As he took his seat he reached for a magazine. He half expected the pictures to move, whether he was in his fake world or the future, but the beautiful woman, with the most joyous expression on her face, remained stoic with a proclamation typed below her picture.
"Relieve menstrual cramps…huh. Guess that is somethin' to be happy 'bout." Looking around to make sure no one saw, Harry turned to page 105.
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Mal sighed, another potential crash landing turned for the best in the end.
Turning to River he asked her. "Remind me to remind Kaylee to remind me what parts we should pick up while we're planet side…primary buffer panel aside." River nodded before scurrying off towards god knows where. "Didn't mean now." Mal spoke to no body in particular.
"WASH!" River screamed back. Mal looked towards the direction she'd head off in an offensive manner.
"I DO!" He yelled back angrily. Careful he raised his arm to take a tentative sniff. "Guah!"
"Obviously not enough." Inara pointed out as she watched the captain wrinkle his nose.
"Some things you can't ever get clean. Ain't that so Inara? Bet you have all sorts of stains in my shuttle." Inara smiled tightly.
"My shuttle is the cleanest part of this go-se ship, Mal." Sighing she shook her head. "I just came to tell you some good news. I got a wave from a friend. He says that Harry's accounts been accessed in the last two hours. So unless he takes off in a hurry, we found the right planet." Mal nodded with a small smile. Inara taking this as her queue to leave turned to head back to her shuttle.
"Wait!" Inara turned to Mal with a questioning expression. "Err- I don't think they'll be time to schedule any… appointments. Once we find Harry we're ditchin' this rock."
Once again Inara smiled her tight lipped smile. "Hadn't planned on it captain."
"That's good." Mal said a bit too quickly. "Cause we might have to leave in a hurry." Inara gave a small smile before walking away.
"Go-se." Mal swore.
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Simon sighed as he turned back from the monitor to face Zoe who was sitting on the exam table stiffly. "Well, it's official."
Zoe nodded expecting this. "He always said we should wait 'case somethin' happened." She said wistfully. "I'm sure as hell glad I didn't take him that seriously."
River poked her head into the small infirmary. "Little Wash?"
Zoe looked up surprised before nodding happily. "I'm pregnant."
To be continued…
AN: Next chapter Harry and the crew meet, and they aim to misbehave!
