Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat in his office contemplating the joke "gift" that lay before him upon the surface of his desk.
'Where in Merlin's beard did Severus find these? More importantly, why in Merlin's beard did Severus give me a pair of rollerblades?
Bright red rollerblades with bright yellow wheels sat innocently on his desk, completely unaware of the confusion they were causing their newly minted owner.
"What do you think Fawkes, should I wear them?" Dumbledore did what he always did in perplexing situations and asked his old and trusted friend Fawkes.
As majestic as Fawkes was he was only a bird with fire powers and so had the intelligence of a bird that constantly had to regenerate its brain.
Fawkes cooed and nodded sagely.
Before Dumbledore could give in to the incredibly childish urge to wear rollerblades constantly, one of the many trinkets in his office exploded. Then another, a half second later and five more of the monitors for Harry Potter violently stopped working.
Dumbledore's eyes widened.
"Oh dear." Dumbledore said after observing the spectacle. He wasn't worried, if Harry was dead the reaction would have been much worse but he was surprised. As far as he knew the only thing that could cause that reaction was if-
Dumbledore came to the startling revelation that since Harry was so young there was no way he figured out how to become an animagus and therefore that couldn't explain the species change that those monitors exploding signified.
What had the poor boy become?
Images of a young, scared Remus Lupin flashed before Albus's minds eye and he vowed to investigate Harry Potter personally.
Many of the gadgets in Dumbledore's office served very, very specific purposes. Such as the machine that constantly made a whirring noise as long as Harry Potter was in Great Britain.
He had thought that the lack of whirring in his office would have alerted him the moment Harry left the country but apparently Dumbledore had overlooked the less than obvious lack of whirring.
Dumbledore knew that the further away Harry was the longer it would have taken before the monitors exploded and seeing as how there was no whirring in his office Harry was not in England. Nor Scotland. Therefore he had to be rather far away.
Seeing as how Arabella Figg had not mentioned the Dursleys leaving their place of residence in the last week Albus came to the conclusion that Harry was most definitely not with them. Because the Dursleys were Harry's legal guardians though they were bound to know at least something about Harry's departure from his homeland.
'Yes, I might as well pay Petunia some sort of visit at the very least.' The venerated wizard thought to himself.
Dumbledore spun in his spot and with a "CRACK!" the wizened old headmaster was gone.
~-:-~
Harry sat in one of the Thirteenth ward's nicer parks. He was watching the sunset on July 31st.
It was his first birthday without the Dursleys and he loved it.
Harry had spent many months in tokyo before his birthday rolled around. He had gained a basic grasp of Japanese and could now have regular conversations, even if his accent was horrible most people got the gist of what he was saying.
"The fuck are you staring at?!" Harry mostly learned the language from gang members and his fellow street rats though so he was fairly crude.
The man in question was a ghoul, that much Harry figured before he had looked up, but he didn't smell the way most ghouls did.
The scent of blood was less prevalent, instead overpowered by a delicious smell that Harry recognized quite well.
The young looking man, not taking into account his hair colour, absolutely reeked of coffee. The scent was so strong Harry had no doubt the average human could pick it up.
He was average height but even covered up under that bulky grey coat Harry could tell that he was well muscled. His face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl, Harry could tell it held no animosity and was merely there. Aside from the bulky coat in the middle of the summer the oddest feature about him was his hair colour, for someone so young looking every strand of his hair was a bleak shade of silver.
Yomo Renji had been caught off guard by the question. He had thought the boy would be unaware of his presence, apparently not. After staring at the rude gaki Yomo replied. "An oddity." He said uncaringly.
Harry flinched, the words hit close enough to being called a freak. Harry hadn't been called that since his departure and when he was called it by Vernon it usually meant Harry had really pissed him off. (Oft times Harry didn't do anything to piss off the whale of a man but that never lessened Vernon's rage.)
Yomo saw the reaction and reasoned that most street rats didn't exactly have loving families. Yomo hadn't meant to insult the boy and so hastily, though it didn't sound very hasty, clarified what he meant. "There have been rumours of a young one eyed ghoul around the thirteenth ward, one eyed ghouls are thought to be nothing more than myths. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?"
Upon hearing the mention of the rarity of one eyed ghouls Harry understood. The question following that statement solidified Harry's dawning horror. 'He knows!' Harry thought frantically.
Yomo saw the look of terror that Harry was fighting down and nearly face palmed. No human would dare approach a ghoul that they suspected to be dangerous other than a dove and Yomo clearly wasn't a dove.
Harry was brought back to reality when he remembered his earlier observation. "You're a ghoul right? If you want to eat me I'm not gonna make it easy for you asshole." Harry tried to be as intimidating as possible with his single active kakugan.
A grin threatened to spread across Yomo's face before he ruthlessly crushed the urge. "Rumour has it that you tried to protect a bunch of humans from Jason? We had a feeling you were having trouble finding food what being so young and all." Yomo refrained from mentioning that Harry was clearly emaciated.
"We feed ghouls that can't or won't hunt for themselves. What's your name gaki?" Yomo wondered why Yoshimura-san had asked him to be the one to extend the invitation for a place to sleep and things to eat for Hari- san. Irimi-san and Koma-kun were both much more sociable people compared to him and they were much less frightening to children, although Hari-san was clearly made of sterner stuff than his fellow seven year olds. Even ghoul children tended to shy away from the powerful ghoul.
Hari had gone so far as to basically threaten one of the fourth wards most notoriously violent and powerful ghouls.
The kid would grow up to have bigger balls than Uta and Yomo combined at this rate.
"Harry Potter." The small seven year old answered after a moment of thought. This was likely the first person since Meiko who'd asked his name. The only people Harry really interacted with were either Jason or people working for Jason. The ghoul standing in front of him was far nicer than Jason and clearly much smarter than Naki.
Yomo crouched down to put himself on the same level as the young half ghoul sitting on the park bench. Then he spoke. "My name is Yomo Renji. It's nice to meet you Hari-kun. Would you like to come with me to a place called Anteiku?"
Harry stared at the outstretched hand Yomo was offering him for a moment.
Then he took it.
~-:-~
Harry hadn't slept on a proper bed in months. While it may not have been a bed the futon Harry slept on was probably the most comfortable thing he'd ever had the pleasure of falling asleep on.
Until somebody woke him with their foot.
"Hey." A foot prodded his back rather forcefully accompanied by the voice of a ten year old girl. Another prod. "Hey who the fuck are you?" The girls voice asked.
Harry groaned and rolled over in sleep.
If Harry had opened his eyes he would have seen two blue haired children, one an older girl and a little boy his age.
The boy grew tired of his older sister trying to annoy the guy sleeping in Yomo's living room 'till he woke up and decided to take matters into his own hands. He wound his leg back and then rocketed it into our protagonist's crotch.
In Yomo's bedroom a scream of pain and rage could be heard from the living room. Yomo awoke to that Scream.
Clad in a shirt and boxers Yomo walked into his living room.
His niece and nephew (who were both unaware of the relation) stood over the boy that Yoshimura-san had tasked him with taking care of for the foreseeable future. Said boy was muttering in english and clutching his 'Family Jewels'.
His niece screamed in horror upon seeing him. "MY EYES!" She screamed.
Even through his pain and embarrassment Harry laughed harder than he'd ever laughed and from that day forward Harry would spend as much of his time with the Kirishima siblings as he could.
~-:-~
Three months into being seven and Harry found himself standing in front of HySy art mask studio in the fourth ward next to Yomo.
"So this is the place Yomo?" Harry had heard about Uta the mask maker before but he hadn't met Uta yet. Harry hoped Uta was even half as entertaining as Yomo made him out to be. Considering it was Yomo talking about the ghoul, Harry thought Uta would be even better.
Yomo offered the tiniest of nods in response before opening the door and ushering Harry inside.
The room Harry stepped into was well lit, the lights were slightly tinted red giving the whole place a warm vibe. there were masks set up on stands all across the floor of the room and the walls were lined with masks as well.
Harry assessed the masks spread throughout the room. He was startled from his assessment by the voice of the owner of the place.
"Yomooooo! Took you long enough to introduce me!" A man about the same age as Yomo had walked up to the pair of them. He had pale skin and black hair, tattoos on his arms, a black sweater and a grey shirt on and it appeared that his kakugan was active. Uta bent down so as to make himself nearly even with Harry and held out his hand holding a sphere. "Eye?" Uta offered.
Harry was part horrified, part delighted that Uta was indeed as entertaining as he thought and part delighted for the offered snack.
He had a hard time hunting humans but not eating them.
Harry did make exceptions on occasion and would hunt the humans that proved to deserve it.
Harry accepted the Eyeball happily and popped it in his mouth. 'Damn it tastes good. Note to self: put Eyeballs in fridge.' Harry looked up and Uta started talking. "Let's get your measurements."
While Uta was measuring him he peppered Hari with questions. "When's your birthday?" "July 31st." "Do you want to eat with the mask on?" "Yeah I guess so." "Yomo-kun says you're a one eye. Could you show me?" "Sure."
Harry felt the telltale increase of strength and speed as his single kakugan blazed to life.
Uta was enraptured by the single red and black eye when a cursory glance at Hari's human eye caught his attention. "Does your human eye always glow?" Uta asked innocently.
Hari's kakugan deactivated and his eye stopped glowing as a confused look spread across his face. Before he could ask what Uta was talking about Uta spoke. "Well that answers that." Uta's indifferent sounding voice cut through the room.
"So what's that scar poking out from under your hair?" Uta asked.
Harry's hand shot to his forehead where the remnants of a "Car crash" resided. Slowly he pushed up his bangs to allow the two men in front of him to fully see his scar.
Yomo remained indifferent, a scowl had affixed itself to his face the moment they entered the fourth ward, but Uta broke into a grin.
"Can I see your kagune?" Uta asked.
Hari shrugged and looked at Yomo. Yomo nodded and faster than Uta could blink there was a glowing green blade at Hari's side.
Uta spent nearly ten minutes silently studying the razor sharp instrument of death.
After the nine minute mark Uta clapped his hands happily and ushered them out with a "I'll come visit when it's done."
Harry looked at Yomo quizzically and Yomo shrugged. Harry took Yomo's hand and quietly followed him home.
~-:-~
A week later and Harry was sitting at a table in the corner of Anteiku with Yomo. He was working on some simple math work The Manager had given him to make sure he kept up with his studies. Yomo was semi-successfully helping him with said math work.
Yomo was struggling just as much as Harry was because the sheet was written entirely in english. Yomo was so focussed on trying to help his ward that he didn't notice the slim figure that crept up behind him.
A smile crawled it's way across the figures face. "BOO!" Uta's voice frightened more than just his intended targets, Koma was so caught off guard he spilt coffee all over himself, but Hari and Yomo had the best reactions by far.
Hari jumped, his worksheet and all of the worksheets under it flew into the air, while his pencil flew up and stuck itself into the roof, Hari himself landed next to his former seat.
Yomo was equally as surprised and did not take it in stride. Yomo's coffee cup shattered against the wall on the other side of the room as he Jumped over the table and slid under a different one.
"Ahahahahaha!" Uta's laughter filled the cafe.
Ten minutes later, ten minutes filled with Koma frantically holding Yomo back from trying to turn Uta to paste, and Uta had convinced Yomo to let him into his place.
Yomo was still annoyed about being caught off guard earlier but his curiosity outweighed his annoyance. As annoying as he could be Uta made good masks, Yomo looked forward to seeing whatever Uta had made for his young ward.
Harry sat himself down on the couch while Yomo and Uta remained standing. Uta placed the bag held in his right hand on the coffee table in front of Harry and motioned towards it.
From the bag came a sleek black mask. there were no eye holes that Yomo could see but instead there was a massive shark like grin. There were joints for the jaw to move when Harry opened his mouth and a red line zigzagged its way down the centre of the mask in an enlarged reproduction of Harry's scar. Harry placed the mask on his face and spoke. "It's really comfortable, and even though there aren't any eye holes I can still see just fine." The mouth moved as Harry spoke but Yomo couldn't actually see Harry's mouth through the mask.
Yomo recognized the look on Uta's face. It was the look he got when he was about to show off. Uta's lip twitched before he spoke cheerfully. "Could you activate your kakugan for me Harry?"
Harry nodded before where Yomo assumed Harry's eyes were lit up red for his kakugan and the same shade of emerald as Harry's kagune where his human eye was.
Yomo let out an exasperated sigh. He looked at his friend of many years. "How much do I owe you?"
~-:-~
Hogwarts soon I swear! I was thinking of trying to incorporate Jason into this chapter as well but he's appeared a lot and he's not actually the main antagonist of the story, just one of the many ghouls Harry clashes with throughout his life. Although I will admit that Jason has a special place in Harry's heart reserved for his most hated adversary. What'd you guys think of Yomo? He's a bit younger than when Tokyo Ghoul starts so I figured he'd be less mature as well.
Next chapter Harry will get his letter. Whether or not he goes to hogwarts next chapter or the one after that depends on how I'm feeling but he will be getting the letter!
The scene with Dumbledore takes place maybe two days after the end of the second chapter.
See you next time!