Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Sailor Moon. That, dear children, is called human trafficking, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.
Shorter chapter this time. Yes, I know, boo, but the scenes ended where they did and making them run longer wouldn't necessarily have been an improvement.
The Hikawa Shrine was a fairly popular place in Azabu Juuban. Its caretaker, an energetic old man known only as Grandpa Hino, was …less popular, due to his habit of trying to talk girls into becoming shrine maidens. The shrine apprentice made up for him, though, as Yuuchirou was both handsome and only had eyes for the caretaker's granddaughter Rei. Rei was the resident shrine maiden and quite popular in her own right but even though many of the local girls looked up to her, her grandfather's antics kept them from going quite so far as to emulate her.
Thanks to Yuuichirou's broom and Rei's diligent cleansing, the grounds of the shrine were a peaceful, safe, and calm place whose serenity made it a welcome oasis for the residents of Juuban district. They would pass through the torii gate, climb the steps up the hill, and by the time they reached the second gate at the top their troubles would politely excuse themselves and go get a bowl of noodles somewhere else. Usually, the thus-unburdened people would walk quietly around the grounds, sit on a bench under a tree, pray at the shrine, or even grab a broom and give Yuuichirou a hand in keeping things tidy. When the visitor left, their troubles would be waiting for them at the bottom of the steps, but the break from them invariably made the burden feel lighter.
But there was one exception to the island of peace and serenity, one place in the Hikawa Shrine where chaos, confusion, and contention reigned. That place was Rei's room, and the reason (as always) was Usagi Tsukino. Usagi, Rei reflected, was lazy, shallow, gluttonous, and had a laugh like a braying donkey. If there were sweets (and thanks to Makoto there always were), Usagi would wheedle and whine to get the largest share. And then she'd eat them while reading Rei's manga, and get crumbs in the pages. She'd also forget to put them back where she found them, which meant that Rei had to re-organize her shelves at least once a month. Usagi had the handsomest man Rei had ever met for a boyfriend, and yet she still drooled over every cute guy she met, from Yuuichirou to Motoki at the arcade to the latest pop idols. Usagi also brought out the worst of Rei's temper, and far too many meetings degenerated into them bickering even when Rei spent time beforehand centering herself. Usagi Tsukino was the bane of Rei's existence….and her best friend. It was a girl thing, even Rei didn't understand it.
The whole gang was there tonight, and Makoto was unpacking a box of sweet bean cakes when Mamoru arrived. Usagi was torn between her boyfriend and her other true love, sweets. Eventually, she resolved the conflict by sitting next to Mamoru and cuddling up to him with a cake in each hand. Despite herself, Rei glared at her. Usagi was on the verge of saying something when Minako piped up. "So, I hear our new friends arrived yesterday. What are they like, Mamoru-kun?"
Mamoru cleared his throat and tried to ignore the chewing sounds from next to him. "I think that Black-san and Potter-kun will be good allies. They are not familiar with yoma, but both of them have fought evil wizards and monsters in their own country."
Minako rolled her eyes. "That's good, Mamoru-kun, but what are they like?"
"Black-san is protective of his godson, but not excessively so. He does not intend to shield Potter-kun from the fight, but he has expressed his intention to be part of it himself. As for Potter-kun, I think he is eager to join our struggle."
"Mamoru, you jerk! What? Are? They? LIKE?"
Mamoru smiled into the blonde girl's death-glare. "Black-san is a terrible joker, but very loyal. He recently escaped from a magic prison where he spent twelve years being tormented by monsters very like yoma, but they weren't able to break him. Apparently someone betrayed his best friends to an evil wizard, then framed him for their deaths. He released himself from the prison last year when he saw evidence that the betrayer was still alive and hiding near Potter-kun."
"An escaped prisoner, wrongfully accused? He sounds like the Count of Monte Cristo," Rei commented. She went to a private school, and her literature class had assigned the novel last year. It had taken her a month and a half to get through all thirteen hundred pages thanks to Usagi's constant complaining, but she had fallen in love with the story.
"He is, in a way." Mamoru had read it too, though in college. "He's very rich, though he inherited it from his family. He told me that they were …very unpleasant people who forgot to disinherit him before they died. He nearly took revenge on the former friend who betrayed him, but Potter-kun talked him out of it. Apparently his enemy is still alive somewhere, but he has decided to focus on protecting his godson instead."
"Well that's good," Minako chirped. She was the sort of girl who did that. "But what about Potter-kun, what kind of a boy is he?"
"He's thirteen, but he turns fourteen at the end of next month. He doesn't like to talk about himself much, but from his godfather and his guardian I found out that he was orphaned at a very young age by an evil wizard who murdered his parents and then tried to kill him. Somehow, the wizard's curse rebounded and reduced him to an evil spirit that is still lurking out there somewhere, trying to find a way to come back to life and get its revenge."
Rei scowled. "I hope it comes here, I'll send it straight to hell."
Mamoru nodded. "My feelings exactly. Anyway, Potter-kun been attending a magic school in Scotland for the past three years, where each year he'd have some wild and dangerous adventure with his two closest friends. His first year, he saved a magic immortality stone from a teacher possessed by the evil wizard. The second, he killed an enormous and ancient magic serpent to save his friend's younger sister. This year, he uncovered the truth about his godfather's alleged betrayal and used a time device to save him from having his soul eaten."
"Eaten?" Usagi asked, looking a little queasy. It ought to have been from how quickly she'd eaten three bean cakes, but Mamoru knew that when it came to sweets she had a cast-iron stomach.
"The monsters the wizards guard their prison with are very like yoma, but instead of draining life energy they feed on happy emotions and will eat your soul entirely if they can get to you. Apparently their highest Minister was bringing one to execute Black-san when Potter-kun rescued him."
Makoto's eyes hardened. "Wait, are you saying that they use demons to torture prisoners by devouring their ability to be happy?" Mamoru nodded and she slammed her hands down on the table angrily. "That's horrible! What kind of sick people are these wizards?" The table bounced (and a bean cake rolled off the plate to be nabbed by Usagi), but it didn't break this time. Makoto was easy to mistake as a future happy homemaker thanks to her love of cooking, but behind the apron was the heart of a warrior and a sense of justice that burned hot when it was offended.
Mamoru sighed. "They're the kind of people that hide themselves away from the ordinary world and try to use magic to solve everything. I think it's made them a bit questionable, and that may be why Black-san was so eager to bring Potter-kun to Japan."
The girls nodded, and Mamoru continued. "If what I understand is correct, Potter-kun is rather famous among wizards for defeating that evil wizard as a baby. Black-san tells me that they call him "The Living Boy" or something like that."
Minako giggled. "He's famous because he's alive? Aren't most boys?"
"After they have been struck by the unstoppable murder spell, no. Potter-kun is supposedly the only person who has ever survived one."
"I bet that's rough," Makoto mused, "To be famous for not dying with your mom and dad. I mean, think about it. Your parents die trying to protect you, and then somehow you survive and take out the bad guy just by being …whatever you were. That's great and all, but your parents are still dead. I bet it feels like people are saying they're glad his parents died every time someone uses that stupid title."
Minako sighed. "Yeah, I bet you're right. But Mamoru, you've told us all about his background. What is he like? Does he play sports? What kind of food does he like? Has he ever had a pet? What about friends? And did you get a picture of him?"
Mamoru shook his head. "I only met him this morning. His animal guardian is a snowy white owl named Hedwig. He likes talking about her, she was a gift for his eleventh birthday, and he considers her his first real friend. She became a guardian only a few weeks ago, before that she was simply a loyal and loving magical pet. Wizards use owls to carry their mail, apparently."
"Really?" Usagi grinned. "How come you never do that for me, Luna?"
The black cat sniffed. "If you ever wrote any letters, I'd consider it."
"Hey, I do write letters!"
"Fan letters to pop idols don't count, Usagi, especially not badly-spelled ones that look like a grade schooler wrote them."
"Luna, you're mean. And I don't need to write letters anyway, because all my friends are right here!"
"Then you don't need a letter carrier, do you?"
Minako was relentless. "So, picture? Please?"
Mamoru sighed and retrieved the photograph from his coat pocket. Knowing full well that the girls would want one, he had asked Sirius for a picture and Sirius had dragooned Harry into posing with him. Setting the photograph down on the table, he slid it over to Minako who immediately snatched it up. "Oooh, he's CUTE!"
Rei leaned over to look. "Which one?"
"Both of them!" Minako chirped. "Well, Black-san is really old, but he's still kinda cute in a scruffy sort of way. But Potter-kun, wow!"
Makoto leaned in on her other side. "Yeah, I see what you mean. You know, he kinda looks…"
"Like my old boyfriend," everyone chorused, even Mamoru. No one had ever met or heard much about Makoto's old boyfriend, but apparently every guy she liked reminded her of him.
Rei peered closer. "Is he really short or is Black-san really tall?"
"Both. Black-san is about my height, and Potter-kun is close to yours."
"Well, I guess he'll fit in with the rest of us short people then," she mused. "When do we meet them?"
"Soon. They are staying at my apartment, but Black-san wants to find a place of their own and get settled before Potter-kun begins his training. They also need to get Potter-kun registered for school."
Rei nodded. "Speaking of which, Grandpa says that you can use the old acolyte hall behind the shrine for your training if you like. Just be careful, it's really old and way down Yuuichirou's list for repairs." Grandpa Hino was one of the few adults who know about their secret life, having been drawn into the battles between the Sailor Scouts and the Negaverse more than once. Whether Yuuichirou suspected or not was anyone's guess, but if he knew he was doing a marvelous job of keeping quiet about it.
"I didn't know you had an acolyte hall," Makoto commented.
"We do, but according to Grandpa we haven't had more than one acolyte at once since the Fifties. Yuuichirou says that the frame of the building is still sound, but he can't vouch for all of the roof or the floorboards."
"Please tell your grandfather thank you for us, and that we'll be careful."
The rest of the meeting consisted of a few minutes discussion and then Usagi, Minako, and Rei went out to patrol and follow a couple leads. Makoto pulled her homework out of her backpack and began to work on it. Ami, who had been quiet all evening began to do the same when Mamoru cleared his throat quietly. "Ami-kun, may I speak to you outside?"
She looked up, surprised. She had figured out years ago that Mamoru was never entirely comfortable being around a group of girls four years his junior even if he was dating one of them (perhaps especially because he was dating one of them), and he rarely ever spoke to any of them one-on-one. Nodding, she put her bag down and followed him out of the house to a bench under the trees. She sat down, and he stayed standing, hands in his pockets. When he didn't speak for several long moments, she gently prompted "What did you wish to talk to me about, Mamoru-sempai?"
The young man sighed. "I'm sorry, this is just …awkward. When I was talking with Potter-kun's owl guardian earlier, she mentioned something else that I think you need to know."
"Oh?" Ami wasn't shy, really, but among the Sailor Scouts she seemed to have the most appreciation for quiet. When she had little to say, she said little and listened attentively.
Mamoru mulled over how best to say it. "Potter-kun is an orphan, as I said. What I didn't tell the others is that he was raised by his aunt and uncle, and that they were very cruel to him. Hedwig-san said that they did not strike him, but they did take every opportunity to bully, degrade, and humiliate him. He admitted to her that until he went to primary school he did not know that his name wasn't 'boy', or 'freak'. He was never told of magic until his acceptance letter to the magic school arrived, and he was told repeatedly that his parents died in a car accident while drunk. After he received his acceptance letter, his aunt and uncle 'generously' let him move into the smallest bedroom in their house from his previous accommodation, a cupboard under the stairs." Even though the sun was nearly set, Ami could see the anger in his face. "For as long as he lived under their roof he was forced to do as much of the household work as he was physically capable of doing, fed little more than the minimum to sustain life, and in general treated like a sub-human thing while their own son was treated as a pampered little god and allowed to become a horrible bully who made up for the lack of physical violence from his parents."
"That is terrible…" Ami said sadly.
"Yes, it is. I am not going to tell the others about this, Ami-kun, and I ask you not to tell them unless you feel it is absolutely necessary. Potter-kun will not want pity, not from you and not from them."
"Then why are you telling me this?"
"Because despite everything he has been through, Potter-kun is still a brave, honest, self-sacrificing boy who will risk his life without a thought for other people. He fought a thousand-year-old basilisk, a creature that can kill you if you merely look in its eyes, for his friend's little sister that he barely knew. He fought dozens of soul-eating demons to protect a man whom only hours before he had believed responsible for his parents' death. And it is very likely that he will do the same for you."
"For me?" Ami asked in confusion. "Why do you specify me?"
Mamoru sighed. "This is the awkward part. When Potter-kun was asked to come, the deciding factor for him seemed to be you."
The blue-haired girl frowned a little. "I don't understand, Mamoru-sempai. Potter-kun and I have never met."
"Yes, but he has been told that he is the Prince of Mercury, and that there is a Princess of Mercury. The logical inference is that the two of you were related and quite possibly siblings."
Her brow furrowed as she carefully examined her memories. "I remember little from that life, almost nothing beyond the fall of the Moon Kingdom. Could I have had a brother?"
He shrugged. "Luna and Artemis don't remember either, so your guess is as good as mine. He could have been a cousin or someone who was granted the title for another reason. For all we really know, he could have been your husband." Ami turned pale at the thought, and Mamoru held up his hands. "I don't think that's very likely, though, and I don't think Potter-kun is thinking about that either."
Ami let out a sigh of relief. The boy in the picture had looked both kind and potentially handsome, but the idea of having a destined romantic bond with someone the way Usagi and Mamoru did – and with someone younger than her – was …not what she wanted right now. "What Hedwig-san told me and that I am trying to tell you," Mamoru continued, "is that Potter-kun wants most of all to have family, to be connected with people who love him or are at least kind to him. He came halfway around the world to fight monsters, in the hope of finding a sister."
Ami clenched her hands in her lap as she pondered this. Could she be a sister to a complete stranger? What did she know about being a sister? She was an only child, and her own home life was …uncomfortable. Her parents were divorced, and while her artist father sent her a painting every now and then he couldn't come and see her very often. Her mother was a doctor, and worked very hard. Most of Ami's communication with her mother came through messages on the white board near the kitchen door. They were always signed with love, but Ami couldn't help but wonder how much that really meant. On those occasions when her mother was home at dinner time, they talked mainly of medicine or of Ami's studies. Ami greatly respected and looked up to her mother, but they weren't close. To be honest, the first person Ami had ever really been close to was Usagi, the bumbling ditzy girl who couldn't understand Ami's dedication to good grades but insisted on being her friend anyway. She would always be grateful for that.
"It …could be good to have a brother." She finally said quietly. "But this will be very strange for both of us, I think."
Mamoru nodded. "Ami-kun, all we are asking is that you get to know him. If you feel a connection, we will rejoice for long-lost siblings reunited. If not, then be honest with him about it. I think he will understand."
Ami stood up. "I look forward to meeting him, Mamoru-sempai. You are planning to introduce him to me first, aren't you?"
"I had considered that, yes. What do you think?"
She pondered. "Yes, it might be better if he has at least one prior acquaintance in the room when he meets the others."
Mamoru smirked a little. "I think you are right about that, Ami-kun. I will try to arrange for you to meet him soon, then." He hesitated and smirked a little more. "I think Potter-kun is going to find Japan a very interesting adjustment…"
