X-Com Barracks, Switzerland, 8:15 pm September 30th 2017

Harry Potter, X-Com Operative 'Ghost'

"Harry, let me meet with them, they are going to know you are hiding something from them regardless if you keep this up..." After her third deconstruction of what he would have to learn and experiment on in terms of runes and spells, in order to try and get an idea he and the X-Com dream team had come up with to work, Harry could tell it wasn't just him getting frustrated at the stop/start method of communication between the two groups.

"And when they then start asking me to get portraits of everyone who dies so that they are properly remembered? Or an alien infiltrator manages to get inside the base and destroys you? It isn't exactly like you can defend yourself Hermione." He was grasping at straws and they both knew it, but to her credit Hermione didn't point it out, bluntness was his forte after all.

"Which is why you keep this portrait hidden and create another empty one that I can travel into instead..." Instead, she just pointed out the obvious solution that he had somehow missed entirely, with the calm but slightly exasperated confidence that had long since been part and parcel of their interactions.

"You are going to find some way of getting introduced to them regardless of whether I agree or not aren't you?" At Hermione's determined nod, Harry just sighed and gestured around him at the slowly growing mountain of books he had been pulling out of his now unshrunk magical trunks.

"So where in this lot am I going to find out what I need to create another magical portrait? It's not exactly like it came up during classes at Hogwarts... Or at least it didn't in my classes." He tagged the bit on at the end as Hermione looked like she wanted to interrupt, of course she would have found out everything she could have about the process before she arranged for her own portrayal.

"Leave that to me, I know enough off the top of my head to get us what we need, though you will need to ask your new girlfriend for a portrait frame and some canvas for us to work with..." Hermione's teasing had been something he had gotten used to even before he had come over to this new world, several rather stark discussions in the aftermath of Hermione's own death had been enough for Harry to admit his own feelings towards his oldest female friend.

The pair of them had plenty of time to go over the 'what ifs', given his own self imposed isolation from the wizarding world after Ginny's death.

"You just want us to put the new portrait up in Kate's room, so that if Merlin forbid something did happen, you could live out your perverted fantasies through us." When he was younger Harry would never have thought of giving such a reply to that type of insinuation, but portrait Hermione was a lot less PC than she had been in life.

Therefore the new relationship between them had helped him build a little bit of a thick skin to such allegations and insinuations.

"That would be nice, I could give the Commander some ideas... Or perhaps she could give me some..." Whilst Hermione wasn't anywhere near as perverted as the pair of them joked, Harry got the feeling from her blushing countenance that he had been closer with his guess of where she would like the new portrait than Hermione would openly admit.

"Anyway, even with the revelation that I am not an alien out to spy on them/kill them in their sleep I highly doubt the Commander is going to be thinking of me romantically whilst there is an honest to Merlin alien invasion going on. This isn't one of your romance movies here Hermione..." He didn't deny that he had some feelings towards Kate, and he was sure that Hermione had noted that, but as he said nothing was going to happen there.

At best, he had jumped from Public Enemy No 1 to 'enemy of my enemy' in terms of X-Com status. Whilst a couple of them, notably Erin and Kate treated him like they would any of the other X-Com members, they were in the very, very small minority.

The rest ranged from Kumiko and her team, who treated him with wary respect that undoubtedly came from having seen his work in the field. Then there were the members of Sabre team, who seemed to treat their defeats to him in training as proof, that he was in fact an enemy who was just waiting to strike.

When on base and without a mission, at least one of Sabre team was watching him whenever possible. And given how quickly they caught up with him when he apparated, it was almost certain they had someone of the security team helping keep tabs on him as well. He didn't mind and certainly couldn't blame them.

He was still an unknown quantity in a war, that had quickly escalated from the occasional abduction to three large scale attacks in six months, as well as the dozen minor incidents that included his arrival in this world.

"Just, just keep an open mind Harry, that's all I ask." After a moment of giving him her best concerned look, Hermione raised her hand and waved him off towards the edge of the little warded area that served as their current home.

"Now get out there and get me my new portrait, the sooner I can meet everyone the better, and then I can work on you and the Commander." Smiling despite himself, which was probably Hermione's intent entirely, Harry bid her farewell before apparating to the control centre.

The one positive thing about having revealed himself was that everyone was used to his method of transport now, only a couple of them turning in his direction to greet him whilst the others carried on working.

"Ghost, the Commander was looking for you." Central Officer Bradford was in the unofficial third camp regarding him, those who were fascinated by his abilities but fell back upon their training due to their uncertainty regarding him.

"Thanks, where is she?" Bradford gestured towards the small room that led out from command centre, whose door looked like a bank vault but more sturdy in nature, guarded by three of the base security team at all times.

"She's in with the higher ups, but given she was in there before I got on shift an hour ago I imagine she is nearly done, so if you could wait here then we won't have to try and find you again." Ah, Harry had forgotten that he had silenced the warded area so that he could sleep through the regular shift changes and announcements that came with a base of this size.

"Well, interesting that you should mention the communication issue, as that was what I was coming to see the Commander about..."

[]{}#%^*+=

Council Room, Switzerland, 8:20 pm September 5th 2017

Kate Rayleigh, 'The Commander', X-Com Commander

"Despite the initial losses you have suffered, the success you have had against this new and unknown threat is most impressive Commander, our faith in you has been more than justified..." The distorted voice of the Council director, who even she did not know the nationality of let alone the name, somehow managed to relay his approval despite not seemingly changing in tone or inflection.

She had just finished her summary report about the missions and other key points that had shaped X-Com's first six months as an effective task force, though given the number of reports that got submitted not only by her but Bradford, Shen and Vahlen as well, she had no doubt she was just rehashing old information to them.

"Thank you Councilman, though it is the efforts and sacrifices of our strike teams that make the difference in the field." It was probably considered an uninspired response, but it is one that she truly believed in and would continue to whilst commander of X-Com.

"Well said Commander, let us not keep you from your duties any longer, Council out..." As the other members that made up the X-Com council vanished one by one from their viewing screens, Kate was a little surprised that the director stayed, leaning forward in his chair before speaking once more.

"You are probably wondering why none of the others questioned you about your new, otherworldly ally or his abilities?" At her short nod the director continued, crossing his fingers and leaning back as a slightly frustrated tone entered his voice.

"Whilst I have no choice regarding who gets elected to the Council, I can say that there are... Alternate views on how X-Com should proceed going forward, views that will not be helped by the appearance of someone with the powers your teams have reported. Whilst I commend your team for their professionalism and honesty, all mention of this... Ghost will be mundane in nature from now on in the official reports." Obviously this decision weighed more than slightly on the director, as he was looking slightly uncomfortable for the first time since Kate had been introduced to him.

"Whilst I am not saying there will be a leak from the Council if the aliens do try and subvert you through civilian channels, best we avoid that risk entirely regarding one of your potential ace cards. That said, I expect to be kept updated regarding any ideas that our guest may have to improving our combat capabilities, I have already started accumulating some extra funding in case there needs to be some... Unofficial R&D testing. Keep vigilant though Commander, if you are right and he is hiding things from us, then we need to ensure that he does not compromise our mission, no matter how useful he may seem. Council out."

The position that the Council director had taken regarding Harry was surprising, but the caution he showed given the mind controlling abilities the aliens had already shown made a lot of sense. Kate would have to speak to the other strike force leaders about their reports, but the offer of discreet additional funding for projects related to utilising Harry's powers should keep Shen and Vahlen happy if nothing else. And Bradford would just follow her orders as long as he believed she had approval from higher powers.

Reactivating her communicator, Kate flipped to Bradford's channel, both to check whether Harry had been found as well as to get Vahlen and Shen up to the command centre. Best to get the new information across to them as soon as possible, Vahlen in particular would be ecstatic at the possibility of more money for her budget, given the money they had put into the extra security systems they created to catch Harry when he was being... Difficult.

"Bradford." She could have just carried on speaking and given her orders straight away, but she didn't know if he was busy with someone or something else.

She preferred to have her command fully focussed when she was giving her instructions, so it was better to give them a chance to separate themselves from their tasks before listening.

"Commander, I have Ghost here as you requested, do you want me to send him in?" She had originally wanted to see Harry about where he kept running off to.

Obviously it was somewhere off base, as no one seemed to be able to find him or contact him when he did pull these disappearing acts, but given that he had just been an important discussion point it was best she included him on the briefing.

"Yes, then get Dr Vahlen and Dr Shen on the line, I want the three of you in here as well for a briefing, the sooner the better."

"Of course Commander, Bradford out." Her tone had probably been a little abrupt, but Bradford seemed to be one for action over niceties and his response meant that he hadn't taken offence.

She didn't have to wait long, the door hissing open less than minute later to admit Bradford and Harry, the former jumping to attention whilst the latter merely gave a small smile and a nod before starting to have a little explore around the room. It was something Kate had noticed he did in every room he went into, and when she had asked him about it, he had merely looked a little surprised before stating his reply like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm making sure I know where all the fixed cover is... And the best angles to cover the entrances in case of attack."

The level of preparedness, which was the polite term for what she knew some of Sabre team were referring to as 'batshit crazy paranoia', was both impressive and more than slightly disturbing to see in someone who was at least 5 years younger than her.

"Not that I mind seeing one of the few rooms in this place that I haven't yet managed to get into, doing it whilst authorised and because I was asked takes a lot of the fun out of it..." The comment was typical for the young 'wizard', obviously Bradford had annoyed him before she had called them in and he was determined to wind the older man up because of it.

She wondered whether he had some way of reading their minds to find out their greatest conversational and emotional weaknesses, because other than herself and surprisingly the young rookie on Skyhammer he was capable of aggravating each and every member of her command structure if given more than half an hours contact with them. But as Bradford noticeably took a deep breath before speaking she dismissed the idea, if that was the case then she really would have been in trouble for some of the thoughts she had entertained.

"Commander, Ghost wants to requisition a Sky Ranger to go buy a picture frame. And he doesn't seem to accept that such vital equipment cannot be taken from readiness levels for a reason such as 'I wanted a team picture'." The attempted serious expression on Harry's face, as Kate turned to give him her best expecting look, caused her face to crack into a smile even as she quirked her eyebrow to get him to get on with it.

"Well, actually I wanted to get a large portrait frame, some canvas and a paint set including brush. But I decided that picture frame was simple enough to wind officer Bradford up and throw Sabre squad's tail off for a while, without giving too much of the plan away..." The fact that Harry spoke so casually about being unofficially stalked wherever he went was something that annoyed Kate more than it should.

The idea that her soldiers were indirectly going against her orders, and potentially pissing off one of her most powerful allies, grated with her on a professional level.

'And it is nothing to you on a personal level? It's just because they are not obeying the spirit of your orders that you want to go use Sabre team as hand to hand combat practice until they learn their lesson?' Ignoring the internal jibe from her conscience, Kate did her best to look serious as she stared Harry down.

"And I assume the reason for this acquisition would be something would be strategically useful to us? You aren't just wanting to get a self portrait done..." She knew he wasn't, but by mentioning it she was stopping him from trying to wind her up with the same line, Harry's grin showing that he already had another line he was going to use in its place.

"It depends, how strategically important would it be for you to meet the real brains to my brawn?..."

What?

A/N: A short chapter, but one that covers quite a bit, even if there was no alien blasting to keep the impatient ones happy.

What do people think of my Head councilman? He seems almost as paranoid as Mad Eye, and given the sheer amount of power he seems to hold even in X-Com 2 it surprises me that he is someone that seems to be ignored in most fanfictions I have read.

So I haven't covered any new tech or ideas that Harry has come up with. Don't worry though, one of them will be coming next chapter and it will be a howler...