Harry looked around at the people he'd appeared in font of, all three of them with weapons suddenly pointed at him, and with a decisive nod grew his black hair out so that it looked like Goku's when he'd lost his limiter that one time. The suspicious eyes were all suddenly surprised and curious.

"I'm Harry Potter, inter-dimensional traveller. Pleased to meet you!" he said, smiling.

Baron sighed and, covering half of his face with his gloved hand, hung his head and shook it tiredly.

"I am Baron Humbert von Gikkingken, the child's guardian. I apologise for our sudden appearance here, but could you tell us where we are?" he asked.

"My private room in the only inn in Nibelheim," the silver-haired man answered. "In what was supposed to be a private meeting with my lieutenant and one of the soldiers under my command who is local to the area."

Harry blushed. "Sorry," he said. "I can sort of pick where I land now, but I'm not exactly what you'd call a master at inter-dimensional travel."

"Soon," Ryu promised, patting Harry on the cheek.

"Inter-dimensional travel?" the silver-haired man repeated, incredulous, or at least sceptical.

Harry nodded. "So, we've introduced ourselves, and I get that you're military of some kind, but who are you?" he asked.

"You don't know who General Sephiroth is?" the blonde one asked, his blue eyes going wide.

"I only just arrived in this world, of course I don't!" Harry answered.

"I think you can relax Cloud," the black-haired man said, smiling and putting his weapon away. "I'm Zack Fair, nice to meetcha kid," he said, extending his hand for Harry to shake.

"Pleasure's all mine," Harry answered, smiling back as he took Zack's hand. "I get the feeling that if I ask to get a photo with all of you for my book you wouldn't like that."

The silver-haired Sephiroth scowled.

"Why would you want a photo if you haven't ever heard of the General?" the blonde, Cloud, asked.

"Because you're the first people I've met in this world!" Harry declared, and pulled his backpack off his shoulders so that he could show them the books he'd been collecting pictures and stories in. "I do it everywhere I go. I don't want to ever forget the people I've met."

Sephiroth gave a long-suffering sigh, but nodded. "Very well," he allowed. "But I think that I would like to look through these two books of yours more thoroughly as well."

Harry nodded. "Of course!" he said, pulling out the camera and handing it to the Baron so that his guardian could take the picture.

After the picture was taken, Zack and Cloud engaged Harry and the Baron in conversation while Sephiroth read through Harry's books – a task which didn't take long, even if it was ten years of Harry's life with other people recorded there.

"I'm concerned by some of the 'recipes' you have in these books," Sephiroth as he handed them back to Harry at last.

"Baron hasn't let me mix anything that involves what he called a 'potentially dangerous substance'," Harry said, then his eyes lit up. "Baron, I'm ten now! You said that when I was ten I'd be allowed to start doing things like mixing Yaone's recipes!"

Baron groaned, slamming his hand to his face once more before peering out between his fingers at the men standing around them. "Harry is a product of the various different people who have had a hand in raising him. I have been a constant in his life, but clearly not influential enough."

Zack laughed. "Well, I vote we get the kid set up with one of the local families in the morning, and he can spend the night with us!"

~oOo~

Harry followed them to the ShinRa Mansion, rather than staying to 'get settled' with any of the people who lived in Nibelheim. It didn't really take a genius to figure out that this town was so back-water that everybody knew everybody, were all probably related, and weren't very keen on there being new people showing up.

While the two Soldiers and the Grunt – they'd explained to him about their ranks and such – went down to one part of the building, Harry decided that he would go up to another. This decision was helped by Ryu, who said he'd sort-of found something that Harry might be interested in.

It was a coffin.

"Ryu?" Harry asked, unsure about his little floating guardian's decision to show him this.

"Open it Harry!" Ryu insisted, his white and black eyes smiling at him beneath that technicolour hair.

"It's not like it's a birthday present Ryu," Harry countered. "It's a coffin."

"It doesn't have a dead body in it Harry," Ryu answered, pouting.

Harry narrowed his eyes at Ryu. "I bet it does have a body in it though, one that's not dead, or you wouldn't be so excited."

Ryu grinned.

Harry sighed, and pulled up the lid on the long wooden box.

"Okay," he breathed, his green eyes wide, "that's cool," he said in awe.

"Told ya!" Ryu said, smiling proudly and sticking his chest out.

"Hey, Mister?" Harry called, nudging at the man's shoulder above an arm that was covered in a golden-bright gauntlet. "What are you doing here Mister?"

"I was sleeping," the man answered, not opening his eyes as he rumbled his response.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter. Who are you Mister?"

"Vincent Valentine," the man answered, opening his eyes at last.

Harry grinned. He hadn't met any people with red hair in this world yet, but this man had red eyes. That was pretty cool too.

"Why are you sleeping in a coffin?" Harry asked.

"I'm a monster," the man answered. "Where else should I sleep, but in a coffin in an abandoned building?"

"You don't look like a monster," Harry answered. "And I bet Sephiroth or Zack have a better idea of where you could stay, or Cloud, if you want to stay in Nibelheim. He grew up here."

"Sephiroth," Vincent mused quietly. "No. That child is dead."

Harry laughed. "Well, I found you in a coffin Vincent," he pointed out. "Why don't you come out and meet him. Maybe he's not dead the same way you're not."

Vincent frowned, but nodded and got up.

"They're this way!" Harry said, smiling as he led the way down the hallways and stairs to where Sephiroth had taken Zack and Cloud.

~oOo~

Harry found them just as Sephiroth was about to shut Zack and Cloud out of the library. He stopped when he saw the child – and the very tall, imposing man walking behind him with the metal claw on his hand and a slightly tattered red cloak hanging over his shoulders.

"Harry, what are you doing here? Who is that?" Sephiroth demanded, his eyes taking in the stranger.

"This is Vincent Valentine!" Harry said happily. "I found him in a coffin upstairs."

"He is a very persistent child," Vincent supplied. "I'm not even sure now how he convinced me to let him take my picture."

Zack laughed. "He talked Seph here into it too!" the black-haired man declared.

Vincent's ruby gaze zeroed in on Sephiroth and seemed to study his face. "I was told you had died in childbirth," Vincent said quietly. "I would have fought harder if I'd known you had lived."

All three of the uniformed men startled. Vincent, honestly, didn't look old enough to have been any older than Harry was now when Sephiroth was born. Sephiroth came out of the library door and narrowed his eyes at Vincent.

"How do you know anything about me?" Sephiroth demanded. "What do you know about me?"

"I was the Turk assigned to be your mother's bodyguard," Vincent said.

The silence that followed that statement was so full of unasked questions that Harry was tempted to see if he could slice it with one of the weapons he'd gotten in Konoha.

"I think," Harry said, carefully, "that maybe we should adjourn to somewhere we can sit comfortably and talk at length?" he suggested, doing his best impersonation of the Baron.

"Yes," Sephiroth said firmly. "I think that would be a very good idea."

Well, they adjourned, but Harry wasn't all that sure that it was somewhere comfortable, even if they could all sit down. Vincent led them to the mansion's drawing room. He shot the monster that was sitting in the middle of the room and tossed it out the window without any fuss, then gestured for everybody to take a seat.

"You were a Turk?" Sephiroth asked.

Vincent nodded. "I was assigned as the security for a group of scientists; Gast, Hojo, and Lucretia. Gast and Hojo were researching what they believed to be an Ancient, but Gast discovered that it was something else when he found a real Ancient, and he left. Hojo continued the original research. Lucretia was researching... something else. Lucretia became pregnant during this time, and Hojo... Hojo did something. I'm not completely sure what, but Lucretia was crying for days afterwards. Not long after I was told you were dead, Hojo tried to kill me. Lucretia used what she had discovered and theorised with her research to save me. It could be said to have worked."

"Why were you told of my supposed death?" Sephiroth asked. "Who told you?"

"Hojo told me," Vincent answered, "and it is generally considered a courtesy to tell the father the state of his child."

The silence was heavy again. Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud were staring at Vincent, but Zack and Cloud had both dropped their jaws in shock.

"Hojo is my father," Sephiroth said.

"You don't look like him," Vincent pointed out. "You have the same build as my father and myself. I don't care what horrible experiments Hojo did to you except that I will kill him for them. He is not your father Sephiroth. If he had been your father, he would not have had a," Vincent sneered, and his voice dripped venom, "a 'superior genetic sample' to build from. Lucretia had the greater mind, I the greater physical strength. Hojo claims to be superior, but he knows that his genetic stock is weak."

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes. "You sound like a scientist rather than a Turk."

Vincent snorted. "I didn't just breed with your mother," he said, recalling some of the things Hojo had said when attempting to kill him. "I loved her. I took an interest in her work. I learned about her and the things she was interested in."

Sephiroth nodded his understanding and sat back in his chair. "It is a little late in my life to need a father-figure any more," he pointed out. "I have won the war with Wutai and achieved the rank of General in ShinRa. I have lost the only two people who were up to the same level as myself to insanity caused by genetic manipulation and, thank you, am sometimes still worried about it happening to me as well. As you can see, I do not need a parent."

"One less thing tying you to Hojo isn't a bad thing though," Zack pointed out.

Even Harry, who had never met Hojo, agreed with that. By that time he'd heard an awful lot about the man and had a very low opinion of him.

~oOo~

Harry and Vincent decided that, while going to ShinRa wasn't exactly appealing, staying in Nibelhiem was vaguely abhorrent.

"Harry!"

The boy flinched at the yell that sounded through the mansion.

Baron rounded the door frame and, even at only a couple of feet tall, the ginger was still an intimidating prospect, considering the furious look in his green eyes.

"You disappeared without saying where you were going," he said, marching into the room. "Never do that again!"

Harry looked down at his feet and apologised. "I'm sorry Baron," he said. "I found Vincent though and woke him up. That's a good thing, right?"

The Baron sighed and looked up at the men who were also present. "I assume that you are Vincent?" he asked, looking at the red-eyed man.

"I am. It was well that the child woke me," he answered. "It would seem that I have slept for nearly thirty years."

"Twenty-five," Sephiroth said. "I'm twenty-five, and if you have been... 'sleeping' since you were told I didn't survive childbirth, then you have slept for twenty-five years."

Vincent nodded.

The Baron sighed in frustration with his charge. "I assume that we will not be staying in Nibelheim."

Heads shook.

"We were going to be going back to ShinRa HQ next week anyway," Zack supplied. "Not sure what's gonna happen to Harry once we get there though. He's a bit young for cadet training."

"Not for Turk training," Vincent put in. "Unless the standards have changed since I was there. Turks don't care about the age of the applicant. If they're younger, then it just means they have more time to learn things before they can officially join a team."

"Harry and I will only be staying a year," Baron pointed out. "Would this 'Turk' organisation be bothered by us disappearing without notice like that?"

Vincent shook his head. "Not if I do it right," he answered. "Turks get sent on undercover assignments often enough, and the trainees get their experience in the field just as often as a training ground. It's possible to make sure no one asks questions about Harry vanishing."

Harry nodded. "I'll do that then," the ten-year-old said.

It was decided.

~oOo~

Harry grinned. He'd found someone in this world with red hair, and true to his theory of people with red hair, they were awesome. His name was Reno, and he had a weapon that Harry had never seen the likes of before. It was a sort of nightstick, it consertina'd up into something small and extended with a flick, but the thing that was interesting and original about it was that it was electrically charged. Reno called it an EMR, and said that it stood for Electro-Magnetic Rod. It was a good blunt weapon normally, but when he pushed a little button near the insulated grip, then it became a sparky weapon of fry-you-extra-crispy.

Reno was also a lot like Gojyo. He smoked, he drank, and he womanised when he could. He also liked to play poker, and Harry didn't mind at all setting up a game in the coffee lounge at knock-off time. Reno wasn't the only person who joined the games of course. Vincent would sometimes drop in, though he wasn't officially a Turk any more, and Reno's partner Rude was a regular player. Interestingly, the current head of the Turk division of ShinRa played as well – only on the Saturday nights though, and Harry suspected that was because he always took Sunday mornings off, so it didn't matter if he was involved in a game that ran until midnight or later.

Harry was learning things every day too, and before long had accumulated a respectable collection of materia – one of each element, a stop, and three different types of healing ones. He also got to learn about scaling buildings with his bare hands and shoe-covered feet from Reno, and how to shoot from the coolest of the female Turks, a blonde called Elena. Vincent supplemented that learning though of course. The Baron took photos of Harry while he was training and wrote down all the instructions that he was given by his teachers, and quietly approached said instructors to write a little in the book themselves. Life advice, rather than technical instruction, tended to be what they wrote for the boy.

Vincent pulled Harry from the Turk program with still two months before Harry was due to disappear on his own.

"Why? I only just got my materia technique perfected!" Harry complained. "And I was gonna ask Tseng if he knew how to play mah-jong."

Baron frowned. "Because there is more to this world than just Nibelheim and the ShinRa building, and Vincent thought that you might like to see some more of it."

Harry's pout disappeared and his eyes lit up.

They went to the Golden Saucer, Junon, Gongaga, and did a covert tour of Wutai where they somehow got to meet the princess – who was happy to play a game of mah-jong with Harry over an animated conversation about the ninja arts and the benefits of over-sized shuriken – before Vincent took them to Rocket Town.

"Can I meet the man who was going to fly in this?" Harry asked as they stood at the base of the rocket. The one that had never launched, the one that gave the town its name.

Vincent and the Baron just looked at Harry, unsure, but Ryu just smiled and a compass on a choker appeared about his neck, and then Harry was bouncing off towards a house on the edge of the town with a large paddock out back, with a shed taking up one end completely and what looked like a runway down the middle of its length.

Harry knocked on the door politely just as the compass disappeared from around his neck.

"What?" demanded a gruff voice from inside, and the sound of boots stomping on a wooden floor drew closer. The door was wrenched open just as Vincent and the Baron reached Harry.

"I apologise for my ward intruding on your time," the Baron said, glaring up at Harry slightly. "He wanted to meet the person who was going to fly in the rocket, and then he ran off before I could catch him."

"Well, you found him," the blonde man said, calmed a little. "I'm the man who was going to fly in that rocket." The man must have noticed the excited look in Harry's eyes. "M'name's Cid Highwind. Come on in. I was just about to have some tea. I don't mind tellin' the kid 'bout how it was built if he wants to hear it."

"Yes please Mr Highwind!" Harry exclaimed, rocking up onto his toes.

Quite accidentally, they ended up staying with Cid for the rest of Harry's time there. Harry got taught about mechanics from the master, as well as received many stories, instructions and diagrams for his book from the gruff pilot. He even got to take a picture of Cid flying in his plane the Tiny Bronco from the passenger seat. Cid sparred with him as well, and since the man was so skilled with his spear, Harry had a few interesting fights – and lessons when Cid dumped him on his bum.

But then it was that time again.

"Happy birthday Harry," Cid said when the boy arrived in the kitchen in the morning. "Eleven I hear, and likely to vanish off to another dimension. Well, I reckon I owe ya a few thanks for lettin' me look through ya books and finding instructions on how those two, Hawkeye and BJ, built their own distillery. That's what the yeller parcel is fer. Go ahead an' open it."

Harry moved to the table where three presents were waiting for him. A yellow one, a red one and a blue one. As instructed, Harry opened the yellow gift. It was an engineer and mechanic's guide book to building and maintaining engines of pretty much every kind. Cid was the author.

"Thank you Cid," Harry said, hugging the book tight.

Cid nodded and flipped the pancake that he was cooking. "My pleasure. Now, that red one's from me as well. That's a thanks for bringin' Vincent inta me life. I don't know how I managed without havin' that man around to talk to about stuff, an' I reckon he's just as glad for some company that's good at listenin' sometimes and don't mind bein' woke up in the night for screaming."

Harry nodded. He'd heard the screams as well, nearly every night since they'd left ShinRa. Baron had explained to him that since Vincent had missed twenty-five years of history, and also found out that the one thing he'd never completely gotten over – the loss of Lucretia and Sephiroth – had been in part a lie, that it was a lot of stress on Vincent's mind. He also said that because of the experiments that had been conducted upon Vincent, he sometimes didn't feel like he was human, which added more stress. The result of all the stress was nightmares, and only time and having someone around who could handle Vincent's physical strength when he was thrashing in his sleep and then the emotional neediness when he woke was going to help. Harry had gone off to read passages of psychologist-theories left to him by Harley, and understood it eventually. It was a role that Cid seemed to not mind filling at all.

Harry reached for the red present. It squished softly under his hands, and when he opened the package he discovered that it was a headband and cape like Vincent wore, as well as a jacket and scarf like Cid wore. He grinned and immediately tied the headband around his head, letting his short black hair grow out under and over it so that the band couldn't be seen around at the back of his head. He picked up the jacket and examined it, then determined that it would probably be a couple of years before he'd grown enough to fill it out properly.

Cid chuckled and shook his head at the kid's antics. "Birthday pancakes," he declared, setting the plate down before the birthday boy. There was already butter, syrup and jam on the table. Harry didn't bother reaching for any of them. He liked his pancakes just the way that they were when they came out of the pan. They only needed something extra if they weren't fresh or had been cooked using oil or lard instead of butter to grease the pan.

"Thanks Cid."

Cid smiled and turned back to the pan and batter.

"Good morning Harry, Cid," Baron greeted, moving passed Harry to make the morning tea and noticing the gifts. "You said thank you I hope."

Harry grinned and looked over at Cid.

"The smile conveyed the thanks fairly clear," Cid said with a smile. "But yes, he said thanks as well."

Baron nodded in acceptance and pulled the dried leaves down to make the pot.

"Morning," Vincent greeted. "Cid, Harry, Baron."

"Morning Vin," Cid answered. "How many pancakes do you want?"

"If you're cooking them? I'll take three to start," Vincent answered, smiling slightly as he slid into his chair at the kitchen table.

Cid made great pancakes. Harry hoped he could make pancakes as good someday. Cid had put the recipe he used into Harry's book, but Harry was sure that there was something in the man's technique – either the beating of the batter, or the flipping – that he'd need to get right before he could get his pancakes as good.

"Happy birthday Harry," Vincent said, pushing the blue package closer to the boy. "Finish your pancake, then open that."

Harry only had one mouthful of his last birthday pancake left, so that didn't take long.

"I hope you don't think I was prying, but I noticed that it was the only weapon you gained proficiency in that you didn't actually own one of," Vincent said. "It's' also a little thank you for waking me up."

Harry smiled. "I don't mind, and I think it worked out well for everyone involved," he said, then picked the gun up out of its box. "It's beautiful."

Vincent returned the boy's smile. "You will take care of it, won't you?" the gunner pressed.

Harry nodded. "I promise."

"Three pancakes for Vin," Cid said, setting the plate down. "Any more for the birthday boy, or shall I get on with my own now?"

"No one makes pancakes like you Cid," Harry said. "But I can wait for you to have yours before I ask for more."

Cid chuckled. "Thanks Harry. You're a good kid," he said, ruffling Harry's hair and causing the bandanna to shift with the action.

"Tea is ready," the Baron called, bringing the pot to the table carefully.

"I'm going to miss that blend of yours when you two disappear on us," Cid said, pouring batter for his own breakfast into the pan. "You wrote out the recipe for your blend, right?"

"I did," the Baron agreed with a smile. "It is nice to meet someone else who appreciates tea as much as I do."

Harry waited until Cid and Vincent had finished their pancakes before he went to fetch his pack and put his birthday presents away in their appropriate parts of his Luggage. When he came back down with everything put away and his backpack on his back, the boy gave the two men a dedicated hug each. He hoped they stayed like this after he left. He could tell that they went well together.

"Ready Baron?" Harry asked.

The feline finished his tea and nodded.

They disappeared into the inter-dimensional highway, this time with deliberation.

"Hey Vin?" Cid asked.

"Yes Cid?"

"D'you have somewhere else you want to be too? 'Cause if you don't, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like," the pilot offered.

Vincent smiled softly. "Thank you Cid. I think I'll take you up on that offer."

~oOo~