CHAPTER 13:

A FAMILIAR FACE

Later, Harry and Rikku made their way to the Summoners' Sanctuary, where the Summoners who had been brought to Home were present. As it turned out, the Al Bhed also had two other Summoners in their custody so far, ones that Harry and Rikku met later than Yuna's party. One was a dark-haired and dark-skinned woman with the attitude of Draco Malfoy, though she had at least the intelligence and power to back it up. This turned out to be Dona, the Summoner whom Barthello was supposed to be Guardian to. And for all of her arrogance, she also had a genuine desire to save Spira. The other one was a handsome young man with a gentle voice and demeanour, dressed in robes, known as Isaaru. He was accompanied by his Guardians, Maroda and Pacce, his younger brothers.

Yuna and Auron were speaking to them, Lulu and Kimahri looking on. Dona seemed sceptical, but in a way that suggested she was considering what she had been told. Isaaru looked devastated, as did his brothers. "…Final Aeon is a deathtrap, then what hope is there for Spira but false hope?" Isaaru demanded as Harry and Rikku approached.

"We're still working on that," Yuna admitted. "I asked Sir Auron to help me tell you of this, because the more allies we have, the better. At Djose Temple, you said that you wanted to race to defeat Sin. But if Yevon is hiding the truth from us, then we must do this for the sake of all Spira."

"Sin is a ridiculously powerful monster," Harry said as they approached. "But that's all it is: a monster. It's a living entity, not some embodiment of the sins of Spira. It may be targeting large populations or machina because somehow, they're threats."

Dona rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "A more logical supposition than most. But where can you find machina capable of destroying Sin?"

"It may be that Sin can only be crippled, not killed by machina," Auron said. "Anyone intending to destroy Sin may have to enter the beast itself, and destroy Braska's Final Aeon: Jecht. And along with him, Yu Yevon."

"A dangerous journey," Isaaru mused. "And almost certainly blasphemous and heretical." After a pause, he said, "Show me the proof at Zanarkand. Let me hear it from Lady Yunalesca herself. I'll gladly support your plan if the Final Aeon is a hollow hope."

"I am a little less sceptical, believe it or not," Dona said. "But if Lady Yunalesca is as powerful as you say, then you need all the help you can get. My only condition is that I have Barthello with me. An oaf he may be at times, but he is strong, competent and loyal to the very end."

"Finding him may be difficult," Auron said. "The last time we saw him, he was searching the area around Macalania."

"Then we'll go find him," Harry said. "When do we head for Bevelle?"

"Cid is preparing the airship the Al Bhed salvaged," Lulu said. "And he's also looking for a way to transmit Jyscal's sphere straight to Bevelle. If we're lucky, the Maesters may argue amongst themselves long enough for us to go there and leave. Or at least Grand Maester Mika may grant us leave long enough to obtain Bahamut."

"That's a long shot," Auron said. "But it's still worth trying. And with any luck, the discord we sow with Jyscal's sphere might give us enough time to go to Zanarkand and deal with Yunalesca." He then looked at Harry and Rikku. "Where's Tidus?"

"Probably somewhere quiet to think," Harry said as the door opened behind him. "You told him some pretty heavy stuff."

"You got that right," the voice of Tidus came from behind them. They turned to find the blonde-haired Blitzball player walking in. His eyes were bloodshot, perhaps from crying. "Sorry 'bout that, guys. I'm good now." He shook his head. "Even so, this makes too much sense. But I'm in this to the end. Like you said, Auron, this is my story. And I'm gonna see it through to the end. Besides, I've got a score to settle with my old man."

"Well, considering he's the host for Yu Yevon, we'll help you beat him up," Rikku said with a grin.

"Then we have the broad outlines of a plan," Auron said. "And people willing to carry it out. I suppose that is better than nothing. But it is a well-tested truism that no plan survives contact with the enemy. When the time is right, we'll release the contents of Jyscal's sphere and contact Mika. Then, we'll get Bahamut from Bevelle, and make our way to the Calm Lands."

"Sir Auron," Yuna said, walking over to the Unsent, "there is one thing I want to know. Seymour's Aeon Anima, would you know where it is?"

"No. But I suspect," Auron said. "I suspect Seymour took the Aeon back with him to Baaj Temple, where he had been exiled by Jyscal."

"Baaj?" Rikku asked. "Where we found Tidus, Harry, and Sirius?"

Harry nodded vigorously. "Seymour told me that when we met during the preparations for Operation Mi'ihen, that he took his mother's Fayth back to Baaj."

"You would seek Seymour's dark Aeon for your own?" Auron said to Yuna.

"Many of those you would have us fight are powerful," Yuna said. "And I would not think that Seymour's mother would condone what he has done."

"Then we will seek out Anima's Fayth after Bevelle. Once Cid has managed to get the airship ready, we will take it there."

Rikku and Harry had taken Tidus with them. They went back to the very garden they had sat in earlier. Tidus sat down with them on the bench. "You okay?" Harry asked.

"I found out that my Dad and I, along with the city I grew up in and its people, are figments of the imagination of the survivors of the real Zanarkand. Oh, and Sin is controlled by the last remnants of someone from Zanarkand." Tidus emitted a bitter chuckle. "I've been better."

"Better you learned this now," Harry said. "At least you've got time to be depressed for a bit."

"Spira's a pretty fucking depressing place," Tidus retorted. "Everything seems to revolve around death and lies. I actually confronted Auron on that after he told me the truth, and you know what he said?" He then gave a good imitation of Auron's gravelly quiet tone: "Ah, the spiral of death. Summoners challenge the bringer of death, Sin, and die doing so. Guardians give their lives to protect their Summoner. The Fayth are the souls of the dead. And I would venture that Seymour won't be the only Unsent in Yevon's upper echelons. Spira is full of death. Only Sin is reborn, and then only to bring more death. It is a cycle of death, spiralling endlessly(1)."

"He's not wrong," Rikku said, resisting the urge to chuckle at Tidus' impression of Auron, given the seriousness of the speech. "But death is inevitable and everywhere. But we don't think Sin should be."

"You guys seem to be taking the fact that I'm a living dream pretty well."

"Auron told us back at the Thunder Plains," Rikku admitted. "The weird thing was, it made a lot of sense. I mean, coming from a sort of dream Zanarkand seems more likely than Sin causing you to time travel, unless you were in some sort of stasis for a thousand years. Anyway, you don't act any less like a person."

Harry nodded. "One of my best friends back home was half-Giant. Another was a werewolf. And another was a House Elf called Dobby…"

Suddenly, there was a loud crack!, and the familiar form of Dobby was standing there in front of him. "You called, Harry Potter sir?" Then, the big-eyed, bat-eared Dobby did a double-take, along with Harry, Rikku, and Tidus. "HARRY POTTER SIR?!" he yelped.

"DOBBY?!" Harry yelped. He then surged forward, and all but squeezed the life out of the wizened little creature in a hug. Rikku and Tidus all but looked on, bemused.

After a brief reunion and an abridged introduction, Dobby got Harry up to speed on the events of the past couple of months. The Ministry of Magic had apparently acknowledged Voldemort's return, for Fudge and a group of Aurors saw him and Dumbledore fighting it out in the Ministry. Dumbledore had, apparently, been especially aggrieved with Fudge, as apparently Harry's loss had affected the Headmaster of Hogwarts deeply. Harry felt a perverse surge of happiness at this, given how the man had refused to give him a proper answer to anything. Knowing that Dumbledore actually grieved for him gave him some perverse joy.

Dobby then relayed that, mysteriously, about a week or so ago, Snape reported that Voldemort, while making plans to assassinate Dumbledore, had vanished screaming, emitting a single, sickly moving light, which Harry guessed was a Pyrefly. It seemed that the Sending that had banished the Horcrux in Harry's scar had also somehow killed Voldemort.

However, Magical Britain was in mourning for Harry Potter.

Eventually, Harry looked at Dobby. "Dobby, can you bring anyone back and forth between worlds?"

"Dobby thinks so," the House Elf mused. "Dobby can certainly brings messages for Harry Potter's friends. Maybe peoples."

"We'll deal with bringing people back and forth later," Harry said. "I'll go and write up a letter for you to take to Ron and Hermione. I'll go and tell Sirius about this. Come on!"

Sirius' eyes bugged out when he saw Dobby follow Harry, Tidus, and Rikku into the planning room where he had been discussing things with Cid, Wakka looking on. As Sirius stared, Wakka asked, "Who's that with the big ears and bug-eyes, ya?"

Harry was a little annoyed at how Wakka described Dobby, though it was ameliorated by the fact that Wakka had said 'who's that' rather than 'what's that'. "This, Wakka, is Dobby. He's a House-Elf. Think of him as an indentured servant who, under normal circumstances, isn't paid. Dobby, the rooster in the yellow coveralls is Wakka." Over Wakka's spluttered indignant response, Harry continued, "And the bald guy with the beard is Cid. He's Rikku's father."

"Theys friends of Harry Potter?" Dobby asked.

"Well, Cid's a friend, and Wakka's better now that he's starting to get over his issues about the Al Bhed." Harry sat down at a table, where a computer was placed, and began typing.

"So, what is he?" Wakka asked. "Whaddya mean, indentured servant?"

"Exactly that," Sirius said. "House Elves form a bond based on symbiosis, gaining their magic in exchange for servitude, or else they die. But too many wizards forget that, or else abuse them anyway. Dobby used to belong to a rather nasty piece of work by the name of Lucius Malfoy who did that to him. Dobby was unusual for House Elves in that he desired freedom. He now works for Hogwarts, albeit for pay. Most House Elves are friendly, but…well, the last House Elf of my family is a twisted and bitter little son of a bitch."

Rikku squatted down next to Dobby. "Why would anyone want to abuse this cute little guy?" she asked, eliciting a smile from Dobby.

"Because they could," Sirius said. "I…messed up with Kreacher, but he hated me as much as I hated him. His loyalty first and foremost was to my mother and my brother. And they were nasty pieces of work. My mother detested anything to do with those without magic, and Muggleborn mages. But Kreacher was abnormal for House Elves. Most are, as I said, friendly and deferential. To anyone who treats them normally, they're easy to like."

"Well, we don't need House Elves, even if we wanted them," Cid remarked. "We have machina."

Wakka rolled his eyes at that, but remained silent. For a few minutes, Rikku and Tidus chatted to Dobby, while Harry typed up his letter. Then, he printed two copies out, and handed it to Dobby. "Dobby, these copies are to go to Ron and Hermione. If Dumbledore asks anything, just say, 'We're still alive, no thanks to you'. Oh, and tell him that the Horcrux is out of my scar. He should know what that means."

Dobby nodded vigorously. "Yes, Harry Potter, sir!"

Before Dobby left, Sirius said, "Dobby…when you come back, can you bring back Moony? I mean, Remus?"

"Dobby will try to bring back Wolfie and his Dora Tonks girlfriend," Dobby said.

As Dobby disappeared, Sirius blinked. "Wait, what? Moony and Tonks…together?"

Harry shrugged. "Why not? A better question is, why bring Remus here?"

"Harry, we're going up against a corrupt religion and a genocidal hellbeast the size of a city. Moony's the one I trust most to have my back," Sirius said.

Harry nodded. He just had to hope that they weren't bringing Remus and Tonks into a worse situation than they did at home…

CHAPTER 13 ANNOTATIONS:

What a twist! No, seriously, I wasn't planning for this at all. I was trying to write this chapter, and as I began listing Harry's friends who weren't fully human, it just occurred to me to bring Dobby across dimensions. I'm wondering whether I should do it for Ghost of Dalmasca or Xenophilia. Probably not the former, but maybe the latter (EDIT: I eventually did it for Xenophilia, as some of you may know). Anyway, this will bring in a lot more into the story. I wasn't intending to bring in any more Potterverse elements, but this very well may turn out to be a great idea. Either that, or my shark-jumping moment.

On another Harry Potter/Final Fantasy-related note, by the time this chapter gets posted, my very first fanfic, Harry Potter and the Cetra Heritage, has gotten 100K views! Doubtless it'll get surpassed by Observations of a Wannabe Kunoichi before long, but hey.

Review-answering time! plums: Sadly, you're not going to get your wish, not in that regard at least. My current intentions are for Harry and Yuna to be abducted, though that may change.

1. This is a slightly different version of Auron's little speech while he and Tidus are in the cages at Bevelle.