Skull was half-asleep and almost drooling on his pillow when he felt the sharp sensation of something wrong with his bond to Fon. Like someone was attempting to displace the brotherly bond with something far more restrictive and unpleasant.

And that woke him up and had him ready to rage against whoever the hell was trying to hurt the friendly Storm.

"What's going on?" asked Blaise, having woken up the second he felt the wrong sensation as well. Something woke his Sky out of his sleep and pissed him off.

"I think another Sky is trying to subvert the harmony I have with Fon," said Skull pissed.

They were already heading down to the common room...and as it was close to four in the morning nearly everyone else was sound asleep. Viper was already there waiting for them.

Skull felt his pant pocket vibrate and saw Verde's less than amused face.

"Flitwick's still up and I'm not about to explain why I'm leaving the dorm at this hour," he explained briefly.

"Fair enough. I'll see if Renato is available instead," said Skull without hesitation. "Something tells me this is going to make some serious waves once we rescue Fon."

"Agreed," said Verde. He pushed up his glasses. "However it was bound to happen eventually and this time you aren't a civilian."

Part of the reason the Arcobaleno had treated him like a 'child' was because he had been a complete unknown and acted more like a clueless civilian when they first meet. Lal treated him the best next to Viper, but that was mostly because she instinctively recognized a fellow soldier.

Renato was not only awake, but he was feeling very edgy from the bond he had with Skull. He knew someone was going to need healing, but had no idea what was going on until Skull called him to see if he was up.

As it was, he didn't mind being picked up by Lark. He wanted to make whoever was hurting Fon pay.

In an undisclosed location in Asia...

Fon coughed up more blood. One particularly dense Triad had decided that it was perfectly acceptable to kidnap him in order to gain power among the stronger ones, despite the fact that Imperial Favor and the fact he was bonded to an unaffiliated Sky meant that the older, more established families were more than willing to treat Fon as an neutral enforcer among the clans once he was a bit stronger and had the right connections.

The fact Skull had little reason to ally himself (save for temporary ones) with the Triads didn't hurt this arrangement. Neutral parties among the Triads were so rare that they were almost as coveted as Skies so long as they maintained that neutrality.

Sure, you'd be stuck solving mostly petty arguments or acting as arbiters between the clans, but it provided a great deal more freedom for an Active Flame than most would ever get in their lifetimes.

This clan would be wiped out in short order when word spread what they had done. Whether he'd be alive to see it was up for debate at the moment though.

Seeing the massive ball of flame that came from Lark making a very flashy entrance, Fon instinctively closed his eyes. It wasn't that the fire was blinding, but more that he got the feeling he really needed to keep them closed when Lark appeared like that.

A good thing too, because the next thing he heard was the sound of scales slithering on the floor and screams about a snake before they suddenly died off and bodies began to hit the floor.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what Lark had managed to drop in his prison. He knew of the basilisk Skull had acquired but had only informed those closest to him about in his case. It was content to stay there since Skull let it out whenever he was in areas with limited to no human presence for it to hunt (it spent most of it's time sleeping save for prearranged times when most of the other animals were put away to avoid accidental deaths) which was a great deal more freedom than it's other "masters" had dared to give it.

So the fact Skull had been pissed enough to let it out and take out anyone stupid enough to try and take Fon hostage made the Storm rather glad he had befriended the oddball Cloud.

Then things got rather weird, as he heard Skull and a few of his Elements raging on his behalf to rescue him like they had Renato. One moment he was slowly but surely freeing himself from the bindings when he felt something slam into his mind like a particularly painful brick.

He almost passed out as memories came hard, fast and almost painfully without any warning whatsoever. Memories of a childhood that was completely different and far lonelier than he knew. Memories of a man who had become trapped in a cage that he was unable to properly escape among the Triads. Memories of an adorable little boy who grew up to be so strong and a little girl he looked on with pride as a surrogate daughter who flourished in martial arts.

Fon almost opened his eyes, but remembered at the last second that the basilisk was still out and it would be rather embarrassing to die a second time from being foolish enough to open them until he knew Skull had put it away.

And wasn't that a surreal thought, remembering your own death and being cursed for over thirty years as a toddler?

"Fon!" yelped Skull, and he heard the basilisk returning to the cave inside the case. "Hang in there. Ren, is he stable enough to move?"

Fon was having a very weird moment hearing Reborn talk to Skull like an equal in a voice both younger and older than he could recall. Even as his mind supplied that it had sounded like that for as long as he could remember.

"His physical condition is stable enough, though he looks like he might be drugged by something," said Renato.

Fon felt himself lifted and placed on Skull's back, before they were sent straight to one of his safe houses protected by magic.

He was out cold the second his body and mind registered that he was safe.

Somehow he had the feeling he was going to have quite the migraine over the next few days.

Fon had a migraine and it was very strange waking up in his thirteen year old body after being stuck as a toddler for over thirty years. More so was the fact that things no longer matched with what he knew, leaving him adrift with no way of anchoring himself.

As if that wasn't enough, he immediately recognized a much younger Reborn making sure he was feeling better after being out cold for the better part of four days.

Fon managed to keep his legendary calm as the Clan Elders (he had never regarded them with any fondness after they did so little to keep his sister safe from the Triad assassins) basically informed him that due to recent circumstances he was being relocated to Hogwarts and would be spending his summers with his betrothed and her family. At least until he graduated the laughable excuse for a magical education they had.

(He was still trying to come to terms with the fact there was a Feng-Huang in his room when he woke up.)

Seeing Verde, Fon almost immediately migrated to him...or would have had the boy who his mind said was "Harry Potter" not latched onto him in relief.

"Thank Loki! We were worried when Ren said you still weren't awake after three days."

Fon's memories were whirling, trying to reconcile the image of Skull de Mort with Harry Potter (no, Black, his mind supplied) and failing to make a match.

Harry looked at him in the eyes before realization hit him. Fon watched bewildered as he signaled Verde and they dragged him to an abandoned classroom.

Once the door was locked and the room secured, the first thing he asked cemented that he realized exactly what was going on.

"You know you looked like an adorably 'Stormy' Kyouya when I first saw you in China," said Harry grinning.

Verde snorted in amusement.

Fon had to sit down from the headache he had.

"Easy Fon. I wasn't expecting you to suddenly get your memories back like this," said Skull gently.

"How long?" he asked.

"Since I woke up during a particularly bad night when I was seven," said Skull.

"I was about six, six and a half when I got mine," said Verde.

Fon took deep, calming breaths as he tried to reconcile his memories with what he knew and what he 'remembered' from the first time around.

He could safely say his life "now" was far more pleasant and less painful than it had been the first time.

"Who's my betrothed anyway?" asked Fon. Because he didn't remember having a betrothed last time and his memories hadn't quite caught up just yet.

Skull's grin was positively evil.

"Viper, or Camellia Potter-Black as her name is now. She's starting becoming the Viper we know and love, with a few adjustments."

Fon choked.

"What?"

"Viper was my cousin before, but she's my sister now. Officially you two are engaged because I really don't want to end up Kyouya's father in the near future and because I remembered you were rather partial to her even if you had no idea what her actual gender was," said Skull.

"This is so strange," said Fon.

"Just take it one day at a time. Look at the bright side... at least this way we can fix the mistakes we made as snot nosed brats and we'll actually be a team rather than people who barely tolerate each other out of professional courtesy," said Skull.

Fon could already tell the difference in his Flames. Luce had barely held them together when they were forced to work with each other.

Skull had not only brought them together, but he was making them a proper family. It was hard to believe that the rather brash Cloud had Sky Flames this whole time.

Though when he found himself lying down to recover from a massive migraine of having to deal with two sets of memories in Viper's lap, he found he didn't mind the change at all.

Even if he had to die in order to get a second chance, that was a small price to pay to have this.

Skull was acting as a total mother hen around Fon, though he wasn't cloying about it. A fact Fon appreciated greatly. After a few weeks when the memories finally went into their proper place (he was very glad for his Occulmency training... it sped things up a great deal) and getting used to rooming with some amused Hufflepuffs, Fon finally found something to anchor himself to in order to make the abrupt change much easier to handle.

Like Verde, he found himself following Skull's lead without thinking too hard about it. The fact this put him in Viper's company more often than not was a very nice bonus.

He found the minor attraction he had felt for her as adults was only increased as he got to know the girl she could have been had things been different the first time. There were still elements of the woman he had come to know over the course of several decades, but she was more open now than she had ever been as an adult or as a 'toddler'.

He was still quietly in shock that Skull apparently fit the requirements for a Feng-Huang to bond to him willingly and still get into brotherly spats without trying to leave. Or that it seemed to treat him as an odd extension of Skull to the point it used him as a perch when he was alone with Verde.

All in all, Fon was rather happy with the strange circumstances he found himself in, even if he was having some trouble adjusting to the strangeness of it all.

Verde looked at Skull with amusement. Fon was on a quiet date with Camellia and they were experimenting in Verde's "lab" in the Room of Requirement.

"You know if and when Viper gets her memories back she is going to be so annoyed with you," said Verde.

Skull mock groaned.

"Don't remind me. Let's hope Reborn doesn't remember, because he's going to be sooo pissed that I was this good and never said anything about it the first time! Fon was willing to at least listen once his memories came back," said Skull.

"I never would have pegged him for having this much trouble adjusting," said Verde.

"Out of all of us, he and Reborn were the ones most set in their ways. He might hide it behind his legendary serene persona, but he always had the hardest time thinking outside the box unless it came to martial arts," said Skull snorting. "I think the only reason he's handling it so well is because of the belief structure towards the Feng-Huang and the requirements needed to bond with one."

Verde hummed.

Skull did have a point. Out of the Arcobaleno Fon was heavily biased towards 'tradition' and was almost as stubborn as Reborn at times. Using that as a crutch until he found a new baseline was entirely possible and would explain his current behavior.

Once he found his center again, odds were he'd go back to the same Fon they had always known.

With Fon and Viper

"So what was Skull like before this mess happened?" asked Camellia. Seeing the look Fon was giving her, she rolled her eyes. "He admitted to having memories of the future and Verde refuses to say anything since he didn't actually pay attention that much."

Fon blinked, before he thought of the best way to explain it.

"He was different. Almost tired, now that I think about it. I never really noticed it before, but there was this resigned air of someone who just wanted the weight of the world to fall off their shoulders so they could finally rest about him. I always wondered why he never really argued against Renato and Colonello more or less using him as stress release even when he hadn't done anything to deserve it," admitted Fon. "He was loud and acted like a coward, but it had always seemed fake to me. We were all so caught up in our own lives that none of us noticed he was broken inside. And by the time we were cursed, none of us bothered to look at all."

"And me?" she asked. She wanted to know what the woman Skull always compared her to was like.

Fon openly winced at the question.

"You always hid your gender and charged us for the most ridiculous of reasons. You didn't trust anyone and seemed to have a grudge against the world in general. I remember attempting to court you before the curse, but that pretty much died after because you were so mad about the whole thing that you refused to even consider it," he admitted. "Quite frankly you seem much happier now than I can remember you being."

Camellia was silent. Partly out of shock, but also because she needed time to process this new information.

She could so very easily remember how alone she had been before Skull stumbled across her. How it felt like the entire world was against her and she had to latch onto the one thing she knew gave people power.

If Skull hadn't found her and given her a family to latch onto, it was all too easy for her to see herself growing up alone and unable to trust anyone after being betrayed so easily by her own blood. To openly demand payment, just so she had some feeling of control over her life and knowing she wouldn't be screwed over a second time.

Fon said nothing as Camellia leaned into his side, beyond grateful Skull had cared enough to actually do something when he realized he had the chance to help.

She wouldn't give up her annoying brother for anything, even if she would swear he was trying to give her and Blaise gray hairs before they even hit their magical majority.