The Heir of House Black

AN: I make no profit from this. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling, Gundam Wing is owned by Sunrise.

21: Curiosity killed the Hermione

She had been wary of the five from the very moment they stepped into Harry's life, but she couldn't really put her finger on why besides the obvious, new family out of nowhere. After meeting them and spending time with each, Hermione freely admitted that they clearly weren't working for or with Voldemort. That they might even be a valuable asset in the fight against him, but still something about them scared her. She just didn't think they were as good for Harry as he seemed to think. First, well she would admit that Harry's sudden friendship with Draco irked her more than anything because the boy was a prat and she would never forgive him for the torment he put her through in their early years. She was certain that Harry would never have developed the friendship with the boy had Quatre Winner not forced them into such a strange relationship at the beginning of the year. That's really where all of this began. Quatre's involvement in their life was the beginning of it all. So that's where she started looking.

It took her 2 weeks of searching, googling, sending letters and visiting local prevents and lots of pestering before anything of value came up. For such a public figure in the muggle world, there was surprisingly very little information about the personal life of the Heir to the Winner fortune.

He hadn't really become anyone of import until after The War to end all Wars and Mariemaia's Rebellion. He had been seen in close contact with the current Vice Minister of the United Earth Sphere, Relena Peacecraft as well as the head of Preventers, Lady Anne Une. Of course, neither of these was a surprise. He donated quite a bit of money to rebuilding war torn areas and the peace-keeping organization. What she overheard while doing a bit of illegal magical reconnaissance at a local Preventors base was really where she had struck gold.

Some soldiers had been talking about Quatre and how he'd somehow managed to escape trial for crimes against humanity. It seemed one of the soldiers had been a part of Oz during the war and was claiming that not only was Quatre one of the famed Terrorists/War Heroes, the Gundam Pilots, but he was the one responsible for destroying a colony near the end of the war. That one boy had been responsible for the deaths of Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and gotten away not only scott free, but hadn't even been charged at all sickened the soldier. The other soldier had laughed it off and said his friend must have been mistaken. There was no way the little fag of an heir could possibly had had the stomach to kill so many, much less even one.

Hermione had had to keep herself from stunning the man for the comment, but in some ways she agreed. She just couldn't see Quatre willingly killing anyone. Then she remembered the incident with Bellatrix and the conversation after. Quatre had willingly tortured her infront of everyone and suddenly she could believe it. If that were true then that meant that Quatre had more blood on his hands than even Voldemort. It made her stomach turn that Harry was in the same house with such a man right now.

Then there were the others. Lord Black was a mystery. Where had he been all this time, what had he been doing and why hadn't anyone known about him. She really didn't know much about Regulus Black other than he had been a known Death Eater and that he'd died in the first war. Also, he was the younger brother, shouldn't Sirius have been the Heir?

Duo… well she didn't want to think anything bad about him, but because he was so close to both Lord Black and Quatre Winner, she knew she would have to dig. She wished she hadn't when she found the truth.

The video had been all but completely destroyed. After the war, all information concerning the Gundam Pilots had been confiscated and destroyed to protect their Identities. They were a bit of a mixed bag in the public eye. For most, they were war Heroes who had prevented a much longer, much bloodier warm, but for some, the truth was clear. They were Terrorists and had started the war in the first place.

When she found the newsreel of Duo being led down a tarmac, his gundam in the background being destroyed…. And was that Trowa Barton in the background? It was clear of one thing, Duo was a Gundam Pilot. He had killed… many many people. She didn't believe in coincidences. There were five of them, they were all very skilled, very talented individuals. With Duo clearly being one, Trowa being connected to Oz and Quatre possibly being one as well…. Chances were very high that those five boys that had inserted themselves as Harry's new family were the 5 Gundam Pilots. The realization horrified her.

Trowa was a curiosity. His relationship with Quatre was public and in her opinion a very positive step. Of course, gay marriage had been legal for ages and if they were any other people, it wouldn't have mattered. However, when it came to fame, moreso political fame, society tended to scrutinize you. Quatre would have been expected to marry and produce heirs. He would have been expected to enter a political marriage. That he didn't and instead married for love... that he married a man in disregard of many ancient traditions, well It said alot about him. To someone as liberally minded as she was, it was the only thing that really brought these boys up in her views. Even so, there was nothing at all to find about Trowa himself. He might not have been a Gundam pilot. After all, he was literally a nobody. He simply didn't exist. Even in Duo's capture, she wouldn't have noticed him if she hadn't watched the reel about 30 times. He blended into the background so well, he was almost invisible. If Quatre had been any other rich politician, he would never have considered marrying someone so clearly under his station. It suggested the two had known each other long enough to have had a relationship. Long enough that Trowa had to have known Quatre during the war. Which led her to believe he was involved.

Wu Fei was honestly the only one she trusted out of all of them. She was pretty certain that he was in fact the Pilot of Gundam Nataku that had fought in Mariemaia's rebellion. She might not have believed it if she hadn't caught the professor talking to a rather attractive ghost in the castle. The ghost was female and certainly hadn't been there before he had shown up. Rumor was, it was his dead wife who had followed the man around for much longer and Hogwarts magic had allowed her to manifest, but Hermione had heard the man refer to her as Nataku. The ghost didn't show up that often and never in classes, but people still had seen her when the Professor was alone, often in the library.

It all came down to one thing. Hermione would do what she had to to protect her brothers, because yes, Harry was more than a friend by now. He was practically family and she would protect him from any threat, even the ones closest to him. She had to know, for certain, if these men were a threat to him. Luckily, they were all staying at Malfoy Manor for the holidays. Quatre, however, had a rather large Residence in earth that was rather close if you considered that Hermione could Apparate. The house was just across the waters, in France. Hermione had been to Paris before. She could go tonight, take a cab out of the city and sneak into the manor. She'd search it top to bottom if she had to and find out what she needed to know about Quatre Winner. What kind of man he really was and what he had planned for Harry.

"Man, Harry your gonna love it. You too Dray" Duo was babbling.

"My name is Draco, Maxwell" Draco snorted.

Wu Fei grinned. It seemed Duo's habit of mangling personal names was finally gritting on someone else too… that or Duo had finally hit his limit of Draco's tolerance.

"I've been to France too, I doubt some muggle home is going to be that amazing, even if it's my cousin's home."

Quatre smiled, leaning back and looking out the plane as the ground flew past. "Duo… don't even think about it" Duo was suddenly pouting as he sat in the cockpit with Heero.

"Dammit, how'd you know?" he was about to spin them a couple times, Draco deserved a little upside down fun in his life.

"Even I could feel your sudden glee… Duo glee is never a good thing when you're at the helm of anything that flies" Heero spoke. "Quatre, are you sure we'll have time to do everything?"

The blonde nodded. "Yes. We have until the 11th before we need to be back at Hogwarts. More than enough to do a little sightseeing. I'm certain that Golden Dawn's activities are being handled more than effectively by Une, there's no reason for us to get involved."

Both Draco and Harry looked up.

"Golden Dawn, what's that?" Harry asked first, though it looked like Draco was about to ask as well.

Wu Fei put his book down. "A muggle terrorist organization. Taking advantage of the disarmament of mobile suits to attempt to further their own religious doctrine."

"A few wakkos with one or two mobile suits. Nothing Wind can't handle with the Tallgeese II"

Duo grinned. "Though, it certainly is convenient that we'll be in paris. Don't you have the boys at R&D keeping things in top shape at the Paris branch"

Quatre smiled, almost wistfully. "Yes, things are safely tucked away, but we won't be bothering. I assure you I'm not secretly planning to solve things myself while we're taking Harry to Paris."

Harry and Draco nodded. That cemented things. Quatre definitely planned to deal with whatever this Golden Dawn group was.

"So.. what exactly are Mobile Suits?" Draco asked.

At the very question, Duo almost burst from excitement, but Heero stood, a hand on Duo's shoulder. "No, you're flying"

"Party pooper" Duo pouted.

Trowa pipped up to answer the boy's question though, clicking a button on the table, bringing up a hologram of the new Ares II's that Preventers was currently using.

"Weapons. Mobile Suits are giant machines capable of great destruction. Several Meters tall, they require a single person to pilot them. These machines have been the backbone of Muggle Warfare for the last 100 years. The current government is passing laws to restrict the building and ownership of mobile suits, but it hasn't been enough to stop people like the Golden Dawn from getting their hands on some of the old suits from the war."

Draco could only stare.

Quatre smiled. "You needn't worry though, even as terrifying as they are, they are muggle machines. They won't be able to come into wizard controlled territories. Magic still affects the pilot after all and I suspect a group of trained wizards could probably take down a single mobile suit without too much trouble." He turned the display off from his seat. "Im certain we won't be getting involved with them at all.

Hermione was on a hill that looked over the property. She had to admit, it made Malfoy Manor look paltry, however she had to wonder, if no one was living here, why was there a private army guarding the building. The security at this place was insane. Even using magic, she'd almost been caught twice on her way to her current vantage point, on a hill that was technically still on Winner property.

It took her another hour to get into the manor. Apparently, even though the guards were muggles, some of them were squibs and others… she suspected they had equipment intended to deal with wizards. Hermione was positive, if she wasn't the smartest witch of her age, she would have already been caught.

The study had been incredibly interesting. Some of the books Quatre owned didn't exist anymore. She could spend her entire lifetime reading some of these classics. There was also a wealth of information about Lord Black too. It seemed they had been living here when the will reading had happened. She'd found several documents involving what one Odin Black had inherited as well as plans for what Quatre planned to do with the properties. Honestly, she was surprised, his plans were both brilliant and helpful. She was already liking him more and more just from this, but she could feel in her gut that there was more. So she continued looking.

She wouldn't have found the bunker if she wasn't a witch. The secret passage had secret passages. The security was impressive, but she was better. Clearly these secret passages hadn't been built with magic in mind. She knew that if she came back later, that wouldn't be the case, she would only get one chance to see what was down this rabbit hole.

When she came out into the hanger, so far down underground, she suspected she knew what she was going to find, but nothing could prepare her for the sight that met her at the end of the tunnel.

It wasn't just five of them either. Quatre had not 1, not 5 but 7 mobile suits. She recognized the Veyate and the Mercurios immediately. She'd seen a documentary about their construction when she was younger. The only Gundam class suits built by Oz.. Why did he have them?

Then she looked on and realized what she was looking at. Quatre winner had enough firepower to take over the entire world sphere under one house in France. The Wing Zero, The Deathscythe Hell, The HeavyArms Kai, The Sandrock Kai and Gundam Nataku. Not only were they in one piece, but it looked like they had been improved upon. Why were they here, what was he planning to do with them.

The cockpit to one of them opened and she reacted out of instinct. She'd stunned the man, it looked like he was a mechanic. He'd seen her. She didn't know what to do.

She climbed up to the cockpit to get a closer look at the man, what was he doing down here. Who was he. He was clearly middle eastern, like the guards that surrounded the building. He must be part of Quatre's private army. Maybe he was doing repairs. She looked in the cockpit and froze.

When she came to, she was sitting in the seat. Why had she climbed in, what had she been thinking, but as she sat there, looking out from the seat of Sandrock Kai, she couldn't help but look around. The screen came on, as if reacting to her presence.

Text rolled by on the screen, but she couldn't read it… she was transfixed, the feeling of this suit. She could do anything with it. She could find out what she needed to know, she could know the truth, it was all here.

"Tell me the truth. Tell me everything. Who is Quatre Winner, what are his plans for Harry. What do I have to do to protect my family."

She asked and Zero replied.