Naminé seemed particularly upbeat when she realized what month it was. December meant Christmas, Christmas meant Santa. And unlike Sora, Xion never stopped believing in Santa.

She knew he was real. Then again, she had been present when Hermione corrupted the little witch Lock from Halloweentown.

Fifteen minutes with her, and Lock took control of their band of troublemakers and got her own wand to hex the boys into submission.

Of course it was nothing compared to the fact that she would be meeting Xion's...no, Tania (she had to keep reminding herself of Xion's name)... aunt. Plus she had been guaranteed that there would be toddlers for her to play with, and what little kid didn't like making a mess with water color paints?


Petunia raised an eyebrow at the introduction of Naminé, but at this point she had already figured out that Tania and the other girls would be sharing the same room.

Tania noticed something about her aunt that made her frown.

She waited until it was time for them to make dinner together, while Naminé and Luna watched the twins, before confronting her.

"Auntie...why do you have a hand-shaped bruise on your left shoulder?" she asked quietly. Petunia flinched.

"I think something's happening to Vernon. He's been drinking more often... and last week..."

Tania's hand gripped the pan a little tighter.

"Has he gone after the twins?"

"He wouldn't dare. But if he ever actually hits me I'm leaving him. The only thing tying me down is Dudley, and if nothing else we can take him with us," said Petunia tightly.

"I have plenty of room in the Castle, and if that doesn't suit your taste I can leave you in Radiant Garden. I'm sure they'd love having someone who knows how to cook. And I know for a fact Aerith wouldn't mind helping out with the twins."

"I will take you up on that if he doesn't straighten out. And I'd rather be close to a shopping center," said Petunia.

"Radiant Garden then."

"So who is your new friend?"

"Naminé is someone mostly like me, except she had the power to manipulate memories of those around her. So far we're keeping her under the radar until next year. By the time they figure out that the memories have been tampered with, it'll be too late to do anything about it. She just has to keep them in place to become a registered member of the school as a student," said Tania.

"Why next year?"

"There's someone important I want to find. One of my magic instructors said I might have the power to bring him here if I got stronger and waited for the ripples to settle down. Though once I find him, I'll be time-locked out of the recent past."

"Who is 'he'?"

"Her boyfriend, or he will be once he remembers," said Luna.

"Oh? So you're taking an interest in boys finally?"

"It's less of an interest and more that he's her soul mate. There's a red string of fate that ties them together, just as another string ties him to his twin brother Sora. The thing is that the strings got crossed, so he went missing. She has to find him," said Luna.

"I see. Would this boy's name be Roxas by any chance?" asked Petunia.

Tania gave her aunt an odd look.

"You didn't think I missed the fascination with his character did you? I take it that the games aren't what they appear?"

"They're more or less based on what really happened, just with modifications to fit into a game format."

"So Naminé is the girl from the second game, and not just someone who looks like her. I thought it was odd how similar she looked to the game character," said Petunia. Seeing the look on Tania's face, she chuckled.

"It gets quite boring while the twins are sleeping and Vernon's at work, so occasionally I borrow your games. I liked the Disney them in Kingdom Hearts so I got hooked," said Petunia.

"Hermione's in love with Riku. She's practically learned everything she could about him from the games," grinned Tania.

"So which one are you?"

"Number 14, Xion. And Shadow is the same shop Moogle from the game 358/2 Days," said Xion.

"One of these days you're going to sit down and explain everything properly. Just not today. I take it Naminé doesn't have any clothes to wear?"

"I can get some money from my trust vault. As far as the goblins are concerned she's from my family line," said Tania.

When Xion gave Naminé a heart using her power, rather than let it happen like she did with Axel, she accidentally adopted Naminé into the Potter family. As such Naminé had started to show signs of being a metamorph like Tania and Tonks. Because she was the Nobody of a Princess of the Heart, Naminé already had several unique gifts. And her powers were only growing now that Xion had pretty much freed her from Kairi's shadow.

It was just good fortune for the worlds at large that Naminé chose to follow Xion, rather than fall into the hands of someone nefarious like Xemnas or worse, Diz.

Diz was really the TRUE Ansem the Wise, but that didn't mean Xion or her friends trusted him. His opinion on Nobodies was abundantly clear...as was his feelings about Xion, who he openly called an abomination.

The one time he tried to either reclaim or kill Naminé, Xion broke his nose and took out two teeth with her punch. She credited her gymnastics lessons from when she was younger...unknown to her aunt, one of the instructors knew aikido and taught some of the girls self defense lessons. One of which was the rather quiet Tania, because she genuinely worried the girl might become a target for less reputable boys later.

She didn't feel one iota of guilt hitting him like that. He completely deserved it.


Naminé was blindsided as she was dragged from store to store with Luna and an enthusiastic Tania. Petunia mostly came because she was the one who drove them. She considered it a nice outing to get away from Vernon, who had become increasingly erratic of late.

Something about him made her genuinely fear for the children.

"Come on Naminé! You have to get something nice to wear, and it's a miracle we were able to bribe Susan for a set of her spare uniforms!" said Tania.

Because of how abruptly Naminé came into the school, she didn't have any of the supplies. Fortunately Tania didn't mind loaning her books to the girl, and they generally paired up anyway. Susan, when informed of the situation, helped out by loaning her spare uniforms to help hide the truth.

By the end of the trip, Naminé had three sets of clothing, several new art supplies, and a doll she could keep. It was a half-sized Moogle, and she had gotten used to cuddling with Shadow.

Unknown to the school, Tania and Naminé shared not only the same room, but the same bed as well. It was like a sleepover every night.

It was certainly less awkward than having to explain to Dobby why they needed him to steal an extra bed from storage, and Naminé hated being alone. Especially when she was still getting used to her heart.

They were both girls, so Tania didn't really care. Besides, Naminé was just as fascinated with Roxas.

It was when they got back from their shopping trip that Tania suspected what was really going on with Vernon.

"Auntie... you've been playing the games, right?"

"The Kingdom Hearts series at least. I wanted to see if it would be appropriate to play around children or not," said Petunia.

"Then you know what happens when someone is consumed by Darkness."

Petunia blinked, before she looked and really looked at her husband. He did seem...darker...than before. Almost like there was a shadow around him.

"What's happening to him?"

"There is a Darkness seeping into Lost Avalon, which is what this world was designated...at least according to Merlin. So far it's consumed the 'headmaster' and his pet phoenix. Either Vernon is naturally falling prey to the Darkness, or the headmaster might be making a move against me in order to scare me. I can't tell which."

"Why are you still in that school then?"

"Because if we don't draw it out into the open, the Darkness festering in this world will never be freed enough to open the natural pathways. I use something that allows me to slip past whenever I leave, but other keyblade wielders had to use the harder methods to escape. Apparently none of them were discreet enough," said Tania.

"If I remember correctly, if someone turns into a Heartless then they also turn into a Nobody. Then the only way to restore them is to get rid of their heartless and Nobody and they'll return to normal."

"Yes, but there are exceptions."

"Such as?"

"The heartless getting eaten by a greater Heartless, someone being killed by the 'Killing Curse', and of course if someone is attacked by dementors. Though that last two seems to be thankfully confined to this world only."

"If he turns into a Heartless, I'm calling you directly," said Petunia flatly.

"If he does, I'll deal with him and take you and the twins someplace safe," countered Tania. "We'd have to pick up Dudley later."


Naminé had to admit, she rather enjoyed her first real Christmas.

Tania also rather enjoyed it, even if she started making preparations to move her aunt off-world to protect her. Of course she did find it amusing that she had inadvertently gotten her aunt hooked on video games.

But like all good times, it must come to an end. Even if the end wasn't what they were expecting.

"What is that bird doing in here?!" said Petunia, shielding the twins.

"It's the fake phoenix!" said Tania.

'Fawkes' shrieked loudly, before dive bombing at Vernon.

All the darkness that had been collecting in him burst out, turning him into a rather rotund Heartless. It crashed into the pictures on the wall, causing them to fall and crack.

"Why you...!" said Petunia, furious.

Naminé closed her eyes, and reached out for her magic.

A barrier of magic surrounded the house. It cut off all retreat...but it also forced 'Fawkes' and the heartless that was once Vernon to stay as well.

"I can keep them here. If you can defeat them, then you can try and find his Nobody later to restore him," said Naminé.

She was one of the best support mages Xion had ever seen.

"Protect Aunt Petunia and the twins. Luna and I will deal with these two...as long as the barrier extends to the backyard."

Naminé nodded.

"The barrier covers the entire property. As far as anyone will known, someone broke in and wrecked the place," said Naminé.

Xion nodded.

"Let's go, Luna!"

"Right!"

Four hours later...

"...Do I dare ask what happened to the yard?"

"Immortal firebirds are a pain to kill, especially when the stupid thing kept trying to siphon off energy from Vernon," said Xion, leaning against the charred remnants of a tree.

"And Shiva was very difficult to bring out for some reason. I think he had an area effect that caused the cost for Ice attacks to go up," said Luna with a huff.

"I see. What about Vernon?"

Xion shook her head.

"I don't know what that thing did, but after siphoning so much off of his heartless, it disappeared. I have no idea if he's still around or not," said Xion.

Petunia slumped.

"How am I going to explain this to the neighbors, much less the cops?"

"We'll tell them someone broke in through the back door. I did enough damage to make that much believable. We can file a missing person's report, and claim you've gone off to live with Marge until the police find Vernon. In the meantime you'll be moved off world with the twins and Dudley," said Xion firmly.

Shadow appeared on her shoulder.

"I can at least seat that many on my Gummi Ship, kupo! It's not up to traveling between very many worlds, but it's made the trip to Radiant Garden and back from here several times, kupo!" said Shadow.

"I don't think I have very much to smile about," said Petunia.

"Then I'll take you through the Corridor. Dobby and the others can keep the twins entertained more than enough to power the ship."

Hearing the sirens coming, they put their plan into action.

Petunia gave the house one last look, as she packed her things. If and when Vernon was brought back, she might return, but for now she'd rather keep moving forward.

At least she'd be removing one more pawn against Tania, if the 'headmaster' really was one of the minions of Darkness.