A Different Start: American Harry Prequel

by DarkeStar

Harry's godmother gains custody of a young HP and escapes to America where he learns a new way of magic and carves a new path for himself. Powerful/Independent Harry, eventual slash, OCs, pre-Hogwarts. Reg. updates.

37. Chapter 37

Disclaimer: I own magical America and the theories, ideas, etc. that are not infringing on JKR's world.

Info: Warnings and story info found in previous chapters. Link to previous chapter review responses found in profile. Ygroup has detailed and past responses, house layouts, may have additional scenes. The KKKKK when I separate scenes is to make it harder for ffnet to mess up the scene divisions.

Reviews: I adore everyone!

Betas: Hugs to them all. Hugs! And strawberries!

AN: Hathorne next chapter! And I don't have anything more to say except… ENJOY! And review, of course. Oh, next chapter might take a while. It's in the beta and review process, but it's huge, like 50 pages.

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A Different Start: American Harry Prequel 37

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"Hey, Jamie." Tony dropped down to sit in the grass, eyeing the sprawled coyote with amusement as he put the box in his hand down next to him. "That stick taste good?"

The coyote stopped chewing on the stick long enough to give him a coyote grin.

"I bet you'll regret that when you change back and you have the taste of stick in your mouth."

He just chewed on the stick with renewed vigor.

Tony dropped his hand to pet the yellowish brown fur and found it slightly damp. "Have you been splashing around in the pool again?" he chuckled.

The innocent 'who me?' look was clear even on the coyote's face. Tony just chuckled again and went back to petting.

"I've got something for you, kid," Tony said after a while. "Change back?"

The stick was nosed away and then Harry changed back, sitting up slowly as he tried not to make a face.

"Told you. The taste of stick."

"I didn't ask your opinion," Harry told him with a sniff, arranging himself in a cross-legged pose and stretching his arms above his head. "So what's that?" He nodded to the box.

"Something from Hollen."

Harry half scowled.

"He left it in the mailroom for you." Tony picked up the box and handed it to Harry.

After a moment of considering the box, Harry took it with a sigh. "I'm still irritated with him," he muttered, studying the shoe-box sized plain cardboard box.

"He's well aware." Tony extended a slip of paper. "It was on top of the box."

Harry took the paper and studied the somewhat jagged, left-leaning handwriting. "That's it? 'I shall attempt to tolerate the southern for you'?"

"Coming from Hollen, that's a lot."

Harry rolled his eyes and pulled the top of the box off, then stared. The box was completely filled with chocolate bars, all of them in different wrappers, some clearly magical, some not, some even in languages Harry couldn't identify, let alone read. "What?"

"It's his way of apologizing," Tony said with a shrug. "Judging from his offering, he's really trying to apologize."

"With chocolate? Doesn't he know that chocolate bars are hardly an adequate apology for being that much of an ass?"

"Words… don't come easily to him."

"Chocolate is ridiculous. What is it with him and chocolate? He gave me chocolate once before to apologize for something and that time he didn't even have to apologize. That has to be the stupidest and most cliché thing to give to someone as a way to apologize."

"Hollen wasn't allowed to have chocolate as a kid," Tony said quietly.

"Why?"

Tony leaned back on his hands, studying the sky. "For a rather mean reason."

"Tony, don't do that. Either say something or don't say it; don't leave it hanging out there unfinished."

Tony fixed him with a half lidded, unreadable look. "He wasn't allowed to have chocolate because he liked it."

"What?"

"You heard me."

Harry looked down at the chocolate bars.

Tony leaned over to peer into the box. "You know… I'm pretty sure you can't get a lot of those in this country. Hollen must have cleaned out his private stock."

"Material things still aren't the right way to apologize…"

"Even when they have personal meaning?"

Harry sighed. "You think he'll really stop being a dick?"

"I doubt Hollen stops being a dick in his sleep," Tony said dryly. "But I do believe that he'll actually try to restrain himself to some degree."

"Why won't he let me stay irritated with him?" Harry grumbled.

"I suspect it's because he cares about you."

"That man is going to drive me crazy."

Tony chuckled.

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Harry rolled over on his bed and reached for the small wooden box under his nightstand. There was no lid or lock or obvious seam on its flat surface, just a colorful abstract geometric pattern. He turned it over in his hands, fingers sliding over the slick surface of the wood, as his eyes fell on the thick Hathorne letter on his bed.

"Round and round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows," Harry murmured. The cube broke apart in his hands, falling to the bed as a puzzle of abstract shapes. He picked up the folded letter that had been inside it and unfolded it carefully.

In comparison to the Hathorne package that had come with detailed information about the courses offered, necessary supplies, rules and regulations, the campus layout, the school's history and everything in between, the Hogwarts letter was little more than a footnote. But there was something about the magic that clung to it that drew Harry back again and again, smoothing over the finely textured parchment and tracing the curling green ink.

The magic lingering on the letter wasn't deliberate; the deliberate magic had been stripped from the letter before it'd been given to him. But it was compelling. It drew his attention, and now that Harry had finer control over his ability to sense and read magic, he could tell that the magic was old, but disjointed, absorbed simply from being in a highly magical environment.

He'd felt magic that old only a few times in America; when he'd visited the Magurists and the few times he'd visited various Native American sites. Most of magical America wasn't old enough to have built up that much magic, and places that had heavy, frequent magic use were controlled, the excess magic drained and funneled into powering wards and other building functions.

"I wonder how much of this is true…?" Harry mused, sliding his finger over the paragraph about his parents. "Well. More like how much is exaggerated…" He turned to the supply list and his eyes strayed to the Hathorne papers spread across his bed, the three page supply list set aside for their final shopping trip.

Serish peered out from under the Hathorne course schedule. 'You make noise to yourself.'

'It's a human thing. And I'm reading something.'

Serish slithered out from under the schedule and over to him to wind up his arm, her head coming to rest on the side of his wrist, angled towards the paper like she was going to read it. 'Tell me what this crinkling object tells you.'

Harry laughed. 'It's just talking about my parents. Someone wanted me to come to their school and told me things about my parents to make me want to.'

'Why?'

'It's another human thing. Humans say things that make other humans feel things that influence how they think.'

'Did it work?'

Harry considered the letter. 'No, it didn't. But…'

'Doubt?'

'Sometimes I wonder what it might be like to go to the school where my parents went.'

'Why not going?'

'Happier here, have friends and family, places I know.'

'Better in own territory.'

Harry smiled. 'I suppose it is.'

'And your school, this place of learning, I am going. I will help you learn. You need it.'

Harry bit his lips to keep from laughing at her. 'Yes, you'll go with me.'

'Are you going now?'

'No, but soon.'

He glanced at the floor as he felt the wards tingling, admitting someone Apparating, and he checked the time. 'Right then.' He folded up the Hogwarts letter. 'I have to go find things for my school today.'

'Come?'

'Be quiet and stay hidden?'

'Yes.'

'Come, yes.' Harry picked up the largest geometric piece, a corner that still had its three sides, and he pressed the letter into the recess. He looked up, focusing on a poster of one of his favorite bands and focusing on speaking English. "Because she stops in a place that doesn't exist." The pieces of the box flew up and reassembled themselves, forming a smooth, seamless cube once again. He wriggled forward and put it under his nightstand before sitting up to gather his Hathorne things.

"You ready to go, Jamie?" Suntree called out, voice coming from somewhere around the stairs.

"Yeah. Just let me put my shoes on." Harry lifted his arm to his shoulder and Serish took her cue to move, first to his shoulder and then winding loosely around his neck like a necklace.

"You're bringing the snake?" Suntree asked from the doorway.

"She won't bite you," Harry teased.

"I'm aware."

"Sunny's afraid of snakes."

"No. I'm simply not as fond of them as some people."

Harry grinned, wriggling his feet into shoes and leaning down to tie them. "Scaredy cat."

"Come along, child."

"Scaredy cat, scaredy cat."

"Your eloquence never ceases to amaze me."

Harry stuck out his tongue as he grabbed the backpack at the foot of his bed.

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"Oh, the cloud chairs are so amazing," Cam gushed, a dreamy look on her face. "It's some sort of moldable cloth chair with a cushioning charm on it and it's like you're just floating. And they do your nails and the facial and your hair and everything without ever making you move. Well, you have to move for the massages, but they're so worth it."

Al made an unimpressed noise and shot a look at Harry that clearly said he didn't appreciate having his lunch interrupted with this. Harry shrugged, trying not to snicker, and gave him a look back that he hoped adequately conveyed that it wasn't his fault she'd spotted their table and joined them.

"You should have seen the room I had, too. The bathroom was as big as my bedroom! Jacuzzi bathtub, one of those showers where you can direct the water to come from anywhere, oh, I want to get one of those so bad, marble everywhere. And the bedroom and suite was bigger than my entire apartment, filled with fresh flowers every day, exotic fruit, warmed robes and slippers, and these huge windows showing nothing but the sea and sky for miles."

"So," Al put in as Cam stopped raving about her cruise long enough to take a bite of her sandwich, "we're-"

"And the food," Cam cut in. "Oh, the food. Lobster, steaks, truffles, anything you've ever wanted, everything there's ever been, all yours any time you want them. Your elf will fetch anything you want, any time you want, anywhere you want. And man, I'm seriously thinking about hiring an elf to come into the apartment several days a week. It won't be the same, of course, not there picking up everything every day, tidying up, taking care of the clothes and dishes and all of the household stuff, and of course the elf wouldn't be waking me every morning with breakfast in bed and the schedule of events for the day and-"

Harry tuned Cam out, turning his attention to the USAS cafeteria instead. He'd heard her cruise ship babblings in-depth the night before when she'd dropped in with gifts; the business of people eating and chatting and teasing all around him was far more interesting.

He watched for a few minutes, particularly amused by a family with children obviously visiting the USAS cafeteria for the first time if their constant looking around and pointing was anything to go by, when he spotted Hollen.

"Hey, it's Holly." Harry studied the figure leaning in to read something on a bulletin board. He was still recognizably Hollen, though his features were sharper and his hair was more dark brown than red. "We ought to invite him over," Harry decided, considering the dark jeans and simple blue shirt the other wore. "He looks subdued today."

"We don't really know him…" Cam put in slowly.

Harry turned back to them, glancing between her and Al; they both looked slightly uncomfortable. "Then here's your chance to get to know him. He's an ass, I admit, but I still like him. You'll have to get to know him someday."

Al fidgeted. "I don't know…"

"Seriously, he's not the big bad monster under the bed," Harry snorted, turning back to study Hollen. "Get over it. And that means be nice to him, or at least civil." When Hollen turned away from the bulletin board, his cafeteria tray balanced on one arm, Harry waved to get his attention.

Hollen raised a brow at Harry then smiled in a tolerant sort of way as he wove around the table to get to theirs, a hand resting on his tray to keep it balanced. His eyes flicked from Harry to the other two and back again as he stopped beside their table. "I rather thought you'd be too busy with school things to be sitting around here," he remarked.

"Nah. The powers of Mom and Suntree combined are awesome and terrible in their might." Harry grinned. "They've got things pretty well organized. Without Kathy's help, thank you very much. But anyway, the first week at Hathorne is the only week that anyone boarding has to stay the entire week, seeing as how there're orientation kinds of things and they want you to go through your entire schedule once without interruption and all of that. So I'm good. If I forget anything I can't live without, I only have to wait a week before I can go home and find it."

"Mm." Hollen picked a piece of carrot off of his plate to eat. "Did you call me over here for something, or did you just wish to ensure I get a little more exercise?"

"Hah, hah." Harry rolled his eyes. "Want to join us?"

Hollen looked past Harry and his expression turned from vaguely amused to neutrally pleasant. Harry glanced back at Al and Cam and saw that they'd plastered fake, weak, unconvincing smiles on their faces.

"I think not," Hollen said a little crisply after a second, drawing Harry's attention back to him; his hair and eyes had both darkened to a brown that was almost black. "I wouldn't want to interrupt your meal," he continued, voice a little less brusque. "In any case, I'd rather sit by myself." His mouth pursed slightly. "I wouldn't want to break tradition." He turned and left with business-like briskness, heading towards an empty table in the shadows of two trees.

Harry watched Hollen settle there, facing vaguely in their direction, but with his head down and his hair growing to fall around his face. He unwrapped his silverware, arranged his napkin and drink with fussy movements, then proceeded to push food around on his plate without ever bringing the fork to his mouth.

"I guess he didn't want company," Al remarked.

Harry carefully put down the fork he was holding before looking at Al with a scowl. "Gee, you think?"

"I didn't say anything to him."

"Your silence communicated more than enough."

"You can't blame us-"

"You better believe I can blame you all I want. Seriously, he was being pleasant."

"We hardly know him," Cam protested. "Besides, he's…"

Harry's eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "He's?"

"He's… him," she finished weakly.

"Oh, I see, 'he's him'." Harry gave them both a hard look. "Sitting down at a table with him will not kill you."

"Give us a break, kid," Al muttered. "He's…"

"Him, I bet," Harry said coolly.

"He's fucking Davish." Al sat back. "He's Davish. He's DWD."

"He's what?"

"Er, Death-Wish Davish," Cam muttered.

"I cannot believe you two." Harry began putting things back on his tray. "First of all, he's a human fucking being-"

"Watch your language," Cam told him as Al said, "We don't know him at all."

"And you never will if you keep acting like retards, for one thing." Harry took his onion rings back from Al. "And for another, I'll use any language I damn well want and you can tell whoever the hell you want to tell; I don't care."

"Jamie," Al told him carefully, "we were just not expecting him to join us. We haven't had much contact with him."

"Because you run away every time you see him."

"Jamie, he's a legend; he's not someone you chat with socially-"

"Hah!" Harry pulled his tray close and stood up. "You of all people…" Harry took a deep breath. "Fine, he's a legend, shock and awe, what-the-fuck-ever. There's this kid, maybe you've heard of him, his name's Harry fucking Potter and he's a legend, too. That's another you want to avoid chatting with socially because he really hates that-"

"It's not the same thing," Cam protested.

"It really is." Harry planted his hands on the table, leaning in. "So what, he's a freaking legend? And I know what you're thinking, you're thinking he's also unstable, scary, intense, whatever intimidating adjective can describe him this week. Lucky him. People are either in awe of him, completely terrified or that wonderful, twisted combination of the two. And guess what? It fucking sucks. Got that? Being a legend is shit. You know nothing about him and you're complicating what you don't know with these vague stories that are only half truths about something that happened a damned decade ago. Think about that for a while!" Harry took a deep breath as he picked up his tray. "I will be over there, with Holly, because he's my friend." Harry turned and half stalked away from the table, taking deep breaths and trying not to look as irritated as he felt.

Hollen looked up from his food arranging when Harry was a couple of yards from the table, giving Harry a half-heartedly curious look. "Yeah?"

"They are completely retarded," Harry informed him. "So I'm joining you. Don't argue with me; I won't be argued with. Just scoot over so that I can sit next to you and shoot cool, disapproving looks their way if they glance over."

Hollen's brows went up in surprise as he stared at Harry. After a few seconds he shifted over obligingly. "Won't you get in trouble?"

"Thank you." Harry set his tray down and slid into the booth next to Hollen. "And who knows. But it won't be the first time. I'm already in trouble for snapping at Kathy, so what's a little more on top of things."

"Kathy?"

"Kathy Dunham. She's Mom's friend, friend of the family, that sort of thing." Harry began rearranging his tray to his liking.

"Why are you in trouble?"

"Because I'm getting my life at Hathorne organized to my liking, but apparently she's a voice of experience and I should listen to her and do exactly as she says, grateful for her wisdom, when she tells me I'm doing something wrong."

Hollen perked up a little, looking interested. "Really?"

"Well, according to Kathy. I mean, not in those words, of course, but that's so totally the spirit behind it. You see, she came by and was all 'oh, no, you need to do this first' and 'you should see about getting that changed on your schedule because you don't want to take those two classes back-to-back, you'll regret it' and 'there's no reason to pack your Game Boy, you're going to be entirely too busy studying' and then she tried to take it from me." Harry shook his head.

"So what'd you do?"

"Words, you know, I was ignoring those, or trying to, but don't touch my stuff. Just, no, don't touch my stuff. I took it back. Yeah, I took it back. And I repacked it. It was mine and I was taking it and Mom didn't care. But then Kathy's all 'you're being disrespectful' and I was all 'Mom knows what I'm taking to Hathorne and she doesn't care' and then she was all 'I really don't think your mother knows you're taking games' and I was all 'Oh, but she really does, really, seriously, go ask her' and then Kathy was all 'You're being even more disrespectful and we'll just see about this' and I was all 'okay, whatever, I'm busy' and then Mom came in and she was all Mom, which means she took Kathy's side, sort of, mostly, yeah, she took Kathy's side, and they took the Game Boy away because I was apparently being completely disrespectful. Whatever." Harry offered his milkshake to Hollen. "Would you like to try my milkshake? It's strawberry shortcake."

Hollen gave the shake an odd look. "No, that's all right."

Harry took a sip of the milkshake. "But Suntree totally took my side. He came in during the Kathy and Mom exchange where Mom was all 'well, I did say he could take it, but that was kind of disrespectful' and he got all of the versions about what happened and he gave Kathy this pretty cool look I don't know how to describe and she ignored him. I don't think he likes her all that much now that I really think about it… But anyway, Suntree took my side in his Suntree sort of way, all mild and quiet, which means he'll probably give me something even cooler to take and I won't even care about the Game Boy."

"Will he now?"

"Okay, he'll give Tony significant looks and Tony will sneak me something super cool and awesome and all will be good, but it's the same thing."

"How fascinating."

"Are you sure you don't want any milkshake?" Harry gave him a bright smile. "It's delicious. Seriously, it's very, very good. I would totally tell you that it's the best milkshake on earth even if I didn't like milkshakes, but I do like milkshakes, so I'm not just an uninvolved bystander, I'm a voice of great experience. Are you sure you don't want to try it?"

Hollen snorted. "Quite sure."

Harry held out a celery stick. "Celery, then? It's very extra snappy today. I have dressing to go with it, too. Ranch. Mm, dressing. You know you want to."

Hollen took it from him slowly. "All right."

"Wonderful. Oh, I completely forgot." Harry shifted to give Hollen a hug around the stomach, shouldering his way under Hollen's arm. "There. You've been hugged. Everyone should be hugged at least once a day. Now eat your celery."

Hollen took a bite of the celery.

"No dressing?" He pushed the dressing towards Hollen. "You're not one of those weird double dipping people, are you? Freak out at the very idea of it? Suntree is. I love him, I really do, but it's super weird. I can drink his drinks and steal bites of his food, but he gets huffy about double dipping. It's really weird."

"You seem to attract the weird."

"Must be why I'm your friend."

Hollen raised his brows slightly. "You're eleven."

"Weren't you just not totally at my birthday party?"

"I have no idea what you just said."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You were totally at my birthday party, weren't you?"

"Twelve, then. You're twelve. Are you happy now?"

"I'm twelve, of course I'm happy."

"Good. You're twelve."

Harry shrugged. "And so what? Yeah, I'm your friend. Most of the time you treat me like I'm either five or thirty, so what difference does it make?"

"I never recall saying we were friends. I don't have any friends."

"You think you don't have friends. And I didn't say we were friends in the first place; I said that I'm your friend. And there's nothing you can do about that, either. It's a personal choice. You have every right to decide if you're my friend, but me being your friend is entirely on my side of this thing and it's all about how I decide to feel about you and you can't change it. Granted, my state of mind is shifty and liable to change, but you can't change it, only I can. See the difference?"

"That I can't change your mind?"

"What? No. That I can be your friend, even if you aren't mine. Duh."

Hollen studied him with amused bemusement. "Have you had too much sugar today or something?"

"Not in the least." Harry looked down at Hollen's plate. "And you really ought to be eating that, not- ooh, can I have a piece of bourbon chicken?"

"Because onion rings, a salad and a milkshake aren't weird enough?" Hollen asked dryly.

"Certainly not."

Hollen shrugged. "Whatever."

"Awesome." Harry speared a piece of bourbon chicken with his fork and nibbled with a well satisfied sigh. He glanced over Al and Cam and found them watching with vaguely worried expressions. He sent a highly displeased frown their way, then looked back to Hollen with a bright smile. "Would you like an onion ring?"

Hollen stared at him. "That was, um, a bit Jekyll and Hyde there. Maybe even a little unsettling. Cheerful and sweet, glare, cheerful and sweet."

"Jekyll and Hyde is one of my many talents," Harry informed him with a smile, holding out an onion ring. "Onion ring?"

"What the hell," Hollen muttered after a moment, accepting the onion ring. "It's not as if this'll get any weirder."

"Naughty Holly, tempting Jamie's quirky personality to come out and play."

Hollen's mouth twitched up a little. "It's not already out playing?"

"Just peeking out from its cage."

"You keep it in a cage?"

"It can be quite the beast at times."

"I see." Hollen stared at him for a moment, the corners of his mouth turning up a little more.

Harry watched with well concealed satisfaction as Hollen's coal black hair began to shift to a more normal red brown.

"Would you like some more chicken?" Hollen offered after a bit of playing with his fork. "Or maybe some noodles?"

"That would be lovely, thank you." Harry shook his milkshake in Hollen's direction. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want to try the milkshake?"

"Why are you trying to feed me, child?"

"Because you should eat. It's lunch time. That's what people do during lunch time. It's a time for eating lunch; imagine that."

"Not everyone eats lunch at lunchtime."

"Yeah, well, they should. They're missing a prime opportunity to eat lunch right there. So there." Harry stuck out his tongue.

Hollen snorted. "No, I don't want any milkshake."

"Your loss."

"Maybe I don't like milkshakes," Hollen pointed out.

Harry stopped dishing bourbon chicken and noodles off of Hollen's plate into his onion ring bowl to stare at him. "Not like milkshakes? What kind of freak doesn't like milkshakes?"

Hollen raised a brow at him.

"I mean, I can totally understand not liking flavors or something. And I can even kind of understand maybe not liking the extra thick ones or the milky ones or whatever. But seriously, milkshakes in general? As a whole? That's just freaking weird."

"Maybe I'm lactose intolerant," Hollen suggested. "That's-"

"I know what that is," Harry interrupted. "I'm not four. And you're not. I know for a fact that you're not."

"What? Four?"

Harry gave him a look. "Lactose intolerant."

"And how do you know?"

"Because I'm observant. You know, you praised me on that when we first met."

"And when did you observe me not being lactose intolerant?"

"Does my birthday party ring a bell? Because you had big scoops of ice cream and small little pieces of cake on both days. So there."

"I see." Hollen fiddled with his fork again. "You're being obnoxious today. There's something seriously wrong with the world when someone being obnoxious is kind of tolerable and amusing."

"It's the Jamie," Harry told him with a grin. "I radiate Jamie energy and warp the world around me to my liking."

Hollen rolled his eyes.

"Here." Harry put some onion rings on a napkin and pushed it over to Hollen. He fixed Hollen with a stern, no-nonsense look when Hollen tried to push them back. After a few seconds of the look, Hollen began to pick at the breading on one of them instead.

"I don't recognize the girl," he remarked after a while.

Harry looked up as he sucked a noodle into his mouth. "What?"

"The girl." He jerked his head towards Cam. "I don't recognize her."

"Okay, first of all, she's not a girl. She's a woman, if you must, or a female if you want to be technical. But her name's Cam, okay?"

Hollen shrugged. "So? I don't recognize her. She's one of your PDs?"

"Yep."

"Why wasn't she at your party?"

"Maybe she was."

Hollen gave him a look. "Give my observational skills a little more credit."

"Just like you gave mine credit?" Harry asked, raising his brows.

Hollen gave him another look.

Harry snickered. "Okay, fine. She was on a cruise."

"One of your PDs went on a cruise instead of going to your birthday party? That's-"

"Phoenix Cruise, Holly," Harry interrupted. "It was a Phoenix Cruise. Only the most amazing and expensive and perfect magical cruise you can ever go on."

"Hmm…"

"And anyway, her mom gave her a Phoenix Cruise package for Christmas. We think she was hoping that Cam would meet a nice guy and want to have a family instead of a kick-ass career- but that's beside the point. The point is, she was given a Phoenix Cruise package and so far this year, she's scheduled and had to cancel twice for work reasons. When they gave her the next available slots as being part of the weekend of my birthday and then sometime next year, like in the middle of the year, of course I told her to go on the cruise. Duh."

Hollen snorted.

"Hey, you know you'd go on the cruise, too."

"Maybe."

"You know you would."

"Hm."

"But hey!" Harry nudged him with his elbow. "Mom tells me she invited you over for dinner! You're gonna come, right?"

"Mm."

"Oh come on. You gotta! You can meet my snake, Serish. She's awesome. And Tony will be there. Granted, he's pretty much living there now. But Tony will be there; you and Tony actually get along."

"Hm?"

"What are you 'hm'ing?" Harry gave him a look. "Eat."

Hollen almost idly picked up an onion ring and took a bite of it. "Tony's living with you and your mom?"

"We have a PD house," Harry explained. "Well, technically it's a guest house, but all of our guests are PDs, and Tony's claimed a room as his own for forever, Sunny's just about done the same thing, and the others are practically half moved in, so it's really the PD house."

"I see."

"And you should get to know the other PDs, too."

"Why?"

"Because we spend time together," Harry told him as if it were obvious. "So you should get to know everyone else." He waved a heating charm over his food as he took a noisy drink from his milkshake. "Al's cool. He's one of the idiots that the table. So he's cool when he's not being a retard. You'll have to forgive him, he's kind of young."

Hollen burst out with a moment of real laughter. "He's young? And you're not?"

Harry made a dismissive sound. "Old in spirit. Like how people have inner children struggling to get out? I have an insane old person trying to get out." Harry grinned. "He's rather taxing to deal with at times, but alas, such is my life."

"Are you sure you haven't had, like, an entire bowl of sugar today?"

"Quite sure. I had raisin bran for breakfast. With bananas." Harry grinned. "Because bananas are awesome. And you're obviously seeing what I'm having for my late lunch. And oh, I had some carrot sticks and broccoli around eleven."

"What? Uncooked broccoli?"

"Best thing ever."

"That has got to be the strangest thing I think I've heard so far."

"You know, just because most children don't like broccoli doesn't mean you should stereotype them all that way. Especially a unique flower such as myself."

Hollen chuckled. "You're a unique flower, all right."

"But as I was saying… Al's kind of young. And Cam, too, really. I mean, you'd think…" Harry sighed and shook his head. "You'd think they'd be able to look beyond the obvious and see what's really there and not pay any attention to any sort of legend thing going on, but no. I guess there's just a hell of a lot more going on with you being a legend and everything connected to you being a legend. But still. Really. Seriously. Completely. Totally. Help me out, I'm running out of words."

"Entirely?"

"Ooh, good one. Got any more?"

"Utterly? Exclusively?"

"Very nice. Though it calls to mind the image of designer cows on limited release."

"What?"

"Well, utterly makes me think of udderly which makes me think of udders which makes me think of cows. And exclusively always makes me think of only being able to get something really nice in a particular place and that makes me think of only being able to get things for a limited time. So it ends with really nice cows on limited release, and if you're going down that road, they might as well be designer cows." Harry took a bite of one of his onion rings. "I've always wanted a designer cow."

Hollen laughed again. "You're one weird kid."

"I prefer to think of myself as peculiar. Sort of like pickles."

Hollen put his arm around him and gave him a little shake. "You are, in fact, peculiar like pickles," he said agreeably. "Very much so."

Harry studied his assortment of food. "And sadly, pickles I do not have. I have cucumbers. I like cucumbers, too. But pickles are like cucumbers with special powers. Do you know how pickles are made?"

"From cucumbers. About all I know."

"It's a brine fermentation process. I was rather bored in the library a couple of weeks ago."

"And you just decided out of nowhere to look up information on pickles?"

"Yes."

Hollen studied him. "Yeah, I can see it."

"Mmhm." Harry wound some noodles around his fork and after several unsuccessful attempts to bring the fork to his mouth with the noodles intact he just put a light holding charm on them until he got the fork into his mouth. He was aware of Hollen watching him with an odd expression. Harry raised his brows at him and looked pointedly at Hollen's fork and then at Hollen's plate.

"Is that a hint that I should be eating?"

"Mmhm."

Hollen gave a bit of a shrug. "I was in the mood for it when I bought it, but I wasn't really once I sat down. It smelled good when I first got it; I guess the charm wore off by the time I got back to the table."

Harry gave him an unconvinced look.

"What?"

He rolled his eyes and shifted to give Hollen another quick hug.

"I wasn't aware that was a hug worthy comment," Hollen remarked, patting his back a little.

"Don't even try that," Harry mumbled into his side. After a second he pulled back and fixed Hollen with an exasperated, amused look. "The charm wore off?"

Hollen gave him a slightly cool look. "Yes."

"Whatever. Take my salad, I'll take your Chinese, and everything will once again be right with the world."

"Maybe I'm not hungry. Maybe I wasn't very hungry when I came in here."

Harry eyed the large plate of Chinese food on Hollen's tray. "Not buying that story."

Hollen studied him for a handful of moments.

"Salad. Salad is yummyful. Full of yum. And goodness. You should be eating." Harry poked Hollen's side lightly. "You should take better care of yourself."

"Pushy, aren't you?"

"Highly opinionated, remember?"

"In other words, pushy."

"Strongly opinionated. And obstinate. And-"

"Obnoxious?"

Harry eyed him. "It continues the 'O' theme, granted, but not a word I would have chosen for myself. No, not a word I would have chosen. Not a very uplifting word, is it? Not something really befitting someone of my greatness. I think you should take that word back to the store and get another."

Hollen snorted. "Does outlandish work better for you, your highness?"

"Ah, much better. Yes. Much better. And now that that's solved, you'll be taking the salad, yes? And I can have the Chinese goodness? Though, just a tip for the future, in case you ever decide to take me out for Chinese, not that I'm saying that you would, but it would be totally awesome if you did, but if you ever do take me out for Chinese, or in some other way involve me in Chinese food escapades, just a tip, I actually tend to prefer white rice."

"I see. And you couldn't have just said, 'hey, I like white rice better' or something?"

"I just did."

"There was a lot of unnecessary babble added in."

"I still said it."

Hollen snorted and switched their plates.

"Completely wonderful. Fabulous, even. Seriously, completely, totally-"

"Eat."

"Fabulous." Harry set into the food with a pleased little smile. Several minutes passed in comfortable silence.

"Oh, kid?"

"Yes, adult?"

"You can turn the volume down on that cheer now. I'm in a better mood."

Harry gave him a wide-eyed, innocent look.

"That doesn't fool me. At all. I might have fallen for it if I didn't know you better, but I do. You can take the manic cheerfulness and turn the heat down. I'm actually rather surprised you tried so hard."

"That's what friends do. They try and make you smile when you want to frown."

"I'm still not so sure about that friend thing."

"Friends are people that you like being around, have things in common with, feel affection, regard and trust for. To name just a few things. I'm quite sure about it on my side of things, and that's all I can really control."

Hollen regarded him with an odd expression. "I really would have thought your PDs would have tried harder to warn you off by now."

"They have."

"They have?"

"Yes, they have."

"But you're still…"

"I'm not a puppet, you know. I can make my own decisions." Harry shifted to face Hollen. "They talked to me about you and I told them that I really have no intention of not liking you because of something in your past. This year has been a big learning experience for me, from Quidditch camp to my birthday party and lots of little things in-between. I'm going to have to make very definite decisions in life and stick to them. And making it clear that you're my friend and I won't put up with stupidity from my family is something that I've decided to be very definite about."

"This friend thing…"

Harry studied him. "What? Is it just my age or the fact you obviously have no idea how to have friends?"

"Watch it."

Harry gave him a sweet smile.

"You're twelve."

"Yes, I am. But that doesn't define me. You need to stop attaching me to my age and instead attach my age to me. Understand? You already treat me like an adult much of the time; this shouldn't be so hard."

"You know, when I met you, I certainly didn't think…"

"Yeah? Most people don't. But then they get sucked in, too," Harry told him cheerfully. "Suntree tells me I have a very magnetic personality. And that's awesome. I always get this image of me standing all serene-like and people flying through the air and sticking to me, pulled by my magneticness. Now that's a cool image, don't you think?"

Hollen snorted and reached out to ruffle his hair.

"Hey, don't mess up the style."

"What style? It's sticking up everywhere like it hasn't seen a comb or brush in years. And don't tell me that's a style. That's not a style, that's a disaster."

Harry stuck out his tongue.

"I suggest you eat my Chinese before it gets cold."

"Warming charms are awesome. And it's my food now. That's what happens when you switch. My unexpected Chinese. Rar."

"Did you just say rar?" Hollen asked with a smile.

"Raaar."

"Eat your food."

Harry smiled back and turned to the plate of Chinese food. A flick of his hand cast a warming charm over the food and a tap of his finger applied one to the plate. With that done, he set into it, aware of Hollen watching him thoughtfully as he picked at the salad.

"So, Holly?" Harry said after several minutes.

"Yes, fiend?"

"Are you busy today?"

"Am I busy?"

"I obviously don't know. That's why I asked you."

Hollen flicked him on the shoulder.

Harry shot him a wounded look as he rubbed his shoulder. "Ow."

"I'm so not falling for that."

"Fine." Harry dropped his hand. "Are you busy?"

"Maybe not."

"Maybe not?"

"I'm trying to figure out why you might be asking and what answer might be safest."

Harry snickered. "Is Holly scared of little ol' Jamie?"

"Holly is thinking that little ol' Jamie isn't the most stable Jamie around."

Harry grinned. "So if your public image is to be believed, we'll get along just fine then."

Hollen stared at him. "That's the way you've heard me described?"

Harry put down his fork slowly. "Surely you must be aware of that."

"Yes, of course, but…"

Harry shifted a little closer to him. "But?"

Hollen gave a shrug. "Unstable isn't a very flattering word, that's all," he said airily.

"There're an awful lot of words that aren't. But words are just words. How would you describe yourself?"

"Uh… I don't know. Fabulous?"

Harry snorted. "And?"

"Amazing?"

Harry rolled his eyes.

"So how would you describe yourself?" Hollen asked.

"Fabulous and amazing," Harry said with a snicker.

"There you go."

"Seriously, though," Harry said with a little laugh, "I'd have to say… I'm pretty quirky, but my family is pretty quirky and my life has never been what you could call conventional or traditional in any way. I'm highly opinionated to the point of seeming inflexible, but if people just talk to me rationally, I like to think that I'm open to new ideas. I'm just the kind of person to dig in my heels on something if someone is refusing to see other possibilities."

Hollen snorted. "That I can certainly see."

Harry grinned. "I'm pretty smart and I know it, and I'm pretty magically powerful and I definitely know it. I have to work sometimes on not being a bit arrogant. With the family I have, that's actually not too hard. They're always happy to kick my butt if I seem to need a reality check. Especially Mom and The Spoon-"

"The Spoon," Hollen interrupted dryly. "Must you say it so dramatically?"

"Yes, I must." Harry crumbled an onion ring up over the noodles. "The PDs have actually included The Spoon in the important need-to-know info that they've put together in case someone else needs to stand in for one of them in the future. The Spoon is a very powerful force in my house."

"What's so special about this spoon?"

"No, no, no. It's… The Spoon."

"Fine, what's so special about… The Spoon?"

Harry grinned. "It's my mom's spoon of doom. She doesn't have magic. You know that, right?"

"Yes."

"She doesn't need magic; she has The Spoon."

"Dun, dun, dun," Hollen added under his breath.

Harry grinned. "Exactly. Now, The Spoon looks pretty harmless at first glance, but don't be fooled by the innocent appearance. While it might look like a faded, wooden baking spoon, it's actually an instrument designed to deliver doom in the form of a sharp, hard whack. And she doesn't mess around with that thing. It's like the Wild West with her. I'm not even sure where she keeps The Spoon most of the time, I just know it's in her hand at the slightest sign of misbehavior. You might think you can dodge The Spoon, but it always finds you. You might think you can handle the smack, but it always gets you. Even the PDs respect The Spoon."

"I think that actually almost gave me goose bumps."

"As well it should."

Hollen gave him an odd smile. "Life must be very interesting at your house."

"Oh yes, very."

Hollen shook his head as if to clear it. "You were asking about my day?"

"I was just wondering if you wanted to maybe watch the second Turtles movie. I noticed you have it when I visited last time."

"Your PDs will probably have a heart attack," he said after a few moments, nodding to the table where Cam and Al were keeping a close eye on them.

"I'm rather ticked off at them at the moment. They can deal."

"Can they now?"

"Yes. They can. Turtles?"

Hollen poked at the salad briefly. "Well. You want to?"

"I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't."

"I suppose I have time for that, if it's all right with them."

"Don't worry." Harry shot a glare towards Al and Cam. "It will be."

"It almost feels like there should be an ominous thunder crack about now."

"That's life. Dramatic sounds of nature are always missing their cues. I should start carrying a tape recorder of sounds with me."

Hollen laughed.

"Now eat your salad," Harry told him.

"Eh, my appetite comes and goes."

"Milkshake?"

"Why do you keep bringing that up?"

"Because it's so amazing. Every bite is an explosion of strawberry shortcake goodness."

"Oh, all right."

Harry watched with amusement as Hollen took a sip and then looked faintly surprised at how good it was. "You can have the rest, if you want," Harry told him with a grin. "Provided I can have some of your tea. That's peach, isn't it?"

"Yes." Hollen considered him. "Dinners must be interesting at your house."

"At home everyone pretty much has the same choices, you know. But yeah, when we go out to eat and there're lots of different things on the table, I do tend to try a little bit of everything before the meal's over." Harry grinned. "I'm too adorable to resist, you see."

Hollen rolled his eyes.

"Come on, eat some salad," Harry gave him a little nudge. "Have a few bites. Go on."

"Will you stop nagging if I do?"

"Yes."

"All right, fine." Hollen picked up the fork.

Harry ignored him as he set about twirling more noodles onto his fork, trying to keep them there without the use of magic. Only once he succeeded did he notice that Hollen had actually begun to eat and Harry hid a smile behind his napkin.

"I can tell you're smiling at me," Hollen muttered. "This isn't because of you. My appetite just happened to mysteriously reappear."

"If you say so."

"I do."

"Suit yourself."

"I will."

"Great."

Hollen gave Harry a faint smile. "Fine."

Harry set to finishing the rest of his food with a satisfied hum.

"Why don't you take the plates over to the bin and then talk to your PDs while I finish up the salad?" Hollen asked once Harry had finished. "And if you're not allowed-"

"I will be."

"You're a confident little scamp, that's for sure."

"Ooh, I don't think I've ever been called a scamp before. Which, on reflection, is rather an oversight on Suntree's part," he mused. "I'll have to add that to my book."

"You have a book?"

Harry gave him a mysterious smile. "One of the eternal questions. Right up there with 'how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop?'."

"'The world may never know'," Hollen said dryly.

"Now eat. I'll be back quick as a flash." Harry made sure all of his dishes were on his tray and stood to take it over to one of the bins. He double checked to make sure he hadn't left anything important on the tray before setting it down in the green bin. As soon as his hands were clear, the tray and its contents disappeared with a little pop.

Harry lingered there a moment before turning and making his way back to Al and Cam's table. Their conversation trailed off as Harry approached, both looking up with varying degrees of wariness as he stopped beside the table, hands in his pockets.

"All done?" Al asked after a moment.

"Not quite. Seeing as how I'm not actually here to do anything-"

"No, you had to come deliver some important thank you notes," Al said. "Because of the party. And you needed to fill out some sort of paperwork now that you're twelve, to officially become a consultant with the pay and benefits and all of that. That's what Tony said."

"Yeah. I did all of that a couple of weeks ago. Well, the thank you notes I obviously didn't do a couple of weeks ago, but they weren't important enough warrant me visiting here today. Tony was just getting me the hell out of the house, really."

"Oh."

"Why did he…?" Cam trailed off.

"Everyone is out of their mind trying to get me ready to go off to school. You've just missed it. Well, it's really just Suntree, Kathy and Mom. Well, it's really just Suntree and Kathy."

"Sunny's going out of his mind?" Cam asked doubtfully.

"How can you go out of something you don't have to begin with?" Al muttered.

"I heard that. But no, he's not. He's not, but Kathy, like, suddenly realized that we were planning the big to school thing without her and she started to go over everything, like Sunny would miss something or something. It was really weird. But that's not the point. The point is that I don't actually have anything I'm doing here today, so I've asked Hollen if he'd like to watch a movie in his office and he agreed."

"I see," Cam said slowly.

"So that's what I'll be doing."

Al and Cam exchanged an odd look that Harry couldn't read. "So you'll be watching a movie with him…" Cam said at last. "How long will you be?"

"It's a movie," Harry pointed out. "It'll be probably a couple of hours or something. Because it's a movie."

"Well. Have a good time with that, I guess." Cam coughed. "I mean, yeah… have a good time."

"I'm not going to yell at you again," Harry said dryly. "I imagine I said more than enough the first time."

"More than enough," Al agreed.

"But guys, come on, try to at least be civil. I know he makes it hard sometimes. Trust me; I really do know that he makes it really hard sometimes. But when he's not being an ass, he's actually kind of likeable. And either way, he's still a person and he honestly actually does have feelings."

"We are allowed to dislike someone," Al pointed out.

"You totally are, yeah. But I seriously think you might like him if you just looked past the stories and legend and Death-Wish crap and his bad attitude and all of that crap. He's an Auror, just like you. And he's my friend, just like you. Just like both of you. And I'm not asking you to love him or apologize to him or anything, I'm just saying… think about how you'd feel in his place before you be weird about him."

Cam fidgeted. Al remained silent, expression unreadable.

"Having family can be so exasperating," Harry muttered. "Come here, hugs." Harry gave them both quick hugs. "I'm still irritated with you, but I was maybe extra willing to snap at you about it. Not wrong, mind you, just extra snappy. But I'll see you two later."

"Be good," Cam told him.

"Yeah, be good," Al echoed. "Don't get into trouble."

"The same can be said for you two. Separately, of course." With another roll of his eyes, Harry made his way back to Hollen's table. Hollen seemed to be staring into the depths of the milkshake he was finishing, but Harry could feel the intensity of his stare, even if he couldn't see Hollen's eyes.

"So, I was thinking," Harry said as soon as he was near enough to speak conversationally, "that maybe we should watch the first movie again? It's been more than a few months since we last saw it together. I know I fell asleep, so I don't know how much you saw or remember from it. But if you remember it, we can just watch the second movie, or we could always just watch something else entirely."

"It doesn't matter to me. We can watch the first one again."

"Cool beans."

"And how, pray tell, are beans cool?"

"Dude, you've seriously never heard the phrase cool beans?"

"I was born in 1947," Hollen said dryly. "I'm familiar with the phrase 'cool beans' and have been for many years."

"Good. I was worried you were a pod person or something."

"And just what do you know about pod people?" Hollen asked, brows going up a little.

"Uh, Al didn't at all show me the movie one night, not at all."

"Right."

"Don't tell Mom; she doesn't know. Mom gets kind of weird about things she thinks might scare me." He rolled his eyes.

"Right. Don't tell your mother."

"So we'll watch the first Turtles movie." Hollen eyed him. "Aren't you a little old for Turtles?"

"You seriously have the movies in your office and you ask me that?"

Hollen opened his mouth and then closed it. "Do you still want pickles?"

"What?" Harry grinned. "Seriously?"

"No, I lie."

"You'll be my hero if you get me pickles."

Hollen paused in standing up to consider that. "You come pretty cheap."

"I amend – you'll be my hero for as long as the pickles last if you get me pickles."

"Then I'll get you pickles."

"Now that's awesome."

"Everything's always awesome in your world." Hollen rolled his eyes. "Take care of the dishes for me and I'll get you some pickles."

"Great!" Harry grabbed the tray from the table and practically skipped to the nearest green bin, then waited outside of the restaurant Hollen had ducked into.

"You're quite the energetic thing," Hollen observed as he came out, holding a paper bag.

"Yes, well, I'm twelve."

"And soon you'll be thirteen and you won't be able to fall back on being twelve any more and what will you do then?"

"I'll say I'm thirteen. Obviously."

"Obviously," Hollen said dryly. "And when saying that you're a certain age no longer works?"

"Never fear, I'll have a back up by then."

"I'm sure you will." Hollen ruffled Harry's hair and handed him the bag. "And now I'm your hero."

"Absolutely."

"Let's go." Hollen made his way to the doors leading out of the cafeteria. Harry lingered a moment to peek inside the bag and he saw that Hollen had managed to get him a small paper box presumably filled with pickles. "Are you coming?" Hollen called from the door.

"Yep!" Harry hurried to catch up, though by the time he'd reached the doors, Hollen had already gone through them and was heading down the hallway. Harry hurried to catch him, then grabbed his hand, forcing Hollen to slow down or send them tumbling to the floor.

"Can I help you?"

"You are walking entirely too fast," Harry informed him, setting a more comfortable pace. "I am not a bunny rabbit or something else; therefore, I'm not letting go of you until you learn how to walk with people shorter than you."

"And if I forcibly remove my hand from yours?"

Harry fixed him with a wide-eyed look as he gripped Hollen's wrist with his other hand, still clutching the bag of pickles. "You wouldn't do that to me, would you? Innocent little Jamie?"

Hollen's eyes narrowed. "The cute and innocent act doesn't work on me."

"But I am cute and innocent," Harry protested. "Well, cute. And mostly innocent. Okay, fine, but definitely cute."

"Definitely something," Hollen muttered.

"Definitely," Harry agreed. "And here's the elevator that does more than elevate." He tugged Hollen forward the last few feet, earning a low grumble from Hollen, and jabbed the elevator button.

The doors opened within seconds and Harry stepped back as the passengers in the car got off, all three seeming to unconsciously put more space between themselves and Hollen, though two lingered long enough to give Harry nods.

"Hey, JP."

"Good birthday party?"

Harry nodded. "Hi yourself and great. You two have a good day," Harry called after them, moving into the elevator. Hollen followed at a more sedate pace, though the dignity of it was lost when Harry grabbed his wrist and pulled him against the elevator wall.

"What are you doing now?"

"Shh." Harry cocked his head to the side as he reached out to hold down the 'open doors' button. He couldn't hear anything or see anything, but there was a tingling mass of magic coming their way that was unusual enough to grab his attention through his shields. "I think something…" he trailed off as a man came around the corner and headed straight for the elevator, pushing a rolling cart covered in boxes that just hummed of magic.

"Hold the- thanks!" He pushed the cart into the elevator with care. "Phew. I heard the elevator doors open as I approached the corner, but I thought for sure I wasn't going to make it."

"I heard the cart and thought maybe someone was coming for the elevator." Harry pulled his hand away from the 'open doors' button. "What floor and section?"

"Right two, up three." The man tried to rub his cheek against his shoulder, not letting go of the cart.

"Up, huh?" Harry pushed the buttons. "Communications Department?"

"That'd be the place." He frowned and pushed the cart a little; it made no noise. "How'd you hear the cart? It's silenced."

"Oh? Well, I must have heard you huffing and puffing along then."

He shrugged. "How was the birthday?"

"Big and long and full of cake and presents, even though I told people not to bring me presents. Oh, and there were a few side dishes of drama. And someone ate all of the kiwi. We're still trying to figure out how that happened." Harry slanted a grin at Hollen and then looked back to the man. "And would you believe that someone gave me a hundred slap bracelets?"

Hollen's eyes narrowed slightly as the man laughed. "Those bracelets you slap onto your arm? My daughter loves those things. What on earth are you going to do with a hundred of those?"

"They're actually likely going to be one of the best, albeit one of the strangest, gifts I've gotten. I've got a plan to charm them with action-triggered shields of various kinds, as sturdy as I can make them, and the action will be the slap." Harry grinned. "Just slap the bracelet on and it's an instant shield."

The man grinned. "That sounds pretty darn handy. I guess whoever gave you those did get you a pretty good present."

"Yeah, he really did," Harry agreed, eyeing the nondescript boxes stacked up on the cart. "What'cha got there, Franko?"

"Damned sensitive equipment is what I've got here," he sighed. "It can't be moved magically, so here I am, lugging carts about on my day off. I can't say much more than that."

"Youch. Really?"

"Well, I took the week off, so it's one of my days off, but it's still a day off. It all came in today, instead of next week like it was supposed to, and of course this stuff can't sit and wait a week, I've got to deliver it and set it up today. So here I am."

"It sounds like a conspiracy to me."

"I'm with you on that."

"Oh, hey, Holly, this is Franko- er, Frank. Frank, this is Hollen. I mean, unless you two know each other, but since you haven't said hello, I'm betting not."

Frank cleared his throat. "No, not really. I mean, I've seen you around the halls and stuff, and I fixed your printer last year, but we've never really-"

"I remember. The printer is still working great," Hollen offered. "You did a good job."

The man grinned. "Thanks. So how ya doing?"

Hollen glanced over at Harry, and then his brows went up when he seemed to realize that Frank was talking to him. "Oh, I'm, you know, working. Fine." Hollen was quiet a moment, then gave a small start of realization. "And you?"

"Doing well. I'm working my tail off, but that's nothing new. I'm sure you know how that is. And I'd offer to shake your hand, but I've got to keep the cart balanced."

"Quite."

Frank looked to Harry. "Hey, JP, you start school next week, don't you?"

"Yep," Harry told him cheerfully. "And then I'll be busy, busy and won't be around as much."

"That's school." He tried to rub his cheek against his shoulder again. "That's why I took the week off, actually. I wanted to spend some time with the kids before they went back to school. Didn't quite work out the way I planned, but I guess it's just the one day. And on account of it being a personal day I'm working, that's overtime, so I guess that's not that bad."

"Take what you can get," Harry agreed.

"So what are you doing around here today?" Frank asked curiously.

"Just hanging out since I'll be busy, busy once school starts. Holly and I are going to watch a movie in his office. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Holly owns it so that makes him pretty cool," Harry grinned.

"You would find that cool," Frank said dryly.

Harry sniffed. "What can I say? I have refined taste."

The elevator announced their arrival to Frank's destination.

"Hey, JP, can you-?"

"I've got the doors." Harry pushed the 'doors open' button, pressing back against the wall.

With care, Frank eased the cart out of the elevator backwards, only looking away from his task once he was well clear of the doors. "You two have fun," he chuckled. "And hey, Hollen, this kid could sell sand on a beach if he's got a mind to do it; you should keep an eye on him."

"Come on, Franko, I'm totally into real estate," Harry protested. "Speaking of, there's this bridge-"

"Hah!"

The doors slid closed.

"As an officer of the law I feel it my duty to ask if you're properly licensed to be selling bridges," Hollen said dryly.

"Oh, absolutely, officer." Harry pushed the right buttons to take them back down to Hollen's office.

Hollen rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, I figured out pretty quickly that I ought to keep my eye on you."

"I bet you did."

"Believe me, I did."

Harry preened.

"Yeah, you would be proud of that."

"You bet."

"Definitely keeping my eye on you," Hollen murmured.

"You do that."

Hollen rolled his eyes and leaned back against the elevator wall. They'd passed two floors when Hollen spoke. "You seem to know just about everyone."

"Plenty of people," Harry agreed. "Though not quite everyone, just about or otherwise. I'm not Suntree."

"How do you know Frank?"

"Same way you do. He came by Tony's office one day to fix something while I was there and we started chatting and he showed me how to fix some of the magical equipment. I occasionally drop by the SSD."

"SSD?"

Harry looked around at Hollen, brows raised. "Yeah… The Service and Systems Department? They keep this place running?"

"Right, yes, the SSD."

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"I know it by the Service Department."

Harry considered him, and then nodded. "All right."

"So your PDs will let you talk to just about anyone but me."

Harry snorted. "Including you, obviously, or we wouldn't be talking now. And why not? I might learn something interesting." He opened the pickle bag and pulled out the box to peer inside. It was filled to the max with pickle spears. "How'd you swing this?"

"I went in, spoke to the head elf and requested a box full of pickles. Elves are generally more than happy to accommodate."

"Go you. I've never thought to do that. Requesting more with a meal, sure thing, but just on their own, never thought of it. How much was it, out of curiosity?"

Hollen's mouth twitched. "Pella was only too happy to give them to me when she heard they were for you." He raised a brow slightly. "Because you know everyone."

"Pella's such a sweetie," Harry laughed, putting the box back in the bag. "And she's got her eye on Matten; he's one of the waiter elves at A Taste of Italy. I think he likes her, too, but he's a little shyer. It's pretty sweet."

"Is there anything you don't know?" Hollen asked. "Really? And anyone you haven't met?"

"I haven't met the President," Harry grinned.

"Perhaps I should arrange that," Hollen muttered.

"You've met the President of the Magical United States?"

"I've been the President of the Magical United States," Hollen snorted. "Aurors with morphing ability act as body doubles when he has to make an appearance in a high risk situation."

"Way cool…"

The elevator chimed their arrival and the doors slid open.

"Come along now," Hollen said, giving Harry a nudge into the hallway. Harry snagged his hand before Hollen could get ahead of him. "So, Jamie, I can't help but be curious…"

"Intriguing lead in. Yes?"

"How did you know Frank was going to be coming around the corner with the cart?"

"The cart? Him huffing along?"

"Not buying it."

"Um. It's classified?"

Hollen gave him a look. "More classified than the things I already know?"

"Declassified hallways?"

"Just what the hell does that mean?"

"It means I'll tell you when we get to your office because your office has more warding than the hallways."

"Fair enough."

A turn and several doors later Hollen stopped and tapped lightly on his office door. The door opened after a moment and Harry slipped under Hollen's arm and darted inside, only to stop short a few feet into the office, looking around in surprise. "Wow. You finally redecorated. After months and months of nothing."

"I did."

Harry looked around slowly. Nearly everything in the office was different. The carpet had been replaced with something thicker and the color of deep red wine, and the walls had been sponged plum with red undertones. The furniture had been replaced with heavier, sturdier versions. The desk was stout cherry wood and gracefully showing age and the coffee table and end tables were the same. The chairs and couch had been replaced by a large sofa and a single, overstuffed chair. They had Harry's rapt attention. "Is that red leather?" he breathed.

"That it is."

"I love leather…" Harry lost no time in sprawling out on the sofa, the bag of pickles dropped unceremoniously on the coffee table as he pressed his face against the leather and breathed in its scent.

"Yes, you do seem to love leather," Hollen snorted from somewhere to his right.

"It's heavenly." He snuggled into it. "You can get the Turtles. I'm just going to lay here and breathe."

"You mean you actually want me to get the Turtles? Go fetch them from the sewer? Because I may be made of awesome, but I'm not sure I could arrange that on such short notice, not even for you."

"Silly Holly. Even if you could get the Turtles, I bet you'd just keep them for yourself."

"Not likely. They're teenagers."

"They're mutant turtles. Ninja mutant turtles. Teenage or not, they can't exactly be governed by human laws. And besides, teenager can mean a lot."

"Hm. You might have a point."

Harry rested his cheek against the cool leather to grin at Hollen. "Maybe I could have one of them at least?"

"Should I ever come into the possession of mutant turtles with ninja abilities, we will have that discussion."

"If you insist."

"And by all means," Hollen added dryly, "feel free to make yourself comfortable."

"Don't worry, I have." Harry watched Hollen open the doors of the cherry cabinet, revealing a television and a vertical movie rack. Harry sat up in surprise. "Dude, you got a seriously bigger TV, too. You sure don't do things by halves, do you?"

"Life's too short."

"I must remember that."

Hollen aimed a look over his shoulder. "That argument won't let you eat dessert before dinner or something equally ridiculous. And if you do try to use that argument, don't bring me into your mad plans. I will not have a woman show up at my door with a spoon just because I bought myself a larger TV and that somehow made you feel like you were entitled to have sugar before protein."

"You, not cool."

"If you want cool, move out of the desert. I hear the arctic is pretty cool."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You amuse me. Even if you know nothing about me. Whatever happened to being super observant, huh? You've complained often enough about my love of broccoli and carrots and other good for you things that you ought to know I'm not the dessert before dinner type."

"I'm just covering my bases."

"Your ass, more like it," Harry snorted.

"Your ass needs to move." Hollen put the movie in and then came to stand next to the couch, eyeing him. "For such a short person, you take up an awful lot of that couch."

"First of all, I'm tall for my age, so I'm only short in comparison to an adult. Second of all, I'm lying down, so of course I'm taking up an awful lot of the couch. Third of all, I won't be short forever and one day I'll probably be as tall as you."

"I'm a morpher. I can always be taller than you."

"Cheater." Harry sat up, swinging his legs around.

"Good."

"What? No 'thank you'?" Harry toppled sideways and sprawled again just as Hollen went to sit. Hollen gave him a narrow-eyed look. Harry sprawled even more.

"Fine. Thank you."

"I suppose it'll have to do." Harry pushed himself up and gave the couch a pat. "Sit, sit."

Hollen eyed him almost suspiciously.

"I'm not going to turn into a ravenous monster and attack you and eat your soul or something," Harry snorted. "Sit."

"You are entirely too bossy," Hollen informed him, sitting nonetheless.

"I prefer confident." Harry leaned forward to snag the bag of pickles and opened them gleefully. "Mm, pickle-y goodness."

"Strange child."

"Could be," Harry agreed amiably as he picked out several pickles to munch on, closing the box to save the rest for later.

"I will curse you if you get pickle juice on my couch."

"I laugh scornfully in your general direction for even thinking I'd be sloppy enough to get pickle juice on something, let alone leather."

Hollen stared at him.

"What?"

"I'm waiting to hear scornful laughter."

"I don't have to laugh scornfully. I told you that I was laughing scornfully. That's all the effort I need to put into it."

Hollen rolled his eyes and slouched, kicking off his shoes and putting his blue socked feet up on the edge of the coffee table. Harry followed his lead, wriggling his toes in his Snitch covered socks as he munched on pickles.

"That's all you're going to eat?" Hollen asked after Harry had finished them and didn't move to get any more.

"You don't want your pickle hero status to last longer?"

"Carry on then."

Harry sniggered, glancing over at Hollen's slouched form. On a whim he wriggled over to lean against Hollen's side.

Hollen stiffened slightly for several moments before slowly relaxing. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Getting comfy."

"On me."

"You're warm."

"You're cold?"

"One doesn't have to be cold to like being warm, you know. Just so long as you're not actually hot, then warm is almost always nice."

"I see."

"And you don't have a blanket, do you? See, I thought not."

"In fact, I don't. But there is such a thing as a warming charm. It's called magic. And there's also such a thing called Transfiguration. Making a temporary blanket from some paper would be quite easy." Hollen snorted. "You could probably do it in your sleep."

"Quiet. What a silly thing to do. Bringing logic into this. This isn't logical, this is about comfy warm."

Hollen snorted. "Whatever. And-"

"Shh! Movie."

"Hey, I don't think so," Hollen summoned the remote and paused the movie. "Cart, elevator, explain."

Harry rolled his eyes, tipping his head back to look at Hollen. "You seriously haven't worked it out?"

"Don't push it."

"You know that I can sense magic to a degree, being all Maguristy and stuff, so that's what I did. I do have mind shields up so that I'm not always sensing magic, but if something's unusual enough or unexpected or there's enough magic in a small space, then it catches my attention. The stuff on the cart caught my attention, I could tell it was moving in our direction, so I put two and two together and came up with something magical being moved towards the elevators and I was right. Ta da."

Hollen rolled his eyes. "Sometimes things aren't as obvious as you think they are." He un-paused the movie.

Harry grinned to himself as he sprawled more comfortably against Hollen's side. Hollen's chaotic magic was quieter today and getting slowly more settled where Harry was leaning into him, but it wasn't long before the little prickles and shifts and twitches of the magic pressing against his, doing the magical equivalent of poking and prodding at him, started to become distracting. Harry snagged Hollen's hand, pulling Hollen's arm around him snugly and clasping the hand in both of his, letting the skin to skin contact quicken the calming process.

"Why do you do that?" Hollen asked after a few minutes, sounding a little puzzled.

"Hm?

"Why do you do that?" Hollen repeated. "Why are you always touching."

"I'm a touchy kind of person. My family is, too." Harry hummed thoughtfully. "And the werewolves, of course. I don't know if you've ever been around social werewolves, but they're constantly touching. Hugs are always guaranteed. Anyway, touch is nice." Harry gave Hollen's hand a little pet. "And really, it's just easier to give in to me," he finished cheerfully. "I usually win."

Hollen snorted but didn't pull his hand away. Harry smiled a little.

As the movie played, Hollen began to relax a little more as his magic settled. It still felt chaotic against Harry's own, but the chaos was more peaceful, the prickles and pokes more like curious little nudges. Through the contact, Harry realized that whatever it was in the office that was releasing the soothing, calming magic into the room was keyed specifically to Hollen's magic and was trying to do the same thing Harry's magic was doing. Curiously, Harry opened his shields enough to find the source; he brushed a query against the source when he found it and was surprised that he recognized the lingering traces of the caster's magic to be Healer Zohler's.

"You seem distracted," Hollen remarked, breaking Harry's concentration.

"What? Oh, no. I just zoned out."

Hollen snorted. "Should I rewind?"

"Nah, I didn't miss much."

"This was your idea, kid."

"Hush you."

Hollen made a huff of a noise.

Harry gave his hand another little pet and focused on ignoring the feel of Hollen's magic in favor of watching the movie. Despite his efforts, he was still aware of the shifting changes as Hollen's magic calmed, making Hollen relax and calm, prompting his magic to relax and calm. By the end of the movie, the prickles and pokes and needling of Hollen's magic was the most passive Harry had ever noticed, even if there were lingering areas of strain and tension.

"Hey, kid," Hollen murmured, drawing Harry's attention away from the feel of magic and back to the room. On the screen, the movie was wrapping up.

"Yeah?"

"Are you doing something?"

"Just watching the movie. You know, Turtles playing on the TV. The same thing I've been doing since the movie started."

Hollen flexed his fingers a little. "You're doing something with your magic, though. I can feel something…"

"I haven't really done anything, no," Harry said after a moment. "I've just been trying to watch the green heroes doing green hero things."

There was a stretching, thoughtful silence before Hollen gripped Harry's hand in his a little tightly. "What is this?"

"My hand…? Your hand? Holding hands? Skin? There're a lot of possibilities…" Harry trailed off at Hollen's low, impatient noise.

"Jamie." His voice hardened a little. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just sitting here-"

"Jamie."

"I am just sitting here," Harry put in firmly. "And my magic is doing what my magic does."

"Explain."

Harry let out heavy breath and played absently with Hollen's fingers as he considered how much he could say. "I don't sense magic like a Magurist," he said at last. "Or, well, it's more that I sense magic beyond what a Magurist senses, or maybe more that my Magurist ability to sense and interact with magic is much more finely tuned. I'm aware of the world around me like a Magurist, aware of the atmospheric magic, aware of all of that, but my magic doesn't just sit back passively…"

"Keep going," Hollen prompted quietly, tone reserved.

"All right, you see, the healers tell me that I have very aggressively stable magic. Lately they've started to settle on the idea that maybe my magic is trying to compensate for some sort of imbalance it suffered when I was younger, and whatever happened, my magic tried so hard to recover that it's still on guard against becoming imbalanced again, hence aggressively stable. But yeah, that's besides the point…"

"I'm still listening."

"Okay, right. So, my magic is aggressively stable, but it's also capable of reaching out and sensing the environment from the Magurist sort of thing, and what that amounts to is my magic picking up when less stable magic is within its sense range thing. And, well, we'd be lying if we said your magic was stable…"

"I'm aware," Hollen said a little dryly.

"So my magic could sense that your magic isn't as stable and it… The healers like to say that my magic starts to bully weaker and less stable magic into shaping up." Harry's couldn't help but grin a little, glancing over at Hollen. "I prefer to think of it as my magic is acting like a good role model. Though I hate to admit it, I think that the healers are probably a little closer to the truth on this one."

"So… you have the ability to stabilize magic?"

"Generally speaking, yes."

"I see…"

Harry nodded slowly, looking from Hollen, back to the television, and trying his best not to pay too much attention to Hollen's magic lest he somehow influence it and influence Hollen's reaction.

"So it's basically magic manipulation? It's basically healing magic itself? That's what you've been doing all this time we've been sitting here watching green ninjas?"

"Yes, well, yes, it is, but… Yes, it's magic manipulation. But I haven't actually been doing it myself, my magic has just sort of been doing it…"

"Your magic, all on its own, has been casually doing something that's not only a rare ability among healers, but an ability that requires the healer to go into a trance?"

"Sheesh, when you say it like that, it makes me sound special or something."

Hollen snorted, then gave a single, aborted snicker, the slow growing tension melting away as he slumped a little, shaking his head. "You know, I've never actually had much luck with that."

"With what?"

"With all of that magic manipulation healing stuff. I always thought it required a trance, though."

"Yeah, well, so did the healers. They didn't know how to label it until recently when they realized that the shoe's still a shoe, even if it's sparkly and shaped like a duck."

Hollen looked down at him. "What? No, never mind, don't answer that. You might actually have an answer." Hollen tipped his head back against the top of the couch, an oddly thoughtful look on his face. "Either way, I've never had much luck with that." His eyes flicked to the bookcase behind his desk, lingering on a set of gargoyle bookends. "The healer I've always visited for that did his best with charming my office with relaxing magic."

"Why?"

Hollen picked up the television remote with his free hand but did nothing with it. "Because an inanimate source is safest."

"Why?"

"Your magic is aggressively stable," Hollen said dryly, "and mine is aggressively unstable. The word the healers use politely is 'forceful'. For its reasons, my magic has always reacted very strongly to any sort of outside magic trying to force change on it, no matter how good the intention behind the change." He made a noise that seemed half snort and half growl, full of contempt and more bitter things Harry had no idea how to label. "Especially when there's some sort of imagined good intention behind the change," he muttered.

"Reacted very strongly?" Harry prompted.

"Violently," Hollen answered a little shortly. "Violence and chaos. The healers have long since stopped trying to work with my magic directly unless there's a dire need. The smallest touch of someone else's magic intruding on my own can cause a violent reaction I can't control and it's entirely too possible that the result would be permanently harmful to everyone involved. Especially the healer."

"Oh…"

"So…" Hollen said quietly, "as… relaxing as that may feel, I suggest you keep your magic to yourself. And if you can't keep your magic to yourself…" Hollen's voice dropped to a murmur, "I suggest you keep your distance. I'd rather not be responsible for permanently damaging Harry Potter in some way."

Harry reached out with his magic cautiously, brushing against Hollen's. The reaction wasn't violent or aggressive in the slightest; in fact, if Harry had to describe the reaction, he would have said Hollen's magic was quietly purring. "Holly, you realize that my magic has been doing its magic thing for almost two hours now?" Harry tipped his head back to look at him. "It's not like your magic is going to suddenly notice me and then freak out if it didn't before now."

"Still-"

"I've also got the Magurist thing going on, Holly," Harry interrupted. "Strong Magurist with a natural inclination toward magic? Ring any bells? Healers have to go into trances to do this magical manipulation and that focuses them on their magic and yours, cutting them off from other magic. I don't have to go into a trance so I'm not… your magic isn't being cornered by mine, no matter how much mine is nudging it to behave better."

Hollen was quiet, watching the credits roll across the television. "Can you actually sense my magic?" he finally asked. "Or is it just an involuntary reaction you know is happening, but there're no details that you can pick up?"

"I can sense it."

"And you can tell what my magic is like?" he asked after a long pause.

"The condition it's in, yes."

"And…" Hollen shifted away a fraction, "you've been trained in reading the-"

"Yes," Harry interrupted quietly. "And no. I've been learning how to read things on the surface of the magical aura and I can tell that you've got a hell of a lot of damage there, but I can't tell what caused it. It seems like it's far reaching, not just things in your recent history; that I can sort of pick up. But at the same time, you are Death-Wish Davish and I have no idea how much damage or stress you've caused just from the things you do in work."

Hollen made a vague noise, tensing slightly.

"I can tell that you've had a hell of a lot of trauma in your life," Harry said with a sigh. "Physical, emotional, mental, magical, all of the stress patterns are there. But I've never studied anyone who's… gone through the things you've gone through, what happened when you were caught years ago, the… mental breakdown afterward, the stress at everyone's reaction… So I have no idea if I'm seeing something a decade old or decades old or… It's there, but I don't know why, basically. If that's what concerns you."

Hollen let out a slow breath. "My magic fractured," he said at last.

"I can see that, yes."

"No. I mean, my magic fractured. When I was younger. Sixteen. It's never going to be normal, it'll never recover properly, it'll never actually be stable."

"What happened?" Harry asked quietly.

"I don't think…"

Harry opened his mouth to reassure, but something about Hollen's twitching, contracting magic kept him silent and waiting.

"Have you heard of… conversion therapy?"

"I… I don't know. It kind of sounds familiar."

"It's where some people think they can cure others of being gay with a variety of rather unpleasant therapy techniques."

"Oh…"

"Now imagine… there being a version of it aimed at curing people who have magic…"

Harry swallowed hard.

"Who also happens to be gay. In the South."

Harry made a low unhappy noise and shifted to hug Hollen before he could stop himself. Hollen's tensing and shifting away stopped him quickly enough, though, and he silently fought to keep Hollen's magic from shrinking in on itself similarly.

"I'm fine, kid," Hollen said after several moments.

"You're not fine," Harry muttered.

"No, I'm not. But I'm me." Hollen gave him a twist of a smile. "And one of your PDs ought to be here soon." He shifted, trying to sit up more. "I imagine they've been staring at their watches just waiting for the second they can come rescue you."

"Holly-"

"Maybe you ought to heed their advice about-"

"Shut up."

Hollen looked around in surprise.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry about what happened. I'm sorry that it happened." Harry hugged him tightly, ignoring the unstable magic and Hollen stiffening at the contact. "And I can sense your magic well enough to know that it's not fighting my magic and my magic is actually helping, just a little, so I think you should just relax and let it."

"I don't even know you, kid," Hollen muttered, voice low and rough. "You're just this kid-"

"Bullshit."

"Just this mouthy, pushy, touchy-feely, irritating-"

"And you're a mean bastard and I don't care. It doesn't matter."

"I don't know you."

"Fine." Harry sat back and fixed Hollen with a determined look. "Look at me."

Hollen's almost black eyes skipped over his face, avoiding his eyes.

"Come on, look at me." Harry dropped a hand to Hollen's shoulder, fingers digging into the shirt. "Look at me."

After a handful of seconds that felt like they'd stretched into minutes, Hollen's eyes skipped over his face again, then focused on him properly, expression shuttered and wary as he looked at a point next to Harry's temple. His magic was alternating between pressing close and drawing back.

"Look at me." Harry turned his head, catching Hollen's eyes. "You're a stubborn man, you know that?"

Hollen snorted.

"But I like you anyway."

"You don't even know me."

"You're written all over your magical aura. I don't know what it all means exactly, but I know you well enough."

"Some of us aren't so lucky."

"Then look at me. I should think Legilimency stands in well enough."

Hollen's eyes narrowed. "Legilimency?"

"You heard me."

"Your PDs will have hysterics."

"You should be all for this idea, then."

"You don't know what you're asking."

"Do you know Charles Hanter?"

Hollen made a derisive noise, looking away. "So?"

"He's says my Occlumency rates as a two point five right now on the five point system, but my Legilimency is a three point seven. I know what I'm talking about."

"Of course you do. You know everything."

Harry caught his eye again. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way."

Hollen's eyes narrowed, taking on an almost dangerous glint. "And what's that?"

"The easy way is you give in to the inevitable."

"And the hard way?"

"I'll be the biggest pain in the ass you've ever seen until you give in to the inevitable. You probably won't crack today, you're made of pretty stern stuff, but one day you will and then you'll look back and think 'Oz damn it, I could have saved myself a hell of a lot of trouble if I'd just given in, way back when'."

"I could always just inform one of your PDs about this mad stunt of yours and we'd see how long you keep bugging me about it."

"Holly… I'd have to get some crazy serious revenge on you if you ever did that, and I'm scary when I'm nice so just imagine me when I'm focused on some crazy serious revenge."

"…I'd rather not think about that."

"So I win?"

"You win." Hollen lifted a hand to turn Harry's face toward him, muttering, "You are one irritating skunk of a child."

Harry snickered. "Another one for my book."

"We'll just see if this book of yours is real."

Harry snickered again before sobering. "I won't take down all of my Occlumency shields, not the innermost barriers. I have a lot of secrets that aren't mine to share. That's only fair."

"So anything you don't want to share, you can just-"

"Don't make me hurt you."

"You better take your shields down or something before I give into this urge to rip them down with savage glee."

Harry concentrated, eyes half closing, as he opened his Occlumency shields. "It'd be harder than you think."

"With shields as weak as yours?" Hollen snorted.

"Yeah, but I pair Occlumency with Legilimency. If someone breaks through my shields, I go on the attack."

Hollen snorted again. "Figures. You really are a violent child."

"Violently full of love."

Hollen made a vague huffing noise as he made eye contact, brow furrowed slightly. He studied Harry's eyes for a long moment before Harry felt the heavy brush of Legilimency against his shields, probing along until it came to the gap and then through.

Hollen's Legilimency was heavier than the touch that Harry was used to feeling, but surprisingly unobtrusive, hovering without direction, like an intense but unfocused stare. Indecision lingered between them, Hollen's focus small and tightly wound.

Harry acted as the indecision stretched. He moved behind his inner Occlumency shields as he pulled from the wells of emotion and memory that which would intrigue Hollen the most – unpleasant things that Harry tried not to think about, doubts and uncertainties, lingering insecurities he tried to ignore. They were mostly attached to those first several years of his life that he only remembered in blurs of people he couldn't imagine calling family, blurs that had been pulled up during his meditations and mind arts exercises.

Harry felt Hollen's shock at the first brush of emotion and blurred memory, shock, surprise, disbelief, a spike of anger, back to shock, and then Hollen gently seized the vague memories to examine more closely before dipping down further, curious now that the first contact had been made. He pushed and sought for darker places – Harry's vague, fractured attack on Al when he was younger earned much study – and then he drifted away, touching emotions and memories as he came to them like a kid in a toy store. Harry kept himself safely behind his inner barriers, aware of the memories and feelings Hollen was studying, but removed from reliving and feeling them himself.

The questing Legilimency sought out fears and worries, failures and let-downs, one after the other, almost hungry for them, until Harry began to feel his defenses grow shaky under the onslaught of negative emotion. The feeling grew until Harry felt a strange physical shakiness, and then Hollen pulled away from those memories and emotions abruptly, seizing onto excitement and pleasure, delights and triumphs.

Those were plentiful and barely lingered on, just a tumbling rush of moments. They drew Hollen further in even as the unexpected weight and depth of them weakened his hold on his Occlumency shields and they cracked just enough for Harry to catch intriguing glimpses of long, dark hallways, dusty furniture and empty picture frames. And then Harry found himself spinning unanchored briefly as the cracks in Hollen's shields closed violently and Hollen began to dig earnestly for secrets.

Harry had been prepared for the forceful exploration. The secrets and mysteries Hollen's questing mental fingers sought unfolded like blooming flowers, startling against the stark desert of Harry's Occlumency shields. There was surprise again followed by trailing amazement, and then the smugness of Hollen knowing he'd guessed some of the secrets for himself. But Hollen was distracted enough with rooting out all of the little curious quirks and abilities that laced with his surprise, amazement and smugness, there was a sense of self-satisfaction in knowing that said more than words that Hollen was intensely uncomfortable with secrets he didn't know and couldn't guard against.

Hollen pulled away with an abruptness Harry was beginning to get used to, just hovering along the edges of Harry's outer Occlumency defenses, studying the structure with probing touches. Harry let him examine the outer structure, using the distraction to lightly brush his own Legilimency against Hollen's defenses curiously.

"You see magic in such a strange way," Hollen said, voice sounding far away and disconnected. "Color, emotion, feeling, taste…"

Harry made a vague noise as the voice pulled him from the stretching desert landscape of his own inner shields, through the part of his mind open to Hollen and littered with the discarded memories of Hollen's search, right against Hollen's own shields, vibrating with the emotions he was holding back from Harry.

"Not worth this trust," Hollen murmured, his emotions clear – hesitation, uncertainty, self-doubt, worry, wistful wonder. They began to send faint cracks through Hollen's shields, the emotions leaking through the connection, pulling Harry further from the safety of his own Occlumency shields and deeper into the tangle of Hollen's emotions.

"Must think so," Harry mumbled, trying to focus through the morass, voice feeling like it was coming from a deep well.

Hollen snorted. "Not good for you. Unstable. Should fear…"

Harry pulled behind his inner Occlumency shields and began to ease Hollen from his mind. "Caution, restraint, respect, no fear."

"Don't deserve this."

"Even you deserve to be cared about," Harry breathed.

A shudder of emotion rippled through Harry, emotion that became his if it hadn't been to start with, in a sudden upwelling that broke the Legilimency connection completely. Harry shook his head, eyes closed, feeling dazed as he pulled his outer Occlumency shields back into place properly. He felt even more dazed by the hyperawareness he had of his own emotions even as Hollen's magical aura boiled over with desperate, fervid feeling, pressing against Harry's weakened aura shields.

"You…" Hollen made a strangled noise.

Harry opened his eyes and gave a start. Hollen was looking at him with too-wide eyes, muddy brown, but they were unfocused and unseeing. Harry's eyes were drawn to Hollen's cheek, crisscrossed with fine burn lines, but he barely had a moment to consider the strange scars before Hollen pulled him into an awkward hug.

"Crazy child," Hollen mumbled roughly against Harry's hair.

Harry smiled a little. "Do you know me now?"

Hollen made a noise of agreement, sucking in a shaky breath.

Harry tightened his arms around Hollen, rubbing his back, though his hand slowed and stopped as it moved down, resting over a slightly raised, hard area beneath the shirt. His thumb brushed another hard line of scars just as Hollen, body and magic, violently trembled and rippled, and then there was nothing but smooth skin under the shirt where Harry's hand rested.

"You'll be the death of me," Hollen muttered, roughly pulling Harry onto his lap and crushing him in a hug, holding him so tightly that Hollen's slowly easing trembling could barely be felt.

Harry snorted a little against Hollen's shoulder. "You'll be the death of you."

"And you're trying to save me, are you?"

"Fault of mine, I guess."

"You're going to catch hell for doing that," Hollen murmured, the trembles fading entirely.

"They'll throw hell," Harry said a little dryly. "I have no intention of catching it."

Hollen snorted into his hair and shifted them into a more comfortable position, pulling Harry onto his lap more comfortably. Several strange moments passed between them before Hollen sighed, almost in wonder, voice soft, "So many little talents… Why?"

"I don't know. Magic likes me."

"No, why… Why did you let me see…?"

"You're going to laugh."

"I don't think I could right now," Hollen muttered, voice picking up strength as he began to sound a little more like himself. "But maybe some laughter would do me some good."

"Well… it seemed like the right thing to do at the time?"

Hollen snorted again. "You're going to get into so much trouble."

"Not if they don't know."

Hollen pulled back to look at him, frowning slightly. Harry studied Hollen; he looked the same as always – violet eyes, red hair, strong yet fey features – but there was something different in his eyes, something not quite as hard, something a little more open… Harry was distracted from his reflection as he realized that this couldn't be Hollen's actual appearance if it's what he'd shifted to after his emotional upheaval had forced him into another form.

"Jamie…" Hollen muttered with a deeper frown, startling Harry from his thoughts. "While I'm- you just can't- they just won't- they'll kill me when they find out that you did this and you didn't tell them."

"So you're just concerned about your own ass?" Harry laughed.

"Of course."

"Don't worry. I'll talk to who I need to talk to in good time; I will. But let me handle it."

"Well, I suppose you know your circus best," Hollen said with a sniff.

"Yes."

Hollen glanced away, around the office, then fixed Harry with a searching look. "Well, after that…"

"Yes?"

"I guess I ought…"

"Ought?"

"I've… been lying to you for a while."

"Have you?"

"I have."

"About?"

Hollen glanced away. "I keep saying that… I have no emotional attachment to you. But it appears… well, damned if I haven't developed it somewhere along the way and started to like you. Just a little."

Harry laughed. "Just a little?"

"Don't push your luck. I don't like most of the world."

Harry hummed a little. "I care about you, too."

A few moments passed and Hollen let out a slow breath, hugging him a little tighter.

"So, are we friends?" Harry teased gently.

Hollen snorted again.

"Don't be getting snot in my hair."

"Brat."

"That goes without saying. And you never answered me."

"I'm ages older than you, kid."

"So?"

"So, obviously we can't be friends."

"Feh. Sometimes Fate fucks it up and separates friends by several decades. So I say feh to Fate and stick my tongue out at it. And that's why we can be friends."

Hollen snorted again. "Really now?"

"Yes. So, friends?"

"You're never going to let this go, are you?"

"Nope. We've covered this before. I always win."

"Then I guess we're friends."

"Good."

"Going to be the strangest friendship ever recorded."

"Holly, welcome to my life."

"I think I just might be glad to be here."