A/N: I wished I owned Harry Potter. Alas, I do not. Ms. Rowling, I'd be happy to take it off your hands
A/N: I'm trying my best to show Dumbledore as manipulative, but not evil. He has just made up his mind and won't change it, rather than just a horrible person. It's hard because generally I am not his biggest fan, and I read a theory that Harry was supposed to meet his parents at the "train station" after he dies, which I liked because then it makes Harry's choice to return much more heroic.
Chapter 42: The Hunt
February, 1995
"I think we have a solid lead," Akira told McGonagall. They were sitting in Dumbledore's office with along with the headmaster who perked up at this news, as did the deputy headmaster. It was one of the first times McGonagall had reacted at all over the past month. Every student had noticed the dramatic change in the Transfiguration teacher ever since the disappearing act of the Gryffindor golden boy.
Usually such a firm instructor, good at explaining the necessary theory and making sure her students came out every class with more knowledge she had grown more listless with every passing week. She was now so motionless that she barely mustered enough energy to put new instructions on the board and didn't bother to answer questions. Even the Slytherins were unnerved by the total apathy of the Gryffindor Head of House.
For most of the students there was surprise but no real understanding. It was clear that McGonagall had been in Harry's corner all year, especially since she was his personal instructor for the tournament. It would have made sense for her to grieve, but then refocus, like she had when her favorite student had been petrified in second year. Now, it got worse every day. It seemed like she was wasting away.
A few of the students knew most of the story. McGonagall had gotten her family back this year, which it seemed like she would never have again. Neville and Daphne understood even more, as the revelation of family gave McGonagall the vague hope that Harry might have a child to carry on the line. It was even possible that a daughter of Harry's might convince a husband to take the McGonagall name with Harry's influence. Being the son in-law of the boy-who-lived would be an enticing prize to give up your family name.
There was one person who understood the entire story. Akira had known the bare bones of the story of McGonagall's family, how her parents had struggled with the different worlds and how she had fallen in love. Despite the advice of her parents she was prepared to spend her life with a muggle, only to be forced to give up the result of her first and only true love. Now he knew the whole story, and it made a lot sense to him why Minerva would be nearly broken by the loss of her family again.
Even though they were tied together by interest in making sure that Harry truly enjoyed, and more importantly, came through the year unharmed both of them had played their cards close to their chest. Akira knew that he had to keep the fact that his father was applying for magical guardian of Harry quiet, and when the application when through Harry would never return to Hogwarts. If Harry was truly set against leaving the godforsaken island he knew as the U.K. there would be a discussion. However, his father planned to take Harry to Japan for the summer, and Akira would not be surprised if by the end of the summer Harry was begging to transfer to Mahoutokoro.
The dive into the bottle had caused Minerva to really explain what the revelation of Lily and Harry's blood relation meant for her. She didn't begrudge Akira the fact that he wanted Harry out of England for good, but there were things she didn't know, reasons that Dumbledore had such a strong interest in the boy, why Harry had to stay. She did explain that if Harry decided to move she would never leave her family again and would move to Japan with him, without regard for the consequences to Europe. Akira was tempted to reveal his father's plan in regards to guardianship, but you never had to take back or apologize for something you never said.
So the two teachers struggled with Harry's abduction in different ways. Akira focused on helping with the investigation into Harry's whereabouts and the mysterious Vengeful Brotherhood. He also kept an eye on Minerva whose strategy of whisky combined with gin was a dangerous hole to go towards. At the moment she still had control. while in most circumstances Akira would have recommended anger, for a tipsy and powerful witch in a school of children that wouldn't not only not be productive, it would be downright dangerous.
Akira had vaguely registered that Harry's friends had reacted to his kidnapping in disparate ways. His best friend had seemed to form a defense group, committed to learning spells that he would not be teaching in his class due to restrictive registrations. Akira had quietly approached Hermione to tell her he had no intention of turning her in, but rather that he would prefer that she run any dangerous spells by him first.
The response of Harry's fellow champions was what had Akira the most baffled. Cedric seemed to continue to ramp up his preparations for the tournament steadfastly, but there was a slight air of tension when he talked to Hermione. Akira had suspected that of all the developing relationships, Cedric and Hermione would grow closer in the absence of Harry. Instead, Cedric was drawing back and with all her focus on her missing friend, Hermione was more than happy to let him back away.
Krum had not joined the defense group, but he was deep in books that had nothing to do with creatures. The books had quite a few curses that would be considered gray at best. It wasn't a surprise to Akira, as Krum came from a region where kidnapping was slightly more prevalent. The fact that there had not been a ransom demand and that a friend had been kidnapped had not gone unnoticed by the Bulgarian, and there was animosity dripping off the Durmstrang champion any time someone he was not close to approached him. The only person constantly at his side keeping him sane was the young Ravenclaw Miss Lovegood.
But it was Fleur's response that worried Akira the most. From what he could gather from snippets of conversation, Fleur had made it clear to Harry that she was going to pursue him. It wouldn't surprise Akira to hear that his brother was initially resistant but he suspected Harry would soon fold to the attention of a remarkable girl. Whether or not it lasted was not important, but for someone starved for affection Harry would not be able to hold out for long. So the fact that Fleur had become more outgoing and cheerful with the disappearance of her soon to be beau had Akira mildly worried that someone was influencing her.
But right now he had a potential line on the location of Harry, and that was his only focus. There seemed to be a real possibility that he could get his brother back, so that was what he was going to do.
"Where is he?" McGonagall asked, her voice hoarse. "When can we leave?"
"Well, I have a friend in the Asian Magical Major Crimes task force," Akira explained. "He owed me a favor so he looked into the activity of the Vengeful Brotherhood. It took a little while, but eventually he struck gold. They have bases all over the world, but they are concentrated in Asia and Africa. He looked into Africa first and came up with nothing but radio silence."
"Then he looked at Asia and noticed that there had been some irregularities with the activities of the top special operations group. That is not that unusual, as they tend to keep their movements and missions under wraps. But the most recent movements had them in possession of a large amount of powerful international portkeys. He ran that lead down, and found out that the portkeys were keyed into breaking bigger wards, but not specific."
"He suspected they raided a base in North Korea." Dumbledore sucked in a breath and Minerva glanced up confused. "For clarification, Minerva, that is bad news. North Korea is far from an ideal place in the muggle world, and it is even worse for wizards. They have an exceptionally powerful base of wizards and witches entirely devoted to their leader. Even the top special ops group would tread carefully before taking action there."
"But Nambung often leads one of the groups that went in, and I don't think it is coincidence that the Asian Ministry tracked a remarkably powerful portkey surge in the country, and at the same time an attack is carried out that was seemingly hidden from people that would normally be coordinating and supervising the attack. My friend can't be sure as to the time scale, but he thinks that they happened the same day."
"What does this all mean for Harry?" Dumbledore asked. "Did Nambung rescue him?"
"I don't know," Akira said. "But I was able to get a portkey to the same spot that the special ops team had. It was quite a few favors, especially since I am keeping my father out of the loop, as it gives him plausible deniability. Which means if something goes wrong, he can bring the Hayashi School into it. Also, this is all wild supposition."
"Do you think Harry will be in the same spot?"
"If he is still alive? I doubt it," Akira admitted. "But more likely than not, the head of the mission will have posted people to watch the building. If I can down one of them, I might be able to arrange a meeting with whoever is currently running the team. Hopefully it is Nambung. If not, then things get dicey."
"So you are going to Portkey into an unknown situation totally blind in the hopes that you might get in a fight with someone that reports to someone that might know if Harry was in the area recently?" Minerva asked, her voice betraying her exhaustion.
"Well, I won't be going alone." Akira tried to add some joviality to his voice, but it fell flat. "A fellow student is an expert in the area. She is coming along to provide backup and to watch my back. She's a cool head in a fight and she can keep her lips shut. With luck I'll be back in under aweek, with information on Harry. If I am extremely lucky, I'll bring him back."
"What if he is no longer alive?" Minerva asked, her voice flat.
"You can't think like that," Akira said softly, laying a hand on her shoulder. "They obviously wanted him alive, and Harry is remarkably resourceful and getting more powerful every day. It is possible he escaped and is on the run all on his own."
"But it is possible?" Dumbledore pressed.
"Of course it's possible," Minerva snapped. "Because the wards you put on Hogwarts are totally inadequate." She rose and stormed out of the room.
"She knows I am not responsible for the wards of Hogwarts," Dumbledore said with a small smile. "Obviously, she has taken the loss of her family hard." Akira kept his face schooled in a mask. He did not know that Dumbledore had known of the blood ties between the student and teacher.
"I understand Alastor will be busy coordinating with the Aurors," Akira noted, and Dumbledore nodded. "Since I will be gone for a little while, I have brought in a replacement for my classes." Akira motioned towards the stairs and Dumbledore nodded. Akira heard the stone gargoyle move to allow the guest entrance. He then heard the clacking of shoes that caused him to grind his teeth. He hated to owe her a favor, but very few of his friends could drop whatever they were doing and come to a school in Scotland. Of those few friends, even less had experience teaching. But Gods, he hated owing her a favor.
"Hello Akira," the harsh voice of one of his least favorite people cut in. Akira turned nodded to the young woman. "I expect I will have to fix your subpar instruction."
"I can assure you, Ms.?"
"Ito, Headmaster. Yui Ito. Soon to be Yui Hayashi," Yui said with a harsh grin.
"That is yet to be decided," Akira managed to spit out. Yui didn't say anything in response to that. She simply tapped her hand against the desk, getting a dull sound from the engagement ring against her jeans. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else about the clear animosity between an engaged couple.
"Ms. Ito, I can assure you that there have been no complaints about Professor Hayashi's instruction. If anything, the students have been extremely complementary, and many prominent members of the English magical community have encouraged me to make overtures to attempt to retain him after this year."
"I assume that is because he is babying the students," Yui said. "I will go easy on them as well." She patted Akira on the shoulder with enough force to break skin if Akira had not been ready. "If that is all, I believe I have my first class in one hour." She nodded at Akira but did not spare Dumbledore a second glance as she left the office.
"She is a world class talent, despite her nasty personality," Akira added by way of explanation. "I can count on one hand the amount of times I have overwhelmed her with magic."
"Yet you have proposed to her despite the clear animosity of both parties?" Dumbledore asked. "I assume that is quite a story."
"Perhaps another time," Akira lied. He had no intention of sharing the romantic aspect of his life, or lack of such with anyone in the castle, with the possible but unlikely exception of his brother. "Harry could be on borrowed time." He nodded and strode out of the headmaster's office.
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O-
It was a quick floo to the British Ministry of Magic, where he met Karmen. Karmen was an American student of his father, and had studied both magical and muggle international relations at university.
"So we are really breaking into North Korea without letting your father know!" Karmen exclaimed after her normal bone-crushing hug of greeting, wagging her finger at Akira. "I never would have pegged you for a rule breaker."
"It's complicated," Akira said as Karmen laughed. "I surprised you jumped at the opportunity. When I reached out, I was hoping you could recommend a good mercenary."
"Oh, I know some good mercs for a long-term operation in DRPK," Karmen told him. "But I was hoping that I could get some info for a paper I am working on." Karmen was a serious academic and impressed quite a few people with her work ethic towards martial arts, being a witch, and her drive to academia. It was one of the reasons Akira had fallen hard for her as a teenager. It was for other reasons that he had kept his admiration silent.
"Of course," Akira said with a nod. "If there is nothing else, we are on the clock."
"Right." Akira held out the cup he had been given, and Karmen grabbed hold as well.
"Activate." Akira felt the uncomfortable yanking sensation that came with a portkey, and the rush that came from flying through space for an uncomfortably long time. It came to a jerking halt, but Akira had sensed it coming and managed to catch Karmen as they landed on the grass.
"Thanks," Karmen told him. She turned to him and gave him a nervous smile, and Akira realized he still had her in his arms and dropped them suddenly. "That was a long ride."
"It was," Akira said, surveying the terrain. It wouldn't make sense for the most dangerous special ops team in Asia to deploy to an empty countryside, unless there was property nearby. He flipped his wand out of his holster and cast a quick scanning spell. "To the west and east."
"West is not a property ward," Karmen said, aiming her wand west. "So East?"
"As good a place to start as any." They quickly came upon a house that could only be classed as gigantic. "Woah."
"What have you gotten me into Hayashi?" Karmen said with a half-hearted smile.
"Apparently breaking and entering for someone that is very rich and powerful," Akira replied as he started examining the wards. He found something odd on his third pass. "Come check this out." Karmen walked over waving her wand. "These wards have been broken recently, and the repairs were not done well."
"That's not so curious," Karmen said.
"No, but that fact that they were broken twice is. Especially when you consider that one of the two breaks came from inside the wards." Wards had never been a specialty of hers, but critical thinking was. "Any thoughts?"
"Was there a repair job in between the first and second break?"
"I can't tell." Akira surveyed the wards once more. It would be simple to access them. He wouldn't even have to break them. If not for the multiple breaks, Akira would have been sure there was a trap he wasn't sniffing out. As it was, the only thing needed to break in was one of Karmen's bobby pins and a few tools from his own kit.
"Double woah," Karmen said as they entered the house. It was clear the entrance hall had once been a grandeur display of wealth. It now looked like a war zone. Akira's guard was instantly up as he felt something from the left window.
"Get down!" Akira barked and Karmen rolled behind him and Akira met the attacker who smashed through the window. They were a blur of movement, and Akira struggled to keep up with the seemingly endless chain of attacks and spells. He heard a similar fight behind him and realized he would likely get no assistance from Karmen.
He managed to catch the glimpse of a blue cloak as he caught a backhand and parried the follow up straight. His guess that the special forces who had assaulted the place a month ago were still staking out the place was correct. Now he just had to win his fight. And as he fought, he realized that was not likely.
The kicks from his opponent's right side were too fast to dodge, and to try and block them with his arms was becoming dangerous due to the power differential. His opponent jumped forward and Akira ducked a high kick and swayed back for dodge the viciously fast follow up towards his torso. He was just alert enough to land a grazing elbow as he swung around yet another kick that likely would have detached his head from his body.
His enemy had no business being so fast with all the power in the kicks. Akira had already dispensed of the weights, but it was time to even the playing field, as the other person was clearly melding magic and physical talents. He threw a few half jabs, and followed it up with an overemphatic kick that was easily dodged. All of the misses blows gave him distance though, and Akira gave a threatening wave of his wand while instead saying "shokai rirīsu!"
Akira felt the surge of power flooding his body and closed instantly, catching a high kick and following up with a push kick of his own, which landed solidly and his opponent emitted a high-pitched groan. He was now on the offensive, and he chained three powerful piercing spells together and followed that up with a full powered right straight that shattered the magical shield in front of him and clipped the face of his opponent, and the mask slipped.
Suddenly the pace and style of his opponent changed, and Akira felt three hard uppercuts connect with his midriff. He sagged forward in pain, which inadvertently caused him to duck the finishing punch. Akira was not a fan of grappling, but he was going down anyways so he dragged his opponent to the ground and started to fire punch after punch at their face, even though the opponent was safely guarding.
Then he felt a jolt to the side of his head and his opponent spun him into a reverse headlock, leaving Akira gasping for air. He tried to jerk his head out from the grip and managed to lever his opponent off his back. They both rose and circled carefully.
"You are not half bad," a distinctively feminine voice told him. "You have a good style. Too defensive for my taste, but you have no quit." Akira shrugged but saw through the gambit and caught her high kick and brought his free hand up in a vicious palm strike. She managed to contort her entire body to yank her leg out of his grasp and Akira's palm strike missed the kneecap.
For the first time his opponent was off balance, and Akira sent two high powered stunners, but threw in a tripping jinx with minimal movement, and he saw the jinx land and his opponent fell, dropping her wand. Akira bound her and then disarmed her and turned to see Karmen finishing up with her opponent as well.
His limit release caught up to him all at once, and he slumped to the floor, exhausted. Karmen made sure both of their opponents were dealt with and sat next to him, also taking deep heavy breaths. Akira just focused on recovering as much magic as he could. Their opponents were not going anywhere, and that was part one of the mission.
"What in the world is taking so long?" A voice above them called out. Akira drew himself to his feet and moved in front of Karmen. He registered two blurs and managed to block both punches. "Oh, a talented one." Akira managed to duck one kick but the second one tore through his sluggish block, and Akira collapsed in a heap, darkness overcoming him.
"Wake up," a voice called. Akira tried to move but felt restrained as a jet of ice cold water snapped him awake. "Well, I'll be switched if this isn't Akira Hayashi! Release him!" Akira heard a familiar voice with a distinctly American drawl order his release and felt his bonds disappear. Akira rose shakily and saw Big Tex staring at him in surprise. "What are you doing here boy?"
Akira didn't know Big Tex well. He was from America and rumor had it that he was a promising career in MACUSA's Major Investigations Department before he suddenly resigned. He had then popped up 10 years later in the early 90s and now ran one of the top special ops teams in Asia. But it was familiar face, and that sent a jolt of relief through Akira's body
"Hey Tex," Akira said with a weary smile.
"You and Karmen took down two of my top guns," Tex said. "Good to see you are keeping up with your training."
"The North Korea op was yours?" Akira asked, cutting through the small talk. He was much less worried about Harry now, but if Big Tex was involved, there was no reason Harry wouldn't already be back in England.
"You know I can't discuss that," Tex told him. "But I am curious why you are here?"
"Tracking someone down," Akira explained. His best play was to lay all his cards on the table. "My brother by blood was taken, and we tracked the portkey to here. I was hoping he was still here, preferably alive. If not, I'd have to tell my father."
"The boy was connected?" Big Tex said to himself. "That makes sense. It wasn't making no sense before, but now I got it."
"What?"
"Oh, your brother is fine. That's all I can say, but the boy is right as rain. I guess I can give you one more tidbit, make of it what you will. My cowboys didn't start this. The original squad on this was the Wolves of Mibu." Another surge of relief coursed through Akira. Tex's squad, known as the Cowboy's would likely have protected Harry, but another special ops team would have killed him for no reason other than being a suspected enemy combatant. It was the risk you ran with highly talented magical martial artists operating with minimal supervision.
The Wolves of Mibu were probably the special ops squad shrouded in the most secrecy, but one thing Akira did know about them was that Nambung was more likely than not the head of that groups operations, and the Korean Taekwondo master was not someone to sit raids out. Harry was more than likely with Nambung at the moment. The level of secrecy around Harry's status as safe and alive was curious, but Akira didn't care much at the moment. He would have a conversation with his father later, but for now everyone was alive.
"Is Karmen ok?" Akira asked, his concern for his brother assuaged.
"She's a little better off then you. Didn't try to fight my lieutenant." Tex looked him over critically. "She's a fine women. Last I heard you already had a lass, and it wasn't her."
"Karmen is not my fiancé, no, but she speaks much better Korean than I, and I did not know if this would be a quick search and rescue or a tracking mission."
"But you are sweet on her?" Tex phrased it as a question, but Akira just remained silent. "Well, ain't you asking for trouble on the horizon."
"I guess I am," Akira said.
"Well, when you talk to your da, tell him I say hi. He'll being likely to give you an earful about this, and I won't get involved in you young'uns and your love live. Of the record, however…." Akira waved his hand for Tex to proceed. "You best be honest with your pap. He appreciates honesty. He will understand that the heart wants what the heart wants."
"It's more complicated than that." Akira clinched his hands into fist. Then he heard a door swing open and looked up just in time to catch Karmen who was hugging him with tears coursing down her face.
"Don't seem too complicated to me," Tex said. Akira just shook his head and hugged Karmen back. Eventually they drew apart, and Akira was pleasantly surprised to find that Karmen slipped her hand into his. She had never shown him too much physical affection before, and this was a welcome surprise, though at the moment he doubted he was equipped to discuss the potential long-term ramifications. "You got transport out of here?"
"Yeah." Akira held up the silver cup. It had a secondary cast that would take him to the Japanese Embassy in South Korea.
"Get going then," Tex said. "Should go without saying, we never met."
"We didn't find anything," Akira said. Karmen looked at him curiously. "We just decided to cut our loses."
"Atta boy," Tex said and he waved as Akira grabbed Karmen and activated the portkey.
"Ok, mind explaining what happened?" Karmen asked an hour later after they had cleaned and eaten. "Where is this brother of yours?"
"Seems like he was picked up by someone reliable who is looking after him," Akira said. Karmen glared at him. "Karmen, when you graduated you made a choice to become an academic, not work in government. Tex gave me much more than he had to, and I can't share anything he told me. Besides, we never met."
"All this cloak and dagger stuff is exhausting," Karmen declared. "How to do you keep it up?"
"It's not really my game," Akira admitted. "But given that we were digging into a cult with dangerous power that is getting some very dangerous men involved, it's not a surprise that there are layers of secrecy. Just be happy someone recognized me. Otherwise we would be in trouble."
"Well, I guess the endorphins from being alive are wearing off, but I guess I've got another hour before I go to bed," Karmen told him. "I'll head up to my room anyways." She turned when she was halfway up the stairs. "You coming or not?"
-O-O-O-O-O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O—O-O-O-
Akira ended up heading straight back to Hogwarts a few days later rather than reporting to the head of the embassy. After a nice brunch and sending Karmen on her way their final day, he decided that his father did not need to know what Akira had done that week in any regard. Though Karmen's goodbye kiss let him know that he would need to have a long and challenging discussion with his father soon, he didn't want to do that while he was still sore and exhausted from what was essentially a beatdown where he got lucky, as well as the following few nights. That did not even include the fact that he had left his father's letter only half solved, and that if he had finished the letter instead of jumping at the first clue, he might have saved himself the trouble in the first place.
The first person he sought out was Minerva, who had broken down when she saw him battered and with no Harry. Akira hauled her back to his office and had explained that while he could not say anything, Harry was safe and would return before the second task. Minerva was not pleased with the lack of information over Harry's specific status, location, or return date, but he could tell that she would take a day but then become more similar to her old self until she could see Harry.
Akira took one more day to recover from his injuries. When he returned to class the next day, he was unsurprised to find that his students had found Yui abrasive and insulting, although her teaching methods were effective as almost every student had been able to perform the spell she set before them. Her tepid goodbye filled with backhanded insults had made his first day back tense, but the day ended well when he worked with the 4th years and was able to see the pure delight in the eyes of most of the students when he relayed to Hermione in front of all of Harry's year mates that Harry Potter was indeed safe, and would hopefully be returning soon.
News spread like wildfire and soon the original story was warped beyond believe. Some students were convinced by the end of the day that Harry was once again locked in a deadly day-long duel with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Others were under the impression that Harry had run away and would be giving up his magic when he refused to participate in the second past.
"If he is safe, why is he not returning?" Victor asked Luna in the library later that night.
"Isn't it obvious?" Luna said with the smile that drove Victor mad with distraction.
"Would you like to enlighten the ones of us slow to the party?"
"He's training," Luna said. "You could see he had hit a bit of a wall. As much as he trains with Akira, Akira is not his master. He must be training with his real master. I suspect when he returns, he will be quite formidable."
"He is already quite formidable," Krum observed.
"Yes, he is," Luna noted. "Maybe if we give him pudding upon his return, he will show us his new powers." Krum just shook his head in amusement. A few tables away a group of fourth years were huddled over a pile of defense books. For the most part the students were talking, but one student was poring through the books at a speed that suggested she was not actually reading anything.
"Hermione, you need to relax," Hannah finally said. "Harry is safe. I know you have a lot of nervous energy."
"But don't you get it!" Hermione snapped. "He isn't coming back because he can't protect us all. We need to make sure we are not a burden to him, so he doesn't leave again."
"I bought into your whole defense club explanation at the time because it was easier than arguing, but this has to stop," Dean said. "Hermione, I think it is great we are working on getting stronger and learning more spells. But I'm not doing it to fight in Harry's battles. Yes, I'm his friend, and if Death Eaters attacked a muggle sporting event I'd fight back. But that's not my key motivation."
"You have to figure out what your real motivation is, because it isn't to make sure Harry never pushes you to the side again," Lavender noted. Everyone looked at her in surprise. "Come on, I've only been friends with him this year and I can tell that even if you had twice as much magical power as him, he would push you out of the way. It's who he is. Be honest with yourself about why you want to learn."
"Because he is leaving me behind!" Hermione almost cried. "Because every time I see him training with Professor McGonagall, I realize that he doesn't need me anymore. He knows more than me, and if I can't be there to teach him and help him, what use am I? I'm just an annoyance to my best friend, and if he learns even more now, I'm sure he will want me to leave him alone." Neville crossed the table and smacked Hermione over the head. "Hey!"
"If you really think that, then maybe you don't deserve to be Harry's best friend after all." Neville looked really angry. "Do you think that if Harry threw himself into learning everything he could, given that he is without doubt a more powerful and naturally talented wizard than any of us, that he could leave us behind? I suspect he already has. None of you see him train with Akira every morning. I happen to be there most mornings, but I can't see it."
"What do you mean?" Hannah asked. "You said you go with every morning."
"I do, but when they train seriously they are moving so fast I can't actually follow their movements." Neville explained. "If Harry wanted friends to fight alongside him, he would probably never come back to Hogwarts. We'll never catch up. From what I understand, Akira is going to try and convince Harry to move to Asia after the tournament. If you try and base your friendship with Harry off your ability and power as a witch, we will lose him, for sure."
"So I should just give up?" Hermione wailed.
"No, keeping training for yourself, because like Cedric said a month ago there are dangerous people in the world," Neville told her. "You have never seen the scars, right?"
"No, eventually I saw them," Hermione admitted. "His upper body is a map of his childhood trauma."
"This summer started the healing process," Neville stated. "We can all tell Harry is better this year, but I think what he needs from us is support. Not literal support in the sense that I will fight beside him, even though I would in a heartbeat if he asked it. But the support to remind him he is not alone, that he has friends who care about him. That when the world goes to shit and half the school things he is the heir of Slytherin or accuses him of cheating, that we will all stand behind him."
"I think that because of all the stuff he has gone through, it's hard to remember that Harry is the same age as us. He was abused for 13 years, and that includes verbal abuse at school. I don't know if there is a student who has spent more time in the infirmary than Harry Potter. Most of the time it is not entirely his fault. When he does go looking for trouble, he usually ends up saving lives. That doesn't even take into account that until this year, our potions professor took every chance he had to belittle and insult Harry. At least once a year, sometimes more, he was put in situations where he should have died. I doubt any one of us could stand what he did and come out the other side."
"Harry clearly has issues, like any teenager does. His problems tend to be centered around life and death struggles, so maybe we can't relate. But we can always be there to talk, give advice, or occasionally just let him yell. That's what you should do for Harry." Neville looked up and saw everyone staring at him. "Well, that's what I will do for him."
"I don't deserve you," Hannah murmured to her boyfriend as she locked her arms around his neck and gently pressed her lips against him.
"Sure you do," Neville said. "I never would have said any of that before I had you. You make me the best version of me, someone I could never be before." A few of the people around the table were wiping their eyes. Neville seemed to straighten, and he looked Hannah dead in the eyes. "If you will all excuse me, I need to have a serious talk with this fantastic woman." Lavender seemed to smile at the words and Neville walked away, Hannah whispering in his ear and melting in his arms.
"Well, seems Neville has found his answer," Lavender said. "For a variety of things."
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked his girlfriend.
"Oh, I can't tell you everything," Lavender said with a sigh, laying her arm across Dean. "Then there would be no surprises." She then turned to the rest of the group with a bright smile. "I wonder what the second task is? Do you think they have figured out that horrible screaming?