Disclaimer: not mine

Trying to decide – definitely have Sora/Kairi, but should it be the three of them like I often do? Or just the pair and then Riku and someone from the HP universe?

Chapter 4

Kairi helped Sora hold the logs while Riku secured them together. They were building a raft to travel to other Worlds. It was fun but also insane, how could a raft take them to another World? Were they going to sale off the edge of this one? How would they breath? She figured they'd sail a day or two out and then back to the islands. Where else would they go? Especially when they had no way to store may provisions. But Riku was adamant about trying, almost desperate to leave. Something had changed lately but she didn't know what, she didn't think Sora knew either, though he'd said Riku had shown up at his window one night very upset. Maybe he'd fought with his parents?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Harry paced his room, angry. Who wouldn't be angry with what was going on? Figg had been watching him since he'd been dumped with the Dursley's, the Ministry was trying to make his name mud, then he was expelled and now he was expected to defend himself at a disciplinary hearing. Except it made no sense, yes he'd used magic outside of school, but there'd been no Statute break because the only Muggle around had been Dudley and he'd seen accidental magic long before either of them knew what it was. He…he didn't trust the Ministry, especially with Fudge in charge, this would be his chance to shut him up about Riddle and he would surely use it. That was probably why he'd initially been expelled. Dobby's handywork on his record wouldn't help either, plus the whole incident with Marge even if he hadn't been warned over it.

Finding out Dumbledore was having him watched by strangers didn't exactly make him happy either. He had the right to know things like that, he was fifteen not five! He wasn't impressed with Sirius at the moment either, his letter had been very lacking, just two short sentences. He hoped it had just been written in a rush or something. Sirius' letters had all been in code, thankfully one already spelled to react to a password so he hadn't actually used the magic himself to read them.

He was just so frustrated, even though he knew it wasn't all his. Whoever it was he could feel had been very agitated lately, really upset a few weeks ago. He knew it wasn't Riddle, it felt nothing like him, and he'd always had a vague awareness of it. He hadn't felt anything to do with him until his scar had hurt when near Quirrell. Could whoever it was feel him too? If they could then his fear last night must have been horrible.

No one would tell him what was going on and that wasn't helping him calm down. And what had that Howler been about? Whose voice had echoed so horribly, so menacingly, through the kitchen? Why was he still trapped in the muggle world without information? Why was everyone treating him like some naughty kid? Don't do any more magic, stay in the house… He kicked his school trunk as he passed it, but far from relieving his anger he felt worse, as he could add a sharp pain in his toe to deal with in addition to the pain in the rest of his body.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Sirius paced his room, agitated. If he felt so bad how was Harry coping? He felt horrible for sending such a short note but he was worried Harry would react to events without thinking and if he ran then the Ministry would follow, he didn't want to end up a fugitive too. He could kill Dung for abandoning his post all for a dodgy deal.

He'd wanted them to go collect Harry immediately, to bring him to the safety of the Black family wards and Fidelius, but no one else except Kingsley and Moody agreed. Dumbledore kept insisting he had to remain to recharge the wards but what good were those wards now that Voldemort had Harry's blood? His questions on that had been brushed aside so he'd been trying to do his own research, but he wasn't getting very far. Without knowing exactly how Harry had survived, the type of blood wards used, all he could get was very general information. Honestly, he wasn't a fan of Dumbledore's theories behind Harry's survival, something told him that Riku was also involved somehow, though he wasn't sure how. Maybe due to them being twins their magic had combined somehow?

Honestly, he had a lot of opinions on how Dumbledore had dealt with Harry and none of them were good. But as long as he was a wanted man there was nothing he could do…was that why Dumbledore hadn't used his authority as Chief Warlock to give him a trial two years ago? He'd given him a story about wanting to bring Fudge around to the idea but Sirius wasn't so sure. Everyone named in the Potter's will was either dead or unsuitable, letting Dumbledore take control of Harry's life.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

All Aqua could do was keep wandering through the Realm of Darkness, trying to find her way back to the Light. She came to a grassy clearing with a small hut nearby, recognising the home of the seven dwarves. "Another world that was lost to the darkness?" she murmured only to spot something out of place. "Hmm?" it was a glass coffin set in the grass before the cottage.

"Is that...?" She walked over to the coffin and gasped as she stared down at familiar features. "Ven!?" she looked for a way to open the coffin, could he breath in there? "Ven!" she called his name again but there was no response. He couldn't be dead, he wasn't dead. She took a shaky breath and placed her hands on the coffin, staring at Ventus' unconscious body inside, exactly how she remembered, but a moment later he vanished. He couldn't have really been there, she had hidden him within the locked world their home had become.

"Ven. What did you come here to tell me? I know I promised to wake you up. I'm sorry. But I have to find a way home before I can help you. I just want you to know that it's been you that keeps my Heart strong. Keeps the dark away," she whispered, despite the mirage being gone, stroking the cold glass.

Sensing something, she turned around, seeing a large, ornate mirror floating in mid-air. She walked cautiously over to it. "It's a mirror..." She placed a hand on the mirror, causing it to start shining. Aqua yanked her hand back in surprise, but to her shock, her reflection came to life and stuck its hand through the other side of the mirror to grab hers. "What!?"

Aqua was dragged into the mirror, emerging through another mirror inside a large chamber. Now where was she?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Riku gathered the logs needed for the raft, pausing as he spotted Sora lying on the sand, typical. He watched as Kairi woke him up, teasing him, hitting him lightly on the head at something he'd said and he didn't like what watching them made him feel.

"Hey!" he called, heading for them rather than examine what he was feeling. "Aren't you guys forgetting about me? So, I guess I'm the only one working on the raft." He tossed a log to Sora, watching him fall to the sand with a yelp, even as Riku walked over to Kairi. "And you're just as lazy as he is!"

That made her giggle. "So you noticed. Okay, we'll finish it together." Even as she jumped up and down, he sat beside Sora. "I'll race you!"

"Huh?"

"What, are you kidding?" Riku stared at her, even as she giggled again.

"Ready? Go!"

Riku glanced at Sora only to find he was looking at him in return, before they both leapt up to race across the sand. They grinned at each other as they overtook Kairi, Riku pulling ahead of Sora thanks to his longer legs, but not so far ahead as to ruin the fun of the race, able to hear Kairi laughing behind them.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Harry lay on his bed in a kind of stupor, thinking of nothing, suspended in misery. He had the house to himself but with the bedroom door locked there was no way out so what did it matter? He'd heard nothing from anyone since that first evening and he was shifting between angry and uncaring about the whole thing.

Then, quite distinctly, he heard a crash in the kitchen below. He sat bolt upright, listening intently. The Dursleys couldn't be back, it was much too soon, and in any case he hadn't heard their car.

There was silence for a few seconds, then voices. Burglars, he figured, sliding off the bed to his feet, but a split second later it occurred to him that burglars would keep their voices down, and whoever was moving around in the kitchen was certainly not troubling to do so. He snatched up his wand from the bedside table and stood facing his bedroom door at an angle so that he wouldn't be seen immediately by anyone in the doorway, listening with all his might. The next moment he jumped, as the lock gave a loud click and his door swung open.

Harry stood motionless, staring through the open doorway at the dark upstairs landing, straining his ears for further sounds, but none came. He hesitated for a moment, then moved swiftly and silently out of his room to the head of the stairs. His heart shot upwards into his throat as he spotted the people standing in the shadowy hall below, silhouetted against the streetlight glowing through the glass door; eight or nine of them, all, as far as he could see, looking up at him.

"Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone's eye out," a low, growling voice ordered.

Harry's heart was thumping uncontrollably. He knew that voice, but he did not lower his wand. "Professor Moody?" he asked uncertainly. The last time he'd seen the man, he'd been a Death Eater in disguise after all, but Crouch had been Kissed, hadn't he?

"I don't know so much about Professor", he answered, "never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly."

Harry lowered his wand slightly but did not relax his grip on it, nor did he move. After all, he had no idea who the others were and no guarantee it really was Moody. But before he could decide what to do next, a second, slightly hoarse voice floated upstairs.

"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away."

He knew that voice, too, though he hadn't heard it for over a year. "Professor Lupin?" he said disbelievingly. "Is that you?" He hadn't even heard from the man all last year so what could he be doing in the house?

"Why are we all standing in the dark?" asked a third voice, this one completely unfamiliar, a woman's. "Lumos."

A wand-tip flared, illuminating the hall with magical light, making Harry blink. The people below were crowded around the foot of the stairs, gazing up at him intently, some craning their heads for a better look. Remus Lupin stood nearest to him, looking tired and rather ill; he had more grey hairs than when Harry had said goodbye to him and his robes were more patched and shabbier than ever. Nevertheless, he was smiling broadly at Harry, who tried to smile back despite his state of shock and the hurt of the man not contacting him.

"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would," said the witch who was holding her lit wand aloft. She looked the youngest there; she had a pale heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes, and short spiky hair that was a violent shade of violet. "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," said a bald black wizard standing furthest back but Harry ignored what they were all saying, his hand still gripping his wand. What were they all doing there?

Mad-Eye Moody was squinting suspiciously at Harry through his mismatched eyes. One eye was small, dark and beady, the other large, round and electric blue - the magical eye that could see through walls, doors and the back of Moody's own head. "Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin?" he growled. We'd look right fools if we brought back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"

"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" Lupin asked.

"A stag," he answered, frustrated.

"That's him, Mad-Eye," said Lupin.

Very conscious of everybody still staring at him, Harry descended the stairs, stowing his wand in the back pocket of his jeans as he came.

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" roared Moody. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

"Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?'" the violet-haired woman asked Mad-Eye interestedly.

"Never you mind, you just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" growled Mad-Eye. "Elementary wand-safety, nobody bothers about it anymore." He stumped off towards the kitchen. "And I saw that," he added irritably, as the woman rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

Lupin held out his hand and shook Harry's. "How are you?" he asked, looking closely at Harry.

"Frustrated and mad, how are you?" he snapped, crossing his arms. Four weeks with nothing, not the tiniest hint of a plan to remove him from Privet Drive, and suddenly a whole bunch of magicals were standing matter-of-factly in the house as though there meeting was a long-standing arrangement. He glanced at the people surrounding Lupin; they were still gazing avidly at him. He felt very conscious of the fact that he had riot combed his hair for four days. "You're really lucky the Dursleys are out," or were they? Their plans had been rather sudden…

"Lucky, ha!' the violet-haired woman laughed, confirming his suspicions. 'It was me who lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they'd been short listed for the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They're heading off to the prize giving right now…or they think they are."

Harry had a fleeting vision of Uncle Vernon's face when he realised there was no All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. It would be best if he wasn't there when they came back cause he knew who would get the blame. "I assume this means I'm finally worth remembering? Not like I was attacked by Dementors in the supposedly safest place for me or anything," he shook his head, seeing their startled looks.

"We're just waiting for the all-clear to leave," Lupin answered carefully.

"Great. Where are we going? Whatever place everyone else is at and can't talk about?" Harry asked.

"We've set up Headquarters somewhere un-detectable. It's taken a while…" he offered as Harry headed past him and into the kitchen to see what Moody had gotten up to.

He was sitting at the kitchen table swigging from a hip flask, his magical eye spinning in all directions, taking in the Dursleys' many labour-saving appliances.

"This is Alastor Moody, Harry," Lupin continued, pointing towards Moody.

'Yeah, I know,' Harry kept from rolling his eyes at being introduced to someone he'd already met, well sort of.

"And this is Nymphadora – "

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," said the young witch with a shudder, "it's Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," finished Lupin.

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora," muttered Tonks, and Harry agreed with her.

"And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt." He indicated the tall black wizard, who bowed. "Elphias Doge." The wheezy-voiced wizard nodded. "Dedalus Diggle – "

"We've met before," squeaked the excitable Diggle, dropping his violet-coloured top hat as Lupin finished off the introductions.

"A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you," Lupin explained.

"Yeah, well, the more the better," said Moody darkly. "We're your guard, Potter."

"Like that Dung idiot who left his post?" Harry retorted. "Because peeping on an underaged boy is so law-abiding."

That got a flushes of embarrassment and some annoyance but they deserved it.

"We're just waiting for the signal to tell us it's safe to set off," Lupin obviously decided to ignore his comment, glancing out of the kitchen window. "We've got about fifteen minutes."

"Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" said the witch called Tonks, who was looking around the kitchen with great interest. "My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, just as it does with wizards?"

"Of course, everything has to be totally normal, no freakishness allowed, which includes magic and dirt, not that they see any difference between the two, said Harry. "Look," he turned back to Lupin, "what's going on, I haven't heard anything from anyone, what's Vol-?"

Several of the witches and wizards made odd hissing noises; Dedalus Diggle dropped his hat again and Moody growled, "Shut up!"

"What?" he stared at the ex-Auror.

"We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky," said Moody, turning his normal eye on Harry. His magical eye remained focused on the ceiling. "Damn it," he added angrily, putting a hand up to the magical eye, "it keeps getting stuck - ever since that scum wore it." And with a nasty squelching sound much like a plunger being pulled from a sink, he popped out his eye.

"So too risky to talk but not too risky to leave me locked up here. Interesting ideas on safety magicals have."

"Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" Tonks asked.

"Get me a glass of water, would you, Harry," Moody requested.

Harry crossed to the dishwasher, took out a clean glass and filled it with water at the sink, still watched eagerly by the band of wizards. Their relentless staring was starting to really annoy him.

"Cheers," Moody offered when Harry handed him the glass. He dropped the magical eyeball into the water and prodded it up and down; the eye whizzed around, staring at them all in turn. "I want three hundred- and sixty-degrees visibility on the return journey."

"How're we getting - wherever we're going?" Harry asked.

"Brooms," Lupin answered. "Only way. You're too young to Apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network and it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorised Portkey."

"Remus says you're a good flier," said Shacklebolt.

"He's excellent," said Lupin, who was checking his watch. "Anyway, you'd better go and get packed, Harry, we want to be ready to go when the signal comes."

"Right, because a group this size is going to be so unnoticeable on brooms. Ever heard of a cab? Not like Death Eaters are going to track Muggle transport." He shook his head and headed upstairs to pack. Every year the lack of common sense among Magicals became more and more obvious and frustrating. Would he be like that if he'd been raised by his parents?

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Remus frowned as he watched Harry ascend the stairs, he sounded…bitter, sarcastic…and for the first time he wondered if leaving him in the house with so little contact after last June really had been for the best. Dumbledore insisted it was but Harry was changed from the last time he'd seen him. Maybe he was just stressed about the hearing? His family would have helped him deal with the Tournament once he was home…there was no way Petunia still held onto that grudge after so long. He'd need to ask one of those who'd had guard duty about how they had been helping him to see what else he might need.

TBC…

So Harry has kind of reached a level of utterly fed up with not being told things and being locked away. Plus Riku's frustration and desire to leave the Islands is also leaking through.