Rosy lips curled into a small smile. "Hello, Harry."

(Crimson bloomed from his aching chest, and a trail of something that was warm and wet leaked down his side to drip on the floor.)

Loving, hazel eyes peered at him from above. "He's beautiful… Just like his mother."

(A deep-seeded tiredness spread throughout his body - running through his veins and into his aching bones - and he concentrated on the feeling of cold concrete against his skin to stay awake.)

A soft laugh rang out, sounding like tinkling bells, and a black-haired man entered the picture. His eyes softened, and a grin spread across his cheeks. "Hey there, little one. Looks like you're gonna be a real ladies man, huh?"

("-uck. You… -ay with me, Katsuki." Something pressed against his skin, and he felt a slow thudding in his chest.)

A look of pride came over the first man's face, and the black-haired man's bark of laughter turned into a grunt when something made contact with his side. "Don't start that," a gentler voice said, though his voice was teasing. "The kid doesn't need to be talked to about girls before he can even walk."

(He took in a ragged breath, gazing at two blurred figures - one red and the other green - above him. "...Damn," he said, letting out a humorless laugh that felt distant to his ears, "...'lways thought Deku was the 'nly one stupid 'nough to be doin' this shit…")

The woman smiled at the men's antics before her gaze moved to the side. "Peter, don't you want to see him?"

(The green-colored blur seemed to stiffen before bending down. "Kacchan, you can't-")

There was a short pause, before a shuffling noise brought a short, round-faced man who looked torn between discomfort and awe. "Ah… Hello, Harry," he said in a mousy sort of voice.

("Shut up," Katsuki bit out, but his tone was without venom. "Stop looking at me like that. 'S not worth it.")

The man's eyes bulged and he jerked forwards when a hand slapped on his back. "Oh come on, Wormtail, there's no need to be so shy!" He grinned, leaning down towards him. "Isn't that right, Harry?"

(Katsuki took in a shuddering breath, ignoring the pleas for him to stay awake. "Don't lose," he said as his brain turned to static. "Ya can't…" He swallowed copper. "You can't lose now. Gotta keep up my track record for me…")

"Alright, alright," the red-haired woman said with a laugh, turning her kind, emerald-colored eyes downward. "Say your goodbyes, everyone. Looks like Harry's tired."

(He felt his body slacken, even as the voices around him shouted for his attention. He was tired, and so warm.)

"Goodnight, little one."

("Don't lose.")

His head, Katsuki imagined, felt like it would if he were to repeatedly light off explosions against his temples while his brain played the drums against his skull. Temples pulsing, Katsuki attempted to raise his arm, but instead, the limb threw itself outward in a jerky, unrefined motion that caused him to startle. Trying to move his legs yielded a similar response, and moving anything else seemed genuinely impossible.

His movements were restricted, his thoughts muddled, and there were a number of other alarms that screamed 'kidnapped and drugged' to him. He attempted to part his lips to let out a slew of swears that Tsunagu would've slapped him upside the head for, but instead, a horrible croaking sound escaped his throat, and he fell silent, listening to nothing except for the sound of his own heart.

Except.

Except he shouldn't have a heartbeat, because he was dead.

("Don't lose.")

He took in a sharp breath, which turned into high-pitched coughs because-

("Goodnight, little one.")

-he was small, he realized. Smaller than he ever remembered being. The tongue that he shouldn't have felt too thick in his mouth, and all he could see were blobs of faded color.

Did that mean he'd somehow survived?

Feeling out of his depth, he reached for his quirk to find any sense of comfort, only to feel his blood chill when he realized that it wasn't there. There was some sort of energy building up within him, he recognized that much, but it wasn't the same. It was far less volatile in nature and almost seemed more intertwined with his environment than his core, but felt similar to when he'd first gotten his quirk - untrained and prone to creating unintentionally explosive results.

And another thing. He felt weak. Unnervingly weak. Not as if his energy was sapped from him or as if his muscles had atrophied, but as if he'd never been strong in the first place.

"Are you awake, Harry?" a soft, male voice murmured in British-English. A man with hazel eyes-

("He's beautiful… Just like his mother.")

-gazed down at him, and if everything else weren't enough, the man was far bigger than him. He reached down, and despite Katsuki's instincts screaming at him to GET AWAY, his body relaxed in his hold.

Gentle hands lifted him to the man's chest and his lips quirked into a soft smile. "My handsome little boy."

Katsuki tried to speak, to tell the man to fuck off, but all that came from his lips was garbled nonsense that seemed to amuse the man holding her. And, to his horror, his bubbling frustration caused his eyes to fill with tears. As if he were some sort of useless-

He paused.

As if he were a baby.

He looked up - not too far, since his neck was practically useless at the moment - and he stared at the blob of color above him.

Oh, he thought distantly. Oh fuck.

He'd never admit it - not to anyone - but immediately after his realization, he'd burst into tears. It wasn't even his fault, either. He wanted to shout and swear more than anything, but apparently, baby instincts decided that every single display of emotion needed to be emphasized with loud, annoying wails.

The whole experience put the hazel-eyed man into a panic, and after about five minutes trying to calm him with no success, he dashed into a room that held two others - one a red-headed woman who looked distinctly unimpressed with the man's frazzled state, and the other a black-haired man who was laughing his ass off at the other man's misfortune.

Eventually, though, Katsuki was able to cut off his Deku-worthy - nope, nope, stop thinking about it - display of emotions long enough to take stock of his situation.

...Not that there was much to take stock of. He'd died, and he was reborn - end of story.

(He pointedly ignored the fact that he'd probably never see those dumbass extras ever again. Or his real parents. Or anyone he cared about at all. He didn't want to get stuck on things he couldn't change.)

He learned rather quickly that his new 'parents' were the hazel-eyed man and the red-haired woman. He had no idea who the others were, just that they weren't technically related, but there was some sort of brotherly bond shit going on with three other men.

Unfortunately, aside from that, he wasn't able to learn much. Half of the time he was unconscious, and even when he wasn't, he was either preoccupied with staying alive or was unable to think properly. It was annoying as hell, only being able to be even somewhat cognizant for only an hour or two per week.

It was almost pathetic, really. His worst enemy changing from a handful of superpowered psychopaths to his own mind, that is.

Katsuki - because he'd always be Katsuki, at least within his own mind - let out a breath and shoved the unwanted thoughts into a locked box. Nothing good would come from dwelling on his failings. He'd learned that lesson once already.

It was a while before he was able to function. By six months or so, he could see and hear more than a few inches and retain his memories for more than a second. He could even stand if he supported himself on something, which is why he was allowed to move around the house more. And, because of this new freedom, he found something that defied everything he'd ever known.

The pictures on the wall were moving.

"He's found the pictures," the black-haired man said, laughter in his voice.

A head poked around the corner, and the red-haired woman - who he specifically thought of as 'mother,' because it felt wrong calling her mom in his head when someone else already held that title - smiled before heading over. She pet the cat who was weaving between Katsuki's legs before pulling the photo from the wall and holding it in front of Katsuki, allowing him to watch the proceedings of a wedding.

"This is me," the woman said, softly smiling as she pointed at the red-haired woman. "And the man next to me is your father." She let out a slight laugh. "He tried to get my attention for ages, you know. I always said no since he behaved like a child, and because… well, don't tell him or else he'll get a big head, but I thought he was having me on. I figured a boy - especially someone like him - wouldn't stand for being rejected for years and still want to be with me. Luckily, I was wrong about that, and we were able to have you."

"How sappy," the black-haired man said amusedly, and his mother rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

"Oh hush, you." She shook her head and moved onto the next man, whose eyes were twinkling as he watched the happy couple. "This is your uncle - and godfather - Sirius; he was your father's best man. He really was a great choice, too. I thought he might use his position to get in a good prank, but James was insistent. Said he trusted him. Turns out he was right. He gave the best speech there, I think."

"Hey," Sirius said, pouting. "Don't tell the kid that - you're ruining my street cred. And it's Uncle Padfoot, by the way."

"Like you have any," Katsuki's mother replied primly, ignoring his second comment. "Anyways, he," she continued, pointing at a man who seemed rather nervous but still wore a soft smile, "Is your uncle Remus. Or Moony, I suppose. He was rather surprised when James asked him to be one of his groomsmen, as if he'd let him get away with sitting in the crowd. He was worried he'd muck things up, but he did just fine. He was probably one of the reasons the wedding went as smoothly as it did, actually. Helped me with a lot of the organization because James is a bit helpless when it comes to things like this."

"All hail Moony," Sirius agreed with a grin. "Our savior in all things technical."

The woman let out a soft laugh. "I sometimes wonder how the rest of you got so far without him." Sirius huffed at her comment, but didn't object, and Katsuki's mother moved on. "This is your uncle Peter, otherwise known as Uncle Wormy, or Wormtail. He was pretty surprised when James asked him to be in the wedding, too, but he was a good groomsman. He was good with making sure that everyone got along, and of course he helped the others with the afterparty, though Remus made sure it didn't get too out of hand."

The red-haired woman continued talking, but most of her words fell deaf to Katsuki's ears. As he listened to her, he couldn't help but catch a few important names that were a cause for concern: Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail - not to mention James.

Now, he hadn't read much outside of the action genre, but because of Raccoon-Eyes' ranting and raving, he did know enough to recognize those names as those belonging to four men from Harry Potter. Which was a fucking book series.

Now that he thought about it, there were some discrepancies with his new life. Everything in their house, for example, was extremely old fashioned, and didn't have even the most basic of TV sets. Initially, he'd thought little of it - he'd known a few people who preferred living without much technology, after all - but considering the fact that the majority of Harry Potter was set between the 80's and 90's, it would make sense. He was pretty sure he'd even seen a few displays of magic that he'd figured were either a trick of the light or some sort of quirk, but they had all used some sort of sticks, hadn't they?

And on top of everything, his parents were James and a red-haired woman that must be Lily, and his own name was Harry.

Which meant that he was Harry Potter.

Katsuki swallowed, and then parted his lips. "Fuck."

After his father had saved Sirius from being murdered by Lily for 'polluting' his first word - because he was the only one in the house who ever swore around Katsuki - he was returned to his crib and left to drown in his dread.

He knew fucking nothing about Harry Potter except the very basics. Harry Potter, ginger kid, bushy-haired girl, no-nosed bastard, Gryffindor, dead parents. That last thing was especially concerning, because he had no goddamn idea how Lily and James Potter died except that, when Harry was a literal toddler, Noseless had very inefficiently tried to murder him and instead killed himself (but not really) and his parents in the process.

It wasn't like he could even do anything either. Not only was he a literal baby, but he had no fucking idea how Noseless had found his family in the first place, and so couldn't do anything to prevent that little catastrophe. Even worse, he knew that after his parents were murdered - which he did not want to think about, especially after he'd started warming up to them - his 'uncles' would disappear off to who-fucking-knows-where and he'd be left to a family of spoiled assholes by a too-old man with a possible (he said this because Raccoon-Eyes was probably overexaggerating, judging by her usual response to media) god complex.

In general, his situation was piss poor. He knew what was happening, but didn't know enough to stop it.

(It seemed like that would be a pattern in his life, considering what happened the last time around.)

His little dilemma did cause Katsuki to pay a lot more attention to the people in his household, though, and he'd noticed several things he hadn't before.

Remus, for example, seemed to be the gentlest of all of the men, but every time he had to touch him, he seemed absolutely terrified. Not in an 'I'm afraid of babies' way, or even an 'What if I drop him?' way, but as if he was afraid of what he could do to him.

Katsuki recognized the look; he was hard-pressed not to when he used to see the same thing in the reflection. When he'd finally realized just how much of an asshole he'd been, when he finally took notice of the way Deku hid these nearly-imperceptible flinches whenever something sounded too close to his ear, when he saw the ways people stared at him after that stupid fucking kidnapping even though it wasn't his goddamn fault-

Well, suffice to say, it wasn't difficult to recognize a mixture of self-hatred and fear in one's own capabilities. He wasn't sure why Remus of all people felt that way about himself, but it wasn't like Katsuki was going to pry. He did start calling him Uncle Moony, though, when he noticed how pleased it made the man. He babbled at him when he was looking lost - despite the slight degradation he felt for doing it - and he'd made sure that his first real steps were in the man's direction, because even though Lily and James were technically his parents, Remus needed it the most.

On the topic of his parents, he noticed that they moved quite a lot. It made sense after his realization, since he was pretty sure most people would be trying to ensure that their child wasn't brutally murdered by a Noseless asshole. And, although it was an odd thought, it was almost comforting that neither of them were anything like Mitsuki and Masaru. It allowed him to separate the two parties within his mind while still caring for both (and fuck, he really did care for them, which was going to make it that much harder when they were gone).

Peter was a bit of a wildcard. The man wasn't around as often as the others, and because of it, Katsuki couldn't get a solid read on him. He knew, from the way the man acted, that he was friends with everyone and he definitely cared for them, but there was something in how wound up he always seemed that made him uneasy, and more than once, he found himself wondering whether or not he was hiding something. He just hoped he was wrong.

(Not that he ever had been.)

As for Sirius, he could unashamedly admit that he and Remus were tied for his favorite person in this world. He'd heard snippets about the man's family, and it made Katsuki respect him even more than he had before. He was annoyingly funny, too, and his sarcastic comments often had him laughing without even thinking about it - something only his mom had been able to do before. More than anything, though, Katsuki could see the fierce loyalty in his eyes, and he knew in an instant that, even if their personalities were nothing alike, he was like Deku. Without a doubt, Sirius would throw himself in danger if it meant keeping his friends safe, and once the realization hit, it made his chest ache.

He missed everyone - he knew he missed them, even if he tried to push the thoughts away - and when little reminders of each of them kept cropping up, it was even harder to cope. He kept going, though, or else he'd be a hypocrite. If he wanted Eijiro and Deku to stay strong, he'd sure as hell have to, wouldn't he?

The morning of his second-first birthday, Katsuki learned that he lived with more animals than just a cat (which was, as a side note, strangely very loving towards him).

His father turned out to be a stag, Sirius a dog (which Katsuki wasn't all that surprised about, in hindsight), and Peter a rat. It had taken him a moment to register what had happened in front of him when they first transformed, and another few to reassure himself that he hadn't been transported back to the age of quirks. After their little show, Sirius had smugly informed him that they were something called 'animagi' before promptly being elbowed by Remus, who was quick to mention that the process they went through was dangerous and shouldn't be attempted lightly, and that being unregistered - like the three men were - was very, very illegal.

Not like it'd stop Katsuki, obviously, but it was good to know.

Anyways.

Soon after that, Katsuki was greeted with what was definitely an excessive amount of presents. His parents ended up providing him with average toddler entertainment, with a lot of magical items - like a box of never-dulling crayons - thrown into the mix. He had to assume that Lily curbed James' enthusiasm, though, because nothing was particularly dangerous as long as he wasn't a dumbass.

Peter brought the surprisingly thoughtful gift of a photo-album that was filled with pictures of him and his new-ish family, and despite the fact that it was seemingly innocuous, it gave him pause. It was the first time he'd actually been able to see himself, and holy fuck did he look different. Messy, dark tufts of hair sprouted from his scalp - which was reminiscent of James' own hair - and startling green eyes - which could be attributed to Lily's genetics - stared back at him.

Despite everything, he'd half-expected to see his old face looking back at him if a bit young, and the difference sent him spiralling into his thoughts.

He knew that he was in a different world and he knew that he had a different family and it'd be silly for him to look anything like before, but, admittedly, he'd hoped that something had come with him. Something that was his - that he could remember.

Katsuki took in a breath to ward off the tears that threatened to fall, only to meet with the stunned looks of everyone around him.

"Holy hell," James whispered, and Lily didn't even bother to swipe at him.

"Well then," Sirius said with a startled laugh. "Looks like the tyke is full of surprises."

Katsuki blinked when they referred to him, only to freeze when he turned to see the lock of hair that was brushing innocently against his cheek.

It was blonde.

He grabbed onto the downy lock, and slowly, as if it was responding to his emotions, it filtered between colors between finally settling upon a pale gray with a dark orange tinge.

"A metamorphmagus?" Remus let out, sounding somewhat incredulous. Peter looked similarly stunned.

James' shoulders relaxed and he broke out into a grin. "Looks like it."

Lily sighed, though there was a small smile on her face. "Of course. I don't know why I expected anything else, with you as the father."

Judging by the look on James' face, he took her comment as a compliment, but none of what they were saying was helping with Katsuki's bewilderment.

"Ah, Harry," Remus finally said, stepping slightly closer. "A metamorphmagus is someone who can change their appearance at will. They're rather rare, though. I haven't seen any in my lifetime."

"I think my cousin's daughter is one," Sirius mentioned. "Heard it through the grapevine."

...The fuck? How many goddamn abilities could wizards have?

"To turn back, all you have to do is think about it," Remus added after a moment, looking at him curiously.

Katsuki paused. He supposed he should change his hair back, but it was almost… comforting to see something familiar. He pursed his lips and glanced up at James. At the same time, though…

He turned his head slightly, watching as his hair transformed into a messy, ash-blonde. His roots, though, returned to their original dark color, creating a sort of compromise between the two shades.

"Harry," Sirius said, raising a brow, "That's the wrong color."

"No," he said, causing the man to blink.

"No?" he asked amusedly. "You like that better?"

Katsuki simply nodded, and the man let out a slight laugh. "Well, I guess it's your choice, isn't it? Can't say I've ever seen a blonde Potter, though."

"Huh," James said suddenly. "That explains that, then."

Lily turned towards him with a confused expression. "Explains what?"

"Well, that time he'd cried, I could've sworn his hair turned yellow for a second, but when I looked back, it was back to normal."

All expressions turned blank within a moment. Even the cat, who was sitting on the edge of the couch, looked unimpressed.

"...What?" James asked nervously.

"You didn't think twice of a baby's hair turning yellow," Lily repeated slowly.

James shifted, looking embarrassed. "Trick of the light, maybe…?"

Sirius stared at him. "Prongs, his hair is black."

The man suddenly looked as if he'd be anywhere else, and Remus sighed, taking pity on him. "Whatever, we know now, don't we?"

"Yellow," Sirius muttered under his breath, sounding incredulous.

Katuski shook himself out of his stupor and turned towards Peter. Although his feelings towards the man weren't exactly positive - not that they were entirely negative, either, but whatever - and the pictures of him had basically startled him enough that he gained a new ability, he did genuinely appreciate the gift. Katsuki had always hated when people tried to buy his friendship with new things, so something personal was always refreshing. It just so happened that said items usually came from Deku.

"Thank you," he said honestly, and it seemed to startle Peter, because the man actually squeaked.

"O-oh, um, you're welcome, Harry," the man said, giving an awkward smile and looking in the complete opposite direction. Katsuki waited for a few moments, but when he seemed to be getting nervous, he sighed and turned towards Remus' presents.

Spoiler alert: there was a huge ass amount of books.

Sirius ended up calling him a swot for it, but Katsuki had always liked reading, so he didn't mind. A lot of the things would be virtually useless to him - such as books on how to read, write, et cetera - but the magical texts caught his interest. None of them were spellbooks or anything of the sort, obviously, but they did give some information about the magical world that Katsuki figured might be useful at some point.

Before he could do much more than skim through the books, though, Sirius insisted that he opened his present. After he stole a book out of his hand, though, he waited until the man apologized before deigning to even glance in its direction.

He shouldn't have, though, since it turned out to be a broom. A fucking broom.

After being subjected to a look that roughly translated to 'what the fuck?' for thirty seconds or so, Sirius snorted and ignored the exasperated look that Lily was sending him. "It's a toy racing broom." When Katsuki's expression didn't change, he let out a slight sigh before placing him in front of the broom. "Here," he directed, gesturing for Katsuki to sit on the device. 'What the fuck?' turned into 'are you shitting me?' and the man pouted. "Come on, just give it a shot, Harry!"

Knowing that Sirius was a prank-obsessed moron the majority of the time, he looked at the broom warily before finally deciding to trust him, internally promising that he would have his revenge if he was being made to look like a fool.

"Right then," Sirius said once Katsuki was in an awkward sort of squatting position, "Give it a little kick, hm?"

Katsuki let out a slight sigh, which turned into a startled choke when he began to rise into the air.

"What?" he let out, looking between Sirius' increasingly smug face and the ground that his feet were no longer touching.

"Great, isn't it?" he asked cheekily. "I mean, it can't go higher than a foot - don't worry, Lily - but it's a start."

Right, Katsuki decided then and there, reflecting on the experiences he already had within a whopping year of being alive again. Wizards are batshit crazy.

(Despite his thoughts, Katsuki wasn't about to pass up the chance to fly again. It wasn't anything like his explosions - which he swore he'd recreate somehow - but it was something, and it was far more entertaining than staring at the wall for hours at a time. Needless to say, the Potters' cat was not very happy.)

They were trying to distract Katsuki.

His days had been filled with Sirius teaching him how to fly (which the man proclaimed he was a natural at) and his parents keeping him occupied with stories and magical toddler activities.

Now, a normal child - or even most people in general, really - wouldn't notice anything amiss with any of this, and might merely assume that certain individuals just wanted to spend more time with Katsuki.

However.

Katsuki was not a normal child, and he noticed things that he doubted even the adults did.

Tense shoulders, shifty eyes, strained smiles - everything that indicated that something was wrong. On top of that, mentions of Remus were met with grimaces and quick topic changes, whereas talk of Peter had James and Sirius sharing a look that Katsuki couldn't decipher.

Additionally, whenever they thought Katsuki was distracted with something, Sirius would be pulled aside in the room over - which was probably soundproofed with magic or something else, since Katsuki could never hear what they were talking about even if he pressed his ear to the wall - and, after an hour or two, they'd come out with poorly-hidden grimaces and obvious shifts in conversation towards Katsuki.

What really annoyed Katsuki was the fact that, normally, he'd be able to figure out what was going on, as long as he could investigate a bit. Being a baby, though, put a damper on any sort of plans he'd normally go with, and it caused him to be left in the dark with just about everything. He was frustratingly clueless.

Or, that was until Peter visited, anyway.

One day, around two and a half months after Katsuki's birthday (in which he'd only seen Sirius a handful of times but hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of Remus or Peter even once), they moved again. The same night, he'd woken up the moment he heard the door open, and not even a minute later, he heard three distinct voices begin to talk: James, Lily, and Peter.

Distressingly, he could only hear snippets of their conversation - Peter was unsure about something, James was trying to explain something, and Lily seemed to be getting prepared for something - and, despite his wishes, he was unable to leave the room without drawing some sort of attention.

He remained awake, though, and, after twenty or so minutes, it became deathly silent.

And then the world exploded.

His eyes were filled with light, his skin buzzed, his ears rang, and for a moment, he felt as if he couldn't breathe.

Most notably, though, everything was wrong.

The walls shimmered and, despite the fact that he could see them, for a moment, he was convinced they weren't there. All sounds outside the house - from the rustling leaves to the crickets' chirping - suddenly ceased, and he couldn't see a thing through the windows.

And then everything stopped.

The walls settled into their normal shade, the sounds came back in a burst, his sight returned, the air cleared, his skin unprickled, and things seemed to fall into place.

This is what they were trying to hide, Katsuki realized, feeling oddly certain. He didn't know what the hell kind of magic had just been performed, but whatever it was, it had an immense effect on not only the house, but the area around it, too. Something that enraptured the senses, seemed to be laced with the suggestion that nothing was there; no doubt to protect them - to protect Katsuki.

He swallowed.

Which means that everything is about to go to shit.

Seconds after the month changed to November, Katsuki woke up to an inherent sense of wrongness and a hissing cat. His mother frowned at the animal when he startled awake, having just gotten him to fall asleep minutes before.

"Why are you-" she started, only to freeze when the door burst open.

She and James shared a look, and when he began to stand, Katsuki whispered harshly. "Wand ."

James blinked before snatching his wand from the couch, and as he stared in the direction of the hall, dread pooled in Katsuki's stomach. "Lily! Take Harry and go!" he shouted, already moving, "It's him, go! I'll hold him off!"

Lily was clearly conflicted, but after a moment's glance at Katsuki, she ran towards the opposite hall, cat following behind.

"Expelliarmus!" his father shouted, then took in a sharp breath. "Stupefy!" There was a brief pause before-

"Is that all you have, Potter?" a slimy voice whispered.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

"Difi-"

" Avada Kedavra ! " the voice interrupted, and, just before they were running up the stairs, Katsuki was blinded by a flash of green. A strangled sort of sound was cut off and, with unblinking eyes, Katsuki watched as a pale hand fell to the ground just on the edge of the hall, barely registering the blood-chilling thump before he and his mother were already rushing up the steps.

Katsuki glanced up and saw a haunted look in his mother's eyes, and when he saw her lips part to let out a shout, he threw his hand upwards without thinking, ignoring the burning of his own eyes. She startled but, after glancing around the room with a distressed look on her face, she took in a breath and placed Katsuki in the crib. "Just give me a moment, Harry," she said quietly, looking ready to start piling things in front of the door.

" W-window ," he forced out, hating how he stumbled over his words.

The woman whipped around. "Right. Right ," she said to herself, shaky hands moving the latch. "Don't worry, Harry. We'll be fine. It'll be alright."

The latch flipped open, and she took in a breath before shoving it upwards. "Alright," she said, turning around and reaching out for Katsuki. "We need to-"

"Lily Potter," the disgusting voice intoned, and she froze mid-grab. Slowly, she turned to face the man and, as if it would protect him, she threw her arms out.

No, he thought, staring at the woman. The window. Get to the fucking window, and-

"Not Harry," she whispered brokenly, and Katsuki's blood chilled.

She was barely running on hysterics, he realized. This was all she could do, after seeing James die.

"Stand aside, you silly girl," he said, acting as if his mother were some kind of disobedient animal. "Stand aside, now."

"Not Harry, please no," she repeated, refusing to budge. "Take me, kill me instead-"

The cloaked man's next words reflected his growing annoyance. "This is my last warning-"

"Not Harry!" Lily continued like a broken record. Katsuki butted forwards in the crib, attempting to reach out to her. To get her to stop . To get her to think for just a goddamn moment . "Please... have mercy... have mercy... Not Harry! Not Harry! Please-"

He could see the very moment the cloaked man had lost his patience. "Stand aside," he hissed, raising his wand.

Katsuki slammed forwards once again, opening his mouth to speak.

"Avada Kedavra. "

Lily Potter fell like a puppet with cut strings.

Katsuki's heart stopped beating in his chest as he stared at the woman on the ground.

Get up.

The man moved towards him, deliberately slow, and the Potters' cat began moving towards him.

Stop laying around and get up, damn it...

A wand was pointed in his direction, and the cat began to hiss, leaping up in front of him.

Please...

He watched as the man scowled and began to raise his wand.

Stop.

A buzzing sound filled his ears and-

The lights in the room burst , plunging the room into moonlit darkness and sending the snakelike man stumbling backwards.

The cloaked man growled, and as his wand raised, Katsuki watched as a silvery doe sprang from Lily Potter's chest.

" Avada Kedavra, " the cloaked man hissed, and a bolt of green light was shot from his wand as the doe split into two smaller ones, running towards both males.

One doe dove towards him, almost seeming to swallow the green light before softly brushing its head against his own and disappearing into his skin. The other ruthlessly rammed into Voldemort's chest, causing him to stumble once more. And, for a moment, all was silent.

And then the screaming started .

Katsuki couldn't tell his own shouts apart from the cloaked man's - Voldemort's - until the sounds had already stopped and, as he let out panting breaths, he realized that there were two still forms on the floor.

He swallowed, regretting the decision instantly when spit made its way past his torn throat. He then took a stumbling step forwards, and-

-he promptly fell face first onto the crib's bedding, falling unconscious to the sound of subdued purring.

A/N:

*EDITED THE 'GOLDEN LIGHT' INTO LILY'S DOE, CHANGED THE BROOM'S MAXIMUM HEIGHT TO 1 FOOT, AND ADDED THE POTTERS' CAT

**ALSO EDITED THE DATE FROM SEPTEMBER TO AUGUST TO *NOVEMBER*. THANKS TO THE PERSON WHO POINTED OUT MY INITIAL GOOF. THEN I MESSED UP AGAIN. SO MANY BRAINCELLS.

two important things to mention about this chapter:

1.) Katsuki is a metamorphamagus, not because of super amazing plot reasons (for the most part), but because he wanted to look different. He basically brute forced nature into making him look how he wanted. Good on him.

2.) The date for Lily and James Potter's deaths has changed - not that he knows it. It wasn't a mistake, it was because, just by thanking Peter, he managed to change the timeline *just* enough that the date was postponed. Instead of dying on Halloween, they died on November 1st, with Voldemort confronting Katsuki seven minutes after midnight, and with the information not being given up just as it became seven days after being told of the Potters' whereabouts (because Voldemort has a weird thing for the number seven).

side note: be warned, there'll be a lot of swearing in this fic because, well, Katsuki Bakugou

and this is my first time posting on ffnet, so apologies if anything is messed up

anyways, thanks for reading!