My Big Baby Brother

By Ammie Hawk

Disclaimer: Not mine, don't own

AN: Okay, this fic was adopted from SC Round Robins, I am doing this with the permission of the other authors who have contributed to this fic. Anyone who has read this fic... I am adding things here and there because, well, I'm probably taking it in a direction that the others probably didn't intend. Anyway, let's get this moving.

Prologue: A Number of Shocks

Heero Yuy suppressed a sigh as he kept an eye on the perimeter. On the other side of the small camp, he could just see Trowa Barton, also keeping watch from the branches of a low tree; Quatre Raberba Winner was reading through some paperwork for WEI that he had brought with him; and Wufei Chang was sitting next to the long range communicator they had brought with them, keeping an eye on it while he polished his katana. Only Duo Maxwell was doing any work for the mission—if you could call it that. To be honest, Lady Une had probably sent them on this venture as another attempt by her and Sally Po to get the boys to relax. All they were supposed to do was check out some strange readings in the middle of nowhere and report back. Simple—and far beneath the talents of the former Gundam pilots.

Duo looked up suddenly as the machine he carrying began to let out slightly faster beeps. Heero clenched his jaw as the tempo of the beeps sped up. It had been annoying enough before. If it didn't mean they would soon be out of here with its dodgy internet connection and record amount of biting flies, he'd have snapped the thing in two just to make it shut up.

"Hey guys, I got it! It's coming from this strange rock here..."

Heero looked up sharply as Duo's voice trailed off. From the corner of his eye, he saw the others looking over, their attention fixed on the braided pilot. "What is it?"

"It looks like some punk ass kid took a Sharpie to it, or it could be some ancient fucked up form of writing, I don't know. What do you guys think?" he turned to look at the others. "It looks rather faded though."

He hesitated for a second and Heero could've sworn he saw a flash of something in his lover's amethyst eyes. It set hundreds of alarm bells ring in his head. Subtly drawing his gun, he moved carefully over to the other pilot. He threw a look at the unibanged pilot, who tensed, ready for action. Wufei and Quatre picked up on the tension and echoed their friends' actions, scanning the clearing for any sign of a threat.

Almost immediately, the blond empath focused on Duo. The former Wing pilot felt something cold wash through his gut at the look on the Arabian's face. No! Something could not be wrong with the braided pilot.

"Duo? Are you feeling okay?" Quatre asked hesitantly, reaching out to touch his comrade.

He moved forward, about to step over the stone to get to their braided counterpart when Wufei, the furthest from the group, shouted out, "No. His uncharacteristic behavior began after he started examining that stone. Stay away from it until we know what's going on."

The former Sandrock pilot hesitated and the Chinese pilot stepped forward, unknowingly forming a perfect equilateral triangle around the stone with Heero and Trowa. Conditions fulfilled, the stone discharged the last of its stored power into the surrounding area, knocking out the five pilots in a wave of intense light. Heero, his attention on the stone that was apparently causing his lover to act so out of character, caught a glimpse of the bright blue light before it reached him but couldn't do anything more than close his eyes. Later, he would be the only one with any idea about what the possible cause could have been.

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Harry Potter rolled his eyes as his best friend Hermione Granger glanced around the kitchen again, trying to find something out of place that she could focus her nervous energy on. It wasn't as if anything needed to be done though. They had another twenty minutes until the main course was done; the appetizers were all ready and waiting on their serving dishes; and the desert was waiting in a carefully warded refrigerator also ready to be served. Harry had even done all the accumulated dishes thus far. He knew exactly how important this dinner was for the young witch.

"Harry, the prawns? Did you..." she moved over to the trays lining the counter.

"Yes, Hermione," green eyes danced with barely concealed amusement. "I promise your guests won't get food poisoning."

The bushy haired witch shot him a glare before collapsing into a chair, looking harassed. "Harry..."

"It'll be fine," he reassured her yet again.

She began chewing her lip anxiously, "Are you sure? I really need to make a good impression. I'm so close to getting this project done."

"Does that mean you can tell me what it is now?" he asked curiously, the intelligent girl had been dropping hints about this project for the past several months.

Hermione blinked at the interruption and turned to glare at the wizard, "Harry James Potter, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred time: I can't tell anyone anything about this project until the big unveiling this Saturday."

"Doesn't mean I have to stop asking," Harry shrugged. "You know, if you need funding for something, all you have to do is ask. It's not as if I have anyone else to spend it on."

Brown eyes narrowed into a glare as they leveled on her friend, "Don't talk like that. You are an attractive man. Powerful, intelligent, and compassionate. If Ginny Weasley couldn't see that, then she didn't deserve you in the first place. The right person will come along.

Emerald eyes rolled to the ceiling and he stood up, "Yeah, of course. I'm just going to get changed. We have half an hour, right? Why don't you take some time to check your make-up again?"

Hermione got him with a leg-locker curse before he made it out the door and levitated him over to a chair. He let her, although he had a wandless countercurse ready in case she tried to take things too far.

"Oh Harry," her voice was calmer now, focusing on his problems instead of her own, "you will find someone perfect for you, someday."

"Maybe. But when I do, will they see me? Or will they see the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Defeat-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or whatever they're calling me these days—the shining hero, like Ginny did? I'm not sure I can take being hurt again when I don't measure up to their perfect standards."

Hermione dropped the curse at the bitter note in her best friend's and pseudo brother's voice. Stepping over, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug, "Things will work out in the end. You just need to get out more, get some more experience. Go have a meaningless fling... under a glamor of course," the last bit was said with an amused look, and Harry couldn't help but grin back.

"Of course," he shook his head. "Whatever would we do about the scandal otherwise?"

Hermione shot a weak stinging hex at him, which he dodged expertly as he darted out the door, his laughter following behind him. Brown eyes rolled at his antics.

She felt a small pang in her chest as she caught sight of her other best friend, Ron Weasley, smiling happily and waving from the Chuddley Cannons calender he'd sent last Christmas. Hopefully, he'd be coming home soon. Pushing that thought away, she was about to check the dining room table again when Harry's voice floated downstairs.

"I meant it, Hermione, check you're spells. You look all flushed!"

Hermione blinked and conjured a small hand mirror out of thin air. Glancing into it, she winced and hurried upstairs to the bathroom. Harry was right; she really did need to fix her make up.

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"Heero..."

Aforementioned pilot groaned and rolled over, ignoring the voice currently whining near his ear. He was just so tired... and this bed felt so comfortable...

"Aww, doesn't he look so cute!"

That was a different voice, slightly less familiar than the other. Then what the voice had just said sunk in and the Perfect Soldier shot up, reaching automatically for his gun. He was rather annoyed to discover that it wasn't in its normal spot under his pillow. Then his brain kicked into action.

The bed he was in was huge. His uniform had been removed without his knowledge or permission and replaced with a pair of loose white pajamas. And he was located in a room with painted pictures of various safari animals on the wall. It was a very bright, very colorful room, and not the sort of place that Heero had ever willingly gone into. Ever.

"Hey! You're awake!"

Prussian blue eyes blinked and focused on the slightly familiar figure of a young boy sitting next to him. The boy looked to be around six or seven years old, with the same chestnut colored hair as his lover. It was also done back in a long braid, like Duo's. He also had the same wide amethyst eyes.

Heero stared. If he didn't know any better, he'd say this was Duo's clone. Furiously trying to suppress his shock at coming into contact with such an eerie look alike to the former Deathscythe pilot, he managed a weak 'Hn' in reply.

"I don't think he's figured it out yet."

The quiet voice, so similar to Trowa's normal steady tones, right down to the inflection, caused the former Wing pilot to turn to the other side of the bed. There were three more boys sitting there. They looked as eerily familiar as the one on his right. But that was impossible. None of them could have been older than seven years old, at most. He didn't know any little children. But they looked like his friends. His mouth dropped open in an uncharacteristic display of shock as he turned back to look at his mini-lover.

"How?"

"No idea," Mini-Duo shrugged. "Une got all freaked when we didn't check in and sent some pansy ass rookies out to case the area. Took em awhile to find us, cause the beeper blew. Well, ya know the noobs, well they weren't sure who the fuck we were at first. It wasn't till they dragged us back to HQ and spun our blood through the database that they knew for sure."

Heero took a deep, calming breath, closing hie eyes as he tried to process what was said against everything he knew to be impossible, "We were... de-aged?"

"That's what it looks like," Quatre winced. "Lady Une will be back soon to talk to us about it. She seemed worried though. I'm guessing there's a lot more going on than what they've told us so far."

The former Wing pilot scowled and he sent a sharp look at Trowa and Wufei, knowing the other two pilots would be honest with him and not try to soften the blow like the blond was prone to, or make a joke out of it like Duo.

"We can no longer be emancipated," the unibanged boy stated quietly. "Une has a possible suggestion, but in our current... bodies... we are unable to protect ourselves as we normally would."

"True," the former Shenlong pilot nodded sharply in agreement, "Our best chance would be to disappear until a way is found to either reverse this, or until we have otherwise returned to our proper ages. Either way, it will be difficult."

Duo nodded, a bitter twist to his mouth, "I could go back to the streets, I guess, but I kinda like having a bed and a house and... a job," a horrified look crossed his face at the very thought, "Damn it! I've gone and turned respectable."

The blond's lips quirked slightly at the feeble attempt at a joke. He was about to comment, when light footsteps caused the five ex-terrorists to turn toward the door. Commander Une was there, looking stressed. In her arms were six files, one noticeably thicker than the others.

"Then it is a good thing I have found someone willing to adopt the five of you then, isn't it?"

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Harry clutched the letter in his hand tightly, as he carefully placed the phone back down on its cradle. He hadn't wanted to open it or even think about it until Hermione's dinner was over. Looking back, it had probably been a rather good idea. The dinner had gone well. It probably wouldn't have if he had been worrying about... about... Closing his eyes, he focused on using occlumency to clear his mind. He needed to be calm. He needed to...

"Harry?"

Emerald orbs shot open and he saw Hermione watching him worriedly. Her brown eyes were fixed on his. Her make-up spells were now released, leaving her looking slightly washed out. He blinked. A moment later, a hand fluttered into his line of sight, coming toward his face, which he blocked on instinct.

"Hermione," he swallowed, he had to say it, she'd manage to wheedle it out of him anyway. "Mione, I have... that was..." He licked his suddenly dry lips, "That was Commander Une of the Preventers. I... I have a younger brother."

The bushy haired witch blinked and frowned, "Okay... well what are you going to do about it?"

Harry shook his head, feeling shell shocked, "I... I agreed to adopt him. I'm not sure how or why... but she asked and I said yes... and..." He suddenly stopped, his eyes widening, "Bloody hell, I just agreed to adopt five seven year old boys."

Hermione turned to him in shock and slight alarm, "Harry!"

The raven haired wizard just stared into space for a second before focusing on her, "His name's Trowa. He's seven and he's got four friends who apparently don't have anywhere else to go. They could get sent to orphanages but apparently they're all really close and they'd have to be split up and..."

A hand shot out and slapped him hard across the mouth, bringing him out of his slight shock. Hermione dragged him over to a chair and pushed him into it. She sat down opposite him and took a deep breath.

"Okay, say that again, slowly."

"I have a younger brother," Harry said taking his own deep breath, "he's seven years old, and called Trowa. We'll have to check into that, seeing as I know my parents died over seventeen years ago." Here he paused for a moment, "Anyway, the woman I spoke to told me about what they know, and apparently, he hasn't had a good life so far. I want to change that. But basically, he's got four really close friends and there isn't enough space in an orphanage for all five of them. I found myself... agreeing... to take them." He bit his lip as he finished and looked at Hermione, who was just staring at him in shock.

"Harry," she sighed. "You can't just go taking in random kids."

"Well, if it gives them a future then I guess it's fine," the raven haired man shrugged. "And you were telling me before dinner that everything would work out. Maybe this is it, you know, working out."

"How did you even agree to do this anyway?" Hermione ran her hand through her hair in slight frustration.

"Well, she was talking," Harry bit his lip. "And I was in shock, I think. And then I heard 'good friends sent to an orphanage' and I just... Well, I said I'd do it. She sounded really pleased about that, actually."

"I bet she did," the witch scoffed. "Harry did you think about this at all?"

He winced as he took in the incredulous look his best friend was sending him. He knew it was impulsive, and that he was probably just inviting in crazy fans at best or renegade Death Eaters at worst but...

"It just... felt right, you know?"

Hermione took a deep breath, "Okay then, you take them in, I'll test them to see if they are who they say they are, and we'll go from there, okay?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "But we're not actually questioning them. If they are Death Eaters, we don't want them to know we're on to them. If they really are just five random kids... well, we don't want to scare them."

"No, we wouldn't want that," she stood up and stretched, sending one last disapproving look at the Boy-Who-Lived before turning to leave the room. "Good luck telling the others. Oh, and you'll probably want to get a delay on entering the Auror training program, maybe do it with the next intake batch in two months? It'll give you time to settle them in and sort things out a bit."

Harry stood up to leave as well, preparing to apparate back home. Already his mind was focusing on everything he'd need to get sorted out before Friday. First, he had to Muggle-proof the house and make sure everything magical was securely warded away; then he'd have to child-proof the house. Maybe set up a ward to alert him if there were any weapons or dangerous items near the children. He should be able to tweak the wards a little to allow that. Then he'd have to contact Kingsley. Yep, he had his work cut out for him.

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"The first thing I should tell you," Lady Une flipped open one of the folders, "is that Trowa, you have a brother. His name is Harry Potter and he would have been younger than you by almost two years but with current circumstances..."

The unibanged boy nodded stiffly, hands clenched in his lap at the thought of his current state. He did not like being helpless and now he had an unknown for a brother. For all he knew, the boy could be the sweetest person around and needing protection from the big wide world and he could not provide it. It was not a nice thought. Pushing that thought aside to think about later, he nodded to Une. She had said first thing, so there must be more that needed to be told.

"Secondly, you're situation is rather unique. In your current states you cannot protect yourselves as you normally would have been able to do, and we cannot just put you up for adoption. There would be no way to guarantee that your enemies would not manage to gain custody and for another..."

"My brother may cause problems," Trowa added.

Next to him, Quatre tensed. He did not want to be separated from his lover.

"From what we were able to discover, he seems to be a nice, quiet, young man. He was left a large inheritance from your parents and his godfather, a large portion of which has been donated to charity. He has also just finished college. As for what he wants to do... Well, when I told him how close the five of you are, he offered to take in all of you."

"He offered?" Wufei blinked in surprise. "For all of us?"

"He was rather, shocked, to say the least, by the information," Une gave a self-satisfied smirk. "I thought you would be happier together. You will be moving into his house at 12 Grimmauld Place on Friday. You have three days to learn about what is considered normal for seven-year-olds. You will have to be careful. We do not want anyone to suspect you are not actually children. It would do nothing but make you and Mr. Potter potential targets."

The former Heavyarms pilot nodded, a serious glint appearing in his eye. It looked very out of place on a seven-year-old's face, but the others all recognized it immediately. It was the same look Trowa got when the colony Catherine was on had been held hostage and was going to be destroyed. It seemed that child body or not, Trowa was going to do his best to protect his baby brother. That would be interesting to watch, particularly as they were going to be the ones everyone would be trying to protect.

"Other then that, however, until the scientists find a way to reverse what was done to you, or at the very least, speed up your growth, you have a second chance here," she sent them a rather amused look. "After all, there are a lot of people who would be very eager to enjoy a second childhood."

Duo blinked and smirked, causing Heero to glance at him warily. All of a sudden the braided pilot could see hundreds of possibilities for different pranks. And the best part of it all? No one would ever suspect an innocent seven-year-old.

The self-proclaimed God of Death snickered at the thought. He wondered how Trowa's big baby brother would react. You could tell a lot about someone from the way they reacted to things after all.

Ammie: Once again, I have adopted this fic, with permission from the other authors. This chapter was originally written by Dream Of Stories. Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoy my efforts and I should have the next few chapters edited and posted soon.