From his perch atop the astronomy tower Tarot frowned darkly while reviewing his situation. On one hand he had Spade back in the US probably being reamed by Umbrella High Command for letting him get away. Even though using the phrase 'get away' wasn't the right turn of phrase; it wasn't like he planned to escape the job other than when he and his team completed the objective. He had been summoned like some slave or servant, a thought that made his frown darken and feed into the other weight on his mind. Someone put his name in the Goblet of Fire, whatever it was, to participate in some sort of bloodsport. If he didn't participate he would lose his magic. 'Not that I really use it much anyways to begin with' he thought to himself kicking the stone behind his heels absently

"Brooding does not become you big brother."

Tarot turned his head and saw Rose a few feet away dressed in casual sleep wear with a size too big sweater wrapped around herself to ward off the breeze. "Spade would disagree with you seedling" he said patting the stone rim beside him. Feeling her press into his side he wrapped an arm protectively around her shoulders as his cheek lay on top of her head.

"I don't care if this Spade person agrees or disagrees with me. I may have only been almost a year and a half when the attack happened & then you were suddenly gone but I remember you. Half remembered yes but I remember. You were so kind, so gentle, so full of laughter.." Rose looked up setting a hand on her brothers leg. "Loved me so much."

"Still love you brat" Tarot said rolling his eyes even as his free hand came down to Rose's own and clasped it gently. "I'll level with you Rose, I am a monster. A lot was done to me after that asshole told your parents to get rid of me."

"Don't you mean ou-"

"I wouldn't claim them as my parents if it was to save myself from dying. What parents listen to a fossil like Albus Dumbledore when he says abandon your son and give your daughter special treatment & training befitting of a spoiled queen because he says so? I sure as shit wouldn't if it was my kid he was saying that about" Tarot said cutting Rose off with a gentle tsking motion of his thumb. "The Dursleys tried and failed in raising me. I don't blame them given the magic in our blood but they still failed. I wound up in an orphanage for special and gifted children. The funny thing about it was half the kids there were retarded."

Rose gasped at the cavalier way her brother described the kids at the orphanage he had been in. "Big brother! That's not very nice to say!" she scolded with a dirty look.

"If I was just saying it to be a dick and insult them then you'd be right. When I say half of them were retarded I mean they were certifiably retarded as in cleared by career doctor with at least twenty years in the profession. At the time back then at least. The kids were helmet needing special needs kind of special" Tarot said. "That's not counting the Autistic kids… it was hectic to say the least. Look, I'm not telling you this to sway your opinion to hate them" that he was talking about James and Lily Potter was obvious "but to make sure you understand I'm not that same wholly sweet nice guy brother as I was back then. I was exposed to things. I have done and dealt with things that would give you nightmares til your dying day."

Rose looked at Tarot and squeezed his hand tight. "I don't care. You are first and foremost my older brother. I will love you always no matter what has been done to or by you. Having you back is.. Well, I've dreamt of it for a long time. Longer than I care to admit really" she said in a soft voice as she moved closer so they were flush and could nuzzle against his shoulder.

Tarots eyes softened a degree as he lifted his head and kissed Roses forehead gently. The pure relief in her aura as she relaxed almost made him chuckle. His training as an Umbrella mercenary had beaten so many things out of him but the one attachment they could never hope to beat out him was his devotion to his little sister. They could never remove the hope he would see her again; the desire to show her even after so long apart and being worlds different he loved her as much if not more so than when they were separated as kids. "If I have a say in it you won't leave my side ever again" he said resting his chin lightly atop her head pretending not to notice the shiver that wracked Roses body for barely a moment. "Not while I still draw breath anyways."

Rose couldn't help the warmth clenching within her chest and her hands reflexively clutching Tarots shirt. Despite the possessiveness that some might attribute to being less than pure, she knew better. She felt better as weird as it sounded. He wouldn't do anything perverted or derogative to her. Her brother loved her and wanted only to protect her by all means possible to ensure she was happy. "I sincerely doubt there's any safer place on the planet than where I am right now big brother" she whispered quietly nuzzling into him more enjoying his other arm joining the embrace to wrap her securely in his full embrace.

"Damn right there's no safer place for you." Unseen by Rose's gaze Tarot's eyes momentarily flashed completely black with only the singular golden snake-like vertical pupil to color the darkness.

When James and Lily Potter arrived at Hogwarts via Fawkes' Flaming the last thing they were expecting to meet was an infuriated but deathly pale Albus. "Albus we got your message and-"

"Do you know what it is you idiots have done!?"

Lily cringed at the utter harshness of the Headmasters voice. His usual grandfatherly calm was not just gone but dead and buried in a sixty meter grave somewhere in the backwoods. "You said Harry-"

"Harry may as well have stillborn and never have breathed once in this lifetime!" Albus said with seething anger. He noted both Potters cringe at that. "I made a suggestion, one that I clearly said Rose should get lessons early but don't alienate your son too much, and you two off & go to drop him away like rubbish. Special treatment fitting of a queen and do you know what comes back to bite me? An Umbrella Corporation mercenary who has already put one of my Prefects in the hospital wing wih a gaping gunshot wound to his chest!"

The elder Potter's eyes widened in abject horror. Like Albus they kept tabs on certain thngs in the muggle world and the one thing that topped the list was the Umbrella Corporation. While it was mainly Lily's nagging that made keeping an eye on certain muggle things a must-do, it had been James' negative feelings about the Umbrella Corporation that made it a priority on the short list. It had the same vibe to him that Voldemrt's Death Easters possessed, dark and malevolently evil but hidden behind a mask. "We left Harry at-"

*And it does not change the face he ended up in the hands of the Umbrella Corporation! He was centimeters away from cleaving my head off with a sword when Merlin knows what force spit his name out of the Goblet of Fire." Albus paced back and forth under the stare of his Familiar partner Fawkes. He could feel the tenseness in the phoenix through the bond and it didn't help at all. "Why did you abandon your son?" he asked point blank.

Neither elder Potter spoke for a moment knowing that telling the truth of why in the wrong fashion would spell doom for them both. "It was misinterpretation of what you said to us" Lily said speaking for them both after what felt like an eternity. "You said that while the physical evidence pointed to Voldemort being gone, you couldn't be certain. You'd just declared Rose as the one to end the wanker. James and I were far from in a good mindset with the adrenaline coursing through us like a speeding lorry. When you left we talked and it was agreed upon we would talk to Petunia. As much as she and I had issues when we were younger she came around when our boys were born around the same time. You were there watching so I know you remember. They agreed to look after Harry for a spell since he was almost four at the time."

"When we went to go get him a week later they were gone. Moved out of Little Whinging without a trace of where or what became of Harry. Nothing we tried in search of Harry worked. It was like… like our son was lost forever" James said.

"He is lost James. He refuses to answer to the name you gave him at birth. Nearly everyone is afraid to breathe around him the wrong way lest they end up like Percival, shot but this time shot dead" Albus sad as he wrung his hands out.

"What do you mean by nearly everyone Albus?" James asked fearing he knew the answer already. Lily obviously did too judging from the way she clutched his hand tight.

"It would seem Rose nor her friend Ms. Lovegood has no fear of him."

Both Potters didn't know what to do for a moment. On the other hand they finally had their son in the same location once more but he was changed. He was a trained mercenary for one of the most dangerous companies suspected of selling biological weapons to the highest bidders around the globe. Biological weapons that with only the press of a button could kill a small country in a matter of minutes if the contagient was airborne. Not only was he a mercenary for the likes of the psychos responsible for manufacturing these biological weapons, he had an axe to grind against them. He would remember their abandonment of him at his aunt and uncles muggle home; he hated them, there was little chance he didn't hate them and want some form of revenge.

On the other hand, and far more importantly, was the perilous perch that their daughter had put herself on. By showing no fear of her brother and who knows what else she was in a dangerous position of her own making.

"What danger does he pose to Rose?" Lily asked after the longest time.

Cold blue eyes flared up at the question. "None by my observations but I would say those who mean her harm or try to take her from him again like you two faclitated so many years ago…" Albus paused seeing the pair tense "he is more dangerous than Voldemort when he attacked Godrics Hollow. Umbrella Corporation mercenaries are amongst the most highly trained mercenaries in the world. They are ruthless, without any form of conscious and murder is not a final option but a knee jerk first reaction. This is something I know you both know."

James and Lily didn't respond or move.

"The fact Tarot, that is what he responds to and not Harry, shot to maim Percival but not kill him proves a point. Considering Poppy's report to me said if the projectile had pierced three centimers more to right of where it had, one of young Percy's main arteries would have been shredded to ribbons and he would have bled to death internally in the few seconds it would've taken for Poppy to cast the diagnostic spell just to assess the severity of the damage."

"What do you mean Tarot just 'disappeared into thin air'?!"

Spade rubbed his temples trying to control his urge to shoot the Council Chancellor. "Tarot is a natural born mage, something we here at Umbrella have been trying to create for a long time. An endeavour that the scientific minds on High Commands payroll has failed to do even after Tarot came into our possession and it was revealed to us" the man began though he was cursing the ancient men out mentally. "Tarot was left by his caretakers at the orphanage we control after his parents dumped then-child Tarot on them."

"We all know this already!" the one previously addressed as Chancellor barked with a contemptuous look. "Get to the point!"

"My point" Spade's tone sharpened drastically "is that if even half the fictions about magic dreamed up by fantasy authors the globe over are true, people being summoned from one place to another it would make sense of his disappearance. That is my point" he finished testily.

The men who made up the High Command council grimaced. They had seen the magical possibilities explored by Tarot's ruthless work, the most extreme use on video was a demonic creature-esque transformation before the boy -who was still being tested on and mid-mercenary training at that point in time- tore a battalion of Umbrella soldiers to gore stained ribbons, and had to concede the logic. "Operative Spade you have been Tarot's field partner for the last five years, in your informed opinion what is the percentage chance that Tarot uses this situation to defect?"

"In the negatives, sir. Tarot is like the rest of us mercenaries, bloodthirsty violent and ill suited for any life outside of being a mercenary or military. Beyond that, the Corporation is the only entity with the data Tarot needs. His exposure to a mile long list of T-virus samples, their derivatives and many others like the refined Las Plagas serum should have killed the boy yet it didn't. The only explanation is his magic has assimilated all the strengths and destroyed the weakness turning him into something that might even give Operative Wesker or Alice a challenge in a one-on-one fight. Tarot knows he can only access the data to study and adapt his techniques, his fighting style, so long as he toes the line with Umbrella." Spade grimaced internally wondering one thing. "I do have suspicions on where he might have been spirited off to though. He mentioned it once while we were drinking after you sent us into Raccoon City to retrieve the hard drives."

"Where?"

Spade stood a little straighter as his eyes were shadowed by his albino white hair. "He had been railing about the torture he would put his mother and father through if he ever saw them again. His ranting became incoherent after a while but I heard a name of a place being muttered." He paused momentarily. "He called it Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Just the name alone implies it is an institution to train natural born mages like Tarot."

Back at Hogwarts Tarot yawned as Rose snored softly, her head resting against his chest as she slept. A faint touch of a smile edged itself onto his lips as he glanced down to her hand where she was clenching his own. "Come hell or highwater Rose, big brother is never leaving you again, I promise you. Anyone who tries to make it happen will die."