Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Katekyo Hitman Reborn and I don't earn any money with this story.

Author's note: You didn't really think the solution was that easy, did you? :p But I'm very happy that you all liked the first chapter so much. I hope you continue to enjoy the story. I wouldn't be opposed to a beta for this story, by the way ;) So if anyone's interested, please pm me.

Rating: T (for now, inching its way towards M)

Warning: some violence

Beta'd by the lovely NonchalantxFish, thank you very much :)

"Nice try on the manipulation, by the way, but it still needs a lot of work before you become Vongola Decimo." Although 'some polishing' was probably the more accurate phrasing, but Reborn wasn't about to admit that it had taken him a moment or two to identify the direction Potter had steered the conversation towards; namely, acquiring Reborn's help in a non-mafia-related conflict without paying for his service.

By the time Potter succeeded Timoteo and therefore became the most influential mafia don in Italy, the allied famiglias (and maybe even most neutral ones) would be eating out of the palm of the young man's hand.

Said brunet fiddled with a string of his hoodie and blinked at Reborn in faux innocence, before his lips slowly shifted into a small smirk. The Acrobaleno quite liked the sharp edge of it.

"Thanks, I guess. Well, to start off, you should probably know-"

Reborn saw the glare of green light from the corner of his eyes, just before a resounding, almost deafening bang penetrated the air. He jumped to the window sill within a second, gun at the ready and trying to ignore the ringing in his ears.

Were they under attack? Had Potter's enemies found them? Or perhaps a rival famiglia? The hitman let his gaze sweep over the outside world, but no suspicious movements caught his attention.

When Potter stepped up behind him and tapped his ears with a piece of wood, Reborn, having reached the end of his patience, lashed out with a kick, which never connected. Potter had used the least amount of movement necessary to dodge the attack, his eyes flashing orange for a second, while his eyebrows wandered towards his hidden hairline. Surprisingly, he said nothing. From the corner of his eye, Reborn saw both Snape and Shamal move and glare at him, but a minute shake of Potter's head convinced them to remain seated.

"Better?"

"What-? Oh…" His hearing had gone back to normal. How had that happened? Weird.

"Don't worry about the noise; that was my brother. He likes to experiment with his Flames and… well, a lot of other stuff. This isn't the first explosion he caused. We actually had to reinforce the windows, because they kept shattering. Personally, I think he likes the light show," Potter explained with a long-suffering sigh, before going back to the settee and settling down between Shamal and Snape, like nothing had happened.

Reborn slowly lowered his gun, locked it and finally tucked it away again with a last glance out of the window. It wasn't like he had forgotten about Potter's 'brother'. In fact, he would've been a great lead to find the brunet, had he not been pulled out of school and disappeared after Potter's release from Ospedale Nicollò de Luca.

"Gabriel Williams… I've heard he takes after his grandfather."

"Hm... he hasn't really used that name after Grandpa's… death. It's still on his ID, but he usually introduces himself by his moniker," Potter mused, a bittersweet smile tugging on his lips. There was probably a story behind it, but Reborn didn't care enough to find out. "But yes, he's a lot like him. In looks, personality and genius, when it comes to mechanics. I'll introduce him to you later."

"Shouldn't you check on him? He could be seriously injured." Was Potter really that uninterested in his brother's well-being? From how warmly Potter spoke of him, it was improbable.

"Not here." Potter pulled a beeper-like device from his belt and held it up to him. It had three small indicator lights on the bottom, one of which was green, and a small display above them. "Like I said, that wasn't the first time one of his experiments went wrong… or right, it's hard to tell. Anyway, after something like this happens, he has to give me feedback on his status. The green light obviously stands for 'everything's alright', the yellow one for 'injured, but nothing too serious' and red is 'badly hurt'. If he doesn't answer within three minutes, we handle the situation like it's a red light.

We actually use these customised beepers during… missions and stuff, too. All connected devices will light up the way mine does now. The display shows the name of the person who sent out the status. Nothing fancy, but it's already helped to save a few lives…" Potter sighed and attached the beeper back to his belt. "Before we were interrupted, I wanted to tell you about the big secret. It's usually handled similar to mafia matters, meaning it's got a Statute of Secrecy, but it's not like the situation can get any worse by disclosing the information to you."

Reborn frowned, but motioned to the brunet to explain.

"To make a long story short, I'm a wizard and there's a magical society living alongside the 'normal' populace. There are wards and other measures in place to keep it a secret from non-magical people."

"…magic?" Reborn repeated slowly, the disbelief dripping from his lips.

"Yes, you've actually already experienced it. Your means of travel to this town, the power behind the concealment of this house, how I fixed your ears... all that wasn't any type of Flame, but magic. I can give you more information about and demonstrations of what magic is capable of later, if you want, but do you think you can go with it for now?"

Reviewing the last hour, Reborn reluctantly nodded. He was still pretty sceptical - A whole hidden society? - but he had seen and lived through a lot of weird stuff in his life. Hell, he was currently cursed and reduced to the size of a baby, so adding magic into the mix maybe wasn't too inconceivable, after all.

"So, this man who wants to kill you, he is a wizard, as well?" Reborn reasoned.

"V, as we call him, is a dark wizard determined to rule magical Britain and most likely the 'normal' UK, as well," Potter started to explain, adding the air quotes for emphasis. "The Death Eaters, his followers, have infiltrated the magical government. The Minister of Magic is nothing more than a puppet and V's the one effectively pulling his strings. They've already passed quite a few laws and procedures to further their agenda. One of their objectives is to get rid of muggle-borns, magical people born from non-magical parents, because they think them inferior. Muggle-borns have to report to the Muggle-Born Registration Commission and if they can't prove close relations to a wizard or witch, they're imprisoned for having stolen their magic, which is ridiculous. A lot of muggle-borns and even half-bloods have left the country or are currently living in safe houses." Potter's upper lip curled in disgust, while his left hand was clenched to the point of turning his knuckles white. Apparently no longer capable of sitting still, the brunet jumped to his feet and started to pace.

"We can't just kill V, otherwise we'd have long since dealt with him. He split his soul with a dark ritual and put each part into an object. As long as those exist, he's basically immortal. We know what the objects are and some are already destroyed, but the rest is either very well-protected or their location is unaccounted for. We were trying to retrieve one of them yesterday, but an ally of ours triggered a trap and then this happened. " Potter raised his injured, right hand with a frustrated growl.

Reborn tugged at the front of his fedora to hide his face, while he thought about the new - admittedly mind-boggling - information. He didn't know or understand a lot about the situation yet, but it was enough to deduce that things were a lot more complicated than he had first figured. A hidden, magical society, terrorised by a megalomaniac immortal – this was like nothing he had been involved in before, and was so far out of his mission parameters that it wasn't even funny anymore.

"How big is the resistance movement?"

Snape snorted.

"Most bury their head in the sand and wait for someone to rescue them, mainly Harry as the 'Chosen One'. I used to be a member of a group called The Order of the Phoenix, but after the leader died, it turned into a gathering of headless chicken. A few members, who aren't complete dunderheads, help us occasionally on missions and to defend the safe houses. There are also a few people from Harry's generation who decided to help. I have no doubt, you'll be meeting some of them sooner or later and-"

"Hold up, the Chosen One'? What does that mean?"

Potter groaned and looked like he wanted to hide under a rock. "There's this prophecy-" Reborn raised an unimpressed eyebrow, which was answered by Potter's commiserating nod and a shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, sounds stereotypical, I know… Anyway, it was spoken before my birth and states that a person born at the end of July, to parents who have defied V three times, has the secret power to vanquish him. The conditions applied to two people, me and another boy. Vol- V came to our house when I was a year old and killed my parents, but when he tried to kill me, his curse rebounded and hit him instead. He turned to dust and I got this out of it." The brunet pushed his fringe aside to show him a faded scar in the form of a lightning bolt. "Since then people've hailed me as the 'Chosen One' and now that V's revived, they look to me for help."

Reborn was about to ask for clarifications on the 'revival' part, when he heard a faint crack, followed by hurried footsteps. Everyone in the room tensed and reached for their respective weapons, but when the door to the sitting room was thrown open, revealing a young woman with bushy, brown hair and panicked eyes, the three men on the settee looked slightly less alarmed. That was until the newcomer revealed the reason for her presence.

"Harry, Death Eaters have destroyed the Millenium Bridge and the London Bridge!"

For a long moment, they gaped at the brunette in astonishment. Then, Potter threw his empty drinking glass against a wall. It splintered into a million pieces, but fortunately none of them hit anyone. Reborn frowned at the display and made a mental note to work on the teen's temper. Snape apparently shared the hitman's displeasure and showed it clearly as he fixated the young wizard with a stern gaze and admonished him to calm down.

Potter ignored him and resumed his pacing, all the while cursing in at least three languages.

"It's still uncertain how many casualties there are, but it's bound to be a lot. It looks like… it looks like he's finally started his war against the muggle world now… and they don't even know, what's going on…"

"I know!" Potter growled and plopped down on one of the armchairs, his fingers buried in his dark hair. The young woman looked torn between snapping back and patting her friend's (?) shoulder in concern. She finally settled on a deep sigh and moved to the second armchair, where she spotted Reborn.

"Oh! Who is this?"

"My darling Hermione, meet Reborn," Shamal introduced, while sidling up to the young woman and trying to pull her into an embrace. "An acquaintance of mine. Don't let his appearance fool you, he's been cursed to look all small and innocent, but he's actually a devil in disguise."

While 'Hermione' continued to study Reborn with a thoughtful look in her eyes, she idly flicked her wand in Shamal's direction and mumbled something, which caused the hitman slash doctor to curl into a small, whimpering ball on the floor.

"The Rainbow Curse, right?"

The Acrobaleno's eyes widened.

"What!?"