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

Author's note: Hi everyone, the new chapter is here :) A tiny bit less drama than in the previous chapter. What do y'all think will happen in the next few chapters?

Rating: M

Warning: none

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

When Harry woke up next, light was filtering through his partly-closed curtains. He still felt a bit groggy, but whether it was due to the previous day's events or sleeping too much was anyone's guess. After long minutes spent just staring at the ceiling, the brunet rolled out of bed reluctantly to get ready for another day in Mafia Land, especially breakfast. Ravenous wasn't even beginning to describe how hungry he was.

But one thing at a time.

Looking into the bathroom mirror felt weird. His reflection was the same as usual, which in itself was the problem. There ought to be a gaping wound somewhere on his body, symbolising the missing bond he'd marveled over and cherished for a precious few minutes, before it had been ripped away from him. Nonsensical, of course, but Harry felt like there should be one, anyway.

The blinding pain had lessened, but... How long was he supposed to live like this? How long would it take for the invisible wound to heal, scar over and form the new (old?) Sun bond? Harry knew a thorough discussion with Reborn was in order, but he felt nowhere near ready for it.

Harry sighed, finished dressing and opened the door to his hotel room.

Spanner had left shortly after their talk the previous evening, but one quick scan of the corridor revealed that Harry hadn't been unguarded while he'd recuperated. The brunet recognised a few of Dino's men and nodded at them in greeting when he passed them. His usually overbearing Guardians and friends, however, were curiously absent. Harry had expected them to camp out in his room and force him into bedrest for however long they deemed necessary.

"Then let him!"

Harry screeched to a halt, avoiding the door that banged open in front of him by a hair's breadth. Basil stormed out of the room, no trace of Tranquility to be seen. Not following him was out of the question.

"Basil! Wait up."

The teen stopped and turned around, the furrowed brow slowly morphing into surprise, then relief. Basil rushed up to him, hands hovering over Harry's face and torso, as if to check out if his Sky was alright, but not really knowing how to accomplish that.

"Harry, how do you feel? Shouldn't you stay in bed? What happened yesterday? You just-"

"Breath, Basil," Harry smiled wryly and felt a bout of guilt surge up. He knew it wasn't his fault, he couldn't have done anything, but he still felt guilty that his unconsciousness had caused concern. "I'm fine. I woke up briefly yesterday, but was still knackered. I slept 'til this morning... As for what happened…"

The brunet opened his mouth, but no words came out. Apparently his subconsciousness had made the decision if he wanted to tell anyone else quite yet, without him.

"You know something... I know you do. If you don't want to talk about it, I won't make you, but you can talk to me any time, okay?" Basil said after Harry had been silent for several long moments, squeezing his shoulder.

Harry offered his friend a grateful smile.

"Can I-" The brunet hesitated. Poking his nose into Basil's business just after keeping quiet about his own problems felt somewhat hypocritical. But, well, if his friend wasn't willing to share, he'd hopefully tell him so. "Can I ask what that argument back there was about?"

Basil groaned and rubbed his hands over his face.

"Lal reminded me of the consequences of my decision of being your Guardian, even though she was the one who informed Reborn about my whereabouts in the first place. And I- I do care, but you're more important to me, so-"

Harry hugged him, slightly choked up, and mumbled a 'thank you' into Basil's blond hair. The other teen sank into the embrace and uttered a long sigh.

"What about Tsunayoshi?" The brunet asked some time later. "I heard from Spanner that something happened to him, too. Is he alright now?"

"As far as I know his older self was involved in a fight before they changed place. Sawada-dono had been unresponsive on the way back to the hotel, then barricaded himself in his room and hasn't talked to anyone since."

The blood-splatters on older Tsunayoshi's suit flickered through Harry's mind. He didn't know what the fluffy-haired teen had experienced so far, but he'd seemed skittish. Whatever had transpired in the future must've been a huge shock for him.

Coming to an impromptu decision, Harry asked his Rain for directions to Tsunayoshi's room. Maybe the younger teen would be willing to talk to another Sky and possible Vongola Decimo.

He heard a commotion outside of his room and that commotion's name was Hayato Gokudera. It wasn't the first time his friend had had a screaming match with someone since they'd come back to the hotel and Tsuna had burrowed himself under his blanket, but it was the first time someone knocked on the room door afterwards.

"Tsunayoshi, it's me, Harry Potter. Can I talk to you for a moment?"

The brunet tugged the blanket further over his head and shut his eyes tightly, trying to ignore the outside world. He was a bit surprised that Lal hadn't broken down his door yet, and was willing to take advantage of her absence for as long as possible.

What was Potter-kun doing here anyway? Had he come to mock him? To threaten him into stepping down from being a Vongola boss candidate?

It wasn't like he wanted to be one in the first place!

He had repeatedly told everyone that he didn't want to join the mafia, but his words always fell on deaf ears. His short trip to the future had strengthened his resolve even more. He still felt the blood on his hands, even though he'd scrubbed them almost raw the previous day.

A click, then a barely-audible scraping over carpet. Someone had unlocked and opened the door. Tsuna flinched, but otherwise didn't move. Muffled footsteps drew closer to his bed, after the door had been closed again. His mattress sank in where the invader sat down on the edge of it.

"I'm sorry about invading your room like this, but take it from a master brooder - sitting alone in the dark usually makes it worse."

Tsuna frowned and waited for a barrage of questions or admonishing words, but neither came. Potter-kun just sat next to his huddled form in silence.

A good ten minutes must've passed until Tsuna hesitantly freed his head from his blanket cocoon and glanced at the older teen. Potter-kun seemingly didn't pay him any attention, even though there was nothing to look at in the dark room.

"What- what are you doing here?" Tsuna asked, cringing when his words came out a lot raspier than expected.

"Like I said, you shouldn't be sitting here alone."

Tsuna slowly sat up, but still made sure his literal safety blanket was tightly wrapped around himself.

"Your Japanese's pretty good," the brunet blurted out. It wasn't what he'd meant to say, but now that he'd said it, he realised it to be true. It was still baffling to him how many people seemed to know Japanese and could talk in several more languages, whereas he had problems with even English.

Potter-kun chuckled, a warm sound that drained a little of the tension out of Tsuna's muscles.

"My grandpa loved everything Japanese and my brother's pretty much the same. For a while they refused to talk in any other language, so I had to learn out of necessity. Can't read or write in it, though."

Tsuna nodded and twisted one corner of the blanket between his fingers.

"I'm surprised Gokudera-kun let you pass." As far as he knew, his friend had been outside his door the whole time and Tsuna knew the other teen tended to be as protective as a guard dog, especially towards strangers and people he perceived a threat against his 'Juudaime'. Potter-kun was basically the epitome of both.

The older teen shrugged and there might have been a little grin on his lips. It was hard to make out in the dark.

"I convinced him that you might not want to rant at a friend. Sometimes it's easier to do that with a person who's not that close to you. I also told him that I could relate to some things you might be feeling, because we're… well... not in the same boat, but a similar one. He wasn't happy about it, but reluctantly let me pass. He did threaten to burst in and 'kick my ass' if I did anything to you, though."

Tsuna snorted. That did sound like Gokudera-kun.

"I'm- I don't-" Tsuna scrubbed both hands over his face. " You should be the Tenth. I never wanted to have anything to do with this! I was glad, when Reborn declared me a failure and took off. I thought that was it, that I could go back to my normal life, but then my old man appeared out of nowhere, after years, revealed that he'd been in the mafia for all this time, and appointed Lal as my new mafia tutor!"

Now it was Potter-kun's turn to snort.

"Not a big fan of Sawada Iemitsu either, huh?" He didn't sound surprised and Tsuna wondered what his dad had done to the other teen and stated his question, before he could help it.

"He…" Tsuna shuddered, when Potter-kun emitted something that sounded suspiciously like a growl. "He took Basil away from me… or rather, he decided I'm not good enough as a Sky or something and ensured that Basil and me weren't able to meet, even though we'd Harmonized. I'd seen Basil for the first time in years just a few days ago…"

Tsuna stared at the shadowed form in front of him. He knew his father could be a bastard, but he'd thought that mostly applied to ruining Tsuna's life. Apparently he'd been wrong. He couldn't even fathom what was going on in his father's head. Nothing good for anyone, obviously.

The older teen took a deep breath. Then another. When he went on, his voice was a lot calmer.

"Mafia boss hasn't been my dream job, either, but I've made a deal with Reborn and I'll stick to it. I'd like to say that means you're out of the woods, but unfortunately it isn't that easy. Vongola Nono has acknowledged me as the most likely successor, but your father obviously wants you instead. He's the head of CEDEF and that means we'll be forced to fight for the spot. It's commonly known as the Ring Battles."

"What the- Are you serious ?" Tsuna squeaked, disbelievingly. "I- I can't believe this." Except he really, really could, considering the other bullshit he'd lived through since his introduction to the ridiculous world of organized crime. This was becoming quite the train wreck.

Before he could disappear under the ostensible safety of his blanket again, Potter-kun raised his arm and squeezed Tsuna's shoulder. He could barely feel it through the blanket, but the gesture was comforting anyway.

"We'll figure it out, okay? I'm already committed to becoming Vongola Decimo, so chances are good you won't have to." With one final squeeze, the older teen let go and stretched. "Come on, let's go eat breakfast. I'm starving and you must be pretty hungry, too."

As if on cue, Tsuna's stomach growled in agreement. The brunet flushed, but shyly nodded.

He wasn't quite sure if he believed Potter-kun's words, but he did feel a bit better, lighter. Ending up in the future, surrounded by unmoving, bloodied bodies (at least one of them had been dead , Tsuna had been too scared to check the other ones) had been a shock, one that would follow him into his nightmares for sure. Nevertheless, he felt a tendril of hope that things would look up in the future.

Tsuna quickly peeled himself out of the previous day's outfit and changed into a new one, then freshened up in the bathroom. That, too, helped his mood lighten up at least slightly.

"Bit scared to go out there," Tsuna mumbled. Gokudera-kun was bound to hover over him like the mother-hen he was and he didn't even want to know that Lal was going to do.

"Another thing I can relate to," was Potter-kun's reply, coated with wry amusement, but he opened the door regardless.

Tsuna steeled himself and was justified to do so. Just after passing the threshold, Gokudera-kun was crowding into his personal space and bombarding him with questions about his well-being. More unexpected was Dino's presence. The blond stopped pacing and the concern bled away from his face, when he noticed both of them.

"I'm glad you're both alright!" When the concern bled back into Dino's expression, Tsuna's stomach dropped. "We may have a problem, though."