Chapter 3:

L had been in Japan for the last two years before the Kira Case. When he caught wind of it, he made quick work of the possible location of Kira. When L taunted Kira through public television, Whammy had to admit that he was worried for the life of his charge. He himself had lived a long life, but little L didn't. His stoop had made him be permanently 4 feet 10 inches tall. His height was the bane of his existence in Whammy's house, when the newley brought in Near had mistaken him for an eight year old.

After most of the Japanese task force left his side, and the FBI had all been killed, L began to feel desperate. He knew that he was onto something, and thought that maybe Light Yagami, the son of the Chief, was a possible suspect. He needed to show his face to the remaining team so that the rest could trust him.

When the men hovered behind the door that housed the best detective alive, they were surprised when they heard a distinctly child-like voice call out to them.

"Please, come in."

When they tentatively opened the door, they were not expecting a small child, possibly no older than twelve, when they pictured the greatest detective. Then they all reminded themselves that he had solved his first case eight years ago, making him four. He looked English, so they were surprised when he began speaking in perfect Japanese.

"I am L."

Matsuda was the first to voice his doubts, he was really skeptical of the child.

"How can we be sure that you are L? You certainly don't look like it! You look like a panda!" Matsuda all but squealed, cute children where his downfall.

(AN: My friend has my manga, don't hate me if I get some dialogue wrong!)

"Well, I could certainly tell you what was on the computer that just gave you instructions to come here, but there is a 46% chance that you won't believe me. I could also give you secret information regarding the Kira Case. That has a 32% chance that you won't believe me. Just from your reactions, you are doubtful that I am L because of my age, am I correct? You may not believe anything that I say, there is actually an 80% chance that you aren't even listening, but no matter. Watari brought you here, so please, sit."

The group made no motion to move, and where only surprised. Rooted to their piece of floor, they began to introduce themselves. L internally sighed, absolute idiots. He pointer and index fingers together and shot an imaginary bullet at the team with a "BANG" The rest of the team jumped, clearly puzzled.

"Kira needs a name and a face to kill, so be careful handing out that information, we would all like to value our lives wouldn't we?"

Yagami Soichiro couldn't help but agree with L at this point. The misspelled names were never targeted, neither were criminals from private arrests.

L and the rest of the team monitored suspects for around two years, working on the case constantly, L was now almost 14, and stepped in as Hideki Ryuuga to stalk Light when he was taking his entrance exams at the university. At the entrance ceremony, which was in August, L introduced himself as the great detective.

Light didn't know what to do, showing up at his entrance exam was something he didn't expect L to do, neither did he expect L to be a child, no older than 13. His mannerisms certainly showed as reclusive and insane, while his eyes did show a lack of sleep. Light tried to downplay the situation, and Ryuuga, or L, Light doesn't know what to call him anymore, stopped talking for the rest of the ceremony, until they had to give their gigantic speech of course, Light noted the strange way L seemed to grip things, touching only the corners and using two fingers almost as if he were a germaphobe. Oh well, just another quirk to the already strange detective.

Light had gone home soon after that and laid down on his bed, staring at the ceiling for a long time, terribly conflicted. Ryuk being in the corner going through apple-withdrawal didn't help either.

He was certain, and was still certain, that L was going to be his downfall, that he would need to kill L to make sure his plan as Kira went along smoothly, but could he bring himself to do it? It was the morality question he had with himself two years ago when he killed the man from the hostage situation and the man harassing the young lady.

L had never done anything wrong, he was just a kid, but he was in Light's way. When he had killed Lind L Tailor, he didn't hesitate, so why did he now? Maybe he was gaining the ability to feel again? That had certainly been kicked out of his mind when he began his reign as Kira.

Light was pulled out of his thoughts by two things, one; Ryuk had latched himself onto the ceiling and began doing pushups, right above where Light lay, and he was worried for his safety, two; his mother had called him down for dinner.

After being interrogated by L with the snippets of messages left behind by the victims of Kira, Light was invited to headquarters, where he officially 'tried' to catch Kira. There, L's alias changed once again, this time to Ryuuzaki, Light still thought of him as L though.

He had met Misa, with her Shinigami Rem, and was delighted to know that she had the eyes. She would make a useful pawn, she would be able to eliminate L easily. Then his long lost humanity hit him again. Working with L, pretending to be Kira and going out to find the Second Kira, dare he say, he began to see the young detective as a sort of brother? That was a weird feeling. When he volunteered himself into confinement, L almost looked sympathetic, when afterwards, he had to wear the handcuffs.

His memory-free self bonded even closer with L, and even though they were forced, they enjoyed their time together in close quarters. Here, Light realized something.

L was touch-starved.

Sure, he had Watari, and he probably had friends where he came from, but, after taking a psychology class in high school, he noticed the tell-tale signs. When Light had hugged L once, or even grabbed him on the shoulder, to chew him out, he wouldn't pull away, instead he almost nuzzled into the offered appendage. Memory-less Light decided to be a good person and be there for L, even though he was accusing him of being Kira. He tried to be L's friend.

When they had their fight early on in their being-chained-together escapades, L had let it slip that he had never had friends, only roommates at the orphanage he lived at. That pulled on Light's heart, un-blackened by the Note, and made him try harder to befriend L.

Finding the person that Kira (Rem in this case) gave the powers of the Death Note to was somewhat challenging, pinpointing him and baiting him with Matsuda 'dying' and then appearing on television. When Light had touched the Note, he had screamed, not only because he saw Rem, but because he remembered everything he had ever done as Kira. His innocent persona he had adopted over the weeks shattered, the psychopath left behind. Strangely, the kindness and companion ship between him and L remained, and of course they remained chained.

One day, or should Light say night, as L was pulling yet another all-nighter and forcing Light to stay up with him, Light was chugging away at the computer, keeping away from the growing pile of coffee cups on L's side of the desk. He had mistaken L's sugary abomination for his cup once, never again.

L suddenly began glowing blue, maybe it was the exhaustion, but small blue flames showed up in his lower peripheral vision, battering at L's feet. L was terrified, the flam spread higher and higher, engulfing him, still clutching the Death Note, and traveling across the chain, gathering Light up in the blue as well.

The flames were cold, almost comforting even. They engulfed them completely, and they were gone from headquarters.

Dumbledore had watched the three champions for the Triwizard Tournament get chosen with glee. His manipulative, but still twinkling eyes only awaited the name that he knew Karkaroff had planted in the Goblet. He was waiting for the name of the Boy-Who-Lived, Charlie Potter.

The boy in question, loath Dumbledore admit, was a fairly mediocre wizard, nothing like the wielder of the ultimate power to overthrow Voldemort. He pushed through each year, barely graduating, depending off of Hermione like a lifeline. To be honest, Dumbledore was infuriated. His weapon was not the weapon he wanted him to be, and Charlie was growing into an arrogant, spoiled child, just like Malfoy, maybe a tad less.

I mean come on! The brat was homesick, so his parents took teaching jobs! They brought their tiny child along with them too! Dumbledore was annoyed at the failure's of his Golden Boy. Ron fueled the prejudice against the Slytherins nicely, and Hermione made sure that his weapon would be on top of his studies. Little Rose Potter was a joy, though, against all odds. Albus had quite like the impromptu babysitting job he had been given at the beginning of the year, since the young girl was quite observant and smart. Definitely a Ravenclaw later in life.

The paper fluttering out of the flames had thrown him out of his mini-flashback. He reached out, expecting to see the saviors name, but alas, he was shocked at the name written upon the parchment, clearly, in Minerva McGonagall's handwriting;

Harry Potter.

A column of blue flame appeared at the other end of the hall, the braver students pulling out their wands and confronting it. When it died down, they're two figures laying on the stone floor of the Grand Hall, chained together by a handcuff. One, the smaller, more shabby looking, was clutching at a notebook, almost crushing the edges, and the taller, more muscular, and more put-together child, (for he couldn't be of legal drinking age, couldn't he?) seemingly landed on top of the younger. Speaking of the younger, gasps were heard from the Head Table, the two Potters were rushing out of their seats towards their possible child. Charlie just looked annoyed that he wasn't chosen, and the two on the ground couldn't care less.

The one on top of the pile of limbs was awake, and started mumbling in what Dumbledore recognized as Japanese. He asked the man;

"Kon'nichiwa, anata no onamae wa?" (Hello, what is your name?)

"Watashi wa Yagami Light" (I am Light Yagami) The brunette with the wine-colored eyes responded to Dumbledore's question. The smaller seemed to regain consciousness for a second, and looked up at Dumbledore with large gray eyes;

"Watashi wa Ryuuzaki Rue" (I am Rue Ryuuzaki) the youth muttered out before he could yet again fall unconscious, the man, now identified as Light, or Yagami, whichever way they were saying their name (Dumbles is kinda ignorant to their customs) also collapsed.

Snape, who scooted up to the Headmaster, asked him, his drawl hinting at a little bit of excitement,

"Albus, what was on the paper?" What Dumbledore said next shocked their world.

"Harry Potter, my dear boy, Harry Potter"

AN: HELLO! This quarantine is driving me nuts, I just wanna cut off most of my hair to piss off my mom ngl, that would be great. ANYway, AP test practice is crap, I have given up on Computer Science, and Fanfiction is keeping me sane. Any ideas for future plot lines would be greatly appreciated! Now, I gotta go update my other stories. 'The Fox' hasn't even been touched in over a month, whoopsies.

LATERS!