TSUNA – The Realisation Part 2

The Arcobaleno were, of course, all aware of magic – it was something people of their calibre and profession naturally ran into at some point in their lives. Their surprise came mostly from the fact that Skull knew about it. They'd have never have expected the Lackey to have ever interacted with magic let alone be friends with witches and wizards.

Skull nodded, mostly relieved he wouldn't have to break the knowledge of the wizarding world to the rest of the Arcobaleno. Not because he was afraid of being arrested for breaking the Statute of Secrecy; being who he was, he could get away with practically anything in the eyes of the magic world. No, it just made his life easier because it meant he wouldn't have to explain who his friends were.

Speaking of which, Viper managed to take a deep breath before bursting into questions. "How do you of all people know them?" Taking affront to their tone, Skull's Guardians bristled before moving closer, arranging themselves in a loose circle with Skull at the centre. Skull, backed by his Guardians instinctively relaxed at the feeling of the Flames that he'd missed for too long.

"What do you mean, Viper? Who are they?" Colonello asked. Sure, he knew of that world, but as soon as he'd found out that they couldn't fix the curse, he'd lost all interest in it.

"They're heroes from the last war in the British Wizarding World," They paused for a second as if gathering their courage, "against Voldemort, otherwise known as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

Reborn's lips twitched against his will as he fought not to laugh at the ridiculous names. "I remember him – he was killed by some kid, years ago, wasn't he?" The only reason Reborn even knew the name was because there was a rumour that someone under the command of the 'Dark Lord' (which sounded like something out of a bad movie, in Reborn's not-so-humble opinion) planned to put out a hit against someone. Reborn didn't know the details – he held no interest in the ridiculous Wizarding community, and hadn't even bothered looking too far into it.

"He was, with the help of…" Here, Viper trailed off, gesturing to the group standing behind Skull. They felt more than a little uncomfortable talking about something so close to their own past as a squib in a pureblood household. Thankfully, they'd left with the help of their Mist Flames shortly before the first war against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

The two red-headed twins shared a glance before stepping forward, the one with the missing ear leaning down to whisper something to Skull, who shook his head as if disappointed but couldn't hide his smile.

"Yeah, our friend Harry was the one to defeat Old Voldy." The first said before both of them bowed simultaneously. "I'm Fred,"

"I'm George,"

"And we're the owners of Weasley Wizarding Wheezes." They finished in eerie unison, menacing grins on matching faces.

Recognition struck Colonello, remembering the time Skull had mentioned the twins when pranking Reborn. He turned to face Skull and asked, "Are these the twins you mentioned?"

Like Colonello, a surprisingly mischievous expression crossed Skull's face at the memory. Before he could respond, the twins spoke dramatically.

"Skull? Talking about," Fred made a comically shocked expression, hand raised to his mouth.

"Us? His favourite Rains?" George brought a hand to his head, palm facing outwards as he pretended to faint, rescued from a hard collision against the ground by an indulgent, used-to-their-dramatics Skull letting go of Luna and diving forward to catch him just in time.

Colonello felt oddly hurt by the comment, before shaking himself of the idea of the Lackey's favourite Rain not being him. Luckily, before he could dwell on it too much, another of Skull's friends stepped forward.

"Ignore those two. I'm Ron Weasley, their brother," Rather than reaching out for a handshake, Ron settled for a nod in greeting. The Arcobaleno had already guessed at their relation, given the vividly red hair the Weasleys shared. "I'm Harry's Storm."

Eyes wide, Viper eagerly asked, "Harry Potter is an active Sky?"

At their realisation, Ron was elbowed harshly in the ribs by the bushy-haired woman beside him. The woman whispered something sharply at the man that the Arcobaleno couldn't make out before she spoke clearly. "Yes, Harry is a Sky. My name is Hermione Granger. I'm S-Harry's Lightning Guardian. This is Draco," the blonde man who had first spotted them echoed Ron's nod. "He's Harry's Cloud, and this is Neville, Harry's Sun Guardian," As his name was spoken, Neville waved at the group, a cheerful smile on his face. "You've already met Luna – she's Harry's Mist."

At this point, the Arcobaleno and Vongola Decimo began to cotton on that this wasn't just a group of well-informed Flame users, but a set of Guardians bound to the same Sky. Looking at the group with new eyes, they wondered just how Skull was connected to them.

Fon risked bringing it up. "Skull, how do you know them?" His curiosity was shared by the other Flame users around him. From what they had seen of Skull recently, he had shown no signs of doing anything out of the ordinary. Skull couldn't possibly have found a Sky, could he? Especially not if the Sky already had a Cloud.

Looking faintly panicked, Skull attempted to wave his hands casually in front of him as if to ward off their questions. "Ah, you see…" Desperately, Skull glanced to his Guardians for an excuse. Unfortunately for him, Neville was the one who spoke up, as honest as ever even as he avoided the specifics.

"We attended the same school together," He paused to run a nervous hand through his hair, glancing at Draco before elaborating, "We were friends-," Neville was cut off by the sound of a cough.

"Some of us more than others…" Draco muttered, rolling his eyes in a display that would have horrified his parents at his behaviour should they have seen it.

Neville continued on as if he hadn't spoken, likewise ignoring Skull's wide-eyed expression of dismay as Skull realised that Viper would no doubt catch on that the school they were talking about was Hogwarts. "Anyway, we were friends in school and decided to catch up again while we all had the time."

"…Did you fight in the war, Skull?" At the realisation Skull went to Hogwarts, Viper quickly realised that he would've been at the right age to be involved in the Second Blood War against the Death Eaters. Knowing Skull as he did, there was no way he was a pureblood – so he must have been a Muggleborn or a half-blood. In other words, the type of people He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named targeted.

As the Arcobaleno around Viper looked horrified at the idea of the Lackey being in a war, Lal and Colonello in particular, Skull grimaced, looking away as if that would lessen the blow. Beside him, Ron gripped his shoulder in support, knowing their late Hogwarts years was a difficult topic for him. "Yeah. It was my seventh year." He nervously looked at the Arcobaleno, and the strangely thoughtful, orange-eyed Vongola Decimo, before attempting to change the subject, "Anyway, you've met my friends, so feel free to leave now-," He was cut off by Tsunayoshi.

"Are you Harry Potter, Skull?" Tsuna's voice started out weak and shaky, but as he thought about it more, the increasingly more confident he became in his conclusion. Here was Skull, who just so happened to know a full set of Guardians, with no obvious Sky in sight, all of whom were protective of him to a degree he only ever saw in bonded Guardians. At the sudden silence from everyone around him, including a wide-eyed Skull, he continued, more certain this time. "You're his Guardians, right?"

It was silent for several seconds. Reborn was confused about how exactly Tsuna had come to that conclusion. "Skull's a Cloud, Dame-Tsuna." Though his tone was dismissive, internally his mind was awhirl as the pieces Tsuna's Intuition picked up on came together. He glared as Skull, who shrunk back nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Aren't you, Skull."

"Ah, well, you see…" Skull's voice died off as he chuckled nervously. Before he could explain, he was interrupted by his Mist.

"I told you they'd catch on if they met us!" Luna declared confidently with a laugh, nudging Neville with a grin. To Skull's confusion, his Guardians each reached over to give Luna different amounts of money.

"…Did you BET ON THIS?" Skull's voiced reached the high pitched tone he'd practised throughout the years he'd been an Arcobaleno. Betrayed, he continued. "Hermione? Draco? Even you?" Hermione looked faintly regretful, but Draco just smirked.

"I guess I thought you'd have done a better job hiding, Potter. Shows I shouldn't have been so confident in your secret-keeping skills." Draco mocked, teasing his Sky.

"Excuse me? Who's the one who-," Before their bickering could continue, an irritated Lal demanded answers.

"What do you mean you're Harry Potter? And what's this about being a Sky?"

Remembering the presence of the Arcobaleno and Tsuna, Skull snapped back to attention, looking sheepish. "So… I am a Cloud…" He trailed off, taking a deep breath. Reborn looked unimpressed at his hesitance. "But Cloud Flames are my secondary. Sky Flames-," holding a hand out in front of him, Skull calmly released his Sky Flames, playing with them absently as he explained, "Well, Sky Flames are my primary Flame type."

Looking up to see how they were taking the revelation of his primary Flames, Skull was confused to see Reborn gritting his teeth, looking furious. "Are you telling me, Checkerface made you an Arcobaleno. Based. On. Your. SECONDARY FLAMES?" His words, initially a growl, quickly turned to a shout.

Skull, relaxed in the face of Reborn's anger, simply shrugged. Before Reborn could retaliate, Tsuna uncharacteristically interrupted. "But how did Harry Potter become Skull de Mort?"

Looking an odd mix of angry and sad, Skull looked towards his Guardians, taking reassurance from their presence. "After the war, everything became… too much. People expected things of me that I never wanted, or agreed to. They chained me to this- this idealised version of their saviour." Here, his eyes glowed purple and his hands clenched into fists tight enough that his knuckles turned white. The Arcobaleno listened closely, wincing as they realised the full scope of how imprisoned and trapped the Cloud, who valued freedom above all else, must have felt. Knowing Skull, he was probably downplaying the worst of it too, from the expressions of Skull's Guardians. "It became too much. Before I knew it, I was lashing out, furious at everyone. But then Ron and Hermione found out…" He trailed off, giving his Guardians a thankful nod for their support.

Picking up where he left off, Hermione continued. "We told him he had to get out of there. Travel, if he wanted to. Find a hobby, separate from the Wizarding World. He picked up stunt riding, of all the reckless things," She grumbled, before continuing. "He kept us updated when he could, but after he became an Arcobaleno, it was too risky to meet up with us all anymore without putting us in danger. The most we could do was send letters, and meet individually every now and then."

Tsuna couldn't help but wince, dismayed at even the idea of being separated from his own Guardians for so long. He had no idea how Skull or the wizards could've done it. Guardian bonds, away from each other for so long? It spoke highly of them all that they were still connected so strongly.

"Tch, I can't believe we never caught on," Reborn complained, Viper beside him looking equally disgruntled. They were an information-broker, had lived in the wizarding world, grown up around magic – and somehow still not realised Skull was a wizard.

Unflappable as always, Fon was the first to starts talking Skull's Guardians. It wasn't long before the others followed, even the Decimo, who made the most of the opportunity to question them about magic.

Fully relaxed at the presence of his Guardians, surrounded by the friends he made in the Mafia, Skull could only smile.

…Besides, now that the Arcobaleno knew he could do magic, he could finally try out some of those pranks he'd been thinking about!

A/N: Massive thank you to everyone who followed and reviewed this fanfic - it's my first complete fanfic, and the support from everyone was what gave me the motivation to finally complete this story after so long! I'm super proud of it, and I hope readers enjoyed this attempt at Harry-is-Skull fanfiction as much as I have reading others!