The Magic of Family

Chapter Four: Revelations

A.N. Chapter four is what I personally labeled the 'Hell Chapter,' I wrote the chapter, did not like what I wrote, opened a new document and completely rewrote it going a totally different direction. However, because I spent several hours writing this one, I did not delete and can now show you how things may have gone to start with.

Harry grinned as he rolled over and squinted up at the pointed starry sky on the ceiling.

**Page Break**

Harry and Sephiroth had been out in the back garden, Harry weeding a small section that Aerith had dedicated to roses, Harry's favorite flowers to tend even if they were complicated to care for, and Sephiroth reclining on a lawn chair partially asleep. It had rained the day previous and Harry had wanted to make sure that the wind had not damaged the roses, as such he was not paying as much attention to where he placed his feet as he should have and managed to slip and fall in a mud puddle, completely covering his lower half in mud.

When Sephiroth had come to help him up, Harry could not resist pulling him down into the puddle with him and the two thirteen year olds quickly devolved into little children as they laughed and rolled around on the ground each trying to cover the other in more mud and grass than they themselves were covered in.

When Aerith came out ten minutes later, it was to find the two boys laying on the ground out of breath from laughing too much and completely coved in mud. She had quickly ushered both boys into the house and sent Harry to the boy's shower downstairs and Sephiroth to the upstairs shower.

Harry felt his breath catch in his throat when he walked into the room after his shower to see Sephiroth with his shirt off, digging in his wardrobe for some clean dry clothes for himself. When he heard the door open, he jumped and spun around, grabbing the first shirt his hand landed on to cover his torso.

Sephiroth's back and part of his front were covered in criss-cross scars barely visible against his pale skin, but Harry had seen those scars upon his own back and upper arms.

"I'll go take a shower now," mumbled Sephiroth, attempting to push past a frozen Harry and leave the room as quickly as possible.

Quick as a snake, Harry grabbed Sephiroth's bicep and locked the door before towing Sephiroth over to the bed and blocking him in up against the headboard.

"Sephiroth, what happened to your back? Did Zack do this to…"began Harry, reaching out as if to touch the scars.

"No! No Zack would never do this." Sephiroth half yelled, half growled. Knocking Harry's hand away, he got up to pace the room, mumbling things to himself under his breath. Finally, he seemed to reach some sort of consensus within himself, he took a deep breath and turned back to face Harry.

"If I'm going to tell this story than I need you to sit quietly and let me finish the whole thing, okay?"

Harry nodded and pantomimed zipping his lips shut, an action that would have normally gotten at least the beginnings of a smile from Sephiroth, but did not get even the tiniest reaction this time.

"Zack and Aerith aren't our actual parents. My mother was a research professor in Japan and my father worked for a special branch of the government, their names were Lucrecia Crescent and Vincent Valentine. Because of their respective jobs they were unable to get married, but one thing lead to another and I was born, then four years later my brothers were born. We were happy for a time, Father was home whenever he didn't have a mission and Mother would bring us to work with her on days she wasn't working in the lab. When I was six years old Father left on a mission one day and just, never came back. Mother and I didn't believe that he had died, but the government sent a letter telling her that he was dead, and because they weren't married, she would not get any benefits or help from the government. We made it almost a year when the bills and the stress of raising three kids by herself became too much. One day she went to work and didn't come back for three days, when she did come home she brought someone with her. His name was Professor Hojo and he was a colleague that had worked with my mother. While my mother was alive he was never out right abusive, only occasionally raising his hand to one of us every now and again, but when she died in what was labeled a lab accident that all changed. I was eight and my brothers were four, it was my responsibility to take care of them and protect them." He lifted a hand to the scars the wrapped over his right shoulder, "Hojo did not believe in the ethics of science, he thought he was above all guidelines and that he was never wrong in anything he did. Human experimentation was an easy thing for him, and I made sure I was his favorite test subject."

He shuddered and crossed his arms across his chest as though trying to give himself more warmth, "But I didn't always succeed. Yazoo's fear of water, Loz's speech problems, and Kadaj's fits of rage all came about because I wasn't always enough to keep Hojo's attention off of them."

Sephiroth looked so distraught that Harry could not contain the need to reassure his friend in some small way. He cautiously took Sephiroth's cold hand in both of his and gave it a reassuring squeeze when he looked down with glazed over eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Sephiroth forged on with what Harry assumed was the end of the story, "When I was ten, Hojo went too far with one of his experiments. I was in and out of consciousness and delirious from fever and drugs, so I'm not sure what exactly happened, but when I was next aware of anything, I was strapped to a hospital bed. After a bit of a freak out, a man came in and explained that he was one of my Father's colleagues and he had taken us away from Hojo." He smirked, a dark look that Harry had never seen on his face. "However, while he had taken us away, Hojo was still on the loose and may come back for us."

Now a real smile took over Sephiroth's face and he squeezed the hand that was still captured in both of Harry's, "that's when he introduced us to Zack and Aerith. They've been perfect for the last three years, every temper tantrum, every nightmare and phobia, the mistrust, they've taken it all in stride made us feel safe and loved. Some days it even feels like our time with Hojo was just a bad dream."

Harry smiled at Sephiroth and leaned into his side, basking in the love Sephiroth felt for his adoptive parents.

"I know you're still a little afraid of trusting them because of your magic and how the Dursleys reacted to it; but Harry, I was not born with my magic, one of Hojo's experiments somehow gave me the ability to access magic and Zack and Aerith have just taken it in stride." He pulled Harry down onto the bed, "they will accept you no matter what." He whispered, laying on the bed and pulling the comforter over the both of them.

Harry was not too sure if he fully believed what Sephiroth was telling him, but if Zack and Aerith had put up with all of that from Sephiroth and his brothers, then maybe he would be safe here with them. There was, however, one thing Harry did know, Sephiroth still needed a shower. With a quick kick, Harry shoved Sephiroth out of the bed and pulled the comforter over his head.

"Go shower, you smell like mud!" yelled Harry, laughing as Sephiroth leapt up and smacked him with the pillow.

September thirty-first saw Zack bringing Harry and Sephiroth to Diagon Alley to replace Sephiroth's text book for runes, since Kadaj had decided it made good target practice, and Harry needed new potions ingredients because Loz had attempted to plant them in the back garden.

They were walking from Flourish and Blotts heading toward the Apothecary when Harry heard his name being shouted and a bushy brown head blocked his vision. Freeing himself from the strangling grasp of one of his best friends, Harry looked around to see Ron standing nearby looking like he would be just as ready to launch himself at Harry if they were not in public. Mrs. Weasley was standing off to the side talking to Zack with large hand motions and Sephiroth was standing a little between Harry and Zack looking a little confused and lost.

Before Harry could move over to include Sephiroth, Ron draped his arm around Harry's shoulder and started to try and pull him along

Sephiroth was very quiet as they got ready for bed that night. He did not take part in any of the normal teasing that they would do at night and only answered Harry's questions with shakes or nods of his head.

When they had settled into the bed, Sephiroth turned his back to Harry and pulled the comforter up over his shoulders, almost completely covering his head. Ever since his first night here in the Fair house, Harry and Sephiroth had stayed up late into the night talking about anything that came to their mind. Covered in the darkness of night and almost sleep, it was easy to discuss any manner of things-from Harry's treatment at the hands of the Dursleys, to Sephiroth's time with his psycho step-father, to Harry's first two years at Hogwarts and his run-ins with Voldemort. Those night time discussions were a time of great release for Harry and Sephiroth both, whoever said talking helps might have actually been on to something, and that break in routine hurt Harry even more than the previous silent treatment had.

Feeling sick to his stomach, and silently wondering if he should go sleep on the couch, Harry turned to face the wall and bit on his knuckle listening to Sephiroth's breathing even out into the steady rhythm of sleep. Harry had not cried since he was almost four years old and realized that crying in any situation did not really help; but in that moment as he listened to who was rapidly becoming his greatest friend fall easily into sleep, Harry bit harder on his knuckle and wished he could cry. Harry thought that he was successful in stifling all his noises when the bed at his dipped as Sephiroth rolled over.

"Harry," queried Sephiroth, low enough that if Harry had truly been asleep he would not have heard it.

"Yes," questioned Harry, turning from where he had been facing the wall to where he could see Sephiroth's glowing green eyes and the edge of a pale cheekbone where the moon caught on it.

"I'm sorry for earlier."

"What are you sorry for? If anything I should be the one apologizing, Ron shouldn't have said any of that stuff and sometimes Hermione forgets that not everyone wants to share their life story with virtual strangers," whispered Harry back fiercely watching those green eyes blink slowly, filled with confusion. Slowly he reached out and twined a strand of bright silver hair around his fingers, "the first day we met you told me that you were not good at meeting and talking to new people. I knew that and yet I still let them overwhelm you."

"Harry, no I…" gentle fingers landed on Sephiroth's lips, hushing him in the same way that he had once stopped Harry from rambling.

Harry smiled a genuine smile and grabbed Sephiroth's hand, "Tomorrow we leave for Hogwarts, we'll try again with Ron and Hermione and I'll make sure you don't feel overwhelmed or pressured. And no matter what the two of us will still be friends and still be able to talk to each other, right?"

"Yeah," whispered Sephiroth, "we will."

A.N.- Sorry if Sephiroth's story feels a little disjointed or doesn't make too much sense. I tried to write it as close to a thirteen year old telling a story as I could and kids tend to focus on different details or not use as many words as they should when telling a story. Truthfully I did not make Sephiroth's retelling as disjointed as many of the stories I've been told, at least Seph had a point and actually got to it.