Inspired by the challenge set down by Acolyte of the Blood Moon. What if Harry was the reincarnation of a certain green-eyed SOLDIER? Hopefully fast updates, if people like it.
Chapters will get longer and longer each time! Rejoice Happy People!
Updates will be weekly. All thanks to Diaphanous who (indirectly) influenced part of this chapter. She'll know which parts!
Never a Memory...
The young man flinched at the shadows that stretched out at him from the corridors. His dreams had him rattled, more blood and pain and green light now than they had been in a while. The scary part of them, more so than the pain and the familiar shade of glowing green, was the feeling of helplessness, us being unable to move, to fight back, as if someone was pulling the strings behind his limbs. He would almost say it felt like the Imperious, but for the screeching voices in his heed, the duality of male and female, young and old, human and other.
"Harry? You don't look so good."
The young man flinched as he looked back at girl. "I'm ok," he offered, stopping to lean against the wall. The DA was going to be interesting tonight, as they were planning to introduce weapons to see if anyone else showed an aptitude. After all, it seemed that they weren't the only pair that was regaining old memories, as seen by Susan and Ron and Luna. Although they weren't sure if Susan or Ron knew what was happening to them like Luna and Sirius did. But it would be interesting to see any other results amongst their generation.
"It's just, you look pale. You going to be alright tonight?"
"I'll be fine, just bad dreams lately. Or, bad memories anyway."
The girl nodded, nonchalant in her stance, but worry flashing in her eyes. Stress and near-death experiences should mean that Harry would remember life as the General faster than her mere brushes with Death, but for some reason, be it some kind of magic or his own stubborn nature, Harry was only remembering very slowly. She already had most of Genesis' life lodged in her brain, with only a few gaps left that were rapidly filling with time and training. As such, she had a good idea as to what Harry was dreaming of. And just because it was from a previous life did not stop the strange wave of guilt. Genesis was the one who made Sephiroth curious enough to read the books in the Mansion Library. Without his influence in the Reactor, he would have probably dismissed them as the poorly researched ramblings of a Walking Mass of Complexes. But her, his, Genesis' remarks made him take the journals seriously, and then give JENOVA the chance to get her hooks into his mind.
"Hermione." She looked up at the sharp voice, but Harry was smiling at her despite the tone he'd used to get her attention. "Ready to pay attention tonight? I'm going to be relying on you to help everyone stay in one piece."
"Of course. The better question," she smirked, as they opened the door to the Room of Requirement, "are they ready for us?"
Inside, they were pleased to note that most of the original group from last year were back. It seemed that most everyone had kept hold of the coins they'd used to signal the session. A handful of people were missing though, including Cho Chang and her friends. Marietta would not have been welcome back anyway, but the other Claws that had followed the Seeker had abstained from the new year for the club.
Still, Harry smiled at the group, eyes flicking over to Ron and Ginny over at the side. "Welcome back everyone. I'm glad to see that you are all ready to learn more this year."
"It's more fun here than with the Greasy Bat!"
The young man chuckled as the room burst into laughter. "True, but what we're going to be doing tonight, will eventually help us later with his classes anyway." The group blinked, then gasped and started murmuring to each other as weapons of all types appeared on the walls. "I know what some of you are probably thinking. What will Muggle weapons do for me? How will this help our magic in any way? Well, to answer that, I turn the floor to Hermione, so that she may explain tonight's exercise."
"Thank you Harry," Hermione offered as she gracefully took center stage, so to speak. Every inch of her posture screamed warrior, and she turned to look everyone in the eye as she started. "Many of you may not know this, but the strength of magic is tied very closely to our will power and out physical strength. And nothing exercises both like combat training. The Aurors undergo similar training. Now," she waved her hand to the weapons up on the wall, ignoring Harry as he pulled down a Shinra Broadsword to use for tonight. He didn't want to give away his use of the Masamune just yet. "While these weapons are all blunted and lighter than a true copy of a live weapon, we can still hurt each other by accident if you do not pay attention. The first person we catch playing around with any of these is kicked out for the night, and any other nights we pull these off the walls."
"Not to say people won't get bruises, but these are not toys. Treat them like you would your wands, and we will have no issues," Harry barked out, passing Hermione the Rapier. Luckily enough for the young woman, her true weapon was normal enough that she could get away with using it, at least compared to Harry's 7-foot monstrosity.
"So, what do we do Harry?"
"Yeah! What do we take for tonight!"
The young General nodded at the Creevy brothers. "Pick one that speaks to you. There is no right or wrong answer, if you find you don't like it, you can choose something different later." With these instructions in mind, the group descended on the wall, only for Hermione to stop Susan.
"Here. The Room gave you a copy of this one last time, so I think the real thing will suit you very well," she offered, handing the girl one of the giant Shuriken they had found in the Department of Mysteries. "This is a training version like the ones that the others are going to be using, but it is a real one you can take from this room, so if you want to practice later, it's yours."
The girl shook her head at this, even as her hands wrapped around the blunted weapon, the red enamel throwing her reflection back at her. "I can't-"
"Take it." Hermione's eyes were dancing as she buffed a smudge off of the Rapier, nonchalant. "When you get good, we'll trade you for an upgrade. You think you could hurt someone with that thing? You're more likely to make them laugh at it. That's when you pay them back for what ever reason you like."
Finally, Susan nodded and rejoined the ranks as the other students started trickling back into the lines. It was a strange motley arrangement of weapons, mostly the crappy Shinra Broadswords like what Harry had. But a handful had spread out, including Ron with a training EMR, Dean and Ginny with brass-knuckled leather gloves, and Neville with a larger broadsword, almost a Buster size blade. Strangely enough, the over-sized hunk of metal looked almost, too simple in the young man's grip, though he was wielding it easily enough. He would later admit that he'd picked up some muscle over the summer wrestling with some of the larger plants in the greenhouse.
Ron frowned as he thumbed the button on his Rod, only to jump as weak electricity arced over the metal. "Hey, I thought muggle things don't work in Hogwarts!" he yelled out.
"They don't. However, this isn't muggle," Hermione conjectured, pulling the EMR from his grasp for a second. "This, is powered with a shard of Lightning Magic, with an Magic Barrier around the handle to keep you from getting shocked yourself. It's very simple. The button to turn it on simply finished the circuit, allowing the magic to flow."
"And what's this? A Mudblood trying to pass a Muggle piece of crap off as magic? I'd say 50 points from Gryffindor for that!"
The room turned as a whole to see Draco leaning against the door, evil smirk pasted across his face. "And, another 50 points for illegal club."
"Actually," Hermione smirked as she held her hand out to Ginny, who was equally pleased with herself as she pulled a scroll out from her robes. "This is no longer illegal. First off, all of the rules from last year have been repealed, including the one about forming or reforming clubs and sports teams. Second of all," and here she flicked open the scroll, McGonagall's scrawling signature on the bottom. "Second of all, we took the liberty to gain Professor McGonagall's permission to reform the DA, under a new name though. Dumbledore's Army was only to thumb our noses at the Ministry, so it is only the Defense Association now."
"So Bugger off already, you're still not allowed to take points from your fellow Prefects!" Ginny barked, pulling the black leather gloves tight over her hands, the creaking of the material a soft, familiar refrain.
The young dragon laughed rudely at Ginny. "A Blood traitor who thinks she can tell me what to do when she still wears a bra, even though she has nothing to put in it!" he leered down at her.
Harry sneered, the Shinra Broadsword floating up to rest on his shoulder. "And yet you still wear pants, so what does that say about you?"
A five second pause to get the joke before Draco went blood red. His teeth were bared as he stalked clumsily into the room, pale eyes flashing. "Tell me Potter, what's it like living in a perpetual haze of stupidity?"
"I don't know, why don't you tell me?"
"It must be fun to know that you're the reason the rest of the Wizarding World lives in fear."
"I've heard that tattoos rot and fall off if not done right." A sniff at the air. "You have something to confess, or have you just not taken a bath for a few days?"
A growl as the blond grabbed a sword from the wall, one of the large modified bayonet-gun blades, clumsily lunging at the other wizard. With a flash of silver, Harry disarmed him, the gun blade flying off to hit the wall, the crappy Broadsword holding stock still against the bridge of Draco's nose. "I suggest you back off, before I give you a nice scar to call your own," the young man offered in a silky voice, tracing the blunted tip down across the other boy's face. Behind him, Luna blinked at the familiar line that was being scratched into the Slytherin's face.
As Draco staggered off, Hermione looked back at the class. "We have just witnessed a classic example of what is often called 'misdirected rage.' I believe the technical term is 'being an arse.'" Her eyes glowed as the class erupted in laughter, but she was curious as to why Draco had gone for the gunblade. It had been one of the weapons some of Genesis' clones had used, but she was pretty sure thy were some of the last things to be reborn.
"Are you gonna teach us stuff like that?" Ron yelped, the EMR swinging in his grasp.
"Only if you're willing to stick to the training," Harry ordered, stalking back up to the front of the room. "Now, all together now, first form is this for swords, and this for hand weapons."