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.

Never a Memory

Thank all the gods for Notice-Me-Not charms, without which Hermione's neighbors would have called Child Protection Services on them days ago. The kids were in bad shape, many with frost-bitten toes or fingers, and all of them thin and hollowed out, not so much from a lack of food as much as from over-exposure to the Dementors.

The house itself was a decent size, Hermione's dentist parents made good money, but the trio had rescued over fifty people, the goblins included, so finding places for all of them was a chore. The goblins were luckily comfortable in the basement, being subterranean creatures to begin with, but the humans were all sick and tired of dark and stone. Hermione's room, the guest room, the master bedroom, the living room and the den were covered in sleeping bags from a local sporting goods store, with the trio camping out in the back yard and Rufus and Fudge Apparating in during the day to help out.

The other big issue was food. The muggle world wouldn't take the bits of gold and silver they had on them, and they were all persona non grata in the Wizarding World. Hermione, being the only one with a muggle ID, signed up for a credit card with no daily limit, saying that wartime was not the time to worry about personal debt. The first thing they had bought were the sleeping bags, followed by the first round of food, already putting her a few thousand pounds down the hole. Harry had already personally resolved to pay her back after the war if the Ministry refused, so long as they survived of course.

The next issue they saw over the course of the week were the nightmares. Harry and the others had seen their own share of nightmares, but had their own skills to reassure them that they would at least have a chance to survive whatever the world would throw at them. The kids didn't. The ever prepared Hermione had stocked her beaded red bag with a few vials of Dreamless Sleep, but no where near the amount needed to dose everyone even for one night. The rescued adults who were better off were sleeping in shifts to help monitor the youngsters during the night, so they were able to hold off the potion for the worse cases. They knew though, that the ingredients to make more were expensive, so once it was gone it would be gone. The burn paste though was easy to make, and they found out by accident that it worked on frost bite, so they had some of the older kids making a few more cauldrons of it in the kitchen, using a fan and an open window to keep the fumes from overwhelming the house. The chance to perform magic, even something as simple as a potion, was helping to raise spirits within the house.

Rufus had brought all the spare captured wands the second night, letting the adults and older teens try them out until they found the best matches. They were in a Muggle area, so the only magic they dared to perform were the Notice-Me-Nots, but they were all feeling better armed, makeshift holsters fashioned from strips of fabric scavenged from around the house. Some of the bed sheets were looking rather ragged indeed.

It wasn't until the end of the week that they had everyone settled enough to pull away long enough to talk with the goblins. They had been staying in Disguise the entire time, not wanting to stress out the kids with anything else too new, but they dropped them as they entered the basement, Ron sighing with relief as the strain on his magic eased. The three of them were magically strong, and the constant use of the Disguise Materia would make them stronger in the end, but his reserves were the lowest among them, if not by much, so it was a relief to relax.

The oldest of the goblins stared them down, the craggy trio having made themselves at home on the old furniture the Grangers had stored in the basement. "Do you know whom you were glamoured as?" he snapped immediately, his voice sharp as glass.

"Of course we do. The better question is, how do you know?" Harry asked as they filed in, eyes sharp and spine straight with the strength of many lifetimes.

"Because we are creatures of the earth, of rock and metal, of gold and iron. And the Earth does not forget."

Griphook glared at the stunned trio from his place next to his clansmen. "We remember Spira, and Gaia, and even Shinra. It humors us how humans think they discovered something first just cause they don't remember someone else finding it before."

"But we remember. We refuse to gild the past and forget." The last one snorted, as if thinking of a funny joke, and the others smirked with him. "And this isn't the first time we've seen the end of the world, or a dark lord of this caliber. We have survived it before, we will do so again."

"So, you know who we were masquerading as. The next question is, what will you do about it?" Hermione asked, hazel eyes strong as she stood by her General.

"Who would believe us if we said The Calamity Lives?" the eldest offered, waving a hand adorned with knife-sharp nails. The trio mentally labelled this one as Gripknife, making the middle goblin Gripsack.

Ron laughed after a second, sprawling bonelessly out on a old love couch. "More than you'd think these days, but we getcha, yo."

Only to yelp as Harry gently thwapped him over his fiery head. "We apologize for him. Now," and he gracefully pulled up an old dining room chair and sat down. "We have a few questions about Gringotts. First of which, what is your policy on Dark Objects?"

The craggy trio scowled, Gripknife acting as the spokesperson. "The customer is allowed to store whatever they desire within their vaults, no questions asked."

They were prepared for this, and Hermione retrieved a piece of paper with a certain Tabooed word from her pocket. "Even this?" she asked, passing it to Griphook.

The goblins were very quiet as they looked before Gripknife growled lowly. "Where did you learn about this?"

"From He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," she answered. "We have good reason to suspect that one of a possible seven is within the Lestrange vaults, or the vault of another Death Eater. We know how to destroy it, but we need help getting to it."

The trio looked at one another before turning back to the teens. "What would be in it for us?"

And Harry smirked now as he leaned in. "You claim to be creatures of the earth. Then you might know what these are?" he offered, holding up his arm with his bracer of Materia. Their eyes immediately lit up, filled with avarice as they took in the glow of green and blue and yellow and purple. Harry had wisely hidden the red summons, just in case they knew what they were, and it seems he was wise to do so. "If you help us, we will give you some in trade. None of the Mastered," he cautioned, seeing one about to say something, "but any of the others are fair game."

"Five of each."

Greedy suckers. "We don't have that many. One of each."

"We know the mastered ones birth new orbs of themselves. Four of each."

"Two. We don't have the time to force that."

"Three. You can own us the extra."

"Two, and the vaults of confirmed killed Death Eaters. By Right of Conquest we can claim their vaults as long as we bring proof."

The goblins glanced at each other again, and the trio were mildly disturbed at how quiet they were. It wouldn't be until years later that they would learn that Gobbledegok was a lingual descendant of Wutian, and Wutain in turn from Al Bhed. Having heard them using Al Bhed earlier in the week, they were cautious as to what the teens might understand. "Wands can be easily stolen," Gripsack argued after a moment.

Ron raised an eyebrow from his perch on the love seat. "Would you prefer heads?" he drawled, ignoring the looks from his non-Turk friends. "That would get messy real quick."

Gripknife grinned wickedly. "If that's too hard, we can take three of each," he offered slyly.

Ron looked ready to argue, but Harry held up a hand, the goblin's eyes flashing at the hint of glow around his wrist. "Five vaults, and two of each Materia," he intoned, his voice and posture firm with resolve.

The goblins glanced at one another again before Griphook nodded. "Deal struck," he offered, holding out a gnarled hand that Harry didn't hesitate to take in a firm handshake.

~~~...~~~...~~~

Hermione took a deep breath as she adjusted her grip, weapon of choice in her other hand. She held her breath, steadying her nerves for what she had to do, and put pressure on the blades.

A handful of auburn hair fell loose in her grasp with the ringing sound of the scissors, the curly chunks heavy in her hand. The rest came faster now, evening out the frame of her face with the straighter, brighter hair that had been growing in with Genesis' memories.

The face that stared back at her in the mirror a few minutes was a mix of the familiar and the unknown. She looked like a female Genesis. Her eyes were the wrong color and her cheeks were a little fuller, but the past few months had created a strength in her bearing that was all too familiar, a strength that was at once her own and yet not. She released a shaky sigh, not noticing that she was holding her breath until her lungs had started to ache.

"Ron said he'd be back in a bit," Harry called from the tent entrance, stretching as he shook his hair from the tail he'd been keeping it in. One of the young girls was sick, a cute little thing but for the scars on the left side of her face, the poor thing had gotten sick soon after being rescued. Harry was looking forward to a shower after she had snotted all over him. "He went to check to see if any of the bodies are intact enough to retr- what in Gaia?! Hermione!"

She smiled shakily. "It was getting too long anyway," she offered, sweeping up the last of the loose fibers to toss them in the trash bin. "You were saying something about Ron?"

"Don't change the subject! Why that cut? You look like-"

"Genesis, I know."

The young man ran a hand through what was now silver hair streaked with black. "Why cut it? You could have kept it back, like you were before," he asked, trying to get a straight answer out of the young woman.

"And you could dye your hair black again and cut it too," she shot, growing angry. "We are not the people we were a few years ago, or even a few months ago." She shook her head, edges of her new haircut brushing against her jawline as she collapsed in on herself. "Harry, what are we going to do after this?"

"I'm sure Death Sentence will work on this one like the locket."

"No, Harry, I meant the war. What are we going to do after the war. We never got a chance to take the NEWTS, our OWLS won't get us that far. All we know is how to fight!"

"Well, do we really need the NEWTS?" Harry asked. "Who says we have to stay in the Wizarding world. Or even England for that matter. Hermione, we're only seventeen. We don't need to commit to one path this early in our lives." He placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to look her in the eyes. "And I'm sure that the Aurors would love us in their ranks with our skills. We won't be without options if we want to stay."

She leaned into that hand, needing the contact after such a long week. "You and Ron might be happy as fighters, but I'm not sure I would be. I may have Genesis' memories, but I'm not him."

"No, but you have the same drive he did. No matter what you do in life, you'll do something amazing." Harry shook his head as he looked away. "I'm the one who should be worried. Even if I survive this, I don't know what I'm going to do. I know, I could be an Auror," he offered, cutting Hermione off when she opened her mouth to say something, "but that feels too much like falling back into the roll of a SOLDIER. I know I'd be good at it, but I don't know if it's Harry that would be good, or Sephiroth."

Hermione sighed as she wrapped a hand around his arm, bringing his attention back to her. "That's part of my worry as well. Where do I begin and Genesis end?" She laughed bitterly, a short bark. "Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of my skills with the Rapier and Materia, but in all honesty, we're lucky to still be sane. Like you said, we're only seventeen, and the weight of the world is resting on our shoulders."

The young man cracked a grin as he hugged the girl, the two of them plopping down on the couch in the corner. "Truth be told, it's why I meditate as often as I can. It helps me keep my memories organized."

An auburn eyebrow raised incredulously. "Your mind is organized?" she poked, her own grin hovering on her lips.

Harry only laughed. "Imagine what I'd be like without it." Only for both of them to shudder after a few seconds, remembering a few of Sephiroth's more genocidal moments. He hadn't been the most stable, even before Jenova. He hugged Hermione after a few seconds, enjoying the warmth of the young woman next to him. The tent was decent at keeping them comfortable, but it wasn't the warmest, and it was mid December. "Feel a little better?" he asked, enjoying the hug.

"A little," she offered, taking a steadying breath. She stood, grabbing her bracer from a side table and reclasping it around her wrist. The Disguise flared momentarily, Genesis shimmering over her with the ease of pulling on a familiar coat even as she leaned in to plant a kiss on Harry's cheek. "If nothing else, thank you for listening," she said, smiling for a second before exiting the tent for her shift with the kids. Not knowing that she was leaving Harry frozen on the couch, hand slowly lifting to touch his cheek.

Only to grin as the hand lowered. "Happy to help."