Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter or Eyeshield 21 or any of the affiliated characters. What I do own is a kick ass Ash Ketchum hat and a collection of gold medal winning maple syrup. Neither of which will appear in this story.

Warnings: OC's, some OOC, Het, Slash, AU, fluff, language

The Third Tackle

Harry groaned as he woke up, his mouth was dry and he hoped that Aunt Petunia left his door unlocked so he could slip out and get a drink from the bathroom. He rolled over onto his side and stretched out, listening as his back cracked and smiling as his toes curled in satisfaction.

"I'm glad you're awake, Mister Potter," a deep voice spoke up.

Harry's eyes snapped opened at the sound and he sat right up. His eyes shot around the room and a feeling of dread washed over at him at the unfamiliar space. He was not in his room at Privet Drive; he wasn't even in the house. He was somewhere clean, white and sterile.

"No reason to look so alarmed, you're at St. Mungo's Hospital," the voice spoke again.

Harry looked towards the sound and found a tall bald man with dark skin and a friendly grin staring back at him. He had a single gold hoop in one ear, and crimson robes on with a crest over his heart. Now Harry couldn't be sure, and this was just a wild guess, but the man could potentially be from the Ministry. After all, in Harry's experience, only people in government work wore crests on their robes. Everyone else wore robes and expected you to know who they were.

"W-why am I-I h-here?" Harry asked confused as to why he wasn't rotting in a jail cell somewhere with the broken bits of his wand at his feet.

The man frowned. "Normally when someone faints for no reason the logical thing to do is take them to the hospital."

It was Harry's turn to frown. "B-but shouldn't I-i be i-in jail for k-kil-killing my aunt?" Harry asked. He gripped the sheet tightly in his fists, scared that the question might remind the man why he showed up at his house in the first place and then finally cart him off somewhere in shackles. But the action would be fair, he did kill someone and usually that isn't dealt with a slap on the wrist.

"Hmm? Kill? You didn't kill anyone. Your aunt was a bit deflated but the department of accidental magic was quick to arrive and set her right. Just pumped some air into her and now she's in bed good as new. She'll wake up in the morning and think she had bit too much to drink, but won't connect you to magic or its existence," the man explained.

That was a relief. But it still didn't explain why he wasn't expelled at least. He had already gotten a warning from Dobby's little pudding adventure, so why wasn't he being kicked out of school. Unless… he already had been while asleep! Harry's eyes widened and looked at the man with pleading eyes. "D-did they a-already snap my w-wand?" He hoped they didn't. He wanted to at least hold the magical stick one last time before he was forever cast out of the magical world.

"Are you alright Potter? Why would they snap your wand?" the man gave him a concerned look as if Harry were crazy or something.

Was he alright? Harry seemed to be the only one in this room that had any clue what was going on. It was very simple. He performed magic to nearly kill his aunt, thus breaking the under-aged magic law, and therefore his wand should be in two. Was this man really a governmental worker? He should know that at least. Harry decided to inform the man as best he could, even if part of his mind was telling him to stop because explaining why his wand should be snapped was not a good idea. Harry didn't want his wand to be snapped, but it was the principal of the thing. He deserved punishment for his actions and this man was too dim to keep up. The only solution was to inform him of the proper penance and then they could move on and Harry would be able to look at his situation with a better eye and figure out a plan for the rest of his life, without having to worry about idiot ministry employee's neglecting their jobs.

"Last year I received a warning for using magic, and was told that if I did it again I would be expelled. I performed magic tonight and so my wand should be in two," he explained in the clearest way possible. The man gave him an amused look. Amused! What was he so amused about? Harry was helping him do his job; he should be thankful or guilty and a bit chastised for clearly overlooking his duties, not amused. Honestly, the people the ministry hired… if Harry were able to stay in the wizarding world, he might develop plans on how to screen the prospective employee's better when they apply to the Ministry.

"Yes, that would normally happen, but since you're Harry Potter and taking into account recent events… the Minister has personally decided that you will receive no punishment for the accident this evening. Although, given the event that happened you will not be returning to your relatives tonight or for the remainder of the summer. Once you have been cleared by a doctor, you will be moved to the Leaky Cauldron where you will spend the rest of your break until you are escorted to the Hogwarts Express," the man explained.

"Oh…" Well that explained why the man was amused. Seeing a child try to justify having his wand snapped when the matter was already cleared up probably was funny. Maybe he wasn't as dim as Harry thought. As long as he never knew Harry's thoughts, he was sure they would get along just fine. It was nice to know that he wasn't going to be kicked out the wizarding world, it would make his search for his brother much easier. In addition to that, he was nicely informed that he would not have to return to the Dursleys, and wasn't that just the icing on his 'not getting kicked out' cake. "So… the Cauldron eh?"

The man grinned again at Harry's awkward form of small talk. He couldn't fault him for that. "Yes. I will call a doctor to look at you one more time and then I will take you over. The Minister wanted to escort you himself but after waiting 45 minutes for you to wake up he got impatient and left. You already have a room under your name and your stuff has been retrieved and transported over," the man said in a low timber with a slight edge of laughter. Maybe he thought the Minister was funny. Harry wouldn't know, he never actually met the man.

"I see…thanks I guess? So, what's your name?" Harry asked awkwardly. He felt a little bad for thinking the man dim earlier and it was only doubled when he realized he never asked the man his name.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt. I'm an Auror." Harry nodded his head, pretending to understand what that meant. Kingsley smirked at him before turning away and walking out the door, presumably to find a doctor. That left Harry with nothing to do except twiddle his thumbs and think about his good luck. No Dursleys, no expulsion, and… well damn… he never got the trip form signed… no Hogsmeade.

o.O.o

When they arrived at Harry's room, Kingsley placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and held him back. The man insisted that he enter first and 'scout' the room. Harry didn't really know what he was looking for and didn't want to ask so he let him, hoping that he would finish quickly and leave, because Harry was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. Sure enough the room was safe and Harry walked in, only to get a face full of white feathers.

"Hedwig!" He cried. He was so happy to see his feathered friend. She truly was amazing to show up here and wait for him.

"Right just a few quick things to talk about," Kingsley said and broke up Harry's reunion with his owl. Kingsley was quick to explain to Harry that he was not allowed to use any more magic, he was not allowed to go to the muggle side, and he was not allowed to leave without first informing Tom. Harry nodded, not verbally agreeing to follow the rules, because he didn't want to lie to the nice man that brought him to the hospital and here.

Harry wanted to find his brother, and considering that his brother was potentially in America playing American football at a muggle school, Harry may need to muggle it up in order to meet the boy. This meant that he would possibly have to venture into Muggle London if he wanted to gather certain information, and thus break his agreement with the nice man who may or may not work in relation to space and the pretty light shows that happened at night.

Once Kingsley left, Harry turned back to his owl and grinned. "Okay girl, let's see what Neville wrote." Detaching the letter, Harry hesitated for a moment. The letter could contain information that could help or hinder his search. He hoped for the former, but he couldn't rule out the latter. Unraveling the parchment, Harry took a deep breath and started reading.

Hey Harry!

I was surprised to see you writing me. Not a bad surprise or anything, a good surprise, because I didn't expect anything from you. I'm not saying that you wouldn't write me, but I didn't think you would ever have reason to write me. I'm not saying that you couldn't write me, because I really like that fact that you wrote me, but I'm not also asking you to keep writing me because that would be weird, right? I know you didn't write me to ask me about writing me or anything and well… I think I should just skip ahead and answer your actual question. But you know, you could write me about writing me, I wouldn't mind and I would happily write you back. But your question first!

Old Families do have family trees. Me Gran has the Longbottom tapestry hung up in the drawing room. It shows the family all the way back to when my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-many greats grandfather first discovered magic and started the Longbottom line. If the Potter's have one you could find it at the Potter Manor or locked up in the Potter Family Vault at Gringotts.

We have a public library that has a family archive in it, but the books only show three generations back. Purebloods think that displaying the entire line is an invasion of the privacy. But me gran just says that they wanted it all covered up because all the cousins marrying cousins, and that some muggleborns would look up their history and throw the inbreeding in the purebloods face. The muggleborns would preach about jeans or something and it annoyed the purebloods into hiding the family line instead of openly flaunting it like they did in the past.

Anyways, the library is just behind the bank, you can go anytime it's open every hour of the day. Me gran's taken me a few times. The herbology section is full of interesting books. But there's a tea shop attached and the old biddies like to gather there and chat on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They watch the entrance and then try to guess what certain witches and wizards are looking for. Some of it's interesting to listen to but other times they talk about a bunch of dirty stuff when a good looking bloke comes in.

Well I hoped that helped. I'm having a great break. My greenhouse is really flourishing and I have some new plants on the way. I hope they arrive soon. If you have any more questions don't be afraid to write and ask. I don't mind. Really, you can write just to say hi if you want. I hope you're having a good break too!

Neville

Harry finished the letter and set it down, thinking over the information Neville gave him, but also wondering if he should write the boy regularly. It seemed like Neville needed it. Harry absently scratched Hedwig's belly before deciding that if he was going to plan anything he should do it after he rests. There was no way he could make a coherent plan of action while yawning. Nodding to himself, Harry walked over to his trunk and took out some night clothes. He quickly searched the contents and was surprised to see that the Aurors or whoever gathered his things, managed to find the items he hid under his floorboards. Very thorough people those Aurors.

o.O.o

With the rising of the sun, Harry was up and out of bed, ready to start his day. His plan was simple. He would go to the library first and first confirm he had a brother and his real name. There was no point in going to the bank and wasting time when there was no guarantee that the family tree was even there or that he had access to it. So far he only knew about his trust vault, and in theory he probably wasn't allowed access to the family vault until he was of age. Thus, the library first.

Next he would go to the book store and see if there were any books or pamphlets about magical travel. But then again, Harry may just sneak into the muggle side of London and get all the proper forms needed to apply for a passport and travel on an airplane. He may have to go to the London Public Library to figure out the passport office, proper forms, and to research Notre Dame. America was quite large and Harry knew that randomly picking a destination wouldn't exactly get him there. No, he would need to learn exactly where this school was so that when he booked his flight he could go to the proper…province…territory…state! The proper state and city.

Happy with his current plan, Harry stood up and gathered his satchel. He put in some parchment, quills and ink so that he could take notes, his invisibility cloak, his wand –because you never know what will happen- and his money. Looking at his pouch of coins Harry wondered if stopping at the bank wasn't a bad idea. He could exchange some for muggle money and then buy a muggle notebook and pen for when he was in the Public library. He would already get weird looks for his clothes; he really didn't need them to stare because of his old fashioned writing tools as well. Right, bank, library, stationary store and public library.

Setting out, Harry stopped at the bar and talked to Tom. He ate a quick breakfast and bid the man a good day as he walked to the back to the entrance to Diagon Alley. He was on a mission!

The bank was easy. He exchanged some galleons over, and left without a fuss. He found the library exactly where Neville said it would be and walked inside to find a large Oak desk blocking him from the rest of the building.

"What are you looking for?" A nasally voice asked him. A woman, around her mid-thirties, with blonde hair and dark eyebrows asked him as she appeared over the counter.

"U-um…Could I see the family archives please?" Harry asked. He wasn't sure how this whole system worked.

"Children shouldn't be playing there," The woman said as she sent him a condescending look.

Harry kept calm and didn't visibly react to his words. He would just need to treat this woman like all the other people who looked down on him for his looks, age, and reputation around Little Whinging. Widening his eyes, sticking out his bottom lip slightly, Harry stared straight into the woman's eyes. He didn't say anything, just stared until the woman cracked and looked away first.

"Second level on the right hand side," the woman said while refusing to look at him again.

Harry didn't waste a second before he scampered off and to the stairs. He was getting closer and closer to his brother, he could feel it. At the top of the stairs, Harry turned right on a dime and almost skipped over to the archives. The section fenced in with a golden arch and a velvet rope surrounding it. It wasn't exactly hard to miss.

Walking through the arch, Harry scanned the closest titles and was happy to note that everything seemed to be organized alphabetically. Hogwarts library was divided into sections and then from there you had to search each title for the book you wanted since the school didn't employ any organization tactics beyond that. No Dewey decimal system, no alphabetization, nothing that would make a student's search easier. For Merlin's sake they used alphabetical order in 1st century BC, why couldn't Hogwarts install it? Pushing that thought away, Harry quickly walked down the rows until he come to P.

Pulling the book marker 'Potter' down, Harry flipped it open and passed the autobiographies of his grandparents, his parents, and straight to his name and his brothers. Harry had an entire page dedicated to him, but his brother only had one sentence after the usual profile information, and the new information shocked Harry.

Potter, Thornley

DOB: October 10 19-

Sex: Male

Hair: Black

Eyes: Green

Born a squib.

Well, that was one good reason as to why his brother never went to Hogwarts.

Fun Football Fact:

In the NFL the home team is required to provide 24 footballs for each game, although only around 10 are normally used.