A/N:

As of May 2021, I cut up the first chapter, so it's not such a daunting read.

Lyra Heartstrings stood tall as she worked on healing the boy's scars. Her Anthro form seemed of particular interest to the boy as he wouldn't stop staring. She liked this form best as she had access to both hands and her horn. So her magic was more powerful and she had use of her fingers for more complex task. Sure her spells weren't as effective as if she was in pony form, but she liked having hands.

The 8 and a half year old boy was a bright red from humiliation. What boy would be okay with being naked on a table in front of a girl... even if she was a weird cross between a human and a horse, or the fact he was laying on his belly... also he still wasn't totally convinced she wouldn't probe him. Lyra said she needed to see the scars in order to treat them. Her horn glowed, as did the boy, while the scars slowly vanished from his back and (embarrassingly) his bum.

Lyra had been a licenced Anthropologist for nearly a decade. So she knew quite a bit about human anatomy when compared to ponies. This wasn't even the first time she had treated an injured human, as she had come across a few on her trips to the surface. Although right now she didn't need to worry about erasing his memory afterwards.

She loved humans. Yes they were a tad on the violent side but every civilization makes mistakes when they start out. Before the ponies came to Atlantis, they were all warring against each other.

Humans though, their was something special about them. They were brilliant inventors, and that was strictly because of their ambitious nature and short lifespans. Even when they were being lazy they came up with ideas no pony had thought of before... they were amazing...

Lyra was... a tad obsessed with their varying cultures and romanticized history. They were just so passionate about everything! She particularly liked their toys and would collect things like Barbie dolls.

Doctor Whooves, her husband, actually came up with some brilliant magical inventions based on the things she brought home from the human world. Her other herdmates even got a good bit of use out of the devices.

Lyra had been studying humans since before her official apprenticeship. Where she was trained in how to safely navigate the human world... the runes helped but they were only so effective.

All Anthropologist had to use special runes to make it so non magicals didn't notice their oddities. Well it was more like they didn't register little things: like their hair, skin colors, and unusual names. Any bigger differences (like walking around as a talking pony or Anthro) would be too much for the human mind to overlook. All Anthropologist had to wear the rune on a ring and were the only ones authorized to make trips to the surface to study how humans were developing...

Lyra's eyes wandered to Flash, as the young Pegasus looked with concern at the little boy. What the colt was even doing in the royal library (where the mirror portal was stored) was a wonder. Not to mention the portal had to be manually activated, for security reasons. The cadet had some questions to answer. Though she couldn't imagine he would get any more then a flogging for playing with the portal, given his profession and age. Still, she would have to have words with him all the same. The surface world was dangerous for the untrained.

Lyra finished treating his scars on the boy's back and (embarrassingly) his bum. Flash had looked with wide eyes at the scars, as he clearly hadn't known about them.

After the boy got all his scars removed she allowed him to pull his undies back up. Once he was seated more comfortably on the exam table, Lyra got to work scanning and untangling the spells on the child.

"Tangle" was definitely the right word. The spells just were piled untop of each other. Her scans could decipher what they were supposed to do, and how they were crafted, but most of them weren't designed to cooperate with each other. It was like half the spells were created by a completely different individual!

It wouldn't be so bad if they were cast by a competent (if perhaps overly paranoid) parent, but these spells were so primitive and inaccurate they wouldn't actually work, even went so far as to lessen the well crafted magics.

There were several different types of monitoring spells on the boy, and while they worked with each other, the caster clearly had no idea how to get them to work with the magics that actually protected the child!

Lyra assumed they were there for a reason, but they were so uncooperative with the protection spells they didn't even work. After a few attempts of untangling the spells, so they would better cooperate with each, she just thought "Buck it" and dispelled the monitoring charms. Whoever placed them would likely come looking, and Lyra hoped they would! She had some choice words for them!

When she went to dispell them... she realized these were far more complex then any pony could cast. They were far more imaginative in design then they had any right to be for some creature so limited in their understanding of magic... yet the sheer power in them was quite impressive... it worried her...

However, after a bit of concentration she was able to break the spells. If it wasn't for the fact she knew more about magic then the caster she doubted she would have been able to.

It was that rune on the boy's head that appeared to really trip up the other caster's spells. The lightning bolt was no mere scar but some truly impressive magicks. From what Lyra could understand from her scan of it, the rune actually bent the cosmic law of luck. It was so powerful, near impossible things would happen to keep the boy safe in life and death situations.

The rune was one of the most powerful she had ever seen! The universe itself would bend around this boy to help him meet any goal and keep him safe. It made him bucking Domino from X-Force is what it did!!!

So HA! Take that Bon Bon! Reading human comic books actually did give her a better understanding of magic... or at least, showed her the creative nature of humans to understand how they would try to develop their magicks.

This Rune was never even fathomed by pony kind! Lyra always did say humans were more imaginative then most creatures, and their ambitious nature (which made most creatures mistrustful of them) actually helped them bring the things they imagined to life through their inventions... few ponies were so creative and inventive. Lyra only knew of one pony so brilliant at invention, and the humans entire race was like that.

Shaking her head, Lyra got her mind back on track.

Unfortunately all the other spells on the child had actually lessened the power of the rune. Now that the monitoring spells were gone, it was back to full power.

Whoever made this rune, and the other competent spells, was clearly a fan of dark magic. There was the Luck Rune, some kind of brilliantly crafted blood protection spell (Which kept the whole family safe so long as they spent a moon together out of the year), and traces of a couple full magical transfers.

That last one gave the boy large magic reserves, he might as well have a cutie mark in magic! Who was used to transfered their magic too the child was a mystery, but that was definitely some dark stuff. However, seeing what fueled the spell, it was likely they made the sacrifice willingly.

Why would anypony go so far to protect a child unless there really was something actively hunting him? Or where magical humans just so paranoid about non magicals they used these spells as common place?... worse yet... were they actually in danger from the non magicals? It would explain why Lyra never found any other magical humans on her trips to the surface. From Lyra's understanding humans were very violent to all things magical. Particularly Dark Magic.

Dark Magic wasn't necessarily evil, in fact in many cases it was benevolent like what was on the child. Dark Magic just meant it was based on powerful emotions. Where Light Magic was fueled by a disconnect from emotions, by pure unfeeling logic. Both could be used for evil purposes but magic, in itself, was never evil.

This Rune, for example, was purely fuelled by the most benevolent dark magic, love.

This is also why those Monitoring Spells had to go. The dark magic of the protections contradict the light magic in the monitoring spells and gave false readings of happiness and safety. Whoever set up these spells didn't know the first thing about how to get the two types of magic to cooperate.

At least it meant whoever set them up was merely incompetent and not malicious... although there appeared to be one more light based spell... one that was most certainly malicious. It made it so no creature could remove the boy from his current guardians care, not even the Guardians themselves.

That is when the scars and sickly nature of the boy suddenly made sense. If the guardians didn't want him, if he was forced on them due to only a vague understanding of how blood protection worked... Celestia... the boy's own relatives likely inflicted all those wounds... maybe even his parents themselves... they would be magically compelled to since they couldn't just give the boy to a more loving home. Even if they didn't want the boy on a subconscious level, the improperly mixed spells would cause them to fully reject the child while not being able to send him away.

That spell, in particular, had been hard to break. The sheer power put into it. Lyra might not be as powerful as a unicorn with a Cutie Mark in magic, but she had the training to give her impressive skills and knowledge.

Lyra had graduated in the top 10% from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. When you are already considered "gifted" with magical talent and you graduate in the top ten percent... well needless to say the sheer power in the spell near frightened her when compared to her own skills.

That kind of power, in the hands of a creature that didn't even have a basic magical education... it had some worrying implications.

Still Lyra was able to sever the spell. Though it left her rather drained and she had to have a unicorn come in to help her finish the Examination.

Vinyl, one of Lyra's herdmates, smiled at the human and used some hoof gestures at him.

Seeing the weird face on the colt, Lyra translated, "She asked what music you like."

Harry scrunched up his nose.

"She's mute," Lyra explained. "She can only communicate through gestures and expressions."

Understanding clicked in the boy's eyes and he started telling her about all his favorite music. He appeared to like Techno and Euro Dance the best, not uncommon for children growing up in England right now. Although Lyra got the impression, from the way he talked about it, that the boy liked it because he was supposed to like it. Oh well, he was sure to begin developing his own opinions soon enough. He was at the right age for that.

Vinyl's horn lit up as she continued to make hoof gestures while Lyra translated. It suddenly became obvious she was merely trying to keep the boy calm and chatty, that way he didn't notice what she was doing.

Vinyl had discovered some kind of magical leech spirit curled up in the boy's magical pathways. It appeared to be a new species but they weren't too concerned about that right now. Removing it had been easy enough, a tad on the tricky side when compared to other magical parasites but not too hard. Then they stored the spirit into a magical incubator.

They didn't want to hurt the thing, after all. Magical leeches were creatures to. Once it was strong enough to survive without a host she could have it move to Tartarus where it couldn't hurt anypony while living it's life in a peaceful habitat with other leech spirits.

All in all, the colt had a hard life. The very fact he was so undercared for that a leech spirit could attach itself to the boy, for what was obviously years, was extremely disturbing.

Vinyl was complaining to her that a magical parasite could have been discovered by any basic physical.

Lyra actually had to remind her, in hoof language as to not scare or offend the child, that humans don't have as advanced scans as ponies... Then telling her about all the conflicting spells she found on the boy so it was likely magical humans were just barely starting to understand magic. So they likely didn't know these spells either.

If Humans were evolving into magic, to the point they had functional tribes, it was likely the ponies own fault if they were so deep in hiding the magicals couldn't find them.

Ponies had only really even allowed Anthropologist to go to the surface within the last few decades (due to humans polluting their oceans and Ponies needing to study the issue to detect if they were at risk and how to counteract it). They learned the witch hunts continued even without magical creatures. Most Anthropologists believed humans were just naturally paranoid and that they were looking to blame their issues on supernatural forces instead of bad luck. Lyra had a different theory.

Lyra had long since speculated about the possibility of magical humans on the surface. She had been studying humans since she could crawl and it was plainly written in their history that their ancestors still had interactions with magical creatures after Atlantis hid away at the bottom of the ocean.

Lyra had even gone to countries where Witch hunts were still happening, though she had yet to have come across one and see if the human really was magical... and she stopped doing that because her herd mates were worrying about her too much.

The humans of Japan supposedly live in harmony with magical creatures, but Lyra couldn't get funding for an expedition that far from the portal.

No, Lyra was a laughing stock for her "outlandish" theories about the existence of magical humans... but this child proved she was right. The spells on him even proved their were multiple family lines of them, given the nature of the spells... this poor abused creature was her proof... and she wished he wasn't if it meant he didn't have to go through his hard life.

The various spells on the foal proved there had to be other magical humans to cast the spells. They were far to complex in nature to be created by accidental magic... so the boy wasn't a fluke... there were more of them... hiding somewhere on the surface.

Did all magicals treat their children so? Surely they approve of it for them to even CREATE spells like the ones she found on the boy.

At least he was doing much better in recent years. Although he appeared to still get the occasional beating.

Flash got their attention, after the mares went back and forth between themselves for a while. Flash did a few hoof signs, which didn't particularly surprised Lyra.

Hoof Signing was taught in most schools as a popular elective. Ponies don't typically have to learn foreign languages, at least to speak it. Ponies inert magic let them instinctively understand everything spoken to them (even as babies before they could actually talk themselves).

Although they still had to learn how to read and write the traditional way, and ponies education in Primary School included learning how to write every word in every known language. Hoof Signing and Sheet Music were particularly popular electives because they weren't just learning how to write the same word a thousand different ways. They were complex and so different, ponies loved learning them.

So it wasn't that surprising that a barely grown colt, still fresh out of school, would remember a popular elective.

Flash revealed, in hoof sign, that the boy had been a student at the reform school because apparently he was a pyro. Flash speculated that could just be flare ups of magic and wanted the experts to test to see if the boy had a fire affinity. That would result in the boys flare ups coming out as fire every so often. Apparently, Flash thought humans might be natural elementals of a sort. It wasn't the most outlandish theory about magical humans.

Lyra and her herdmate tested the boy's affinity and found he was more inclined to fire magic, but it wasn't enough to really come out in his flare ups. what's this... two affinities? He had a strong Wind affinity as well but it was unheard of for magical creatures to possess more then one affinity.

The boy didn't even have a magical focus to cast spells at all. Then Flash told them, in hoof, that the boy did cast a chameleon spell on himself. That implied he had a natural focus... but testing the boy for one revealed he clearly didn't... at least... not a traditional one.

On closer inspection the unicorns realized what the boy had in place of a focus. He had an extra magical core. All magical creatures had three major organs that produced magic. The Brain, which generated light magic, the heart which channeled emotion based magic, and the Stomach, which channelled their Elemental Affinity... but this boy... had an extra core which generated pure unrestrained magic.

The organ wasn't physically there, but rather a cluster of his magical pathways... it was made of pure energy... untamed and wild.

The boy would need a focus to better train his magic, or else it would continue to be wild and dangerous. Unfortunately, focus Crystals were rather expensive. While it was common to find Crystals that could be used to generate power, even Crystals to enchant armor... finding one that could withstand magic being actively powered into it, on a regular basis, was difficult.

Of course, given the circumstances, Lyra believed she could convince Celestia to acquire one for the boy. She was a rather understanding and compassionate leader.

After fixing the boy up, and giving him a basic physical on top of it. Flash took him for a tour of the Castle.

Lyra was bouncing up and down the moment she was in private with her herdmate.

Lyra awed, "I knew it... I KNEW IT!!!" She cheered, "Through studying magical humans we can finally unlock the Mysteries of the Origins of magic!!! It's possible this is how all our ancestors developed when magic first started to manifest! Possibly how all creatures began until their bodies adapted to their magics and it started coming out in specific ways in the species. If we can find a large enough pack of magical humans, we could learn so much by studying them! EVERYTHING I HYPOTHESIZED WAS RIGHT!!!"

Vinyl clapped her hooves, smiling at her herdmate. Octavia was going to be particularly thrilled about Lyra's studies being proven right... especially since Octavia was rather obsessed with high society and was rather embarrassed by the nobles comments about their herdmate's theories.

Lyra eagerly went to Celestia to tell her all about her discoveries.

• Back on the Surface.

Albus straightened as he felt it, all of his monitoring charms on young Harry severing at once. The old wizard immediately feared the worst. Could the boy really be dead? He jumped out of his chair and nearly Apparated, but he managed to remember the anti apparation charms around Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That could have been... messy.

The old man was in near a panic as he rushed to his fireplace and threw the floo powder inside. He yelled the first location he could think of "The Burrow".

Molly Weasley gaped as Albus suddenly came barging through her floo. Before she could question the rudeness of his entrance he Apparated away.

Vanishing on the spot, Albus almost immediately appeared in the Dursley's living room... he heard... crying...

A walrus of a man was trying to calm a far too skinny woman and far too plump child.

Albus frantically looked around as he asked, "Where's Harry?"

The family suddenly took notice of him, "YOU!!!" Vernon Dursley left his family's side and stormed towards the old man, "What have you done to my family you FREAK!?"

Albus merely raised an eyebrow, not at all intimidated. "What happened?"

Vernon was starting to turn purple with anger, "I'm bloody well tell you what happened! One moment we were watching telly and the next, THIS HAPPENED! They just started crying for no reason! Then, not a moment later, YOU SHOW UP!!! THAT'S A HELL OF A COINCIDENCE, FREAK!!!"

Albus raised his wand, and Vernon immediately stopped talking. His purple face almost instantly turned to white. It took Albus a moment to figure out why. The man was scared he was going to attack him. Really now? Out of all the ridiculous ideas. As if Albus never dealed with an angry / confused parent before.

"It's just a diagnostic spell." Albus informed as he waved his wand... and the old wizard became sick.

Petunia's and her child's minds were resynchronizing themselves after being corrupted by magic for so long. It took Albus a few more wand waves to find the source... it was his own fault... Albus' spell to keep her on as the boy's guardian conflicted with her own desires to not have to deal with him... that could mean...

"Look, at me Petunia." Albus didn't really ask. The moment their eyes locked he looked into her mind... and became so horribly repulsed.

His spells... had backfired in an incomprehendible way.

She and her husband had brutalized the child because they couldn't be rid of him. Why hadn't his spells alerted him this was going on?

Looking at Vernon, the man's face was turning purple again. The Spell shouldn't have affected him. The guardianship spell was centered solely on Petunia.

Why didn't he stop it?

Looking into his mind... Albus threw the muggle into the wall.

"Petunia didn't have a choice," Albus observed, holding up his wand and gripping the handle tightly, "You did..." the very notion sickened him.

"Daddy!" the cry reminded Dumbledore there was a child present.

Albus dropped the man.

"Get out!" Petunia got up from the couch.

At first Albus thought she was talking to him, but no, she was glaring daggers at Vernon.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE YOU BLOODY WALRUS!!!"

Vernon's eyes widened, before glaring at Dumbledore, "What have you done to my wife, you miserable freak!?"

Petunia took charge, "What he made me do was bewitch me to stay by a repulsive man like you!"

Albus blinked... he supposed his spell could have kept the Dursley's together. After all the spell was supposed to keep Harry under the same guardianship. As the spell being centered around Petunia, she couldn't leave Harry or Vernon.

Vernon was turning purple again, so Albus raised his wand, "I suggest you leave. Wizards aren't as forgiving to child abusers as muggles. The only punishment we have for it is death."

Vernon's eyes widened, "You bloody freaks! You dare threaten me in my own home! After you forced that disgusting little monster on us!"

"Where. Is. Harry?" Albus growled out.

• Back at Konoha Reform School.

Madame Bones, head of the Aurors (the wizarding police) appeared at the school for troubled muggles. She decided to come personally given the circumstances. She was always present at a missing child case but this... just who the child was might very well start a war between the muggle and magical worlds.

Sunset felt a surge of magic enter the school. At first she thought Harry was back, but the magic wasn't coming from the portal.

She traced the source and found 7 humans walking around in Halloween robes. They were waving around some sticks in their hands and casting spells through them. They had advanced "Notice-Me-Not" charms on them, that of course didn't work on a being as powerful as herself.

Sunset made sure to turn invisible so they wouldn't see her, as she followed them through the school. This could gravely interfere with her plans. The fact Harry had stumbled through the portal already complicated things but MORE magical humans? They were undoubtedly looking for the child Flash took. Did this mean Harry knew more about magic then he was letting on?

Regardless the last thing she needed was for a pack of magicals to be blundering about before she was ready... and they were getting closer to the portal. She couldn't allow this. If the magical humans made contact with the creatures of Atlantis it would surely prevent her plans from flourishing.

Sunset's forehead glowed a blueish green as she focused on the humans. They suddenly stopped, their eyes glazing over. Tartarus these mages had an impressive will. They were even fighting against her with their magic

Most ponies were rather weak when it came to magic. They could do a few simple spells but lacked the power or knowledge to put up much of a fight against her.

Ponies nearly always excelled at one thing and one thing only (typically directly related to their cutie mark.) However, these creatures were just as powerful as unicorns with a cutie mark in magic. She could feel the versatility and power. Yet, they were nothing when compared to herself. Sunset might not be as powerful as an Alicorn, but she was easily the greatest mage since Starswirl.

It took her only a moment to break through their defenses.

Once she was in, she began rewiring their minds with a simple lie they now believe was true... Harry Potter... was dead.

• With Harry's Dorm Mates.

Gaara... didn't know what to do... they hadn't seen Harry since classes ended. It was just past curfew and soon it would be lights out, but there was still no sign of Harry.

He and his other roommates were laying in their beds, reading text books and writing out essays. They should be doing their homework at their desk but it was more comfortable on beds.

Kiba paused in his work to send a glare at the door, "That brat better get here soon! If the staff see he isn't here, and we didn't tell them, they are going to slaughter all our hides!"

"You don't think Harry ran away do you?" Gaara asked, in his usual monotone, yet there was a hint of worry to it.

Naruto poked his head down at him from his place on the top bunk. Harry was supposed to have the top bunk above Kiba... but that was currently empty... Gaara didn't like heights. They reminded him of... things...

"Of course not!" Naruto insisted, "That weirdo Harry actually likes it here! Why would he run away?" ignoring the fact that with the fences, and officers patrolling the grounds, it be near impossible to sneak off the premises.

Now Kiba was biting his lip, "He... he was pretty scared about that shrink coming to talk to him."

Gaara raised an eyebrow. He spoke, in that same uninterested tone with just an edge of emotion, "When one of those guys diagnosed me with Conduct Disorder, nothing bad happened. They just started sending people to talk to me regularly and I had to start attending those group therapy sessions."

Kiba snorted, "Even if Harry really is a pyro, it's not like he goes around stabbing anyone who slightly irritates him, like you do."

Gaara had a very calm, dispassionate personality... yet somehow he had a very explosive temper. It was hard for him to care about things yet he was very quick to acts of violence... anger was one of the few emotions he could feel with passion, and as such it was very intoxicating.

He could still feel... it was just lesser then what other people felt. His emotions were very dull, almost numb, just a small twinge when compared to how he understood other people felt. Empathy, in particular, was something he really struggled with.

Gaara did care about his friends but he tended to think of them as "his"... he was kinda possessive and had difficulty understanding they had their own emotions and opinions. He understood it, intellectually, but it was hard to care about that... he tried his best to make himself care about their feelings but he forgot to sometimes.

Conduct Disorder was what children went through before they become full blown sociopaths, and the school was putting a lot of effort into helping Gaara so he didn't develop into a serial killer or something.

They kept telling him how lucky he was that this disorder was discovered while he was young, when it could still be treated, maybe even have some of the damage done to his psyche reversed. His brain was still developing and adapting so the best case scenario is that they could help him feel again and come to understand social norms more easily.

He would always have trouble relating to others but a lot of the damage his Uncle did to him could be healed. Even though he would always be damaged goods, that didn't mean he couldn't have meaningful relationships or learn to function in society. Yes, he would have a much harder time of it, but he could still have a full and meaningful life... that's what he was getting from these sessions anyway.

There was a difference between a rebellious kid (like Kiba) and a legitimate mental disorder like "Conduct Disorder"... where Kiba could be cured with a spanking. Okays it was more like "Regular discipline combined with a nurturing environment". Gaara actually need that, plus talks with highly trained doctors... and medication to help dull his poor impulse control.

"Doesn't matter!" Naruto insisted, bringing Gaara back to the matter at hand. "Harry would NEVER leave without telling us!"

Gaara tilted his head to the side.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Your supposed to at least say BYE to your friends when you run away. Is just polite."

Gaara nodded, another social nicety he didn't understand, but he would trust Naruto on this.

"If Harry REALLY ran away." Naruto speculated, "He would have told us. Then we would have done this big song and dance about not letting him leave without us. Then we ALL would have run away with him! Is basic friend code!" Naruto educated the sociopath in training.

Kiba snorted, "Then we would all come crawling back here as soon as our tummies rumbled and recieve the worst spanking of our lives."

Naruto scoffed, "I'll have you know, I made it a whole month on my own when I ran away from the orphanage... before the constables caught me." he reluctantly added.

Kiba rolled his eyes, clearly not believing him.

"Is true!" Naruto loudly proclaimed.

"Hum... Harry?" Gaara tried to get his friends to focus.

Naruto scoffed, "I'm sure he's fine. If he actually had any plans to run away, he would have told us. He's probably just serving a detention or something."

"That's a long ass Detention." Kiba commented.

Naruto scuffed, "Well where do YOU think he is."

"I think he ran away and didn't tell us because he has more trust issues then cats around Gaara." Kiba insisted.

Gaara scrunched up his nose, "I would never hurt a kitty."

"Oh yeah!" Naruto laughed, "Stabbing teachers with pencils is fair game. But harming something so cute and fluffy. Even Gaara understands that's a no-no."

Gaara nodded adamantly.

Kiba rolled his eyes , "It was just a lame 'your going to grow up to be a serial killer' joke." he told Gaara, "But if you want, you can go ahead and skip the 'animal mutilation' and go straight to people."

Gaara pretended to look thoughtful, just to mess with his friends. Thankfully, Naruto got the joke.

"Damnit Kiba!" Naruto laughed, sitting up on his bed and holding his sore sides from the laughter, "You shouldn't tell Gaara things like 'being a serial killer is a viable career path'! He might think your serious!"

Kiba sighed, looking at Gaara, "Killing people is bad, don't do that."

Gaara rolled his eyes, "I know that much." he just had a temper on him but it's not like he would actually go around killing people, and definitely not cats!... he liked cats... "But back to Harry?"

"We should probably cover for him." Kiba shrugged, as he got up and grabbed a pillow from each of their beds (they still had a couple more each). Before folding them under Harry's blanket's in a way that made it look like a boy was sleeping there. "This way he can at least get a full night's distance from here."

"He didn't run away," Naruto rolled his eyes as Kiba ruined his chuckles with his outlandish theory.

Gaara really wasn't sure who was right, but they both appeared to believe Harry wasn't in any actual danger at least.