Warnings and Disclaimers: Hamlet is the brainchild of William Shakespeare, whom I do not claim to be. Sniffs disdainfully Do I look bald to you?
Duo stared blankly at him. "Magic," he repeated.
The ghost's cheeks flushed silver. "Yes, magic," he replied rather crossly. "I know how that sounds, but it's real. And you can see me, so that means you're either a wizard or a Squib."
"A what?" The pilot had never heard such a ridiculous word in his life.
"A non-magical child born to magical parents. A Squib can't use magic himself, but can use enchanted items and see magical things that muggles can't. Muggles are people who don't have magic at all," Harry hastened to add at the American's frown.
Duo stayed silent for a long moment. This was a lot more complex than he'd expected from his subconscious. He was almost impressed... "Ya don't really expect me to believe this, do you?" he finally asked.
The ghost sighed. "Hoped, yes. Expected... no, not really. Not without proof, which I myself can't give you, and I don't know if I should trust you with it yourself."
Duo blinked, then sniggered. "Wonderful. The figment of my imagination doesn't trust me..."
Harry glared at him. "Oh, for... I am not a figment of your bloody imagination!" He got up off the bed and started to pace, a strange sight given that his feet were floating about an inch off the ground. "For all I know, I'm the crazy one, and you're the figment!"
The braided teenager twitched an eyebrow. "I don't know, ya look sane..." he commented. "Can't say I'm the best judge of that, though."
Harry snorted. "I've been trapped in this bedamned house for Merlin knows how many years. Of course I'm not entirely sane."
Duo resisted the question for as long as he could, knowing it wasn't even in the same country as politically correct, but in the end it popped out under its own volition. "How did you die?"
"...I was murdered," the ghost answered sadly, pausing by the window to gaze almost sightlessly out. The teenager could see the glow of the street lamp outside through his body.
"Oh..." Duo grimaced to himself. Dammit, the kid was a hallucination, he should not be feeling sorry for hurting his feelings! But still, tendrils of guilt wound their way through his guts as he saw the way thin shoulders tensed, and then slumped as the translucent figure stared out at the night. "I'm... sorry," he added quietly, twisting the bed sheets nervously around his fingers.
Harry turned and looked at him with something akin to surprise. "It's nothing," he replied after a moment. "It... happened a long time ago."
Damn his curiosity... "How long ago?"
The ghost bit his lip. "Er... I don't know. What year is it?"
"A.C. 195," Duo answered instantly, and was puzzled when the other boy frowned. "What is it?"
"A.C.?" he asked with some hesitation.
"After Colony Era."
If anything, the ghost looked even blanker. "Colony?"
Duo stared at him. Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me... "Yeah. Colony as in the Lagrange Colonies. You know, the really big space stations? Population somewhere around ten million when you add all five of 'em together?"
Harry choked. "Space stations!" He flickered, as though unable to maintain his cohesion through the shock. The flickering continued for a few seconds, before the spirit settled down again. "What-" he started to say, then had to clear his throat and start again. "What's A.C. in relation to Anno Domini?"
Duo frowned. "Christ. Um, I think the Colony Era began... 2089, 2090? Sometime around then, anyway. Why?" he asked as the ghost dimmed again, until there was just the faintest of silhouettes present. "When did you die?"
Even that faint evanescence vanished, and the American winced as he realized he must have scared the spirit away. But then a quiet murmur reached his ears:
"July 31st, 1996. My birthday..."
Duo was left sitting alone in the empty room, staring at shadowed, pitiless walls as he pondered those words.
-
The next morning he slept till almost noon, having stayed up nearly an hour after Harry had disappeared, half-hoping, half-afraid the apparition would come back. Now he slumped at the kitchen table, blinking bleary eyes as a bemused Quatre made him a cup of strong coffee. Soon the blonde was sitting across from him, sipping his tea.
As a companionable silence filtered through the kitchen, Duo went over in his mind everything that he could remember from the conversation the night before. A couple of his questions had been answered, but they were nothing to the multitudes spawned. But even so, he kept coming back to one thing, or rather two.
Last night, the ghost, or "figment of his imagination", had told him two concrete facts: his name, and the date of his death. To find out whether he was crazy or not, all Duo had to do was do a little research.
But...he had to admit, at least to himself, that he was a little bit afraid. If it turned out he really was crazy, beyond the boundaries of what was entailed in being a Gundam pilot, then the reasonable, responsible thing to do would be to turn himself in for a psych evaluation. The results of which would most likely be his permanent relief from active duty.
There was always the choice of hiding what was going on in his head, too, but he had a feeling that if he did hide this schizophrenia, or whatever it was, it would quickly spiral out of his control. And what if by hiding, he somehow managed to put the others pilots in danger? Duo didn't think he could ever forgive himself if one of them was even hurt because of him. And then there was that third possibility, the one that he didn't really want to consider:
What if he wasn't crazy? What if the whole mess, ghosts, magic, and all, was real?
"Duo? Are you all right?" Quatre asked, frowning at him. "You seem kind of... distracted."
No shit... Duo gave him a rather weak grin. "Just... didn't get as much sleep as I should've." He fiddled with the mug in his hands for a few seconds. "Um, Q? Remember when we were on the shuttle, talkin' 'bout this place?"
The Arabian nodded, looking curious. "Well... Did you ever mention when it happened? The date, I mean?" First he had to make sure he hadn't already known what had happened.
Quatre chewed on his lip as he tried to remember. "Not that I recall," he said finally.
"What about names?" Duo asked, trying to hide his anxiety.
The blonde shook his head. "No. Nothing like that came up." He frowned. "Why?"
The American didn't answer directly, instead staring off to the side. "...The family that lived here, do... do you remember their names?"
"Not really. I think their family name started with a 'D'." Quatre watched with concern as his friend's hands clenched to white-knuckled fists and his shoulders slumped, as violet eyes dropped unhappily to the table. Then a flash of memory struck him. "The nephew had a different last name, though."
Instantly the American's chestnut head came up, and Duo stared at him. Quatre couldn't help a flash of worry at the almost wild look in his eyes. "Q, do you still have the research you did?" he asked slowly, deliberately relaxing his hands. "I... I think I need to see it. To confirm something."
Quatre just nodded, rising from the table and leaving his teacup where it sat. He hurried upstairs to retrieve his laptop, trying to push aside his confusion and worries. Whatever was going on, he'd make sure Duo explained later, but what was more important at the moment was to get that look out of his friend's eyes.
-
Once again Harry was huddled in a ball in his cupboard, taking solace in the unbroken darkness within. It removed all distractions but sound, which the wallpaper-covered wood dampened anyway, making it an almost perfect place to think.
And to brood, which was also a rather apt description for what he was doing now.
Harry knew he wasn't the best at math- he'd been removed from normal schooling at the tender age of ten, and the only remotely math-related subject Hogwarts taught was Arithmancy, which he'd never taken anyway. But even he could add, and no matter how he did so, the equation always came out the same:
Three hundred years. Three hundred bloody years.
That refrain carried him unnoticed through the sound of one person coming lightly down the stairs, but even the knowledge that he'd been dead for three centuries could insulate him from the second, much heavier pair. Blinking unnecessarily, Harry turned his eyes upwards as he wondered what in the world was going on out there.
-
Quatre set the laptop on the kitchen table and flipped it open as Duo plugged it into the wall. "What do you need to see?" he asked, hitting the 'on' button.
"Two things," Duo answered, pulling a chair around until he could see the screen, then sitting. "The names of the residents, and the date of their deaths."
The blonde nodded. "Easy enough." He tapped away at the keys, bringing up the pertinent screen in just a little more than a minute. A minute that Duo spent nearly vibrating in his chair as he fought the urge to get up and pace.
"Here we are..." Quatre murmured. "Autopsy reports for... Vernon Dursley, homeowner, Petunia Dursley, spouse, Dudley Dursley, son..." The braided teenager leaned forward in anticipation, and read the last name for himself in a quiet, awed whisper.
"Harry Potter, nephew. Holy shit..." Violet eyes were very wide as he stared at the screen. "And the date?"
Quatre navigated through the report. "Here. Estimated time of death for all parties... 12:30 a.m., July 31st-"
"-In the year of our Lord 1996," Duo finished, feeling a grin spread over his face. "Christ... 'There are more things in heaven and earth...'"
The Arabian frowned. "'Than are dreamt of in your philosophy', but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Lots. 'Specially considerin' what happens in the first act."(1) Still grinning, Duo reached over and gave an uncomprehending Quatre a brief hug. "The good news," he said, pulling away, "is that, despite what 'Fei might say, I'm not crazy."
"I never thought you were..." Quatre started to protest, but stopped at the American's knowing look. "Well... not that kind of crazy," he admitted with a blush, and Duo couldn't help a laugh.
The billionaire frowned as he detected the slightest note of hysteria in the braided pilot's high spirits. "Duo?" he asked, worried. "What's the bad news?"
Duo looked at him for a moment, and the grin faded, leaving him uncharacteristically serious. "I don't know if it's bad, really," he qualified, "but... let's just say life and a few other things just got a lot more complicated."
(1) For those of you who have never read Hamlet, in the first act Prince Hamlet confronts his father's ghost, who demands vengeance for his murder.
A/N: And done! Now, what to work on until school's out... Walks away muttering to herself
Can't really think of anything I want to say, beyond that Q seems to be finding out ahead of schedule. Now I get to work it out all over again...
Error Fixed: Sorry 'bout that, guys. That second date happens to be my birthday, and since they're in the same month, I mixed them up by accident.
Our most sincere gratitude to Akua (blinks By any chance had you just had sugar when you reviewed? Or caffeine? Grins), A lilmatchgirl (First, if an actual physical presence was needed to fall in love, Matchdotcom would be out of business. Second… who says he's going to stay that way? Smirks), blackrosebunny, Bluespark (I think it's possible… I'm fairly sure I've done it at some point. And as to how he died… flashback coming up. Not quite Voldemort. I'm interpreting the Prophecy.), Bunch-o-Nuts, Cattiebrie393, chys, Cor-chan (Oh, you know, the usual. Pissy parent, combined with lazy kid…), DarrkKatt (grins On the contrary, I'm most flattered), E.A.V., Fate, Firehedgehog, jordan, Kaaera (blinks …That's… almost exactly my situation with Gundam Wing. Do you think that's the case with all of us? Never seen it, love it anyway? And as far as I can tell, there's no official date as to when the calendar switched from AD to AC. We're all just guessing), LassyD (hugs), Lise (nods I know what you mean. It's so hard finding an HP/GW that has a plausible connection, instead of merely having the G-boys be yanked into the past or something. Blushes Thank you!), Mithros (blinks You know, you're good at this…), Rieina Bara (What took me so long would be the fifteen or so other stories I'm working on…), Shino Ryu, Toki Mirage, and Wren Truesong (returns the hug Not needed, but thanks anyway. And you'd better believe it!) for reviewing.
3 May 2005