Warning: Some of the thoughts in Harry's head are a bit disturbing. This is also true of some of the things which mentioned as happening, even if details of what exactly happened aren't given.

Author's Note(s): Between this chapter and the newest side story for the continuity this crossover is a part of, there's enough clues for people to figure this out, but I'm going to flat out say it now: Albus Dumbledore is not going to be a good guy in this story. …Not even in the hands off but the ends justify the means way he is in Of Thieves & Beggars. It will be far from the highly manipulative but still in the neighborhood of decency which he is in the canon or the similar but coldly opportunistic and biased way he is in Through Feline Eyes. So, evil!Dumbledore ahoy!

҉ As an experiment, I would like to offer a commissioned oneshot to the reviewer/commenter who correctly guesses the particular element which I am referring to which moves Dumbledore from manipulative to evil. The only eliminating hints I will give here is that it is something which has not been explicitly stated such as the mind wipes (which have been both mentioned and demonstrated) and you will need information given in Melltith. (Full name: Echoes of Forgotten Hope, Part 01: Melltith). First person to correctly guess, on either FFN or AO3, wins.

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Legacies of Blood

Part 03: Glimmer

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"I don't care what consequence it brings

I have been a fool for lesser things. …

I think you ought to know that I intend to hold you for the longest time."

– Billy Joel, The Longest Time

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Harry watched the adults carefully from his perch atop the examination table. As a rule, he generally didn't trust adults. Either they were like the Dursleys with their justifications and restrictions; they were like the staff at his school, blind and stupid; or they were like the people in robes, dismissive at best and murderously violent at their worst. All in all, Harry Potter could do without adults in his life. He supposed that Nikola wasn't too bad, even if there was a significant probability that the man was a nutter who only thought he was the Nikola Tesla. He was interesting at the very least, and just being in his presence made something inside Harry relax his guard in a way had been impossible since his first day of school and the first appearance of the people in robes. At the same time, Harry was having trouble not tracking him as he moved around the small medical lab while the other two adults took turns asking generic health exam questions of Harry.

Harry knew that the robe-wearers could come at any time, and regardless of what Nikola had promised back in that Nottingham alley, Harry had seen how easily they could make people forget things or think other things were the truth. The man was obviously related to him in some way. Harry saw a lot of his personal features, and some from the vague memories he had of his mother, in Nikola's face and bearing. Then there were the shared freaky features, at least the teeth that popped out occasionally and the complete darkening of the eyes, as that was all Harry had directly witnessed so far. He would lay odds that the man had the whole set, including the really fast healing—which might actually lend credence to the idea that Nikola was not a nutter after all, now that Harry had a chance to think about it. That made the idea of him owning the future almost—

Harry snapped his teeth at the woman who had just pulled a hair out of his head while he had been focused on Nikola and stupidly not paying attention to the other two. She managed to yank her hand out of range fast enough that all she gained was a light graze rather than the full bite he had been attempting, but it cost her the ill-gotten hair. Harry raised his top lip, in a mixture of snarl and sneer, both at her rudeness and his stupidity. She looked deeply unsettled, a fact which pleased Harry far more than it probably should. Her hand flew to her hip before jerking away again. Harry recognized the gesture for what it had to be. Considering that handguns had been illegal in England for well over half a century, that had to be a bit of idiocy she had picked up from the Yanks. Before either of them could react any further, Nikola was between them, simultaneously pushing her further away while doing his own verification of Harry's welfare.

Unbidden, Harry grinned up at the concerned expression on the man's face. It was nice, the feeling that someone cared about him enough to go against people who had to otherwise be considered friends. It was even better that Nikola seemed to be having similar demands running rampant through him, despite being so much older than Harry. Nine was nothing compared to a hundred and thirty-three, and if Harry had always been like this, it stood to reason that Nikola had as well, so Nikola having the same obsessive need to track Harry's movements that Harry had for Nikola was comforting as well as telling about their mutual alone-ness. Harry wanted to ask so many questions—about Nikola, about the Sanctuary, about the woman he kept referencing but never naming, about what they were because they had to be something different—but Harry knew first hand that adults didn't like being asked questions, especially by kids. The next-to-last thing Harry wanted to do was annoy Nikola, especially after the breakdown in the alley earlier. He knew that his time with the man was limited. He wasn't going to do anything that would drive him away earlier than he would be taken. When Nikola carded a hand through Harry's curls to rub the former home of the stolen hair, Harry couldn't help but lean into it. Touches that didn't hurt were nice, too.

"Helen," James scolded, "I told you that you have to get his attention first. The last thing we need is for either of them to feel threatened. You know this as you have seen Nikola lose control in the past. Imagine how much worse that would have been if he had been both feral and protecting a child?"

"I'm still not convinced that the boy is his son," Helen countered. She crossed her arms and her face had the same sucking-lemons expression that Aunt Petunia wore when Harry was caught doing something she qualified as freakish, even if it was something relatively normal like when the headmistress of the school wanted to have him skip grades. She was probably an alright person, most of the time, but she reminded Harry of the twinkling idiot in charge of the less violent robe-wearers, always confident that she knew best for everyone, no matter how little she knew about them. That her first actions upon the group's arrival had been to beret Nikola about not picking up something that had already been picked up by the time that James had found them in the alley did not help endear the woman to Harry.

"That's because I'm not," Harry snapped. "Obviously. Just look at us. There are key differences in our appearances which probably wouldn't be there without some distance between us. Less obvious to you, would be the resemblance he has to my mother but with similar key differences. I can even go one step further and state that he even more closely resembles my grandmother. Given the decaying strength of the familial resemblance in combination with the alleged death date given in the history books for Nikola Tesla, I would conclude that he is my great-grandfather, which in turn, would make me not his son. Now, if I'm nine and can figure that much out, what does that say about you? Hmm, doctor?"

"Harry," Nikola said flatly. Harry fought back a flinch, but couldn't repress the urge to drop his glare to the region of his knees. Hadn't he just been thinking about not wanting to annoy Nikola? And what was the first thing he did? If there was anything that adults hated more than questions from kids, it was kids getting lippy. Harry knew this, and he still gave into his annoyance. To make the situation even worse, he had showboated his freakish intelligence. Hoping to forestall Nikola telling him to leave, Harry murmured an apology without daring to raise his head to look at anyone. He could feel his eyes prickling, but it had been years since he had last cried and he wasn't going to now. Things were bad enough without adding sniveling to the list. Nikola clicked his tongue against his teeth in disapproval and this time, Harry couldn't stop the flinch.

Nikola's fingers tightened around the strands of Harry's hair before he used the grip to pull Harry against him. The change in their relative heights due to Harry sitting on the exam table meant that this pressed his nose into the folds of Nikola's collar instead of the man's stomach again. The concentrated scent there was as much a comfort as the embrace. There was an underlying note to it which reminded Harry painfully of the woman who had been the last person to hold him just for comfort. When he lost Nikola, it would be like losing Mummy all over again, and the knowledge of that hurt.

Things were always worse after one of his kidnappings, at least for a little while, but he was older now than he was when Mummy died; he understood loss now. Feeling that while enduring whatever punishment Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon could think up would suck. Harry wanted to pull Nikola closer, to hold onto him like he had in the alley, but wouldn't that just make the inevitable worse? The indecision seemed to paralyze him, leaving him leaning against Nikola, letting the man take his weight, unable to deny himself the feel of being held and just as unable to relax fully into the embrace.

"Helen, don't you think you should check on Ashley? I can finish Harry's examination," James whispered, jerking Harry from his thoughts. Harry went to pull away from Nikola, but the man refused to let him. Helen huffed but a moment later, he heard the door sliding open and then shut. "Nikola, I need to draw blood. We'll need to know the extent of the damage, and as soon as possible, if there's going to be any hope of mitigating the starvation in time."

"They didn't—"

"Oh, don't even try to deny it, Harry," James interrupted. Harry pressed closer against Nikola who seemed to just as reluctant to let him go. Harry didn't know how the other man knew about the Dursleys' food restrictions or what else the man knew, but he didn't like it. The Twinkler was especially thorough removing the memories of people who knew or suspected what his life was like with the Dursleys. While Harry would gladly bite Helen a dozen times over because the woman would be indignantly annoyed by it which pleased Harry, James seemed like someone that Harry could definitely grow to enjoy being around. Plus, Nikola trusted him implicitly, even more than he did Helen who he flirted with despite clearly keeping secrets from her—secrets which James must know as well. Harry didn't want to watch as the stupid twinkler destroyed him like he had the first counselor at Harry's school, stealing the knowledge of his trade at the same time as any memories of Harry. "As you said to Helen, it's obvious now that I have a chronological age. While certain things do not line up—clearly you seem to have only limited cognitive difficulties and your concentration appears intact enough that you are able to almost hyperfocus at times, though that might be an effect of first exposure to either another vampire or another vampire who's related to you as Nikola appears to be having a similar display—you said you were nine which is not bore out by your height and weight. You're exactly four foot, which is more than an inch below the average height of a seven-year-old, and while the atrociously baggy clothing doesn't help, I would place your weight in the close neighborhood of three stone, which is a healthy weight if you were five. Strictly speaking, I'm rather surprised that you are even alive. I suspect you must have Nikola's ability to heal yourself. Lord knows I've watched the man walk away from things which should have rightfully killed him and a few times, I would wager that he actually did die. The bastard won't confirm it, though."

"Watching you wonder is a source of endless amusement," Nikola declared loftily. The older vampire let Harry pull back this time. Harry searched his face knowing that Nikola was watching him just as intensely. After a moment, Nikola drew a line down the side of Harry's face from forehead to jaw before dragging his thumb of the cheekbone of the same side. "I told you that you were stuck with me, miš. Did you think a little thing like dying would be enough to get rid of me? I'm Nikola Tesla, remember?"

"You do the impossible," Harry whispered, awe coloring his tone. The tiny spark of hope that had been born when Nikola had faced down Aunt Petunia refused to be smothered any more as he realized that Nikola might be just as impervious to the wand-wavers' mind-wiping ability as Harry himself. Vampires were also supposed to be really strong and fast—Harry knew that even the violent robe-wearers were afraid of them. Nikola tapped him on the nose with an extra toothy grin before turning towards the good doctor.

"Take what you need, James, but keep Helen from giving him any of medication." Harry couldn't see Nikola's face, but from James' expression, he could imagine that they were having another of those conversations they kept having where one of them would drop a non sequitur which served as a reminder of an older conversation so the other would read a more exact reference in their expression. This was the second time Helen and medication had been referenced together and it made Harry want to bite her for real, if only for Nikola's sake—because she obviously made a medication that she expected Nikola to be taking a lot of and Nikola clearly wasn't taking it which meant it must be horrible as Nikola was smart enough to not refuse something that helped him.

"When did you stop taking it?"

"I've kept my promise."

"That wasn't my question."

"Boxing Day, 1942," Nikola answered before turning so that he could see Harry's face again. "A week after I met her." A quick glance at James' face told Harry that he had no more a clue who she was than Harry did and like lightning flashing, Harry also realized that he knew more about her with just a couple of hours in Nikola's company than the man who appeared to be his best friend. His eyes widened.

"And she was perfect," Harry breathed in wonder, earning another tap to the nose. He stared into Nikola's eyes and his mind began to spin with the new context for what had been in front of him since the moment he had first seen Nikola. While those eyes had been blackened with anger, Harry hadn't thought of the possible differences in their eyes, because the black was familiar enough that it couldn't be denied, but now he could see how it was a key. He had been as stupid as he had accused Helen of being just moments ago. "Oh, my god, our eyes—I don't have your eyes, but it's a consistent feature. Mummy had them and so did Marigold in the pictures. You don't—they're too blue and the wrong shape and the pattern is different."

"Didn't I say you were like her? Of course, my own contribution cannot be denied—"

"I hate to interrupt what I am sure will be an absolutely brilliant example of your typical brand of narcissism, but I would like to take the necessary samples from Harry and then you need to take him to the kitchen to get something decent into him. We will continue our conversation later and you can regale Harry with the superiority of the Tesla legacy over whatever disaster Emmy is calling food today."

"Emmy's here? Did she bring the midget?" Nikola asked even as he moved aside enough for James to begin the work of drawing blood from Harry's arm. Nikola seemed to be waiting for James to do something suspicious even while he was breathing in a way that was too deep to be anything but deliberate. Being able to anticipate the slight sting of the needle allowed Harry to suppress the need to snap his teeth at James, but he still must have reacted in some way because Nikola growled at James before covering his eyes with his right hand. "This is getting embarrassing."

"Over-reactions to potential threats of one's young is a well-documented phenomenon in Abnormals which have the urge to form packs. I'm not surprised to see vampires displaying it." James smirked as he switched vials. Nikola dropped his hand to glare at his friend. "Even if they were the most enlightened species in the world and responsible for the Golden Age of civilization."

"I have the sudden urge to tell Hermione about that time at Oxford when Helen wore that red dress—"

"Oh, feel free to share stories of our youthful highjinks," James offered as he switched vials again. Nikola frowned at the new vial. A film seemed to settle over Harry's vision, making things increasingly blurry. He was torn between the desire to hide his face in Nikola's collar again and not wanting to upset anyone; James had said he needed the blood and Nikola had said it was okay. It should be over soon, and James had mentioned feeding him—and had called it something decent which probably meant more substantial than the toast he had gotten for breakfast before Aunt Petunia had dragged him along on the trip to the Carnival. James sounded like he was talking from far away despite being right next to him. "I would love to watch you explain why you told a nine-year-old that particular tale to Harry and Daniel. Emmy probably wouldn't care overly much and set about answering all those delightfully detailed questions that precocious genii are prone to asking, but you know how protective those influenced by the Source Blood can be and do I need to remind you that Daniel was RAMC before he retired to his dentistry office?"

"Touché, old man," Nikola acknowledged as James began to fill a fourth vial. His frown became a full scowl. Harry blinked at the expression. Was there something that he should be worried about? "That had better be the last one."

Harry was glad Nikola said something because his head was getting fuzzy like it did before he lost consciousness and that was currently the third thing on Harry's not-to-do list. His control over his freakishness always broke when he fell unconscious suddenly. Not only did that always draw Twinkler's group of idiots, it usually ended up destroying a lot of things and people. He may not like Helen, but he didn't want her hurt, like that at least, and he did like James, and Nikola was just brilliant. He needed to protect Nikola.

"I think there's steak in the fridge," James said. Harry blinked as his forehead furrowed. Did he miss something? James returned the frown as he pressed a folded wad of gauze to the spot the needle had been in Harry's arm just a moment previously. The frown deepened when he had to replace to gauze as the blood seeped through the first pad. This time he raised Harry's hand above his head and while sluggish due to the blood that had been taken, Harry's healing factor kicked in to seal the tiny wound. Blood had still slid down his arm to stain his shirt. Aunt Petunia won't like that.

While food did sound good, especially if Harry could have some of the mentioned steak, the energy that eating would take seemed beyond Harry at the moment. His eyes slid closed without his consent and when he couldn't open them again, he panicked, throwing out an arm blindly for Nikola. Harry knew that he shouldn't be clinging to the man, but the cotton filling his head made the reason why fuzzy and distant. Harry just didn't have the brainpower to remember the reason and fight off the urge to sleep that was threatening to pull him under, and the fuzziness left the feeling that Nikola's presence meant safety as the only clear thought. He felt himself being pulled against something hard before the darkness managed to bury him. His last thought was gratefulness that Nikola's scent filled his nose instead of the more common smell of cleaning products.

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Author's Note(s): Before anyone complains about Helen's portrayal, please remember that 1) Harry is a kid, and kids in general aren't reasonable creatures; 2) Harry is just as over-protective of Nikola as Nikola is of him; 3) the "I know best—rush a plan into action" thing is a canon personality issue for Helen that she gets called out on multiple times; and finally, 4) this is the younger Helen who hasn't had time to reflect and grow. She's not going to become anything near a villain nor do I plan on her being viewed as incompetent as the story progresses. She just made a horrible first impression on the narrating character for the chapter.