Tough Little Boys
By Ammie Hawk
Disclaimer: I was recently informed that I don't own HP or GW... though the g-boys insist that I belong to them...
AN: Okay, I hope this clears up some questions that all of you had, and opens up a whole new range of questions, cause that's the whole point of a plot... anyway, I hope ya'll enjoy my efforts and that it doesn't seem too much. My muse wanted things this way and who am I to deny him.
Chapter 1: A Strange Family
As Wufei drove away from 4 Privet Drive back to the Preventers branch located in London, his mind was working overtime about the boys that was currently seated in the back of his car. His dark eyes drifted frequently to the rear view mirror to study the boy. He still couldn't believe what Heero had said, but he was right, Harry looked like a younger version of the Duo he remembered during the war, the only difference being the hair and eyes, but that could easily be explained away by the other parent or recessive genes.
That brought on a whole new slew of questions though. When had the former Deathscythe pilot had him? If his estimation of the age was correct the boy would've been born during or just after the Eve Wars. And who was the other parent? And why had Duo, of all people, left the child to be raised in a home like that? Unless he didn't know he had a child, which was possible.
It was as he watched those emerald eyes dart back and forth, watching the passing scenery that something long forgotten entered his mind. He almost slammed on the breaks as he came to a startling realization. What if the other parent was Trowa? It wasn't inconceivable for males to get pregnant, if they had a magical base, which he knew for a fact his husband had. Was it too much of a stretch for Duo to have one as well? He hadn't seen the former Deathscythe pilot since the wars had ended to know for sure, as he had been a bit distracted to notice during the wars. And there had been that one night at the circus where the three of them had shared a rather lust filled night. But that still didn't answer the question as to why Harry had been placed in that house?
He reigned in his wandering thoughts, it wouldn't do to jump to unfounded conclusions at the moment. He would take the boy to Sally once they reached Headquarters and would go from there. But if he was right, he would see that Trowa got custody and they would raise him together.
8888888
A Couple Hours Later...
Sally Po, head of the Preventers Medical staff, stared incredulously at the printout she had just got of the DNA analysis of one Harry Potter, not that that was his actual name apparently. But this couldn't be possible. She shook her head and ran a different sample through the machine, after thoroughly cleaning it, thinking the first had been contaminated. However, the results were exactly the same.
Still in a state of shock, she picked up the phone and dialed her superior. It was picked up almost immediately.
"Une speaking," the head of the Preventers snapped briskly.
"You're not going to believe this," Sally said without preamble. "I'm sending you a copy of a DNA analysis I just ran."
She faxed the results to Lady Une's office, the phone still pressed to her ear, and waited while her superior read through it.
"This isn't possible," Une scoffed. "There must be some mistake."
"I took the samples myself," the doctor explained, "and ran the diagnostic twice. There is no mistake."
"Well run it again," Une demanded.
"If you insist," she did as instructed and sent the results directly to Lady Une's office. "Believe me now?"
"How is this possible?" the normally composed woman asked in shocked incredulity.
"I think the only ones that can answer that are the five of them," Sally sighed.
"I'll call them in," Une took a calming breath. "Be ready in an hour to explain this phenomenon."
"I'll do my best," Sally scoffed. "Though, I don't understand it myself."
Without another word the line went dead, and the doctor knew that her superior was making the calls to the five former Gundam pilots. She sighed again as she gathered the paperwork she had just filled out and went to gather the boy in question. This was going to be a reunion to remember, and she'd be damned if she missed it.
8888888
One Hour Later
Duo Maxwell looked up at the one building in the entire Earth Sphere that he'd been avoiding for the past ten years, since the wars ended: Preventers Headquarters, London Branch. Oh, he had gone in for the required registration and whatnot, Une had insisted on it, but after that he had left and never looked back. He hadn't even seen his fellow pilots since the end of the Mariemaya Uprising, and he preferred it that way.
He felt a strong, reassuring presence behind him and he leaned back into the sturdy chest of his husband. Strong arms encircled his waist as he breathed in the comforting scent of his mate. He wasn't sure why Lady Une had called him to come in, but he was glad that his husband had decided to accompany him.
"Are you just going to stand here looking at the building all day, or are we actually going to go inside?"
"Do I have to, Sev?" he whined.
"Stop your whining, you insufferable brat," Severus smirked, pushing the braided man gently away from him and toward the door. "Weren't you the one that said it's best to get this over with now?"
"I changed my mind," Duo whirled around. "Let's just go home."
"No," the dark eyes narrowed dangerously. "Since we are here now, you will get your ass into that building and see why they chose to get in contact with you."
"You're so mean to me, Sev," the braided man pouted, but made his way to the door anyway.
As soon as they entered the building, the former Deathscythe pilot headed straight for the elevator, nodding to the receptionist as he passed. Severus just rolled his eyes but followed his husband, knowing he couldn't stop him.
The receptionist frowned as they disappeared inside the lift. They hadn't been expecting anyone that she knew of, and if those two were here to cause trouble they were heading in the wrong direction. She picked up the phone in front of her and quickly dialed the emergency extension. She informed the agent on the other end of the breach in security and left it at that, knowing her job was done.
When the elevator arrived at the appropriate floor, the braided man almost stepped out, but stopped dead at the sight of the person standing there. No, this couldn't be happening. He wasn't ready. Why did it have to be him? Okay, not that any of the others would've been better, but still. Why couldn't it have been Noin, or Zechs even? Anyone but one of the former Gundam pilots.
"Duo?" the one visible eye of the former Heavyarms pilot widened in surprise. "Is it really you?"
"Hey, Trowa, long time no see," he slipped on a beaming smile and extended his hand to the unibanged man.
"It has been awhile," Trowa accepted the hand and pulled the smaller male into a hug. "We've missed you."
Duo chuckled nervously as he reluctantly returned the embrace, "Yeah, anyway, Lady Une wanted to see me, so I thought I'd just see what she wanted and then I'm gonna go."
"I don't think I can allow that," a small smile pulled at the corners of the other's mouth. "The others would kill me."
"Yeah, sure, couldn't leave without seeing the gang," the braided man grinned, but was cursing inside his head, in every language he knew. "Anyway, this is my... Severus."
Dark eyes rolled in annoyance, not sure what had rattled his mate so much, but couldn't he find some other way to express it, rather than babbling like an idiot, "Severus Snape, Duo's husband."
"Trowa Barton-Chang," he nodded.
Amethyst eyes widened, but he didn't say anything. So Trowa and Wufei had actually gotten married? Well, good for them. He was happy for them, really he was. But couldn't Trowa fucking Barton-Chang just forget he ever saw Duo again and let him go about his merry way?
"Well, civilians aren't supposed to be on this floor without an escort," the unibanged man shook his head. "I'm afraid I'll have to escort you the rest of the way. Besides, I've also been called to Lady Une's office."
"Peachy," Duo forced his grin to remain, he really wasn't ready for this at all.
Severus went up beside his mate and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. He knew his husband hadn't wanted to come here, but he wasn't sure why. And he also wasn't sure why he was acting so strange around someone who was obviously close to him.
Trowa, unaware of the braided man's inner turmoil, led the way down the hall to the office of the Head of the Preventers. Without bothering to knock, he opened the door and allowed the couple inside. He nodded at the three people already in the office. However, one person's presence caused Duo to once again falter.
This was just not his day. Why? Why in the name of Shinigami did he have to see another one of the former pilots within minutes of the first? Now all he needed was for the other two to show up and his humiliation would be complete.
"Duo!" the blonde Arabian jumped out of his chair and enveloped the braided man in a tight hug.
"Quatre," Duo gasped, almost forgetting to return the embrace in his shock. "What are you doing here?"
"It's been forever, Duo," Quatre pulled back and held him at arm's length, ignoring the question. "Where have you been? We've been so worried about you."
Duo turned his head slightly so he wasn't looking at the former Sandrock pilot, "Well, ya know, I've been around, just here and there ya know."
Trowa watched the meeting between the two curiously. Now that he was actually paying attention, he could tell that something was off about the braided man, bu he couldn't fathom why. But what really caught his attention was a mark behind Duo's right ear that was partially revealed as the former Deathscythe pilot turned his head and his hair shifted slightly. When had Duo gotten a tattoo? He knew for a fact that it hadn't been there during the war, or the uprising, but ten years had passed since then.
"Duo," he stepped forward, reaching up and moving the hair the rest of the way, revealing an intricate swirling circle around, what looked like, a kanji, but it wasn't one he could read. "Where did you get this?"
He had just reached up to touch it when three things happened in rapid succession. Duo whimpered quietly, Severus lunged forward and bodily removed the unibanged man from the braided man's side, and Quatre clutched his heart as his eyes went wide. The two women in the background just stared incredulously at the scene.
"Don't touch him," Snape snarled, leveling his most vicious glare on the former Heavyarms pilot and reaching for his wand.
"He didn't mean any harm," Quatre recoiled from the onslaught of emotions coming from the man and Duo. "He was just curious."
Duo placed his hand on the Potions Master's arm, "Severus, it's okay. He just startled me."
Snape calmed enough to gather the braided man to his chest, but didn't lower his glare one iota. He would not let anyone harm his mate, be it physical or emotional. And apparently, these two men were guilty of at least one.
"If you four are quite finished," Lady Une spoke up for the first time, "would you please take a seat? We do have things to discuss today, as soon as the others arrive."
Quatre took his seat once again, as Trowa sat in the one on his left. Severus moved to the farthest chair from the pair and took a seat, pulling Duo down onto his lap. A moment later, the door burst open and in walked two more agents. Their appearance caused the self-proclaimed Shinigami to tense in his husband's arms.
"Good, we're all here," Lady Une slowly pushed to her feet as Heero and Wufei took their seats. "Now, I have here," she tapped a paper that was sitting on her desk, "a case for the Family Reconstruction Act. Maybe one of you, or perhaps all five, can tell me why this is here."
"I would assume that Sally Po sent it to you, Lady Une," Trowa raised his hand to his mouth to cover his smirk.
"That's enough out of you, Agent Heavyarms," Une snapped, leveling a glare at the unibanged man.
"Perhaps, Lady Une," the blonde of the group spoke up, "if you gave us the details of the case we could help you out?"
"Very well," she scowled, sitting back in her seat. "Earlier today, Agents Wing and Shenlong were sent to investigate a possible child enslavement case. They brought the boy in question back to Headquarters, as he was unregistered in the database. Can any one of you possibly guess what Dr. Po discovered when she ran the analysis?"
"That his parents are sitting in this room," Wufei answered calmly.
Five sets of eyes turned incredulously onto the Chinese agent, while Duo paled dramatically. Severus wrapped his arms more securely around his mate, not sure what the new problem was.
"Impossible," the braided man said quietly, but it cut the silence like a knife. "He's gone. He died."
"Who?" Quatre asked, clutching his heart again at the pain coming off the former Deathscythe pilot. "Who are you talking about, Duo?"
"So I was right," the former Shenlong pilot smirked smugly. "You did have a son with Trowa."
"Not just Trowa," Sally interrupted, "the boy is the biological son of all five of you."
"How is that possible?" Heero frowned.
"I would like to know that as well," Lady Une looked around at the assembled group.
"I believe I can possibly explain that," Snape sighed, shifting Duo slightly so he could speak directly to the Head of the Preventers.
"And who exactly are you?" Une's eyes narrowed as she took in the dour man. "And why should we trust you? You came in here, without invitation, and, without provocation, attacked one of my best agents."
"I am Severus Snape, the mate and husband of Duo Maxwell," the Potions Master began with a slight sneer. "I am here at the personal invitation of my husband, whom you invited. As for attacking your agent, he stepped out of line with my mate, it is my right to protect him. As for trusting me, that is entirely up to you, but I believe that I have the most information on the topic at hand."
"Would you just get on with it?" Wufei demanded, scowling, not liking the run around.
Snape stiffened automatically at the command. How dare he demand answers like that? He was not their walking encyclopedia. He was only here as a favor to Duo, nothing more.
"Please, Sev?" dull amethyst eyes glanced up at him. "If they've found my son, I want him back. I want my baby."
"For you," onyx eyes softened as they looked down at his mate. "Duo is a very rare creature known as an Amortentus," he addressed the other occupants of the room. "As far as I know, with my extensive research on the topic, there is only one born per generation. An Amortentus may be either male or female, but they are usually submissive, and both are able to carry young. They usually mate for life, and with said mate, reproduce. However, if certain circumstances are met, an Amortentus will carry another's offspring."
"And what are the circumstances?" Quatre asked curiously.
"If the Amortentus' life is threatened at the time of their first 'heat', if you will," he continued in his best teacher voice, "and a potential mate has not been found or multiple candidates exist to choose from. However, it has to be within the first 'heat', usually taking place around fifteen or sixteen years of age. There is no recorded data on multiple parentage however, but the material available on Amortentus is limited as it is, they are that rare, and hardly ever caught to study. It is conceivable, that if the four of you," he indicated the other pilots, "had sex with him during his first 'heat', his creature side combined the genetic codes to make the strongest possible outcome."
"Did you?" Une looked at her top three agents and the Winner heir curiously.
"It would've had to have been within a week of each other," Sally Po frowned. "Otherwise it would be impossible for all the genetics to mix."
"New Edwards," Duo spoke up, his eyes still rather glassy. "Heero before, Quatre after, and Trowa and Wufei the following day."
"Why didn't you mate with one of us?" Wufei asked curiously, not that he wanted to lose his husband or anything but it was an honest question. "Why go to a stranger, if we were the potentials?"
"Lost the baby," Duo muttered. "Left him with Hilde so I could fight. Couldn't do it. He was gone, Hilde didn't remember him. Couldn't find him again. Can't face them with my failure."
"Go get the boy, Sally," Une commanded, causing the braided man to finally snap out of it.
"He's here," he sat up, his eyes now unusually bright. "Where?"
Before anyone could answer, the former Deathscythe pilot was out of Severus' arms and at the door. He wrenched it open and headed out into the hallway.
8888888
Harry Potter was waiting quietly in the hallway outside the office Agents Shenlong and Wing disappeared into. He wasn't sure what was going on. He was still convinced that this was all a dream and that any moment, his aunt would wake him up as she shoved some food through the cat flap. It felt real, but it seemed too good to be true, which usually meant it was.
He looked down at the bandage on his arm, where the lady Agent Shenlong had taken him to see had placed the needle. It hadn't even hurt, which made his dream theory all the more relevant in his mind. Needles were supposed to hurt right? Dudley always complained that they did.
"What do you think, Hedwig?" he glanced into the cage that he still had with him. "Am I dreaming?"
The snowy owl gave a soft hoot and ruffled her feathers slightly, as if anxiously awaiting her release from the bars around her. Harry gave a wry smile, if this was a dream her wish wouldn't come true either, though he wished with all his heart he could grant it. But then again, if it was a dream, why couldn't he let her free?
With that in mind, he set the cage on the ground and flipped open the latch. He offered his arm to his faithful pet and she lightly hopped onto the proffered perch and began carefully making her way up to his shoulder. Once there, she nuzzled his cheek before starting to lightly preen his hair. How long he sat there petting her, he didn't know, but he was slowly starting to get bored and began wishing the dream would pick up the pace again.
As if in answer to his call, there was a faint pop to his left that had him whirling around to see what caused it. He gaped as he took in the tall form of his Headmaster. What was Dumbledore doing in his dream?
"Harry," Dumbledore let out a breath of relief. "Come, my boy. We need to get you back to your Aunt's house immediately. It's not safe for you here."
"Why isn't it safe here?" Harry frowned. "I'm only dreaming after all. And besides, I feel really safe."
"Harry, my boy," the wizened old man gave him a calculating look. "I assure you, you are not dreaming. You are currently in London, and we have to get you back to Surrey as soon as possible."
"How do you know I'm not dreaming?" Harry countered. "Cause how else would you explain that two of the guys from the Mirror of Erised rescued me from my room at the Dursleys?"
"The Mirror of..." Dumbledore frowned. "Harry, you saw your parents in the Mirror of Erised, not two men."
"No, I didn't," Harry shook his head animatedly. "I saw six guys. And they weren't Potters, cause Professor Snape was in there too."
Dumbledore's frown deepened as he pulled his wand out of his sleeve. This was disturbing news indeed. He wasn't sure what was going on with Harry, or why he thought he was dreaming, but he could deal with it later. Right now, he had to get the boy back within the protective wards around the Dursleys. With a subtle wave, and a nonverbal spell, the boy slumped forward in his chair, completely unconscious.
8888888
Duo stopped dead once he was clear of the door. He could clearly smell that his son was the boy seated in a chair just outside the door, but the man standing in front of him came as something of a surprise. His eyes widened in horror as his husband's boss drew his wand and sent a nonverbal stunner at his cub. He saw red in that instant and was across the hall in one bound, standing between Dumbledore and his cub.
He couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face as he watched those usually twinkling orbs widen in surprise. With a growl, he let his instincts take over, anything to protect his cub now that he had found him. He felt a roar build up inside him and he let it loose, hoping to get the old man away from his cub.
Severus and the others had followed Duo from the room. They all stopped as they watched the confrontation unfold in front of them. Most of them were surprised as they saw Duo shift seamlessly into a large black cat and stand between the old man and the boy. However, the roar that emanated from the feline had five guns and one wand being pulled and aimed at the stranger.
"Albus," Snape's voice cut across the hall like a whip. "I would suggest you leave immediately before you end up in Preventer custody. Or worse, if my mate has his way. I don't know why you have to be such a meddling old fool, but if you don't desist it will be the last thing you do."
Dumbledore looked between his Potions Professor to the agents with the guns and then back at the feline before him. He knew when he was outnumbered and outclassed. With an affirmative nod, he disappeared with a faint pop.
As soon as the threat was gone, Duo returned to his normal self and whirled around to assess what was wrong with his son. He almost sagged in relief when he realized it was only a minor stunner that the old fool had cast, and no lasting effects would occur. With a smile, he gathered the waif of a boy into his arms and turned to face the others.
"I'd like you all to meet my son, Yasu Goro Maxwell (1)," he ruffled the boy's messy black hair, revealing a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
"Harry Potter?" Snape hissed under his breath, but it was loud enough for the others to catch anyway.
"The Boy Who Lived?" the others asked in scandalized disbelief as the truth finally hit them.
(1. I know that the Japanese don't have a middle name, but because Duo is American I gave Harry three names... Yasu means peace, and Goro means five son, usually used for the fifth son, but I figured I'd do a little play on it, since Harry is the son of five.)
Ammie: Okay there it is. I may do an outtake section with the lemons but I'm not entirely sure yet, we'll just have to wait and see how that goes. Anyway, I hope it's not too cliche for ya'll and let me know what ya think.