Warnings: Pre-slash (sorry, but it was so long already, so this is "pre-Mori/Harry" see AN for explanation), very AU (in all 'verses), spoilers for Harry Potter books and Ouran manga, mentioned character death
Disclaimers: Harry Potter belongs to JKR and associates, of which I am not one. Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Bisuko Hatori and associates, of which I am not one. I do not own the characters or settings in this story (but the situation is made-up by me). Set as an AU of HPatHC (it'll make sense as you read more).
Featuring: Loved!Harry, SlightlyLessEvil!Kyouya, Hyperactive!Tamaki (like that's a change), Alive!Lily, and others
A Slight Alteration Part 1
Harry Potter was an ordinary five year old boy, if one discounted several facts. First, one would have to ignore that he was a wizard, and then that he was raised only by his mother, a muggleborn woman named Lily, because his father had died when he was a baby. Not that Harry didn't have any adult male influence in his life; his godfather, Sirius Black, and his "uncle", Remus Lupin, saw him frequently enough that one could almost say that they lived in the house that Lily and Harry owned.
After these facts, one would be required to ignore Lily Potter herself, who was currently the President of the Potter Conglomerate. She was in charge of each division of the Company, from the publishing division to the toy manufacturing and even the new Pranks and Candies section, which had only been running for ten years, a short time when one takes into account the Conglomerate started out in the early nineteenth century. However, Lily's true job was as the Head of Potter Medical, a part of the company she had founded eight years ago in hopes of spreading magical remedies to the muggle world.
Given how busy his mother was, one would think Harry might be neglected, but this was not the case. Despite his mother's lofty position and the gross amounts of money they had at their disposal, Harry spent most of his time with his mother, or else with his tutors, Remus and Sirius.
However, beyond all of these oddities that made Harry Potter very much not an ordinary five year old boy, there was on last thing that set him apart from his peers. On his brow, one centimeter left of center, was a curse scar in the shape of a lightning bolt. He had had it as long as he could remember, and he was famous for it.
Really, this story begins on Halloween in 1991 (1), but that isn't the sort of thing one would wish to read, so in fewer words than might be said otherwise, Harry defeated a Dark Lord. On his second ever Halloween, the Potters were attacked by Lord Voldemort, who killed James Potter, stunned Lily Potter, and then tried to kill Harry with the Killing Curse. Obviously, that didn't work out too well, as an ancient spell placed on all Potters at birth stopped the spell.
The Spell of Love was actually a charm invented by Amalia Potter in 1416, after the death of her fifth child. It was found that Potters were danger magnets, which tended to shorten their life spans to less than ten years. Amalia wished to continue her husband's family line and so invented a spell that would protect all Potters from death until the age of seventeen, which was tied to the Cloak of Invisibility that had been passed through the family since they were still Peverells. The younger the child, the more potent the protection. Unfortunately, it also meant that all Potter wizards had the same lifespan as a muggle, so instead of living to be almost 200, Potter children were lucky to just reach their first century.
And so the previously unblockable Killing Curse was rebounded upon Voldemort.
When Lily Potter awoke, the house was crumbling and Harry was screaming, so she went to Dumbledore to report Peter's betrayal. She ran into both Sirius and Hagrid on the way, and had them join her in the journey to Hogwarts; Peter was caught two days later in an attempted raid on the Longbottoms' manor.
Since then, Harry had been famous, and Lily never remarried, though there had been many offers. There are many tales that could be told about those years – explaining to Harry why he didn't have a daddy, the attempted kidnapping when he was three, and Lily Potter publicly denouncing Severus Snape for being a stalker are only a few of the more interesting stories – but they have little bearing upon this particular tale.
So, as stated nine paragraphs ago, Harry Potter was a five year old boy. He wasn't ordinary, but he was just a boy as far as he cared; he had a loving family, as many toys as he wanted (though he was careful about what he wanted as he had to pick up after himself), and he was happy.
"Ootori-san, it's a pleasure to meet you," Lily Potter held out her hand to the President of Ootori Medical. Harry stood a bit behind his mother, hiding from the tall, glasses-wearing man. Harry had seen photos of his dad wearing glasses too, and wished he needed glasses, but his healer said he wouldn't for a few more years.
"And you, Potter-san," the man said. He bowed to kiss Lily's hand, but Harry knew that was a dumb move; he probably wasn't "putting moves" on Harry's mum, as Sirius put it, but she didn't like being treated like that. "I see you brought your son with you. My youngest is in pediatrics right now getting a check-up; I'm sure they would get along while we conduct business."
And just like that, Harry was led away. He usually didn't go to meetings anyway, especially not the ones with hospitals since his mother didn't want him getting sick, but Sirius wasn't allowed in Japan anymore for... various reasons, and the full moon was the night before, so Remus couldn't watch him. Today's meeting had been squished in before a few others, as the Ootori head had heard that the Potters would be in country and it was a good opportunity for his hospitals to start using Potter medicines.
Harry was very proud of him mum, so he didn't mind that she sent him away. And he was going to meet another kid, presumably his own age, so it was extra okay. His only playmate in Britain was Neville Longbottom; Harry was looking forward to making a new friend.
The kind nurse dropped him off in the pediatrics lounge, where a bunch of kids were playing with toys or reading books. Parents lined the walls of the lounge, reading magazines, and a few teenagers were... doing whatever it was teenagers did. Harry didn't think about teenagers much, since his mum told him that he could wait to think about teenager-things until he was a teenager himself. He wanted to play with the other children, but the muggle toys here weren't even the fun kind, like video games, just the boring stuffed animals and wooden train set kinds.
Even though he really wanted to play with the other children, he didn't. Harry sat patiently in a chair, kicking his feet back and forth. What was Mr Ootori's child like? Was it a boy or a girl? He hadn't said, but Harry hoped it was a boy; Neville said girls were icky, but Harry would know since he'd never met a girl his age. His mum used to be a girl, but mums were different from girls because they were grown-ups, so they weren't icky.
"Ootori-kun, your father is in a meeting right now," Harry perked up slightly at the name. "The person he is meeting with sent her son down to play with you during the meeting." Harry slid out of his seat and followed the voice around the back of the low wall. A lady was sitting behind the desk, and a boy around Harry's age with neat black hair and glasses stood in front of the desk.
"Where is he?" The Ootori boy was still facing the lady at the desk, and he couldn't tell Harry was sneaking up on him.
"Here!" Harry had learned the art of being quiet and loud at the same time. It was difficult to learn, because sometimes he would be playing with Sirius while his mum was on the phone in the next room, but Harry figured it out before Remus started tutoring him. "I'm Potter Harry. It's nice to meet you!" He bowed the way his mother had taught him he should while they were in Japan. A translation spell had been applied, but Harry liked how Japanese sounded, so he wanted to learn it properly at some point.
The Ootori boy turned around and stared at Harry for a moment. He was a bit taller than Harry, probably a bit older, and he looked very serious. His eyes were gray, which seemed a rather bland color for eyes to be, but Harry was used to far weirder colors and gray wasn't uncommon anyway.
"Ootori Kyouya," the taller boy said after a moment. "It's nice to meet you as well, Potter-kun. Otou-sama said he was meeting with the President of a medical supply company. I did not expect to be meeting anyone."
Harry smiled, "Kaa-chan –" that was what came out whenever he tried to say "mum", "came to Japan for other meetings, but since the medicine company is her favorite one, she was really happy to be doing work for that today, even though she had to push back her meeting with the Morinozuka family. And I wasn't expecting to meet anyone either, so we both get to be surprised."
"Indeed," the bespectacled boy said after a moment. "What do you want to do?"
This was a good question, since Harry rarely had a play date that wasn't planned out. With Neville, they were always flying on kiddy brooms or going to the zoo, but he couldn't do those things with a muggle boy.
"How about you give me a tour? I've never been to a hospital except for a check-up, so I wanna see what it looks like!" Harry gave his best "you know you want to obey me" smile to the other boy, and succeeded. Soon he was being shown around the hospital by the other child. Kyouya told him what each wing was and seemed familiar with many of the doctors; he didn't seem disturbed by showing Harry through the ER – none of the doctors tried to stop them either, when they saw Kyouya – nor when he took Harry to the terminal ward.
Harry wasn't disturbed either, because he knew that people died and bad things happened, until they reached room J204. There was a girl sitting outside the room. Harry didn't want to catch "cooties" from her (it sounded like a horrible disease, and Neville told him there was no cure, not even one his mum could make for him), but she was curled up with her arms wrapped around her legs, and she was crying into her knees. She had long, straight brown hair, and when she looked up at Harry and Kyouya, the sounds of their footsteps undoubtedly being what drew her attention, Harry decided that there was no difference between a sad boy and a sad girl.
He jogged the last few steps to her, passing Kyouya without issue. "What's wrong?" Asking her if she was okay was stupid. People who were okay didn't cry like that. Even when people cried because they were happy, they didn't have their face screwed up like that.
"Kaa-san is gonna die," she said quietly, her voice high and raw from crying.
Harry didn't say anything to the girl, but instead ran. He just left her there, but it was because he had to; his mum could cure anything (except cooties), and he didn't want that little girl to only have one parent like him. And if she was already like him, then... Harry sprinted back to where he knew his mother was meeting with Mr Ootori as fast as he could – which was pretty fast – and was breathless when he slammed open the door.
Several doctors and secretaries had tried to stop him along the way, but Harry had learned from the best how to dodge such attempts.
"Kaa-chan! There's this girl and her Kaa-chan is gonna die and will you please help?" Harry didn't care that he would get in trouble for interrupting the meeting and stood bouncing next to his mother's chair. Lily set down the cup of tea in her hand.
"I'm sorry Ootori-san, I'll be back in a few minutes, alright?" She smiled at the stunned man and left with Harry tugging on her hand. The child was pleased and led his mother using the exact route he had taken. When they arrived, Kyouya was gone, and the girl was crying harder than before.
And Harry stood by and watched his mum work. First she talked to the girl – Fujioka Haruhi – and found out what was wrong. Then she calmed the girl down and entered the hospital room. Harry followed after her and saw three people inside. One was a pretty man who looked very sad, then there was a lady-doctor with dark hair and eyes. The third person was a very pretty lady in the hospital bed, but she looked pale and sick.
"Excuse me, Ma'am," the doctor addressed Harry's mum. "You can't come in here. This is a private hospital room. Only the family and doctors are allowed in."
"That's fine," Lily nodded, red hair bobbing with the motion. "I'm a healer. Fujioka-san –" she was addressing the lady in the bed now, "I'm here to help. These medicines should clear everything up over the next two days."
Lily opened her purse and pulled out two phials of pearly purple and opaque red potion. Harry knew that his mum kept a lot of potions in her bag; since she was a licensed healer, she could distribute all of the medical potions whenever and wherever needed. Harry had a bag to carry things in too, but since he wasn't a healer he could only carry really basic things like bruise-balm.
"Just who do you think you are? Her case is terminal; why are you giving them false hope?!" The doctor lady wasn't very happy with Harry's mum, but Harry knew it would be okay when the doctor's boss, the man who his mum had been meeting with, entered.
"The Potter Company doesn't deal in false hope, Kano-sensei," Mr Ootori said as he entered the room. Kyouya was trotting at his heels, giving Harry a strange look as they entered the room which was getting rather crowded at this point. "Although, Potter-san, I wonder about what miracle medicine your company has concocted this time. Nothing his leaked to the press, and yet you claim you have a cure for Takahara's Disease?" (2)
"Acatalasemia's cure isn't on the market yet," Lily was only paying cursory attention as she scrawled instructions for the use of the potion. Harry smiled at his mother; she was always so on top of things. "The rights to sell it are... slow in coming. But if I personally treat Fujioka-san, then there are no legal issues. Anyway, it's not so much a cure as a suppressant. The purple blocks the ill effects of the bad gene and the red will treat the infection. So long as the purple medicine is administered every few months, there shouldn't be any resurgence."
"You hear that Kotoko? You're going to be okay!" The pretty man was jumping in place. "I'm going to tell Haruhi!" He sounded very happy, and Harry made sure he was out of the way when the man started to move. Haruhi was already through the door before he got there though.
Eventually, Lily went back to her meeting, and Harry continued his tour with Kyouya. The other boy – who, it turned out, was six years old – gave Harry an approving smile.
From that day on, Ootori Kyouya, youngest child of the Ootori Group President and least likely to succeed his father became penpals with Harry James Potter, the only child of the Potter Company President and Boy-Who-Lived.
At the age of nine, Harry went on vacation to France with Remus and Sirius. He had been studying French diligently for the past two years, and his honorary uncles thought it would be a great way for them to check how proficient he was. His speaking club always raved about how good he was, and how spot on his accents were, but actually going to the country was the best test.
Having just recently come back from a trip to Japan, Lily had been plenty willing to allow Harry's father-ish figures some alone time with him, on the condition that Sirius didn't get himself banned from another country. Japan was considering lifting their ban, but if word got around that Lord Black got himself banned from another country, others might decide to follow the trend. Being so openly associated with the Potters as he was, Lily didn't want to have to deal with any of his bad image rubbing off on her.
Harry could understand. If his godfather's actions made it so he couldn't visit Japan or any country where he had made friends, there would be no mercy for the man.
France, Harry found, was a very beautiful place with a lot of restaurants. He didn't mind that at all, since neither Sirius nor Remus were very good cooks. He had started taking lessons on how to cook recently; he didn't want to rely on house elves all the time. But his skill wasn't at a level where he wanted anyone to actually eat what he made.
On the third in day in France, Sirius took Harry to a park while Remus visited a museum. After giving his brand new glasses to Sirius for safekeeping, Harry joined in a game of football with some of the French children; his mother said he inherited his father's natural athleticism, though it was geared more toward running around than sports.
The game didn't last long, unfortunately. The other children had been there with an after school daycare, and so Harry was left alone with his godfather when five thirty rolled around. Or, that was what he thought, until he saw a boy with blond hair sitting on the swings. Ever curious, the young wizard-to-be told his godfather what he was going to do and ran off to where the boy on the swings was.
He didn't look much older than Harry, no more than a year's difference, and he had vibrant purple eyes. Harry could tell he wasn't entirely Caucasian – he had a definite Asian look, though Harry couldn't say what country – and judging by the quality of his clothes, he was rich.
And yet he didn't have a minder, which most rich children Harry had met had. Harry didn't have minders, but he did have Sirius and Remus, who sort of counted in that category.
"Hello, I'm Harry Potter," he stood at the edge of the swingset, watching the blond boy fly up in the air and then plummet back down. "What's your name?"
A cloud of dust was created as the other boy stopped. "I'm René," René stood up from the swing and held out his hand to Harry. "It's nice to meet you. Do you live near here, too?"
"No, I'm from the UK," it wasn't the first time Harry had been asked that. Because of his speaking club, he had a very good accent. Lily was a strong advocate of having Harry learn as many languages as he could while his mind was most susceptible to it, and Harry liked languages anyway, so he always tried his hardest, even though it meant his skills in math and some magical theory were lacking.
"But you're better at speaking French than Chichi!" Harry jolted as René said "Chichi". It was Japanese for "my father," (3) which solved the question of the other boy's lineage. "He can't speak it at all."
"You're Japanese?" Harry wasn't entirely surprised, but... well, the boy sounded French.
"Half," René shook his head, but there was a strange glint in his eye that Harry couldn't decide if it was happy or sad. "Chichi is Japanese, and mother is French. But since Chichi lives in Japan he only knows a little bit of French, so mother and I know Japanese! It's always fun when he comes to visit; he tells mother and I all about Japan! Did you know there are ninjas there what can leap forty feet in the air and breathe fire?" The glint turned out to be fanatic.
"Really?" It wasn't true, but somehow, Harry didn't want to disillusion the other boy. "I haven't seen any, and I've been there three times... maybe there aren't any ninjas in Tokyo." Even though he knew there weren't any ninjas, he wasn't going to say otherwise. "Have you ever been to Japan?"
"I'm not allowed. Mother is sick, so we don't go. Sometimes I want to go back with Chichi, but he said that Obaa-sama won't allow it." The sad look on René's face made Harry wonder, but he wasn't going to pry. "Hey! Is that your father over there?"
"No," Harry knew without asking that René was pointing at Sirius. "He's my godfather. I don't have a dad anymore." René looked horrorstruck, and Harry moved to keep him from flipping out. His mum always said he was mature for his age, when he wanted to be. "My mum is really great though! She takes care of me and the Company and she even stops Sirius from blowing stuff up when he gets bored! So even without a dad I'm fine."
"But... even though I don't see Chichi often, at least I have one..." René shuffled his feet. Suddenly, his head jerked up. "I know! On my name as René Tamaki Richard Grantainne, from now on, I'll be your dad!"
And that was how Harry gained his second important penpal.
When Harry Potter started at Hogwarts, he got the first true taste of his fame. But he endured and ignored, and tried to keep as much to himself as possible; his House mates were loyal and helped him with this, showing that their yellow was not for cowardice, but for a hive-like family of bees, always aware. Neville was always there to cheer him on, even though he was in Gryffindor, and he made friends with Hermione Granger, a very smart muggleborn Ravenclaw girl, as well. There were trials each year, but Harry managed to get through with only the least ill effects.
Every few weeks he would receive a letter from each of his penpals. In fourth year, he was amused to note that René and Kyouya were friends with one another, but neither knew about the other knowing Harry. René's idea to start a "host club" didn't make much sense to him, but he sent an encouraging letter (and a commiserating one to Kyouya). Sometimes he dropped little hints regarding this to each of his friends, but he didn't think even Kyouya had more than suspicions.
Ever since June of Harry's fifth year, when Voldemort had given up on getting Harry to do it for him and infiltrated the Ministry personally to steal the Prophecy, there hadn't been many Death Eater attacks. Dumbledore said it was because Voldemort was trying to find out Harry's "power" – the old man was shooting some crap about love – and that, for the moment, attacks should be few and far between. The Headmaster had revealed his theory regarding Voldemort's horcruxes, including why his arm was shriveled up.
He also revealed that he would be dead by the time Harry was of age, as the seal on the curse was slowly giving way. It wouldn't be long before things came to a head, and the Boy-Who-Lived would be on his own. He knew Neville and Hermione and perhaps even Luna – a good friend, but not part of the "Interhouse Trio" that was famous in the school – would insist on coming.
The Christmas of his sixth year at Hogwarts was Harry's first time leaving the UK since a trip to America that celebrated his acceptance to the school in the first place. Dumbledore was going to continue research and encouraged Harry to go out and have some fun. He felt the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he was glad for the escape, even if it was only for three weeks.
To get his mind off of things, he picked Tokyo.
Having never been in winter, Harry was a bit surprised by how chilly it was, but not overly so. The ban on Sirius entering the country had been lifted on a probationary basis (if he stepped so much as one toe out of line, however, there was going to be hell to pay), so Harry had a regular companion for exploring the city. It was too close to the full moon for Remus to come, and Lily was rather preoccupied with business most of the time, even Christmas.
"Harry! This way!" Sirius had a big grin on his face as he dragged the teenager behind him. Harry would never begrudge this sort of thing; even after seeing his first boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, murdered the year before last, the fact that his family was so concerned as to try and cheer him up brought a warm sensation.
They had just exited the subway in Shinjuku, and Sirius was intent on seeing anything and everything he could. Harry didn't have to be dragged, but Sirius was as excited as a little kid, and it wasn't disruptive.
Until Harry bumped into someone and fell down, that is.
"Ah, sorry! I couldn't see where I was going," Harry hurriedly got to his feet and helped the other person up. He caught the slightest glimpse of the other person's face before his own split into a grin and he pounced on the not-yet-upright figure. "Kyouya!"
"Eh? Harry?" Being tackled before he was fully standing had almost caused him to fall down, but Kyouya seemed to have experience in these things by now. Harry suspected that René had something to do with this. The blond was rather touchy-feely after all. "What are you doing here?"
"Vacation," Harry replied with a grin before extricating himself from the other bespectacled boy. "I figured I would show up at your house tomorrow or the day after to surprise you, but this works too." There was no limit to how pleased seeing his friend made him. Likewise, he knew that, if he ended up spending much time with Kyouya, he was bound to "meet" René soon as well. He was certain that the look on both their faces would be spectacular.
By this time, Sirius had stopped, since Harry's wrist had slipped from his grasp. "Oi, Harry, what's up? I thought we were going to –" he stopped, doubtless noticing how Harry was grinning at someone who, to Sirius seemed a total stranger. "Who's this then?"
"Right! Sirius, this is Ootori Kyouya, my penpal," Harry introduced. "Kyouya, this is my godfather, Black Sirius. I've mentioned him a lot on my letters, right?"
The flow of foot traffic had altered itself to move around the trio, which gave Kyouya room to bow politely to Sirius. "Of course. Black-kyou (4), it's an honor to meet you." Harry rolled his eyes; Kyouya should know fro their letters that even though Sirius was Lord Black, there was nothing lordly about him.
"You too, Kyouya," Sirius bowed back, grinning lazily. Even though Sirius had a translation charm on, he wasn't one for being too polite, so even though they had only been in Japan for a little while, Harry had yet to hear the man utter a surname or a suffix. That was what got him banned in the first place, for greeting the Emperor without any titles.
There had also been an explosion involved, but no one could prove Sirius' involvement.
"Don't mind him," Harry rolled his eyes. "He's always rude. Sirius, why don't you go on ahead without me? I'll catch you up soon enough."
"Okay, but you have to get conveyor belt sushi with me!" Sirius' grin hadn't faded in the least. Harry agreed quickly, and the man joined the fray as he walked off. They had placed tracking spells on one another for safety reasons, so Harry would have an easy time finding him later.
Be glad I got him to leave, or he'd be bothersome. So, what are you doing in Shinjuku? And without your bodyguards, no less! You always have one of them tailing you, don't you?"
"Tachibana is over there somewhere," Kyouya indicated the other side of the station. Harry wasn't quite tall enough to see over everyone else's heads, but he took his friend's word for it. "And I'm supposed to be meeting Tamaki here. I think he just wanted to ride the subway again though."
Even though his friend was obviously irritated, Harry laughed. "He does like commoner things, doesn't he? You shouldn't begrudge him his curiosity; I was the same way when I was a kid. I always wanted to see what a 'normal' person's house looked like, but it wasn't really to my taste, y'know? And didn't you used to like going to Kyoto for sightseeing?" It was true. After they first became friends, Kyouya had insisted Harry visit the golden temple with him. They had only been five and six, but René acted younger at times.
"I've been meaning to ask you," Kyouya brushed off the jibe without issue. "Your friend René, he wouldn't happen to be –"
Harry found it highly ironic that the person being spoken of was the one to interrupt them.
"Kaa-san! I found you!" René shouted happily as he grabbed Kyouya in a tight hug. Yes, if Kyouya was used to that, then it made sense that he could keep his feet when Harry pounced on him.
Harry smirked, "'Kaa-san', René? Really now, I've always been fairly certain Kyouya was male..." He trailed off, maintaining his smirk. René had turned his had away from Kyouya at the first hint of Harry speaking. His eyes had grown wide and he quickly removed himself from the brunette to latch onto Harry.
"Harry! Mon ami! Why didn't you tell me you were coming for a visit?" He went even to the point of picking Harry up and trying to spin him around, but the wizard squirmed out his grasp. There was no way Harry was going to let himself be spun around in a crowded subway station. "Wait, but you said Kyouya... you know Kyouya?"
"Of course," Harry grinned. "I mentioned him in letters before you moved here to Japan. Really René, your memory can be so faulty sometimes. So, have we answered that question of yours, Kyouya?" He knew they had.
"Yes, quite," Kyouya paused. "How long are you in Japan?"
"I'm leaving on the fifth. School starts back up on the seventh, and I have eight hours of time difference to deal with when I get home. Jetlag can be a real pain." He was going to say something a bit more coarse, but René had such delicate ears that he managed to divert his speech pattern.
"You'll be here for the New Year then!" René's eyes shown in much the way they had when they were still kids. "Kyouya, call Kaoru and tell him that we're bringing Harry! Please?"
"Get out of my brain (5), Tamaki," Kyouya pulled his phone from his pocket and hit a button, probably a speed dial.
It ended up that Harry spent the day with René and Kyouya after the "invitation" to join them on New Years for a big party their host club was going to be throwing. Really, they didn't give him an opportunity to protest, and Harry didn't want to. He and Sirius had been invited to something in Nara, but he didn't really care about that. The chance to spend time with his friends and meet their friends was one he wanted a lot.
His mind was so far from Voldemort, that it wasn't for three days that the Dark Lord and the situation in Britain came to mind again at all. Remus flooed their hotel room and told Harry that the Longbottoms had been attacked, and Alice was in St Mungo's for severe cruciatus exposure. She was going to be better, but she had to retire from the Aurors.
On New Years Eve, Harry hired a limousine to drop him off in front of the Hitachiin mansion at eight pm sharp. He had picked a stylish red suit that he knew made his eyes stand out with the added bonus of being festive in a classy manner. He was welcomed inside by a pair of redheaded twins (6) who immediately reminded him of Fred and George.
"You're the guy Tono and Kyouya-senpai invited, right?" Both twins walked by him, giving Harry a good up-and-down look. "How do you know Tono and the Shadow King?"
"Shadow King?" Harry inquired, amused. "I've known them both since I was a kid. We're penpals. I take it that you two are Hitachiin Hikaru and Kaoru, the 'devil' type in the club?" Both René and Kyouya had mentioned them. René mostly complained that they picked on him and that they were friends with the girl he liked while Kyouya noted their penchant for breaking things and that their twincest act was highly popular with the girls in the school.
Except, of course, with the girl René had a crush on, one Fujioka Haruhi.
"Haruhi! Come meet the 'mystery guest'!" One of the twins shouted, waving his arm to gain the attention of the girl in question. She was pretty, a first year student from what Harry had heard. Her hair was straight and brown down past her shoulders, and she had a pixy-like quality in that she was very dainty and pale with her face dominated by brown eyes.
"Fujioka-san, it's been a while," Harry bowed to the girl. He had recognized her immediately upon sight, and would have even if Tamaki had never mentioned her in letters. She was a scholarship student, very popular and completely uninterested in romance, from what Harry had been told. Haruhi often visited the Host Club with her friends, but usually she would just study while her friends were flirting with the Host boys. "I trust your mother is alright?"
"Who... oh!" Her eyes widened a bit. "You're that boy from the hospital, aren't you? You're the one who got that woman..."
"My mother is a very well established healer and pharmacist," Harry smiled slightly. "Potter Harry. It's a pleasure to meet you again, Fujioka-san."
"You can go yobisute (7) with me, it's okay," Haruhi smiled at him, and Harry insisted the same treatment. "I hope to speak with you again later, Harry."
She disappeared just as René appeared and tackled Harry to the floor. "Waa! My son looks so cute!" René shouted this directly in Harry's ear of course, and Harry couldn't help but want to hit his head on something. He was so sure he had broken the older boy of that habit years ago, since René had stopped signing letters with "Your Father" but apparently it was not so.
"'Son', Tono?" The twins giggled. "From the sounds of things, Haruhi knew Potter-kun before you did. What kind of father are you?"
"René, I'm only a year younger than you, you've never met my mother, and the last time our families crossed genetics was my father's great great aunt in the early eighteen hundreds, trust me, I checked," Harry fought to remove the older boy. "Besides, Kyouya looks more like my father than you do."
"But Harryyyyy!" René whined. "I said I'd be your father when we met, and I meant it!"
"It's just creepy at this point," Harry said. It had been funny while Harry was vacationing in France, but it got weird when their letters continued the trend.
Soon, Harry was being introduced to guests by Kyouya, who was kind enough to save him from the half-French loony. Not that Harry didn't love his friend dearly, but sometimes René was just too much. He also met the other two hosts, a pair of third year students who happened to be cousins. The elder was Morinozuka Takashi, a rather dashing bloke who Harry pegged as the "strong and silent" type - René's designation of him being the "wild" type didn't make much sense - who was a good deal taller than Harry. The younger was a very childish person named Haninozuka Mitsukuni, who looked like he was still in elementary school. His wide brown eyes gave Haruhi's a run for their money, and his stuffed bunny only made him look that much younger.
Harry fought to ignore the instant attraction he felt for Takashi, knowing that they would more likely than not never meet again.
(To Be Continued...)
Author's Note: I actually intending to add a few more scenes... but I couldn't. I really wanted to get this out today, and it's so long already! So this one is really pre-slash. I'll post the continuation on the anniversary of when I posted the chapter of Takashi and Harry getting together (aka my birthday). You lot have to wait until September for Mori/Harry goodness, so nyaa. Or I might post it earlier just 'cause.
Wow! It's been a year since I started HPatHC, and it's been seven months since I completed it, omake and all... That's like, forever ago. The big bad author is now a big bad senior (and all her friends graduated D: see? Sadness), there are now more authors of Mori/Harry (okay, the only one I know of is Araceil, but still!), and HPatHC continues to get new readers! Sadly, it's no longer the longest Ouran fic, but oh well.
To those waiting for an update on Everything Happens for a Reason – it'll happen. I lost my notebook that had all my notes and a bunch of scenes in it though, so... yeah. Sorry! I've been working on an original story though. It's on my fictionpress account (link on profile) if anyone wants to check it out!
There will be another of these out on July 31 in honor of Harry's birthday (none for the movie release 'cause I'm not going to it since the movies suck). Also, I'm considering starting another HP/Ouran fic (with Mori/Harry pairing of course), though it won't be as long as HPatHC was. We'll see.
Calling Tamaki René is so weird XP If the timeline changes in Ouran were too confusing, someone please tell me and I'll post an explanation in the Note.
(1) In HPatHC, I bumped the timeline up ten years to better match with Ouran. Since this story is AU of HPatHC (really only because I decided to do the Potter Co. thing), it's also the case here. (Voldy attacked in 1991, Harry started Hogwarts in 2001, etc.)
(2) Acatalasemia (aka Takahara's Disease) is a recessive genetic condition characterized by oral infection, or sometimes "no symptoms". Since we haven't been told how Kotoko died, I looked up terminal non-cancerous illnesses online, and the idea is this: Kotoko has acatalasemia and the infection she got turned out to be immune to all antibiotics (still bacterial, just mutated to immunity to all known antibiotics). Lily (amazing as she is) kills the infection and Kotoko lives. Yay for Haruhi having a mother!
(3) Chichi literally translates to "my father". It is not a form of address, but of referral. (Only when using the archaic "chichiue" or something like that would it be a form of address, generally.) I wouldn't have included this, but since Tamaki was speaking in French, I can see him referring to his father in Japanese.
(4) Kyou: a suffix meaning "lord". Since Sirius is Lord Black... yeah :P
(5) Something my friend Dudley says to me pretty often. We're generally on the same wavelength and sometimes I'll say exactly what she's thinking or we'll speak at the same time.
(6) Canonically, Hikaru has died his hair black by this point, but due to timeline changes he has not.
(7) Yobisute: Haruhi is requesting that Harry call her by her first name without any suffixes. Usually this is only done by close friends; Haruhi requested it because Harry's mother saved her mother's life.