Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Death Note. This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, and both Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata respectively. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. So in short, don't sue me. It'd cost more in legal fees than you'd actually get, considering I own nothing.
Authors Note: I hate this chapter. Truly despise it. I've had a bit of writers block (the most pressing reason for why I took so long to update sorry about that). Well I'll just tell you right now I'm not at all happy with this chapter, it just doesn't seem up to par with the others but hey at least I've now gotten it out of the way right? I think the thing that bothers me most is it's lack of movement in the plot, it just sort of had to happen no matter how useless it was. I don't know something about this chapter seemed horribly like filler (or the horror, the shame!) Anywho... Well you get a peek at L and where he is at the moment and there's some Christmas Harry-family fluff in there so that's always good I suppose. On a much brighter note now that I've gotten past this all sorts of stuff is going to happen, things will be set in motion and the plot will actually move! Hooray! Oh and I think Harry and L will actually meet sooner than I thought so that's something to look forward to. Sorry that my story is so slowly paced but worry not it will speed up in the chapter after this, things will get interesting. Oh and Happy Holidays!
"Deathly Hallows, Death Notes, Saviors, and Sleuths"
By Pink Bismuth
Chapter Four: Sugar Cubes, Christmas, and Concerns
A sugar cube, approximately equal to 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar or 7.39 milliliters. Approximately 25 calories, not including breakage and sugar content of the sugar syrup used for holding its shape.
If he multiplied this by twelve he would have 18 teaspoons or 3/8 of a cup of sugar- 88.72 milliliters, approximately 300 calories inside his 6 fluid oz cup of tea equaling about 170.48 milliliters.
As anyone with half a left hemisphere could see this clearly meant that there was in fact more tea than sugar and Wammy was in fact incorrect in his accusations to the contrary.
L nodded to himself, picking up each of the pre-stacked sugar cubes between the thumb and forefinger of his right had to drop into his cup while simultaneously tapping his teaspoon twelve times against the rim of the cup for each cube. He watched as it dissolved into a gelatinous pile in his cup before stirring it with the spoon in his left hand and taking a drink. Now having gotten a taste of his afternoon dose of glucose he was ready to get back to work.
He moved his attention to the computer screen before him, once again contemplating the notes left by Kira. He narrowed his eyes at the latest missive left by yet another now deceased criminal. The encoded message read "Shinigami." When coupled with the first message he had received, he found it read "L, do you know Shinigami…" The message was as of yet unfinished.
Just what was Kira getting at with these messages?
'Does he mean to imply that Shinigami exist?' L asked himself not entirely sure how he would feel about the matter if that was indeed the case. 'It would clarify the mystery and the improbability of the method of murder Kira utilizes and yet... it is very hard to believe in such a fantastical idea.'
There was certainly no hard evidence that such creatures existed and for that matter it was difficult to imagine such creatures having such limitations as Kira seemed to have. Nor did it seem at all likely that a god of any sort would suddenly become engrossed in vigilante assassinations for the supposed betterment of mankind.
No surely if Kira were an actual god he would not be so childish as to hope to make a better would through mass homicide. L himself would be dead already if this really was divine judgment.
L had, over the years, given much thought to gods and omniscient beings of all kinds in the pursuit of the answers to the universe's questions. But he'd never found enough proof of their reality. Never were his voyages into the more religious or mysterious avenues of the world ever met with any amount of success. It all relied too much on belief, on blind faith that the sources of the information were reliable without anything tangible to actually prove it. He did not believe in Death Gods; after all stories based upon such deities were always unsubstantiated legends.
'There is no physical evidence, in fact there are many scientific facts that would preclude the existence of such things,' L thought to himself as he took another sip of his tea.
But then again there were also no logical answers for how Kira caused these heart attacks. Or why Kira was mentioning Death Gods at all.
'What relevance do they have?'
If Kira wasn't a God and L suspected as much, did this really dismiss the idea of him or her having the assistance of some sort of ethereal being? Logically speaking L felt this was rather unlikely. There was no reason to believe it; however he would not completely disregard this speculation. It was imperative to narrow down the unlikely scenarios to get to the truth but it would not due to forget the theory in case future evidence was introduced that would somehow justify this ridiculous idea. Yes he would simply file it away in the back of his mind to inspect and perhaps ridicule later. That being done he moved on to more reasonable theories.
"Maybe Kira is speaking metaphorically?" L questioned aloud to himself in a doubtful voice, as he brought his thumb to his mouth to absently bite at the nail. He was positioned in his usual crouched posture and rather frustrated that although his reasoning skills were thus increased by 40% he was still struggling to find reason in these enigmatic notes.
Kira was experimenting with his powers, of this he was certain. Trying to figure out just what he is capable of doing. This would insinuate that Kira was in fact new to his abilities but that was already established by the very open way in which he killed.
L's was rather sure that Kira had not killed before November of this year; he left a rather obvious trail behind him after all. The way Kira seemed to kill was to inflict heart attacks within his victims without noticeable cause.
Nothing turned up on the victim's toxicology screens so that left out poisoning. It didn't appear that Kira needed to be near the victim to induce their deaths. There need not be any history of heart disease or other health issues for them to fall victim to Kira either.
'I do not know what the murder weapon could be,' L admitted grudgingly to himself for the umpteenth time.
It really stung to admit that. How could he figure out and prove who Kira was if he couldn't even figure out how he did it in the first place? He reviewed all the things he did know in his mind in a robotic manner that could only be obtained by frequent repetition.
'He is most likely a student due to the time-slot in which he kills and the childishness of his goals. He is in the Kanto region of Japan, he is prideful and cannot stand to lose, and he needs a name and a face to kill- though how he utilizes these two details has yet to be seen. He is relatively new to his method of murder and sees the world in very defined colors of black and white excepting himself as the only gray allowed. A very dangerous personality trait indeed. He clearly has access to police files. The odd behavior of the imprisoned criminals before their deaths and the hidden missive within their notes insinuates that Kira can control his victim's actions before they die. The message itself leads me to believe he has some belief in the occult or is perhaps of the belief that he himself is a God of Death.'
The corner of L's mouth twitched in amusement, 'that... or he really is a Shinigami, and I really am intervening in divine retribution.'
His amusement died out at his next thought however, 'I would probably feel better about the case if that were true, it would mean my lack of evidence and the slow pace with which the investigation is moving could be excused.'
"It would certainly placate my ego." he muttered begrudgingly.
Kira may not like to lose but he certainly didn't either. L didn't mind playing the game, and truly the more challenging the better, it had been quite some time since he'd found such an interesting case. But people were dying and although they were only criminals now it was only a matter of time until there were innocents caught in the cross fire. It was also rather bruising to his ego, to have to struggle this much to figure out the case.
The NPA was losing faith in him too and gaining fear for Kira with every minute. Several members of the investigation team had already turned in their letters of resignation to Chief Yagami.
'It's only a matter of time before the head of the NPA decides to just sweep it under the rug,' L thought disgruntled.
If that happened he'd be forced to do the case privately and without police support. He frowned deeply at that, letting his head tilt backwards to stare at the ceiling still chewing on his nail.
'That would be very bothersome,' he thought 'And most likely illegal' he added, though that part didn't really disturb him. He was a genus and had a lot of money, the term 'illegal' rarely ever applied to him. Still he'd rather not do anything terribly illegal, that was like cheating.
On the bright side there was also a very good chance that a few key members of the investigation group would stick to the case. Chief Yagami seemed a likely candidate. Hirokazu Ukita seemed emotionally attached enough to continue searching. Kanzo Mogi had been very dedicated to the case thus far. Other than those three the rest's dedication to the case was a tossup. He'd considered the probabilities and the rest fell beneath a 60% likelihood of continuing, not a percentage he was comfortable with. However people were his weak point and he sometimes estimated incorrectly when it came to others actions so there was a 79.9% chance he was incorrect and more than just the three would continue. Perhaps the their continued participation in the investigation could buy him some more time before the case was forcibly closed due to politics. If there was anything that could prematurely end this investigation before Kira was actually caught it was nervous politicians. His eyes narrowed at the thought before blinking several times as he was struck with an idea.
'Perhaps I should commission the building of a permanent headquarters?'
This case was likely to take a lot more time than he had originally hoped and if they were to no longer openly investigate at the police station than it would be necessary to either move from hotel to hotel or build a headquarters.
'I'll have to ask Wammy to hire some contractors soon,' he thought absently. 'Twenty-three stories should suffice, enough to house about...sixty comfortably should due,' he continued thinking, writing down some basic details for the building to pass along to Wammy. He knew there was a possibility that he wouldn't need it, but were that the case it could be innovated to suit some other purpose. It was best to prepare for all eventualities.
Once that was done he got up from his chair and went to crouch on the white cushy couch in front of the TV. He than allowed himself to tilt sideways until he tipped completely over onto his side now laying down but still in his crouched position. He fitfully tossed the fluffy throw pillow his head had landed on off the couch. He hated those pillows they were woolly and reminded him of sheep which reminded him of wool which reminded him of socks. He would than proceed to become angry with himself for thinking of them as woolly and then comparing them to sheep only to remind him of how they were woolly, he hated being redundant. He asked Wammy to remove them but his old friend clearly found the whole thing entertaining.
Now feeling rather annoyed he furiously grabbed the remote off of the arm rest and flipped it to the most reliable news channel for a lack of anything better to do.
"-he met his demise when he fled the bus and was hit head on by an oncoming car. There were no other casualties reported despite the fact that Osoreda had emptied his gun, randomly shooting into the crowd. It is believed that he was under the influence of drugs at the time. Police comment that-"
L lost interest in the report as it went on. Kira killed with heart attacks not cars and at the moment that was all he was concerned with.
He knew Kira was planning something, something big, a major move. All this experimentation with the prisoners proved it but L couldn't figure out what it was. He hoped that the FBI agents he had trailing perspective suspects would pick up suspicious behavior from Kira.
'If he really is planning something surely the agents would notice and report the suspicious behavior,' L thought, 'If that happened', a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, 'I'll finally know who he is, and possibly cut him off before he strikes.'
L felt particularly vindicated at that thought. Oh how he wanted to bring Kira down a peg or two. He wanted to thwart Kira so badly he could taste it and like all things of good taste it tasted sweet. But even more than that he wanted to know just how Kira did it. He knew finding and stopping Kira was of the utmost importance and that it should be his main objective. But he couldn't help but want to find out just how Kira killed these criminals even more than he wanted to stop him.
It was a complete mystery to him and L hated mysteries. One would think being a detective, and an inquisitive mind that he'd love mysteries but truthfully he despised them with a passion. That was the reason he was a detective, to solve the mysteries. Mysteries meant unanswered questions and questions meant a lack of knowledge. Considering L wanted to know everything, mysteries could not exist and thus he had to solve them.
"You can't know everything L," Wammy constantly reminded him as a child but he had stubbornly tried to anyways. Over time and after years of trying and failing, he had come to accept it. Now he only persisted in knowing everything relating to him and thus the cases he worked on by extension. He enjoyed the process of solving a mystery but at the same time it was nerve wreaking and frustrating trying to figure things out. The vulnerability of the unknown could be a terrible thing.
L was feeling very tired, he felt his eyelids growing heavier as the urge to sleep tugged on his senses. He hastily rolled off the couch, landing, rather painfully onto the floor, luckily or unluckily depending on how you looked at it, his head landed on the 'sheep pillow'. He would not go to sleep even if he had to manfully endure the sheep pillow of redundancy to do it. He detested sleep, and in a way he feared it even, or rather it was waking up that bothered him. Waking up had been L's first memory, waking meant he'd slept, and sleeping had been the last thing he had done before the unknown took hold of his life.
From the day he'd met Wammy at the age of seven to now he could remember in perfect clarity just about all of his life, what he didn't remember was recorded in some way or another and could be recalled as such. Yet for all his supposed intelligence, amazing photographic memory, all his best efforts, he could not remember the first seven years of his life. He could not remember his own parents, or his early childhood, or what had happened to him and no matter how much investigating he did he never could recover what he'd lost. There were no leads, not a scrap of evidence that could possibly tell him anything. All he had was the clothes on his back, an odd trinket that had been in his pocket that he had supposed was a toy of some sort and a name. It was the only thing he could remember about himself; somehow he knew his name was L. Just L, no last name, he supposed it was a great advantage in this case, after all if he couldn't figure out his own name he doubted Kira could. However it was hardly worth that little consolation to have no idea who he was. There were seven years of his life that seemed to be forever lost to him.
He'd seen many specialists on the matter but they had no answers for him. He was an anomaly there was no medical explanation for his amnesia. The doctors claimed it was retrograde amnesia but there was no damage to the temporal lobes, the hippocampus, in fact there was no physical damage to him at all when Wammy found him. They thought it might be psychological yet no amount of therapy seemed to help and quite frankly L was not very inclined to give it another try, he had not enjoyed therapy when he was ten and he doubted he would now. L allowed a smirk to appear on his face as he thought of the last therapist who tried to analyze him, 'That man had more issues than I did, I was happy to have helped him realize it, though I do think he could have thanked me'. L remembered how the man had just rushed out of the office after only an hour of session; L still didn't understand why the doctor had been crying as he fled.
His smirk fell from his face as he felt his eyelids growing heavy again. This was getting ridiculous it had only been five days since he'd last slept he should still have at least three more before needing to nap. Yet here he was on the floor of his hotel room nearly asleep. He would not allow it; he rose to his feet, standing up straight before allowing himself to slump into his usual posture and making his way over to his computer chair again. Opening some case files he was working on under his other alias he got to work determined to not fall asleep until he absolutely had to. He would never willing go to sleep, would not risk waking up and losing everything all over again.
Harry was sitting in awkward silence with Ray as they waited for Naomi to come back from the restroom. He had gotten together with the couple as a final send off before Harry went home for the holidays. Ray was able to get away from whatever his mystery job was this weekend and Naomi thought to capitalize on this to get Harry and Ray better acquainted. In all truth Harry was much more Naomi's friend than Ray's and apparently Naomi was not content to leave it that way.
They'd had a fun time of it, Harry loved teasing poor Ray with flirty comments and innuendos and Naomi declared it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Apparently Ray had always been the more unflappable of the two and Naomi loved seeing Ray finally being all flustered and embarrassed. Naomi, he come to learn, could be a rather spiteful person.
Harry himself was just relived they didn't have a problem with him being attracted to men. In the Wizarding World it was only really frowned upon by old blood purist who believed in 'continuing the family line' which was fine by him as they were not really his demographic to begin with. But in the muggle world he knew it wasn't always accepted. Harry was quite relieved that Ray and Naomi were so open minded. It hadn't really occurred to him to check how open minded they were before telling Naomi that his fiancé had been male or flirting with Ray because, well he was just so used to everyone already knowing.
He was not missing random strangers being privy his personal information but he was rather unused to people not knowing his story and details like these. Not knowing things like his being bisexual (of which he had been forced to be open about in public because Oliver had no tact) or his authoritative political and Auror status. Luckily Naomi had no problem with his preferences and Ray would probably be more bothered if he found out Harry also fancied woman. That would invariably lead to Ray becoming all jealous and questioning Harry's motives for being friends with Naomi.
Harry had found that gender really didn't mean as much to him as he thought it did growing up. Being raised by the Dursley's having an interest in men was not an option so it just never occurred to him that he could like men. He grew up perfectly infatuated with woman and when Oliver opened his eyes to the possibility of being attracted to men he found his interest in woman had not diminished either. It had been rather confusing.
Ginny liked to joke that it was Dumbledore's age old theory about Harry's "power of love", that he was just so full of the "power of love" that he couldn't confine his love to just one gender. Somehow Harry doubted that's what Dumbledore meant.
Even though Naomi was a beautiful woman, and quite within his type, he never thought of her with anything more than friendship in mind, she was engaged after all and Harry certainly wasn't looking for anyone much less someone who was already taken. He was not Zacharias Smith after all. No Harry was perfectly content to pretend to only like men if it made Ray more comfortable with his and Naomi's perfectly platonic friendship.
The time to go their separate ways neared, Ray in particular had to get back to work, when Naomi said she needed to go to the bathroom for the fifth time since they'd started lunch and made herself scarce. Harry suspected it just might have been on purpose. As they had just finished their meal there was no eating to keep them distracted and thus here they were sitting with an awkward silence between he and Ray. Harry did not feel it very polite to flirt with him when his fiancé wasn't there; the oddness of that logic was not lost on him.
Finally after several minutes it became apparent that Naomi planned a rather long bathroom break this time. 'Come on Naomi it didn't work the first four times why'd you think it'd work a fifth,' he thought as he readied to say something. It undoubtedly would have been something stupid and weather related to fill in the empty conversation, but thankfully Ray started first. Letting out a sigh as he turned away from the direction Naomi had exited he smiled at Harry as he began to talk.
"My Naomi sure is subtle huh?" Ray said with a fond smile.
"Oh yes, no way could this be on purpose, I totally believe she had to go to the bathroom for a fifth time today, and that was definitely not the opposite direction of the bathroom either," Harry responded amused and relieved, he nodded his head in mock denial.
"No, no she just had to take the scenic route, there's no way she's been trying to make us talk to each other all day by mysteriously disappearing," Ray said playing along.
They both shared fond smiles as they shook their heads, both knowing that Naomi was being purposely obvious about it. Her way of silently saying 'Make friends already'.
"So... going home for the Holidays, huh?"
Harry nodded as he took a drink of water.
"Do you know when you'll be getting back?"
"Yes I plan to get back on the third, sixth at the latest"
"Naomi told me you don't know how long you plan to stay in Japan afterwards?"
"Yeah, I'm not quite sure, I'm sort of on... Hiatus at the moment," he responded wondering if Ray didn't really hate him and wishing he wouldn't come back, perhaps even counting down the days till Harry left again.
"Huh, you'll have to give us your number so you and Naomi can keep in touch," Ray said, his voice sounded casual but there was a focused look in his eye. It rather confused Harry.
"Oh, um...," he trailed off, how did one explain they didn't have a telephone? "I, er, don't have a phone..."
Ray sent him a disbelieving look, which than turned a bit angry before he concealed it. "You don't have a phone," he stated and Harry could hear the insinuation in it, he thought Harry just didn't want to give Naomi his number.
"Yeah, I don't,' Harry brought his hand up to rub his neck nervously, he than shifted his gaze to the left, a little above Ray's head "I live in a really bad reception area, phone's just don't work right so I don't bother,' Harry than lowered his hand and looked Ray in the eye, "I could give her my address though, I'd already planned to, I really hope to keep in touch whenever it is you guys have to leave," he quickly reassured, kicking himself for not thinking before hand for a better excuse about the no phone thing. It was true though you really couldn't get reception from his flat in Magical Britain, and he really did have an address to give to Naomi that would lead all muggle mail to the magical post office that would than send it to him.
Ray seemed to except this though as his expression changed from offended to bewildered, apparently he had never met someone who didn't own a telephone before.
"You should, in fact I bet Naomi'll love having a pen pal, she likes to write, I probably should have asked for your email, but Naomi said and I quote "He's technologically impaired," she said something about you causing your laptop to spontaneously combust?" he finished questioningly.
Harry turned bright red at the mention of that, it was not his fault magic and electronics did not mix. Who knew casting a cleaning spell too near one of these newfangled computers would cause such devastation? It was sad really; his shiny new computer he had just bought and had courage enough to try using was broken just hours after he got it. After the whole experience, he had opted to stay away from them in the future. Naomi had helped him pick it out and showed him the basics of having to use it, the next day when she dropped by to see how he was getting along with it all she had seen were the burnt remains before dubbing him a computer idiot.
Harry thought to defend himself, raising a pointed finger and opening his mouth but words failed him, he couldn't exactly say it was magic's fault for running on a contrasting frequency than electricity and so he let his hand fall limply to the table and blushingly took another drink.
Ray chuckled at Harry basically confirming what Naomi had told him with his silence, before saying, "Well it's good that you two can write, she's..., well Naomi can be really serious sometimes, she's really work oriented and hasn't had much time for friends what with her demanding job..." Ray paused there yet again trying to avoid mentioning her job as FBI.
Harry didn't think Naomi meant to tell him she was FBI and ever since she and Ray had been avoiding mentioning it again. He went along with it pretending she never told him. Sometimes Harry wondered just how long this friendship would work with all the secrecy between them but hoped that when they went their separate ways distance might help.
"Well, needless to say she really appreciates having a friend here in Japan. It's been years since she moved to America and she didn't really keep in close contact with her friends when she left. We've both been really stressed out lately, so I'm glad she met you, you seem to bring out the more childish side of her, and what with my being so busy with work lately," Again there was a bit of tenseness at the mention of his work, "It's good to know she has someone to talk to instead of just spending all her time alone," he competed looking at Harry with a serious but thankful kind of look.
Harry smiled glad to know Naomi was as happy about their friendship as he was and relieved that Ray was okay with it. "I'm really happy to have met her too, she's a really great friend, and I'm relieved you think she'd want to keep in contact, I'd really hate to lose such a brilliant new friendship just because of a distance issue."
Ray seemed please and nodded his head, just as Naomi came back to join them.
Two hours later Harry once again entered Narita airport, this time amongst the hustle and bustle of the Holiday crowd. He was being jostled to and fro by the Holiday induced craziness that made the already arduous ordeal of air travel to become all the more traumatizing. Screaming babies, cantankerous old people, teenage hoodlums, and mother hens alike were all making their way to their designated flights. The Airport was the great equalizer in that it made everyone equally annoying.
As Harry arrived at the very same undetected metal detectors, he had exited earlier this month he steeled himself for the ordeal ahead. He passed through the barrier feeling the tingle of magic more acutely after living with so little of it in the muggle world. It was reassuring in a way, it made him feel at home and brought a smile to his face. It was almost immediately gone though after he took in large crowd of ill-disguised witches and wizards as they made their way to international portkeys or floos. He tugged nervously at his bangs before forcefully stopping himself.
'I'm wearing the makeup they can't see it' he told himself, his hands than going to tug on his shirt instead.
He felt completely on edge, it was ridiculous because he was wearing a rather strong glamour, no one could possibly recognize him and his scar, which refused to be covered by any magical means was concealed by makeup. He reminded himself that there was no reason for anyone to notice him but he was still tense as he made his way to the international floo network area. Harry was cursing his stupidity the whole way; he had not wanted to travel by floo, not at all. It was risky in that he could be recognized but more importantly it was a horrendous experience to travel this sort of distance by most any magical means.
Harry didn't like flooing locally much less internationally. But of course portkeys were out of the question, not only due to his great personal dislike of them but because they were even worse then flooing, what with all the spinning and navel tugging. Why had he not simply booked a plane ticket ahead of time? Better yet why was he going back at all? He was horribly uncomfortable knowing how everyone would act when he got home.
George was going to prank him the second he got through the door, Hermione would make no haste in informing him of all the books she'd read since he'd left, Mrs. Weasley would no doubt stuff him with more food than he could eat in four lifetimes and Ron would doubtlessly review every detail of every Quidditch game he'd missed over the scant month Harry had been away.
Of course this would lead to an awkward silence as everyone made the connection of Quidditch to Oliver. The kid gloves would come on and everyone would treat him like an invalid until Ginny finds some way to break the awkwardness. Than everyone would tread lightly and do everything in their power to make him feel at home so that the second he tries to leave Mrs. Weasley can try to convince him to stay and use his homesickness to her advantage.
Harry loved his family but they just didn't understand. He needed time away to step back and look at his life. They'd promised they wouldn't bring it up, that there would be no harping him on the subject but he doubted he would get away without some kind of guilt trip. Still he couldn't miss Christmas with them, he was being selfish enough running away and Harry had not missed one Christmas with his Godson and this year would not be the exception.
And so it was a very resolved Harry Potter aka Harrison Evans who made his way through the Narita Magical Transportation Station, to the international floo system and straight to the London Heathrow's Magical Station. When he eventually tumbled through, as ungracefully as possible, he dizzily made his way to the apparition booths to disapparate straight to the Burrow where Molly insisted he stay for the Holidays. Teddy and Andromeda would also be staying and thanks to the expansion work done on the Burrow there was plenty of room. After getting promoted to Britain's Muggle Liaison Arthur's pay scale went way up so they could certainly afford it. When he stepped into the booth he took a quick breath to ease his nerves and disappeared with a quiet 'pop'.
When Harry apparated in front of the Burrow he was immediately tackled. Harry panicked for the briefest of seconds, a stunner on his lips when he noticed the unruly mop of bright turquoise hair. After realizing who it was he vigorously hugged his Godson back. When Teddy finally unlatched himself from Harry and allowed him to get up Harry held him at arm's length to get a good look at him.
Unless he was using his metamorphmagi abilities to make himself taller he had grown since Harry had last seen him. Now that he had calmed down Teddy had assumed Harry's features. From the unruly black mop to the emerald green eyes, excluding the scar he knew Uncle Harry didn't like. Harry had a huge smile on his face as he then grabbed Teddy and hugged him again, 'I didn't realize how much I missed him until I saw him' Harry thought.
"I missed you so much Teddy-Bear," Harry told to his Godson.
"Uncle Harry! I'm not Teddy-Bear, my name's Ted!" shouted Teddy with a pout and an exasperated tone as though this should be obvious.
Harry raised an eyebrow and asked with an amused smile, "And since when was I not allowed to call you Teddy-Bear?"
"Since little Vicky starting calling him Teddy-Bear and George started teasing the poor dear about it," answered an equally amused Molly Weasley from the open front door, "now come in or you'll catch your death of cold out there," she finished beckoning them to come in.
They made their way into the house Harry grinning at Teddy, who was now Weasley red in both hair and face while pouting, insisting that he was a big boy and Ted was a big boy name and Vicky had nothing to do with it.
"-She's a girl and Uncle Ron says they've got cooties, but I don't think Vicky's got cooties though cause otherwise I'd of gotten 'em already, and I know I don't got 'em cause Uncle George said cooties are what makes boys do what girls say and I don't do what any girl says!" he finished as he hung his coat up in the hallway closet.
"Oh you don't do you? What about you Grandma? You'd better do what she says." Harry told him semi-sternly.
"Grandma!" Teddy exclaimed, "Don't be silly Uncle Harry Grandma's not a girl!" he then exploded into laughter clearly finding the idea hilarious.
"That's right, I am not a girl, I am a lady now come give this old lady a hug stranger," called Andromeda smiling at Harry as she came down the stairs to greet him. Harry and Andy had grown rather close through the shared responsibility of Teddy.
Harry went and gave her a hug hello before she led him to the kitchen where Molly than hugged the life out of him while both deemed him too thin.
"Do the two of you both just sit around and conspire to feed me?" he asked laughingly as Andy pushed him into a chair. Arthur who had been at the table playing with what appeared to be the makings of a toaster looked up and beamed at him, reaching a hand across the table give a warm shake.
"Ah Harry, good to see you again! Am I glad you're here; it's been Molly's new hobby to make us all eat the food she wants to feed you. I must have gained 10 pounds since you've left,"
Molly turned around to spare her husband a stern look while she waved a wooden spoon at him, "Oh hush, I didn't hear you complaining while you stuffed yourself."
When she turned around to continue cooking Arthur muttered something suspiciously like "Can't complain with my mouth full" before turning his attention back to Harry. "Ah so Harry my boy, tell me all about the muggle culture in Japan, you wrote that you got one of those Komp-u-tat-ors how'd that go?"
"Er," Harry started before blushing slightly, "They're actually called Computers Arthur, mine was a Laptop and it well, it sort of, exploded," he mumbled.
"What did I tell you about magic and electronics Harry?" Hermione's voice chimed in as she entered the kitchen through the back door.
"Hermione! Well merry Christmas to you too!" he shouted getting up from his chair to give one of his best mates a boisterous hug.
"Omf..., Harry you're going to squeeze the life out of me."
"I don't care I've missed you do you have any idea how hard it is to function without my brain?"
"Oi, who's this stranger hugging my wife, he looks a lot like my mate Harry but since I've not seen him in ages I can't tell."
Harry, catching sight of Ron stopped his assault on Hermione to go exchange a very manly hug with Ron. It consisted of a lot of hard slaps on the back and hair ruffling.
"Merlin I've missed you guys, but really Ron, ages? I've only been gone a month."
Ron, who was being shooed away from the stove by his mother after trying to snag a taste out of one of the many simmering pans just grinned at Harry and waved for him to come with him to the sitting room. Harry and Hermione both followed and made themselves comfortable. Hermione took the comfy seat by the fireplace, while Harry sat down next to Teddy and Ron on the couch. He looked around at some of his closest family and was filled with warmth at the sight of them. The familiar cozy setting of the Burrow, the smell of Turkey and other Christmas dishes wafting through the air and that almost tangible feel of magic that enshrouded a magical household and always seemed to increase tenfold on the holidays were all teasing his senses and made him feel safe and warm.
Harry tossed one arm over Teddy's shoulder as he leaned over to get a look at the book on Teddy's lap. He felt a pang in his heart when he saw a picture of Remus and Tonks, it was a photograph taken just after Teddy was born. Stealing a glance at Teddy he saw a very family look of longing on his face as he looked down at his parents who were waving with radiant happiness up at them. Sometimes Harry thought Wizarding pictures were just cruel, when he saw the long since dead alive and happy in those moving pictures. Sighing he gave Teddy's shoulders a comforting squeeze before drawing his attention away from the photo.
"So Teddy-Bear-" Harry started only to be interrupted.
"I told you its Ted!"
Harry tried to repress his laughter; Teddy was just so cute when he was riled up. "You'll always be Teddy-Bear to me, but I could switch to Cub if you want," he amended.
Teddy took on a thoughtful look for a few seconds before getting a devious look on his face. Harry knew that look, it was the same look Teddy had whenever George gave him WWW joke products.
"Alright Uncle Harry you can call me Cub," he responded looking as innocent as can be, "If I can call you Bambi."
Ron and Hermione both started laughing, as Harry grimaced at the nickname. "Alright who gave him that idea?" he asked looking suspiciously between his too laughing best mates.
"Don't look at me," said Ron between laughs.
"Was it you Hermione, I know you've seen that movie before," he accused pointing at Hermione.
"Nuh uh, Uncle Bambi Uncle George told me you'd like it," responded Teddy.
Harry briefly wondered just when or why George had seen that particular movie but didn't have much time to contemplate it.
"Did I hear my favorite prankster in training breaking rule number two?" a voice asked from the sitting room's entryway.
"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," muttered Harry turning around to see George, "Good to see you again George, now tell me what did I ever do to you?"
"And just what is rule number two?" questioned Hermione.
Teddy rushed up from his seat on the couch to give his Uncle George and mentor in pranking a hug.
"Rule number two, my dear sister, is part of the prankster's code of conduct, you never blame or tell on your fellow prankster," George explained when Teddy finally stopped trying to squeeze the life out of him.
"Hello Harry come out from hiding have you? Good to see you made it, I was afraid I'd have to go all the way to Japan to drag you here myself, but whatever do you mean by asking that, I haven't even pranked you yet."
"Hello Georgie, happy Christmas! Now what was that about pranking?" asked Molly as she came into the crowded sitting room to give George a hug and asked where Angelina and her grandson were.
"Don't worry mum she'll be here with Freddy in an hour or so, my boy's made me so proud, had a bout of accidental magic turned the kitchen purple. Shouldn't take more than an hour to reverse." his voice was full of fatherly pride as he whipped out a picture of a very angry Angelina, an oddly innocent looking five year old and a very purple kitchen.
"Why didn't you stay behind and help clean up?" questioned Hermione.
"She said I was doing more harm than good, said I was only encouraging him."
"Considering your bragging about it now I don't doubt that," Molly said giving him a disapproving look, "Don't know how Angelina puts up with you sometimes, honestly, you don't encourage a five year old like that, keep this up and he'll be worse then you were"
"Merlin I hope so," said George fervently.
"Where did I go wrong?" Molly asked herself as she shook her head, her amusement belied her disapproving words though as she took the picture from George, waving her wand to make herself a copy.
"So Harry, old man, how's the muggle retreat been going, find anything interesting, manage to get into any more bar fights?"
"Bar fights?" chimed Hermione and Molly in unison.
Harry's eyes widened in alarm as his mind rushed to think of what to say. "It wasn't a bar fight," he quickly reassured shaking his head vigorously, hands raised defensively. "I merely intervened and settled an argument, no fighting of any kind, and how did you hear about that anyways?" Harry questioned turning to George.
"I have my sources."
"More like I told him," voiced Ginny coming into the room, playfully nudging her prankster brother as she made her way over to Harry. He got up and gave Ginny a painfully tight hug, partly because he'd missed her and partly because he'd asked her to keep the whole bar thing quiet.
"Thought I'd asked you not to mention that?" he whispered into Ginny's ear as they hugged.
Ginny just shrugged as she whispered back, "I was drunk, you know I talk a lot when I drink."
"You lush," Harry accused, "that's the last time I tell you anything."
Ginny laughed as they broke apart, "Oh you hypocrite your even more chatty than I am when you drink."
"Hmpf" Harry huffed crossing his arm over his chest, he couldn't deny it which made it all the more annoying. They both shared mock glares but were knocked from their staring contest by a sudden cough making them both jump.
"Um, hello... Earth to Harry and Ginny? You sure you two aren't still dating?" asked Ron waving at them to get their attention.
"Hmmm... Difficult to say they don't fight as much now but at the same time they're both still completely obsessed with each other," answered George.
"Oh shut up!" shouted both Harry and Ginny at the same time blushing bright red.
"Did Auntie Ginny give Uncle Bambi Cooties?" piped in Teddy.
"Not you too!" whined Harry, "They've turned my own godson against me!" he shouted dramatically.
"Uncle Bambi?" questioned Ginny.
"Don't even ask," Harry muttered.
"Enough of this, now tell me Harry dear what did he mean by bar fights, what kind of argument?" asked Molly sternly.
"Well- you see-" he started but Arthur came to his rescue appearing at the now crowded sitting room's entrance. He interrupted Harry with a well timed "Molly dear I think the soup's burning."
Harry sent him a thankful look as Arthur winked conspiratorially at him and followed after her back to the Kitchen.
Harry went back to his seat on the couch. Teddy opted to take a seat on Harry's lap giving George his seat. Ginny took the chair opposite Hermione's by the fire and Harry sat talking to his family and filling them in on his new 'adventure' in muggle Japan as they filled him in on all he'd missed.
All day different members of the family showed up and finally after everyone had arrived they sat down to eat. They all had a good laugh at poor Teddy's embarrassment as little Vicky pushed Freddy out of his chair to sit next to her 'Teddy-Bear'. Fleur and Bill found it especially amusing, and Bill went out of his way to play the protective father figure issuing ridiculous mock threats at Teddy to 'take care of his little girl'. Teddy merely seemed confused and eventually took a look between Victoire and baby Dominique before asking which one he was suppose to take care of.
Audrey and Percy were instantly accosted by George as he tried to get his uptight brother and his equally aloof wife to loosen up. Charlie, Hermione and Andy were all avidly discussing Magical Creature Laws. And Arthur was having a fun time hearing all about the muggle world from Harry. Harry did his best to explain all the things he'd seen and done in Japan (excluding all things Kira, FBI, apple or dream related).
The atmosphere was one of cozy holiday cheer but it was not to last. Harry was just explaining to Arthur all about the cell phone when Ron's angry voice broke though the chatter.
Ron and Ginny had been arguing about Quidditch rather loudly all evening but now it had reached its crescendo and Ron sounded far too angry for something so trivial.
"-and the phone's cordless you see-" Harry stopped mid-sentence as Ron's voice came to his attention.
"I don't care about Puddlemere United Ginny, their chances don't matter, any team with a bastard like Wood can't win!"
He turned to see Ron standing from the table, he was shouting at Ginny and she was looking nervously at Harry while simultaneously trying to shush Ron. It was then that Ron seemed to realize how loud he was being and turned to send an apologetic look toward Harry; everyone seemed to follow his line of sight and suddenly everyone was staring at him like they expected him to explode.
Harry sighed before putting on a bright smile and looking at Ron 'Son of a Bi-' "Actually Ron, I think Puddlemere will do pretty good this year," he felt the urge to twitch but kept going, "I heard Hawksworth came out of retirement and rejoined the team, should give Bulgaria a run for their money." 'Alright everyone, nothing to see here go about your business' he thought as he turned back to Arthur to continue his conversation.
The silence that had descended over the room was than broken as Ginny shouted "See Ron, besides even if Bulgaria does win the Cannons will get their arses handed to them"
"Ginevra Weasley you watch your language!"
"Sorry Mum"
And just like that the pleasant atmosphere was back though there was still tension and awkwardness for Harry; the ring he still had yet to take off seemed glaringly obvious in its existence. He put his hand under the table as he reassured himself, 'Night's almost over, just stick around for dessert and you can fake a stomach ache and escape after.'
As Molly levitated the various desserts and one landed in front of Harry he was seriously regreting staying for dessert. There in front of him was an apple pie. 'You have got to be kidding me.'
Harry had been at the Burrow for six days and was feeling oddly edgy and had no idea why. Everyone seemed to notice his nervousness and tried to set him at ease but it was to no avail. He was confused and frustrated with himself and couldn't brush away the feeling that he was missing something very important. Like he had made a very bad choice; to top it all off he was getting hardly any sleep.
Each night he'd been home he'd had the same strange dream; he was back on the giant map only this time he was stuck to one spot unable to move as he watched a pen writing a name in the distance too far for him to read.
Harry was currently lounging in the sitting room, it was the middle of the night and everyone was asleep. He sat staring at the fire thinking about his latest dream and this odd fear that was filling him. This feeling as though he were missing something and something awful was coming, he'd felt it enough times to recognize it. And all he could think about was going back, back to Japan.
'But I promised I'd stay till after new years' Harry argued with himself. 'I'm just being irrational, there- there's nothing wrong.' He sighed, that was so unconvincing, he was lying to himself and much like in real life he wasn't really all that good at it.
"Uncle Harry," a small voice interrupted his thinking, he looked up to see Teddy in his teddy bear pajamas rubbing tiredly at his eyes.
Harry smiled softly at him before patting his lap, motioning for Teddy to have a seat. After Teddy made himself comfortable and they'd settled in Harry asked, "Teddy what are you doing up, its way past your bed time."
"I had a bad dream'n couldn't get back to sleep, thought I'd heard someone on the stairs, what are you doing up Uncle Harry?" he asked tilting his head back to look at Harry upside down.
"I had a bad dream too."
"Oh," Teddy said, he than squirmed around so that he was facing Harry and gave him a tight hug.
"Umpf... that's one bear hug you've got there."
Teddy giggled at the well used pun that never seemed to get old to him as he faced forward again. Harry wrapped his arms around him and they both stared at the fire.
"So... What was that for?" he asked resting his chin on Teddy's head.
"Gran says when someone gets a bad dream they need someone to squeeze the bad feelings out of them."
"Ah, smart woman your Gran," Harry responded giving Teddy a hug of his own.
"Course she is," mumbled Teddy tiredly.
Harry glanced down at him seeing Teddy's heavily lidded eyes, his head nodding as he tried to fight off his drowsiness. He was just about to suggest going back to sleep when Teddy started talking.
"Gran says your gunna go back, ta Ja-Japan soon," he yawned.
"She did"
"Umhmmm... said you've been itch'n to go back, thinks you've got b-busi- says you've got stuff to do an that's why you've been jumpy lately."
Harry had forgotten how perceptive Andy could be or how often Teddy eavesdropped on her conversations, birds of a feather they were. "Come on Teddy-Bear let's get you back to bed."
Teddy tried to protest but was easily shot down as his yawns interrupted said protests. As Harry tucked him into bed Teddy suddenly said, "You should finish your stuff Uncle Harry, an then come back happy."
Harry smiled at Teddy "Yeah I think I'll do that Cub, night Teddy, love you."
"Love you too Uncle Harry."
That night Harry resolved to get the next flight back to Japan, something was going on, he'd missed something and he was going to find out what.
Author's Note: Well there we go, again not terribly happy with it but still I'd like your opinions so review and let me know what you think.