A bit of an update, I know I promised more Lara in this chapter, and I have delivered. For those of you who haven't seen "The Cradle of Life" a lot of this isn't going to make any sense to you. So A brief synopsis to bring us up to speed. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

In "Lara Croft :The Cradle of Life" we open with an earthquake in Greece. What better than an earthquake to bring out treasure hunters? Opening new pockets of areas that have been covered over for centuries, millennia (and so forth and so on). Lara goes to Greece, meets up with some rather good looking treasure hunters and their burly Greek dad, finds an anomaly that none of the other treasure seekers notice, and goes off in their boat to dive toward an underwater temple. While the brothers are gloating over treasure in the temple Lara notices a golden globe of some kind that requires much athleticism to get to (which requires a lot of stretching in her silver "wet suit"). Some bad guys show up, kill the brothers, and attempt to kill Lara with rather heavy gunfire which results in the temple collapsing and the bad guys running off with the orb, which Lara had partially scanned to send to Bryce before the action started. She later gets requested to go after the orb by the Queen of England once it comes out that the orb is really a map to get to "the Cradle of Life" which houses Pandora's box.

It turns out that the bad guys who now have the orb are part of a Chinese Triad and Lara needs help to locate them- enter : Terry Sheridan, the man who once stole Lara's heart and then turned it into mush while flipping on his country and eventually getting caught and sent to prison in Germany. We find him doing shirtless upside down push ups in his jail cell, and we melt a little when he smiles because he is played by the very excellent Gerard Butler (yummy ^_^ ). Anyway, she gets him out of jail, a very sweet deal where he is absolved of all crimes and given a tidy sum to help her find the triad, which he eventually takes after much teasing and sexual innuendo that Lara pretends she isn't affected by. They find the triad, and after many encounters still fail to grab the orb before it switches hands to the main bad guy, a man named Reiss. Reiss plans to find Pandora's box and make some sort of chemical weapon from it, in which his company will have the only antidote (yada yada yada, cliché, cliché, cliché). The funniest thing about Reiss, though, happens to be his right hand man, his mercenary Sean. And if anyone here has seen "SLC Punks" we know this face from when he was shooting at a car in Utah's Great Salt Lake.

Eventually Lara gets the orb from Reiss and then finds out that the Cradle of Life is in Africa (of course it is) and during this time she ducks away from Sheridan, leaving him behind. Of course he follows her, as do the bad guys. But the bad guys don't really follow her so much as go to England and kidnap Bryce and Hilary, listening in while Bryce decodes the orb, even though Bryce tries to flub it. No such luck, for as intelligent as Lara is, she knows when Bryce is lying to her, but can't tell when he's in trouble. (le sigh, plot holes and devices in which the heroine glibly throws out a remark that he's acting weird but doesn't give it a second thought afterwards- oh well)

Lara meets up with an African friend, Kosa, who takes her to a wise man in a village who knows all about the Cradle of Life, warns her to stay away, and eventually gives into her insistence that there are bad men after the box who won't care about keeping the world safe like she does. He gives her warriors to guide her on her way. After making us care about some of these guys (a cute dialogue where Kosa translates some warrior bravado and they make fun of Lara's accent a bit) The mercenaries show up in helicopters and shoot them all down (guns vs. spears, yeah, right). Reiss jumps out, a little speech about how he needs her to guide him, she refuses and he shows her that he's kidnapped Hilary and Bryce, who apologize for getting caught and she agrees to take Reiss and her men to Pandora's box because they're all the family she has and she's sure she can outsmart the bad guys at some point along the way.

That's where we are going to come in… with a little bit of build up and back story from Harry first.

So, enjoy!

Harry smiled as he got off the Hogwarts Express. Hermione was trying to stuff a bit more intelligence into Ron's thick skull, and it didn't seem to be working.

"Hermione, Skabber's has been like this since I got him from Percy," Ron insisted. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with him. He's just high strung!"

"I still think he should get to a vet, Ron. That can't be healthy for him!"

"He has lost a lot of fur since the start of the year Ron."

"Don't you start," he glared at Harry as the younger boy chuckled. "He's just getting old! That's it. Now drop it."

"All right," Hermione sighed, giving up on changing Ron's mind. "Where's your Aunt?" She asked Harry. It was all the boy could talk about on the way home. His Aunt was picking him up and they were going to Greece to dive for sunken treasure. There had been an earthquake that necessitated her going ahead about a week earlier. But she was going to pick him up, just as she dropped him off, full circle she insisted.

"She'll be here," Harry insisted as Hermione's parents showed up and glomped their daughter.

"Terry Sheri-" Bryce started, but before the last syllable was uttered Harry jumped to his feet.

"NO! No! No!" Harry might have believed he'd outgrown temper tantrums pretty early on in his life, but if the weather outside of Bryce's trailer was to be noted, Harry's temper was volatile.

"Harry," Hilary placed his hand on the boy's shoulder.

"No! He's in PRISON, she can't be… gallivanting around Hong Kong with Terry -Fucking- Sheridan!"

"Well, she is," Hilary backed off when Harry shrugged his hand away.

"He broke her heart!"

"And you broke his ribs," Bryce sighed. "That was marvelous by the by."

"I was trying to puncture his heart," Harry muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. He'd been eight at the time, and he truly thought (and still did) that a broken heart deserved a broken heart.

"Harry," Hilary tried again.

"No, Hilary, I'm not discussing this. She's not here, where she's supposed to be. She's out with the worst possible person to ever back ANYONE up, and I'm pissed. I'm going for a walk before I blow up Bryce's trailer."

"Good! Thank you! We'll call you back when she contacts again."

"Fine."

"Hey, Sean? Do me a favor?"

"What?" The mercenary sighed.

"Say, "Sink! Sink you fool!" please?" the puppy eyes Harry launched at him were probably the only thing keeping the man from lunging at him. It was throwing off his instincts, sneers and trembling lips in the same breath…

If the kid wasn't dead by the end of this mission Sean was going to kill him. It wasn't so much that the brat was making jokes at his expense. No, it was that he didn't understand the jokes… but if the snorting behind him was any indication, some of his men did.

He wasn't entirely sure how he got there. "There" being on his ass in Africa with his hands tied behind his back, his man-nannies in a similar position to either side of him, with his aunt standing in front of him, her lips set in as thin a line as the plump appendages could manage. It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't what constituted an army behind him, at least five of the mercenary scum pointing their automatic guns right at his head.

Apparently mercenaries didn't appreciate his wit, as evidenced by the sour looks on the faces of three men, now sporting stylish pink Mohawks. They knew he was weird, but seemed to think that immobilizing his arms made the odd things impossible for him to do. He decided to let them keep thinking that.

His Aunt, however, was less fooled and it only took a glare for him to acknowledge that, yes, he could leave whenever he wanted. But he wasn't going to. He'd gone along with them because they'd taken Bryce and Hilary, keeping them far enough away that he couldn't get them out as well. Now he realized they were just leverage for something Lara was doing.

"Hello Kosa," Harry grinned at the tall black man.

"Arry," he grinned as well, shiny white teeth from a dark smile. "What are you doing 'ere?"

"Ohh, just hanging around," he shrugged. "School year's over, got home, shouted at the wonder twins here for a bit… by the way, Aunt Lara, where the fuck is that prick Sheridan? I owe him a kick to the shins."

"Harry, watch your language," she grimaced as Reiss pressed his gun to the top of Harry's head.

"Now that this touching reunion is over, Lara, I'm sure you're just as anxious as I am to get this adventure over with. Come with me, help me, I'll make it worth your while." Gently he tapped the barrel onto Harry's head. Harry might have protested the treatment, if Lara hadn't glared at him, shaking her head almost imperceptibly.

"Don't tell me you're not tempted."

"That's what got Pandora into trouble," Lara retorted.

"They told me you wouldn't do it, I told them you would, rather than loose your family," Reiss grabbed the back of Harry's shirt and pulled the boy to his feet.

"Fucking bastard," Harry muttered under his breath as Lara pursed her lips.

"It's just beyond the canyon Lara," Kosa muttered, quietly, but loud enough for Reiss to hear.

"Such a short walk… might save your friends," Reiss grinned at Kosa, unaware that the guide meant for him to hear.

"Well, if it spares my family, I'm up for a walk. But Reiss, they stay here," Lara glared as Reiss laughed.

"They stay here," he pointed his gun at Hilary and Bryce. "The brat stays with me."

"No," Lara started forward, but was pulled back by the enforcers behind her.

"Don't worry about me Aunt Lara, it'll be like my feet aren't even touching the ground. You know how quietly I walk."

"Harry," Lara warned. She didn't like the way he was studying the trees. It was as if he knew something about the ugly gnarled things. She didn't care what he had up his sleeve, what he learned at that school of his, she didn't want him in danger.

"You won't even notice I'm there," he promised.

"Now that's a good lad," Reiss smirked as he pushed Harry in front of him, causing the normally nimble boy to stumble.

As he fell to the ground he twisted his body in a way that somehow left his tied arms in front of him instead of behind. Sean blinked in confusion, how the hell had that brat…?

"Do you think you could untie me papa Sean? We might be heading into a dangerous area, I'd prefer to have my hands free."

"Walk you little -" before he could utter a foul derogatory comment Reiss handed him a bowie knife.

"Just let the child walk, keep your gun on him, and shoot him if he does anything odd."

"Trust me, you won't even hear a peep from me, promise!" Harry raised his left hand awkwardly, trying to swear was difficult when your hands were tied together. "Marauders honor!"

"Move, baby," Sean sneered at Lara as she paused. She thought she'd heard something, some sort of rumbling, saw some kind of shadow moving… Then of course she heard Harry growling.

"You call my Aunt "baby" one more time, I'm going to punch you in the ass."

"You can try you little monkey." Sean knelt down to sneer at Harry's eye level, which was probably the only thing that saved his life for at that moment a deep black shadow dove for his head. It slashed through the air directly above him, and then melted into the ground behind Harry's back.

"What was that?" One of the men shouted, then screamed as something snatched the back of his shirt and dragged him into the shadows of the trees. One by one the mercenary's started disappearing, gun shots rang out, echoing throughout the gnarled wood, screams rang in Harry's ears.

"What are you doing? Stay in formation!" Reiss commanded, but between the growling, the crumbling sounds that seemed to come from the creatures as they pulled their victims into crevices and leaving disgusting smears of blood behind, no one seemed to be listening.

"They're reacting to movement!" Lara shouted, keeping as still as she possibly could.

"We're close then! Take me to it!"

"I don't know how!" Lara protested, then took an aborted step further as Reiss once again pointed his gun at Harry's head.

"Do it NOW!"

"You're the one who wanted to take a walk! So start walking!" Lara snapped, then flinched as Reiss fired a bullet not an inch from the top of Harry's head. Sean, behind Harry, gripped his shoulder painfully.

"Hey, Aunt Lara, are you as done with this as I am?"

"Oh, beyond done Harry," she glared at Reiss, then nodded to her nephew, giving him whatever permission he was waiting for.

"Goody, I get to show you what I learned in school this year!" He enthused, "and why I'm never going back!"

"We're not getting into this right now Harry," Lara sighed at the fake wonder in Harry's voice.

"Expelliarmus!" He shoved his hand, palm out, at Reiss, and snorted as the man fell back, his gun tossed in the air from a suddenly numb hand. The man landed with a thump on the cold, hard, ground. He froze, shaking just the tiniest bit as he waited for a shadow creature to grab him. Unfortunately Harry was not fast enough to disarm Sean as well and the Austrian mercenary tightened his grip on his shoulder, his knife then held at Harry's throat. Lara started forward, intending to smash the man's face in, but stopped as he moved the knife, a small line of blood started forming on Harry's neck.

Harry inhaled briefly, then almost sub vocally whimpered as the slight cut grew worse at the movement.

"Oh no you don't."

"Show me to the Cradle Lara, or I'll have Sean cut the brat's throat right now," Reiss almost growled as he fought for composure. Even when he got the box, he wasn't sure if he would let the child go, kill him or just knock him unconscious and take him for further research. He'd never felt anything like that before. It was as if a large gust of wind had just pushed him over, tugging the gun from his hand as he went.

"All right," Lara sighed, meeting Harry's eyes, trying to tell him that she'd do the work now, it was her job to save him, not the other way around. "I'll need the orb."

"Don't think you can outwit me,"

"Do you want me to do this or not?" A low growl emanated from behind Reiss, he almost jumped to his feet to start running before he remembered that would be a large error on his part.

"Here," he tossed the orb to Lara before he could change his mind.

Though Harry had indicated he'd put a spell on Lara to minimize her foot steps, she knew that running would negate it a bit. She wanted to fake them out a little, make it seem like she had no advantage over them, so she pounded her feet as hard as she could, running to what looked like an ant hill to slam dunk the orb inside. As she ran she could feel the ground beneath her shake, see the shadows out of the corner of her eyes, going to swipe at her and missing by just a hairs breadth, miscalculating where exactly she was because they didn't sense her footfalls right away, but rather the effect of the shock wave afterwards. She was sure it looked pretty impressive and down right foolish by Reiss's standards, but it convinced him that she was at least on the level about this.

"Sean, stay here with the brat. If she comes up without me, kill him."

As Lara and Reiss disappeared down the rabbit hole Harry felt, more than saw, the ground at his feet shift a bit.

"You know, I bet those shadow things are Guardians. I read about them at school."

"What weird school do you go to?" Sean asked, still a little out of sorts from watching his entire unit getting munched on by monster things.

"A Wizarding school, so very dull, actually. Really, the only redeeming feature was the library." Harry slowly lifted his hand up, almost touching the knife held tightly at his throat, but not yet. Instead he gathered a bit of the dripping blood and sighed. "There is something you can do to protect yourself from them, even chat a bit. They're not stupid creatures you know, on the contrary." Taking the blood he slowly traced a pattern on the inside of his left forearm. It looked like a sun burst pattern with a squiggly snake inside.

"Really? Well they looked rather blood thirsty to me."

"Yeah, and you gunned down several warriors who had no defense against you and your stupid bullets," Harry retorted, still sick to his stomach remembering Kosa's friends falling, the automatic gunfire echoing through out the plains. "So really, how are you any different from them?"

"I'm not a monster."

"Oh, I beg to differ," he hesitated his retort as the knife was held a bit tighter.

"You said there was a protection from these Shadow beasts?"

"Yes, but why would I tell you?"

"If you don't, I'll slit your throat," he chuckled, happy at finally getting the upper hand on the child.

"Fine, but I need your arm."

"No tricks, brat."

"No tricks," Harry assured, holding up his own arm as proof, showing Sean the bloody stain.

It took a little fumbling, but Sean managed to hold out his own forearm in front of Harry, the knife held at an awkward angle, Harry's back pressed firmly to his chest. It was rather uncomfortable, the Austrian's breath at Harry's ear, panting slightly as he was still trying to calm his rather manic fear.

Harry started to trace a symbol on Sean's arm, starting with the sunburst, then following up with what might have looked like a snake but was sprouting legs, a chameleon. Obviously Sean hadn't really paid much attention to the snake on Harry's arm, or he would have pointed out the discrepancy, but he was too busy feeling a slight sense of relief as Harry finished.

Harry took advantage of the momentary comfort to shove his heel into Sean's instep, pushing his knife hand away from his neck as he twisted away and fell prostrate on the ground.

As his blood from his dripping neck soaked into the dirt a few Shadow Guardians emerged, stopping at the sensation of trembling, what sounded like a young boys sobs. "Help me," Harry begged, pressing his forearm down on the ground, giving them a taste of his blood mixed with their sigil. As they acknowledged the young wizard and the plea in his voice (if not understanding the actual words) they felt the connection of his enemy, decorated in his blood. Like blood hounds they honed in on the scent, Sean didn't even have time to scream as they pounced and dragged him into the earth at his feet, leaving nothing more than a bloody smear behind.

Harry stood, recasting the spell to keep his footsteps light, knowing that although the Guardians had protected him they were still annoyed by heavy vibrations. It just wouldn't do to pester your hosts.

And speaking of pestering… Harry looked up as a helicopter came to hover directly over his head, a rope uncoiled from the top, a man started rappelling down. Of all the men he really never wanted to see again, Terry Sheridan had to be in the top five.

"Harry," Terry paused his decent into the gaping hole, resting his feet on the very ledge. "Lara down here?"

"Yes," he glared at the man.

"Look, Harry I know we didn't get off on the right foot, if I had a chance to do it all over again," Harry interrupted, still amazed at the mans audacity. Trying to fix anything with him while Lara was down there fighting for her life and the continued existence of the world.

"No Terry, you don't get a "chance" this time. You do it right or I hunt you down and finish the job I started the last time I saw you!"

"You're still a stuck up little prince aren't you?" Terry sneered. Harry sneered right back.

"That may be Terry, but at least I'm not a lying little prick like you," and he cursed that Lara was in trouble and maybe waiting for back up. He didn't have the opportunity he wanted to kick Sheridan in the shins and maybe blast his face full of childish pimples.

"I'm going to get Lara, and when we get back, you and I, child, are going to have a little chat."

"I look forward to it, now let's get!"

"You're not coming!"

"You're wasting time," Harry snapped as he grabbed the rope just beneath Terry's feet. Taking a preparatory breath he jumped into the hole.

When Harry and Terry caught up with Lara she was dangling over black acid, her ponytail smoking as it made contact. She was refusing to reach toward the golden box, Reiss was taunting her with horrific thoughts of what he would do to Harry if she didn't comply.

"It is impossible to reach," she repeated, stubbornly.

"Take it!" Reiss insisted. "Or I'll just drop you and grab the boy, I'm sure that with his many talents it would be easy for him to get that box."

"You'd be right about that," Harry smiled and gestured with his hand, levitating the box over the black acid while Terry gaped at him in shock.

"What the hell?"

"You've missed a lot while you were in prison Terry," Harry grunted, the box was a lot heavier than anything else he'd floated while not using his wand. It was hard to keep in the air.

"Harry," Lara warned, still dangling over the deadly pool as Reiss held the edge of her jacket. Just a simple release from the man and his aunt would be in an awful lot of trouble.

"Bring it over here boy, or I'll drop her in."

"I don't know if I can! Aunt Lara!" Harry made up his mind as Reiss jerked the jacket, causing Lara to loose another inch of hair. He dropped the box and pulled with all his might at Lara, "Accio!" he shouted, unbalancing Reiss as Lara came tumbling toward him. Reiss stumbled at the edge of the pool for what seemed like forever as Lara crashed into her nephew and Harry collapsed in her arms, completely drained, passed out. Lara watched, holding Harry close, as Reiss lost his balance completely and fell into the acid, screaming all the while. Echoing the screams throughout the cavern as his body refused to believe what his mind was already shouting at him. He was dead. He just didn't know it yet.

"Well, let's get out of here," Terry chuckled, scooping up the box, which had landed just close enough to the edge for him to grab it.

"Terry, what are you doing?" Lara was afraid to ask, afraid to demand, but she looked down at Harry and set her features to stubborn insistence instead of the fear that wanted to shine from her.

"You're joking right? We're taking this with us! This is ours!" she could see it in his mouth, that line that demanded, that almost scowl that said he truly did not understand her terror.

"You're not walking out of here with that box." She spoke quietly, her hand gently tracing the thin bloody line on Harry's neck.

"So you're saying we just leave it? When it's worth a fortune?"

"It could kill millions of innocent people."

"Now you're being dramatic," he scoffed.

"Put it back."

"No," he grinned as she pulled out Reiss's handgun from where he dropped it early in their fight to the box.

"Put it back."

"Well, you do have authorization to kill me, better do it then. Because if you think standing in front of me is going to be enough… heh. You don't have it in you to stop me." he stood in front of her, looked down at Harry, resting in her arms. "Yeah, because all your beliefs, all your ideals, they're not real. Your love is real, and you've loved me. You think you're strong, but you'll not choose empty ideals over me. Now move."

"No, Terry. I'll not let you leave with that box," a single tear trailed down her cheek, she tugged Harry closer and looked down at his still face. Only the fact that his chest was rising with breath stopped the fear from overwhelming her. "You're right, my love is real. You take that box out of here and you'll hurt everything I've ever loved, everyone. And I will not let you harm Harry. Never." Seeing the determination in her eyes, hearing the final judgment coming from her lips, Terry froze. There was a steel cold echo in her final plea. "Now put the box down."

"Aunt Lara?" Harry whimpered softly, Lara looked down, her lips trembling.

"Yes Harry?" She whispered to the boy. He merely snorted a little and adjusted his head so it was more comfortable on her shoulder.

"Love you," and he quietly passed out again. There was a long silence, in which Terry just stared at the boy, seeing (perhaps for the first time in his life) genuine unconditional love.

"I'm sorry," as Terry knelt next to Lara he felt so completely confused he had no idea what to do next.

"Sorry? For what?"

"Just," he looked down at the box and sighed, and truly without thinking did the first unselfish act he'd ever done, throwing it with a quick motion back into the black pool of acid. "Sorry."

They watched, together, as the golden box sunk into the liquid, leaving behind a faint taint of smoke. Terry got back to his feet and held out his arms. "I'll carry him back to the chopper, you're exhausted."

Lara looked up at him and smirked a bit. "We better not tell him, he still wants to kick you in the shins."

"Little jerk," Terry muttered as he adjust the boy into his arms.

"Yeah, well, you deserved it."

"He's already cracked up my ribs," he complained as Harry's head lulled on his shoulder.

"Yes, and he was royally pissed that it didn't result in your immediate death," Lara found herself giggling, perhaps a bit hysterically as Terry gaped at her.

"What?"

"Well, I'm sure he'll be disappointed when I tell him to leave you alone," Lara stumbled a little over the uneven ground, but smiled when she saw the rappelling rig. "Let's hook him up first, the guys can pull him up and…" she yawned as all her adrenaline started bombing out.

"Then we'll hook you up," Terry insisted as he started buckling Harry into the strapping. He swore a bit as a rope ladder fell, hitting him over the head.

"Or we can just climb up as they winch up Harry." Lara suggested with a wry grin.

"Lady's first," he insisted as Harry started to rise into the air.

"You just want to watch my bum," Lara accused with a little lady-like sniff.

"I was only thinking that you were tired and might need help!" Terry insisted, then laughed, "Though the view is magnificent to behold!"

So there it is, the next chapter and it only took me four months to get off my ass and do it! There will be more summer stuff, this only happened in the first week of vacation, so there's plenty more to explore in the Tomb Raider world! Also, don't take Harry's little ramblings to heart, I know I've said before that I've decided whether or not he'll be going back to Hogwarts, but really I haven't. I won't know, I think, until I sit down and actually write it.

also I put in multiple line breaks during what is obviously one continuous scene. why did i do so? because there was a passage of time or a major change in character focusing. it is meant to make it easier to read. if it's not, please let me know. i don't have a beta, so any mistakes are all my own! thanks!

I stole liberally from the transcript to Cradle of Life, and I want to reiterate that I do not own Lara Croft or Harry Potter, I merely like to play with them from time to time.

In the movie Terry does try to leave with the box, Lara does kill him for it. I think he honestly doesn't believe that the box could be so dangerous. He doesn't have much experience with the mystical side of things like Lara had in original cannon (and especially now with Harry as her nephew!). So I figured I'd give him another chance (mostly because he is a hunka-hunka burnin love). But he won't be getting back with Lara, at least not permanently. Maybe he'll stick around for the summer, but I see him and her in different places. I guess I'll just have to write more to find out!

A little explanation on the symbols Harry painted with his blood on himself and Sean. I used the sunburst for the rather obvious reasoning of shadow creatures vs. sunlight. The snake on Harry hasn't anything to do with Voldemort or that fact that he's a parsel tongue, but more the fact that in Africa a snake symbol (python really) is a totem that acts as a spiritual medium… all the better to hear you with my dear, get it? The chameleon he painted on Sean's arm in his own blood because "the accidental death of a chameleon may mean the death of a child", as indicated by a book on jewelry symbolism I have. I figure it has to do with innocence and karma coming to screw you over. So Sean, you hurt a kid, you pay for it. Dumb ass.

Lines I wanted to use, but couldn't fit anywhere… but still wanted to share cause they tickle my funny bone:

"I thought you said you 'weren't' going to blow anything up?"

"Well, it wasn't in the plan…"

"Come over here."

"Why? Are you going to hurt me? Cause I kinda… like that."