Title: Fall- back
Chapter fourteen: Out with a Bark
Rating: T
Summary: After the war Harry moves to Lima, Ohio to try and live a normal life as just another invisible teenager. You know what they say about best laid plans, though. KH/HP
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise…. Isn't mine. Though I probably wish it is. Now I'm sad.
AN: Hi all! This one's a bit earlier than last time. By about two weeks. Not that that's saying much, but still. I'm rather pleased with myself about it. My schedule's still crazy hectic and I want to thank you all for putting up with me. I'm running in every single possible direction I can think of at the moment to get all the work I need done, done so that I can work on things I like as well. Like writing fics. Unfortunately, my Summer holiday's won't start till July twenty-fifth or somewhere around that time, so you're going to have to bear with me for just a little while longer.
Of course: Thank you all a bunch for all your reviews, and alerts and favourites. You guys are amazing, even when I suck at updating. Thank you all so much! I love you guys.
Finally, the big reveal! Enjoy and don't hesitate to let me know what you thought of it ^^
Two days after the surprise visit from Kingsley, Ron and Hermione and one day after the full moon, Harry entered McKinley High with a sense of impending doom pressing on his shoulders. It didn't matter how sure Kingsley was that revealing the world would turn out a- okay, Harry still had his doubts. Especially if the last War Trials would really be broadcasted on television. He would have had a small chance of being able to pull off denying he was a wizard, but not if his face was going to be seen in every living room across the world.
Getting his books from his locker, Harry decided to just play ignorant for the time being. The Trials weren't for another two or three months at the least and he was determined to make the best of the time he still had left as being another anonymous face in the crowd.
"Hi Harry!" Kurt's voice suddenly sounded next to his ear.
The wizard turned around swiftly, not having heard him creep up on him. He smiled at seeing him there though. If anyone could take his mind of the press conference that would be given later that day, it was Kurt. Whom he still hadn't asked out on a proper date. Best rectify that soon, then.
"Hey Kurt," he smiled in response. "How are you?"
"I'm good," Kurt smiled back. Harry absentmindedly noticed that something in his smile had changed since the last time he had seen him at Puck's party. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was, though. "Stressing out a bit about the wedding, though."
Harry chuckled. "I somehow gathered that from the million wedding- related texts you sent me over the weekend, yeah."
Kurt smiled a bit sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that."
"Don't be, I didn't mind," Harry responded. "Everything will work out fine, though. You're an amazing wedding planner. Your father and his fiancé won't know what hit them."
"What if I screw something up, though?"
"You won't. You've got everything planned down to the very last glass of alcohol- free beer. It's just two more days, there isn't much that can go wrong till then. I mean, except from one of the Glee Club members falling down and breaking a leg or losing their voice or something."
Kurt's eyes widened. Harry hurried to amend his words:
"Which they won't. Seriously, everything will be fine. As long as you didn't actually get those pigeons. You didn't, did you?"
Kurt grinned. "I didn't. I've seen the error of my thinking."
"Good. 'Cause that would've been hard to explain to the RSPCA."
At half past two in the afternoon, right when Harry was getting sick of Rachel nattering on at him about the importance of English literature in the modern day world, the school's intercom made a foreboding crackling noise, followed by a ding and some mismatched tunes which were probably supposed to sound like some sort of school jingle.
"School, may I have your attention please?" the heavily accented voice of their principal (Harry hadn't referred to him as their 'Headmaster' since Puck made a crude joke about which head he was supposedly the master of) spoke.
In the back of the room, Brett startled awake and Kurt and Mike stopped their revision of the choreography for the wedding. Reluctantly, Rachel stopped talking. Harry would've breathed a sigh of relief if he didn't have a pretty good idea about the announcement that was about to be made.
"The teachers will now turn on the T.V.'s in the classrooms for an important message from the president of the United States," principal Figgins continued, sounding as if he was reading his lines from where he had written them down. Next to Harry, Rachel turned to look at him with a questioning look in her eyes. Harry shrugged, pretending to have no clue what was going on either.
Their teacher (and old woman whose name Harry had forgotten the second he had heard it) turned on the ancient television set in front of the classroom and returned to reading her paper, not even the tiniest bit curious about the announcement that was about to be made.
On the television screen, the face of the president appeared. Next to him stood Kingsley Shackebolt and a few steps behind him was (to Harry's great amusement) Percy Weasley who was continuously straightening his tie and looking mighty uncomfortable in his muggle suit while still trying to look important. Harry sincerely hoped Ron would get to see this. Harry briefly wondered about the lack of an American Minister for Magic, but then remembered Hermione explaining to him that there hadn't been an American Ministry for Magic since the Salem Witch Trials.
"My fellow Americans," the president began, "Today me and my colleagues stand before you with a confession. For many, many years now there has been a secret kept from all of you. Today we are here to come clean."
In the back of the room, Brett mumbled something about area 51, whatever that was. Rachel was at the edge of her seat. Harry didn't dare look around to see what Kurt was thinking. Privately, Harry thought this was a horrible was to start a press statement. Telling everyone they've been lied to for years, fresh off the bat? Like people wouldn't protest to that immediately. He tuned in to the speech again.
"….over the last few decades have not been the work of terrorists. At least, not the terrorists as we know them. I stand before you now, of sound mind – though my wife might protest to that from time to time- (No one laughed. The president scraped his throat awkwardly, his attempt at humour going ignored) to declare that this was the work of magic users. And I'm not talking Siegfried and Roy or Houdini either. This is the real deal. For millennia magic users, or witches and wizards as they call themselves, have lived alongside us in our world-"
Behind Harry, Kurt snorted in disbelief. Harry's heart plummeted.
"…. And to show you that I am not in fact ready to be committed into the nearest mental hospital, my colleague Minister Shackebolt from the British Ministry for Magic would like a word."
Harry watched as Kingsley took a step forward towards the microphone, shaking the president's hand as he went. Harry was impressed by Kingsley's cool demeanour. If it had been him up there he would have shat himself, he was sure of it. As Kingsley started explaining the workings of the magical world, the war they had fought over the last few decades, how magical schooling worked and what exactly the word 'muggle' meant, Harry tuned him out and looked around him to take in the reactions of the people in the room. Somewhere in the back in his head he noted that this was probably the first time there wasn't a sound to be heard in the whole of McKinley High.
Next to him, Rachel looked as if she wanted to crawl into the television set so she could be at the press conference to ask questions. It was a look he remembered seeing on Hermione on more than one occasion. In front of him, their teacher still pretended to read the paper, but her eyes were peaking over the top. A glance behind him showed Brett in pretty much the same position as Rachel was in. Mike seemed very interested as well, drinking in everything Kingsley was saying. Next to Mike, Kurt's face had transformed from disbelieving to grudging curiosity. Harry hoped he'd come around to like the idea of Magic.
While Harry was taking in the expressions of the people around him, Kingsley had rounded up his summary of the backstory of the Wizarding world.
"Are there any questions at this time?" he asked. Harry resisted the urge to snort when every single press agent present started waving their hands in the air and shouting questions. Kingsley seemed to realise his error: "Alright, one at a time. You, with the pink hairband."
"Caroline Ashwood, Washington Post," the woman answered, "Why come forward now? After all, you've managed to keep hidden for so long."
"Excellent question Ms Ashwood," Kingsley answered her, "we feel that the world has come to be more accepting than it has ever been before. There have been times when even being suspected of witchcraft was enough to send the person in question to the stake. We have high hopes that that won't happen now."
Harry thought that was a smart move. Seemingly putting the faith of the Wizarding world in the hands of the muggles, so that they'd start feeling responsible when something did happened. When, not if. Something would surely happen, as it does with every big change to a society.
"But what if it does?" a rather chubby looking man shouted at Kingsley. "Mark Portly, The Daily Mail."
Kingsley shrugged, looking for all the world as if he wasn't at all concerned by that prospect. "Then we'll just disappear again. Try again in a few hundred years. Any more questions?"
"Yeah! Richard Jones, Daily Express," a dark skinned man in a sweater vest shouted, "Do you really expect us to believe this bullshit? There's no such thing as magic!"
Harry closed his eyes, briefly flashing back to a few weeks before his eleventh birthday when his uncle had said the exact same words to him after he had helped a boa constrictor escape from the zoo. On the television, Kingsley smirked. "Percy, if you would?"
"Certainly, minister," the third oldest Weasley son said before pulling his wand from where it had been sheathed up his sleeve. The press agents in the front rows backed up a little, recognising the slender piece of wood for the magic tool it was after Kingsley's explanation. "Mister President, could I perhaps borrow your jacket for a second?"
The president nodded congenially before shrugging off his jacket and handing it over to Percy. Harry dimly noted that the red- haired wizard was enjoying his moment in the spotlight just a little too much. Percy waved his wand in a pattern Harry vaguely recognised from Transfiguration (and immediately decided that if his recollection of spells was really that vague he should really practise magic more), muttered a spell and tapped the jacket. Or was used to be the president's jacket. For Percy was now holding a dark brown Labrador puppy by the scruff of his neck. The press agents 'aww- ed' , though the president seemed to be a bit concerned about his jacket.
Behind Harry, Kurt sucked in a breath of air:
"Holy shit."
Harry smirked into his hand. Score one for Team Magic.
Please let me know what you thought. Your reviews and PM's mean the world to me.
Except, of course, when all you do is flame on the plot. I really don't care for those. The plot is the plot, and I won't change it because you don't like it. If you don't like it, just stop reading the story and write a better one yourself. Seriously, stop PMing me about how you hate the plot.
Till next time!
-Robin.