Title: Fall- back

Chapter fifteen: Fragments of a Day

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: You guys…. Wow. I can't believe the response to the last chapter! You guys are seriously amazing! 72 reviews for a single chapter? That's incredible.

Thank you guys so much for your reviews, PMs, alerts and favourites! You guys rock.

Here's the next chapter. I apologise for it taking so long, but I've been incredibly busy with studying for my exams (Which I still should be doing in fact…. Woops) so I can round of the year.

Enjoy! Let me know what you thought?

Glee club that day was brutal. Well, actually, the half an hour leading up to Glee club was, seeing as Mr Schuester was running late. Again. Harry briefly felt the urge to buy the man a watch for Christmas, but quickly abandoned the thought because he didn't know if it was appropriate for a student to buy their teacher a gift.

With the exception of Quinn and Mercedes (who seemed to be discussing amongst themselves in upset, harsh whispers) everyone was talking in loud, excited voices, voicing their thoughts about the press release that had happened only an hour before. Most teachers had given up on teaching after the television sets had been turned off, recognising a lost cause when they saw it. Harry wondered if he could still sneak out of the choir room without being noticed.

"No, now all of you shut up for a second!," Santana's voice sounded through the room. Surprisingly, everyone obeyed, albeit some –Rachel- grudgingly. "Why don't we all just talk about this calmly instead of shouting to be heard?"

Harry was a bit impressed, not having expected a sound idea like that from the girl. He noticed Brittany leaning into her a bit, though her feet were still firmly in Artie's lap. Santana shot the feet a glare before straightening her face out again. Was there something going on there? Whatever, not the time to think about things like that. A few seats down, Sam spoke up:

"I think it's pretty awesome. I want to be able to do magic, how cool would that be?"

"Dude," Puck nodded while flexing his biceps. "Then I'd have some magic tricks to back up these guns."

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Next to him, Kurt wasn't as forgiving.

"Me, I'm more curious about how all the magical people managed to stay hidden for so long," Lauren said while trying to appear innocent. "Who know how many witches are at this school right now."

With her last few words she looked at Harry, who shot her a very unimpressed look back. Two could play at that game.

"Don't be silly," he threw back. "Magical people our age would be in magical schools, now wouldn't they? They've got no business here."

His reasoning seemed to sway most of them and Lauren crossed her arms over her chest with a small huff. Harry threw her a victorious smirk.

"Magic school must be awesome," Finn said in awe. "Flying around –do you think they actually fly on brooms? 'Cause that's got to hurt, man- making potions, changing stuff into other stuff. Sounds amazing."

Not to mention dangerous beasts, evil teachers, ghost teachers, giant serpents on the prowl, big ass spiders in the forest and a giant squid in the lake, Harry offered in his head. If he thought about it for too long, it did kind of sound like some sort of fantasy novel story. Now all he needed was a love interest that he could rescue from something evil. Oh, wait. Been there, done that.

"Do you think magic people would know how to fix me?" Artie's voice sounded, his soft spoken question silencing everyone else immediately. Harry felt for the boy. It would make sense that the wheelchair bound boy would feel hope grow inside of him at the thought of magic. Unfortunately, Harry also knew that nothing could be done for the boy. If there had been someone magical present when the accident had happened they could have tried to help him or they could have rushed him off to the nearest magical hospital, but even then the chances of a full recovery would have been minimal since the healing magic used for large scaled remedies like fixing a broken back need a responding magical core to latch on to. At best, the boy would have been on crutches for the rest of his life instead of in his wheelchair, with minimal toe movement.

"How about you send that question in to the Ministry?" Tina suggested. "That British minister said that there'd be another conference on Friday for questions from the public. I think this deserves a spot in there."

Artie nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll do that."

"Don't be too disappointed if it turns out they can't help you, though," Mike said, "I'm sure there's even a limit to magic. It only makes sense."

"Besides," Kurt said when Artie started to look downtrodden, "There's nothing there to really fix. You're not broken."

Harry smiled at the boy next to him, really liking the kind, sympathetic part of Kurt. The girls around them nodded their approval of what he said. For a few moments, the choir room was silent. Unfortunately this only lasted until their teacher came sprinting into the room, apologising for being late again as he went. Harry was more than ready to forgive him for being late (he was actually starting to be amused by the man's constant tardiness) when he started to write the week's theme on the whiteboard. The word 'MAGIC' was written on the board in big, bold letters.

Harry groaned. This was going to be a long week.

"Harry? What are you doing here?"

On the inside, Harry was doing a little victory dance on having been able to surprise Kurt. Of course, if someone shows up on your doorstep right before dinner time dressed to the nines and holding a single red rose surprise would be the most reasonable emotion to jump to.

"Kidnapping you of course," the raven- haired wizard grinned back at the boy in the doorway. "I'm taking you out on that date I promised you."

"Now?" Kurt nearly squeaked. Harry swore he could hear someone chuckling in a room near the hall.

"No, I thought I'd get all gussied up, bring you a flower and ask you to go for a date next week," he answered, teasingly rolling his eyes. "Yes, now."

"But I can't," Kurt said, looking over his shoulder into the house. "Dad, Carole, Finn and I are going out for dinner as a pre- wedding bonding experience."

"No you're not," Kurt's dad suddenly sounded from the next room. Kurt jumped a bit, while Harry grinned. "Go with the kid, we'll manage without you."

Harry wasn't sure if he really liked being referred to as 'the kid', but he figured he would take what he could get. Kurt looked affronted at what his dad just said. Before he could get worked up over it, Harry said:

"There is no pre- wedding bonding dinner. I just wanted to surprise you and your dad was kind enough to go along with it."

After being plied with a basket of triple chocolate muffins and getting to threaten me with shotgun, that is, Harry thought, not daring to say the words out loud. He wasn't sure how serious Mr Hummel had been when he was talking about his shotgun.

"Besides," Harry airily continued, "You're already dressed since you were expecting to go out anyways, so we can go. If you want to, of course."

"Of course I want to go," Kurt hastily answered. "But these are not first- date clothes. These are getting- to- know- your- new- family- clothes. There's a big difference."

Harry smiled. "You look perfect to me."

"Liar," Kurt huffed, but a small smile was fighting to gain a place around his lips. "Fine, I'll go like this."

"Brilliant," Harry breathed, before handing over the rose. "Here. I didn't know what your favourite flower was, so I just guessed."

"It's beautiful, thank you," Kurt said, accepting the rose. "For future reference, though, my favourite flower is the lily- of- the- valley."

"Gotcha," Harry grinned, before offering his arm which Kurt took. "Your carriage awaits, my lord."

Kurt chuckled and started to close the door behind him. Before they walked off to Harry's car, Burt's voice sounded behind them one more time: "Home by eleven!"

When they were finally seated at their table at Breadstix ("I still can't believe this is the fanciest place in Lima," Harry had huffed when they got out of the car. "I'm sure I've overlooked a place." – Kurt had immediately insured him he hadn't) after the waitress guiding them to their table had given them the stink eye the entire time, Kurt relaxed.

"I've never actually been on a date before," he confessed after they had given their order to the waitress. Harry hoped she wouldn't spit in their food.

"I have," Harry answered regretfully, the thought of a tea date at the most horrid tea shop to have ever existed floating to the front of his mind. "It was a nightmare though. Absolutely hellish."

"Oh?" Kurt asked, an eyebrow expertly poised.

"Yes, and I'm not telling you about it. Living through it was horrendous enough, thank you very much."

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad."

Harry looked at him with a blank look on his face. "It was."

They fell into easy conversation after that, only pausing in their chatter to eat their – thankfully spit-free- food and share small smiles. When the bill came, Harry picked it up, ignoring Kurt's protests and knowing that the brunette was secretly pleased.

"I still can't believe you drive a Mini Cooper," Kurt commented when they got in the vehicle to get Kurt home on time. Harry snorted.

"Yeah, Remus' idea of a joke."

"I hope you got him back," Kurt grinned. Harry took his eyes of the road for a second to smirk at him.

"Sure did. I gave him a complex about his moustache in return."

Kurt laughed. "That is terrible!"

Harry just shrugged, knowing Kurt wasn't done talking yet. And sure enough: "It's a horrible moustache, though."

"That it is."

When Harry dropped Kurt off at home, he walked him to his door. He pretended not to see that Kurt's dad and soon to be stepfamily were trying to be very inconspicuous about glancing out of the window to see what he would do. Kurt's cheeks turned a lovely pink.

"Are you kidding me?" he hissed at Harry. "They don't do this when Finn comes back from a date with Rachel!"

Harry chuckled. "Your dad's just worried about you. I think it's sweet."

A small smile made its way onto Kurt's face. "I suppose it is. Thanks for tonight, Harry. I had an amazing time."

"My pleasure," Harry answered softly. They had reached the door by now. Harry quirked an eye at seeing the shotgun Kurt's dad had threatened him with propped against the hallway door inside.

"Oh for fuck's sake…" Kurt muttered upon seeing the same thing. He briefly pinched the bridge of his nose and started to defend his family: "I swear we're not crazy hillbillies with a penchant for rifles."

Harry laughed. "It's quite alright."

"No, really, I'm going to have to have a talk with my dad about this. This is just-"

Whatever it was he never got a chance to say, because Harry took advantage of the moment to shut him up with his lips quite spectacularly. Kurt almost immediately went slack against him. Harry ran a hand over Kurt's cheek softly before pulling away.

"If I had known it would have been that easy to shut you up, I would've done it ages ago."

"Shut up, Harry."

But no matter Kurt's biting response, there was a smile on his face as he slipped inside the house. Harry left with a small spring in his step.

The next day, Harry walked into a gym in Westerville with a rucksack slung over his shoulders. It was the closest gym to his home he could find, since there were apparently not other gyms than the one in McKinley in the whole of Lima. Remus had suggested he get some of the excess energy he had built up in him from not using a lot of magic since arriving in America out of his system by exercising. Harry had loved the idea, and here he was.

He quickly got changed into the sportswear he kept in his rucksack and walked out into the gym to see what caught his eyes. The fitness equipment seemed to repetitive to fascinate him for a long time and he didn't really fancy playing a team sport right now either. He decided to try some fighting, since it was something he could do on his own with a punching bag, or with just one partner if he needed to. That, and he thought he had gotten a little rusty since the war ended.

He walked into the boxing room and immediately noticed the smell of sweat that hung in the room. Determined not to let it bother him, he looked around. There were two men sparring in one ring, a man getting his butt kicked by a woman in another ring, some people were using a skipping rope to exercise, and others were punching the stuffing out of punching bags. With varying degrees of success. Harry quickly noticed that he wouldn't be able to use the punching bags by himself. They hung too loose for that and he didn't much fancy taking a punching bag to the face. A few feet away from him, there was a young man who was doing just that, though, and Harry went over to him.

"Do you need a spotter?" he asked, and the guy stopped in his punching. He pushed back the sweaty, black curls that had been plastered to his forehead and looked up at him.

"That would be great, actually," he said. Harry took place behind the bag, holding it in place.

"Are you new here? I don't think I've seen you around," the guy asked.

"I moved to Lima a few months back," Harry shrugged. "Not much to do there in the way of exercising though, I'm afraid. I'm Harry, by the way."

The boy grinned. "I'm Blaine."

Liked it? Loved it? Hated it? Don't hesitate to let me know!

Till next time,

-Robin.