Disclaimer: Je ne possède pas Harcèlent le Potier ou la Fantaisie Finale.
Sirius: Hey, that's French! Not bad.
I thought you were under the bed?
Sirius: Well, it's not very Gryffindor-ish to hide under the bed, now is it?
True dat. By the way, Sirius, tu parles francois?
Sirius: Just a little. More than enough to recognize the French language, though. I'm better at speaking Italian, though.
Harry: in an Italian accent that's not very good Ah, Italiano, ze musical language!
Down boy.
Harry and Sirius: Hey!
Hermione and Remus were flipping through a collection of obscure spell books while Tonks, Ron, and Ginny watched Harry on the TV, keeping the others up-to-date on Harry's condition. Shacklebolt had went for take-out.
"Remus, what about this one? It's a spell used to communicate telepathically using the target's and caster's magical cores as the medium," Hermione suggested.
"Does it say anything about distance or obstacles?"
"No, except to say that it's been proven to work from directly opposite sides of the Earth. It does mention the possibility of successful communication through dimensions, but is not guaranteed or even considered safe," Hermione summarized.
"We'll keep that one in mind. There may be a safer or more promising spell in these books," Remus advised. Neither pair of eyes left their respective books.
"I wonder if these 'Materia' are like the cores of wands," Ginny...well...wondered aloud.
"I don't think so," Ron said. "As that bloke in purple said, each Materia has its own use. They're probably not multi-purpose like wands are."
"That 'Ice' Materia did only let him cast Ice spells, he said," Tonks agreed.
"But still," Ron said, "I don't know how they react with Harry. I'm not sure if I even want to know."
"We'll probably find out, I'll bet," Ginny remarked, "since it's more than likely that Harry will end up using some later."
"True dat," Tonks nodded.
"YO!" Barret roared over the noise of the train cars connecting to his followers. "Looks like this ain't no private car! So split up!" He nodded at Cloud, Tifa, and Harry. "Y'all stay wit' me!" Harry resisted the urge to snap a salute, though the probable look on Barret's face was tempting.
Harry's eye caught sight of a familiar looking face. It's the same man that left the car last night when Barret and the others came in, Harry realized. The man, who had been standing, covered his face and moaned, clearly audible, "...hoodlums again. God, don't I just have all the luck..." He sat down and, crossing his legs, began staring blankly at the window across from him.
"You say sumthin'?" Barret challenged. He walked right up to the guy. "I said, you say sumthin'!?" At the lack of response, Barret smirked. "Well, lookit that! It got empty alluva sudden! What's goin' on?"
The man looked up and swore. "DAMN!" He paled. "I...it's empty because of...g-guys like you..." Before he could say another word, he received a powerful backhand slap from Barret. "YIPES!" He cowered, rather like Pettigrew, Harry noticed with disgust. The man whimpered, "You...you've seen the news, right? AVALANCHE says there'll be more bombings. Only devoted employees like me would go to Midgar on a day like today."
Barret jumped back and pointed his gun-arm at the Shinra employee. "You work for Shinra!?"
"I won't give in to violence," the man whimpered a bit more. Then, in a voice Harry nearly broke his ears straining to hear it, added, "...and I won't give you my seat either."
"BARRET!!!" Tifa bellowed.
Barret backed down. "Fuck!! You lucky bitch!" The leader of AVALANCHE returned to the back of the car with Harry, Tifa, and Cloud.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Cloud asked.
"Shit!" Barret grumbled. "The hell you so calm about? You're bustin' up my rhythm!"
A sudden rumbling drowned out further conversation. A few seconds later, the train began to move. "Seems like they just finished connecting the cars," Tifa observed. "We're finally leaving."
"So what's the target, Barret?" Harry asked.
"Hah! Listen to Mr. Serious-About-His-Work!" Barret chuckled.
Great, Harry thought to himself. Another title that needs hyphenation.
"Awright...I'll tell ya!" Barret began. "Jesse may have you told you, but there's a security check point at the top plate. It's an ID scan system checkin' all the trains."
"Which Shinra is very proud of," Tifa cut in.
"We can't use our fake ID's anymore," Barret concluded.
The intercom speaker crackled to life as a voice said, "Good morning and welcome to Midgar Lines. Arrival time at Sector 4 station will be in approximately five minutes."
"Alright," Barret declared, "in five minutes, we're jumpin' offa this train! Got it!?"
"Jumping off the train?" Harry gasped.
"It's no big deal," Cloud remarked with dry humor. "This train is only traveling about forty or fifty kilometers an hour. Not very fast. As long as you roll when hit the ground, you should only take a few bruises, maybe a scrape."
"Maybe..." Harry conceded. It certainly couldn't be worse than a fifteen-meter drop straight down to the ground, could it? Granted, Dumbledore had used the Arresto Momentum spell to slow his fall, and the ground was soaked with rain, making it soft, but still...
"Come here, Cloud," Tifa motioned. "Let's look at the railway map monitor."
"I've already seen it last night with Jesse," Cloud replied.
"Oh," Tifa answered, saddened.
Yup, Cloud doesn't have a clue. And I thought Ron was thick, Harry thought with a grin.
"Oi!" Ron cried in protest as Harry's latest statement (in parenthesizes to signify it as a thought, rather than out-loud speech) came onto the screen.
"He makes a good point," Ginny laughed. "You were completely oblivious for almost six years."
"Yeah, but still...it's the principle of the thing," Ron grunted.
"And you're still pretty clueless about women today, Ron," Tonks added. The youngest male Weasley groaned, blushing to his hair roots, and covered his face with his hands. Had any of the three of them been looking, they'd notice that Remus was smirking and Hermione was blushing and grinning at the same time.
"Did I miss something?" Of course, the Auror named Shacklebolt had chosen that moment to walk in, levitating a couple of bags of Chinese take-out with his wand.
"Nope, nothing," Tonks grinned cheekily. "Let us at the food!"
"Hear, hear," Ron mumbled despondently.
"Oh, chin up, Ron," Ginny elbowed him. "We're just taking the mickey out of you."
The car suddenly became doused in a blood-red light as a siren began blaring. "Type A Security Alert!!! Unidentified passengers confirmed! A search of all the cars will be conducted! Repeat! Type A Security Alert!!! Unidentified passengers confirmed! A search of all the cars will be conducted!"
"What's happening?" Tifa cried.
"What's goin' on!?" Barret roared.
Jesse rushed in through the door. "We're in trouble! I'll explain later! Hurry! Get to the next car!"
"Fuck!" Barret grumbled, pulling Harry and Tifa along with him as he made his way toward the door Jesse ran back through. "Someone blew it..."
"Unidentified passengers located in Car #1," the slightly digitized voice said over the intercom. "Preparing for lock down."
"Let's go! Keep it up!" Barret ordered. Tifa, Cloud, and Harry pressed through the door into the next car, followed by the AVALANCHE leader.
"Car #1 locked down. Upgrading to Level 2 Warning," the intercom warbled.
"Hurry!" Biggs called to them, running toward the next car.
"They're gonna lock the door, sir!" Wedge cried, chasing after Biggs.
"Unidentified passengers located in Car #2. Preparing for lock down."
"Just run!" Jesse yelled. "Changing to Plan B!" Barret, Cloud, Tifa, and Harry followed the brunette into the next car.
"Car #2 locked down. Upgrading to Level 3 Warning." The red light stopped flashing at this statement.
"Awright! We clear?" Barret asked.
"Not yet; they're starting another search!" Jesse replied. "If we're caught, we're done for! But don't worry," she explained. "If we move up the train, car by car, we should be able to escape!" She turned and started to run for the next car, only to be stopped when a man grabbed her arm. Jesse broke free and knocked him down with a quick roundhouse kick before fleeing through the door. Harry and Tifa followed after her, with Barret and Cloud behind them.
"Unidentified passengers are confirmed to be moving toward the front of the train. Currently tracking location..."
As they squeezed through the door into the final car, the lights came back on and the doors to the other cars slammed shut and clicked as the locks fell into place. "Car #4 locked down. Upgrading to Maximum Security Alert!!!"
"Alright, we made it!" Barret ran toward the front of the car where, Harry now saw, was a door on the side of the car. An 'EXIT' sign glowed dimly in the low light just above it. "Yo! This way!" He threw open the door, revealing the tunnel wall outside as lights on it flashed by. "Let's go! We're gonna dive outta here!"
Tifa, Cloud, and Harry walked up to the door. "Scary, huh..." Tifa remarked.
"A bit," Harry agreed.
"Too late to be saying that now," Cloud snapped. "Why did you come along anyway, Tifa?"
Tifa smiled and looked down. "...Because..."
"Hey you two!" Barret scolded. "Ain't no time for that!"
Tifa nodded. "Yeah! I've made up my mind. Watch closely; I'm gonna jump!' Once Tifa's jump brought her outside the door of the train car, she disappeared as her decreased momentum let the train car leave her behind. Cloud followed soon after.
Harry turned to Barret. "You don't mind if I go first?"
"A leader always stays til the end," the large man told him. "Don't worry about me, just go!"
"Right." Harry had only stepped to the door when Barret stopped him for a moment.
"Yo! Don't go getting' your scrawny little ass hurt! It's only the beginning of the mission!"
"I'm a hero, Barret. The hero always makes it no matter what!" Harry quipped before he placed his right foot on the edge and pushed off.
This is one of the stupidest things I've ever done, Harry thought before his body hit the ground. He let himself fall to the ground and roll away from the speeding train, feeling only a bit sore as he stood up. He checked himself for major injuries, but seemed fine. Guess that joke was true after all, he mused as Cloud and Tifa joined him. Barret appeared half a minute later.
Harry: I resent being called a 'scrawny little ass.'
It was Barret that said it, not me. And it's not like you have spiky blonde hair, you know.
Harry: But still, it's the principle of the thing.
Sirius: That line is starting to annoy me.
It doesn't take much of anything to annoy you, does it, Sirius?
Harry: Sirius-ly.
Sirius: groans
