Disclaimer: Non possiedo il vasaio del Harry o la fantasia finale.

Harry: What language is that!?

That's Italian.

Harry: Oh.

Sirius: I thought you knew some Italian, Harry.

Harry: No, that was Hestia Jones.

Sirius: Oh.


"You're damn right that's the stupidest thing you've ever done, Harry James Potter!" Hermione and Ginny yelled at the screen simultaneously, almost throwing their take-out out of their laps and onto everything (and everyone) else. Ron and Remus rubbed their ears, as they had been sitting right next to the screaming girls.

"He can't hear us, you know," Ron grumbled.

"They're just worried about him, Ron. We all are," Remus admonished him.

"That doesn't mean they have to screech right in our ears, though," the young man argued.

"No, it doesn't," the werewolf agreed. They went back to eating.

The sound of the yelling had caused Shacklebolt and Tonks to look up from the books they had been looking at. "What's all that ruckus about, eh?" the young Metamorph called to them.

"Just Harry pulling a typical Harry stunt," Ron called back. His reply was immediately followed by cries of "RON!" and him shouting, "OW! What did you hit me for!?"

Shacklebolt chuckled. "Kids..."


"Good, so far everything has gone as planned...mostly," Barret declared. He turned toward the direction toward Sector 5. "Better not let your guard down until we get to Sector 5." He looked back at Harry, Cloud, and Tifa. "Biggs, Wedge, and Jesse got everything ready for us. So MOVE it!" The barked order made Harry and Tifa jump. "Well, the reactor's just down this tunnel."

The group of four had barely taken a step forward when Harry heard the scuttling sounds of bugs. It reminded him a bit of the acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest, but Harry pushed the unsettling thought out of his mind as he pulled out Gryffindor's Sword. He noticed Cloud was gripping his massive blade with both hands, while Barret held his gun-arm out before him. Tifa, it seemed, was a martial artist, she merely tightened her gloves and stepped back into a ready stance.

From around the corner in the tunnel, a group of five silver-gray scorpion-like creatures came into view. Right behind them was a floating mechanical device. It seemed to be controlling the arthropods in front of it.

"Awright, here's what we'll do. Cloud, Tifa, Harry, keep the bugs in front busy while I blow that 'bot a new blowhole!" Barret ordered. He opened fire at the device while Cloud and Tifa ran in and struck. Cloud raised his blade and chopped one scorpion thing in half, while Tifa pummeled another with her fists and feet.

Not to be out done, Harry leapt forward and stabbed his sword clean through an insect that had tried to circle around to attack Tifa from behind. It let out a small shriek and shriveled up, disappearing into a small pile of golden coins and a potion bottle. Tifa gave him a grateful smile before pulling him down, causing the blue laser beam aimed at their heads to soar harmlessly overhead. They jumped up afterward in time to see Cloud swat away a bug that had jumped for him with the flat of his blade. It soared through the air toward them, and Tifa jumped up and caught it with a flip kick that sent it straight into the wall behind.

Needless to say, Harry was awe-struck. "How did you do that?" he asked.

Tifa giggled. "I've had lots of training and practice."

A shriek of victory rose from behind them. As Harry turned around to attack, the shriek turned into a screech of pain. Several icicles formed around it out of nowhere, then shattered, opening up several cuts on it. Harry took advantage of its distraction and lopped off its tail (a sudden twitch had caused Harry to miss the head, for which he'd been aiming). Irritated, Harry raised his foot and slammed it down on the bug's little head with satisfying crunch. Teach you to sneak up on us, Harry thought. He saw Tifa wave at Cloud in thanks.

Though Harry hadn't paid attention to it, the sound of gunfire that was present had stopped. A tiny explosion erupted as the controlling robot finally took too much damage and was destroyed.

"I thought you killed...what was it...a 'great dirty snake,' with that sword, kid?" Cloud remarked, spinning his blade around before attaching it to the magnet on his back. "You didn't look like you had much skill with it."

"I did say that I was more used to using a short staff," Harry protested. "I'll admit to being lucky to killing that basilisk, though."

Tifa and Cloud began to laugh. "You call a basilisk a 'great dirty snake'? Basilisks are little green lizards about three meters in length."

"Not where I come from," Harry shook his head. "Where I'm from, a basilisk is this massive snake that kill you just by looking into your eyes. Although...there is a partial defense against that, but it's not much; by seeing a reflection or by looking through a ghost, you're only Petrified instead. Then there are the poisonous fangs that are about a third of a meter long."

"Sounds a bit like the Midgar Zolom," Cloud nodded knowledgably. He bent down and scooped up the bottle, handing it to Harry. The coins disappeared into Barret's money pouch. "Though the Zolom can't kill just by looking at you."

"Just where did you say you came from, Harry?" Tifa asked.

"Erm...it's a place only few people have ever heard of. It's called...'Hogwarts.'"

"Ain't never heard o' that place before," Barret remarked.

"My people like to...hide themselves from the general public," Harry explained. "If the world knew what we could do...they'd either try to exterminate us...or, more likely, try to use us to solve their problems for them."

"Those are good reasons to secret an entire population away," Cloud observed. "Still, that sounds a lot like cowardice to me."

"Hmm..." Harry had considered that perspective. "You may have a point. You know, only I and a few other people ever actually called that megalomaniac by anything other than 'You-Know-Who' or 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.' If that's not cowardly, I don't know what is."

"That's stupid."

Harry nodded. "You know, the headmaster at my school kept saying, 'Fear of a name, increases the fear of the thing itself.' He was the one to convince me to start calling Voldemort by his name."


"Barmy. Absolutely barmy," Ron muttered. His observation went completely ignored, however, as everyone else in the room nodded in agreement (some partially reluctant) with Harry's statement.

"Harry's right," Hermione spoke up. "Only he, Professor Dumbledore, and Moody ever said or heard the name without so much as batting an eye."

"James and Sirius were never afraid to say the name, either, now that I think about it," Remus offered. "Though Pettigrew would flinch and cower away worse than most people." His expression was neutral, but a flash of hate sparked in his eyes for a mere moment in such a way that, unless you were looking for it and looking in his eyes at the exact moment it happened, you would miss it. It was followed by an equally miniscule glint of sadness. "Lily understood that people were afraid, but that rarely kept her from scoffing at them for flinching at the mere mention of his name."

"Huh...those are dangerous-looking beams of light," Shacklebolt murmured, gathering everyone's attention to the screen, where Harry and his companions approached a set of glowing beams of green and white light.


"Those light beams are the Shinra's security sensors," Cloud declared. "We can't go any further."

Harry spotted a ventilation duct in the wall on their side of the light beams. "What about that duct?"

Barret peered at it. "That's one damn tiny hole," he grumbled. "You tellin' me to squeeze into that to get under the Plate? No way!" He looked up at Cloud. "Yo, Cloud! What're we gonna do?"

Tifa got close and looked down inside. "I don't see anything that'll get us stuck in this duct."

"Yeah, but if we go down this duct, we won't be to come back up here," Cloud agreed.

"Don't be wastin' no time!" Barret growled. "Never know when the Shinra'll find us. Cloud, you jes' gotta go!" He glanced at the duct again. "But, damn, man, that thing gives me the creeps!"

"Claustrophobic much, Barret?" Harry snickered, though not without sympathy. If Harry was as big as the gun-arm toting leader of AVALANCHE, he wouldn't want to try squeezing into an air duct like that either.

"I ain't afraid of nothin'!" the large man shot back, still growling. As if to prove it, he went and climbed inside the duct first. As he squeezed himself inside and crawled down, Harry could hear a lot of swearing and even a few rounds of gunfire. After several tense minutes of this, Barret finally called back, "Phew! Finally out! Alright, you three, it's clear. Come on down!"

Cloud looked at Tifa. "Ladies first, Tifa."

Tifa shook her head, grinning. "To be the first to die? I don't think so, Cloud. You can go first this time."

Harry interrupted them before they could bicker any further. "I'll go down first. Hopefully that will keep you two from bickering like an old married couple." Harry's words were rewarded with a brilliant blush on both sets of cheeks and some stammering from Tifa. Smiling broadly to himself, Harry sat down and stuck his feet into the vent first, then pushed off and slid down. Being so-called 'scrawny' does have its advantages sometimes, Harry thought as he shot out the other end, almost colliding with Barret's broad back.

"Sheesh, kid, could you have come outta that thing any faster? You almost bowled me over!" he grunted, keeping an eye – and his gun-arm – on the lookout.

"What can I say?" Harry shot back as Tifa slid down, quite a bit more slowly. "I'm a 'scrawny little ass,' remember?"

"True dat," Barret laughed. A few banging sounds could be heard from the duct as Cloud (or, more accurately, his huge sword) banged on the walls of the vent several times. After another minute or two, he pulled himself out of the duct headfirst and joined them.

Wedge poked his head up over the ladder leading downward before them, and looked relieved to see it was them. "Cloud, Barret, this way. The Reactor's down a few ladders, across the platform, and up a third ladder."

"Right," Cloud acknowledged, much to Barret's chagrin. The quartet followed the pudgy fellow down the set of ladders (his pistol and Barret's gun-arm quickly dispatched the few scorpion-bugs with ease as they clambered down the ladders) and they shortly stepped out onto a big platform. It could easily be a quarter-kilometer long, Harry noted, and was about half that in width. At the opposite end from where they stood, they saw another ladder. Biggs was standing there, and he greeted Barret and Cloud as the group approached.

"We're gonna pull out now," he told them. "We'll meet up back at the hideout." He turned to Cloud. "Cloud, we're countin' on you to blow the reactor!"

Wedge and Biggs pulled back, taking some other exit. Harry and Cloud climbed the ladder first and came face to face with Jesse at the top; Barret and then Tifa joined them less than a minute later.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Jesse frowned sadly. "The ID scan problem on the train was my fault. I made your ID card special...So that's why it happened. I put my heart into making it, but I failed."

"It's okay, everything worked out fine in the end," Harry replied. "But...why?"

Jesse shrugged. "I dunno. You just seemed like a cute little brother, I guess."

"'Cute little brother'?" Tifa giggled. She looked at Harry appraisingly. "You make a good point, Jesse."

"Oi!" Harry protested as Cloud and Barret began chuckling (the girls were giggling). Harry was feeling particularly chastised for something, but he wasn't sure why or what for.

"Awright, enough o' that," Barret declared a few minutes (and several glares from Harry) later. "Let's go set the bomb and blow this joint."

"See you later, guys," Jesse called, sliding down the ladder and disappearing. Harry and Tifa went through the final door first, followed by Cloud and Barret.

"Whoa." Harry was awe-struck. This room was huge! They were currently standing on a small platform the same level as the top floor of what could only be called a tower, where, Harry could see, some elevators were located. There's our escape route. Looking down, Harry's eyes followed the staircase to the bottom of the room. He also saw a pipe that was about a meter and a half wide, extending from the edge of the platform where they now stood down across the room, dropped to a vertical position about four meters off the ground.

"Alright, kid, enough gawking. Let's go," Barret grumbled. "I'll stay back and lay down some cover if any security finds us. Cloud, you go first, then Harry, and then Tifa. I'll go after everyone else."

Without a word, Cloud leapt nimbly onto the pipe, sliding down the metal tube like he was surfing. As he came to the bottom, he jumped down, hitting the floor and rolling to absorb the impact safely and without injury.

"And I thought jumping out of a speeding train was stupid," Harry muttered under his breath. A giggle told him that Tifa had heard him. "Well, here goes nothing, I guess." Harry, quite sure his trainers would not allow him to slide as Cloud had, sat down on his rear and pushed off, as he had back in the ventilation duct. He let out a gasp as he slid faster than the duct, and as he came close to the end of the angled section of the pipe, clamped his feet around the tube and slowed down. It almost worked too well; Harry managed not to fly forward head first, but it was a near thing. His descent slowed down, and Harry let go at the end, dropping the last few meters and hitting the ground in a roll as Cloud had done. He wasn't hurt.

"That wasn't very stylish, kid," Cloud smirked.

"Yeah, well, pardon me for not having Slip-n-Slide boots, Spiky," Harry snapped back. Cloud might have glared at the nickname, had Tifa not landed on her feet next to him, giggling at them and the slide.

The crack of gunfire stopped any teasing short. Turning, Harry pulled out his blade as security bots rolled up them, most of them sporting bullet holes. Barret must not want to open fire on them with us so close to them. Doesn't want to risk hitting us by mistake, Harry realized when he could no longer hear Barret's gun arm.

"Machines! Tifa, cast Thunder on them!" Cloud's voice ordered as its owner leapt forward and sliced cleanly through one of the robots.

"Got it!" Tifa brought her hands together, glowed green for a moment, and then threw a hand forward. A sizzling bolt of electricity arched from her hand, striking the nearest bot and short-circuiting it. It shut down, then self-destructed. Harry managed to knock away a piece that was heading for him with Gryffindor's Sword, before swinging his blade at the security bot that was lumbering toward him.

CLANG! Harry's arm was numbed by the shock as the blade left a massive dent in the machine's armor plating, but otherwise did nothing. Harry ducked down as the bot countered by firing a rotary gun that had been pointing at his face from point-blank range. Harry rolled to the side, taking another swing and slicing through a weak spot and severing several wires and hydraulic tubes. The machine staggered, but even after it had fallen over and was unable to move, it still attempted to train its rotary gun on him. Harry stabbed at another joint in the armor, and scored another hit, this one disabling what seemed to control the firing controls. He could tell because, even though the rotary gun was spinning with the barrel pointing at him, only a few sparks and a lot of smoke came out. Harry quickly moved away and kicked it from behind with annoyance before standing beside Tifa, ready to distract any bot that got past Cloud and neared the human electric prod.

"Ugh!" It seemed that a bot had struck Cloud while no one was watching. As Cloud spun around and sliced it in half with a back-hand stroke, Harry pulled out the vial he'd been given earlier; Tifa had explained to him that it was a Potion, capable of healing minor to moderate injuries and wounds.

"Here!" he called, tossing the vial toward the purple-clad fighter. Cloud turned and caught it, downing it quickly before casting the empty vial toward a robot to make it turn, only to find Cloud's massive sword coming down and splitting into two.

"Thanks, kid," he nodded at Harry. Harry nodded in return, but stumbled a bit when Barret joined them from above, crashing into a robot that had come upon the three of them from behind.

"Didn't I ever tell you to always keep an eye out for enemies!?" Barret bellowed at them.

"To be fair, Barret, you never told me that," Harry shot back. That stopped Barret's upcoming rant short.

"Let's get moving. They probably know we're here, now." Tifa's logical argument made the quartet move toward the nearby door. Inside, they climbed down yet another ladder and slowly traversed a pipe that stretched from their current platform to the wall, where another ladder could be seen heading down to the level below.

Once they were safely down, the Reactor core could be seen. Harry, Cloud, and Tifa stepped forward (Barret turned around to provide cover). Standing before the Reactor, however, Cloud suddenly fell to his knees, clutching his head.

"Cloud!" Tifa cried, kneeling down next to him. Harry squatted down, too, and studied his face.

"What's wrong wit' him?" Barret called over his shoulder.

"Tifa...?" Cloud's voice, like his eyes, was very far away. Suddenly, he shook his head and looked up at the girl in question.

"Damn, man! Get a hold of yourself!" Barret shouted over his shoulder.

"You all right, Cloud?" Harry asked.

Cloud stood up. "...Tifa?"

"Mmm?"

Cloud shook his head. "No, forget it. Come on, let's hurry!" Stepping up to the main controls of the Reactor, Cloud administered what looked like a C2 plastique explosive to the panel. He plugged in a timer, and set it for thirty minutes. "That should give us enough time to escape." He pressed the START button. "Let's blow this joint!"

"Sounds good to me!" Barret agreed. The four of them ran toward the ladder, intent on making it out before the bomb blew. All the while, none of them noticed a pair of eyes watching them. Once the quartet was out of sight, the eyes stepped forward, locked onto the ticking time bomb.


Phew! That was the longest chapter yet.

Harry: Hey, Cor. Why am I...such a weakling in this story? Normally, I can hold my own in fights.

Have you actually practiced with a sword, Harry?

Harry: Well, no...

Alright then. Don't worry; you'll get better shortly. I might be tempted to have Cloud give you a few tips in swordplay.

Sirius: Will Cloud really be of use to him? His sword is bigger than I am! And that's saying something!

I'm sure Cloud has some universal tips that could be applied to any melee weapon. He is ex-SOLDIER, First Class, after all.