Title: Lover Reborn

Author: Excalibur's Fire

FanFiction: Harry Potter X Final Fantasy VIII

Pairings: HPxDM (Past), HPXSeifer Almasy

Beta: None

Warnings: Slash, there is boy/boy love in this, if you don't like that please don't read, you yelling at me about it isn't going to change my mind on it so it is just moo point (like a cow's opinion, it doesn't matter, lol)

Rating: K (just to be safe, but I doubt it will get that high)

Disclaimer: Neither Harry Potter world nor Final Fantasy VIII worlds belong to me, if they did there would be a lot more man on man loving, ('cause that shite is hot)

Chapter 5

Seifer led Raijin and Fujin up to the group gathering for instructions for the Field Exam, Headmaster Kramer, SeeD Xu and Instructor Trepe were standing on one side of the circle of students. Seifer could see about 2/3 of his class standing there, he that there were a few that hadn't passed the written test and wouldn't be participating in the field exam but were there to wish friends luck like Raijin and Fujin had come for him.

In the front he could see Selphie speaking excitedly with Squall and standing beside the library girl, Penelope who was trying to calm down a nervous looking Zell and wondered where Green Eyes was, he had heard rumors that the boy was travelling to Garden from Esthar to participate in the Field Exam and he seemed to pass his prerequisite battle the other day.

Instructor Trepe stepped forward with a clip board and began listing off names and groups. Selphie was in Candidate Group A and after giving Squall one more smile she skipped away to stand with a small mouse-like boy and a tall thin boy who were her group mates.

"Seifer Almasy," Quistis called catching his attention, "Squall Leonheart and Zell Dincht, Group D. Seifer you are the group leader."

"Aww, no! Can't we switch? I don't want to be in a group with him!" Zell was complaining loudly. "He's always such a jerk!"

Seifer rolled his eyes as he and his friends approached the trio. Penelope was holding Zell's hand trying to quiet him down.

"Poor Zelly-poo, if I was hurting your feelings you should have just told me! I didn't know that you had such delicate sensibilities." Seifer smirked.

Zell shook with anger and stepped back a few steps dropping Penelope's hand and began shadow boxing to try to take his mind off the horrible situation.

"Seifer, can't you be civil for even just a little while?" Qusitis said walking over to them.

"I don't know Instructor, it might do me some damage." He said sending a sneer in her direction.

"Quiet down everyone." Xu called over the talking. Once the noise had stopped the headmaster took a step forward and began talking.

"Welcome everyone to the SeeD Candidate Field Exam. This exam's purpose is not to determine how strong you are and how skilled a fighter, but your reactions in battle and how you deal with orders. There are four candidate teams, A-D, and there are three other qualified SeeD teams, E-G. We do not expect you to win this conflict on your own; that is what the SeeDs are there for. You will be proving you can follow orders and to get your first real life battle experience, if at the end you have proven yourself unready to shoulder the responsibilities of being SeeD you will not be passed, it often takes a student more than once to pass this portion of the exam, so do not feel bad if you do not succeed this time. SeeD Xu will be travelling between the candidate groups during this exam to discuss strategies and concerns with you as you go along. With her is a candidate who will be performing as a field medic, if you are injured he will be able to assist you."

Seifer felt the blood drain from his face, this man, this Verde, was the student they were talking about, he could feel it. He had done such a good job of avoiding him so far, other than the eye contact at the fight and the one close encounter in the hallway he had completely avoided seeing him since that night in the hospital. But despite that he still couldn't keep his mind off him, every time he closed his eyes all he could see was the messy black hair and after the fight the thoughts had changed slightly, he was still picturing the messy hair but now it had long thin pale fingers running through it, gripping it, twisting it almost as if in passion. Seifer hadn't gotten to sleep until extremely late the night before due to his drifting thoughts, after a few hours of fighting the images he had gotten up and went for a run while mentally going through procedures and regulations for being SeeD until he was so tired he had barely make his way back to his room where he fell asleep immediately. But now he wished he had gotten a full nights rest so he was capable of dealing with this. He couldn't even guess at how he would react to being so close to that man.

A hand squeezed his shoulder gently in concern and his head snapped back to face Raijin and Fujin who were giving him looks of concern.

"You OK?" Raijin asked quietly while they both studied his face.

"Uh yeah. Just-just nerves catching up with me I guess." He replied as he tried to give them one of his more charming smiles.

Neither of them looked convinced with that answer in the slightest, but at that moment Cid finished his motivational speech that was not motivating in the least and they were directed to the garage to a car that they would be taking to the marina to catch the transport ship.

The pair exchanged looks before sighing slightly and turning back to Seifer who had watched this happen with a crooked eyebrow.

"Fine, have fun and stay safe, yeah?" Raijin wished.

"KICKASS." Fujin ordered with a small smile.

"Will do!" Seifer said with a little salute, nervousness over Verde diminishing as his excitement for battle began to take over.

Seifer walked over to the other two in his group to find Penelope clinging tightly to Zell and Zell squeezing back nearly as tightly; they were rocking back and forth slowly as she whispered orders to stay safe. Before he could stop it Seifer felt a small pang of jealousy, he wanted someone to worry over him that much, someone to hold tightly, someone to love; but mostly the urge to vomit over the sickening display overtook him and he faked gagging at the pair. He heard Squall chuckle quietly beside him.

"Zelly-poo! Grow a pair and let's go!" Seifer yelled, effectively breaking the pair from the little world that they had been in.

Zell turned to look at him with an angry look on his face but Penelope just grabbed his face with both hands and pressed a light kiss on his lips, he sighed and leaned his forehead against hers for a few seconds before nodding and turning to join Squall and Seifer.

"Let's go." He began walking towards the garage as Squall and Seifer followed.

DMxHP SAxHP

On route to the boat they stopped at the edge of a forest to fight some Catechepillars for Cure magic and hiding when they heard T-Rexuars. They eventually made it to the marina and they were working as a team a little more, they knew that during a big mission wouldn't be the best time for them to learn how to start working together.

They got to the marina to find Xu waiting for them on the dock.

"Where have you three been? We are the last ones to leave." She said, gesturing with no subtlety to get their arses on the boat.

Seifer's nervousness grew, if they were sharing a boat with Xu, they were sharing a boat with Verde. But no, he was Seifer Almasy, he was an arrogant, cocky, big headed jerk (using words that previous girl/boy-friends had used to describe him), he was not nervous. He didn't do nervous. He firmed his resolve to be distant and cold with the new man and, after noticing he was the only person left on the dock made his way to the ship.

As he entered the meeting room on the boat and noticed that Verde wasn't there he released a small breath that he hadn't known he was holding.

"Where's Verde?" Zell was asking Xu as he sat down beside Squall.

"He's most likely on the bridge at this moment; he said that he's never been on a ship before and wanted to see how they steer. I'm sure he will be back soon." She said taking the end seat, leaving the only two empty seats right next to each other. That was another thing about Verde that set off little bells on her head, Esthar was across water, the only way to get here from there was by air SHIP or water SHIP and they both used the same method of steering.

She was watching Seifer glare at the empty seat beside him when they felt the ship begin to pull away from the dock. Her eyes widened as she felt the boat shifting oddly and the acceleration come in jerky boosts. How had he done that? Verde had announced that he was going to ask if he could drive, but she didn't think that would actually allow him too, apparently, he was a very smooth talker when he wanted something. She let out a small laugh when she heard the boat horn go off a couple of times and after a few more minutes the driving became smoother, probably meaning someone had taken the steering away from the boy again.

The door opened and Verde walked in.

"And you didn't think I could convince them to let me drive Xu. I believe that you owe me 20 gils over that one!"

"Fine, I'll pay you when we get back to Garden." She said gesturing to the empty seat between her and Seifer.

"Hmm, I guess I can trust you not to run off some place tropical with my winnings." He sat and turned to say Hi to Zell and Squall across from him before looking directly at Seifer. They took a moment to study each other, this was the first time apart from during Harry and Xu's fight that they had looked at each other while the other was awake.

As Harry looked at Seifer he tried to fight the urge to compare him and Draco, they may share the same base soul but both lived completely different lives that shaped those souls. But, it was hard; the grey eyes weren't as world weary as Draco, but they also weren't filled with the unconditional love that Harry had grown used to; in fact, it had been years since Draco had looked at him with the odd look of contempt and something unrecognizable that Seifer was showing now. His blond hair was slicked back, but it looked like it was natural and not product induced which made Harry wonder how soft it would be if he were to run his fingers through it. He also noticed that the colour of the trench that was covering Seifer's body from his view was his favourite shade of grey, the shade that Draco's eyes turned in passion, the grey storm clouds that could overwhelm his mind and heart every time he looked into them.

He held out his hand, not unlike Draco did when they were eleven years old. "Verde." Harry said, introducing himself.

Seifer's eyes narrowed when Verde turned to look directly at him. The distance that they had been apart from each other during the fight when their eyes met had diminished the green that made up Verde's eyes, the green eyes that he dreamed about. At the thought of the dream his eyes moved towards the messy black hair that had taken a new lead role in his dreams and the urge to run his fingers through it was nearly irresistible which filled him with an odd mixture of contempt and yearning. He had to strongly fight an urge to lunge forward and devour the soft pink lips in front of him, lips that were quirked in a cute smile. Seifer forced his attention away from Verde's lips and noticed that he was wearing a tight long-sleeved green shirt the same colour as his eyes with a black vest over top; the vest had many pockets that he could see had small vials in them, many healing potions for the exam.

He then looked down at the offered hand in front of him and felt a strange wash of déjà vu. He became aware that everyone in the room was watching to see his reaction. He crossed his arms across his chest and ignored the hand while responding with a bored sounding. "Seifer Almasy."

The green eyes dimmed and turned to look at Xu who immediately began talking to take eyes off the pair. Once she was done Seifer announced that he was going to get some fresh air and see how far they were from the shore. Sad green eyes watched him leave.

"Just ignore him, he's a jerk anyway." Zell said trying to lighten the room's spirits.

Harry graced him with a small smile. "Thanks Zell." He looked around to see both Squall and Xu giving him sad looks. "I'm going to go talk to the ship's captain for a while if that's OK."

After a small nod from Xu Harry left the room and made his way down the hall, but instead of continuing straight to see the ship captain his path turned and he made his way out onto the lookout deck on the ship. He could see a shaped leaning against the rail, long trench coat waving smoothly in the wind with explosions going off in the distance in front of them. The door closed with a quiet snick behind Harry, but Seifer must have heard it as his frame tensed.

"I'm sorry if I have done anything to you to earn your anger, Seifer. But we are about to go into a fairly important battle for both of us here and I would really like it if we could get along during it. I would like to be sure that you wouldn't refuse my help if you really needed it just because you don't like me. I want to offer my hand again, not in friendship I guess, but more in-" He searched for the proper words. "In a civil acquaintanceship." He finished.

Seifer stood with his back to Harry for another few seconds making Harry wonder if he had even heard, before turning slowly so they were face to face.

"Who are you?" Seifer asked.

"I'm Verde." Harry responded, knowing that wasn't the answer that Seifer was looking for, but knowing he couldn't give the correct answer yet.

Seifer released an angry huff of air, but reached forward to shake Harry's hand. A warm shock ran through both men as the hands touched and Seifer jerked his hand back and resisted the urge to rub his hand on his pant leg.

"Civil acquaintanceship?" Seifer asked.

"Civil acquaintanceship." Harry replied.

DMxHP SAxHP

Seifer lead Harry back to the meeting room before announcing that they were nearly at the beach and should start getting ready.

Harry started handing out last minute potions to the group in case they were unable to use their Cure magic while Zell began bouncing around warming up and loosening his muscles. Xu checked to make sure all of her clips were full of extra ammunition while the two gunblade boys just sat back and watched, looking completely unworried.

When Harry approached Seifer to give him the extra potions he noticed that Seifer had a thick ring on the thumb if his left hand and he was spinning it nervously while the rest of his body held a calm and relaxed position. Harry knew that this was the same thing that Draco had done when he was extremely nervous about something, he also knew that he had to do something to help take Seifer's mind off what was coming up or he might blow it.

Harry sat down beside him and knew that Seifer was far gone because his presence wasn't acknowledged at all.

"What's your gunblade's name?"

Seifer turned and gave him a steady look before answering. "Hyperion."

Harry tilted his head as if urging him to continue.

Seifer heaved a sigh. "Hyperion was one of the Titans who were sent away when the GFs first appeared. The titans once ruled this world as their own before Bahamut, Alexander and Griever came and sent them away, taking this world as their own. Bahamut, the Dragon GF rules over the darkness and shadows, not making him evil, but there has to be a balance between light and dark and he works to keep that balance. Alexander, the Great Guardian GF rules over the light and all that walks in it keeping the other side of the balance. And Griever, the most powerful GF rules over everything, light or dark, and is constantly watching; it is said that if the world becomes so out of balance that Griever is needed to return it to equilibrium then he will just destroy everything and the GFs will start over and work to avoid the mistakes made before."

Harry sat there stunned, watching him with wide eyes, he had lived with the GFs for nearly 18 years and he didn't know any of this! Bahamut was one of his best friends and that he was the God of Darkness, on par with Earth's Hades, never came up. He had played games with Alexander and had had talks with wise old Griever and he never had a clue.

"Interesting…" Harry murmured, finger tapping the stone that was hanging around his throat. "Very interesting."

During the story Seifer had calmed down and quit playing with his ring, so by the time Xu announced they had arrived he was calm, cool and collected. He wordlessly accepted the potions that Harry offered him, barely sparing him a glance.

"Let's go." Seifer turned and ran out of the hatch that had opened at the nose of the ship as they beached themselves.

As soon as Harry stepped off the ship Seifer watched as he made his way over to where Selphie was standing guard at the bottom of the staircase that lead upwards from the beach. Seifer could see her smile at Verde as he approached her. He watched as the pair whispered quietly and quickly to each other before Verde leaned in and gave her a long hug which she returned enthusiastically. Seifer growled quietly as he watched it, Squall glanced up from what he had been playing with in his pouch at the growl and followed Seifer's line of sight to the hugging pair, his eyes narrowed and he fought the tendrils twisting around his stomach as he watched the brunets. Zell, oblivious to the drama from his group mates, was leaning over and stretching his hamstrings and calves.

"OK boys," Xu said, drawing their attention to herself. "Head to the town center disposing of any enemy soldiers in the process, and Verde and I will catch up with you a bit later. Good fight." Xu said sending the trio a small salute which they returned before turning to leave.

As they reached the pair at the bottom of the stairs Zell stopped to wish Harry and Selphie a good battle, as the two returned the sentiments Harry leaned forward and caught a surprised Zell in a hug as well. A large smile lit Zell's face up, and small shiver raked his body as a confused look crossed his face but Harry leaned forward and whispered a word or two in his ear and the look was once again a smile. Seifer watched angrily as Squall received a hug as well, but questions entered his eyes as he noticed Squall try to conceal a shiver as well before Harry once again whispered and gained a nod. Seifer's eyes narrowed as he saw Harry's attention turn to him. There was no way that he was going to let this kid hug him, he didn't even know him. And would I let him go if I did hug him or would I hold on forever? Seifer bit the inside of his cheek in anger at the treacherous thoughts. He watched the soft pink lips curve upwards in a smile as Harry's face turned to his, and unwilling part of his stomach dropped in disappointment as Harry didn't make a move to hug him at all but only moved to shake his hand. His eyes stayed locked with the green pair in front of his when a look of concentration covered them and he felt a warmth that made the rest of his body feel ice cold move through his hand and up his arm to spread across his body, causing an inadvertent shiver to run through him. He closed his eyes briefly and tightened his grip on the strong hand that was in his, when he opened them he swore that the eyes were glowing an eerie, yet beautiful, shade of green, the same way they had glowed at the end of the practice fight with Xu, but the glow had passed so quickly he wasn't sure if he had truly seen it. The boy cocked an eyebrow and mouthed the word 'magic' before releasing his hand. Seifer starred at him with his mouth opened slightly before shaking his head and closing his mouth with an angry snap.

"Let's stop wasting our time and go." Turning he caused his grey trench coat to flare out before walking in the direction of the town center. He didn't look back; he just trusted the other two would eventually, sooner rather than later, catch up with him.

"Come on Zell, we should follow our captain." He heard Squall say, he also heard a flurry of 'goodbye' and 'good luck' from everyone before two pairs of footsteps followed behind him easily catching up.

"You two ready for some action?" They heard Seifer say in a wicked voice.

DMxHP SAxHP

"Ugghhh, this is so boring its killing my soul a little." Seifer complained as he counted bricks on a broken wall across from where he was lounging. He was sitting in a side alleyway at the center of the small town, the fountain to his right seemed to be leaking water from the side of a lithe nymph that had originally been the center of attention on the fountain, now the bouquet that she had once held that dribbled water was broken in a half dozen pieces on the ground.

"Oh shut up already, man! At least you aren't crippled!" Zell snapped from the mostly hidden corner where the other two had placed him. He had some debris tied to his lower left leg with a ripped up Galbadian uniform in effort to stabilize it without a proper splint.

"Yes Seifer, please give it a rest now. Come over here and make yourself look useful at least for when Xu and Verde get here, you know they should be arriving soon." Squall was leaning in an alcove where he was able to see the center square as well as all of the entrances, and beside him was a golden Labrador who had apparently been separated from its owners during the battle. The dog spent the majority of its time sitting at his feet starring loving into Squall's face; all three found this a little strange but shrugged it off.

Seifer grumbled to himself but, using the wall as leverage, pushed himself to his feet. Once he was vertical he moved towards a side street, kicking debris aside until the dog made a whining noise in the back of its throat and looked towards a group of Galbadian soldiers that were not so silently making their way through the section of town center where Seifer has just before been sitting. Seifer silently pushed himself against a wall and crouched down while Squall pulled further back into the alcove's shadow.

The dog ran towards the closest man and barked madly at him.

"Shut that mangy beast up, you fool." The leading man hissed.

"Yes sir, sorry sir." The man stuttered back, he took a wide kick at the dog trying to frighten it away. "Stop! Bad dog! Quiet, sit, heel, lie down. Go away!" His voice getting higher and more desperate with each word.

"Wedge, deal with it, or I will." Biggs said angrily to him.

Wedge looked frantically around trying to find something to throw at the dog, he saw a small pile of rubble and grabbed a few fist sized pieces and began half-hazardly throwing them in the dog's direction. This did not put the dog off at all, he would just sidestep if any pieces threatened to come in contact with him and continued his alarm.

"That's it. My turn." Biggs snapped both verbally and mentally. He swung around at the dog while pulling out his AK-47 and began to shower bullets at the dog. There was a horrible whining sound and then silence after the dog stumbled behind the broken fountain.

Wedge and the rest of the men stared open mouthed at their Captain as his breathing began to return to normal. After one more deep breath his head turned towards them and they all took a quick step back.

"Now I want everyone to be extra quiet for the rest of the trip to the tower, understand?" He casually pulled out the bullet clip and saw that he had wasted about a quarter of it on the dog, he popped it back in and turned sharply towards the path that they had been heading to. "Move out."

As soon as the men left the square Squall stumbled forward to the dog to check if it were still alive, it had been grazed by a few bullets but on the whole was in very good shape for just having been shot at. Squall softly patted the dog as it began licking its leg which had the deepest wound and was slowly leaking blood. Seifer exited the side street he had been hiding in and after making sure his partners were uninjured he made his way down the street that the soldiers had taken to see if they were leaving posts to watch their backs or not.

Once Seifer was out of sight Xu and Verde slipped around a corner and into the square, they quickly took in the scene and Verde rushed over to Zell and began diagnosing his leg while Xu moved to question Squall about what happened and where their leader was. As Squall reported that a group of enemy soldiers had just passed by heading towards a 'tower' Verde was scuttling around trying to find a better suited splint for Zell's leg. Seifer silently appeared from the street that he had scouted to an amazing view as the dark haired male bent over to pick up and discard chunks of wood. He shook his head clear to hear Zell and Verde speaking quietly.

"The way I was hit it should have removed my entire leg! I don't understand how I got away with just a fracture and cut!" Zell was gushing in a relieved manner. "I could almost feel a shiver as the soldier hit me, the pain almost felt as if it were dispersed across my whole leg instead of just that spot. I was so lucky."

"It's almost magical how lucky you were, isn't it Zell." Verde said quietly while locking eyes with a watching Seifer.

Magical. The word echoed around Seifer's head until the messy haired boy sighed while looking at Zell's leg.

"I don't think that you will be able to finish this Zell. You might have to head back to the transporter and help out there to finish off the exam." Verde said standing up.

Xu looked over at the three of them and she and Squall moved to join them. "What did you find out Seifer?"

Seifer told her that the enemy group seemed to be heading towards the old unused TV tower that topped the hill behind the town, but seemed confident that no one was following them because they weren't leaving any look outs.

Xu chewed her lower lip in thought as her gazed moved between the four gentlemen in front of her to the tower that was just visible over the tops of the buildings. "Verde, how is your leg?"

Recognizing the official sound in her voice as one that Dumbledore used when what he was saying was important, Harry saluted, "Feeling great, moving amongst the groups has loosened it up."

"Good, SeeD Candidate Verde, you will be joining Group D to replace the injured SeeD Candidate Zell Dincht. You will follow Leader Seifer Almasy's instructions. SeeD Candidate Seifer Almasy." Xu officially stated his name and station to draw his attention from where it had been starring in slight horror at Verde when it was announced that he would join the team. After the blond saluted she continued. "Your team is now on intel retrieval. You will follow the enemy to the tower and collect any information you can on what they are doing without officially engaging them in battle. Zell, I will help you back to the transporter where you will help Control to keep tabs on the candidates. Strength and speed gentlemen." Xu saluted once more before pulling Zell to a standing position and, with an arm wrapped around his waist, helped him back towards the beach where they had landed.

Seifer and Squall watched as the two left the square before turning around to meet the smiling face of Verde. His impossibly green eyes sparkling at the thought of possible battles to come. "Well fellas, let's get the show on the road!"

Squall just shook his head as he spotted the dog starring at him again. He crouched down and quietly spoke to the dog, hoping the others wouldn't hear him. Standing back up and stepping away from the dog he gestured in the direction that Xu and Zell had taken to head back to the beach. This was met with a slightly cocked head before the dog looked in the direction that he pointed and began quickly limping to a crumbling house. Squall sighed slightly before putting the dog out of his mind.

Long time coming, I know and I'm sorry, but I can't completely guarantee that it won't happen again but I can promise that I won't let it go that far again. I can give you guys many excuses, but they are just that, excuses. One of the biggest being, "why write when you can read?" I read a lot of fanfic when I have the time and that keeps me from writing it, haha.

If it helps as soon as I post this I am starting on the next chapter. And I will be playing again so I will follow along as I play.

Thanks everyone for continuing to read this.

Stats:

Hits: 7 065

Favs: 71

Alerts: 116

Reviews: 12

Love you all!

Excalibur