All Along the Watchtower
Chapter 16- Razor
"Lead this is Bravo Team, in position."
"Charlie Team is ready to go."
The Captain glanced at his PDA. Each unit of his team were stacked at an entry point. He looked on as a black clad individual, with a silenced P90 submachine gun slung over his shoulder, secured a breaching charge to the wall.
He clicked the radio in his ear. "Lead on station, we have three priority VIPs. The other two are non-essential but get them out if you can. One wand, one gun, one shield. Wands do what you can; shooters kill shots only and I want directional shields around all VIPs. We have a confirmed count of fifteen hostiles but this may have been an inside job so watch out. ROE set for dynamic entry."
"Ready."
"Ready."
The Captain turned away as he secured the FN SCAR CQC to his back. "Jack P90, take the three by VIP two, I'll take the main target. Russ, shield the VIPs only, I can handle anything which comes our way." The black clad figures nodded and moved themselves to the other side of the charge.
The Captain moved to his position and steadied his breathing as best he could with the adrenaline pumping through his system. His hand gripped the Holly and Phoenix feather wand tightly. "Talons… breach and clear."
Less than a second later the directional charge exploded; taking a two metre radius of wall with it and Charlie Team moved in and it was over in less than a minute.
Each team breached the Wizengamot Court in perfect sync. The Captain didn't blink as he stalked across the dust strewn floor and two flashes of blinding green energy shot from his wand, the first killed a hostile by VIP 1 instantly and the other blew him off his feet and through the witness box. Another flash of light, red; erupted from the wand and cut a bloody swath in a feral looking man with sunken yellow eyes before he could bring the stick in his hand to bear. He fell to the ground limply as the wound across his chest sprayed blood in an almost comical fashion.
The Captain looked up to find the entire room cleared of hostiles and he grinned under the black balaclava covering his face, his Talons were razor sharp.
"Clear."
"Hostiles down and accounted for."
"VIPs secure."
It was music to his ears as he strode toward the terrified VIPs and the Captain stopped in front of the grizzled old man who was getting to his-
-the Captain's hand was on his sidearm instantly and a bullet tore from the silver plated .45 and was through the skull of the man designated VIP 2. The man promptly began to disintegrate in a manner any magic user would recognize from early childhood stories. "You should keep better company sir."
"It would seem so." Rufus Scrimgeour said from behind a pair of wire rimmed spectacles as he looked over the ashes of his predecessor.
The Captain looked to his watch. "The Aurors will be here soon sir; simply put we saved your ass. Now get it in gear and help us out." He turned to his Talons. "Move out!"
They moved from the room quickly, leaving the damaged and dead behind in such a way that the Minister almost could easily recognize it as a trait of experienced soldiers. "Am I not allowed the name of my rescuer?"
"No, but you can have this." The Captains hand burst into flame and it scorched the stone at the Ministers' feet.
The Minister for Magic looked at it curiously as his rescuer retreated from the Courtroom. He knew only five others in his Ministry who would recognize the symbol and they all once held his position, privy to all the classified information in the vaults of the Auror Department and the Unspeakable Archives. It was the seal of the Order of the Element, of the Assassins.
The greatest enemy of his kin.
xxxxx
Harry pulled on a fresh t-shirt and threw the black combat jacket over the armchair at his desk; he needed to put it into his washing basket at home but his face screwed up when the smell of smoke assaulted his nostrils. Sprawled across the couch on the right-hand side of his office was Kaden, puffing a cigarette.
"So you finally popped one in that prick's head?"
Harry groaned in irritation. "Piss off, he was a vampire."
"So that's your excuse?"
Harry rolled his eyes. "He turned to ash!"
Kaden sat up happily. "Whatever, you still did it; you killed the Minister for Magic."
"I killed a Minister for Magic, the FORMER Minister for Magic...and he was a VAMPIRE!"
Kaden stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray. "Whatever, you need to make your report to the Council."
Harry closed over his equipment locker. "The Council, a full Council meeting for debrief?"
"Not full but a couple, saving them was a double edged sword, we've lit a fire and we need to see how it settles. Master's D and A will tell you how exactly we hope it settles and what we'll need to do if the wind doesn't turn our way."
Harry nodded. "What about your dad and Sunny?"
"Adam's out on business and Sunny's out with some of the greener Guardians on training Op, playing the bad guy with Rossi, Richie, Paddy and Malfoy." Kaden said, knowing himself that his Father's Guardians were mostly made up from the rejected of other squads, its true power being in the Masters which led its huge number of twenty.
Harry felt a frown tug his lips; the Master hadn't been around a lot. "What's up with your dad lately, he's been away a lot?"
Kaden stopped short of passing the door. Harry and most of the others in the Order forgot his Father wasn't always their leader; he was once an Assassin just like them and had been living with the cost of war for longer than any of them. "My Dad's been at this for going on forty years and he isn't like us. He needs the business, besides giving us all the money for our fancy toys it needs a public face and he's happy to play the part. He thinks that it he can give people jobs, a better life and help out a few more them he's not as bad as his dreams tell him he is."
xxxxx
Cho Chang stood in front of the solid oak door. She didn't know how long she stood there or how many times she read the ornate plaque on the door. It was strange, whenever she saw him wearing the face of another, she half-thought it would've been easier to bear. But knowing it was him behind the glamour was enough, more than enough, too much to bear. She looked at the lock and slid her hand over it. A small flash of electricity and she pushed the door inward.
Cho passed through the door and looked over the room. To her surprise he was face down on the desk and breathing lightly. His equipment was spread over the coffee table and the pristine white outer-robe of his formal robes lay on the couch.
She walked to the desk with a smile, he wasn't wearing the ring. Cho stopped; she didn't want to go any further. If she was honest, she didn't even know why she was there. She loved Luca and yet she was watching him sleep. She reached forward to touch his hand but pulled back and turned away.
"Stop, don't leave." Harry said as she went for the door.
She stopped as her hand clasped around the handle.
"I'm sorry but I did what I had to do, I left and didn't know if I was coming back."
Cho felt his eyes burn into her back. "You should have told me."
"And said what? That I was coming back, maybe, in twenty years? I didn't want you to put your life on hold. I wanted you to be happy without me."
Cho took a deep breath. "I loved you; I would have waited as long as I had to."
Harry sighed and moved around his desk. "I know but you're with Luca now and I promised you I wouldn't get in the way." He sat back on the desk regretfully.
Cho turned to him and looked him in the eye. She could feel his indecision, the regret of his decisions, he was in pain. "What if I want you to?"
Harry's head shot up. "Really?"
Cho nodded and he rushed forward. Cho almost giggled in delight as he spun her again and again. She was sad and most certainly dizzy when he stopped.
"I swear Cho, I'll find that bastard, kill him and we'll have everything you could ever want. I promise, we can leave and do whatever you want-"
Cho brought a finger to his lips. "Shh, I know. I know-"
"-what about Luca?"
"I don't want to think about Luca now…"
xxxxx
"What is wrong with us?"
Harry considered her question carefully. "Besides your on occasion trying-to-kill me episodes and when we met you were hell bent on trying to destroy my Order, the fact that I have two kids to my best friend's sister, you're in a relationship with another guy or that we just slept together, are now on the couch in my office and I think your knickers are somewhere-"
Cho quieted him with a slap on his arm.
"What? So we're perfectly normal?"
Cho hit him again. "No but I like to think that we could be."
Harry snorted. "After our Elements, the fact I think I'm now a fallen Angel and that you're a witch and I'm a wizard?"
"An Angel?" Cho asked.
"No, well yeah, but…" Harry sighed. "Long story, I'll tell you another time."
"Tell me now."
Harry shifted. "It's complicated, I died, went to hell and when I got out I had to go somewhere…from what AJ-"
"-AJ is dead Harry."
Harry nodded as he grabbed his boxers off the floor. "But he's not, you have to understand, he's an Angel now."
Cho looked up. "Harry, Angels are a legend, no one in the magical world has ever seen them."
Harry spread his arms wide. "They're everywhere, watching us, all the time and I was one of them for like a grand total of ten seconds." Harry leaned back against his desk and observed her reaction. "I know it sounds crazy Cho but it's true. Angels, Demons, heaven, hell, God, the Devil…it's all real and we're all just pieces in their chess set."
"You were in heaven?" Cho asked as she moved toward him.
Harry nodded as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"What was it like?"
Harry smiled at her dreamy tone "It was…it was…from what I can remember…" Harry laughed. "You have to understand, its' different for everyone, whatever you want, wherever you want it and whenever you like it. You can see the people you love, live a life in a second…it's amazing."
Cho sighed. "It sounds perfect."
"It is." Harry said wistfully.
Cho shifted against him and gave a sly grin when she heard him groan. "Would you go back?"
Harry tried to ignore his very pressing problem. "No." Harry said shaking his head, the one above his neck. "It's to perfect. I love this life. I love us, I love my bizarre friendship with the saddest and most selfish bastard on I've ever met, I love this place...the only thing I want is us, to look back twenty years and know I made the right decision today."
Cho looked up at him. "And what is that?"
"Marry me."
Cho looked at him in complete shock. "What?"
"Not the answer I was looking for." Harry said as he pushed away from her and set about picking up his clothes.
"Harry stop," Cho placed a hand on his arm.
Harry shrugged her off. "Cho the worst thing about this is, I am about to stop, I ask you to marry me and you say what?"
"I'm still with Luca, I need-"
"-you're going to back to him after this?" Harry asked incredulously as he pulled up his jeans.
"No." Cho said, suddenly conscious of her nakedness and grabbed his shirt. "No, I have to tell him first, I just have to tell him…he deserves better!"
"That's still not an answer."
Cho was shocked at the anger which took hold of her, the red haze she repressed for so long, anger she had buried so deep which kept her alive time and time again. "What do you expect me to say! My family wouldn't be there, your family think that you're dead, worse than dead after what happened to your grave! Who would be there? How would we explain it to people?" Cho sneered. "That good old Cho's back on the horse and fucking every guy going, including the son of Master Steele. Poor broken Cho, the little slut, who will she do next?"
"Cho stop," Harry said, "just stop."
"Why? Don't you want to know what I was doing while you were suffering?"
"I don't care." Harry said painfully. "I don't care, I've done worse and the way I see it nothing will change that. Same as nothing will change what you did."
"I betrayed you!" Cho shouted.
Harry bit back a heavy retort and took a deep breath; Cho didn't know what betrayal was. "What do you want me to say? I know, Kaden told me, I know everything!"
"Then why do you want me?" Cho asked quietly.
"Why do you think I came back Cho? To fight the Dark Lord? To escape hell? I ripped out my angelic grace; I cut it out like it was my own kidney with a butter knife. I tasted paradise and unlimited power but I couldn't stand watching you down here. I need a reason to save this world and I did everything for you and my family…haven't you noticed I've done everything you wanted since I got back? I've tried to make you happy and I all get is this." Harry shook his head. "I love you Cho and I thought that was enough."
Cho felt a tear leak from her eye and another and another until they were dripping to the floor and pooling at her feet. Cho sniffed at how pathetic she felt.
Harry pulled her to him. "I love you, I want everything with you, I want a life with you and I'll get rid of anyone who gets in the way of that." He whispered vehemently, a half-mad whisper.
Cho smiled through the tears. "Yes, I will marry you Harry Sirius Potter."
xxxxx
Harry settled into the chair in his friend's office and slipped the ring from his finger. He threw it onto the desk and was surprised by the anger and resentment he felt for the inanimate object. "What do you want?" Harry asked as he felt the glamour slide from his features.
Kaden shrugged in his seat. "Do I always need a reason?"
"Usually its' just a case of drink and where, not why don't you come into the office?"
Kaden nodded sedately as he closed his laptop. "Just wanted to tell you how the dust settled-"
"-thought it was ash?" Harry said with a grin.
"Well you took it to heart when I said you killed the Minister for-"
"-a, a Minister for Magic."
Kaden laughed. "Whatever."
"Let's hear it."
"Long story short, Scrimgeour's a fucking Paradyne Knight."
Harry blanched in shock; his Talons saved the man's life. "How is that possible?"
Kaden grimaced. "Turns out he's related to an obscure branch of the Diggory family and the entire tree's a part of their Order or so Intel's saying, so is he?"
"He contacted us?" Harry asked; he knew there were parts of the Ministry who knew or at least suspected the Order was more than a bed-time story of hoods and hidden blades.
"Not the way we wanted. He walked right up to Ben Sobotka at his desk in the Ministry and told him straight who he wanted to meet and when."
Harry breathed out; there was no telling how many of the Operatives in the Ministry were compromised. "Shit… so what are we doing about it?"
Kaden opened his mouth to speak but his office telephone started ringing. Kaden looked at it warily, like it was a manticore about to explode. Tentatively he picked it up. "Hello?"
Harry snorted at Kaden's stupidity and looked around the room. It was sparse, devoid of any and all sentiment, much like he had known Kaden to be for the past few months. There was only one place where sentiment rained, damp and cold for Kaden. Harry blinked and Kaden was gone, the door flying open. Harry couldn't catch him but saw his path clearly as he vaulted over the railing of the pathway connecting to the central pillar of the Academy where the lifts where located. He reached the railing and looked over to see a shadow darting towards the infirmary; Harry hesitated before pulling himself over the railing and into a short free-fall before he touched down lightly with a swish of his wand.
Harry reached the infirmary to find it in chaos, Trauma Two was bustling with activity and blood stained sterile floor to the door. He tried to locate Kaden in the activity but took a few minutes. Harry approached the slumped figure next to the door. Blood stained his blue shirt, covered his hands and mingled in his hair where he had run his hands through it.
"She can't die…she can't die, not again-" Kaden muttered to himself.
Harry knelt down next to him and grimaced as he took in the metallic scent of blood. Kaden stilled as Harry laid a hand on his shoulder. "Who are you talking about mate?"
Kaden looked up at him with red stained eyes and a look of despair. "She can't die Harry, she can't…not again"
Harry looked through the glass door curiously and saw Doctor Landry and her nurses working furiously at their patient and he passed through the door.
Landry didn't look up from her patient as a nurse hung another IV bag, "Clear the room, I have a patient."
"Who is she?"
She ignored him and said to her assistant. "See him out and keep him out."
"Shit." Harry muttered as he looked down at his finger, the ring was missing.
The girl came around the table and saw her second ghost of the day. "Harry?" That said she stumbled into table of instruments and Harry just managed to catch her before she fell.
xxxxx
"Thank you for coming Harry." Adam said from behind his desk.
Harry shook his head. "Not a problem sir."
Adam watched as the boy settled and as he turned the silver ring over and over. The boy he once knew was now a man, a man who survived and committed horrors far beyond imagination according to Master Dumbledore. "Are you sure it is wise to take that off?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm getting sick of it."
Adam nodded. "I understand but that is one of the reasons I called you here."
Harry looked up. "What do you need sir?"
"I need to know how a girl, who has been dead for longer than I care to think about, is now alive." Adam leaned back and pulled open a drawer of his desk and produced a small blade wrapped in a black silk sheet, he placed it on the desk. "I need to know why this was found in her side; I need to know what this is and why it burns everyone it touches." Adam looked up from the blade. "I have a feeling you can help me."
Harry's face was blank but he stopped turning the ring. "I'm sorry sir, I don't know who that girl is except Kaden knew her when they were-"
Adam stopped him with a look, the look he used to cow the Council of Masters when their infighting grated on his last nerve. "I will ask you only once more Captain, this time I want the truth, how is she alive? And why is she here?"
Harry took the thinly veiled threat seriously. "I sorry-"
"DON'T!" Adam stated, "Don't you dare plead ignorance!" Adam stood from his seat and drifted towards the window. "You and Kaden think you have secrets, you think you can hide things from me. Don't think I'm above threatening you Harry but I won't have my son destroyed again. If I don't get answers I will inform the Council of Miss Chang's crimes against our Order."
Harry's expression darkened and the ring dropped to the floor. "Threaten anything but her. You don't know what I've done Master, I'll do anything to protect her and I won't even blink if I have to destroy this Order."
Adam turned; his eyes alight. "Don't threaten my home boy, you have no idea who you threatening."
Harry took a deep breath. "With respect sir, she is alive, will survive her injuries and won't disappear. Kaden is happier than I've ever saw him and she's not even awake yet. I don't know how she came back, whether it was the same as I did or some other way. All I know is she was an Angel." Harry flicked the cloth from the blade and looked it over. He recognized some of the markings; they were similar to the ones tattooed on his body. "I've got no clue what this is for, except that these symbols are Enochian, the language of Heaven."
Adam never turned from his pitch at the window. "You were in hell?"
Harry looked up from the blade and swallowed hard. "Yes I was."
"You turned?"
"Yes I did."
Adam sighed and went back to his chair. "I had no idea-"
"Save it." Harry said. "I can live with it or try to, but don't threaten her ever again…"
Adam nodded sedately but he didn't take the threat lightly. "I understand but I had to know Harry, I don't think Kaden could survive losing her again."
Harry stopped on his way to the door. "He won't, she's come back more powerful than any of us short of me. If anything she has more chance of losing him."
"The Council has requested your presence at a special session; you have my word that the ring on your finger will be dust before dawn."
"Thank you, sir, will I be allowed to see all of my family?" Harry asked; keeping the hope and optimism from breaking the surface. He longed to see his mother again, for her to be his confessor again and absolve his sins like she had when he was a child. To be mirrored in his brother's innocent sapphire stare and allay him of any guilt over his passing. To look upon his Father and tell him of his troubles and seek whatever wisdom the Potter Patriarch could provide, however fleeting and short lived the truce would be. For Sirius to grin and joke gleefully over his supposed death and laugh in the face of the Dark Lord's Legion.
Adam shook his head. "I'm sorry; I can't promise you anything but have a good day Captain, your hopes shall hinge upon our negotiations with the Minister and his Heads of Department. But I believe you are meeting Zach for the first time, tell him Papa says hello."
Harry thought of his son and smiled, their truce would be forged through the blood of family. "I will, sir."
xxxxx
Harry stood in the centre of the ring of twelve high backed stone chairs, only ten of which were occupied. The room was ancient by his reckoning and lit only by torches of Gubraithian Fire built into the walls, but the defining features of the room were the magnificent statues of ancient Assassins passed, from the legendary Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad to his greatest descendants such as Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
The Council Chamber of the Order of the Element was probably the most impregnable room he had ever set foot in, being buried almost seven hundred meters underground and warded almost to the point of Hogwarts. Everything from Unplottable to Anti-Magic with nigh a Portkey in sight. In order to enter one had to Apparate to a specific point in the room which changed every hour and only the keeper of Wards, Master Aubrey, knew where it was.
"You are the Harry Sirius Potter, Firebrand and Master Assassin of the Elemental Order." One of the hooded figures asked.
Harry recognized the as that of his Master, Aberforth Dumbledore. Harry pulled back his hood and said, "Yes I am." The 'Master Assassin' part was new but he couldn't complain.
"You answered the summons of this Council and seek clarity as to the state of your new identity after further compromise?"
"Yes Master." Harry stated evenly as he recognized the Council's new mouthpiece, Master Toa Chang.
"Do you understand the seriousness and complications which will arise from your seeming resurrection?"
"Yes Master."
"You acknowledge the danger you put our Order in?"
"Yes Master, I understand the risks but this would have happened, either by your design or my choice, the incident simply helped things along."
"Which brings us onto another matter, the incident involving Allison Stevens, Airbender and Apprentice of the Order; we wish to know if you can provide an explanation for her whereabouts for the years since she has been presumed dead?" Master Chang asked.
"She was six feet under-ground in a wooden box as far as I know, Master Chang."
"If so, do you have any knowledge of how she was resurrected? Why in such a close proximity to your own? Or why she has returned at all?"
Harry could hear the insinuation burning behind his words and could've punched the bastard for it. "Again sir, I don't know how she was brought back or how I was, for all I know it is part of an elaborate plan by the Dark Lord. His people where waiting on me, like I said in my report. I would recommend she be reinstated."
"That is not for you to determine. And from what we have been led to believe your memories of that time are-"
"-they are returning slowly. But I can barely make heads or tails of them sir and if I'm honest I would rather not remember." Harry almost whispered the last part to himself. It was gut-retching to think of his time in heaven, of the power he had tasted. The glory of his celestial form and feeling traded for the cold, numb existence he now lived.
"You could be a vital intelligence resource in the war, why have you not come forward before?"
Harry's lip twitched as he fought back the sneer which threated. "I didn't come here to be interrogated Master Chang," Harry said and he looked around at them all, "not by any of you!" Harry's temper got the best of him and he snapped. "I came back to this place because I thought you would help me and all I've got is accusations thrown at me! I came back here because this place has been my home, my family and you have the gall to accuse me of holding back information? I want to rid the world of Lord Voldemort just as much as you do and make no mistake it will happen. And when it does I will not be Grayson Steele, I will be Harry Sirius Potter and that is my choice. Not yours!" Harry's hand went into his pocket and he pulled out the silver ring before dropping it to the floor as a puddle of liquid metal.
xxxxx
Harry sighed and looked up at the star strewn sky. It had been a long time since he'd last looked up at the tiny flecks of light which dotted the blackened night. It was that night in the graveyard in Little Hangleton, when he was groggy and unable to reach his magic. He thought he would die that night.
But now he wondered if somewhere else, someone else, was looking up at him and looking for clarity and absolution because for the past fifteen minutes of his life he wanted nothing more than to pull the trigger of the MacMillan TAC-50 in his hands, the sight set over the Minister for Magic and Grand Knight of the Paradynian Order, Rufus Scrimgeour.
He was by no means the greatest of that Order but Harry had no doubt the satisfaction he would feel by depriving them of such a valuable asset. However his team where only to eliminate the target as a last resort and only if they received the signal from the Master, at which point the five sniper teams spread throughout the hills around the meeting point where to decimate the collection of Paradyne Knights meeting with the Master and his entourage.
Harry knew the Knights would have similar teams throughout the Hills, only one having been spotted by the Reapers on patrol. It was mutually assured destruction; either both sides came out or neither. But he supposed, that was the danger of politics and it was times like these Harry loved being only a soldier. He did his job and went home; he didn't have to worry about talking pretty or word play, just keeping someone on the gun in case things went south. He didn't have to deal with the fallout of his disastrous meeting with the Council; he was simply shown out by Master Aubrey and advised to hold his tongue in future and not to walk into obvious traps set by those who sought power in the Order.
Harry knew he walked into Master Chang's trap but it was time he found who his true allies were and when the time came, which of the Masters on the Council he could trust to follow his lead to oblivion. He was sure he could scrub Master Chang from that small list consisting of Aubrey, Dumbledore and the Master himself. He was also sure most of the squads would follow him and the instructors like Sunny, maybe even a few of the Yanks and some of the Asian contingent.
"Captain, movement in the tree line, half a click above the DMZ, we've found our second Sniper team." Russ informed cutting his line of thought but never taking his eyes from the binoculars.
"Keep an eye on them, paint the location on your PDA and upload it to CIC."
"Done and done, sir."
Harry nodded and settled back down. Three hours and that was the most exciting news he heard. He wished his team landed patrol duty instead of the Reapers but unfortunately his team had the best rating in Sniper School.
So Russ was spotting and Jack was a much better shot than him, which left Harry on guard, only taking a shot at the scope or binoculars when either needed a break. He tried to stay vigilant as he sat around but he couldn't cast any Wards which would give off a trace. He had to keep his eyes peeled and look around using his night-vision equipment. His enhancements, like his soul, were cleansed when he fell from heaven and he didn't have the time to get them replicated. The rituals necessitated a week of downtime if not longer. Even without them, the Enochian burned into his body seemed to have the same effect.
He didn't need glasses and according to Doctor Landry he couldn't ask for better conditioning and health considering he was dead less than half a year before. He was faster, stronger and more powerful magically than before. He wanted to ask Allie if she felt the same but she hadn't regained consciousness. From what Harry understood her brother who found her lying in a puddle of mud next to a crater which used to contain her grave and several others. It made Harry think that maybe the Dark Lord sent a welcoming party for her to and she hadn't come well.
But despite Allie's condition Kaden was different. It wasn't the type of difference anyone would notice except those closest to him. He smiled more, was less taciturn than usual and had a sudden, vested interest in literature. Often one would find him sitting in Allie's room in the Infirmary reading from several old, well-worn books. The highlight being Eagle in the Sky, as Harry learned was his friend's favourite book.
Thinking on it Harry could feel Kaden patrolling out in the distance with his Reapers and Cho but dared not reach out, it would be too easy for anyone to detect and despite their abhorrence of the Element, Harry was sure there would be a few skilled wizards in their midst. He threw away the thought and recalled the day before.
The day he met his little girl for the first time.
Isabelle Lily Anderson was her name; all jet black hair and stark ice blue eyes. Unlike Zach who had acknowledged his unknown Father with an undoubted supernatural sense and took to him immediately, Harry was sure Isabelle hated him with every fibre of her being. Harry saw that alone as a connection to himself, as a child he was mistrusting of strangers and as much as he hated to admit it that was all he was to her. Harry couldn't wait to change her mind, even if it took him the rest of his life.
In short, for the first time in a long time Harry felt some measure of contentment, he had his friends, his girl and soon his family but he had to be careful about how he played it. Coming back from the dead wasn't easy even in the Order of the Element. Harry knew a great many resented his return. He heard the whispers of we don't need him! Or simply why him? On a few occasions he'd wanted to scream at them, shout at them and make them realize he didn't come back because he wanted to, he had to!
Harry imagined with his family it wouldn't bode well and if his family found out, the world would be informed and he would be a messiah overnight. He contemplated not telling them but like Zack and the fluffy blue duck he took to bed every night, if it wasn't there he wanted it and when it was he couldn't care less. That was why he had to push for the deal with the Ministry to come through and he could simply masquerade as an Unspeakable.
Harry shook his head, he'd figure it out eventually, until then he figured the stars would keep shining.