Alan Rickman has passed away…David Bowie as well…They will be missed. Here's to some of my favorite singers/actors.
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Skull leaves the Arcobaleno behind, storming from the clearing, his mind whirling through what he has learned and what his response is going to be.
The Arcobaleno don't follow after him.
Not because they don't want to follow him, but because they don't realize exactly what is happening.
As far as they know Skull is only dealing with Mafia. He may be the 'weakest' of the Arcobaleno, but he is still an Arcobaleno. They trust him to look after himself, trust that he doesn't need their help. They trust that as a Cloud raging in defense of something that is considered 'his' he may even take offense if he is denied his chance to rage at the cause.
They don't know about the war Skull had lead.
They don't know about magic.
They don't know about the different factions fighting to cage their Cloud into their roles for him.
They don't know that Skull is marching back into a mess that has centered around their Cloud since he was eleven years old.
Not yet.
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Skull's reentrance to the Wizarding World is smooth and subtle. He doesn't rage in despite his intense desire to just burn it all down around him until he found his Wizarding family.
Harry would have. Harry would have raged across Diagon Alley, like lightning and fire leaving shattered windows and crumbled stone in his wake.
Not Skull though.
Skull has learned better, has learned patience and the art of information gathering. Has learned to wait and strike later. He has learned the art of sabotage. He has learned to think like an assassin. His rage will be more like the wrath of the gods.
His hair was naturally violet now- right alongside his eyes from a magical accident while using Cloud Flames (not that anyone knows this since the accident had happened after he left the Wizarding World and before Checkface- they think it is dye and Skull lets them since it fits Skull's 'flamboyant flashy attitude' after all.) He leaves his hair as it is- let the wizards think he is just a metamorphmagus wandering the alley. He does wear colored contacts however- his eyes now appear to be black and he leaves his punk style clothes on- black leather, combat boots, piercings and all.
He's as far from 'Harry Potter' as could be as far as any wizard looking his way is concerned.
Fools.
His gain though.
Skull spends the next week slinking around in plain sight gathering more in-depth information on the Wizarding World's movements since he had been away. He had never not kept an eye on them. They wanted to cage him after all so Skull has watched from afar, but that wasn't the same as up close and personal information gathering.
He learns in this first week of the Neo-Eaters. New Death Eaters. Death Eaters being trained to move around in political situations rather than out in the open. He learns of the subtly passed laws, the racism and bigotry more carefully hidden, the prettied up lies. He learns of shadow tactics, of the 'accidents'. The war taking place in the shadows and alley ways hidden from the public eye.
It's much harder to pass the blatantly racist laws and actions out in the open after the war with Riddle. The people trying to manage it have to be cunning and sneaky and rather good at prettying up anything they want passed so it doesn't appear to be anything but equal treatment.
He learns of the subtle way Purebloods are managing to suppress the Muggleborns. Learns of the things slipping under the radar because the laws are not read carefully enough. He learns of the few that have noticed and are fighting to stop it. He learns of the dark and dirty way people are having 'accidents' of the increase in 'disappearances'.
He learns of the fear the Neo-Eaters have of him. Their knowledge that 'Harry Potter' would have fought viciously against this. Their knowledge that Harry would have noticed and pointed it out. Their knowledge that if Harry Potter Man-Who-Conquered spoke against them, against any of them, the people would listen and their powerbase would crumble. That all the work they had managed in his absence would be for nothing.
He learned that the people fighting against the Neo-Eaters knew this. That this 'Neo-Order' had been searching for him endlessly even as they fought the Neo-Eaters. That they wanted a leader the people would rally behind.
He learned that this Order had been constantly going to George, Bill and Fleur to learn his whereabouts, to learn anything they could use and that by doing so had lead the Neo-Eaters right to their doorstep.
He learned the three had been taken and no one had told Charlie who was still in Romania.
Harry may have had a saving-people-thing, but Skull did not.
He saved his people and no one else.
Harry may have rallied against the Neo-Eaters and led the charge against them, may have fought in the shadows against what Skull recognizes as assassinations and hits, but Skull, Skull who had just learned that all his work as Harry, all his suffering, all his loss, all his blood and tears, his death and his revival had been for nothing, that the people were following along like sheep as the Neo-Eaters led them to a Pureblood Supremacy era Harry had fought so hard against, that the Order that fought against them had not only failed to stop it from happening, but split their attention between the issue and looking for him to do it for them…
The fact that they had not only looked for him to solve their problems, but they had led the enemy to his family meant that Skull would not.
It meant that Skull would do nothing more than burn the issue in front of him away. He would make sure his wizarding family was safe, he would demolish the Neo-Eaters that had taken his family, and then he would make sure the entire Wizarding World never called on him again even if he had to destroy them all.
Skull may have helped a bit before leaving out of a twisted sense of duty, because it had always been him to clean up the messes of the Wizarding World as they were placed in his path ever since he had been eleven years old, may have helped because of the memory of his first friends, but these people had placed his family straight in the middle of their mess, placed their lives in danger and he knew Fleur was pregnant with another little one...and that changed things for Skull.
Everyone had a limit. Everyone had a line they drew in the sand. Everyone had a place where they would fight back.
It didn't matter if they had been abused or beaten down, it didn't matter if they stood at the top of the food chain. It didn't matter if they were in perfect health, if they had broken both legs and were bleeding all over the ground. It didn't matter if they were the biggest serial killer to have walked the earth or the kindest man or women to be born, who had never said a bad word about anyone. Conditioning didn't matter, morals didn't matter; laws didn't matter.
None of that mattered in the long run. Everyone had a moment where they had enough, everyone had a moment where they would lash out, everyone had something that would shove them over the knife edge they balanced on. Everyone had a line in the sand that should not be crossed.
Everyone had a snapping point.
Skull's was finding out his family was in the hands of people who fought like the mafia- who murdered in the shadows and manipulated the political side in the light.
He'd been immersed in the Mafia long enough, had survived a whole war on the front lines, been surrounded by the world's very best killers long enough that Skull was not opposed to the idea of simply taking the problem out at the roots if provided a suitable reason to do so. Threatening the few family members he had left in the world, those that had walked the path of war time by his side or those who walked the shadows of the Mafia at his side was plenty of reason.
These Neo-Eaters?
This Neo-Order?
Harry may have fought them, but Skull…Skull was an assassin. He was an assassin who had drawn a line in the sand and had it trampled on and over.
And he would not give them a third chance at his family to get at him.
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I wanted to give you a glimpse into Skull/Harry's brain. And Hibari-Muse stopped me here. Everything I added after felt wrong and forced or choppy.
I've broken 150 Reviews- Thank you so, so much you guys. It's humbling how much you all respond to this. How much you all seem to enjoy this. I want you to know how much I appreciate each and every one of the Favs and Alerts and Reviews. They mean the world you guys- thanks again.