Alright first things first: Replies to a couple of Guests.
KK: Thank you for the suggestions, I appreciate them.
Guest: the one who asked to make an Audio Recording. So long as I am credited and am provided a link to listen (because I am curious and would love to see the work you put in) I have no issues with it.
Secondly: the 1000-Review special is going to be Protective!Arcobaleno in a Battle Situation. I'll let y'all know when it's up.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
The Arcobaleno's view of Skull has shattered.
He is not weak. He is not a Lackey. He is not useless.
He is a survivor, a General, a tactician.
He is theirs.
And he has faced war. They have just seen him die (again). Glances are exchanged and in the seconds it takes them to meet one another's eyes they all agree.
They will finish these memories, and then they will go after their Cloud who had left them alone to learn.
O~O~O
The memories start again as the Arcobaleno touch the Pensieve. They watch once more as their Cloud steps forward with his back straight, his eyes defying and resolute.
They watch as their Cloud is hit by the Killing Curse and how he falls to the floor. Their rage surges again, but this time they control their Flames well enough to prevent them from being flung out of the Pensieve a second time.
The memory continues.
The surroundings flash into blinding, unending white.
They witness their Cloud appears, crouched in the middle of it all, the only spot of color.
Harry rises up and glances around and the Arcobaleno recognize the bleached form of King's Cross Station. "What…?" their Cloud's voice breaks the silence and he walks forward.
The Arcobaleno follow.
"Oh Harry." A voice breaks the silence, and the entire group whirls around to face the origin. Their breath catches in time with Harry's.
Lily Potter is beautiful.
She is clad in a dress the shade of liquid gold with emerald touches around hems and seams looking like leaves that curl around the gold. It flutters and flares around her hips and legs on an invisible breeze. On top of the shining emerald eyes and fire colored hair she looks very much like a celestial being.
"Mum?" Harry's voice is choked and awed and he is still, clad in battle damaged clothes, clothes that bear the marks of his long hours on the run, the battle he has just faced, the dirt from where he had fallen and the blood of the dead.
The Arcobaleno can't help but think it looks very much like an angel had come down to welcome a weary traveler to rest.
"My brave, wonderful, selfless boy. I am so proud of you."
And the Arcobaleno are surrounding Harry in this memory, so they are close enough to hear as his voice catches on an almost sob at the sentence. They instinctively part as Lily Potter steps forward, reaching for her son. "You've been so brave," she tells him with warm eyes "so, so brave. You've grown into a good man. A man who walked to his death for children. To give them a chance, and I have no words to tell you how proud we are of you."
"We?"
Lily smiles at Harry "Your family has always watched over you Harry," her voice is gentle as she answers him "we may not be able to be there physically, but you have never been nor will you ever be alone. Even if you can't see us."
In the next instant Lily's grin grows wicked and mischievous. The Arcobaleno blink when they realize they are seeing Skull's (Harry's) mischievous smirk on Lily's face "I just happened to be the one who won the fight that broke out deciding who would greet you here."
And Harry laughs even while he cries, because he has never had family that wanted him, that would fight over who got to see him. Remus had told him more than once he had inherited Lily's temper, and imagining his mother rolling around on the ground in a large free-for-all between his family members, only for it all to end with Lily sitting victorious on a pile of defeated bodies that share his hair or nose, or knees, or cheekbones, all grumbling about red heads and tempers is something Harry can see. The smirk softens back into a smile as Lily pulls Harry back into her arms and pulls him close. "I'm sorry you faced so much on your own, that you had to make so many hard choices." Her hands glide through thick black hair "I wish you hadn't needed to make these choices and suffer so much even though I'm proud."
Lily sighed for a moment before she pulled away "Unfortunately I have some things to show you, and you have a choice to make. One more difficult choice."
Harry pulls away from Lily's shoulder and takes a breath, wiping his eyes "What choice?"
Lily pulls him to a bench and murmurs "Look underneath it"
Harry obeys, only to jerk backwards and recoil away "What is that?!"
The Arcobaleno are silent as they creep a little closer so they can look at whatever had caused their Cloud to pull away. They mimic his reaction shortly after, sneers of disgust pulling at their faces as soon as they seen the curled up representation of Tom Riddle's soul.
"The night Voldemort killed us and tried to kill you his already shattered soul fragmented further. You were made a living vessel for that fragment. When he raised his wand to kill you and you willing went to sacrifice yourself it allowed you a choice. That thing is the fragment killed by his own hand. Right now we stand in a sort of…limbo. Or rather an area called the In-Between. Your sacrifice and Tom Riddle's soul fragment allow for an odd set of circumstances for you."
Harry stared at her as his mother- his mother- paused "I want you to know right now that as of this moment the Prophesy is complete. You've done your part in it. You do not need to go if you don't want to. Alright?"
Harry nodded. He thought he may be in shock. He was processing everything he was told but…
Lily nodded "Alright. You have a choice here. Everyone does, but not many have the awareness to know they have one- not when it usually feels so natural to move forward- move on. You can go back." She told him "You could go back. Wake up. Live out the rest of your life the way you want. I will still be here when you join me a second time. We will all still be here. All this choice will do is postpone our meeting. This I swear to you."
"Or?" Harry asked, the innate urge to know all his options insisting he ask.
"Or" his mother continued "You could come with me now. You could move on. You don't need to go back. You've done your part. Everything you needed to do you have done and you've done it beautifully. You could rest. Meet the rest of your family. I told you- we've watched over you your entire life and if you go back we will continue to watch over you and simply greet you later."
She paused a moment, allowing Harry to absorb what she had offered him "These are your choices. I will be proud and happy no matter your choice. So…do you want to come with me now, or go back and meet up with me later?"
The Arcobaleno see Harry's face twist as the choice is offered to him. They know it is probably the most difficult choice he has ever made, or possibly will ever make.
The entire encounter is watched and memorized by the Arcobaleno with an air of sacred silence. This was their Cloud's mother. The mother that had sacrificed herself for him without a moment of hesitation. They memorize her voice, the way she carried herself, her face, her eyes, how she talked…
This woman deserved to be remembered and honored.
So the Arcobaleno would do so.
Harry spoke softly as he broke the silence to answer his mother "I'll go back." He wasn't the sort to leave business unfinished, not even when rest sounded glorious. He could postpone their meeting. It wasn't a goodbye. It was a 'see you later.'
His mother smiled at him, warm and loving and proud before she pressed her lips to his scar and whispered to him.
"I will see you again Harry. Live…and be happy."
O~O~O~
The Arcobaleno find themselves back in the middle of the forest only seconds after their Cloud had hit the ground.
They watch as he is declared 'dead' and how Hagrid is made to take the 'body' back to the Castle.
Their eyes burn with rage as Voldemort steps up the Castle and gloats about killing their Cloud. As screams of horror and denial echo from the throats of children and adults alike. And they are silent as Voldemort issues his threat "Join me…or die."
And Neville Longbottom steps forward, his eyes burning with resolve. For an instant they can almost see the bright yellow of Sun Flames in his eyes. He is a Sun with one of his own 'dead', who has already lost some of his brood, a Sun with his home threatened, with an injured brood behind him, and the Arcobaleno can see his rage and determination when he speaks in the ringing silence.
"It doesn't matter that Harry's gone. People die every day! Friends, family. Yeah, we lost Harry tonight." A pause, that flicker of burning gold, his resolve solidifying as Neville continues "He's still with us, in here." A fist slamming into his chest in emphasis. "So is Fred… Remus, Tonks, all of them. They didn't die in vain. But you will! Because you're wrong! Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us. It's not over!"
The Arcobaleno see Harry's lips twitch with pride for the timid boy who had grown into a shining Sun, who had stepped up when all others had stepped back, when Harry was not there to lead the charge.
He takes his cue, and rolls out of Hagrid's arms under disbelieving stares before he shoots off a spell at Voldemort's back.
The battle begins anew.
O~O~O~
The Arcobaleno watch as, in the middle of chaos, Neville is the one to behead the last Horcrux- Voldemort's snake-and how the Death Eaters are vicious in their attacks.
They are there when Harry lunges forward, no wand in hand and rips his Basilisk Fang dagger from its place around his neck and slams it into Voldemort's throat.
They watch as Tom Riddle drops to the ground choking on blood and poison eating at his veins with no phoenix to save him. It is an agonizing death for all its speed.
No great bouts of magic, no duels, no great speeches.
Just Harry lunging forward and a blade to the throat. A very 'muggle' death for all that Basilisk Venom is magical.
It's fitting, they think, that Voldemort die this way, the way Harry had 'killed' Tom's first Horcrux.
They've come full circle.
O~O~O~
The battle stops for a moment before it grows more vicious.
The Death Eaters left standing know this is the end for them. There is no Voldemort to save them, and the other side of the war had lost too much to let them escape unharmed. There will be no lying their way out of charges this time and they know it. So they fight. They fight like their lives are on the line, like it is the last thing they will ever do.
Because they are, and it is.
O~O~O~
When the battle ends and Harry walks through the battlefield, the Arcobaleno mourn for him.
He finds many of his friends, those he had claimed as family among the dead. Children. Some he knew, some he didn't, but all mourned.
The Arcobaleno walk with him, memorizing faces and names as they go, so that their Cloud will not be the only one left to remember these people, these children that had fought with him. They are there when he finds George crouched over Bill and begging his older brother not to leave him too.
Harry flies to their side and the Arcobaleno rush behind him. Bill's breathing is harsh, there are multiple gouges across his face, and blood is everywhere. "George what happened?!"
"A werewolf clawed him across the face and threw him around. He wasn't bitten, but he's bleeding too much and I can't—Harry I can't lose him too."
Harry had already seen the other Weasleys in the battle field, had already carried their bodies back into the castle so they could be laid to rest properly later on. He knows that aside from George and Charlie, Bill is the only living Weasley left. The only member of the family who had taken in and cared for an orphaned boy with no idea what he was doing.
His eyes flare violet as he swears "You won't lose him George. I promise."
They witness Harry's Flames flare to life in his hands and how he presses them over the wounds. They watch and realize that Harry is pumping Cloud Flames into Bill in order to replenish his blood supply. They are unware of how Harry is also using his Flames to find and isolate Bill's immune system, his white blood cells, and boost their amount and strength.
Harry himself is unaware of how his Flames find the bits of the Werewolf curse in Bill's blood- enough to be present and make his instincts a bit more feral, but not to cause him to turn- and boost the natural healing ability that comes along with the curse.
The end result is that Bill's heartbeat strengthens, his wounds heal into scars, and Bill lives.
Fleur thanks him endlessly, as George does. Harry is also the one that finds Charlie in the mess (the man having come back to his family from Romania when the war started really picking up) and sends him to the remaining members of his family.
Charlie thanks him as well and Harry leaves to release the children and parents in the Chamber below. He smiles, exhausted and ready to collapse into tears and rage, but happy at least that he had kept his promise to these children.
"Voldemort is gone. He'll never hurt anyone ever again. I promised after all."
O~O~O~
The Arcobaleno watch as Harry is given no time to mourn properly, how he is then pulled into the rebuilding effort, how he is pulled into trials and laws. They watch as the pressure builds and how the breaking point approaches.
They know Clouds.
They know that if a Cloud is chained to something, they self-destruct and take everything around them along for the ride. They know that the explosion from Harry would be utterly and completely devastating.
Added to the fact that Harry is a Cloud who had suffered devastating losses, in territory and in family…at this point not even Harry knows how lucky it truly is that he hadn't self-destructed and taken out Wizarding Britain with him.
And then Harry reaches the point where he has had enough. Enough of being asked to lead, to make choices, to put everyone and everything back together again when he hasn't even had the chance to put himself back together.
The Arcobaleno watch as he goes to his family and tells them "I have to go. I can't stay here anymore. I'll stay in touch though I promise, and if you need me I will come back for you always."
And the family who loves Harry, and can see how the Wizarding World is smothering him, killing his soul one piece at a time, lets him go.
The Arcobaleno watch the Stuntman that gives their Cloud hope and light. Watch as he takes up riding the motorcycle, and doing crazier and crazier stunts.
And then he meets them.
Utterly clueless about Flames, but a war veteran who recognizes that they are all very dangerous people that he doesn't trust who all have skills he doesn't understand.
So he builds a mask, he lies, he hides.
They see him discover what exactly the 'purple flame magic' he has been using really is. How he instantly begins to learn just from watching the other Arcobaleno on jobs, watch as Skull uses that visual learning to expand on what he can do with his Flames, how he learns with the speed of someone who is used to needing what they learn to save his own life and the lives of those he cares for.
And they watch as they buy the entire act: hook, line, and sinker.