Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.
Warning: This chapter makes references to the events that happened in the previous chapter; specifically to the brief scene where Harry was molested by the guards (as usual there are no details).
AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 20: Coping in the Aftermath
Harry slowly became conscious once more to the sensation of fingers running through his hair. He muttered an unintelligible complaint beneath his breath as he swatted at the hand disturbing him before he snuggled deeper into his pillow. He'd barely begun drifting back off to sleep when the insistent fingers returned and Harry tried to tug the covers up and over his head only to snag them on his forgotten left wing, painfully bringing him to full awareness as the painful twisting of the wing joint shot through his back and he cried out reflexively as he tried to move away from the pain.
"Easy, kiddo, hold still a moment and I'll untangle ya."
Harry screwed his eyes shut and whimpered as he felt hands grabbing at his wings and shoulders; the sensation of touch immediately bringing to mind the memory of the guard's hands pawing at him through his clothes. He instinctively twisted away from the hands further tangling both of his wings now as he slapped at the hands that kept reaching for him. His stomach churned and his throat burned as he began panicking, no longer caring that he was hurting himself with each wrenching turn he made in his efforts to escape the hands and the memories they invoked.
"Stop touching me!" Harry eventually yelled out as the sheet entangling him burst into flames as his wings ignited in response to his fear and anger as his eyes finally snapped open. Free at last, he scrambled up onto his feet and jumped backwards and to the left as his wings curled protectively around him as pain shot through his body where the bullets had hit him during the night of his escape; his eyes searching the immediate area in fearful confusion as he found himself in the middle of an unfamiliar forest. "Just… just stop… no more. Don't touch me any more."
"Alright, kiddo, no one is gonna touch ya. I didn't know I was botherin' ya; I just tryin' ta help ya get free of da sheet."
Harry's eyes finally landed on the speaker and his breath hitched in shock as he immediately recognized the teen's long hair and blues eyes. Hope and uncertainty warred within him as he leaned forward to study the teen intently even as he whispered a soft and tremulous, "Duo?"
"The one and only; in a nutshell, kiddo," Duo quipped back with a smile as he spread his arms wide and glanced down at himself as if to ascertain he was indeed standing there.
"Duo!" Harry half choked and half crowed as he launched himself across the distance and wrapped his arms around Duo without any hesitation. "I was so afraid I'd never see any of you guys again."
"Ya can't get rid of us that easily," Duo murmured as he placed his hands on Harry's head, being careful not to touch him anywhere else least he trigger Harry's panic a second time. "We came a runnin' da moment we could once we knew ya needed us, kiddo."
"Trowa…! Trowa is alright, isn't he? They didn't hurt him did they? He didn't try anything stupid did he?"
"Trowa is just fine, he's been worried sick about ya but otherwise he is just fine. He's da one that let us know ya were in trouble. We were in da middle of tryin' ta work out a plan ta get ya out only ya beat us ta da punch."
"I'd tried waiting for you guys to come find me but… they were going to… and she was going to let them… and I just couldn't…"
"Shh, shh, it's alright, kiddo; it's over now. You're safe and we won't let them take ya back without a fight."
"Merlin, Duo, I hated every fucking minute I was trapped inside that castle," Harry babbled agitatedly as he clung a little tighter to the long haired teen. Harry then glanced up to meet Duo's concerned blue gaze with haunted eyes (the wizard not even noticing he'd not needed to look up as high as he had previously) as he whispered, "It was horrible, Duo. I thought Zechs was the one I had to fear… that terrifyingly cold, frozen mask hiding his face… it was like seeing the Death Eaters in the graveyard that night all over again. I never thought it would be that horrible woman who would… she… she said she wanted to break me."
"It's over now."
"No… as long as they live it will never be over because they will never stop hunting for me for whatever reason it is that they want me and they won't hesitate to hurt those who try to hide or protect me. They had all kinds of pictures of me; they've been stalking me for who knows how long."
"We can worry about da big picture another time; right now we're far more concerned with makin' certain that you're gonna be alright."
"I'm fine…"
"I'm sure ya will be in time but for now don't be afraid ta lean on us when ya need ta; ya don't have ta deal with it all alone."
Harry sighed and let the tension drain from him as he reluctantly pulled back so he could sit down before his legs gave way. He yelped and jumped right back up onto his feet though when he accidentally sat on his wings. Now that he was no longer so focused on what had nearly happened or those that had held him captive, he finally acknowledged what he had been trying to ignore; his new appendages.
Reaching out with trembling hands he gathered the edge of his left wing in his fingers as he carefully stretched it out and forward so he could get a proper look at the wing while ignoring the slight pain the new position of the wing invoked. In complete contrast to the metallic sheen of the new appendage, the wings were warm to the touch and rather soft like downy feathers though they were without a doubt made from thick scales and not feathers. Furrowing his brow, Harry continued to run his fingers down the edge of the wing as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea that he had wings.
"Is there something wrong, kiddo?"
"Please tell me I'm just imagining them. Tell me they aren't real and everything was nothing more than a dark and terrible nightmare," Harry half begged and half demanded, his voice rough with emotion and borderline panic as he began digging his fingers into the wing; barely registering the additional pain he was causing himself.
"I wish I could, kiddo," Duo murmured softly as he reached out and gently pried Harry's fingers off the wing to prevent him from drawing blood before he took Harry's hands in his. "Do ya remember how ya got them?"
"I was so angry… so scared… and in so much pain… I'd never before felt such hate for another person before. They came from inside of me, ripping and tearing as they forced their way out. My magic was completely out of control, raging like wildfire through my body; twisting and burning and I could feel myself changing. Why…? Why would my magic do this to me?"
"I wish I could give ya an answer, kiddo, but da only thing I know about your magic is what I've learned from ya. They aren't causin' ya any physical pain right now, are they?"
"Not exactly…" Harry started to reply only to cut off and glance up sharply as the sound of dry leaves crunching rhythmically signaled the approach of someone else.
Jerking his hands out of Duo's grasp, Harry stumbled backwards and fell into a defensive crouch as his fear spiked; his wings automatically spreading out to either side of him (poised as if for flight) as he turned to face the direction from which the sound was coming. He went completely still and hardly dared to breathe as first Heero and then Trowa walked out from behind a clump of trees. Harry slowly straightened up as his wings trembled and shifted before retracting so that they hung tensely behind him; ready to snap out again the instant he felt threatened.
The memory of Trowa tied helplessly to a chair as a soldier purposefully broke his finger followed by a group of soldiers herding the pilot and Cathy out of the castle flashed through Harry's mind and Harry sucked in a sharp breath as he stared at the teen for several minutes before he bounded across the distance that separated them. He crashed into the taller teen hard enough that Trowa staggered backwards several steps before regaining his balance. A heartbeat later, Harry's arms snaked their way around Trowa's waist and he clung to Trowa much as he had clung to Duo just a short while earlier. He shook with suppressed emotions as he felt Trowa hug him in return and he buried his face against Trowa's chest as he took several shuddering breaths.
"I thought I lost you for good," Trowa murmured softly.
"I panicked that first night, when they drugged us and I saw them dragging you and Cathy away. I was so angry and so scared that I was blindly lashing out left and right and couldn't think straight because the only thought running through my mind was that I had to reach you. Then the next day, I tried not to let them get to me but something inside of me just snapped when Treize threatened you two. I didn't even stop to think about what I had just committed to doing before I threw that knife and, even if I had known what I was doing, I don't think it would have stopped me from killing that man."
"After they threw you off the property things went from bad to worse. Treize actually tried treating me like a recalcitrant child. He even had the balls to threaten to send me to bed with no supper because I couldn't bring myself to eat the food they'd dumped in front of me so soon after I killed that man; he acted as if he believed I would think that missing a few meals would be the end of the world. I tried to kill Treize but I missed when he dove out of the way. He tried to get me to cooperate by promising me I'd be a pampered guest but I told him I'd prefer the dungeons."
"The bastard then gave me to Zechs as if I was some sort of consolation prize or mindless pet. I panicked again and shot a bunch of the soldiers when I was trying to escape. I don't know if I killed any of them or not but they were all bunched up together because they'd just walked into the room and I was trying to escape so I fired more than half the clip into their midst to scatter them. And I didn't care. I never once cared that one or more of them might die as I fired shot after shot at them."
"You only did what you thought you had to do to protect yourself. I never should have allowed you anywhere near that damned castle. We should have just left the moment I learned who we were supposed to perform for and we could have been miles away before they even knew we were gone."
"They would have just hurt Cathy when they found us gone because they'd have thought she would know where we were going… she's… she's alright isn't she? They didn't catch her again and hurt her, did they?"
"She's just fine. She called me a couple of weeks after I set out to gather everyone to help get you back and I told her to get out of there before we went in to get you back because I didn't want them to get their hands on her again. Only to find out that she'd already quit the circus before she called me and was demanding to know where could meet me. She's here with us but she is understandably angry that we hid quite a few things from here. Well, mostly angry with me; she's been very worried about you."
"Thank, Merlin… I don't think I could have forgiven myself if either of you had been hurt because of me."
"What about you, Harry? Did they hurt you? Did they experiment on you? Is that how you got the wings?"
Harry shuddered unconsciously as his mind went back to his time with OZ his mind shying away from that final night as his wings snapped up and out before folding up and pressing close to his back. He then pulled back just enough to meet Trowa's concerned gaze with his own troubled eyes; a small part of his mind absently registering the fact that he didn't need to look up quite so far to meet the taller boy's gaze this time (whereas Duo, as the shortest pilot, had always been the closest in height to Harry making the difference less noticeable in his former panic).
"They didn't do anything to me in the beginning; well, not counting them poisoning me with an overdose of tranquilizers when the first shot they gave me didn't work. They mostly tried psychological warfare in order to get me to cooperate with them and they threw me about the room a bit the second time I tried to escape after I tried to kill Treize. Une wasn't exactly gentle taking me down or when she cuffed me again," Harry tentatively explained as he lifted his left arm and shook it, making the handcuffs still locked around his wrist rattle. "After they let you go, they hauled me down to the dungeons where I spent the rest of my time in a dank, dark cell and had fun tormenting and confusing the hell out of the guards while making escape plans in case you guys couldn't come get me."
"That's all that happened?" Heero asked speculatively, drawing Harry's attention to him for the first time since the wizard had seen Trowa.
"No… one of the guards slapped me around a bit and tried to strangle me after I got a bit mouthy with him but Zechs stopped him. Zechs would visit me regularly once I woke up and registered my surroundings. Each time he visited, he'd offer to move me out of the dungeons if I'd agree to work with them."
Harry shuddered again as he recalled the cold and emotionless man in the mask; his wings rustling in agitation. He also couldn't help but think that the masked man had been far kinder than the heartless woman had been. He began shivering in fear as thoughts of that woman crowded into his mind before he shook his head and shoved those memories away as he finished answering the question at the gentle prompting of his oath.
"No matter what I did or said, Zechs was always so coldly polite; he never got angry, never raised his voice, and never threatened to hit me no matter how many times I insulted him. He never even asked me any questions except to ask me if I was ready to cooperate. I have no idea what it was they wanted from me; only that they wanted me to work with them willingly and I couldn't bring myself to even think about giving them what they wanted. I hacked into their network several times and copied a bunch of stuff I found but I never found anything that would tell me what they wanted from me. I think I could have survived for months on end if things had continued on with just Zechs showing up periodically."
"That Une is one heartless bitch though… she's the one that took the Colonies hostage that day," Harry spat as a few small flames danced across his wings before disappearing. He then sent Heero a sharp glare as he added, "I still owe you a right hexing for that stunt you tried to pull," before returning to the original topic. "Treize set that woman on me after two months of Zechs trying to play Mr. Nice Guy. She… I don't know how she knew… I never said anything… but she knew and she was going to let them… they were going to…"
Harry's eyes darkened and dulled as the life bled out of them while his voice grew empty as he woodenly whispered, "I can still feel their hands grabbing and groping me as they tried to strip me."
Trowa's arms tightened around Harry as he fell silent, his words hanging in the air as a sharp breeze stirred the forest around them. Harry took a shaky breath as he leaned back into Trowa for comfort and closed his eyes as he added, "My magic lashed out at them and burned them alive just like it did to Quirrell in my first year. I can still hear them screaming as their bodies turned to ash while they still breathed. Une shot me not long after that and my magic spiraled completely out of my control. My magic is responsible for the wings somehow… it did something to me inside as well but I don't know what the magic changed or why it turned on me like it did."
"It'll be alright," Trowa murmured gently as he stroked Harry's hair. "We'll figure it out together. You're safe now and that is the important thing and we're not going to allow anyone else hurt you if we can help it."
"Just don't leave me alone; I don't want to be alone any more."
"We won't," Heero promised as he stepped closer and reached out to brush away the single tear sliding down Harry's cheek.
"Good… remind me to hex you later when I'm not so tired," Harry declared around a yawn as he cracked one eye open just long enough to send another half hearted glare at the blue-eyed teen.
They would end up camping in the forest for three weeks as the five pilots and one circus performer tried to help Harry come to terms with his brief imprisonment and the changes his magic had wrought on his body. Harry's emotions were constantly bouncing from one extreme to another as he alternately shoved everyone away and clung to them in turns. The other teens quickly learned to never touch Harry's wings under any circumstances and to never make physical contact when Harry wasn't aware of their intent and especially when he wasn't fully awake. His memories of what had nearly happened to him for the second time in his life far too new and raw and any unexpected touches caused him to lash out violently (much as he had when the pilots had first found him – only with far more accuracy and skill thanks to all that they taught him).
During the first week Harry had trouble sleeping, his dreams haunted by nightmares or his body wracked by pain because he'd continuously snag his wings either in his blankets while sleeping or beneath his feet when standing or sitting. The pain would have been even worse if not for the small handful potions that Harry had used to finish healing the multiple gunshot wounds he'd had from Une firing on him before he disarmed her (Trowa having tended the injuries and removed the bullets prior to him waking up several days after his desperate escape).
It wasn't until he stumbled across the hidden Gundams at the end of that first week that he finally managed to get some actual rest. He'd climbed up onto Heavyarms' foot (unable to fly up to the cockpit since his broom was still inside the Gundam and he still had no real control over his wings), sprawled across the bar that protected the ankle joint on his stomach, and promptly slept for eighteen hours straight. Since he hadn't told anyone where he was going, his pseudo brothers had panicked when they found him missing and spent close to seven hours trying to find him before they thought to check the Gundams.
The second discovery that helped Harry cope was that Cathy had confiscated both Beauty and the wild snakes (and their cages) from the circus after she'd learned that the ringmaster had known that Treize intended to take Harry after the performance and allowed him to do so because the leader of OZ had paid him a hefty bribe. He'd feared that something might have happened to the rather vulnerable creatures because of him (his memory of the deaths of Belladonna, Rusty, and the other three vipers still fairly fresh in his mind). The four pilots who'd not been at the circus were then treated to the sight of Harry being swarmed by close to a seventy wild snakes and a twenty-five foot python as Harry let them all out.
They didn't worry quite as much as Cathy had the first time she'd seen Harry work with the snakes but they did need a little time getting used to seeing so many snakes (more than a few of them venomous) swarming over the smaller teen. It was common place after that to see Harry walking around with a dozen or so snakes draped all over him (though never on his wings) and fifteen or twenty of them sprawled about the camp since Harry left the doors to both cages open knowing the snakes wouldn't hurt him or those with him.
Now that he was no longer sleep deprived and he no longer needed to worry about any of his friends getting hurt because he'd escaped from OZ's clutches, Harry slowly began regaining control of his emotions. He was also forced to accept that his wings weren't going to disappear after he got a good look at himself in the mirror the first time and performed a few diagnostic scans.
Along with the new appendages (that were nearly as tall as he was when folded against his back), he'd grown close to eight inches in height (which brought him roughly back to the height he'd been at the end of his fourth year), lost half his weight (his bones now thinner and hollow like a bird's), and his frame had shifted so that he was rather slender and petite because of those same changes (though he in no way appeared effeminate). Any appearance of fragility that his new form might have portrayed was lost the moment one looked beyond his delicate structure and saw the underlying strength in his wiry muscles that had gained slight definition because he'd lost what little body fat he'd been carrying. The pilots would later compare his new body structure to that of an eagle or a falcon; distinctly raptor-like – though he was still obviously human.
The only other changes that had occurred hadn't been discovered until Harry had canceled the charms that he had used to disguise his appearance (after being reminded about the changes when Trowa had asked him to undo his). His hair was easily changed back to black but it had gained deep reddish highlights that hadn't been there before and his left eye remained blue even if that blue was slightly darker than the color of the spell he'd first used to change the color. Both eye and hair resisted all attempts to change them back to his natural coloring (or any other color) now that the original spells had been canceled and, while annoying, those two changes hadn't been as startling as the rest. Cathy had embarrassed Harry after he'd finally seen the changes when she had called him hauntingly handsome (the pilots having asked her not to mention them to him until he had seen them for himself).
"So… you're a wizard, huh?" Cathy asked casually over supper on the evening after Harry had seen the changes his magic had wrought on his body.
"I was… don't know if I could rightly still be called one now," Harry replied as he ducked his head and fingered the edge of his wings. "In my old world I'd no longer be considered human and would most likely either be locked up and studied or driven out of society and shunned; that's if they even let me live."
"That is horrible! Why would they do something like that?"
"The magical society in my world was rife with prejudice and anyone or anything different was ridiculed, shunned, or destroyed," Harry replied with a shrug. "As far as that society was concerned, there were three kinds of people; purebloods, halfbloods, and muggleborns. If you didn't fall into one of those categories you weren't human. If you didn't have magic at all a good number of them considered you worse than animals. Werewolves, vampires, merfolk, veela, goblins, centaurs, and giants were all treated horribly and those of mixed heritage were treated even worse."
"My standing in that society was rather convoluted since I was considered something of a celebrity because of something that happened when I was still in diapers. The general public, as a whole, adored me and reviled me in turns at the drop of a hat; their mood dependent upon whether or not I was conforming to their expectations. I hated it and yet I clung to what the wizarding world represented from the day I learned I was a wizard on my eleventh birthday; an escape. Don't get me wrong, the magical world held many wonders but it was far from perfect and after four years of being subjected to fanatic adoration or outright hatred on top of all the near death experiences; it is hard to hold onto the wonder I felt when I first learned magic was real."
"Wait a minute… you just said you were eleven when you first learned you were a wizard and that you spent four years… I thought you were twelve? How could you have spent four years…?"
"Actually, I'm only about a month younger than you; I turned seventeen at the end of July."
"But… but you didn't look a day over eight when I first met you."
"That was a side effect of whatever magic my godfather used to send me here," Harry explained with a pout as he crossed his arms and glared at the campfire. "Although… it might have been my magic reacting negatively to being torn out of my world forcefully; I've not yet found any information that would explain what happened and as far as I know there is no one I could possibly ask in this world."
"Have you given any more thought as to why your magic changed you a second time and gave you wings? Or why it chose to give you wings in the first place?" Heero asked cautiously as he took a seat beside the pint-sized wizard.
"A bit… I think it had to do with what I was feeling at the time; magic is fueled by emotions and the stronger the emotion the stronger the reaction. A young wizard's magic will protect him when he feels threatened because he hasn't learned to fully control his magic; they call it accidental magic when that happens because it lashes out in an uncontrolled and unintentional outburst."
"A wizard usually stops having such outbursts once they start school at age eleven but for some reason I've never stopped having them and they've only gotten stronger since Padfoot removed the blocks that Dumbledore placed on my core to bind my magic. So, because I was so angry, frightened, and in pain that night and actively fueling my hate of that callous woman, what she was allowing to happen, and wishing I could escape, my magic reacted the moment I lost control of it shortly after I disarmed her."
"So, why wings? And such strange wings at that?" Duo inquired curiously as he openly stared at said wings as they lazily shifted each time Harry moved.
"You guys remember when you watched me fight the basilisk?" Harry asked in reply and all five pilots slowly nodded after a moment while Cathy looked a little lost. "When I was pierced by its fang I was injected with a large amount of venom and I was dying when the phoenix healed me with his tears. The phoenix tears didn't remove or destroy the venom though; all they did was neutralize it and prevent the venom from destroying my body further while at the same time healing the damage it had already caused."
"I had thought that all of the venom and tears would've passed out of my blood stream after a few months but I guess enough of them remained in my blood that my magic drew on their magic when I lost control. The wings have a similar shape to a phoenix's wings, they generate warmth like a phoenix, the feathers are more of a cross between feathers and scales, they're the same color as the basilisk's scales, and they are extremely sensitive to even the slightest touch (like a snake's scales)."
"Were you using your magic to do all of those tricks during the shows we performed?" Cathy asked into the silence that had fallen over the campfire after Harry finished explaining his theory.
"No… I didn't use any spells or active magic during the shows. Well… the ability to understand and speak to snakes is a magical talent that I have but it doesn't really give me control over the snakes, they still have the choice to listen to me or not. I appealed to their stomachs, healed them of any injuries or diseases I found, and removed any parasites they had in order to talk them into helping me. Most snakes I speak to stick around because they are curious about me because speakers are quite rare and according to the snakes, were considered a myth in this world. They also enjoy the attention since most snakes are rather vain."
"And the knife tricks?"
"I worked hard to learn those tricks. I've always had a knack with small flying objects and can pluck golf balls, marbles, rocks, or knives from the air because I can see or maybe sense them around me. That ability might be a magical talent but I still have to physically reach out to grab whatever it is. Anything metal is always easier to catch because the light reflects from it and draws my eye. Trowa first taught me how to throw knives about six or seven months ago and after the initial awkwardness of learning how to balance them properly to throw them, it was easy."
"Learning to juggle them, on the other hand, was an accident really and it was the only act of defiance on my part after my training started. I think I excelled at it so quickly in part because of the danger the blades represented because I'm so used to constantly fighting for my life and I always perform my best when I'm under the threat of death. Showing off in front of thousands only added to the thrill once I got over my stage fright because they appreciated me for something I actually did instead of something they only thought I did."
"What else can your magic do besides protect you when you are in danger?"
"It's easier if I show you," Harry replied as he set his mostly untouched supper down, pulled his wand from his hidden holster, climbed to his feet, and backed away from the campfire.
The first thing he did was to light the entire clearing with a dozen soft globes of light so that everyone could see. He then levitated all of the dead leaves that were on the ground around them and began transfiguring small groups of them into butterflies, filling the entire clearing with multicolored wings. Since the insects were smaller and less complex than the humming bird tea cup he'd transfigured for Wufei, they stayed much longer; fluttering and dancing through the air and crawling over all six teens sitting around the fire. He next used his magic to clean the dishes they'd eaten from (including disposing of his uneaten food) and set the silverware to dancing on top of the plates as he levitated the plates off the ground.
Harry had then turned to Heero and narrowed his eyes before flipping the teen upside down, hosing him off with his wand, and firing a series of low powered stinging and tickling hexes at him; making Heero cry out and laugh in turns as he dangled upside down. He kept it up until Heero apologized for attempting to self-destruct his Gundam and Harry set him back on the ground, dried him off, and finally hugged the teen for the first time since they'd been reunited. The rest of his spells fizzled out about that time and dead leaves rained down all around them as the dishes crashed to the ground and the light dimmed.
"That was… that was amazing… though it didn't look like much fun being hexed," Cathy breathed.
"I don't usually hex people unless they do something stupid or annoying," Harry mumbled against Heero's chest. "Or if they are attacking me but then I usually knock them out, push them away from me, or disarm them depending on how big of a threat they are and what I'm thinking at the time. I have killed with my magic and there are destructive spells I can use but I usually shy away from those types of spells even though they are far easier for me to perform than the other spells."
"Tell us more about the circus shows you performed in, Harry," Quatre encouraged to distract Harry from the depression he could feel growing inside the winged teen.
"They were fun," Harry burbled as he stepped away from Heero and his eyes lit up in excitement. "It all started because I was helping Beauty shed and I might have accidentally on purpose let her out of her cage and ended up catching a few knives that someone had thrown at her. Trowa and Cathy then put together our routine but I suggested using the snakes and having Cathy as part of the act. It was funny… I'd go out and pretend I couldn't juggle for a few minutes, Trowa and Cathy would then 'catch' be in the ring and Trowa would release the snakes from the crate seemingly on accident with a well aimed ball. He'd then throw several knives at me, as if he was trying to pick off the snakes, and I'd catch them. The crowd would panic the moment I started juggling the knives because they thought I couldn't juggle and all the while the snakes would be swarming all over me."
"After that I'd throw the knives at the target before letting the snakes carry me off into the crate. Cathy would then use Trowa as target practice while blaming him for corrupting me. I think my favorite part was hitting Trowa in the back of the head with the juggling balls and having him chase me off stage to the audience's laughter though," Harry rambled as he snickered and snuck a look at Trowa who was smiling again (the surprise of his fellow pilots). "It was easy to pretend Trowa actually was my brother and I imagined that brothers would pull crazy stunts like that together… I miss the circus if only because for a short while I felt like I'd finally found my family and all that was missing was the rest of you guys. I wish you guys had been able to see us."
"Ya could show us now… I'd like ta see what new tricks ya learned," Duo commented with a grin.
That was all it took to bring Harry back out of yet another downward spiral as he jumped back up and cast another spell to light up the clearing a second time as he pulled his knives out of the special pockets he'd slowly been adding to all of his clothes (along with cutting out the backs of several shirts to make an opening for his wings). He passed the blades to Trowa before conjuring a target to throw the knives at and set it up between two trees. He nodded at Trowa who threw the first three blades that Harry easily caught and tossed up into the air and soon caught them again in one hand while his other caught the next three blades Trowa had thrown.
Once he had all six blades in hand, he began juggling them in alternating patterns that changed with each new knife that was added in. He was only up to nine blades when everything went wrong. He'd just changed the throwing pattern he was using when his left wing got in the way and one of the falling knives sliced down the sensitive feather-like scales causing Harry to jerk sideways and cry out as the rest of the blades rained down on him the moment he lost his concentration.
Everyone froze in shock because they'd never seen Harry ever fumble the knives before and when it was over, Harry was kneeling on the ground trembling with two of the knives pinning his left hand to the ground. After they snapped out of their shock, all six teens that had been watching rushed forward to make certain he was alright but that only caused Harry to panic and do further damage to his hand as he fought to keep them from touching him.
"Guys, stop… you're frightening him!" Quatre ordered as he felt Harry's growing fear and caught sight of his terrified and pain glazed eyes. "We need to give him room and allow him to calm down; he's only hurting himself worse in his panic."
Harry panted as he sat with his head bowed, his right wing fully stretched out and curving upwards so that the flight 'feathers' were clearly defined and his left wing pulled tightly against his back as blood ran down the feathery scales to splash on the ground. His left hand was still pinned to the ground and bleeding heavily as his frantic movements had caused the sharp blades to cut further into the surrounding tissue. It took several minutes for him to get his breathing and his emotions back under control.
Reaching down with his right hand, Harry grabbed the first knife and pulled it out with a sharp yank eliciting a hissed curse as pain shot through him. He immediately flung the knife away from him with enough force that it buried itself up to the hilt in a nearby tree (his magic adding force to the throw). He removed the second blade a moment later and clutched it tightly in his hand as pain shot up through his hand and up arm once more. Harry stared down at the bloody knife in his hand as a hundred conflicting feelings rushed through him.
"Harry, whatever you're thinking about doing it isn't worth it," Quatre softly stated as he clutched at his heart and watched Harry with concern.
"Humans weren't meant to have wings," Harry hissed in a pained voice and he looked up with tormented eyes.
"Do you really think maiming yourself is going to solve anything?" Quatre gently demanded as he got the gist of what Harry was thinking about doing based upon his declaration and his emotions.
Harry turned away in shame as he let the knife tumble free from his hand as Quatre's question cut through him and made him realize just what he'd been contemplating. He reached up and covered his face with his hands, uncaring that he was smearing his face with his blood as he shook beneath the weight of his emotions. His mismatched family watched him with worried eyes as they waited for him to calm down so that they could approach him to take care of his injuries. All of them watching and waiting for him to relax his right wing as his wings had become a visible gauge of his emotions much like a bird's wing posture can be used to gauge its mood.
Even after he'd calmed down, it was a good hour before he allowed Trowa to clean and bandage the injured wing (though he'd allowed his hand to be treated without any hesitation which unfortunately involved vanishing a few bones) and Harry remained in a state of near panic the entire time; cringing and near whimpering each time Trowa touched his wing.
"Does it hurt that bad?" Trowa asked as he carefully cleaned out the long gash that had set everything off.
"It's not the pain that bothers me."
"Then what is it that has you so jumpy?"
"You're touching me… them… I don't like them being touched."
"Is it because the wings bother you?" Heero asked, hoping to distract Harry from what Trowa was doing.
"No, it's not that it's… I don't like how it feels… I'm not sure how to explain it but I guess you could say it's no different than having someone walk up and fondle your privates without so much as a by-your-leave."
"What?" more than one voice demanded as Trowa's hands immediately jerked away from Harry's wing as if he'd been burned while he stared at Harry's profile.
Harry shifted uncomfortably for a moment as it dawned on him that there was much he'd left out in his explanations of what exactly his magic was and where it came from (something he'd been afraid to speak of before he'd realized just how much the pilots had come to mean to him). After another minute of hesitation, Harry haltingly revealed what he'd learned about his wings when he'd cast his diagnostic spells earlier and the relationship between a person's magic and their soul (something he himself had only learned after he'd been thrown from his world by his godfather).
"The wings aren't just a physical trait I suddenly grew like an arm or a leg; they are intimately tied to my magic. I never told you guys before because I was afraid to trust you at the time but a person's magic is a part of their soul and not just an energy they can use. Under normal circumstances one's soul is untouchable except by other magic that directly affects the soul or a person's magic; such as the three Unforgivables, most of the darker mind control spells, or the spells used to bind one's magical core. My wings are a physical manifestation of my magic and when someone touches my wings he or she is intimately touching my soul at the same time."
"Does that mean you injured your soul when you cut your wing?" Wufei asked in concern as the six teens digested the information Harry had just given them.
"Not exactly… the pain was more than physical but it didn't actually cause damage to my soul because the soul is still somewhat intangible; much like magic is intangible in its purest form."
"What happened earlier?" Trowa asked as he hesitantly finished cleaning the long gash; the teen now as uncomfortable touching Harry's wings as Harry was to have them touched due to the connotations of their connection to his soul and the confession Harry had made that compared having his wings touched was much like being molested. "I've never seen you lose track of the knives like that before."
"My wing got in the way; I'm still not used to them and I actually have very little control over them."
"I bet you'll be flyin' with them in next ta no time," Duo interjected in an effort to cheer the wizard up. "Bet it'll be ten times better than flyin' on your broom once ya do get used ta them."
"Maybe… but right now they just get in the way of everything."
"Then we just need to work on helping you learn how to consciously control them," Wufei stated matter-of-factly. "It is important that you know how to not only use them but how to best protect them as well; especially given how you said having them touched makes you feel."
Harry pouted as he shivered a bit over that declaration and his wings pulled in tight against his body, his left one sticking out a bit awkwardly due to Trowa still working on treating the injury.
"It won't be all that bad," Wufei chided with a half grin at Harry's response. "No different than when I first began teaching you how to do your katas. You have been practicing your katas, haven't you?"
"I was… but obviously not since I pulled a Padfoot."
"Pulled a Padfoot?" Cathy asked curiously. "What is a Padfoot and what does it mean to pull one?"
"Padfoot was my godfather's nickname," Harry explained as a small smile flashed across his face. "My dad was Prongs and Remus was Moony. There was another person in their group but I don't like to speak of him because he turned out to be a traitorous scumbag and one of the reasons my parents are dead. They each earned their nicknames because of the animals they could change themselves into; my dad was a stag, Sirius (my godfather) was a large dog, and Remus… well Remus was a kind of wolf and the reason the others learned how to become animagi in the first place."
"They could turn themselves into animals? Does that mean were you referring to your wings when you said you pulled a Padfoot?"
"Yes, there's a branch of magic that allows some wizards to turn into an animal. And no, I wasn't actually talking about my wings; I was talking about my escape. You see, my godfather was accused of betraying my parents and murdering thirteen people. The person actually responsible for selling out my parents and murdering those people framed Sirius before faking his death and my godfather was thrown into prison; no questions asked. He wasn't actually given a proper trial as he'd been proclaimed guilty by the same man that had bound my core."
"Sirius sat in prison for twelve years until he learned that the traitor was hiding as the pet of a family at the school I was attending. My godfather escaped from what was believed to be an inescapable prison in order to kill the one wizard he was supposed to have murdered twelve years earlier; the man who framed him and betrayed my parents. I pulled a Padfoot because I broke myself out of prison… though I think my way was a little flashier than my godfather's; considering his prison was still standing after he left while I might have broken a few walls in my escape."
"Can you turn into an animal?"
"No. I haven't learned how. Sirius left me his notes and the instructions on how to learn but I never found the time to go over them and with the changes my magic forced on me I don't know if it would still be possible for me to change. If it is possible, the changes my magic made when I escaped will probably have affected what my animal would have been or will manifest as part of whatever animal I ended up as. I'd have to do a ton of research before even trying now though, because as far as I can tell, if I screw up there is no one here that could set me back to rights."
"Sounds like something that would be a useful trick," Duo commented.
"Unless you end up as something stupid; like a fish and you're lost in the desert or a garden slug and you're stuck in a salt mine. My dad's form was actually pretty risky; I mean really, what would he have done if some hunter had targeted him when he was out for a gambol during hunting season? On the other hand, because he was large and could use his antlers as a weapon he was really good at keeping Moony in check during the full moons."
That drew a few chuckles from the other pilots as the worry and tension that had filled the night slowly faded away now that Harry had finally calmed down and regained near complete control of his emotions. It helped that Trowa had quickly finished tending Harry's wing while he'd been engrossed in explaining the concept of pulling a Padfoot. Harry then sat around and listened to the pilots and Cathy chatting for a bit before he silently slipped away to sit on Heavyarms. He spent another hour staring up at the night sky as he thought about Sirius, the wizarding world, and his wings before he stretched out and fell asleep.
Over the last week of their camping trip, Wufei worked extensively with Harry helping him learn how to consciously control his wings and getting him to trust the instincts he'd gained alongside of them. Once he'd managed to grasp the basic concept of controlling his wings, Wufei helped him design a series of exercises to help strengthen his shoulder, back, and wing muscles in preparation for learning how to fly.
At the same time, Cathy made it her mission to teach Harry how to dance (after hearing about the disastrous Yule Ball from his fourth year one night at the start of that final week) in order to help him better adjust to the awkwardness of walking about with his wings (the wings having affected his center of gravity). She even dragged the other pilots into the lessons when she found out that a couple of them didn't know how to dance either. Quatre often played during those lessons after Cathy learned that the blonde had brought his violin along (the empath having recalled how calming Harry had found his music and brought the instrument along accordingly since they'd feared the worst upon learning Oz had captured the wizard).
When the time came for them to pack up and start heading back to the Winner Estate, Harry was almost sad to leave the forest because he knew reality was waiting for them back home. It took him close to an hour to round up all of the snakes and somehow managed to pick up another twenty local specimens that had been curious about meeting Harry after the ones he'd been working with at the circus had spoken of him with fondness. All of the snakes were checked for parasites before being allowed back into their cages since they'd spent the two weeks wandering about the woods and sampling the local rodent population; even Beauty received a quick check over since she'd spent quite a bit of time hanging about the camp in the trees.
When they were finally ready to move out, just after sunset, they ran into an unexpected problem. Harry's wings made using the seats they'd installed for him in the Gundams impractical because the wings got in the way of the harness on top of the fact that he'd basically outgrown the harness overnight. He ended up traveling with Cathy in the truck she had purchased to haul her trailer and the two enormous snake cages (both of which just barely fit in the truck bed). The seat belt was a pain at first but the problem was quickly resolved when Harry disconnected the shoulder strap so that it no longer pinched his right wing.
He first thought he'd grow bored riding in the truck for hours at a time but Cathy had him keep her entertained so she didn't fall asleep at the wheel. He did so hesitantly, at first, describing bits and pieces of his life both before and after he'd met the pilots. She was fascinated by his stories of Hogwarts and was soon getting him to describe different parts of the castle in detail, explain the various spells he'd learned, or discuss the theories behind magic and why spells worked the way they did.
After the first ten hours on the road, they took a short break to stretch their legs and Cathy jokingly told Harry that she was going to teach him how to drive so they could take turns at the wheel. Harry said he was game but would rather wait until he wouldn't have to worry about jostling the snakes or damaging her trailer if he messed up bad enough. That of course had Cathy promising to teach him once they made it back to the Winner Estate.
When Harry wasn't talking about himself or helping Cathy stay awake, he was typing away on his laptop working on the lessons that Quatre had sent him to keep him from getting too bored (and to help prevent him from getting caught up in the memories of his recent imprisonment). It was while he was on-line looking up something for one such lesson that he stumbled across the media report covering his escape from Treize's castle in Luxembourg.
He nearly cried when he learned that sixty-one of the seventy-five snakes he'd set free in the castle had been killed over the course of the two weeks it had taken them to clear out the debris from the sections of the castle that Harry had destroyed in his escape. At the same time he learned that the snakes had ultimately been responsible for approximately forty-five deaths on top of the eighty-some that Harry had killed in his desperate bid for freedom. A small part of him felt proud when he learned the full extent of the structural damage he'd caused to the castle along with the information that he'd fried the systems on close to sixty of OZ's mobile suits that had been housed beneath the castle in addition to taking out the circuits in and around the estate including the back up generators; though he agonized over the deaths he'd caused.
The knowledge that Treize, Une, Zechs (the masked man having been out of the castle that night), and Noin all survived that night left Harry feeling irritable and insecure as he knew they would seek him out again. It wasn't so much Zechs or Noin that bothered him (since those two hadn't really hurt him unless one counted the psychological effect Zechs' mere presence had on him because of the mask). Treize and Une, on the other hand, scared the shit out of him.
Une terrified him because she was cold, heartless, and knew one of his greatest fears and Treize because he was the one that held Une's leash and he allowed the woman free reign (or so it appeared). In reading through the report, Harry was confused and more than a little leery to find that OZ had filed a missing persons report for him along with a plea for information that would lead to his return instead of blaming the damage and deaths on him and labeling him as a criminal. The blame for that was placed on unknown terrorists.
Harry would have thought the Gundam pilots would have been blamed but apparently no one had witnessed the Gundams any where near the castle despite Heero at least being in the area as the pilot had been the one that saved Harry from his downward plunge. He was further irritated after he checked the date on the report and realized that the pilots had apparently been keeping that information from him all this time. He turned on his communication radio (that had been replaced just before they left the forest as his original one had been lost when he faked Wing's self-destruction) and addressed all five pilots.
"One of you want to tell me when you were planning on telling me that OZ is telling the world that I am their missing ward and that they are offing a substantial reward for my immediate return?"
"You already suspected that they would be looking for you; does confirmation of the suspicion really change anything and do the exact details really matter all that much?" Heero inquired after five minutes of complete silence.
"You bet your ass they do!"
"Language, young man," Cathy admonished; the young woman recently having taken on the self-appointed task of curbing Harry's tendency to cuss when angry or upset now that he felt comfortable enough in her presence to not censor his mouth around her.
Harry rolled his eyes and huffed but refrained from cursing further as he continued his small tirade, "You do realize that the moment anyone sees me with any of you they are going to report you as kidnappers and they will use that as an excuse to lock you guys up as well, right? Did it even occur to you that they are probably trying to use me to find and catch the five of you since they know I have a connection to the Gundams? Cathy is at risk right this minute because I'm sitting in the truck with her! They plastered pictures of me all over the internet; pictures of me from both before and after I disguised myself for our act."
"You look quite a bit different now, Harry; I doubt you will be as easily recognized as you were before," Trowa pointed out in an effort to diffuse Harry's obvious irritation.
"They recognized the fu… my stupid scar, Trowa! All it will take is one person getting a glimpse of my scar and taking a picture of me to forward to OZ."
"So we hide da scar with a headband or a little make-up," Duo tossed out.
"You can even change your eye and hair color again to further change your appearance," Trowa suggested at the same time.
"No, I can't… my hair and left eye resisted all attempts to change their color after I canceled the original spell."
"What about changing your right eye to match the color of your left?"
"That's not the point! Someone could have already seen me with one of you!"
"Why do you think Cathy is sticking to back roads instead of traveling through populated areas? We aren't taking any careless risks, Harry. We've a beacon on Cathy's truck and we're constantly monitoring your course for trouble. We didn't say anything because we didn't want you to worry needlessly," Quatre interjected calmly.
"If it bothers you that much, Harry, I put that fancy cloak of yours that you left with me in the backpack I passed to you before we left the forest; you can always throw it on if you think there's a chance you could be seen."
"Everything will be fine, even if someone does see and recognize ya," Duo added when Harry didn't respond to Heero's last statement. "We aren't gonna let anyone take us or ya without a fight."
"I just don't like being treated like a mushroom," Harry groused after another minute as some of his anger fled.
"Don't go over exaggeratin', kiddo," Duo barked with a laugh. "While we might have withheld a little information out of concern because ya were havin' a hard enough time dealin' with everything else that doesn't mean we've been keepin' ya in da dark and feedin' ya bullshit. Nine times outta ten we've been right up front with ya about everything and ya know that."
"Doesn't make it any less annoying… Is there anything else you've been keeping from me for my protection that I should maybe know about before it comes back to bite me in the… err comes back to haunt me?"
"Which article did you find?" Wufei asked, joining the conversation for the first time.
"The one that was dated roughly a week after I escaped."
"Then you should know that it is Zechs claiming to be your guardian, not OZ as an entity, and that he has personally been searching for you over the last three weeks; apparently neglecting his military duties to do so. We also hacked into OZ's mainframe and found a new file that they have been putting together on you based upon everything they learned while you were in their custody and from the night you escaped."
"Okay… that is seriously creepy. Why is that masked madman stalking me? It was disturbing enough when I had the disembodied spirit of Riddle stalking me but at least I knew he just wanted to kill me; I have no fu… frickin clue what Zechs wants with me. And what exactly do they say in that file about me?"
"I've just sent you a copy of the file, copies of the rest of the media reports that have been published, security footage of your imprisonment, audio records of conversations recorded between Zechs and Treize, and a copy of the police report that was filed."
"Thanks, Wufei."
"Don't let what you read bother you too much, Harry," Heero instructed sternly. "We can discuss everything when we reach our transport in two days."
"Okay."
Harry turned off the radio and slipped off the headset as he pulled his legs up onto the seat with him and set about opening and decoding the file that Wufei had sent him. When he saw that there was close to six gigs of data he felt slightly sick to his stomach because he hadn't thought that they'd managed to gather that much information on him over the short amount of time he'd been in their care. He relaxed slightly when he found that more than two thirds of that space was occupied by the security videos that had been recorded, the mentioned audio files, and an assortment of digital photographs that had been taken of him.
"Harry?"
"Hmm?" Harry hummed in response to Cathy's call as he opened up the police report to read through first.
"You do know that it's alright to let others watch over you sometimes, right?"
"Huh?"
"They just wanted to give you time to deal with what you'd been through while you were being held captive and allow you time to adjust to all of the changes you'd gone through. They argued for days about how to rescue you from OZ's clutches. They also argued over how to hide you from OZ when Heero had stumbled across you while he and Duo were scouting the castle's defenses right after your unexpected escape. They argued again after you woke up when they saw how shaken you were and how quickly you lashed out when you felt threatened. It was difficult for all of us to see you in such a state and they were afraid that revealing everything they learned along with Zechs' obsession would have been the straw that broke the camel's back."
"I'm not angry that they were trying to protect me, Catherin," Harry softly explained as he tore his eyes away from the laptop and glanced up to study her profile as she drove through yet another mountain pass. "I'm angry that they didn't take into consideration their own safety. Growing up all I ever wanted was a real family. It took me sixteen long, cold, painful, and lonely years along with being torn from everything I knew before I found a group of individuals that I could truly call family and the thought of losing them now terrifies me. By not telling me that OZ, no, that Zechs was claiming me as his ward and filed a missing person report, they left themselves and you vulnerable to any mistake I make that will see me recognized. That is what made me so angry."
"We were fully aware of the risks and we took extra care when planning our escape routes," Cathy dryly pointed out as she glanced briefly in Harry's direction. "That was one of the reasons we sat in one place for so long; to give your trail time to go cold and to allow you time to come to terms with everything so that there was less of a chance of you drawing attention to yourself. Originally, you were going to be safely tucked into one of the Gundams but the presence of your wings complicated matters a little."
Harry snorted, "Try a lot."
"Alright, they complicated matters a lot," Cathy agreed with a small smile. "That's not the point and you know it."
"Yes, mother."
"Cheeky brat."
Harry chuckled softly and let a smile play about his lips as he returned to reading through the report. The smile slipped away a short while later when he finished the police report and moved onto the various articles and reports that had been published on the internet. He was scowling by the time he started going through the information that OZ had collected before, during, and after his imprisonment.
He also learned that they had a pair of less than perfect pictures that they thought might be him from the night the pilots had helped him raid his island cave; one of him and Heero flying on the motorcycle just before he'd captured the four suits chasing them (taken just after Sirius's bike had been clipped when the invisibility spell had fallen) and one of Heero carrying him as the pilot pulled Relena to safety just before OZ destroyed the building. Those were in addition to all of the pictures that they had gathered from the transport battle, the circus, and over the course of his imprisonment.
The most disturbing pictures, at least for Harry, were the ones that were taken during his imprisonment. They'd carefully documented each and every scar on his body no matter how small. In fact, they'd taken pictures of any and every mark that could potentially be used to identify him. Additionally, they'd taken and analyzed a sample of his blood and had not only his blood type listed but the complete sequencing of his D.N.A. and a full list of the anti-bodies that had been found in the sample. Along with that they'd compiled a list of the anomalies found in his blood; those anti-bodies not present in this world's population, the unfamiliar markers in his D.N.A., and several other little abnormalities that had never been seen before.
"What do they mean when they list me as a Genetically Enhanced Newtype?" Harry asked after coming across the unfamiliar term several times.
"Genetically enhanced basically means that someone fiddled with a person's D.N.A. to make improvements to their body; making them faster, stronger, healthier, or resistant to things like drugs. Newtype on the other hand is what they call those people who were born with Talents," Cathy replied. "A few examples would be telepathy, telekinesis, and elemental manipulation."
"Ah… the almost but not quite magics that developed in this world; like Quatre's empathy and Trowa's affinity with animals."
"Yes."
Harry noted that they had his Newtype abilities listed as telekinesis, fire manipulation, snake charming, and illusions. His suspected genetic enhancements included drug resistance, increased stamina, and enhanced speed. Under other skills they had knife throwing, competency in hand held firearms, lock picking, and piloting mobile suits. They also stated that the full range of his skills was largely unknown and that extreme caution should be used when approaching him. When he got to the file containing his mental evaluation he couldn't help but chuckle as he read through what they'd written there.
"What's so funny?"
"They have me listed as mentally unstable and emotionally unbalanced with a tendency towards violence, low self esteem, and an unhealthy disregard for my own life and the lives of others."
"How exactly is that funny?"
"Because they saw exactly what I wanted them to see," Harry replied softly. "I played mind games with them to keep myself from thinking about the fact that I was all alone and the fear that I'd never see the pilots or you again. Although, truth be told I'm probably more than a little unhinged mentally because I don't think any one could have lived through my life and come out with their sanity completely intact. And they were way off base when they said I had no regard for life; I am not really in any hurry to die (though the thought of dying doesn't scare me), I don't set out to kill other people, and each death I've caused weighs heavily on my soul. It's just that I know that there are worse things than death and the health and safety of my mismatched family is far more important than my health and happiness."
"You do know they will use that against you, right?"
"They already have… when they threatened you and Trowa in an attempt to buy my cooperation."
"Promise me that you won't do anything reckless if the worst happens," Cathy half begged and half ordered as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel and glanced at him worriedly from the corner of her eye.
"I can't… I will do whatever it takes to protect you and my brothers."
AN: Hey wow... two extra long chapters back to back... I have no excuse other than that I'd promised an update today and yesterday's chapter was an extra of sorts. I'd originally planned to post this on Sunday but because I'm worried about getting sick again myself figured I'd post it now just in case. I still plan to answer reviews when I can but posting a chapter is actually far easier than reading and answering all of the questions and comments right this minute. I will get to them soon (I hope). I was also very happy that there wasn't a huge slew of negative reviews in response to the previous chapter as I had feared there would be.
Anyway, this was another rather intense chapter but one that I think shows just how much of a positive influence the pilots have had on Harry and how much he has grown mentally and emotionally since winding up in their care. We also see hints of the maturity he has been suppressing beneath the cloud of doom and self-pity he'd wrapped around himself at the beginning of the story. It is that influence and maturity that has him opening up instead of shutting down completely and allows him to deal with what happened so that it doesn't cripple him this time (unlike the two years he spent suppressing everything that had happened during his Hogwarts years).
There might be some grumbles over how Harry seemingly had no problems with physical contact so soon after what happened with the guards but there is a logical explanation for that. First, with Duo, you have to remember that our favorite shinigami had been the one spending the most time working with Harry to get him accustomed to innocent/harmless physical contact back before the ambush and Harry has not exactly forgotten that even if he still doesn't like to be touched in general. In the case of Trowa, Harry had spent weeks living and interacting with Trowa and therefore had grown close to Trowa during that time.
Next there is Harry's oath. It may appear that Harry broke his oath in this chapter and the last chapter but that isn't true. He had been given permission to protect himself and while he might have skirted the order not to reveal his magic to potential enemies there are several things to keep in mind.
One, all electricity in the castle had been shut down in the blast of magic unleashed when Harry's mind and magic rebelled against what was happening to him which meant that there was no chance of his magical exploits being caught on camera. Two, it was night time and therefore visibility was limited so that those that did see him wouldn't necessarily see exactly what it was that he was doing. And three, Harry was using banishing charms to clear the living obstacles from his path; a spell that has no visible effects. His blasting curses on the other hand could easily be mistaken for beam weaponry by those that saw those spells as that would be the most logical leap for those that don't know about his magic.
As for him hexing Heero; you have to remember that Heero had given Harry permission to hex him if he unintentionally hurt him (even if he didn't exactly tell Harry that to his face) and he didn't limit that to just physical pain at the time he'd given the unspoken permission. Basically, that means that the emotional pain caused by Heero's intent to self-destruct qualified as him unintentionally hurting Harry and therefore allowed Harry to take him to task for it.
There's also the fact that Harry promised Heero he'd hex the snot out of him if he did anything stupid that would affect the deal he'd made with Heero in exchanging training for magical protection which would conclude with Harry being freed from his oath (and if Heero died then he'd never be freed from the oath). His hugging Heero after Heero apologized is also rather symbolic; an unspoken declaration that Harry no longer resents Heero for what happened when they first met.
As I'd said at the end of the last chapter, and despite Harry's doubts in this chapter, he is still human. He'll get confirmation on that later down the line. The information about his wings being a physical manifestation of his magic will be important later on in the story as well as will the revelation that a wizard's magic is connected to their soul. I'm not going to say anything more than that as there will be more information given about magic, souls, and the lack of other wizards in the story later on.
Anyway, I've rambled on enough. The next chapter will move the story forward and give more information on what else is happening in the world. Until then, thank you very much for the reviews and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. ~ Jenn