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 contains references to adult situations, though no actual descriptions were provided.
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 47: Accepting the Inevitable
It was the insistent trills and cries of two hungry phoenixes that drew Harry back into the waking world once more sometime after ten in the morning and he sighed out a soft groan as he snuggled deeper into his soft, warm pillow in an effort to avoid the inevitable. When said pillow shifted beneath him and murmured sleepily in response, Harry's eyes immediately flew open and he bolted upright. A heated blush rose to his cheeks as his eyes landed upon the naked body of Dorothy Catalonia as the memory of the night before slammed itself firmly into the forefront of his mind.
Swallowing thickly over the rush of desire those memories evoked, Harry slid backwards away from the young woman that he'd been using as a pillow. It took a supreme effort to tear his eyes away from her delectable body and both his hands and wings trembled with suppressed desire as he twisted around so he could drop his feet over the edge of the bed.
"Taliesin?"
Harry hunched his shoulders when Dorothy's sleepy voice called out to him uncertainly after his movements had woken her from her slumber. He turned his head slightly to the side to indicate that he'd heard her but not enough that his eyes would once again fall upon her nakedness. He felt a slight tugging on the sheet that was still partially shielding his own nudity from view and the shifting of the mattress as she sat up.
"Why?" Harry finally asked in a tight voice when she didn't say anything further.
"Why not?" Dorothy countered as she crawled across the bed to kneel behind him, wrapped her arms around his chest (sliding them beneath his wings where they connected to his back), and pressed her cheek to the back of his neck in order to prevent him from running away.
"Death and destruction follow me no matter where I go," Harry hoarsely declared as he tensed in her arms. "I can't give you whatever it is you want because I don't know how. I don't know anything about relationships outside of siblings and friends and even then I don't know what I'm doing half the time and I constantly make stupid mistakes and end up hurting those I consider my family. I have an explosive temper that I can't always control and half of the time I tend to act without fully thinking things through. I am devoted to rebuilding an entire world that is hovering on the verge of extinction and will have little time to allocate to other pursuits for the foreseeable future. And… and I'm almost five hundred years old and until recently I was stuck in the body of a twelve year old."
"You forgot insecure, stubborn, and annoyingly frustrating," Dorothy added in a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "And I doubt that there is anyone out there that can claim to be a true expert on relationships. Since the day you turned up in the Sanc Kingdom to defend Princess Relena and her country, my perception of the world around me has constantly been shaken and rearranged. You were nothing like the person that the reports that my grandfather sent me said you were and you didn't react to my accusations the way I believed you would based upon those same reports. No matter how much I needled or baited you, you were calm, cool, distant, and at the same time demanding as you pushed me to take a long hard look at myself."
She paused for a moment as she settled herself more comfortably against Harry's back as his wings bracketed her body and provided her a measure of warmth against the inherent chill of the stone castle. When she started speaking again, her voice held a note of wonder and wistfulness.
"I fully expected to be imprisoned or executed when I confessed to spying on Princess Relena; especially after you drugged me and had me interrogated. So when neither of those things happened and I was told that I would have a say in my fate, I jumped at the chance to stay close to you because I wanted to know what it was that drew me to you. I never expected to be thrust into a completely different world filled with fantastical creatures and magic where the lines of reality and fantasy have been blurred beyond recognition. I felt out of my depth and uncertain of what would become of me."
"You never once saw me as the pampered granddaughter of a multimillionaire or the hostage of your enemy; you saw me for who I was and gave me a chance to make something of myself. You demanded that I give something of myself to the world in which I took refuge and at the same time you allowed me to give as much or as little of myself as I felt comfortable giving. I got to see first hand what you meant when you said that it takes true courage and hard work to create something that will benefit others. You inspire those around you without trying, you give of yourself without asking for anything in return, you push yourself to your limits to do what you believe is right, and you don't hesitate to fight for what you believe in or to protect those you care about."
"Watching you stirred something inside of me," Dorothy confessed as she brushed her lips against Harry's neck. "In the beginning, I thought it was simple gratitude for what you'd done for me and then admiration for what you were doing to rebuild the magical world. I began growing jealous of how easily you interacted with Cathy and the others and I felt trapped on the outside forever watching from the sidelines. It was that jealousy that drove me to argue with you that day when I first kissed you. At the time, all I wanted was for you to listen to me and allow me the chance to be a friend because I wanted to be standing on the inside with everyone else for once. And then… and then with that one kiss I saw the glimpse of something truly beautiful before it was gone in an instant."
"You have no idea how frustrating it was to first believe you didn't feel what I felt that day only to find out that you did feel it but that you didn't want it. I thought I could make you see how wonderful it could be, to get you to just admit you felt the same, and to show you that you had nothing to be scared about but then you turned the tables on me and I'd never felt so… alive. The next thing I knew you were surrendering to White Fang and the world was turned upside down again and this time it seemed to be falling apart all around me. I was so relieved when you had returned to Earth relatively safe and sound after overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds and then… and then you were back to being such a jerk and closing yourself off."
"And it doesn't bother you that I'm hundreds of years older than you and still look years younger than you?" Harry demanded as he unconsciously placed his hands over hers and leaned back against her. "That if there ever was anything between us that you'd have to share me with an entire world and that in the end you would take a back seat when it comes to the needs of that same world? There are fifteen children that are due to be born over the next several months and they will ultimately be my responsibility as will the hundreds of children that come after them; regardless of what species they come from."
"You may look young but eventually you'll age; just as you have this past year and no I'm not counting the strange growth spurt you had while you were gone," Dorothy stated with a soft sigh that tickled the fine hair on the side of Harry's neck. "And while technically, you may be four hundred and some odd years old; I have paid enough attention these past several months to know that you didn't live through more than eighteen or nineteen of those years."
"I will admit that the idea of having to share you with an entire world rankles but I am old enough to realize that you have responsibilities and would never dream of asking you to turn your back on those responsibilities. As the sole surviving heir to the Catalonia Family, I am fully aware of just how much of a responsibility it is to run a family estate and after watching Princess Relena during the time I spent in the Sanc Kingdom I know that running a nation is an even larger burden. And while I don't have any experience with babies I do like children and used to volunteer my time at the local orphanage near my grandfather's manor before he sent me to spy on the Sanc Kingdom."
Harry sighed in resignation as each and every one of the valid reasons he'd come up with as to why there could be nothing between them were practically shattered by Dorothy's logic and determination. All that remained was his own insecurities and his painful past and he didn't know if he was ready to speak of those. He sagged back against Dorothy and couldn't help but recall the hours of passion they'd shared the night before and how peacefully he'd slept in her arms when he'd fully expected to have nightmares of the dark days spent in the custody of Quinze. Two perturbed phoenixes interrupted the moment of reflection as they trilled impatiently and scrambled up onto Harry's lap to half glare at him for ignoring him.
"I need to feed Spera and Spero," Harry announced, a large part of him thankful for their interruption of what had become a strangely surreal and uncomfortable conversation.
He'd just started to get up only for Dorothy to push him back down as she crawled off the bed and walked over to the table, giving Harry a clear view of her naked backside and the moment he realized he was staring he blushed and tore his eyes away. She returned to the bed carrying the entire box of food Duo had shoved through the door the night before and Harry glanced up and swallowed thickly as he watched her set it down on the bed and reach into the box; her long blonde hair framing her body and drawing his eyes to her chest.
He had to tear his eyes away the moment that he realized that he was staring again and quickly turned his attention to the two phoenixes as they showed an immediate interest in the box. Their attention was soon turned to the plastic basket of fresh raspberries that Dorothy pulled out of the food box as she passed said basket to Harry.
"Thanks," Harry murmured, his voice cracking just slightly due to the flip-flopping of his emotions.
To avoid being scratched by the two overeager phoenixes, Harry tossed a couple of raspberries across the room and both birds squawked and took off in pursuit. He then spent the next twenty minutes tossing more fruit to the two birds to encourage them to use their wings so that they worked their flight muscles. It was actually quite funny to watch the two mythical birds behaving in such an undignified manner and Harry snickered each time one of them went dashing after a piece of flying fruit. Dorothy wasn't immune to their antics either and each time Harry heard her laugh he felt another curl of warmth thread through his belly.
Once the voracious birds had been satiated, Harry sighed and watched them hop up onto one of the chairs sitting around the small table across the room so that they were sitting in a patch of sunlight where they promptly fell asleep. He was a bit startled when Dorothy took the basket holding the remaining raspberries out of his hands as she sat down beside him. He turned to ask her what she was doing only for the words to die on his tongue as he was once again blindsided by her nakedness.
It didn't help when she offered him one of the raspberries but refused to allow him to take it from her hand; determined to feed him the berry herself. He eventually gave in and allowed her to feed him and it was a decidedly erotic experience; even more so when he got the nerve to feed her a couple of the berries in return. They fed each other several strawberries once the raspberries were gone before they ended up making love again.
Afterwards, Harry carried Dorothy to the bathroom where they shared a hot shower and spent an hour exploring each other's bodies as they washed one another before making love yet again. When they were finished and after cleaning themselves again, Harry drew a bath for Dorothy when she mentioned that she was feeling sore. While she was soaking; Harry dried himself off, threw on a pair of pants, and spent nearly forty minutes lost in thought while he made them a light lunch of fresh fruit and sandwiches (the task more about occupying his hands than it was about eating again).
When he could no longer draw the task of making lunch out and there was no indication that Dorothy was finished with her bath, Harry robotically began cleaning up the room; starting with gathering up their discarded clothes from the night before. He tossed the clothes in the magical hamper that sat next to his wardrobe before he set about picking up the discarded scale casings from his wings and tossed them into the magical trashcan where they were promptly 'eaten'. He set about making the bed next only to freeze when his eyes fell on the dark blood stain that marred the red and yellow striped sheets. The blood drained from his face as he recalled the first time they'd coupled the night before, hearing again the cry of pain Dorothy had given when he first entered her, and he let out a low whine as he realized the blood could only be Dorothy's.
"It's natural for a woman to bleed a bit when she loses her virginity," Dorothy stated as she silently stepped up beside Harry and pulled the sheets from his hands. "Just like a bit of pain is expected the first time. Did no one ever explain that to you?"
"No. No one ever told me anything about sex between a man and a woman," Harry rasped as he continued to stare at the small blood stain that seemed far too large in his mind (though it wasn't all that big in reality). "Up until last night all I really knew about sex was that it hurt and that it could be used to humiliate a person. My parents died when I was a baby, the relatives that grudgingly allowed me to live with them for thirteen years hadn't felt it something I needed to know, and my godfather was never given the chance before he sent me away. Heero and the others were too busy teaching me how to protect myself and I didn't think I'd ever need to know, so I never asked."
"Oh… I can teach you what my governess taught me about sex if you'd like."
Harry snapped his head around to stare at Dorothy, his eyes boring in to hers as she blushed and held his gaze. After a few minutes he dropped his eyes back to the sheet and shrugged his shoulders, more than a touch uncomfortable with the subject. To avoid the awkwardness, Harry took the sheet and covers back from Dorothy and finished stripping the bed so that he could wash the sheets and blankets. He then grabbed out a fresh set of sheets and set about making the bed only to fumble a bit as Dorothy unhesitatingly lent him a hand (much like he had that first time Quatre had helped him make the bed after he'd ended up at the Winner Estate). Once they were finished with the bed, the two of them sat down to eat lunch and the silence drew out as they both got lost in their thoughts.
"So what happens now?" Dorothy asked nearly an hour later, both of them long since finished with their food.
"I don't know," Harry replied softly without looking at her.
"What? No protestations that nothing will ever happen?" Dorothy half teased in surprise.
"Yeah, like those worked so well for me before," Harry snorted as he flicked his eyes in her direction for a split second before he went back to studying the grain of the table. He sighed a moment later and sat back in the chair as he looked up and studied the young woman that had turned his world upside down.
After a moment, he crossed his arms and stated, "Like I told you earlier; I don't know anything about relationships and I have no experience dealing with girls except for a small handful that were or are like sisters. I've never had a girlfriend before and was just taking notice of girls for the first time when I was cast through time by my godfather and since then I'd been too damn busy just trying to survive to think about girls. So I'm a little lost right now."
"Is that what you were so afraid of before?"
"I'm not afraid," Harry retorted with a flash of irritation. "I am intimately aware of each and every one of my fears and they have nothing to do with relationships or girls. I might dislike floundering and feeling like I'm out of control but that doesn't mean I am scared. If anything, it makes me uncomfortable."
"Why won't you at least talk to me then? If you would have said something sooner… if you'd given me something, anything, instead of just avoiding me or telling me to get lost… It hurt that you would spend time with everyone else and then treat me so differently; especially after that first kiss."
"Believe it or not, I was trying to protect you from me."
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Dorothy asked in confusion as she pulled her feet up onto the chair she was sitting in and wrapped her arms around her legs as she furrowed her brow and searched Harry's face intently.
Harry glanced away first as he swallowed the urge to snap that it was none of her business; a part of him acknowledging that the physical intimacy that they'd shared through the night and again that morning meant that he at least owed her an explanation (at least in his mind it did). The problem was that he didn't know how much he should tell her and he had no way of gauging how she would react to anything he did tell her. He knew he didn't have to worry about her passing the information off to one of his enemies because of the contract she'd signed the day she arrived; it helped too that most those men and women that posed the biggest threat to him were dead or neutralized.
Sighing, Harry dropped his eyes down to stare at his hands as he finally picked the most logical place to begin.
"I was born to James and Lily Potter on July thirty-first of the year nineteen-eighty in the middle of a terrible war. On one side of the fence was a terrible wizard that had become a monster through unspeakable acts of evil and dark magical rituals that destroyed his humanity until all that was left was a terrible and powerful demon. His name was Tom Riddle but he called himself Lord Voldemort," Harry stated softly, his magic swirling around him as he submersed himself in old memories and what little information he'd gleaned from various sources since arriving in the future.
"On the other side of the fence was a wizard that most magicals believed was a hero and they hailed him as the Leader of the Light; though in truth he was just as dark as Riddle, he just didn't sacrifice his humanity in order to gain more power. Albus Dumbledore, the so called Light Leader, sacrificed the lives of innocents instead. The fence that the two of them continuously fought over was made up of the innocent souls that both men wished to rule over. My parents, their friends, and many other witches and wizards aligned themselves with Dumbledore because they, like most of the world, believed he was a good wizard."
"Many of those fighting on Dumbledore's side died messy and painful deaths at the hands of Voldemort's followers. Not long after I was born, Voldemort began targeting my family for some reason that I still don't know, though I know where to find the answer; I just haven't been able to bring myself to dig that deeply into old hurts. My parents fought back as best they could until they went into hiding in order to protect me. They used a powerful spell that hid the secret of their location inside of a single person and unfortunately the person they chose betrayed them the first chance he got."
Harry paused a moment to try and center his emotions before he continued in a voice that was devoid of all emotions, "It was on Halloween night in the year nineteen-eighty-one that Voldemort came for my parents. He killed my father first before he came after me and my mother. He told my mother that he would spare her if she stepped aside so he could kill me; only my mother refused and begged for him to kill her instead. In the end, he cut her down before he turned his wand on me. I should have died that night but something went wrong and the spell he tried to kill me with failed and it destroyed him instead; only by that time he was no longer human enough to die and so he fled into the night."
"I spent the next nine and a half years living with my mother's sister; a cold, petty woman who'd been jealous of my mother's magic. Those years were… unpleasant. I was not wanted and the Dursleys hated everything I was with their entire beings. They told me that my parents were drunken wastrels that died in a car crash and often told me it would have been better if I had died with them. I won't bore you with the details but the end result was that I spent my childhood alone and friendless and was nothing more than a servant and a scapegoat for the Dursleys. Just before I turned eleven, the magical world sought to reclaim me so that I could be taught how to use and control my magic."
"I thought I would finally have a chance at something wonderful only to learn that the magical world was far darker than the mundane world I'd been raised in. That's not to say that everything was terrible because some of my happiest memories were born in the four years I spent in Hogwarts. Fundamentally, though, nothing had changed. I was hailed a hero and told I was famous because I didn't die but I was hated by those that followed Voldemort because I supposedly destroyed their master and I was hated by those that followed Dumbledore because I was not what they wanted me to be. I was constantly being worshiped or reviled by the other students and the wizarding public in turns."
"I faced death repeatedly during all four years and those around me usually ended up getting hurt. I killed one of my teachers at the end of my first year when facing what was left of Voldemort. In my second year I killed an ancient basilisk that had been attacking students all year long and faced Voldemort again. Third year saw me foolishly sparing the man who betrayed my parents and facing hundreds of dangerous demon-like creatures. In fourth year… fourth year was the worst. I faced death several times that year and at the end of the year, the traitor whose life I'd spared murdered another student right in front of me and it was my fault. Because I was weak, Voldemort rose again that year."
"It was that same night that my godfather sent me away to save me from both dark lords and spare me from being forced to fight in the looming war that would be triggered by Voldemort's reappearance. I suddenly found myself stranded on a deserted island far away from everything I'd ever known and had to learn how to cope with my dark past on top of trying to figure out why I suddenly looked like a child again. For nearly two years I lived alone on that island and never once saw another person let alone a boat or plane passing in the distance."
"I endured because I'd been emotionally isolated my entire life even when I was surrounded by people and because there was no one around that could be hurt by me or that could hurt me. My isolation came to an abrupt end when two mobile suits crashed into the ocean near my island and Heero washed up onto my beach. It wasn't long after that that I was forcibly thrust into a society I knew nothing about in a world hovering on the brink of war while still floundering emotionally and mentally from the mess that was my life. Much like the culture shock you experienced upon your arrival here at Hogwarts, I was hit with shock after shock after being taken from my island sanctuary."
"Only, I was blindsided with more than just the cultural differences between the world I grew up in and the world I found myself in as the people that had found me turned out to be nothing like anyone I'd ever met before. Five teenage soldiers bent on stopping a war, virtual strangers, treated me with far more kindness and consideration than my own blood relations had and I tried my damnedest to hate them for shaking the very foundations upon which I'd been raised. In the end, they became my family instead and the moment I accepted and acknowledged them as such, OZ began trying to tear my new family apart as the world was washed with the tides of war," Harry finished as he finally looked up to find Dorothy watching him intently, tears sliding unheeded down her face.
"Do you hate your godfather for sending you away from your time?" Dorothy asked hesitantly when it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to say anything more. "What about… what about your little brother? You never mentioned him; didn't he come with you?"
"No, I don't hate Sirius. I was angry at him for a long time but eventually I realized that if not for him sending me away, then I never would have found Heero and the others," Harry tiredly replied as he pulled off his glasses and wearily ran a hand over his face.
"As for my little brother; I never had one, my parents died when I was barely one and a half years old. It was just far easier to play who I was before my capture by OZ off as my brother than to explain why I suddenly appeared so much older. There was a part of me that died the night I escaped from Luxembourg, so it wasn't completely a lie; it just wasn't exactly the truth either. The truth is that my magic changed me… just like it did when I first ended up on the beach four years ago. Much as it did when I was fighting for my soul against Epyon and Quinze recently."
"Do the changes bother you? And did… did it hurt each time they happened?"
"In the beginning, they bothered me a lot; especially when I first learned I'd been shrunk down to the size of a six year old after waking up on the beach in the middle of nowhere. I always hated being short with a passion because I'd been short for my age my entire life and I was always picked on because of my size by the other children growing up. Being nearly seventeen years old but looking like and being treated like an eight year old after I'd been found was extremely annoying. The wings were even harder to accept and at one point I was seriously thinking of cutting them off myself because I hated what they represented. And yes, the changes hurt. My magic didn't just change what I look like on the outside; it burned through my entire body and rewrote portions of my D.N.A. in order to make the changes permanent."
"Are you worried that it will happen again?"
"Not exactly… the conditions required to force the changes are actually quite hard to replicate and the fact that I managed to end up in those situations where the conditions were met not just once but thrice is probably nothing more than sheer chance. There were dozens of times where I was in almost identical situations but nothing happened because there was some crucial element that hadn't been there at the time. Doesn't mean I like the changes I've gone through, though I can't really complain about this last one because I am grateful that I no longer look like a pre-teen."
Silence settled over the two of them once more and after a few minutes, Harry slipped out of his chair and cleaned up the small messes left over from their meal. When he finished with that, he tore a pomegranate into several small sections and set the pieces on the seat of the chair that the phoenixes were sleeping on so they would have something to eat when they woke up. Not knowing what else to do but needing to keep himself physically occupied (if only to keep his mind from dwelling on the past or the fact that he was still locked in his bedroom with Dorothy), Harry spent twenty minutes stretching before he threw himself into the katas that Wufei had taught him almost two years earlier.
After about an hour, he dug the pair of wooden practice swords that Wufei had been using to train him in sword fighting and spent another two hours running through the forms that the young Chinese pilot had taught him. Half of that time he spent with his wings furled tightly against his back and the other half he spent hovering approximately six inches off the floor. When he dropped back down to the floor at the end of the second hour, Harry felt far more centered than he had since he'd woken up from his healing coma two days earlier and he put away the practice swords before doing a few more stretches to cool down. He was just contemplating the merits of taking another shower when the long silence was broken by his companion.
"Are… are you angry about last night?"
"I'm pissed as hell at Duo and Heero for locking us in my room and I'm going to make their lives hell for the foreseeable future the moment I get my hands on my wand," Harry growled without any heat as he glanced over his shoulder. After a moment he sighed and dropped his gaze to the floor as he traced the swirls of the design on the rug with a toe before he sighed out, "But I doubt that was what you were asking me about and the truth is that I don't know what to feel about what happened between us. What about you? Are you regretting last night?"
"No… I have no regrets," Dorothy replied without any hesitation. "I wish we could have talked first but I don't regret giving myself to you. What frightens me the most is the fact that I don't know what will happen and that I have no way of knowing what you are thinking or how you will treat me from this point forward. I'm afraid that you will go back to ignoring me or try to send me away again."
Harry couldn't help but snort as he turned around to face Dorothy and drawled, "Like you actually allowed me to do either. You've been a thorn in my side since the day my squad and I landed on the palace grounds of the Sanc Kingdom in hopes of repelling the invasion that the Romefeller Foundation intended to launch against Princess Relena." As he spoke, Harry crossed the distance between them with the sinuous grace of a stalking wolf until he was standing right beside the chair she was sitting in.
He turned the chair and dropped his hands down on the arm rests as he leaned down so that they were eye level, his wings unfurling behind him to help keep him balanced as he dropped his voice to a whisper, "I told you before; I don't play games, I play for keeps. You wanted my attention and now you have it. I may not have any idea what to think or feel about what is happening between us but not even I can fight against the instincts that you awoke inside of me the night you accosted me in my study; my magic won't allow me."
He was just about to claim her mouth in a kiss when he heard the door opening and Harry felt a stab of irritation shoot through him as he slowly straightened up to glare at the intruder over the top of the chair. He felt another spike of irritation when Relena Peacecraft marched imperiously into the room before he let out a feral grin as Zechs dragged both Heero and Duo into the room in her wake.
"We'll finish this… discussion later, Miss Catalonia," Harry stated, letting his mouth caress her name as his tone promised something far more intimate than a mere conversation as he straightened up the rest of the way. "I have a pair of brothers that need to be skinned alive."
Both Heero and Duo paled the moment Harry spoke and Duo eeped and tried to wriggle his way free from Zechs' grasp as Harry crossed the floor with deadly grace. He'd nearly reached the two teens when he found his way blocked by a rather irate princess.
"Taliesin Bard…"
"Not now, Princess Relena; I'm a little busy right," Harry growled as he picked Relena up and gently set her out of his way so that he could close the last few feet separating him from his targets. "Heero… Give. Me. My. Wand. Now. Or so help me I'm going to make you wish for a slow and painful death by the time I am finished with you."
Heero's eyes nearly fell out of his head as he paled further and the blue-eyed pilot wasted no time in pulling said wand out of his pocket and handing it over so quickly that one might have thought it was on fire. Harry twirled his wand a moment as he allowed a rather sadistic grin creep across his face as he glanced between Heero and Duo before addressing Zechs.
"You might want to set them down and step back."
Zech shrugged and let go without a word, causing Duo to sprawl on the floor as he'd still been trying to escape. The long haired teen scrambled back to his feet a moment later and held his hands out in front of him in supplication as he spoke up.
"Now be reasonable, Taliesin; we didn't mean any harm. We were only tryin' ta get da two of ya ta talk things out 'cause ya had been bottlin' things up again. We planned ta let ya out soon; honestly."
"Duo…"
"Yeah?"
"I suggest you shut up and run," Harry whispered as he leaned forward slightly.
Duo didn't need to be told twice; he was out of the room in a flash and the slamming of the door leading into Gryffindor Tower was heard a few seconds later. Harry didn't even have to say anything to Heero, he just turned to look at him and the teen gave a resigned nod before he took off after his fellow pilot at a slow trot. Harry waited until he heard the door to the antechamber open and close a second time before he sighed and dropped his shoulders. He tucked his wand into his hidden holster before shoving his hands in his pocket as he turned to face Relena.
"You were saying, Princess?"
"Um… aren't you supposed to be chasing after them?" Relena asked in confusion as she glanced between the open door and Harry.
"Nah, I may be angry with them for locking us in here for the night but I'll hex them for it later. In the mean time, they can run around like chickens with their heads cut off wondering how close I am to catching up with them. Revenge is a dish best served cold after all. Heero will probably figure out that I'm playing head games with them but Duo is going to be in a right panic because of the number of times I've threatened to shave him bald."
"That's just plain evil," Relena insisted.
"No… what was evil was the fact that they locked us in my room after taking away my wand knowing full well that there was a high probability that I would suffer nightmares and possibly lose control of my magic because I've not really had any time to deal with everything that happened while I was being held prisoner by Quinze. Fortunately, I didn't. That's beside the point though. Was there something I could help you with?"
"Yes, actually," Relena stated as she gathered her thoughts and focused entire on Harry once more. "I was angry with you at first because I thought you'd asked those two to lock you in here with Dorothy but I can see now that you both were victims of their rather tasteless prank. I also wanted to thank you personally for the warning you sent; it gave us enough time to evacuate Sanc before they dropped the nuclear warhead on it. If not for the message you passed on to your brothers and they in turn passed on to me, then my people would have paid the price. I also appreciate you opening your home to us when you didn't have to. If there is anything I can do to repay you, you have but to ask and I will do my best to see you get whatever it is you need."
"You don't need to repay me for doing what was right; the fact that you are still alive is repayment enough. Is there anything I can do to help you and your people? Where are they all staying anyway? I didn't see any new faces in the castle while I was out yesterday and there was no one on the grounds."
"Most of the citizens chose to flee into neighboring countries and a good number had not returned to their homes after the failed invasion at the end of last year so there were less than twenty thousand individuals that actually needed to be evacuated. Of those only about five thousand of them had no place to go and three and a half thousand of them were hospital patients that we transferred to hospitals well outside of our borders."
"The rest, which mainly included the palace staff and guards and the students that were living at the castle, were brought here; they are camped down by the small airport. There are only a handful of us that are actually staying in the guest suites in the castle. And we've been well taken care of by your brothers and the Maganac since we arrived. Brian, Haddock, and Takoda have personally seen to it that those camping beyond the castle grounds have adequate shelter and food."
"Cathy authorized a barracks and a few other buildings to be built in and around the airstrip in order to accommodate everyone," Zechs added when Harry frowned slightly at the mention of people camping down by the airstrip.
"That's fine; so long as they don't venture too close to the ruins of Hogsmeade," Harry absently replied as his frown disappeared while he tilted his head to one side and focused his attention on Dorothy's foot as she swung it back and forth from her perch on the chair. "The wards surrounding some of the ruins are unstable and attempting to build on or around them could cause problems. Haddock and the others would have been aware of that though; they also would have known not to attempt to salvage any building materials from the ruins for the same reason. I should seriously think about fencing off the ruins until I can find the time to cleanse the entire area or seal it off entirely and leave it as a memorial to the fallen; I haven't decided what I'm going to do with the former village yet."
"We'd be more than happy to help you clean up and rebuild portions of the town or the castle," Relena offered as she placed her hand on Harry's arm to get his full attention. "There are many skilled men and women that came with me and they have all expressed a desire to repay you, your friends, and your family for everything that you've done for us in any way they can."
"That's not necess…" Harry started as he slipped his arm free of Relena's hand only for his words to trail off as he remembered the conversation that he'd had with Cathy nearly a year earlier just minutes before Fawkes had phoenix-napped him. Sighing softly, Harry bowed his head before continuing, "Please give me a couple of days to consider your offer; there is much I know that needs to be done but there are some things that only I can do. How much have my brothers and Zechs told you about this castle?"
"Nowhere near enough to satisfy my curiosity but enough to know that there is much I don't know."
Harry chuckled at that and shook his head, "They are an overprotective lot." Harry then grew serious as he straightened up and donned an aura of authority. "Part of the reason they didn't tell you much is because I have asked them not to speak of what they know and those in my employ are under a confidentiality contract. Many lives depend upon me to protect them from the predations of those who would not understand them and in order for me to do that at the moment it is imperative that our presence remains a secret. I will be the first to admit that I didn't surrender to White Fang to save Earth; I turned myself over to White Fang in order to protect those lives for which I am responsible."
Relena and Zechs were both poleaxed by the unexpected show of authority from Harry; neither of them used to the almost nineteen year old wizard asserting his presence quite so forcibly. Zechs had seen hints of it in the past but that had not prepared him for the aura of sheer power that surrounded Harry at the moment. Dorothy wasn't unaffected by the show either as the display was quite the turn on for the infatuated teen. Harry, in the mean time, hadn't really noticed how much he'd affected the other three people in the room as he dropped the aura and addressed Relena once more.
"If you could give me about thirty minutes to make myself presentable I will see what I can do about answering some of your questions and giving you a proper tour."
"That… that will be fine," Relena murmured in a bit of a daze.
"We'll wait for you in the other room," Zechs replied as he steered Relena out of the room and gently closed the door.
Harry sighed, rubbed the back of his head, and shuffled towards the bathroom intent on taking a quick shower to wash away the dried sweat from his earlier workout. He was halfway to the bathroom when he paused and glanced sideways at Dorothy, meeting her intense violet gaze with mismatched eyes. He titled his head slightly to one side and arched an eyebrow at her; a silent offer and a challenge. She was out of the chair and crossing the floor an instant later and Harry allowed a small satisfied smile to form as he watched her. She'd nearly reached him when his bedroom door opened once more and Relena poked her head into the room.
"Dorothy did you want… oh… am I interrupting?"
"No," Harry almost growled as he tore his eyes away from Dorothy and glanced over at Relena while fighting the urge to pull out his wand and hex the teen for walking in when she did. "If you ladies will excuse me?"
Harry bowed a bit curtly before he spun on his heel and barely restrained himself from stalking across the room. Once inside of the bathroom, he pulled out his wand to lock the door and throw up a silencing ward so he could curse long and loud for two full minutes before he turned on the shower. While he waited for the water to fill the room with steam, he restored his storage trunk and climbed down inside to browse through his clothes to find something a little more comfortable to wear since most of the clothes he had in his wardrobe were snugger than he preferred.
He dithered for a few minutes but eventually grabbed a pair of jeans, one of his modified undershirts, a red dress shirt (one of those modified to hide his wings), and a pair of running shoes. Once back up in the bathroom, he stripped out of the pants he'd put on earlier and stepped into the shower. He stood under the water for a couple of minutes to saturate his wings before he quickly washed away the sweat from his workout.
He spent another minute inspecting his wings and noted that they'd most likely shed at least once more if not twice more before the damage done to them from the gunshot wounds and the rough removal of the tape that had secured them was fully healed. He then shut off the water and stepped out of the shower before using his wand to dry himself off with a quick spell to save a little time. It only took him a few minutes to throw on his underwear, pants, shirts, socks, and shoes before he spent several minutes studying his reflection in the mirror; pleased to note that while he still looked young, he no longer looked like a child.
Nodding to his reflection, Harry made a token effort to tame his hair before giving it up as a lost cause and strode out of the bathroom. A quick glance at the clock he had hanging on the wall let him know he still had about another ten minutes before he would be expected and he used that time to slip down into his storage trunk one more time in order to collect his throwing knives and slipped them into the various hidden pockets on his shirt before grabbing his deck of silver cards and climbing out of the trunk.
The last thing he did was shrink down his storage trunk and return the leather cord of shrunken trunks to his neck as he strode towards the door. He was halfway out the door when he used his wand to completely remove the lock on his door to prevent anyone from ever locking him in his room again (knowing he could always magically lock the door if the need ever arose). Striding into the antechamber, Harry let his eyes search the room and he was a little surprised (and more than a little disappointed) to find only Zechs waiting for him.
"My sister dragged your lady friend off to freshen themselves up and gossip," Zechs explained with a slight grin as he watched Harry search the room. "They should be back in about ten or fifteen minutes."
Harry glanced sharply at Zechs for the 'lady friend' comment but said nothing as he tucked his wand back into the hidden holster in his glove (which itself was still disguised as were the cuffs he wore on his left wrist). He then migrated over to his desk and passed the time by sorting through the various scrolls, books, and printouts that covered the surface. When the door opened five minutes later, he glanced up and frowned briefly when he saw it wasn't Relena and Dorothy entering but immediately perked up when he saw a pair of familiar and much missed faces entering behind Wufei.
"Quatre! Trowa!" Harry crowed as he dropped the handful of papers he'd been sorting and bounced across the room to greet his brothers. "When you weren't here when I woke up I feared the worst; Quinze told he'd dropped a second warhead on the Winner Estate."
"It was a rather close call," Trowa admitted as he took in the latest changes that Harry had gone through during his most recent misadventure (not counting being locked in his bedroom with Dorothy). "Brian and Haddock were able to save us thanks to Wolfstar leaving them a backdoor into the Libra's mainframe computer."
"Do you know why Heero is radiating resignation and Duo is projecting abject fear?" Quatre asked with a frown as he glanced about for the two teens in question.
Harry scowled at the reminder of his current least favorite brothers as he growled out, "They went too far last night and I will deal with them later."
"What happened?" Trowa asked as he glanced at Harry in surprise.
"They took Taliesin's wand and locked Taliesin and Dorothy in Taliesin's bedroom last night," Wufei answered when Harry simply shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced away.
"Their damn lucky I didn't have any nightmares last night," Harry muttered before he shoved his irritation away as he noted Quatre grimacing. "Like I said, I'll deal with them later; after they sweat a bit."
"What are you planning to do in the mean time, Taliesin?" Wufei inquired curiously.
"I'm giving Princess Relena a formal tour of the castle and grounds and answering a few of the questions I know she has," Harry replied as he drifted back over to his desk and cleaned up the papers he'd dropped when his brothers entered the room. He'd barely gathered them up before he dropping them back down as he snapped his fingers and muttered, "Ah, I nearly forgot the phoenixes; they'll be cross with me if I leave them locked up alone after they missed breakfast this morning."
He disappeared into his room before he even finished speaking and returned a moment later with the two magical birds perched happily on his shoulders. Harry spent a moment studying Zechs and his brothers before he sent off over a dozen patronus messages to various individuals throughout the castle.
"The four of you need to clean yourselves up a bit," Harry stated once the final patronus disappeared through the wall in search of the intended recipient. "If I am going to introduce the sovereign leader of the Sanc Kingdom to the Wizarding Nation, then it is best that I make certain that she is properly introduced. I guess that means I need to revise my own outfit a bit as well. I've asked everyone to meet me down in the Entrance Hall in three hours; I expect all four of you to be there and dressed to the nines."
AN: I'll just reiterate at this point that Harry's relationship with Dorothy isn't going to be all roses and rainbows even if it seemed like it based upon the events of this chapter. They will have ups and downs, though as I said in the author's note at the end of the last chapter, their relationship won't be the main focus of the rest of the story… there is plenty of other things still going on that will be explored in depth; including magic theory, the past, and a handful of other things.
I'll also apologize for the rehash of Harry's life that was given for Dorothy's benefit. I actually cut out more than half of what I'd originally had in that part when I was editing this section for posting; making it as brief as possible so as not to bore everyone. I tried cutting more but I needed to show him grudgingly opening up to Dorothy in order to acknowledge their new, if undefined, relationship. Much like when he first opened up to Quatre at the start of the story.
Anywho... I just wanted to give a big shout of thanks to all of my reviewers, this story has officially become the most reviewed story I have ever posted on any site with over 700 reviews (and that is with me deleting a number of offensive anonymous reviews). I must say that all of my readers rock! *sets out platters of cakes, cookies, candies, pies, and other homemade goodies for everyone* ~ Jenn