Harry glared at him as he ate his own chocolate. "Fine, ask a question then!"

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When they had dropped Harry off at his house last night, L had kept him in the car for an hour or so before Harry agreed to take the cellphone with him. Harry had been utterly against accepting the phone at all and L had been forced to resort to as careful psychological manipulation as he'd ever used in previous cases; more than that even- suspects and operatives didn't argue as much as Harry did.

Not that Harry was particularly good at arguing (he did lose after all) considering he had few, if any, logical rebuttals and he repeated himself quite a bit. But he was stubborn and once Harry had decided something, it took far more effort than L thought should really be necessary to make him change his mind again.

L had listed every logical reason behind the absolute necessity of Harry having a phone (and why the phone being handed to him was better than any others) which was ruthlessly shot down by Harry's only excuse "I never needed one before." Then L had started a debate on why Harry's life would now need to include a cellphone due to the different responsibilities of a working member of society as compared to a student. Harry had argued that- hah!- he was still a student, a cooking student.

Harry, thinking he was on a roll, had then started arguing that even if he did need a phone, he certainly wouldn't take someone else's phone and could just as easily buy his own! L had quickly ended that argument by asking innocently why Harry hadn't done so yet, which made Harry blink and look awkwardly out the window.

The argument had finally been ended when L brought up the 'guilt' reasoning, saying that after vanishing on them for an entire week, Harry should stay in better contact with him and 'Thomas'. The phone he was offering was the only reliable method of maintaining contact which 'William' trusted. If Harry didn't accept the phone, he and 'Thomas' would spend all their time worrying about whether Harry was home safe or not and would, therefore, be unable to fully enjoy their vacation.

Harry hadn't known what to say to that beyond a quietly muttered "You don't have to worry about me at all," as he grudgingly took the phone from L's hand. L had grinned at him from the car window until Harry had waved goodbye to 'Thomas' and then shut the door, ignoring 'William' completely.

Once they had reached the hotel, L and Wammy had caught up with the more technical details of the investigation. Wammy had contacted the agent that had been sent to Little Winging while they were out with Harry, to find out when he would move on the Dursley household to plant surveillance equipment, and L had gone over the files his computer had been collecting throughout the day on criminal redheads.

L also watched Harry, out of the corner of his eye, disappearing into the bathroom for a shower, tossing the phone onto his dresser with a disgruntled look, talking to his owl as he opened the window, and, finally, going to sleep.

Long after a not unsurprisingly inconsistent review of known or suspected criminals with naturally or dyed red hair, as well as all cases where criminals were known to have employed wigs (red or otherwise) as disguises, L looked up to realize Wammy had already retired to his bedroom for the night. L shut his laptop and huddled around his legs, horribly depressed.

Red hair was a dead end. While L still thought there was a connection between the organization and red hair, there was either no evidence of the organization's involvement in any crimes, or they only used the red hair for moving about quietly, not for unsavory activity as L had hoped. He probably should have realized that when Harry wandered off with red hair- of course Harry wouldn't commit any crimes right now, he was moving out of the organization. But L had been too upset about losing Harry and too desperate to look into any possible lead to let go of the idea.

L had looked briefly into tracking any redheads in Britain, but had run into a wall of public relations problems. No government or police system in the correct area would investigate only people with red hair. This apparently came too close to some sort of racial profiling. Which L thought was unfair because while, yes, he was profiling redheads, he wasn't only going after natural-born redheads- he wanted to follow dyed redheads and red wig-wearers as well, especially the wig-wearers. There was nothing racial about it at all.

So now, after failing to hack into a satellite to spy on any redheads outdoors in the British Isles (never mind it was night), L was bored. He was lounging on the couch dejectedly as he watched the screen where Harry could be seen sleeping and he was debating calling Harry just for something to do. Unfortunately, Wammy had warned him that if he started calling Harry at inappropriate times, then Harry would likely give back the phone and L didn't want to have to argue with him again so soon- he'd had an exhausting evening already thank you.

But there really was nothing else to do right now, L thought as he stared blankly at the video screen. Besides, he wanted to talk to Harry, about a number of things. At the London Eye, Harry had surprised him with his insight. L hadn't thought before that Harry was very observant. He had good eyes for spotting things that were hard to see, but he didn't seem to notice the mannerisms of people around him. When Harry had first said he could tell when he was being lied to, L had raised his guard (it would be stupid not to, after a declaration like that) but he hadn't really believed that Harry had any such skill.

Then, when Harry had asked about the price of the capsule ride so cautiously, L had felt his guard raise even more. Harry's posture against the wall of the capsule and blank face had startled L, they told him that Harry was extremely suspicious of him. But the only reason seemed to be the expense of the outing. L had responded carefully and had tried to sound out the reason behind Harry's sudden suspicions.

But Harry didn't seem to have any definitive reason for suspecting L and Wammy, in fact, he seemed confused about the situation as well, as if he didn't think they had any reason to act suspiciously. Was he really reacting only to the money? L had thought the money Harry had used to buy the lease on nine Argyle Square had been his own, but perhaps he had gotten the money from someone else? Someone who was using wealth to manipulate him?

Harry had certainly seemed to suspect that L and Wammy were using wealth to manipulate him (which they were), so perhaps he was simply sensitive to that sort of manipulation. L decided that must be it, after all, Harry's suspicions had apparently been laid to rest with L's careful statement "I want you to think well of me." Which was, at least, partially true, and it was an innocent enough reason, as well as being one which would make Harry feel guilty for suspecting him at all. Guilt was something that Harry seemed particularly susceptible to- the girl had used it on him and L, an almost perfect stranger, had been able to use it on him as well.

After that, L noticed that Harry had deliberately dropped his guard- being guilty really seemed to be Harry's weak point- so he decided to start asking more interesting questions. Harry had, as L thought he would, responded to all the questions asked honestly, but he seemed to become more upset as they went on and then, when he angrily snapped out the same question L had asked him last, he immediately noticed L's lie.

L had been surprised by that, even more than by Harry's suspicions. He had a practiced lie prepared after all, and he didn't think there was any way for even an expert interrogator to notice because he always made sure he never gave any tells and his answer was so vague that there was no way to tell what was false about it. But still, Harry was one hundred percent certain that 'William' was lying, without offering any observations to support that suspicion. The game had stopped after that and Harry hadn't spoken much to L until they dropped him off and the argument about the cell phone started.

So, L had many questions to ask Harry, about what he'd learned in the Eye, as well as Harry's inexplicable insight that only made an appearance when it annoyed L. But Wammy had already warned him about the dangers of waking Harry up with a phone call, so he could only watch Harry sleep and wait. As he watched, Harry turned over in his sleep, raising an arm out of the covers. L leaned forward eagerly, if Harry was moving around, then he wasn't fully asleep...

Without bothering to think any more about it, L snatched up the cell phone he'd placed on the table and pressed the speed dial for the phone Harry had been given. As the call went through, L watched the screen showing Harry's bedroom and waited for the ring tone to start up.

The phone on Harry's dresser rang five times before Harry himself began to stir and then he only turned over, mumbling incoherently. After the phone had rung seven times, Harry's head rose out of his covers part way and he called out "Wha..." L blinked. He wondered exactly how long Harry had been without a phone of his own that he wouldn't react instinctively to the sound the way most people would.

"Rowag!" Harry called out on the screen. L watched as he sat up on the bed and looked around blearily. "Did you bring something strange back again?" Harry mumbled before blinking blankly at the empty perch in the corner. "Rowag?"

L was so caught up in watching Harry's sleepy reaction to the wake up call, he was surprised when he heard the automated voice message on the phone in his hand saying the number he had dialed was unavailable. He hung up quickly and pressed the re-dial button before Harry (who was blinking at the perch and open window next to him in confusion) went back to sleep.

The moment the phone on Harry's dresser started ringing again, Harry literally jumped and fell sideways off the bed. As L watched, he got up warily, peering over the bed toward his dresser with a stick in his hand. Once he determined the cell phone was making the noise, he lowered the stick and walked over to the dresser to stare at the ringing phone in confusion. L watched Harry pick the phone up and blink at it before it rang again, then he opened it and held it to his ear. "Hello?"

L held his phone up to answer and then heard the phone ring again. He blinked and so did Harry, who held the phone away to stare at it for a moment. Then he pressed a button, held it to his ear again and repeated "Hello?"

L brought his phone quickly back to his own ear to answer when he heard the line go dead and the dial tone start. L stared at the phone in his hand. Harry had hung up on him!

Back on the screen, Harry apparently realized that the line had been disconnected but didn't seem to realize he was at fault for that, because he shrugged, put the phone back on the dresser, and wandered over to his bed. L glared at his figure on the video and pressed the re-dial button hard.

The phone on the dresser started ringing just as Harry got his feet back under his blanket and L saw him stare at it as if debating whether or not to try answering again. L glared and was already planning on calling Harry's phone all night when Harry huffed and threw the blanket back to walk over to the dresser again.

This time when Harry opened the phone, he stared at it for three rings before pressing another button and when he said "Hello?" hesitantly, L heard his voice coming through his own cell phone. He lowered the sound from the surveillance screen before answering.

"Good morning Harry," L said brightly as he watched Harry jerk and then slump on the screen.

"It's not morning," Harry said after a moment of silence.

"Yes, actually, it is Harry," L said.

"It's four o'clock William," Harry said tiredly as he rubbed his eyes and walked back over to the bed. "I know that's technically morning, but it doesn't really count until the sun rises."

"It is morning if you have risen for the day, Harry," L said reasonably. On the video screen, Harry had sat down on the edge of the bed and looked like he wanted to throw the phone across the room.

"I haven't 'risen for the day' though," Harry ground out into the phone.

"But you are awake Harry."

"Because someone kept calling me and woke me up!" Harry shouted at the phone before collapsing back on the bed and staring angrily at the ceiling.

"If you did not want to wake up Harry, you should not have answered the phone." Harry sighed and curled on his side on the bed with the phone still against his ear.

"What did you want then?" Harry said tiredly.

"Want, Harry?" L asked as he watched Harry trying to pull his blanket back over himself when he was on top of it.

"Yeah," Harry grunted as he yanked on the blanket. "You called so early, you must want something."

"I wanted to talk to you, Harry," L said simply as he raised his thumb to chew on. Harry had finally yanked the blanket half out from under himself and wrapped himself in it so he now looked a bit like a dumpling, curled on the bed in a tight ball.

"Yeah, what about?" Harry asked impatiently.

"What do you want to talk about, Harry?" L said around his thumb as he grinned. There was a long silence and L stopped chewing his thumb as he tilted his head to the side, had Harry fallen asleep?

"You woke me up at four in the morning..." Harry muttered into the phone slowly. "Just... to talk?"

"So you admit this is morning?" L said as he stuck his thumb back between his teeth. There was another long silence, then the line suddenly went dead. On the video screen Harry's arm came out of the ball of blankets to toss the phone across the floor in the direction of the dresser and the ball rearranged itself so it was stretched out more and covered entirely.

L thought perhaps Wammy was right about not calling Harry at certain times and got up to find something else to do. He thought there was some leftover cake in his room he could eat. But he put the cell phone in his pocket as he walked.

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Harry huddled around his pillow for what felt like a long time, but no matter how long he lay there, he couldn't seem to fall asleep again. Groaning, he tossed the blanket off his head and lay back to stare at the dark ceiling above him.

Stupid William. It was all his fault Harry was having such a hard time sleeping, now and even when he came home. Harry had lain awake in bed for several hours before he'd drifted off then, thinking about all the strange things William said and did, and now Harry was stuck thinking about him again.

Harry really didn't understand William at all. He'd thought at first that William was just an annoying, childish person who followed Thomas around because he didn't have anything better to do. Then he'd thought William was an annoying, childish person who needed to be escorted by Thomas because he couldn't be trusted to wander around by himself. Now he wondered if maybe William, as annoying and childish as he was, was trying to manipulate him in some way. But Harry couldn't think why he would want to.

Harry had checked, subtly probing both William and Thomas with his magic, but they never reacted, so they couldn't possibly be wizards, pretending not to know him or even untrained muggleborns. He didn't think they were squibs either, because they simply didn't talk or act like people who knew magic was real. In the muggle world, Harry was essentially a nobody. He had nothing, he did nothing and there wasn't any reason he could see for any muggle to want to use him. So why were they so involved with him?

Even Harry admitted that he'd gotten close to William and Thomas rather quickly, and he was very suspicious of that and of how blatantly they were spending money around him and in ever increasing amounts. It really made him think of the Malfoys and even of his uncle- whenever Vernon had wanted to impress a prospective client, the first order of business was to buy a new suit and take them out for a fancy dinner. But again, Harry couldn't think of why they'd bother with him.

Then there was William's reason for it- wanting Harry to "think well" of him. Harry draped an arm over his face. That had been embarrassing. He'd almost accused William of trying to manipulate him and it turns out he was only trying to make a friend! It had sounded like such a stupid excuse, but Harry thought it sounded true and when he thought about it- thought about William- he realized it fit pretty well. William really was clueless when it came to interacting with other people and most people would have been very impressed with the fancy food and car and capsule ride, so it made sense. So the only reason William and Thomas were spending so much time with him was really because they wanted to be friends?

Harry groaned and got up. It would take hours for him to fall asleep at this rate, and by then he would have to get up anyway. As he wandered over to the open window, rubbing his eyes tiredly, Harry allowed himself to really think things through. He didn't mind William so much, and he really liked Thomas- he thought they were both generally good people. He didn't feel threatened by them either- well, except for when William got that creepy half-lidded look... It was like he was trying to look into Harry's soul when he did that, which Harry knew was quite impossible, but it also left him with the impression that William was some sort of legilimens.

Fine, so William was occasionally creepy and could probably read other people well enough that it seemed like he could read their minds, but Harry still didn't think he was dangerous. He also didn't see any reason for William to want to spend so much time with him- or give him a phone. Harry snorted as he looked over at the cell phone that had slid across the floor to against the wall beside the dresser. Actually, if what William wanted was to be an annoying prat, then the phone was a pretty good idea, so maybe there wasn't anything particularly sinister about that.

But that brought up why William wanted to spend so much time with Harry even if it was just to be annoying. Harry was sure he'd never met William or Thomas before that first meeting with the pickpocket- he'd definitely have remembered William- so they shouldn't know anything about him, and the only thing they could know, in the muggle world, was his life with the Dursleys...

That was it! Harry stared out the window in shock. That would certainly explain all those questions in the capsule- No! Harry shook his head, he wasn't going to think about that. He'd hated the questions William had asked him. Some seemed innocent enough, about school and favorite subjects or teachers, but the large majority were about family- parents, siblings, other relations, why aren't you living with them?

No, Harry wasn't going to go back into that. No one ever asked him about his family life- in the wizard world, everyone, even his friends, thought they already knew about his family, dead parents and muggle aunt and uncle and cousin. That was it. But William... Every time Harry answered something, no matter how vague he tried to be, William would narrow his next question down, trying to find out why Harry lived with his aunt and uncle, why he no longer lived with them, and whatever Harry knew about his parents.

It had felt invasive and somewhat terrifying and during the whole thing, Harry got the strange impression that William knew more than he was asking. When Harry couldn't take it anymore, he switched tactics from trying to change topics by asking random questions to flat out yelling William's own question back at him. Why are your parents dead?

Harry had immediately regretted asking William that. He wasn't rude the way William was, and up to that point Harry hadn't asked a single question about William's family- he'd only had his own assumption about William's parents. But then William had lied. Flat out lied to Harry's face and he forgot to feel bad about his question at all. I think they were sick.

Harry'd called William on it, of course, and the horrible question game had shifted to proving one way or the other whether William had lied or not. William kept asking Harry why he thought he'd lied and Harry could only say "Because you did." Not a terribly informative answer, but it was all Harry had.

Even he didn't know how he knew someone had lied- his instructor at the auror academy had said it wasn't an instinct, as Harry had once thought, but his magic telling him. He'd thought it might be his occlumency getting better, but the instructor said that would only help Harry lie effectively, not to see through other people's lies. So, William had lied and Harry knew it, but he didn't have any physical proof of it.

Eventually they had simply stopped talking to each other, Harry because he'd been trying to put a stop to all the family questions William came up with and shutting the man up was an effective way to do that, and William because he was getting frustrated with Harry's continual non-answers about knowing that he had lied. They didn't speak to each other again until William had given Harry the phone and by then Harry had started feeling bad, thinking that maybe William really was trying to be his friend and was just boxing things up horribly.

Harry sighed and sat down on the open window sill, swinging his legs out to rest on the flower box, and looking up at the dark sky. He didn't get William at all and it was really starting to frustrate him because he had no idea how to deal with the odd man.

But now he thought maybe he'd figured something out- William knew the Dursley's somehow and that was why he was so set on getting close to him and why he'd asked all those horrible questions. Harry rubbed his eyes hard. That didn't make any sense! Anyone who knew the Dursleys would think Harry was some kind of a crazed criminal and would avoid him, which was the exact opposite of what William was doing.

Harry sighed and looked back up at the sky. He was really looking forward to the day his life started making sense again- if it ever would.

About an hour later, Rowag returned from her night out and landed on Harry's shoulder, trilling a hello. Harry patted her, still looking up at the sky.

"So how was your night, Rowag?"

Rowag hooted excitedly and bobbed her head back and forth wildly, trying to tell him all the marvelous things she'd done. Harry chuckled.

"Wish my night was as good as yours- I got bothered," Harry said as he swung his legs back inside to wander downstairs. Rowag tilted her head upside down curiously.

"Oh, well," Harry thought how to phrase himself politely. If he started getting upset again, not only would he ruin the rest of his day, he'd upset Rowag as well and she was loud when distressed. "An annoying person woke me up for no reason."

Rowag flapped her wings and hooted. Harry laughed. "I wish I could ignore him, but it's a lot harder than you'd think." Harry yawned as he went into the bathroom to brush his teeth, if Rowag was back then it was okay to start getting ready for the day. As he did so, Rowag started up a stream of hoots and whistles as an offering of advice. Harry didn't know what she was saying, but he appreciated that she was trying to make him feel better. He smiled sadly, Hedwig would have done the same thing he thought.

After emerging from the bathroom, with Rowag still hooting softly, but starting to wind down a bit as the morning crept up on her, Harry decided to walk back to his room to drop her off before he went to make breakfast. Almost as soon as he entered the room however, a loud ringing sound started and Rowag shrieked in shock, startled awake and flapping wildly as she gripped Harry's shoulder.

"Ow!" Harry cried out as Rowag's talons dug into his skin painfully. "Rowag! Calm down!" The ringing came again and Harry grabbed Rowag around the middle, carefully folding her wings back up and holding her against his chest for four rings while he waited for her to calm down.

"Okay, Rowag?" Harry asked her quietly. Rowag looked up at him from where he was clutching her and hooted angrily. "Well don't give me that!" Harry huffed as he let her flap back up to his shoulder. Harry walked over to the ringing cell phone on the floor behind the dresser.

"Look, I told you someone woke me up last night, didn't I?" Harry said irritably as Rowag hissed at the noisy phone on the floor- that wasn't there when she left! "This is how he woke me up! Annoying, isn't it?"

Rowag hooted a sound agreement and watched in apprehension as Harry leaned down to pick the phone up off the floor. As Harry had thought, it was William on the line.

"Harry!" William said loudly. "Good morning."

Harry sighed. "Morning..."

"So you admit it is morning now?"

Harry stared at the wall and counted to three. He was lucky, actually, that the phone hadn't broken last night when he threw it- it wasn't his after all. But if Harry threw it again, he couldn't count that it would remain unharmed, and Harry wanted to return the thing in one piece.

"What do you want, William?" Harry asked in annoyance as he walked Rowag over to her perch. Unfortunately, she was too awake and upset from the phone startling her and refused to leave his shoulder until he put the weird noise-maker down first.

"I wanted to talk to you, Harry," William said and Harry was sure somehow that he was grinning when he said that. Prat, Harry thought. He didn't know why he bothered being suspicious of William. The man was so annoying, the only thing he could accomplish by getting close to Harry was pissing him off.

"Fine," Harry said as he wandered with Rowag down to the kitchen. He was hungry and he wasn't going to deal with William on an empty stomach. "What did you want to talk about?"

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A/N: Hello! Thank you all for reading and thank you to those who review!

I'm very sorry for the late update- I'm afraid I have final projects to work on over the next two weeks and... well.. This is going to sound quite ridiculous, I'm sure, but- I've started another story. That doesn't mean I'll stop writing this one however! I still have many more ideas for this fic than I do for the other- but I ended up writing that one yesterday instead of this. Sorry!

Not much happened in this chapter, but I was at a good stopping point and decided this worked as a whole chapter. Did everyone like it? It was mostly a chapter about thoughts- what L thinks about Harry and what Harry thinks about L (William). I think I have proven that Harry does actually think about other people and he is, in fact, a suspicious person. The only thing really protecting L and Wammy is, again, Harry's naive outlook on muggles vs. wizards. Oh poor Harry... He has no idea the sorts of things L is capable of... ^^