"Fine," Harry said. "What did you want to talk about?"
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After a week, Harry was deeply regretting ever accepting the phone from William. The moment William tried to hand it to him, Harry should have run for it and not looked back. Harry supposed a cellphone in everyday muggle life was a nice thing- convenient, just like a floo- and Harry did rather like the odd moments when William allowed Thomas to say hello to him in the mornings before Harry went off to Hogwarts for his cooking lessons. But that was where a cellphone being a good thing to have ended, and all because William was an irritating prat.
William called him in the morning (early morning, Harry had occasional 4 and 5 o'clock wake-up calls and one 3 o'clock wake-up that was never repeated because Harry hung up and put the phone in the refrigerator for the rest of the night), William left dozens of messages on the phone while Harry was away at Hogwarts (William was furious to realize Harry would not be taking the phone with him when he left the house- "That defeats the purpose of you having the phone at all!"), and then, almost as soon as Harry walked in the door of nine Argyle Square, William would be ringing him once more to ask when he and Thomas could come over for dinner.
Harry had tried any number of times to give the phone back to William, even going so far as threatening to leave it on the doorstep if William wouldn't take it with him, but somehow, Harry ended up stuck with the phone after each encounter. Harry had also tried to minimize the number of times he had to answer the phone by leaving it in other rooms, turning it off, pretending to lose it... But if William couldn't reach Harry after ringing him three times in a row, he would invariably show up on Harry's doorstep.
The first time that happened, the Sunday night after first receiving the phone, Harry had hoped to avoid another early wake-up call from William by leaving the cellphone on the table in the kitchen when he went to bed. Then, around five in the morning, Harry was startled awake by pounding on his front door. He'd thought at first he was under attack and had been preparing to either fight or run for it when he realized the magical alarm on his door hadn't gone off.
Harry had wandered downstairs cautiously, still wary of a trap, and opened the door to find a very annoyed William (as well as an apologetic but still worried Thomas) standing in the dark and demanding to know why Harry wasn't answering his calls. Harry had called them both nutters but grudgingly invited them in for tea and somehow ended up promising William he would answer the phone from now on.
That evening, Harry returned from his cooking lessons to find several dozen messages on the phone, all asking where he was. While Harry was going through the messages the phone rang, and Harry answered it instinctively and then spent an hour being scolded by William (and surprisingly, Thomas as well) for leaving the phone behind when he left the house.
Harry had patiently (well, annoyed-ly, but he tried to speak calmly when Thomas came on the line) explained that phones didn't work at his school anyway, so taking the phone was pointless. William had argued (sounding as though he wanted to strangle Harry) that the phone was meant to be with Harry so he could use it if he ended up stranded somewhere and needed to call for help. Harry had said there wasn't much chance of that happening and that phones didn't work at his school anyway.
Thomas had been forced to take the phone away from William at that point and he agreed with Harry that leaving the phone at home when he went to lessons was alright, but "anywhere else" he went, he should definitely take the phone with him. Harry (who could hear something breaking in the background on Thomas' end) agreed quickly and hung up.
That night, Harry decided to try turning the phone off so he could sleep peacefully, even though he didn't really think William would want to talk to him for a while. Harry was again woken by heavy pounding on his front door around five in the morning, but (getting a bad feeling) he checked the alarm as soon as his eyes popped open. When Harry went down to let William and Thomas in, William had only glared at him silently until they were all in the kitchen and Harry, yawning rather widely, had set a teacup in front of him.
William had told Harry shortly that the cellphone was meant to further their connection and that being toyed with like this, especially after being so worried about Harry when he was missing, was a very cruel thing to do. Harry had flushed with shame- this was starting to remind him too much of how poorly he'd been treating his friends and the Weasleys. Then, somehow, Harry found himself promising not to turn the phone off again!
Which all meant that Harry had to put up with William pestering him nearly every moment he was available- all because of a few stupid promises and a stupid phone!
Harry was yawning after a long day with the house-elves and a lunch meeting with Hermione to start working on her project when he returned home, balancing a cake box in his hands as he closed the door. He was hoping he could put the cake away, take a quick shower, deal with whatever it was William wanted, and then go to bed! He was really looking forward to relaxing this weekend.
Just as Harry had walked into the kitchen, he could hear the cellphone upstairs ringing and Rowag shrieking in competition. For whatever reason, Rowag had decided that the best way to deal with the scary noise-maker was to be even noisier than it, in the hope it might get scared and run away. Harry (who sort of wished phones could run away) was thinking maybe he should start leaving the cellphone in a drawer or something when he left.
He trekked upstairs, dropped his coat on the bed while he whistled a hello to Rowag, who thankfully stopped her screeching to fly over to his shoulder, and answered the phone.
"Hello William," Harry said tiredly as he went back downstairs to deal with the cake.
"Hello Harry," came William's annoyingly pleased sounding voice. "You have made it home safely."
Harry rolled his eyes. Honestly, it was like William thought Harry was going to be mugged or kidnapped or something whenever he left the house. "Yeah, I did."
"Shall Thomas and I take you out for dinner tonight? There is a very nice bistro nearby- they have a rotating menu of desserts and tonight is a molten chocolate cherry sunday."
"Er, no. I already ate," Harry said. "Besides, I was planning to go to bed early tonight."
"Then Thomas and I shall pick the dessert up to-go and bring it over to your house-"
"Er, actually," Harry interrupted William quickly. He needed to lay out his plans for the night before William came up with anything, or Harry wouldn't be able to keep him away. "I was sort of thinking that maybe you and Thomas could go out for once, er, without me. I mean, I've been intruding on your vacation the whole week and-"
"I believe, Harry," William interrupted him. "That you are misinterpreting our outings together. We have been inviting you out with us, therefore you are not an intrusion."
"Well, okay," Harry took a breath, arguing with William was always an ordeal, but Harry wasn't going to let him win this one. "But, I was planning on going to bed early-"
"So you said," William interrupted again. "We will of course be sure to let ourselves out at an appropriate hour, so you-"
"I'm going to bed as soon as I hang up on you, William!" Harry shouted. There was silence over the line. "Er, that is- See, I'm really tired, so, er, I'm not going to visit with you tonight. Okay?"
Harry waited a moment for a response, but all he got was a quiet "Very well," before the line went dead. Well, thought Harry, that didn't go too well, but on the plus side he could actually get some sleep tonight.
Harry put the cake away, took a shower, and let Rowag out for the night before climbing into bed. He felt a little bad for being so rude to William, but he really didn't feel like dealing with him tonight. Anyway, Harry figured he could apologize to William in the morning when he called to wake him up. Harry grinned as he lay down. He'd brought back one of the cakes he made today because William had been asking him constantly when he would start baking, so Harry was sure William would forgive him for a piece of cake.
When Harry was woken the next morning, he got up blearily to answer the ringing phone over on his dresser, but when he pressed the answer button and said "Morning," he didn't hear anything in response. For a moment, Harry thought perhaps William was still annoyed about last night.
"Oh, come off it, William," Harry said as he yawned. "It's not that I don't like you or anything, I just was really tired yesterday." That was certainly true. Besides his usual lessons with the house-elves, Harry had spent his entire lunch hour with Hermione to help her with her advanced transfiguration project- the animagus spell. Harry, while happy to be working amiably with his friend on such a difficult task, was finding the research behind the spell a rather daunting addition to his cooking lessons, his resolve to study Gobble-de-Gook and, of course, William's constant calls and visits.
"I really don't mind talking to you," Harry said hesitantly when there was still no answer. "And I do like spending time with you and Thomas, I just... I really would like to have an evening or two to myself." Harry did enjoy William and Thomas' visits, much as that surprised him. So far, they'd only spent the evenings in, with Harry cooking dinner for himself and Thomas, while William snacked on whatever sweet treat Harry had either brought back from the Hogwart's kitchens or bought from the grocery on his way home.
They talked of mostly inconsequential things, hobbies, what dishes Harry had learned so far, nothing really important. Harry had been worried that William might start up the question game again, but so far he seemed content to talk to Harry about cakes and such. Harry thought maybe this was the closest William would ever get to apologizing for being a git, but he couldn't help wondering when the questions would start again. He almost hoped they would, if only so he could find out how William and Thomas knew the Dursley's, if at all.
"But," Harry took a breath. Admitting this would be a pain, but William still hadn't said anything, so Harry would have to say something to make up for his rudeness yesterday. "I wouldn't mind seeing you today, if you still want to come over-"
Just then, the phone in his hand started ringing, making Harry blink. When he looked at the cellphone he was holding, he saw that William was calling him. "Huh?" Harry stared at the phone, hadn't he just answered it?
"Hello?" Harry said after answering the ringing phone.
"Good morning Harry," came William's flat voice from the phone.
"Er, didn't you just call me?" Harry asked hesitantly.
"No, I have only just called you now," William said curiously. "Why do you ask?"
But Harry was staring off, over at Rowag's perch now, because he'd heard a phone ringing again. As Harry walked over to Rowag, he noticed a couple things. First, was that Rowag was back when usually she didn't turn up until after William had already woken Harry. The other, was that she was clutching something in her talons as she sat on the perch and was pecking at it viciously.
"Rowag, what do you have?" Harry asked as he bent to look at whatever his owl had brought back. The cellphone she was trying to rip apart rang again. Harry gaped. "Where did you get that?!"
"What, Harry?" came William's voice again. Harry jerked the phone he was holding up to his ear.
"Er, listen, I'll call you back, okay?" Harry said quickly. "I, er, need to do something."
Harry hung up and placed the phone on the dresser again before turning to Rowag. "Okay, now where did you get that?" he asked sternly.
Rowag chirped cheerfully and flapped a bit before raising one talon up to toss the cellphone to the floor. Harry stepped back and Rowag swooped down to start attacking the phone again, which continued ringing.
"You stole someone's phone?" Harry asked incredulously. "How could you steal someone's phone? Wha- what did you do? Swoop down and grab it?" Harry knelt down and tore the phone away from the owl. Rowag shrieked and flapped up to Harry's shoulder, chirping and whistling and bobbing her head.
"I don't care if you want it back!" Harry said as he walked off to the study down the hall. "It's not yours! We have to give it back!"
Rowag hooted shrilly and sulked angrily. Harry sighed. "Why on earth would you want a cellphone anyway?" He asked as he sat down at the desk. "I thought you hated phones?" This started a long series of whistles and chirps and flapping and bobbing from Rowag and Harry listened with half an ear while he opened the stolen phone to scroll through the call list.
"Okay..." Harry mumbled to himself. "I think this belongs to someone named 'David Keller'- his name is listed under 'Home.'" Harry started writing the name out on a scrap of parchment from his desk and folded the paper around the phone. Once it was wrapped up with the name on the outside, Harry turned to regard the still twittering owl seriously.
"Rowag," Harry told her sternly. "You can't steal other people's phones. It's bad enough you go rooting around in people's garbage and bring all sorts of weird things back, but stealing phones is absolutely not allowed!" Harry glared at Rowag, who refused to look at him and shuffled off his shoulder onto the end of the desk, chirping softly. Harry sighed again. "Look, just don't do it anymore, okay?"
Rowag bobbed her head happily and climbed back onto Harry's shoulder. Harry wondered if she'd understood anything he had said, or if maybe he would be finding more stolen phones in his bedroom in the future.
"Alright, come here then," Harry had Rowag stand on the desk in front of him. "You stole it, now you're going to return it, okay?" Harry started tying the wrapped up cellphone to Rowag's leg. "I'm going to leave this bit of string loose, so when you get to the person, just pull on this here," Harry held up a length of string for Rowag to inspect. "and the package will come off you, got it?"
Rowag started bobbing her head excitedly and whistled. Harry nodded and took her over to the window by the desk and let her out. He watched her fly off into the rosy sky and wondered suddenly why he had woken up so late. William usually called well before sunrise...
When Harry walked back into his bedroom, the cellphone from William started ringing. Harry answered, wondering why William hadn't called him earlier.
"What was it you had to do, Harry?" William asked blankly.
"Nothing," Harry said absentmindedly. "How come you didn't call until now?"
"I did call you before now."
"No," Harry shook his head. "Not then, I meant earlier. Why didn't you call earlier this morning?"
"Was I supposed to call earlier?" William asked after a moment.
"Well, normally you call around five or so and-" Harry took the phone away to glance at the clock quickly. "Now it's after eight o'clock!" Harry said in shock. "Are you... upset still?" he asked hesitantly.
"No," William said petulantly. "But if my calling you is so important, I will make sure not to miss it again."
"Ah!" Harry started. "Wait- no! I mean, I don't mind being called later in the day! Actually, if you want to call around eight, I think I'd like that a lot better than-"
"But you are upset that I have called you late, Harry," William said loudly. "So I will continue to call you at the usual time!"
"I, no, you don't have to-" Harry tried to say.
"No, Harry," William said, a little snidely in Harry's opinion. "You were worried and it would be rude of me if I didn't make it up to you! I will make sure to call you at five from now on."
Harry slumped in defeat. He could practically hear William grinning and all he could think was that he was an idiot for mentioning the late call at all. Well, at least William hadn't heard Harry's rather embarrassing attempt to excuse himself for not seeing William yesterday. Harry was sure that William would become an even worse prat if he ever thought that Harry actually liked having him around.
"Fine, whatever," Harry said as he rubbed his eyes. "Did you want cake?"
"Cake?" William's voice suddenly sounded a great deal more interested than it was a moment before.
"Yeah," Harry grinned as he started walking downstairs to make breakfast. "I made cake yesterday! Didn't you ask me about that once?" Or twice, or several dozen times, Harry thought.
"Thomas and I will be over at once," William said before he hung up.
Harry laughed a bit as he closed the cellphone and put it in his pocket. It was weird actually. Harry hated that William called him constantly, but he still rather enjoyed talking to him and thinking that William might not have called him this morning was upsetting. Somehow, Harry had gotten used to William pestering him and when he stopped, Harry actually missed it!
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L had been having a very odd week. It was not what he would call a particularly good week. There were too many issues (most of them caused by Harry) for him to deal with to be able to relax.
The most prevalent issue, was convincing Harry to use the cellphone he'd been given. Harry kept trying to give back the phone, or turn off the phone, or pretend to lose the phone- anything so he wouldn't have to use it. He even refused to carry the phone with him when he left the house! L had never before wanted so dearly to hit a person as he did when Harry kept repeating "Cellphones don't work at my school," while L was trying to order him to carry the phone with him. As if there was any place around London that didn't get a signal! L had actually thrown his plate of strawberry and cream cake at the wall, he was so furious that Harry would try to use such a stupid lie with him.
Arguments with Harry about keeping the phone on and with him at all times (except for when he went to his cooking lessons and L was still seething that Wammy had allowed Harry to get away with that!) took up a great deal of L's attention and energy. Winning an argument with Harry was never so much a victory, as it was a trial, because beating Harry in an argument was more akin to knocking down a brick wall with one's head, than to a logical debate. After all the arguments he'd had with Harry this past week, L was exhausted.
Then there was all the work he had to deal with in the investigation that didn't directly involve Harry. He had started searching for cases that ended oddly- anything that was considered a closed case but had no direct evidence. L was surprised actually, at the number of cases that fit this criteria. There was everything from motor accidents and disappearances to terrorist attacks and noise complaints. Nearly everything he'd found so far, no matter how different, all ended the same way- case closed with a perfectly plausible explanation, but no conclusive evidence to back up that explanation.
Sometimes a case would have witness accounts that didn't make any sense, such as disappearing girls or mysterious bangs and creatures. One odd missing person's case had an account stating that a "great bloody lizard" had flown down the beach and "eaten" a man's boat before carrying one of the passengers off. Another excited account stated in a motor accident, that a girl had thrown "blue light" at the driver who caused the crash, knocking him out and making him swerve into oncoming traffic. Both cases appeared solved- the missing person's body was recovered from the ocean and most of those involved in the crash were content to blame the swerving driver- but L thought that the police reports were using the easiest, most common explanations to "solve" the cases.
For instance, the boat in the missing person's case was badly burned and was said to have exploded due to engine failure, but the engine itself was salvaged by the owner and was the least damaged part of the ship. It seemed as though the ship had caught fire, broken apart, and then sunk into the sea before the engine or gas tank could ignite as the report claimed they had. Then, in the motor incident, a street camera caught the driver looking perfectly normal, then suddenly falling unconscious while driving- before swerving to the other side of the road; but the report claimed the man had been inebriated and lost consciousness when he hit his head in the crash.
L was beginning to suspect that the organization was to blame for all these odd cases, but he hadn't yet figured out why any organization would be involved in so many mundane things. The terrorist attacks seemed to fit the profile of a secret organization with unknown motivations, but everything else added on was just odd. It was a peculiar puzzle and L was frustrated that all he had found was evidence to support a supposition, instead of anything concrete. He was sure if he could just find a clue to what the organization's aims were, then all the peculiar actions they were taking would make sense.
There was also the matter of the agent he had sent to Surrey, whom had planted the surveillance he wanted in the Dursley household. However, he hadn't yet made plans for a confrontation with the family and so was only monitering their day-to-day behavior. That particular task had been quickly regulated to the agent placed in Surrey because, quite frankly, the Dursley's lives were so mundane L couldn't focus on them when he had more interesting subjects to watch.
Which brought L's attention back onto Harry, and all the headaches that went with him, as well as Harry's... pet. At first, L hadn't bothered to pay much mind to Harry's interactions with his owl- in L's experience, most pet owners spoke to their animals as if they could understand them. However, Harry's owl acted as though it really could understand human speech.
The bird appeared, at first, to only be very well trained. It responded to nearly everything Harry told it, but L's research into pet owls showed no evidence of using spoken word to direct the animals- only whistles, clickers, calling and hand signals were used. But Harry's owl still seemed to listen and respond to every word Harry said to it.
Then there was the fact that Harry allowed the little barn owl to fly free at night. Barn owls did not require any licence or permit to be owned in the UK, however, any 'tame' owl had to be kept in an aviary or tethered when outside. If an owl was flown (from a glove and usually for falconry) then an Article 10 certificate was required. But Harry niether had a permit nor did he seem to pay any mind to where the owl flew or when it came back. The owl also appeared to have the habit of rooting through trash cans while out and bringing back treasures. Its proudest achievement, that L had witnessed, was half a cheeseburger, presented to Harry and subsequently tossed out by him, resulting in an 'argument' with the bird.
L was certain that Harry's ownership of the owl was quite illegal, but he was fascinated with how intelligent the bird seemed, as well as Harry's apparent disregard. L had actually started a game, to try and test the bird, by calling Harry's phone while he was away at different times of day.
For two days, he called the phone and left a message for Harry at the top of every hour. The owl had woken each time and hissed at the phone before going back to sleep. Then, on the third day, L had called three times in a row every third hour. The bird had woken each time and had hissed at the phone, but after the second time, it sat awake and watched it until it rang again and then hissed at it until it stopped. On the forth day, the owl had apparently decided it didn't want to deal with the phone and had flown off to sleep in a different room. So L called the phone constantly, leaving a message only every twentieth call or so. The owl had flown into the bedroom sometime in the afternoon and had started screeching at the phone every time it rang.
When Harry came home that day, he found the phone ringing and his owl shrieking and bobbing over it with hunched wings as if it were a snake it was trying to intimidate. Harry had answered the phone only after making the bird hop up to his shoulder and calming her. Then, after the call ended, L had been intrigued to watch Harry start lecturing the owl on "leaving the phone alone" no matter how annoying it got- and the owl listened! The next day when L called, the owl had shrieked at the phone from the other side of the room and refused to come any closer to it.
By Friday evening, L was looking forward to a pleasant evening, where he could perhaps question Harry about his bird and whether or not he had finally learned to make that chocolate cake. Unfortunately, when Harry came home, he apparently didn't want to see L at all and had even refused an offering of chocolate cherry cake. L had hung up on him and had fumed while he watched Harry on the video screen- absolutely certain that Harry was planning to enjoy himself without L present.
Or at least, that was what he thought until Harry went to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. He'd spent the rest of the evening sulking while Wammy not so subtly attempted to make him feel guilty.
"He must be very busy, don't you think?" Wammy had asked casually while pouring another cup of coffee for L. "He wakes up before dawn, he spends all day in a cooking school- which, I should tell you, is quite a bit of work- and then when he comes home, he entertains guests until late evening and has to clean up after them once they leave. Then he gets woken up early again next morning. It must all be very tiring."
L had glared after Wammy when he walked away to organize case requests and refused to speak to him again.
When morning finally came, L had decided to let Harry sleep in for once. Wammy had scolded him, Harry had yelled at him- so fine. No one wanted him to call Harry in the mornings anymore, so he wouldn't. Then, of course, L had found himself staring at the video screen in shock when a phone started ringing despite the fact he hadn't called Harry.
Wammy had come over from his laptop to scold L again, but had been brought up short by the fact that L's phone wasn't in use and that... the owl had a phone. Both of them had watched, a little incredulously, as Harry had woken and walked over to answer a phone that wasn't ringing. When Harry had started talking into the phone as though L were actually on the other end and trying to get him to respond, Wammy insisted L call him up at once. L had to admit it was rather amusing that Harry had been trained to expect only L to be on the phone with him- even when no one was at all.
L was less amused when Harry had hung up on him to deal with the phone his owl had brought into the house. He knew, of course, that it was very rude when he hung up on other people, but he still hated when anyone did that to him.
Watching Harry deal with the phone and his owl, however, wiped all thoughts of being mad at Harry away. Harry had decided, correctly, to return the owl-stolen phone to its rightful owner. But he went about this by wrapping the phone up in paper, writing a name on it, tying the thing to his owl, and then sending the bird off with instructions to "find the person" and "pull the string."
By this point, L had all the evidence he needed to know that the owl was more than an owl and that Harry owned it as more than a pet. He was treating it as some kind of freely thinking messenger-bird! L decided then that when he saw Harry next, he would be questioning him closely about his bird and why exactly he had such a pet.
When Harry went back to his room and answered L's call (Harry hadn't seemed to notice yet that he couldn't call L's phone and L intended to keep it that way), he dismissed his recent activities and turned the conversation onto L himself. Even as Wammy gestured desperately at him, L grinned and maneuvered both him and Harry into accepting his schedule for wake-up calls.
As he and Wammy left for Harry's house and that wonderful chocolate cake, L reflected that even with the headaches it brought, taking to Harry was enjoyable. L smirked in the elevator, making Wammy glance at him and shake his head, especially if there was cake involved.
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A/N: Thank you again to all readers and reviewers! Sorry for the late (and short) update again. I'm busy, busy, busy with final projects and I've started writing future chapters in my free time because those have more fun scenes than the current chapters. Oops~ But, at least once we get to that point, you can all be happy with faster updates! Yay~
Well not much to say here, except that L is kind of a jerk. ^^; He's selfish, controlling, childish, antagonistic, rude and he messes with people just to see their reactions. Are there any good points about him at all? He's already crossed some lines into Harry's free rights (and thrown fits when he fails) and now he's abusing Harry's owl... And poor Wammy is stuck trying to mitigate the worst of his behavior!
Oh, did anyone notice? I gave all the chapters titles... Because I know what the title of a chapter I haven't written will be and I thought it was funny... Yah.
Next time- More development of L/Harry interaction, point of view from Wammy, things happening (ooh!) and- maybe- Dursleys!