Supernatural Guardian

Two

I Have A New Little Sister?

"So, I'm getting my own… apartment?" Harry asked as he was led through what could have been any block of luxury apartments from the inside, but looked more fort like from outside.

"You were," the young woman leading him agreed with a smirk on her lips. He had left his delightful escort back to base and was being led by a more talkative young woman. This new one was much less by-the-book. She wasn't wearing a uniform and was dressed in some comfortable looking sports getup, and looked like she could handle herself a few times over in a fight, and then some without losing anything in the way of looks, even though she was a good head and a bit shorter than Harry.

"W-what do you mean 'were'?" Harry asked suspiciously. "You don't have some kind of monster you want me to room with, do you?"

"No!" she laughed and rolled her dark eyes while pulling her loose dark hair back behind her right ear. She had an American accent, from the South, Harry thought. "It's just we found you your partner. See, Guardians in Sid-."

"I knew we all called ourselves Sid!" Harry interrupted smugly. "That… I don't think she ever told me her name – but that military woman who picked me up got annoyed when I realised, we were called Sid."

"Oh, yeah," she agreed while smirking and her dark cheeks showed a tint of red. "Most of us Guardians have a sense of humour… I think they squeezed the humour out of our 'back-up'. Oh, I don't think I told you my name either. I'm Willow Akatsuki," she said with a grin as she clicked the fingers on her right hand and blue sparks lit up and blazed out and curled around them before flashing away. "I'm a pyrokinetic," she said while shrugging while he had only stared in awe. "My whole family have had this… gift for generations and fought all kinds of monsters for centuries. They were some of the founders of Sid long before it became Sid, so I guess I'm in the family business."

"Whoa; that's so cool," Harry couldn't help but say as they stopped outside a door at the end of the corridor with another door leading to another set of stairs. "So, your family comes from… Japan?" he asked as he thought about her name and looked her over, he wasn't so sure as most Japanese people he met had been well, kind of white, or at least much paler than her, and her first name was more Western.

"Yeah, well, part of my family," she agreed while shrugging. "My dads from Japan. He met my mum while on a mission in Egypt. My mum is a mage. She was working for the Magical World there and dad saved her life from some misplaced yokai who went bad. Our fire ability also comes with the power to seal away yokai, so he saved mum, one thing led to another; she joined the agency, married dad, and they had me, and I inherited dads' powers, not mums," she said with a thoughtful shrug. "Well; that's the short version, but the long and epic version as mum and dad like to call it would take much too much of our time."

"Okay, so… back on topic," Harry said while looking at the door in front of him. It had a neat 17 on it. "What did you mean by found me my partner?"

"Well, we don't work alone silly," she said with a wide grin. "We all work with a partner, and we live with them while at base. We get our own rooms, but share our communal living space. Your partner kind of demanded you."

"Demanded me?" Harry asked while looking baffled as he looked at his owl Hedwig in her cage as she made a soft hoot while he adjusted his trunk handle in the other hand. "Does this… new partner of mine demand everything and get their way?"

"Oh, Cassandra is a difficult one," Willow said thoughtfully. "She can see and manipulate probability… well, if its probable. She can say and do the right things to make the future she wants, come true if its within her capability," she said while shrugging and giving Harry's left shoulder a reassuring squeeze as he looked so lost. "Yes, it made no sense to me until someone just said she can see the possible futures, so she's kind of like a clairvoyant, but not set-in stone, and not getting silly visions or prophesising or things like that."

"Umm… cool, I think," Harry said with a sheepish shrug. "So… her being a seer of some kind has led her to believe that we should be partners, so the General was like 'yeah-yeah, whatever'?"

Willow laughed and shook her head before pausing and nodding. "Kind of. Well, when someone who can kind of predict the future gives you advice… well-?"

"Probably a good idea to take it?" Harry suggested as he interrupted.

"Exactly," she agreed as she passed him some keys. "They're for the building, but we do have magic wards up too, so…" Willow shrugged as Harry sighed and took the keys. "Well, I'll leave you to introduce yourself, Cassandra doesn't like uninvited guests," she said walking down the corridor and out of sight around a corner up ahead.

Harry guessed that Willow's apartment was that way. Harry sighed and with a bit of a struggle he managed to open the door without putting anything down and grimaced as the heat hit him from the apartment like a wave of physical force, and with an effort he stepped inside the boiling hot room with the door closing behind him because of the trash on the floor.

Looking around the room it was a huge area with a kitchen diner covered in empty takeout cartons and containers and pizza boxes, and the sink was stacked full of dirty dishes, and knives, forks, and spoons. There were stale plastic milk bottles all over the place stinking up the whole apartment with the rest of the trash.

The lounge area had a large creamy coloured couch in a U shape and covered with clothes and junky magazines which extended to the coffee table. The room was dark but for glowing lights all over the place, like screens on the fridge and microwave, both of which had rubbish on them, and he couldn't even see the kitchen bin and had a feeling that it was under that pile of Chinese takeout containers.

There was more-light coming from what Harry realised must have been a projector on the ceiling that projected some kind of animation with subtitles playing on the huge screen opposite the couch that looked like it rolled up into the ceiling, and though he could see speakers under the screen around a bunch of games consoles that were covered in disc cases and assorted rubbish there was no sound, and Harry looked up to see the mute symbol on the screen in the top left corner even though the pictures were still moving.

Harry groaned as Hedwig made a hoot of disgust. Harry could understand her distress as Harry left his trunk by the front door and with his free hand pushed all the old magazines off the coffee table and placed his owl in her cage down, opening the cage he let the snowy owl climb up onto his arm before stumbling through the mess and passed a desk to one of three large windows and pulling it open, and Harry and Hedwig were blasted by fresh air.

"Don't worry, Hedwig," Harry said with a groan. "You go enjoy some fresh air while I get this mess sorted out!" he said and she turned to the window and within moments she had flown away.

Harry pushed the window open to its fullest while breathing in some clean air, and turned to the desk set up that was glowing with ridiculous amounts of lights as desks ran along the wall between the two large lounge windows, and the desks facing towards the front door with screens of different sizes, tablets, and phones, and servers and computers, and wires everywhere.

However, Harry was impressed that there was one spot that looked like it was well cared for, which was a glass case lit up with some statues and figures of what he could only guess were her favourite TV, game, or film characters. She had a few of these, smaller cases attached to the walls above her screens.

There were two gaming chairs set up within the desks area, one contained a half-eaten packet of cookies, and the other held a pale little girl curled up on it while she looked like she was trying to pretend she didn't notice him, but her game character was just stood still and a pause was covering the screen.

The girl was small. The headset she had on had slipped a little off her head, but the sound seemed to have paused too. She was only wearing a dirty pair of white knickers and a matching white vest and it didn't take much for Harry to know she hadn't washed in a few days. Harry looked around to see three doors, two one side of the screen and the other the other side. However, he saw that one door had a plaque saying bathroom, and he dread to look inside.

"You're what, six, and they leave you to make such a mess?" Harry said in horror.

"I'm seven!" she replied quietly under her breath.

"And you're Cassandra, I take it?" Harry suggested hoping this was just Cassandra's little sister.

The small girl pulled her headset free and placed it next to her mouse and control pad and nodded her head, and if she was able to see the future, she knew what was coming and dreaded it. The girl was quite adorable, or Harry realised she was trying to manipulate him with cuteness. She had long wild black hair that was filthy, and must have reached passed her bottom, and pale blue eyes, and was trying to pout.

"You know, I'm going to ignore that Sid has small children working for them," Harry said while taking a deep breath. "I'm sure you're here for a reason that isn't sinister. Now, you're going to save your game, and get off your bottom and find me some bin liners, so we can eventually find the washing machine, so we can get you some clean clothes, okay, Cassie?"

Cassandra pouted more while staring at him before she sighed as he wasn't wavering. "Okay," she agreed as Harry watched her spend a few seconds turning her game off and climbing from her seat.

"Hmm, Willow didn't want to come in because she knew I would make her help us clean up!" Harry muttered to himself as he managed to open both of the other windows. "And you, Missy, could make yourself sick living in this filth!" he said while she managed to pull out five rolls of large black bin bags, none of which had been opened.

Harry groaned before he clapped his hands. "Here you go," he said handing Cassandra a black bin bag after shaking it open. "Be careful you don't tread on anything and hurt yourself. Now, everything spoiled is going to be thrown out," he said as he started pouring into his bag and Cassandra sighed sadly as she began with helping as best she could with being so small.

"Ah, my glasses!" Casandra suddenly said.

Harry turned to see Cassandra was trying to clean her yellow tinted glasses. "Do you need to wear these?" Harry asked while snatching them from her as they were filthy and she looked like she was about to put them on.

"Well, when I'm sitting at a screen for so long, they're supposed to help protect my eyes," she said thoughtfully. "But all my screens have plastic filters over them because I lost these."

Harry sighed. "So, you don't need these right now, do you?" he asked and she shook her head. "Then we can clean them properly later, lets leave them here for now, okay?" he asked and she nodded as he placed them on her dust laden desk and they continued cleaning.

"Wait. We have a dishwasher!" Harry said a little later while turning to frown at the small girl while she was starting to show signs of embarrassment, further added to as he had found a lot of dirty pairs of her undies. "Oh, and here is the vacuum cleaner," he added as he cleared away the overspilt bin as the upright was in the corner. "And finally, lots of cleaning products," he said in glee as he opened what must have been the cleaning cupboard, and none of it had ever been used.

Finding the cleaning products really got things underway, and Cassandra could only stare in awe, as after just three hours of hard work the place was sparkling bright and clean. The washing machine had load two spinning in it, and Harry had managed to clean most of the dishes with only a few having to be dumped.

Harry was happily surprised when he looked inside Cassandra's bedroom that her bed though not made wasn't a mess. She had plenty of collectables and toys she obviously looked after and obviously didn't spend as much time in her bedroom. However, her bed did smell so he opened her window, and stripped her bed ready for the wash while finding some spare sheets Harry remade her bed and vacuumed and dusted before propping her door open to circulate the air flow.

It was actually quite a miracle that the room Harry had to take for himself was clean. It hadn't been used as a place for the girl to dump her crap or anything. It had some fresh new bedding. The huge supersized bed looked new, and the mattress was still freshly wrapped. There was an expensive looking laptop still boxed and a new smartphone with a SIM card. That made sense since the General took the phone back that he was leant. There was also a huge screen TV still boxed with a flatpack TV stand to set up, but Harry shrugged all that off for then and left Hedwig's cage and his trunk in there.

"The Sectary brought all of those things for you," Cassandra said coolly while looking worried as Harry took a deep breath to calm his nerves as he pulled the bathroom door open.

Harry was actually relieved. It wasn't good, but it could have been much-much worse. It took a lot of scrubbing, and a lot of sweat, but within an hour or so the bathroom was fit for use.

"Okay," Harry said with a sigh as he checked the tumble dryer. "We have some dry jammies, and a towel, so go and take a shower, Cassie, and here is a towel," he said offering the towel but she folded her arms and refused it.

"Fair enough," he said as he picked her up and took her into the bathroom while she squirmed, he whistled a tune looking amused as he stole her vest and knickers and threw them into the clothes hamper and turning on the shower, he was soon scrubbing her down, and made a mental note to buy some wash cloths and sponges as there weren't any, but luckily, he found some unopened toothpaste and brushes.

Though, she relaxed after a minute or so of washing, and she startled as he brought some scissors, but she didn't complain as he cut her hair about halfway down her back, and she closed her eyes as Harry trimmed her fringe. Harry washed the hair away and then using some shampoo and conditioner and shower gel, and brushing her teeth, cleaning her up before wrapping her in a towel before carrying her to the lounge where he rubbed her dry with the towel and slipped her into her animé pyjamas.

"So," he asked as he found another towel for himself. "You demanded me, so I would pamper you?"

Cassandra skipped up from her spot on the couch. "Silly Big Brother," she said smiling gently. "I can look up our futures, and I am super clever…" she said before looking down in embarrassment. "… so, I have to have you!" she smiled up at him before blowing him a raspberry and skipping off back to her chair and game.

"O-kay," Harry muttered as he had a feeling, she knew something he didn't. "I guess having an adorable little sister can't be too much trouble," he laughed as he went into the bathroom as he knew from how messy she was he was kidding himself.

Harry finished washing and exited into the lounge with his towel wrapped around his waist, and Cassandra looked up at him from her game.

"Wow. You have huge muscles," Cassandra said with a tilt of her head. "Do they get bigger when you transform like in a couple of my favourite animé?"

Harry frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know," he said. "I never really thought to look," he said smirking as he clenched his muscles while concentrating, and lit up with some sparks of yellow light and he watched and felt his muscles bulge out a little.

"Wow. That's so freaky and cool," Cassandra giggled as Harry barely managed to catch his towel and re-wrap it. "You knew that would happen, cheeky."

Shaking his head while Cassandra continued to laugh, which seemed like something she didn't do much, Harry entered his room and pulled on some new boxer shorts and shorts. He didn't bother with a top as he never felt comfortable sleeping in a shirt and it was bed time soon anyway. But from looking at his clothes, Harry realised that he would need to get a whole new wardrobe, as his shorts just about fit with his transformation going.

Harry exited his room and moved to a mirror on the wall above one of Cassandra's desks and frowned as his hair flickered black in places for a moment. "This wasn't happening before, but I can barely hold…-?"

"You're thinking about it too much," Cassandra said as she sat cross legged in her chair and span to look at him. "I don't think you're even fully transformed, silly, Big Brother."

"You don't?" he asked looking at her and he felt the energy fade away and his hair, eyes, and muscles returned to normal.

"Nah, probably not," she agreed. "I've seen other people who have transformed states. Its instinct, and a part of you. That state you had just now looked like halfway there. Try not to think about it, but just do it."

Harry turned back to the mirror and frowned. "Just, do it?" he suggested and like that sparks of silver white sparkles of light flickered and streamed up his body, but nothing happened; Harry laughed. "Don't think about it, but just do it."

Then, something happened. Those sparks of silver-white light flowed up his body, and his hair flared white and up and out seeming to grow out to the bottom of his neck and out over his shoulders and ears and forehead flowing in a breeze of energy, his eyes became a more solid yellow bleeding into the whites while the centre was a glowing hue of silver, and his muscles bulked and condensed, pulling tighter and stronger with more fierce teeth, and a slight darkening around his eyes and eyelids while his eyelashes and eyebrows were lit up like his hair.

"Holy crap!" Harry muttered in awe. "I feel so light," he said bouncing on the balls of his feet. "I noticed in my normal body that I felt amazing compared to how I used to, and in that… that half-state I felt even better, but that does not compare, and my senses, I can hear people… far away that I couldn't before, and smell better, and, everything looks so sharp, like I couldn't quite see before," he said watching as he clenched and unclenched his right hand. "I don't feel that weird pull to turn it off any more, and its like all my senses and even my hair is flowing with energy."

"See, don't bet against me, Big Brother," Cassandra said impishly. "But Willow's at the door," she said just before there came a knock."

Harry looked at the clock on Cassandra's screen. "It's a bit late to be visiting," he said while shrugging and was at the door like he had been there all along and pulled it open with a glare. "You didn't tell me that Cassie is seven."

Willow shrugged while her eyes roamed over Harry's body and she gulped and quivered. "Wow, you got to work on the mess pretty fast," she said with a slight squeak to her voice as she averted her eyes, looking around in awe as she let herself in before pausing and looking to Cassandra in worry. "Are you letting him call you Cassie?"

Cassandra gave her a cold stare. "He is my new Big Brother, so he can. You, cannot, however."

"Well, okay," Willow said nervously turning to Harry and forcing herself not to lick her lips. "Anyway, I was asked to tell you that you'll have some lessons in using some of our monitoring equipment tomorrow, and get a fitting for your suit for this will hearing you're going too. Potentially getting some insider info on Dumbledore at an event like this is too good to pass up, so, I'll stop by and pick you up about eight-."

"Make it ten," Harry said to her surprise. "I have an awkward little sister who I'll need to wash and feed something that is not junk food before I can go anywhere."

"Oh, right, well, good luck with that," she said while shaking her head. "Speaking to you looking like-like this and… distracting - well, bye," she said quickly vacating the apartment and Harry shrugged and closed the door after her and turning back to Cassandra.

"Its time you finish your game and get to bed," Harry said as he felt his body return to normal and couldn't help but laugh as Cassandra was pouting and trying her hardest to make herself as cute as possible, but she didn't complain as she was in Harry's arms moments later before he tucked her into bed.

"Even though I won't get to stay up late anymore," Cassandra said while pouting while tucked into bed. "I'm glad I chose you to be my Big Brother. But why haven't you even asked why I'm here by myself?"

Harry smiled and leaned down, shocking her as he kissed her forehead. "I thought you could see the future?"

She pout-scowled. "I cannot… well, I can, but not like you would think of it," she said. "But even still, I cannot read people's minds."

Harry chuckled and stroked Cassandra's cheek. "You can tell me your story all in your own time," he said leaning over once more and kissing her cheek he stood up. "Goodnight Little Sister," he said with a smile as he turned out her light and closed her bedroom door behind him.

Sighing, Harry wished he was not such a sap but shrugged as he spent just over an hour dusting all of Cassandra's desks and screens, and anything glass, and being careful while dusting up her keyboards and mouses, as he didn't know how all of her things worked, and didn't want to mess anything up. He used the sink to wash Cassandra's glasses and placed them on her desk, and checked the fridge to find it completely bear along with the freezer and cupboards.

Shaking his head, Harry grabbed his shoes and a tee shirt and slipped through the front door as his hair lit up. Harry found all the bin bags stashed away at the top of the stairs and took half an hour running up and down the stairs and filling up two of the large industrial bins. Harry grabbed his wallet from his room, (as the General had given him some cash to help out with food shopping until his finances were sorted), and then disappeared from the base to the local supermarket.

Luckily it was a weekday so Harry found a store open twenty-four hours, and managed to buy a trolley full of shopping and pay for it. He frowned as he exited the store. He should have probably set up his phone and brought it with him to call a taxi. However, he was surprised to find Willow outside leaning up against a blue Ford car.

"Someone told me to come and pick you up before you steal the trolley, and leaving it to clog up the parking lot," she said with a shrug at Harry's questioning look.

Harry looked down at the shopping. "I'm pretty sure I could carry it all," he said doubtfully. "But how'd you know I was coming here?"

"Cassandra's not the only psychic we have," Willow replied with a shrug. "Now come on, hurry up, and next time you need to get in some shopping, give me a call, I'll give you my number tomorrow, or just stop by my place, its apartment six, just the next floor down the side we came up earlier. My partner can be a bit of a night owl, so don't worry about knocking late. We tend to be partnered up Warrior and Scholar, as she amusingly calls it."

"Great, we're the idiots," Harry said laughingly as Willow opened the boot of the car and they started loading up the shopping.

"You got it worse," Willow said smugly. "My scholar is at least three years older than me, and graduated top of her classes, and I'm nearly twenty. Yours is an adorable seven-year-old girl who is extremely messy and has an attitude problem… well, she does with most people, but she seems to like you."

"I bet your partner doesn't play video games all day while watching animé though does she?" Harry asked while they put the last of the shopping away and climbed in the car.

"They have an online rivalry!" Willow said in annoyance. "I like animé too, but how can they watch it while playing video games?"

Harry could only laugh as they pulled away. "So, Will, do all the 'scholars' have gaming addictions?"

"A few of them do," she replied. "At least my partners gaming rig is not as ridiculous as yours, and my partner keeps hers in her room. I just wish my… I just wish she wouldn't walk around half naked when she doesn't have any job on. I once knocked on her door to speak with her and she told me to come in and she was naked while at her computer playing a game. If I didn't see the lens shields closed on her cameras, I could have gotten the wrong impression.

"Luckily, she hasn't done that again, but she doesn't care about locking the bathroom door, and the number of times I've walked in to see her with her knickers around her ankles on the toilet with her phone playing a game or trolling some idiot on social media is driving me crazy. Then she whines at me that she has pins and needles or her legs have gone numb from sitting on the toilet for too long."

Harry could only laugh while Willow finished her rant and joined in on laughing as they finally reached the gatehouse back at base and were waved through.