So, yet again, we have another RWBY crossover. This one is based somewhat on whitetigerwolf's Letter Challenge 1, as well as some discussion of story elements with whitetigerwolf. This will be a Harry/Neo story, eventually, but there will be some preamble. Harry won't be going to Beacon, due to a certain ability you will see below, but he will still play a part in the RWBY story. This begins about three years prior to RWBY canon.

The title, rather appropriately, means, 'We are dust and shadow'...

PULVIS ET UMBRA SUMUS

CHAPTER 1:

THE BRANWENS

The bar was dingy and of considerable ill-repute. Just the way Qrow Branwen liked it. As much as he had turned his back on the tribe he had been born into (and didn't Raven love pointing that fact out, not caring that their tribe were a bunch of thieves, rapists and murderers?), he enjoyed roughing it somewhat. As much as he cared about his nieces, not to mention his brother-in-law Taiyang, sometimes, he just wanted to get the hell away from civilisation sometimes, even from a quiet place like Patch.

It was painful to see Ruby, at times. She looked up to him, adored him. She reminded him painfully of her mother, Summer…and of his own paramour. Of a young woman taken from him too soon. Of a camaraderie that had turned to bitter rancour with his lover's brother. Not that the brother had known they were lovers. Hazel Rainart reacted badly enough to Gretchen's death…had he known that she had been sleeping with Qrow, Hazel would have done more than swear bloody vengeance against Ozpin. And Hazel was one scary motherfucker. And that was without going into the rumours that he may have joined forces with Salem.

Salem…to know that a being like that, no, a monster, existed in the world, and had done so for millennia, well, that was cause enough for Qrow to be a dipsomaniac…not that he needed more of an excuse.

Ozpin had sent him on another fact-finding mission to Mistral, mostly to look into the activities of the White Fang, the Faunus civil rights group that seemed to be spiralling into becoming a terrorist group. Qrow sighed to himself, thinking of what Ghira Belladonna would think of what Sienna Khan was doing to the organisation he had led until handing it to the tiger Faunus. Sienna wasn't actually that bad per se, she was quite intelligent, and was more fixated on securing Faunus rights at any cost than actually wanting to usurp humanity…but her hardline stance and willingness to condone violent means had attracted a number of fanatics to the White Fang. And those nutjobs had started to wear Grimm masks, just like a few members of his old tribe.

A bartender came up to him, and said, "Some woman came in and paid for your booze. Probably just as well, you've been knockin' 'em back like there's no tomorrow."

Speak of the devil, and she shall appear, Qrow thought, before he asked, "Where is she?"

The bartender pointed towards a secluded corner, and sure enough, there she was, waiting for him patiently. With a sigh of annoyance, Qrow took his drink, and walked over to the woman who shared his dark hair and crimson eyes, and the face and hair length of his oldest niece, Yang Xiao Long. His sister, Raven Branwen.

"So," he slurred as he slumped into a chair opposite Raven, "what can I do for you?"

Well, her smirking wasn't a good sign. "I was going to say the same thing. No hello, brother?"

"Save it, sis. You've tracked me down for a reason, and it's not gonna be about how you've finally decided to say hello to Taiyang, Yang and Ruby after all this time. We've had this argument before, so cut to the chase."

Raven bristled somewhat, before she said, "Well, we'll skip the pleasantries. Though family is part of it. The tribe has nothing to do with it either. You are aware of how my Semblance works?"

Qrow nodded, though he wasn't sure what the point was. A Semblance was a unique ability, tied into the Aura (or manifested soul) of a person. Not everyone manifested a Semblance, only those with awakened Auras. His Semblance, sadly, couldn't be activated (or more to the point, deactivated) at will: he was basically an epicentre for bad luck.

Raven's Semblance, however, was an ability to manifest portals, that she could use to go to people she made connections with. In theory, she could use them to visit not only Qrow, but Taiyang and Yang, as he knew she had those connections. Not that she ever availed herself of that, save to watch them, he was sure, in her raven form.

"So, your point is?" Qrow asked.

"Well, Qrow, it might interest you to know that, while I need to make a conscious connection for someone unrelated by blood…it is somewhat automatic for someone of my blood. What's more, it's not confined to Remnant. I could, if I wished to, visit another world, assuming I had someone of my blood or someone I had made a connection to there."

"I fail to see your point."

"Partly because you're drunk."

"And you're a bitch, but tomorrow, I'll be sober(1)."

Raven snorted. "You haven't been sober since our second year at Beacon. It's a wonder your liver's lasted this long, even with your Aura regenerating it. My point is, there's a blood relation of ours that I have only recently discovered. I have made discreet trips to observe him. About the only thing he shares with us is our hair. He's thirteen, only a few months away from fourteen. And he's gained some sort of infamy."

Qrow nodded, before something about what his sister said got through his alcohol-addled mind. "Nearly fourteen?" he slurred. "But…"

"I did some research during my visits. He was born about nine months after Gretchen disappeared. What's more, I found this in his possession. One of his teachers knew his adoptive parents, and had kept this letter. I took it from him while as a raven."

Qrow took the proffered piece of paper, his hand trembling not from the DTs but with anxiety. He unfolded the letter, and started reading.

Dearest Harry,

As I write this letter, you are asleep in your crib. That said, it is my deepest hope that you never see this letter, that we can tell you this in person. If we're not, both your father and I are dead.

Before I go any further, you need to know, James and I love you with all our hearts. Regardless of how you feel after reading this letter, to us you are our son.

That last bit may have confused you, and that is where we get into the important part of this letter. While you are our son, I did not give birth to you.

Shortly before your birth, your father and I found a woman in our backyard. She was injured, and obviously pregnant. I don't know if you will know this, but I worked as a healer. I did my best to stabilize the woman and save her life...but it was for naught. She died but her child...you, lived. That alone was a miracle, especially as your birth mother had been poisoned, and you were still within her womb. To this day, I am unaware of what exactly the poison that killed her was. Nothing I did was able to stop it, and how you survived it, I have no clue.

Your father and I have no idea of your mother's identity. She was, at her best, incoherent and mumbling. She mumbled two words, over and over. I don't if they'll be any help if you ever decide to try and find where you come from, but they were "Crow" and "Salem".

We tried to find out more about her, but we never found anything. Even a blood-test on you was inconclusive, perhaps due to the poison that had run through you and your mother's veins, perhaps for some other reason.

When we were unable to find out who your mother was, and hence her family or your father, James and I decided to blood-adopt you as our own. Considering our own problems conceiving, you were a blessing to us, despite the tragic way you came into the world.

As I said at the beginning of this letter, I had hoped your father and I would be able to tell you ourselves when you were old enough. But if you are reading this, we obviously weren't. That said, James and I love you, and we always will. Regardless of how you came to us, at this point, you are our son, our little miracle. Never believe that you are not a true Potter.

With all my Love,

Your Mother,

Lily Potter

Qrow stared at the letter in shock. While the contents of the letter were mostly strange to him, one thing came to him. "This…this…this was Gretchen."

Raven nodded. "Given how she spoke of Salem as often as she mentioned you, it would be a fair assumption that Salem captured her. Salem must have found a way to counter that teleportation Semblance of hers, until she found a means to escape…only she ended up a long way from home."

"What do you mean?" Qrow asked.

Raven rolled her eyes. "Keep up, Qrow. It seems that, like my own Semblance, Gretchen's Semblance is capable of crossing over to another world."

"…You're joking."

"Do I look like I'm in a joking mood?" Raven asked.

"You always had a better poker face than me, how the fuck am I supposed to know?" Qrow was babbling a little. Raven had fired a couple of broadsides with those revelations. One was that Gretchen had been pregnant, with his child, and had been captured by Salem. Another was that Gretchen had managed to escape, and gave birth to his child. His child was alive and well…apparently.

As if sensing his thoughts, Raven said, quietly, "Qrow, it's not as simple as that. The kid's very scrawny and short for his age. I think he was suffering from malnutrition for a time. I think he's been abused by his guardians, as his adoptive parents, including that Lily woman who wrote the letter, were apparently murdered when he was one. What's more, he's a wizard. He's going to a school like Beacon, only it's for magic users. I wish I was making this up, before you ask. And for all Ozpin's faults, he at least has a sense of style, not like the headmaster of that school." She shuddered. "It was like a rainbow had dysentery. Apparently there's some fugitive after him too. Some escaped murderer called Sirius Black or something. And before you ask, I've seen pictures of him, and he looks nothing like Marcus Black. And there's soul-eating creatures roaming the grounds of the school. Anyway, I thought I'd bring this to your attention."

"Why?" Qrow asked, trying to keep his emotions in check. "I'm surprised you didn't take him yourself."

Raven scoffed. "We may have had our disagreements, Qrow, on what we think family is, but I thought you'd deserve a chance to meet your son. Maybe even persuade him to come back with us. I'm sure Ruby would love to have an older brother figure…other than a drunken uncle, anyway." She then gave a slight sardonic smirk. "Besides, consider this doing you a favour that I will collect on some time."

Qrow scowled. So that was her angle. Still, Raven, for all her hypocrisy and ruthlessness as a bandit leader, knew better than to betray him about something like that. "So…let's go and see him, shall we?"

Of course, it wasn't as simple as that. Raven further briefed him on what she had seen. He had to admit to being impressed by how long she spent performing recon, albeit on relatively short jaunts over a number of months. She wanted to be sure that she had the right child, as well as to determine a few things about the territory they were going through.

Qrow was grateful for that: as big a bitch as she was, Raven was smart, and it seemed she retained enough compassion for her brother to actually give this boy, Harry (bit of a boring name, really), to him rather than take her for herself. Given her antagonism towards him or anyone connected to Beacon and Ozpin (hidden behind a mask of calm politeness), he wouldn't have been surprised if Raven didn't kidnap him herself and raise him as her own child, poisoning him against his father and his relatives. Oh, she had the favour to hold over his head, which was still very Raven, but she was giving him a chance.

Then again, would this kid accept them? Would he want to come with them? Okay, Harry had, apparently (according to some pilfered books and overheard conversations), been the target of some terrorist wizard for some time, and said wizard still had lackeys running around, like a wizard version of the White Fang, only it was a privileged minority as terrorists rather than an oppressed one. But still, would Harry agree to come with them?

At the very least, Qrow wanted to talk to him. If the kid had seen the letter, he already knew he had been adopted. And while Qrow would be the first to admit he wasn't the most responsible of people (unless fighting the Grimm and Salem counted, which it sort of did), he wanted to take responsibility here, if only for Gretchen's sake. If the kid didn't want to leave, that was his lookout.

It was a weird experience, travelling through one of Raven's portals. He didn't know whether that was an innate property, or else just the effects of travelling between worlds. Still, it was disconcerting.

The first true sign that Raven was telling the truth was seeing a full moon in the sky…completely and utterly intact, unlike the semi-shattered ruin of Remnant's moon. There was also an ancient castle in the distance, silhouetted against the night sky. Qrow would have been more awed…had he not heard the howl of something that sounded too much like a Beowolf for his liking. Raven had told him there were no Grimm on this world, though.

What he heard next, though, sent even more chills down his spine. A warped, flanging voice cackling in the distance, before saying, "You wanna play, mutt? Okay…PLAY DEAD!"

A sound like a dog's yelp cut off suddenly, and suddenly, something flew over a nearby hillock, and landed heavily near their feet. The resemblance to a Beowulf was uncanny, if it looked more like an animal than a Grimm. Ragged fur, vaguely humanoid shape…and thankfully for them, out cold.

"Harry! You didn't…" yelled a girl's voice.

"Calm down, Hermione," spoke the same warped voice. "It was just a lovetap. If Moony's dead from something like that, I'd be surprised. The greasy haired bastard, though, may have been another matter…"

After a moment, an older man's voice spoke. "Dammit, Peter's gone! And Ron's out cold!"

Qrow and Raven approached, carefully, and found themselves cresting the hillock to find a strange trio. Well, a quintet, but two of their number, a readheaded boy in his early teens and a rather unpleasant-looking greasy-haired man were out cold. There was a bushy-haired girl of about the same age, clutching at a bleeding arm, and a man wearing rags and with matted, tangled hair.

But what drew the Branwen siblings' attention was the figure dressed in the same robes as the teenagers. Qrow felt another chill run down his spine, when he saw it…no, him. The left half of his face seemed to be covered by what looked like a Grimm's skull, from which an eye peered out, red iris on sclerae as black as pitch…so much like the images Ozpin had shared of Salem. So too was the deathly pale skin, marred by pitch black veins, and bone white hair on the exposed side of his face, the eye on that side covered by what looked like the lens from a pair of glasses. The face was filled with madness and hostility, the mouth twisted into a bloodthirsty smirk. He looked like some unholy hybrid of Grimm and human.

"Ooh, do I have more toys?" the apparition said, before he flinched. The skull seemed to dissolve into dust, and his appearance changed. His skin, while still pale, became less pallid, his hair became a messy thatch of black, and his eyes became an emerald colour…flecked with silver, Qrow noted, even in the night. He became, well, normal. Even frightened a little.

"And who the hell are you two?!" the man demanded. "Were you sent to apprehend me?"

"Perish the thought," Raven said. "We're here for the boy. To talk, more than anything else."

A retort died on the lips of the boy, when those present to feel the temperature of the surrounding area drop rapidly. And with it, a surprising feeling of dread and fear and sheer unhappiness seemed to fill the two Hunters. "Dementors!" the man hissed, as cloaked shapes began flying out of the darkness at them.

"Qrow! Dust rounds!" Raven snapped, before drawing her own sword and slashing at the cloaked shapes. Qrow changed Harbinger into its shotgun mode, and began firing.

But the creatures began to overwhelm them, even as Raven hacked them apart with her sword, and Qrow shot them with Dust rounds. One began to clasp the man's face in its corpse-like hands, like the tender caress of a lover. Qrow could feel these creatures ramp up their aura, and felt despair.

But then, the boy said, "Sirius…Hermione…no! Stop…I SAID STOOOOOP!"

This last word was drawn out into a wail as his eyes began to glow…before that glow suddenly burst into streams of brilliant light, like molten silver formed into wings. Wings that smote every one of these vile monsters in their path. The Dementors screeched, and tried to get away…but the light struck them down. Every last one was annihilated by the blast of energy that had blasted forth from the boy's eyes.

As the light faded, Qrow blinked away the afterimage, to find the boy swaying on his feet. For a moment, his irises were wholly silver, before they changed back to the mostly-emerald colour they were before…and then flickered shut, before the boy sagged to the ground, caught by Qrow.

"He has the Silver Eyes," Raven murmured, before adding as the understatement of the century, "Well…this complicates things…"

CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:

Yep. That it does. There'll be a bit of a timeskip to the next chapter, when Harry wakes up…only, it's not in the Hogwarts infirmary…

Now, what Harry's powers were came about with considerable discussion with whitetigerwolf, whose challenge (Letter Challenge 1) this was based on (the letter Qrow reads is a slightly modified version of the one from the challenge). I had considered controlling Grimm as in HVNL by Hellfire17, or even a full-on Grimm transformation as in The Grimm Huntsman by TheSilverboar. whitetigerwolf was supportive of Harry having the Silver Eyes, but not if it went along with controlling Grimm. If that makes him too OP, especially with the were-Grimm transformation, keep the following in mind.

Firstly, the only two times Ruby uses her eyes in canon (so far) have been under extreme emotional stress. So it has been with Harry (who, as you will discover, has actually used them before, which we will explore later, though anyone who has seen Dis Lexic's own attempt at answering this challenge), and he won't be learning how to master them quickly.

Secondly, giving Harry the part-Grimm form was partly a derivation of the letter, where Lily mentions a poison running through Gretchen's body that didn't affect him. We'll go into further detail later, but let's just say that Salem was involved in an experiment that will backfire. I also wanted to give Harry something that would mean that he'd have to stay away from Magical Britain…and would mean that he doesn't get involved with Beacon as well. As tempted as I was to have Harry attend Beacon, I felt it might seem like an also-ran of Under the Light of the Shattered Moon. Harry will still get involved in many of the events of RWBY, but as an independent agent of Ozpin's.

Now, onto Harry's parentage. The idea that eventually spawned this, believe it or not, had Roman as Harry's father (it was derived from whitetigerwolf's attempt at a story where Balalaika from Black Lagoon was Harry's mother). I had thought of an OC Huntress as his mother, only to hit upon Hazel Rainart's sister, Gretchen. We know so little about her, save that she died young during a mission for Ozpin, so she was fixed as Harry's mother fairly early on. But because of how the story in my mind was turning out, Harry's father eventually changed into Qrow Branwen. This actually offered a neat solution as to how to get Harry to Remnant, too: just make Raven's portal ability stronger than in canon. This saved having to use some magic BS or a Portkey gone wrong or a Veil-assisted transdimensional pratfall.

Now, why does Harry have the Silver Eyes? I'd like to think that, while Gretchen Rainart didn't actually have them, the whole Silver Eyes thing can, potentially, pop up as the result of either the usual mixing up of genes from offspring, or else through a point mutation or two. A bit like, say, how a Muggleborn is born to Muggles. Harry's eyes were changed from their silver colour thanks to the blood-adoption by the Potters, but he's still got them. Making Gretchen the mother of Harry was better than having Summer being Harry's mother. It also sets things up for an interesting conflict between Harry and his uncle.

And the Grimm form? I thought of it as being basically like a more benign version of Ichigo Kurosaki's part-Hollow form from Bleach. Harry becomes violent and bloodthirsty and a little sadistic, but he's not a danger to his allies or to innocents. He's not quite a split personality, either. Long term readers of my fanfics may remember my Borderlands fics, with an OC called Richard Snyder, who basically had a condition that was somewhere between the Spark from Girl Genius and the 'Jack the Ripper' personality of Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. While it seems like a split personality, it actually isn't, just another facet of the same personality, with less morality and more bloodthirstiness. Harry's used it a couple of times before.

Keep in mind that this is also something of an AU of the Potterverse after the end of Book 1, due to Harry unlocking the Silver Eyes.

1. Raven and Qrow are paraphrasing an argument between Bessie Braddock and Winston Churchill, though Churchill called Braddock 'ugly'.