Wrote this during summer due to writer's block on Firewarrior's guide. Was playing around with trying writing genres and concept I don't think I'm good at so don't expect much. Got convinced to post it after some nagging.
Tactical Espionage Action
Metal Gear Solid
Slytherin Eater
Prologue: Point of Divergence.
'If I ever take over the world I'm making a law against that kind of bubbly happiness...' The man with the eye patch thought.
"... And then we'll take all of the kids fishing. Jimmy loves that. He always gets some big ones...."
'...With capital punishment. Most definitely capital punishment.'
She was a great aide, no doubt about it. Give her a job and she seemed to do at least twice the paperwork in half the time compared to most the aides he had over the years after being pulled from the field. Fantastic help really.
He rubbed his temples just under his gray hair. She was a great aide and all, but she was always so inhumanly cheerful. The kind of cheer that could drive hardened war veterans insane.
"So... What about you Boss? Got any family?"
Ah finally. This would surely shut her up.
"Well most of them are dead so…" He let it hang, waiting to enjoy the short moment where her smile fell and she said something like 'Oh I'm sorry'. Then awkward silence would follow. Right now awkward silence looked very good.
Unfortunately her mind didn't work by normal, rational rules.
"So who's still alive?" She asked without missing a beat, leaving him speechless for a moment.
'How the hell does she do that?!'
"C'mon. There must be someone."
'I took on a giant nuclear armed rocket propelled tank commanded by a sadistic freak with only an RPG-7, a Chinese spy who's a natural blonde and a motorcycle. I can handle this.' He forced his composure back together.
"Well... Only really two I know off. My Nephew and Niece. Lives in England oddly enough. We... Don't exactly get along. A rather severe… disagreement… with my sisters husband got us off speaking terms. Sister died of cancer some time later which pretty much killed any contact. I think he's dead too by now. They had two kids though"
"Oh... That sucks. Ever tried to patch things up?"
"No, not really, I never really was much for family." When you take on secret world dominating conspiracies, having a family they can use against you is a bad thing. So even if he had wanted to (Last he saw of them wasn't very flattering) it was too great a risk.
However that's all fine and dandy to say to yourself when you are sitting around. It was another thing to say it to this aide.
"You really should you know. Family's the most important thing in the world."
"I'm a bit too busy for it, really."
"Yeah, but Boss, you are old, and will be retiring fairly soon. You don't want to spend the rest of your life alone in some small house somewhere right?"
'Not bloody likely. I'll initiate OH before that. And honestly I'm probably dead soon after by assassination. I just have to put the foundations in place before that so my death doesn't matter.' He couldn't say that out loud though.
"I was hoping to go out in a blaze of glory." He replied instead.
"C'mon! We both know that you are too good to die like that. If you were rolling around in a wheelchair you'd still kick everyone's asses."
Ah hell... Shift topics back pronto! Her hero worship was another annoying thing. Even family was better than that!
"Perhaps I should try to reconciliate. It's been a long time since I saw them. Then again... They probably won't react well to me just coming out of nowhere. Not if they are anything like their father." It was a valid argument. He was a pretty intimidating figure even in his older days, perhaps especially in his older days. Not somebody you wanted to show up on your door step telling you he was an estranged relative wanting to reconciliate, more scars than anyone had a right to have as well as missing an eye.
Unfortunatly she was far from stupid.
"Then pick a special occasion. Do either of them have children?"
"Yeah. My nephew got a son."
"Show up on his birthday bearing gifts. That should make an impression. You probably got several years leave saved up. You only seem to use them for an occasional camping trip after all."
Well that and secret anti-patriot meetings, but he tended just to mention one of them. Still it was true. He had a lot of leave saved up. And it was a quiet period right now. Not much for him to do other than routine administration work.
It still didn't sound like a good idea, but he got the distinct feeling she was going to pester him until he did it. Worst combination: Hero Worship combined with a wish to be as helpful as possible regardless of if you wanted to be helped or not. And frankly he was beginning to think that he could not outwit this irrational girl. She was just too crazy.
Had to look about getting her transferred to psychological warfare.
He did something uncharacteristic. He surrendered.
"Well… I'll take out some leave next birthday his kid has and drop by. I'll give it a try at least."
"Good. Trust me. It will be good for you. Want me to figure out when that birthday is?"
He wasn't sure, but that could be a test to see if he was just paying lip service or not.
"Yes. My Nephew's name is Vernon Dursley, last I remember he lived in the English town of little whinning or something like that, number 4 Privet Drive. Kid should be about seven or eight now."
The man known as Big Boss felt this could work out just fine. Somehow he doubted Vernon would have changed much from when he last saw him in his late teens. It'd confuse the Patriots, keep his aide off his back and give him an excuse to check up on a few friends in the SAS.
Of course just by thinking that he had tempted Murphy.
MGS: Slytherin Eater
Moderator: LadyTevar
*Late June 1988*
It was funny really. Just about everyone he met complained about the heat. As someone who spent over half his life in the more hell hot regions of earth, usually with people shooting at him to boot, it was to say the least a big step up.
It had taken him a tad longer to find the town than expected. Well he should perhaps a paid closer attention to his remaining family's whereabouts, how was he supposed to remember that it was Surrey the town was called?
The man best known as Big Boss sighed. Well at least he had found it in time. And thankfully no hidden crisis had sprung up in the meantime.
He did feel a rather unexpected trepidation at the prospect of meeting his last relatives, odd as he was actually hoping things went badly he was actually scared of what might happen if things went well. Then he'd be handing the Patriots fresh targets.
'Ironic that it's actually in Vernon's best interests to stay as big a bastard as he was.'
Right now he was just scouting things out. He had gotten here a day earlier than expected and figured that he might as well take a look on things before arriving the day after. So currently he was trying to look as inconspicuous as a one eyed man could be expected to be. Not so easy when you didn't have a box to hide under.
And right now he hoped he didn't run into anyone he knew. It was so embarrassing to know you had gotten lost in a sub-urban area. He had no idea which way Privet Drive was except that it was close. He could just imagine the responses he'd get.
'The famous Big Boss. Wrecker of the Shagohod, bane of tinpot dictators everywhere! Lost in the sub-urbs just because he was too stupid to bring a map.'
He chuckled under his breath as he entered the park. It was a nice day at least, might as well enjoy the walk. He hadn't really enjoyed anything in years. It was nice to just relax for once.
He heard the light feet hitting the gravel on the park path and turned, his hands instinctively started reaching for his concealed weapons, but he fought it down instantly. He got a view of a pair of glasses and black unkept hair before a small boy ran straight into him.
***********************************************************
Harry was running. Not too unusual an occurrence, nor the reason why. It was all too common really.
Dudley and his gang, hot on his heels, while he was gaining distance on them he wasn't doing it fast enough for comfort.
He entered the park hoping to lose them there. He cast a quick look behind him, he was almost safe, but as he turned back he saw a big man right in front of him too late to avoid.
The Man couldn't avoid, but he switched stance reflexively just before Harry hit and he bounced off landing on his butt.
"Ow..." Harry muttered under his breath, then looked up and suddenly lost said breath.
To say the man looked intimidating was putting it lightly. The Eyepatch was the immediate eye catcher, but the scars made it worse. The age lines in his face just framed it all... And right now he did not look pleased. What was the scariest though was the single blue eye.
There was something in the remaining eye, something that just radiated danger. Somehow he knew he was looking at a killer.
He was so fixated on the man in front of him that he forgot the gang behind him. They appeared not to notice the man, after all most of the people in the neighbourhood turned a blind eye to his attacks on Harry.
"Hey freak, decided to stop running?"
The one eyed man turned his gaze on the gang. And it narrowed as he cleared his throat. Dudley looked up on the man and recoiled. He looked like a villain straight out of a TV movie.
"Do me a favour and get lost before I get angry. I am not fond of bullies." The words were polite, but the tone could shred steel. One of the people to Dudley's left gulped. This man didn't sound like he was bluffing. And he did look like he could kill them all without batting an eyelash.
It was a miracle nobody wet themselves under the hasty retreat. They left alone leaving Harry alone with this intimidating old man. Mental images of this man brutally killing him flashed through his mind.
The man however appeared to be debating something internally.
Finally he spoke.
"Kid, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to number 4 Privet Drive would you? I've sort of gotten lost."
Whatever he had been expecting this wasn't it.
"Why do you want to know that?" He asked before he could stop himself.
'Don't ask questions.' Asking questions always got his aunt and uncle angry, he hoped desperately that this man wouldn't get too angry with him for asking that.
"Attempted family reconciliation about sums it up I think." The man replied.
Harry was stunned. The Dursley's rabid hatred for anything abnormal, and this man who was well... The most abnormal man he had ever seen was a relative of them?
It boggled the mind.
"So... I take it you know where it is." The renewed question, with an air of frustration in the tone, barely noticeable, but from this man it was intimidating enough to immediately snap him out of his thoughts
"Well yes. I live there." He knew he shouldn't have said that, but it felt like holding back information could be more hazardous to his health.
The man's face was still unreadable.
"Vernon's son?"
That was a first. Getting mistaken for Dudley, he could imagine his aunt and uncle's faces that their miscreant nephew was mistaken for their "precious little Dudders". That was most enjoyable until he remembered what they'd do to him afterwards.
The man looked at him expectantly, perhaps he was just imagining it, but it seemed as if he softened slightly.
"No. I'm their nephew. I just live there." Despite his best effort to keep it calm some bitterness escaped into his voice.
He was pretty sure the softening face wasn't imagined this time around. He didn't look like he could make a rock surrender out of fright anymore, he had moved down to lions begging for mercy at the sight of him.
But still... For some reason it looked like he understood more about the situation than he let in on.
"I see. Well, even if not really by blood I guess that makes us relatives then." He put out his hand.
"I'm Jack. Pleased to meet you." He said to the small boy.
The action was unexpected. Immediately focus that he was his family too, not just the Dursley's. And there was a kindness, well an attempt at one, in his voice. He couldn't really remember last time anyone had been kind to him, even imperfectly.
He reluctantly held out his hand watching it be engulfed in the comparatively giant hands of Jack.
"I'm Harry."
*****************************************************************
As he as gently as he could shook the small boys hand he took a closer look.
Small, possibly underfed, though based on what he knew of Vernon he had a hard time believing that. The man ate a lot and probably hadn’t changed so there should be plenty of food on the table. He was probably just naturally small.
The eyes were a bit frightened, but he wasn't surprised at that. Despite his best effort he had never really been that good with children. And as he got older it got worse. He was well aware that he looked like a cheap comic villain.
What really caught the eyes was the odd scar though, lightening shaped.
He couldn't think of any way it could occur naturally. And the last time he had seen something like that had been colonel Volgin, but based on the comparative amount of scars he doubted Harry here had ten million volts running through his body.
'Perhaps a hundred, but no more.' He though wryly.
Perhaps there was a reason those kids had called him a freak after all? He'd find out later. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Some of his best friends qualified as freaks.
The eyes were a sharp green. He didn't see that colour often. It was as if they stared straight into his soul.
'With an eye patch and a few dozen scars this kid could be more intimidating than me.'
He had gathered the kid was an orphan, and probably a long time one since he was bitter now and not grieving. His response had been instinctive after seeing hundreds of friends and subordinates lose family members, dealt with orphaned kids of people under his command, tell them that they weren't as alone as they felt. Harry here seemed to need it at least. He couldn't always do that, at least not for younger children, they didn't find his sympathy very reassuring.
However as he said to Harry he was related to him if far out and not by a drop of blood.
Well atleast he though so. He was fairly sure his niece had never gotten any kids so it had to be from Vernon's wife side of the family.
He was however very confused at why he hadn't known this before. His aide was incredibly competent and had pulled up every file related to the Dursleys she could find and summarized them so he only had to read a few pages with all the relevant information, and nowhere had Harry been mentioned. It was like they were keeping him a secret.
He was good enough to read people to be sure the kid was telling the truth, so now he had a mystery on his hands, he really didn't like mysteries, not anymore.
Yet as he talked to Harry and the kid got over the usual fear children that met him had he found him far more likeable than most kids he had met. He was both polite and friendly. Didn't really talk much unless encouraged, it was as if nobody had been willing to listen for him for years.
Just liking him was unusual. He didn't really have a good way with kids, they didn't like him and he didn't like them. Of course exceptions existed, he just never expected to find one of them who could be considered family.
Vernon and Marge both had seemed to take after their father, both mentally and physically. And well, calling him a bastard was an insult to bastards everywhere. He blamed him for losing contact with his sister.
Granted hospitalising him probably had something to do with it, but Big Boss hadn't thrown the first punch, he just had made damn sure to throw the last, the second to last, and virtually every punch but the first. What kind of idiot attacked someone they knew were special forces anyway?
Besides those two he had no real blood relatives, there was quite a bit of extended family on Vernon's father side, but those he had no interest in getting on with.
He liked this kid though. Perhaps this little jaunt wasn't completely wasted.
*************************************************************
It was a relief to finally talk to someone who wasn't at best indifferent to him. Jack might not be the best at picking subjects the seven-soon-to-be-eight years old could follow, but he learned fast and was quick to take up the role as a kindly uncle.
A kindly anything was something that was sorely missing in his life.
He wished he could have talked with Jack longer, but it was almost time for dinner and if he was late they'd probably lock him in the cupboard for tomorrow. Not that it'd make it that much worse anyway. Dudley's birthdays were never any fun for him.
"Listen kid, before you go. I will drop by tomorrow, but I would appreciate it if you didn't tell them I was coming. I want to surprise them."
Somehow he doubted that was a good idea, but Jack was a nice person. Harry might as well help him with that.
"Okay. I won't mention it. And I hope Dudley doesn't either."
"What do you mean?" Jack asked
"You scared him off earlier."
"Ah. Well whoops. Will have to make sure I remember a birthday gift then. Those tend to work well to distract eight year olds."
So he knew that tomorrow was Dudleys birthday. Probably chose that day because they tended to be very cheerful then.
"Well go home then. I'm sure dinner is waiting."
Harry got the impression Jack didn't realize he was the one who had to make dinner, but didn't really want to talk about that.
****************************************************************
There were few who could throw a spontaneous celebration in secret warrior circles like the SAS. A living legend of said circles walking into the bar that they happened to frequent certainly qualified for one.
He had deliberately picked an hour when the higher ranked officers tended to show up since most his acquaintances in the SAS were officers by now.
So he had spent the evening swapping lies and stories with officers and grunts of the SAS, good fellas. He had over the years recruited several people from their ranks for Foxhound. They were always some of his best agents when he had them.
All in all he was in a very good mood this day and as he reached privet drive the responses of those few of the neighbours who were outside were quite stunned by his appearances.
He was wearing full dress uniform complete with medals, of which the selection could only be called ridiculously large, and nearly all of them high profile. Right now if the sun was shining he'd probably blind most of the neighbourhood.
It looked like it was about to rain any moment though so he was hurrying.
'When God designed British weather he was obviously drunk.'
While silently considering the merits of going CQC on God when he died he approached number four, he crisply and precisely approached the door and pressed the door bell.
It took a few moments, but the door opened showing a face he hadn't seen for almost three decades.
"Hello Vernon." He said in a tone that tried to be both warm and formal at once.
Vernon was stunned.
"Who are you?" He managed to stutter out after almost half a minute.
"I'm not surprised you don't remember me. It's been a while."
There was something about the way he carried himself that jogged Vernon's memory. Something about someone who seemed almost completely unflappable no matter what happened.
"Uncle Jack" He muttered, not really pleased to see him, but noticing that several neighbours was staring from windows trying to be unnoticed. And with full dress uniform Jack looked both spectacular and respectable.
He would definitely make a bad impression on them if he slammed the door in his face like he wanted to, precisely what Big Boss had counted on.
"I know we didn't exactly part on the best of terms, but all wars have to end some day..."
'Well mostly. The Patriot war probably won't end in my lifetime.' Big Boss thought to himself.
"And besides." He continued with a smile.
"I come bearing gifts." He took the gift wrapped package he had under his arm out.
"For your son."
Vernon looked at it suspicious of the contents, but the fat boy who had been leading the gang yesterday made a happy noise stormed forward snatching the package straight out of his hands without even looking up.
'And just when that kid from yesterday gave me hope that Vernon might be a decent parent after all.'
Fatboy as he mentally dubbed the kid tore off the gift wrapping eager to see what was inside, but then he grimaced at the contents.
"Just a fishing rod?" He complained.
Okay, he was officially annoyed with the fat kid. Sure not everyone liked fishing, but he could have tried being more polite.
"Well, according to the old saying I'm giving you fish for every day of the rest of your life." He replied keeping the annoyance out of his voice. Dudley however was too
"I don't want fish!" He cried out, the beginnings of a tantrum. Big Boss sighed. Less than a minute and this Dudley was already proving the worst brat he had ever had the displeasure of meeting.
Dudley was a whiny, ungrateful little shit, who Big Boss thought would be much improved by a brutal hazing at, say, Sandhurst. Just to mention a nearby available training area
"Don't worry dear little Dudders. We will buy you a new gift to replace this awful rod." Vernon's wife said. What was her name again? Rose? Petunia? Some flower name. At any rate he listed her down as 'needing a good beating'. She actually encouraged the kid to be that bratty!
He shook his head, this family was too fucked up for what he could handle. Where was that little kid he had seen yesterday anyway? Doing the sane thing and staying as far away from this family for as long as he possibly could?
He looked over the house, strange, not even a picture of the boy. Why not? He didn't believe the kid had lied.
He took the room in further, forced himself to tone out the background noise, then he picked it out. Something was moving in the cupboard under the stairs.
He strongly hoped it was something more innocent than what he suspected. Just a dog or something that had gotten locked in by accident, or perhaps just a serial killer hiding and waiting for his chance to break out, at least something that wouldn't make him want to kill his last living family. Hiding corpses were such a chore.
"Vernon..." He interrupted the pandering of fatboy.
"Is there supposed to be someone in the cupboard over there?"
The way colour drained from Vernon's face confirmed that he knew something was in there.
"No. There is nobody in the cupboard."
Funny... That sounded both like a lie and a truth at once.
"So it's a pet?" He asked.
"No. There's nobody in the cupboard." Vernon repeated.
"Well there's something moving in there, I can hear it." He approached the cupboard.
"Don't open that!" Vernon yelled in a moment of temporary insanity.
The soldier turned, fixing Vernon with a glare he usually reserved for interrogating enemy grunts. Vernon paled so white he looked like he was about to fade out of existance and took an involuntary step back. There was a reason they just about always talked when he interrogated them. Then Big Boss reached out and opened the cupboard.
"Vernon... Care to elaborate why you have locked a small eight year old child in this cupboard?"
***********************************************************
Harry sat at the table trying to be as unnoticed as possible. The man from yesterday was there in full military uniform. And Harry's relatives looked terrified, and right now Harry wondered if getting locked back into the cupboard would be safer.
The man didn't raise his voice, or use dramatic gestures. He didn't even go red.
Yet he was scarier than Harry had though any human could be. It was hard to describe, like if the moon was falling on you. Big, scary, silent (until near the end) with massive disruptions elsewhere as a consequence that could easily seem unconnected with the falling moon, and utterly unstoppable.
The Dursleys were huddled together, eyes pleading for mercy.
"So really... I'll ask again and I would like a real reason besides 'He's a freak' And 'He deserves it'. Something beyond childish family feuds and prejudices that you refuse to even properly explain. Why do you mistreat this child so much? What has he done to you?"
There was a silence.
"We don't mistreat him! We give him house and food and clothes. He get what he needs. More than..." Petunia managed to cut herself of just before she said something stupid enough to send Jack into a murderous rage.
Saying 'more than he deserved' would probably do that.
Jack fixed Harry with a gaze.
"Right... He's well fed. I can only barely count his ribs." Even Harry could hear his sarcasm.
"This is our home. You can't barge in here and make demands." Vernon tried again to gain the upper hand.
"I can't, but the child protection services can. You'd be surprised at how many lines of work you can find ex-special force personnel. I know a former SAS Major who would gladly help make sure you get taken to court. And a captain who works for a major newspaper and could make sure the story is run front page." He stated in a cool voice.
Harry wondered what the SAS was, but he got the idea that it was something highly respected.
He also wondered how Jack knew exactly where to hit the Dursleys to hurt them.
"We can barely afford to support him as it is." Petunia interjected desperately.
Jack took one look at all the scattered presents for Dudley, especially all those by his parents, then turned back to Petunia.
"You have an odd sense of priorities, can afford expensive gifts and toys for your son, but barely enough money to feed your Nephew. Even using only army rations bought on surplus he could be healthier."
"If you can handle it so much better why don't you take him?!" Vernon burst out. He was alternating between anger and fear, seemed to have an acute case of terminal stupidity.
Harry was wondering there... Could living with this scary person be better than living with the Dursleys?
Hell yes.
The Man however squashed that hope. "Due to circumstances beyond my control that isn't possible." He looked at Harry who failed at hiding his disappointment.
For the first time since he had entered the cupboard their eyes met. And at that moment it seemed he could see straight into Jack's mind. How he was conflicted on something, how it was abruptly squashed and he made his decision. How part of him seemed to berate him from being stupid, but the victorious part said that some things had to be done.
"I can however help him in other ways." His voice softened as he looked at Harry, but hardened as he turned back to the Dursleys.
"I got more pay than I can spend. So part of it will be redirected here for use on Harry here. I will be watching that closely so if I see that you are using it for other things other than clothing and feeding Harry consequences will be harsh, I can guarantee that."
He paused as if having an internal battle then continued.
"In addition, I got a lot of leave I can spend the next few years until I retire. I will use those to come here and take him off your hands for a while. I've gotten a few good wilderness areas recommended for camping and I suspect he won't mind getting away from the house. I have about five more days before I leave for the Middle East again and I can take him until then. I would like to leave as soon as possible. How soon can he be packed?"
Time seemed to stop for Harry. He might still have to stay here, but at least he'd get some reprieves. That was more than anyone could have dared ask for. Jack looked at him and gave him the closest thing to a genuinely friendly smile he had managed since he met him.
This had to be the first time ever that Dudley's birthdays hadn't been awful for him.
***********************************************************
Why the HELL had he done that? It made no sense strategically. He gained nothing and stood to lose a lot.
It was easy to come up with rationalization that it would help put down Patriot suspicions, but they felt false.
He was supposed to focus on the mission above all, and he had just broken with that. Well what was done was done. He had to carry through with it now. As he left the house with Harry he picked up the fishing rod ignoring Dudley's protests at one of his gifts (even one he had hated) being taken. It had just been transferred to "Belated/early birthday gift for Harry" who he suspected would appreciate it far more.
He wondered if the story of the Sorrow would make a nice campfire ghost story or not.
End Chapter 1
It was funny really. Just about everyone he met complained about the heat. As someone who spent over half his life in the more hell hot regions of earth, usually with people shooting at him to boot, it was to say the least a big step up.
It had taken him a tad longer to find the town than expected. Well he should perhaps a paid closer attention to his remaining family's whereabouts, how was he supposed to remember that it was Surrey the town was called?
The man best known as Big Boss sighed. Well at least he had found it in time. And thankfully no hidden crisis had sprung up in the meantime.
He did feel a rather unexpected trepidation at the prospect of meeting his last relatives, odd as he was actually hoping things went badly he was actually scared of what might happen if things went well. Then he'd be handing the Patriots fresh targets.
'Ironic that it's actually in Vernon's best interests to stay as big a bastard as he was.'
Right now he was just scouting things out. He had gotten here a day earlier than expected and figured that he might as well take a look on things before arriving the day after. So currently he was trying to look as inconspicuous as a one eyed man could be expected to be. Not so easy when you didn't have a box to hide under.
And right now he hoped he didn't run into anyone he knew. It was so embarrassing to know you had gotten lost in a sub-urban area. He had no idea which way Privet Drive was except that it was close. He could just imagine the responses he'd get.
'The famous Big Boss. Wrecker of the Shagohod, bane of tinpot dictators everywhere! Lost in the sub-urbs just because he was too stupid to bring a map.'
He chuckled under his breath as he entered the park. It was a nice day at least, might as well enjoy the walk. He hadn't really enjoyed anything in years. It was nice to just relax for once.
He heard the light feet hitting the gravel on the park path and turned, his hands instinctively started reaching for his concealed weapons, but he fought it down instantly. He got a view of a pair of glasses and black unkept hair before a small boy ran straight into him.
***********************************************************
Harry was running. Not too unusual an occurrence, nor the reason why. It was all too common really.
Dudley and his gang, hot on his heels, while he was gaining distance on them he wasn't doing it fast enough for comfort.
He entered the park hoping to lose them there. He cast a quick look behind him, he was almost safe, but as he turned back he saw a big man right in front of him too late to avoid.
The Man couldn't avoid, but he switched stance reflexively just before Harry hit and he bounced off landing on his butt.
"Ow..." Harry muttered under his breath, then looked up and suddenly lost said breath.
To say the man looked intimidating was putting it lightly. The Eyepatch was the immediate eye catcher, but the scars made it worse. The age lines in his face just framed it all... And right now he did not look pleased. What was the scariest though was the single blue eye.
There was something in the remaining eye, something that just radiated danger. Somehow he knew he was looking at a killer.
He was so fixated on the man in front of him that he forgot the gang behind him. They appeared not to notice the man, after all most of the people in the neighbourhood turned a blind eye to his attacks on Harry.
"Hey freak, decided to stop running?"
The one eyed man turned his gaze on the gang. And it narrowed as he cleared his throat. Dudley looked up on the man and recoiled. He looked like a villain straight out of a TV movie.
"Do me a favour and get lost before I get angry. I am not fond of bullies." The words were polite, but the tone could shred steel. One of the people to Dudley's left gulped. This man didn't sound like he was bluffing. And he did look like he could kill them all without batting an eyelash.
It was a miracle nobody wet themselves under the hasty retreat. They left alone leaving Harry alone with this intimidating old man. Mental images of this man brutally killing him flashed through his mind.
The man however appeared to be debating something internally.
Finally he spoke.
"Kid, you wouldn't happen to know how to get to number 4 Privet Drive would you? I've sort of gotten lost."
Whatever he had been expecting this wasn't it.
"Why do you want to know that?" He asked before he could stop himself.
'Don't ask questions.' Asking questions always got his aunt and uncle angry, he hoped desperately that this man wouldn't get too angry with him for asking that.
"Attempted family reconciliation about sums it up I think." The man replied.
Harry was stunned. The Dursley's rabid hatred for anything abnormal, and this man who was well... The most abnormal man he had ever seen was a relative of them?
It boggled the mind.
"So... I take it you know where it is." The renewed question, with an air of frustration in the tone, barely noticeable, but from this man it was intimidating enough to immediately snap him out of his thoughts
"Well yes. I live there." He knew he shouldn't have said that, but it felt like holding back information could be more hazardous to his health.
The man's face was still unreadable.
"Vernon's son?"
That was a first. Getting mistaken for Dudley, he could imagine his aunt and uncle's faces that their miscreant nephew was mistaken for their "precious little Dudders". That was most enjoyable until he remembered what they'd do to him afterwards.
The man looked at him expectantly, perhaps he was just imagining it, but it seemed as if he softened slightly.
"No. I'm their nephew. I just live there." Despite his best effort to keep it calm some bitterness escaped into his voice.
He was pretty sure the softening face wasn't imagined this time around. He didn't look like he could make a rock surrender out of fright anymore, he had moved down to lions begging for mercy at the sight of him.
But still... For some reason it looked like he understood more about the situation than he let in on.
"I see. Well, even if not really by blood I guess that makes us relatives then." He put out his hand.
"I'm Jack. Pleased to meet you." He said to the small boy.
The action was unexpected. Immediately focus that he was his family too, not just the Dursley's. And there was a kindness, well an attempt at one, in his voice. He couldn't really remember last time anyone had been kind to him, even imperfectly.
He reluctantly held out his hand watching it be engulfed in the comparatively giant hands of Jack.
"I'm Harry."
*****************************************************************
As he as gently as he could shook the small boys hand he took a closer look.
Small, possibly underfed, though based on what he knew of Vernon he had a hard time believing that. The man ate a lot and probably hadn’t changed so there should be plenty of food on the table. He was probably just naturally small.
The eyes were a bit frightened, but he wasn't surprised at that. Despite his best effort he had never really been that good with children. And as he got older it got worse. He was well aware that he looked like a cheap comic villain.
What really caught the eyes was the odd scar though, lightening shaped.
He couldn't think of any way it could occur naturally. And the last time he had seen something like that had been colonel Volgin, but based on the comparative amount of scars he doubted Harry here had ten million volts running through his body.
'Perhaps a hundred, but no more.' He though wryly.
Perhaps there was a reason those kids had called him a freak after all? He'd find out later. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Some of his best friends qualified as freaks.
The eyes were a sharp green. He didn't see that colour often. It was as if they stared straight into his soul.
'With an eye patch and a few dozen scars this kid could be more intimidating than me.'
He had gathered the kid was an orphan, and probably a long time one since he was bitter now and not grieving. His response had been instinctive after seeing hundreds of friends and subordinates lose family members, dealt with orphaned kids of people under his command, tell them that they weren't as alone as they felt. Harry here seemed to need it at least. He couldn't always do that, at least not for younger children, they didn't find his sympathy very reassuring.
However as he said to Harry he was related to him if far out and not by a drop of blood.
Well atleast he though so. He was fairly sure his niece had never gotten any kids so it had to be from Vernon's wife side of the family.
He was however very confused at why he hadn't known this before. His aide was incredibly competent and had pulled up every file related to the Dursleys she could find and summarized them so he only had to read a few pages with all the relevant information, and nowhere had Harry been mentioned. It was like they were keeping him a secret.
He was good enough to read people to be sure the kid was telling the truth, so now he had a mystery on his hands, he really didn't like mysteries, not anymore.
Yet as he talked to Harry and the kid got over the usual fear children that met him had he found him far more likeable than most kids he had met. He was both polite and friendly. Didn't really talk much unless encouraged, it was as if nobody had been willing to listen for him for years.
Just liking him was unusual. He didn't really have a good way with kids, they didn't like him and he didn't like them. Of course exceptions existed, he just never expected to find one of them who could be considered family.
Vernon and Marge both had seemed to take after their father, both mentally and physically. And well, calling him a bastard was an insult to bastards everywhere. He blamed him for losing contact with his sister.
Granted hospitalising him probably had something to do with it, but Big Boss hadn't thrown the first punch, he just had made damn sure to throw the last, the second to last, and virtually every punch but the first. What kind of idiot attacked someone they knew were special forces anyway?
Besides those two he had no real blood relatives, there was quite a bit of extended family on Vernon's father side, but those he had no interest in getting on with.
He liked this kid though. Perhaps this little jaunt wasn't completely wasted.
*************************************************************
It was a relief to finally talk to someone who wasn't at best indifferent to him. Jack might not be the best at picking subjects the seven-soon-to-be-eight years old could follow, but he learned fast and was quick to take up the role as a kindly uncle.
A kindly anything was something that was sorely missing in his life.
He wished he could have talked with Jack longer, but it was almost time for dinner and if he was late they'd probably lock him in the cupboard for tomorrow. Not that it'd make it that much worse anyway. Dudley's birthdays were never any fun for him.
"Listen kid, before you go. I will drop by tomorrow, but I would appreciate it if you didn't tell them I was coming. I want to surprise them."
Somehow he doubted that was a good idea, but Jack was a nice person. Harry might as well help him with that.
"Okay. I won't mention it. And I hope Dudley doesn't either."
"What do you mean?" Jack asked
"You scared him off earlier."
"Ah. Well whoops. Will have to make sure I remember a birthday gift then. Those tend to work well to distract eight year olds."
So he knew that tomorrow was Dudleys birthday. Probably chose that day because they tended to be very cheerful then.
"Well go home then. I'm sure dinner is waiting."
Harry got the impression Jack didn't realize he was the one who had to make dinner, but didn't really want to talk about that.
****************************************************************
There were few who could throw a spontaneous celebration in secret warrior circles like the SAS. A living legend of said circles walking into the bar that they happened to frequent certainly qualified for one.
He had deliberately picked an hour when the higher ranked officers tended to show up since most his acquaintances in the SAS were officers by now.
So he had spent the evening swapping lies and stories with officers and grunts of the SAS, good fellas. He had over the years recruited several people from their ranks for Foxhound. They were always some of his best agents when he had them.
All in all he was in a very good mood this day and as he reached privet drive the responses of those few of the neighbours who were outside were quite stunned by his appearances.
He was wearing full dress uniform complete with medals, of which the selection could only be called ridiculously large, and nearly all of them high profile. Right now if the sun was shining he'd probably blind most of the neighbourhood.
It looked like it was about to rain any moment though so he was hurrying.
'When God designed British weather he was obviously drunk.'
While silently considering the merits of going CQC on God when he died he approached number four, he crisply and precisely approached the door and pressed the door bell.
It took a few moments, but the door opened showing a face he hadn't seen for almost three decades.
"Hello Vernon." He said in a tone that tried to be both warm and formal at once.
Vernon was stunned.
"Who are you?" He managed to stutter out after almost half a minute.
"I'm not surprised you don't remember me. It's been a while."
There was something about the way he carried himself that jogged Vernon's memory. Something about someone who seemed almost completely unflappable no matter what happened.
"Uncle Jack" He muttered, not really pleased to see him, but noticing that several neighbours was staring from windows trying to be unnoticed. And with full dress uniform Jack looked both spectacular and respectable.
He would definitely make a bad impression on them if he slammed the door in his face like he wanted to, precisely what Big Boss had counted on.
"I know we didn't exactly part on the best of terms, but all wars have to end some day..."
'Well mostly. The Patriot war probably won't end in my lifetime.' Big Boss thought to himself.
"And besides." He continued with a smile.
"I come bearing gifts." He took the gift wrapped package he had under his arm out.
"For your son."
Vernon looked at it suspicious of the contents, but the fat boy who had been leading the gang yesterday made a happy noise stormed forward snatching the package straight out of his hands without even looking up.
'And just when that kid from yesterday gave me hope that Vernon might be a decent parent after all.'
Fatboy as he mentally dubbed the kid tore off the gift wrapping eager to see what was inside, but then he grimaced at the contents.
"Just a fishing rod?" He complained.
Okay, he was officially annoyed with the fat kid. Sure not everyone liked fishing, but he could have tried being more polite.
"Well, according to the old saying I'm giving you fish for every day of the rest of your life." He replied keeping the annoyance out of his voice. Dudley however was too
"I don't want fish!" He cried out, the beginnings of a tantrum. Big Boss sighed. Less than a minute and this Dudley was already proving the worst brat he had ever had the displeasure of meeting.
Dudley was a whiny, ungrateful little shit, who Big Boss thought would be much improved by a brutal hazing at, say, Sandhurst. Just to mention a nearby available training area
"Don't worry dear little Dudders. We will buy you a new gift to replace this awful rod." Vernon's wife said. What was her name again? Rose? Petunia? Some flower name. At any rate he listed her down as 'needing a good beating'. She actually encouraged the kid to be that bratty!
He shook his head, this family was too fucked up for what he could handle. Where was that little kid he had seen yesterday anyway? Doing the sane thing and staying as far away from this family for as long as he possibly could?
He looked over the house, strange, not even a picture of the boy. Why not? He didn't believe the kid had lied.
He took the room in further, forced himself to tone out the background noise, then he picked it out. Something was moving in the cupboard under the stairs.
He strongly hoped it was something more innocent than what he suspected. Just a dog or something that had gotten locked in by accident, or perhaps just a serial killer hiding and waiting for his chance to break out, at least something that wouldn't make him want to kill his last living family. Hiding corpses were such a chore.
"Vernon..." He interrupted the pandering of fatboy.
"Is there supposed to be someone in the cupboard over there?"
The way colour drained from Vernon's face confirmed that he knew something was in there.
"No. There is nobody in the cupboard."
Funny... That sounded both like a lie and a truth at once.
"So it's a pet?" He asked.
"No. There's nobody in the cupboard." Vernon repeated.
"Well there's something moving in there, I can hear it." He approached the cupboard.
"Don't open that!" Vernon yelled in a moment of temporary insanity.
The soldier turned, fixing Vernon with a glare he usually reserved for interrogating enemy grunts. Vernon paled so white he looked like he was about to fade out of existance and took an involuntary step back. There was a reason they just about always talked when he interrogated them. Then Big Boss reached out and opened the cupboard.
"Vernon... Care to elaborate why you have locked a small eight year old child in this cupboard?"
***********************************************************
Harry sat at the table trying to be as unnoticed as possible. The man from yesterday was there in full military uniform. And Harry's relatives looked terrified, and right now Harry wondered if getting locked back into the cupboard would be safer.
The man didn't raise his voice, or use dramatic gestures. He didn't even go red.
Yet he was scarier than Harry had though any human could be. It was hard to describe, like if the moon was falling on you. Big, scary, silent (until near the end) with massive disruptions elsewhere as a consequence that could easily seem unconnected with the falling moon, and utterly unstoppable.
The Dursleys were huddled together, eyes pleading for mercy.
"So really... I'll ask again and I would like a real reason besides 'He's a freak' And 'He deserves it'. Something beyond childish family feuds and prejudices that you refuse to even properly explain. Why do you mistreat this child so much? What has he done to you?"
There was a silence.
"We don't mistreat him! We give him house and food and clothes. He get what he needs. More than..." Petunia managed to cut herself of just before she said something stupid enough to send Jack into a murderous rage.
Saying 'more than he deserved' would probably do that.
Jack fixed Harry with a gaze.
"Right... He's well fed. I can only barely count his ribs." Even Harry could hear his sarcasm.
"This is our home. You can't barge in here and make demands." Vernon tried again to gain the upper hand.
"I can't, but the child protection services can. You'd be surprised at how many lines of work you can find ex-special force personnel. I know a former SAS Major who would gladly help make sure you get taken to court. And a captain who works for a major newspaper and could make sure the story is run front page." He stated in a cool voice.
Harry wondered what the SAS was, but he got the idea that it was something highly respected.
He also wondered how Jack knew exactly where to hit the Dursleys to hurt them.
"We can barely afford to support him as it is." Petunia interjected desperately.
Jack took one look at all the scattered presents for Dudley, especially all those by his parents, then turned back to Petunia.
"You have an odd sense of priorities, can afford expensive gifts and toys for your son, but barely enough money to feed your Nephew. Even using only army rations bought on surplus he could be healthier."
"If you can handle it so much better why don't you take him?!" Vernon burst out. He was alternating between anger and fear, seemed to have an acute case of terminal stupidity.
Harry was wondering there... Could living with this scary person be better than living with the Dursleys?
Hell yes.
The Man however squashed that hope. "Due to circumstances beyond my control that isn't possible." He looked at Harry who failed at hiding his disappointment.
For the first time since he had entered the cupboard their eyes met. And at that moment it seemed he could see straight into Jack's mind. How he was conflicted on something, how it was abruptly squashed and he made his decision. How part of him seemed to berate him from being stupid, but the victorious part said that some things had to be done.
"I can however help him in other ways." His voice softened as he looked at Harry, but hardened as he turned back to the Dursleys.
"I got more pay than I can spend. So part of it will be redirected here for use on Harry here. I will be watching that closely so if I see that you are using it for other things other than clothing and feeding Harry consequences will be harsh, I can guarantee that."
He paused as if having an internal battle then continued.
"In addition, I got a lot of leave I can spend the next few years until I retire. I will use those to come here and take him off your hands for a while. I've gotten a few good wilderness areas recommended for camping and I suspect he won't mind getting away from the house. I have about five more days before I leave for the Middle East again and I can take him until then. I would like to leave as soon as possible. How soon can he be packed?"
Time seemed to stop for Harry. He might still have to stay here, but at least he'd get some reprieves. That was more than anyone could have dared ask for. Jack looked at him and gave him the closest thing to a genuinely friendly smile he had managed since he met him.
This had to be the first time ever that Dudley's birthdays hadn't been awful for him.
***********************************************************
Why the HELL had he done that? It made no sense strategically. He gained nothing and stood to lose a lot.
It was easy to come up with rationalization that it would help put down Patriot suspicions, but they felt false.
He was supposed to focus on the mission above all, and he had just broken with that. Well what was done was done. He had to carry through with it now. As he left the house with Harry he picked up the fishing rod ignoring Dudley's protests at one of his gifts (even one he had hated) being taken. It had just been transferred to "Belated/early birthday gift for Harry" who he suspected would appreciate it far more.
He wondered if the story of the Sorrow would make a nice campfire ghost story or not.
End Chapter 1
-
Prozac the Robert
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1327
- Joined: 2004-05-05 09:01am
- Location: UK
Ask and you shall recieve. Yeah I don't write that fast. I got a few chapters on my comp and I'm posting them one by one mostly to buy time to figure out weather I'll start writing on it again or not.
Chapter 2:
*1991, somewhere in a field office in Africa*
"So... Going on leave Boss?" The aide asked him, still as sickeningly cheerful, and considering the alternates he had during her maternity leaves he could live with that now.
One had been a Patriot plant and the other one had been way too scheming. After he was done the plant suffered an "Accidental Weapons Discharge" and this Gendo Rokubungi would never hold a military post again, nor walk properly after that little "Jeep over leg" incident. He was smart, but Big Boss had loads more experience.
"Yeah, I promised Harry I would be there for his birthday. I think I have been too busy the last few years what with the fall of the Soviet Union and the whole gulf war debacle I haven't been able to visit that often. So I want to make it up to him."
His aide, now visibly pregnant with her third child, smiled at him. She had calmed slightly with the birth of her children, she smiled her usual bright smile.
"Yeah, I know the feeling. It's difficult having this job and still having time for family. So when is the kid's birthday anyway? I might send him something." Had it been anything else he would suspect them of sucking up to him, not this woman however, she was just that plain nice she could send gifts to family of friends she had never known.
"30th of July, I think he'd appreciate that, his guardians don't treat him that kindly."
The mention of that date however shut out whatever she was going to say. He could practically see her brain diverting power from her mouth to thinking and making connections.
"Harry's last name wouldn't happen to be Potter would it?" Her expression was smiling, yet somehow oddly blank.
"Hm? Where did that come from." Big Boss replied, vary and putting his face as blank as possible as well as making sure his state of mind was the standard for protection against telepathy. He had never seen her act like that.
She however had always shown an uncanny ability to read him and apparently noticed the slight tensing as she guessed correct.
"It is?!" She asked eagerly, and then suddenly squealed.
"You the famous Big Boss's closest thing to a family is Harry James Potter! That explains how he did it!"
Okay, she had acted weird on occasion, like when he had visited her family last year and seen her first kid playing with a broom, but she had only acted oddly evasive then, not as over the top sugar rush extreme that she was now.
"Daniel is going to be so surprised. Not to mention his cousin Arthur! His youngest son will be in the same year after all." Okay why would her husband know about Harry, why would his cousin and same year at what? He switched to his best command voice.
"Atten-SHUN!" He called out to her face and what little of military formality she had absorbed asserted itself finally and calmed her down as she stood rigidly at attention. Her face carried an expression of mortification.
He looked at her.
"Lieutenant Cherry Weasley! What the hell are you talking about? Why would you even know who Harry Potter is?" Her expression added a layer of shame at his questions.
"Sorry sir..." She NEVER called him sir. "... I shouldn't have said any of that. It's just so great a shock, I got carried away. I can't even begin to calculate the odds of this happening."
"That still doesn't answer my question." At least he was now sure it wasn't anything harmful.
"He's turning eleven this year. Just stay close to him on his birthday and you'll get your answer." She hesitated then added. "And please don't eat the owl, Dumbledore wouldn't like it if you ate one of his school owls."
He shook his head incredulously, she was the only person alive who could talk circles around him, so if she didn't want to tell she wouldn't tell.
Still he had to be sure to pack some extra ordnance this visit, just in case.
************************************************************
Harry's life at the Dursley's had improved somewhat, he no longer wore Dudley's old clothes, nor did he just get essentially morsels to eat. His aunt may not spend too much time getting clothes for him at least they fit reasonably well and weren't that worn. He no longer slept in a cupboard and
Dudley's birthdays were still as bad though. While Uncle Jack's existence gave him a measure of protection against his guardians his cousin was still the pig he had always been. And while his own birthdays weren't as unbearable anymore they were at best just a visit from Jack and his gift, the mountain of gifts Dudley got didn't look that appealing except for what it represented: Every one of those people cared at least somewhat about Dudley. Dudley may be too stupid to realize just how much that was worth, but he still had them.
Yet he threw temper tantrums just if there was one gift less than last year. Dudley truly didn't know what he had.
It hadn't been made better by the events earlier today at the zoo, Vernon was furious and he had no idea what he had done.
He himself went over the scene in his head again and again, unlike Vernon and Petunia when he had mentioned those odd occurrences that had happened from time to time uncle Jack had responded with genuine interest and asked for as detailed descriptions as possible.
Jack had talked about him maybe being a good choice for something he called Foxhound when he got older and said that those things if he could control them would definitely help, unfortunately he didn't seem able to recreate it under controlled conditions. If Jack was disappointed he didn't show it. He just shrugged and said 'Maybe you'll figure it out when you are older.' And then he had just gone back to preparing the campfire for dinner.
It felt good to be accepted for who you were. Jack seemed to take everything in a stride no matter what, he felt as if he could say that he was the reincarnation of Hitler and Jack would say something to the affect of 'Yeah, and?'
Even so having one good relative didn't matter much when he wasn't here right now. Vernon was yelling at him for having done something unnatural and freaky and he would go without dinner tonight.
Just two more weeks before Uncle Jack showed up and spent the summer. He was counting down the minutes.
**********************************************************
July 30th
The owl fluttered angrily and tried using it's beak on the hand restraining it again to no effect.
'If this is a prank from Cherry I'm going to find some way to get her to pull Latrine duty for the entire next year.' Big Boss thought as he held the Owl.
It was really freaky that the letter was addressed specifically to their tent out here in the wilderness. The contents of the letters however made the mystery greater. How could such a school sneak under his radar unnoticed? He should at least have heard about something like this.
"Do you think it's real?" Harry asked. And while it seemed ridiculous Big Boss had to admit it was a very good question.
"I'm not sure. I know it's got some truth, it makes some odd incidents fit into place, but weather this is genuine or something else I can't tell."
"Perhaps we could send a letter back asking for more information?" Harry asked.
Yeah why not? It was simple and could get the answers fast enough, and it wasn't as if they didn't already know where they were.
"You write it. I'll make sure this owl doesn't get away before we get it written up."
The answer came surprisingly fast, they were just getting ready to make dinner when the Owl came back and apparently wary from last time dropped the letter from altitude. Big Boss only barely managed to snatch it before it ended up in the fire and handed it to its recipient.
"So what does it say?"
"It says that we are to come to a specific place in London and meet someone and it will all be explained."
That started warning bells in his head. It could be genuine, but it could also be a trap, he had many enemies himself, and Cherry's reaction to Harry's name made him suspect that Harry might have some he didn't know about too.
He glanced at the small sealed bag in his backpack and was glad he had brought it along.
He might well be fighting for his and Harry's lives in a few days.
************************************************************
Harry was worried, the sole reason for worry was that Jack was worried. He hid it well, but you could see the way his eyes were sweeping constantly looking for ambushes and escape routes.
He didn't know why Jack was so worried, but he knew him well enough to think he had a good reason.
The rendezvous point was in a side alley not too trafficked, which was probably part of what made Jack so worried. Who would want a meeting here after all?
A man entered the alley, a giant of a man. The first thing you noticed on him except his size was the sheer amount of hair he had. Harry got the impression Barbers broke down crying at the sight of him.
"'Harry!" The giant called out happily. Harry blinked.
"Do I know you?"
The giant stopped for a second, Jack looked tense. Harry got a distinct mental image of a cobra about to strike.
"No I suppose not. Last time I saw you, you was only a baby." He took him in more closely.
"Yeh look a lot like yeh dad, but yeh got yer moms eyes." The giant said.
"And who might you be." Jack added his piece to the conversation. The tone was mostly polite, but there was an underlying layer of steel that could make most people take a step back. The giant either didn't notice or had nerves of chobam armor.
"Oh sorry forgot myself. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." There was Hogwarts again. Harry expected Jack to ask about that, but Jack struck out in a far different direction with something he considered far more pressing.
"What is so special about Harry? The few people I've met who I think have ties to this Hogwarts somehow all react like he's a celebrity."
"Yeh don’t know?!" Hagrid asked incredulous.
"No we don't. And I'm getting quite annoyed with everyone being so cryptic. If would prefer some answers if you please." If the last time he spoke had been a hint of steel like a knife subtly drawn this was the equivalent of bludgeoning you with a large and heavy frying pan. And this time Hagrid stepped back the sheer danger in the voice and the one eyed gaze enough to rattle even him.
To his credit he got back on balance incredibly fast.
"He is a hero in the wizarding world! The greatest in recent times..." He got cut off.
"Wait, Wizarding world?" Jack asked. Harry looked as shocked by this relevation.
"Yeh don't know? Didn't his aunt and uncle tell him anything?"
"Apparently not." The way Jack said that promised untold suffering on Vernon and Petunia.
"They didn't even tell you about your parents?"
"They said they died in a car crash" Harry said.
"CAR CRASH!" Roared Hagrid. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A Scandal! Harry Potter not knowing his story when every kid in our world..."
"Get to the point please. If a car didn't kill them what did?" Jack interrupted.
Hagrid told them.
*********************************************************
'Voldemort.' Whoever this guy was he had no style at all. That name was one of the stupidest he had ever heard. His gut told him it was a code name, but while he had used some pretty bad ones over the years given by others (Big Boss in particular, though it had grown on him over time).
He did note how Hagrid squirmed at the name though, and wondered if it was the same for other people.
In his mind he re-designated him YKW.
As they walked and more and more people recognized Harry he also got more and more tense. This dark lord had to have had some followers. Surely they weren't too happy with their defeat.
He was a bit shamed at his reaction to that. Hearing that he had opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and repeated that a few times.
One year old kids just didn't defeat terrorists single-handedly. It was against the logic of the world.
Depending on how he did it Harry may be the new "Chief Badass of the Century" As he tended to consider the Boss to have.
There were some who considered him to hold it, but he disagreed strongly. As far as he was concerned he couldn't hold a candle to her even now.
Another one approached to touch the boy who lived Big Boss held out his hand and tried to look moderately menacing, he suspected he had a tendency to underrate his menacing abilities, but too much was better than too little right now.
"That is enough now. We really need to get Harry's school things. You can swoon over your hero in a few years when he's old enough to appreciate it."
The young woman who had been edging forward took one look at his face and backed away quickly. The crowd around gave them noticeably more space, quite a lot of noticeably more space.
Big Boss tried to look outwardly cool and accepting of all he saw. Inwardly he was gaping.
Not at the wonders of what he was seeing as you'd expect, he wasn't that impressed to be honest, but at how something this extensive had been kept a secret. He had made it a point to get his hands on as many big secrets as possible since the snake eater incident, the only thing that kept him even remotely in the fight. He should have at least heard inklings of something like this.
Yet he hadn't. And maybe the Patriots didn't know about it either. If that was the case the possibilities were endless. Up until now it had been an uphill battle. The Patriots seemed to be everywhere. He had to confirm this, but he may just have gotten the means to actually fight back against the Patriots instead of just running around struggling to make soldier's lives slightly more bearable and trying not to be noticed.
He wasn't self deluded enough think he actually was doing well against the Patriots, plan Outer Heaven called for moving himself and his staunchest supporters out of reach of the Patriots so he could start working without interference. But that move alone had about 50/50 chance of succeeding. Never mind the fight that would follow it if the breakaway was successful.
But now, if his hunch was right, he had a weapon, he had an area beyond their reach, he could probably hire some wizards to get magical firepower. The fight was going to completely change character.
"Uncle Jack?"
"Yes Harry?"
"Why do you look like you just got an early birthday present."
He spent a split second considering his response. He didn't want to lie to Harry, but he couldn’t tell him the entire truth either.
"I was just considering the Potential this wizarding world could have on my line of work. Guess I got a bit carried away with daydreaming."
"Oh."
They entered Gringotts. A bank run by Goblins was something new. The mine cart was an odd touch, but he was able to recognize subtle security when he saw it.
This cart wasn't very fast, so in a break in it wouldn't be practical for the intruder to use to get to his target vault. But around there were probably hundreds of traps. He had seen a few that were at least partially non-magical, but he suspected there were even more magic ones that were hidden that he couldn't see.
'Very security conscious people, I would hate to undertake a sneaking mission in here.'
"Here we are; the Potter vault." The Goblin said.
Now that was an awful lot of Gold. So perhaps it'd been true what he had once wheedled out of Vernon that James had been unemployed. Looking at this he could very well have been an 'idle rich'. If Vernon started bashing Harry's father again within Big Boss's earshot he'd love to bring that up.
Still. As soon as he got of age Harry would have no problems getting himself set up then.
They approached another vault which Hagrid was going to pick something up. This one was a maximum security one.
He watched Hagrid picked up his small parcel.
'Now what can that be?' When Hagrid said he had to keep his mouth shut his curiosity tripled.
"Well... If it's so important perhaps you should return now. We can handle getting Harry's things ourselves."
"I couldn't do that. Yeh might be mugged."
"Trust me. Nobody will be mug us." Big Boss said with steel confidence.
"Well... If yeh say so." Hagrid said reluctantly.
"Look. I'm a veteran of hundreds of conflicts. They can try to attack me at their own risk."
"Okay then. I'll see yeh at Hogwarths Harry." Hagrid left.
"Okay... Where to start..."
****************************************************************
"Okay... I think we have everything." Jack said.
"Hm?" Harry said a bit pre-occupied with his own thoughts. His wand was the brother of the one that had killed his parents.
When they had discovered that Jack had just shrugged and said that the universe loves irony, but Harry wasn't as easy with it.
"Well we got everything, but I think we took a wrong turn."
Hours had passed and dark was falling. This area looked somehow more rundown.
"Uncle Jack. I think we should get out of here." Harry commented. It felt somehow more dangerous than the main areas of Diagon alley.
Jack opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was forever lost in time as someone beat him to it.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The famous Boy-Who-Lived protected only by a mere muggle."
Three young people people, wands out, stood fairly close together and their expressions reminded Harry of schoolyard bullies.
"It's not safe walking through knockturn alley in the dark you know." The feral grin scared Harry, but then he took one look at Jack and he stopped worrying about that.
The expression on Jack's face was far scarier. He was silent though, sweeping the alley with his gaze.
"Not everyone are as happy with what you did you know. Some of us think that the dark lord had the right idea."
Jack's expression hardened even more.
"I would turn around and leave if I was you." He said. The thug in the lead looked taken aback for a moment, but recovered.
"Ah look. The Muggle thinks he can play hero. What are you going to do granddad grab our..." He never got to finish as Jack moved.
For someone so old Harry had always known Jack was spryer than most young people. He realized now he had never seen him cut loose and give it all.
Jack grabbed the wand arm of the closest thug and pulled him in hard, the one that had called him granddad, there was a loud crack as the arm apparently broke. Another one in panic snapped off some spell and a red light impacted straight on the lead thug Jack was using as a shield who didn't even get to start to scream from his broken arm.
Jack shoved the unconscious meat-shield forward into the farthermost thug and charged forward into the closest one grabbing him... And throwing him, slamming him HARD into the ground. He was out like a candle in a tornado.
The third one was pushing his friend out of the way when the kick impacted with his wand hand sending the wand flying upwards, straight into Jack's hand where he added it to the other three he had recovered.
"You attacked in close group against an enemy you had not the faintest idea of what he was capable of. You sacrificed surprise to attempt to unnerve your target. And most stupid of all: You walked within arms reach to do it. Be glad I let you off this easily." He tossed the three wands onto the roof of the building besides them.
"If I ever catch you within one hundred meters of Harry I will personally ensure you do not threaten anybody again. Is that clear!?"
The last was loud, straight into the face of the shaking thug. Harry saw a puddle of liquid forming at his leg.
"I asked: IS THAT CLEAR?!"
"Y... Ye...Yes..." The terrified young man stuttered.
Harry was gaping. He knew that Jack was military, but he had not imagined anything like this. Jack had told some rather outrageous stories, like the time had been forced to come face to face against everyone he had killed due to a ghost he called "The Sorrow". But he had figured most of them for false.
Now he wondered if Jack had just picked the most outrageous ones in the hope that Harry wouldn't believe it. He wasn't sure if he could be scared of Jack or not.
"Harry. You okay?"
Jack was looking down at him, worry covering his features.
"I'm okay. It's just that... Well..." Harry wasn't sure how to explain it. Jack seemed to understand.
"I'm sorry you had to see that Harry."
"It's okay." He answered. Jack had protected them, he was dangerous, but only to people who he needed to be dangerous against.
"We need to do something about that scar of yours. It's too conspicuous. I think I have just the thing..."
*********************************************************************
*September 1st*
"Why do Wizards seem to always make things so difficult?" Big Boss lamented as he helped to carry Harry's school trunk.
They were between platform nine and platform ten.
"Maybe it's somewhere else?" Harry said. Obviously worried they might be lost. He was in his normal clothes with a grey-blueish Bandana covering his scar.
"Nah I don't think so. These wizards seem to have a thing for hiding in plain sight."
A redheaded woman that was practically surrounded in kids, all wearing some strange robes, approached a wall, then suddenly the kids started walking through the wall.
"Does that qualify as plain sight?" Harry asked.
"Close enough for me." Big Boss nodded as he walked over to get some more information.
"Excuse me madam..."
"Yes?" The red-headed woman said as she turned around, took one look at the eye-patch, then continued.
"Ah yes Cherry mentioned that you would probably show up here today. You are Jack right?"
"Well yes." He said, kind of annoyed with Cherry right then.
"Well anyway..."
"You need to get Harry onto the platform?" She said kindly.
"Yes. That's pretty much it."
"Oh not to worry..." She turned to Harry explaining how he got through.
They got through the Barrier no problem and as Harry was getting on the train Big Boss turned to the woman again.
"So... How do you know Cherry then?"
"Oh she married into the family. I'm Molly Weasley by the way."
"Right..." He though for a moment skimming through all of Cherry's family rants he could remember and tried to place a Molly.
"I think she mentioned you a few times. I mostly remember something about seven kids, six boys and one girl." She chuckled.
"Yes. Surprised she mentioned us though, we are a bit farther out in the family tree."
"She worships family. I endure at least one long rant a week from her. Say... You are the first one I've met who didn't react like a groupie to Harry. Or didn't she tell you who he is?"
"Oh she told me. It's just that he's not an animal in a zoo to be gawked at."
At that the little girl squealed when she realized just who 'Harry' was.
"Can I see him mom? Please?"
"You already saw him dearie, when we helped him through the barrier."
Big Boss started to wonder if it was a natural law that said everyone who was a Weasley (Even if only by Marriage, probably because they seemed to attract others like them) were eccentric, but very nice people.
Given how eccentric just about everyone in Foxhound were he could live with that. He decided he liked the Weasley's. Even with his rather small sampling so far.
"Hey Harry! Remember to write okay?" He called out to the window as the train started moving.
He was going to use what little remained of his leave to confirm that the Patriots indeed didn't know about the Wizarding world.
And then he'd set about figuring out how to use the wizarding world against them...
He may have to push back his outer heaven plan, but that was okay. Overall helping Harry back then was turning out to be the best decision he had ever made, both for personal reasons and now professional.
He still had no idea just how much this would change his plans...
******************************************************************
*Omake*
Petunia put down the tray of freshly baked cookies. Dudley was still out with his friends and having fun like a ten year old should, but he'd appreciate it when he came back in.
Now she just had to keep that little freak away from them until then.
The last two years he had gotten a lot more nerve and now dared to try and take some of the cookies. And if they gave him the treatment he deserved that awful uncle of Vernon's might take action.
She walked past the cardboard box on the living room floor on the way to the couch and sat down.
Wait? Cardboard box? She looked over at the cardboard box on the kitchen floor.
Was the box from Dudley's computer he had gotten last week? What was it doing down here?
Dudley must have been cleaning and put trash into it to take out later. Yes her Dudley was so hard working and considerate.
Meanwhile the cardboard box finished sneaking up on the cookie tray and grab a few cookies before it quickly retreated back to his second floor room.
Those tricks uncle Jack told him really worked! He had to try out the other ones too.
Chapter 2:
*1991, somewhere in a field office in Africa*
"So... Going on leave Boss?" The aide asked him, still as sickeningly cheerful, and considering the alternates he had during her maternity leaves he could live with that now.
One had been a Patriot plant and the other one had been way too scheming. After he was done the plant suffered an "Accidental Weapons Discharge" and this Gendo Rokubungi would never hold a military post again, nor walk properly after that little "Jeep over leg" incident. He was smart, but Big Boss had loads more experience.
"Yeah, I promised Harry I would be there for his birthday. I think I have been too busy the last few years what with the fall of the Soviet Union and the whole gulf war debacle I haven't been able to visit that often. So I want to make it up to him."
His aide, now visibly pregnant with her third child, smiled at him. She had calmed slightly with the birth of her children, she smiled her usual bright smile.
"Yeah, I know the feeling. It's difficult having this job and still having time for family. So when is the kid's birthday anyway? I might send him something." Had it been anything else he would suspect them of sucking up to him, not this woman however, she was just that plain nice she could send gifts to family of friends she had never known.
"30th of July, I think he'd appreciate that, his guardians don't treat him that kindly."
The mention of that date however shut out whatever she was going to say. He could practically see her brain diverting power from her mouth to thinking and making connections.
"Harry's last name wouldn't happen to be Potter would it?" Her expression was smiling, yet somehow oddly blank.
"Hm? Where did that come from." Big Boss replied, vary and putting his face as blank as possible as well as making sure his state of mind was the standard for protection against telepathy. He had never seen her act like that.
She however had always shown an uncanny ability to read him and apparently noticed the slight tensing as she guessed correct.
"It is?!" She asked eagerly, and then suddenly squealed.
"You the famous Big Boss's closest thing to a family is Harry James Potter! That explains how he did it!"
Okay, she had acted weird on occasion, like when he had visited her family last year and seen her first kid playing with a broom, but she had only acted oddly evasive then, not as over the top sugar rush extreme that she was now.
"Daniel is going to be so surprised. Not to mention his cousin Arthur! His youngest son will be in the same year after all." Okay why would her husband know about Harry, why would his cousin and same year at what? He switched to his best command voice.
"Atten-SHUN!" He called out to her face and what little of military formality she had absorbed asserted itself finally and calmed her down as she stood rigidly at attention. Her face carried an expression of mortification.
He looked at her.
"Lieutenant Cherry Weasley! What the hell are you talking about? Why would you even know who Harry Potter is?" Her expression added a layer of shame at his questions.
"Sorry sir..." She NEVER called him sir. "... I shouldn't have said any of that. It's just so great a shock, I got carried away. I can't even begin to calculate the odds of this happening."
"That still doesn't answer my question." At least he was now sure it wasn't anything harmful.
"He's turning eleven this year. Just stay close to him on his birthday and you'll get your answer." She hesitated then added. "And please don't eat the owl, Dumbledore wouldn't like it if you ate one of his school owls."
He shook his head incredulously, she was the only person alive who could talk circles around him, so if she didn't want to tell she wouldn't tell.
Still he had to be sure to pack some extra ordnance this visit, just in case.
************************************************************
Harry's life at the Dursley's had improved somewhat, he no longer wore Dudley's old clothes, nor did he just get essentially morsels to eat. His aunt may not spend too much time getting clothes for him at least they fit reasonably well and weren't that worn. He no longer slept in a cupboard and
Dudley's birthdays were still as bad though. While Uncle Jack's existence gave him a measure of protection against his guardians his cousin was still the pig he had always been. And while his own birthdays weren't as unbearable anymore they were at best just a visit from Jack and his gift, the mountain of gifts Dudley got didn't look that appealing except for what it represented: Every one of those people cared at least somewhat about Dudley. Dudley may be too stupid to realize just how much that was worth, but he still had them.
Yet he threw temper tantrums just if there was one gift less than last year. Dudley truly didn't know what he had.
It hadn't been made better by the events earlier today at the zoo, Vernon was furious and he had no idea what he had done.
He himself went over the scene in his head again and again, unlike Vernon and Petunia when he had mentioned those odd occurrences that had happened from time to time uncle Jack had responded with genuine interest and asked for as detailed descriptions as possible.
Jack had talked about him maybe being a good choice for something he called Foxhound when he got older and said that those things if he could control them would definitely help, unfortunately he didn't seem able to recreate it under controlled conditions. If Jack was disappointed he didn't show it. He just shrugged and said 'Maybe you'll figure it out when you are older.' And then he had just gone back to preparing the campfire for dinner.
It felt good to be accepted for who you were. Jack seemed to take everything in a stride no matter what, he felt as if he could say that he was the reincarnation of Hitler and Jack would say something to the affect of 'Yeah, and?'
Even so having one good relative didn't matter much when he wasn't here right now. Vernon was yelling at him for having done something unnatural and freaky and he would go without dinner tonight.
Just two more weeks before Uncle Jack showed up and spent the summer. He was counting down the minutes.
**********************************************************
July 30th
The owl fluttered angrily and tried using it's beak on the hand restraining it again to no effect.
'If this is a prank from Cherry I'm going to find some way to get her to pull Latrine duty for the entire next year.' Big Boss thought as he held the Owl.
It was really freaky that the letter was addressed specifically to their tent out here in the wilderness. The contents of the letters however made the mystery greater. How could such a school sneak under his radar unnoticed? He should at least have heard about something like this.
"Do you think it's real?" Harry asked. And while it seemed ridiculous Big Boss had to admit it was a very good question.
"I'm not sure. I know it's got some truth, it makes some odd incidents fit into place, but weather this is genuine or something else I can't tell."
"Perhaps we could send a letter back asking for more information?" Harry asked.
Yeah why not? It was simple and could get the answers fast enough, and it wasn't as if they didn't already know where they were.
"You write it. I'll make sure this owl doesn't get away before we get it written up."
The answer came surprisingly fast, they were just getting ready to make dinner when the Owl came back and apparently wary from last time dropped the letter from altitude. Big Boss only barely managed to snatch it before it ended up in the fire and handed it to its recipient.
"So what does it say?"
"It says that we are to come to a specific place in London and meet someone and it will all be explained."
That started warning bells in his head. It could be genuine, but it could also be a trap, he had many enemies himself, and Cherry's reaction to Harry's name made him suspect that Harry might have some he didn't know about too.
He glanced at the small sealed bag in his backpack and was glad he had brought it along.
He might well be fighting for his and Harry's lives in a few days.
************************************************************
Harry was worried, the sole reason for worry was that Jack was worried. He hid it well, but you could see the way his eyes were sweeping constantly looking for ambushes and escape routes.
He didn't know why Jack was so worried, but he knew him well enough to think he had a good reason.
The rendezvous point was in a side alley not too trafficked, which was probably part of what made Jack so worried. Who would want a meeting here after all?
A man entered the alley, a giant of a man. The first thing you noticed on him except his size was the sheer amount of hair he had. Harry got the impression Barbers broke down crying at the sight of him.
"'Harry!" The giant called out happily. Harry blinked.
"Do I know you?"
The giant stopped for a second, Jack looked tense. Harry got a distinct mental image of a cobra about to strike.
"No I suppose not. Last time I saw you, you was only a baby." He took him in more closely.
"Yeh look a lot like yeh dad, but yeh got yer moms eyes." The giant said.
"And who might you be." Jack added his piece to the conversation. The tone was mostly polite, but there was an underlying layer of steel that could make most people take a step back. The giant either didn't notice or had nerves of chobam armor.
"Oh sorry forgot myself. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." There was Hogwarts again. Harry expected Jack to ask about that, but Jack struck out in a far different direction with something he considered far more pressing.
"What is so special about Harry? The few people I've met who I think have ties to this Hogwarts somehow all react like he's a celebrity."
"Yeh don’t know?!" Hagrid asked incredulous.
"No we don't. And I'm getting quite annoyed with everyone being so cryptic. If would prefer some answers if you please." If the last time he spoke had been a hint of steel like a knife subtly drawn this was the equivalent of bludgeoning you with a large and heavy frying pan. And this time Hagrid stepped back the sheer danger in the voice and the one eyed gaze enough to rattle even him.
To his credit he got back on balance incredibly fast.
"He is a hero in the wizarding world! The greatest in recent times..." He got cut off.
"Wait, Wizarding world?" Jack asked. Harry looked as shocked by this relevation.
"Yeh don't know? Didn't his aunt and uncle tell him anything?"
"Apparently not." The way Jack said that promised untold suffering on Vernon and Petunia.
"They didn't even tell you about your parents?"
"They said they died in a car crash" Harry said.
"CAR CRASH!" Roared Hagrid. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A Scandal! Harry Potter not knowing his story when every kid in our world..."
"Get to the point please. If a car didn't kill them what did?" Jack interrupted.
Hagrid told them.
*********************************************************
'Voldemort.' Whoever this guy was he had no style at all. That name was one of the stupidest he had ever heard. His gut told him it was a code name, but while he had used some pretty bad ones over the years given by others (Big Boss in particular, though it had grown on him over time).
He did note how Hagrid squirmed at the name though, and wondered if it was the same for other people.
In his mind he re-designated him YKW.
As they walked and more and more people recognized Harry he also got more and more tense. This dark lord had to have had some followers. Surely they weren't too happy with their defeat.
He was a bit shamed at his reaction to that. Hearing that he had opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and repeated that a few times.
One year old kids just didn't defeat terrorists single-handedly. It was against the logic of the world.
Depending on how he did it Harry may be the new "Chief Badass of the Century" As he tended to consider the Boss to have.
There were some who considered him to hold it, but he disagreed strongly. As far as he was concerned he couldn't hold a candle to her even now.
Another one approached to touch the boy who lived Big Boss held out his hand and tried to look moderately menacing, he suspected he had a tendency to underrate his menacing abilities, but too much was better than too little right now.
"That is enough now. We really need to get Harry's school things. You can swoon over your hero in a few years when he's old enough to appreciate it."
The young woman who had been edging forward took one look at his face and backed away quickly. The crowd around gave them noticeably more space, quite a lot of noticeably more space.
Big Boss tried to look outwardly cool and accepting of all he saw. Inwardly he was gaping.
Not at the wonders of what he was seeing as you'd expect, he wasn't that impressed to be honest, but at how something this extensive had been kept a secret. He had made it a point to get his hands on as many big secrets as possible since the snake eater incident, the only thing that kept him even remotely in the fight. He should have at least heard inklings of something like this.
Yet he hadn't. And maybe the Patriots didn't know about it either. If that was the case the possibilities were endless. Up until now it had been an uphill battle. The Patriots seemed to be everywhere. He had to confirm this, but he may just have gotten the means to actually fight back against the Patriots instead of just running around struggling to make soldier's lives slightly more bearable and trying not to be noticed.
He wasn't self deluded enough think he actually was doing well against the Patriots, plan Outer Heaven called for moving himself and his staunchest supporters out of reach of the Patriots so he could start working without interference. But that move alone had about 50/50 chance of succeeding. Never mind the fight that would follow it if the breakaway was successful.
But now, if his hunch was right, he had a weapon, he had an area beyond their reach, he could probably hire some wizards to get magical firepower. The fight was going to completely change character.
"Uncle Jack?"
"Yes Harry?"
"Why do you look like you just got an early birthday present."
He spent a split second considering his response. He didn't want to lie to Harry, but he couldn’t tell him the entire truth either.
"I was just considering the Potential this wizarding world could have on my line of work. Guess I got a bit carried away with daydreaming."
"Oh."
They entered Gringotts. A bank run by Goblins was something new. The mine cart was an odd touch, but he was able to recognize subtle security when he saw it.
This cart wasn't very fast, so in a break in it wouldn't be practical for the intruder to use to get to his target vault. But around there were probably hundreds of traps. He had seen a few that were at least partially non-magical, but he suspected there were even more magic ones that were hidden that he couldn't see.
'Very security conscious people, I would hate to undertake a sneaking mission in here.'
"Here we are; the Potter vault." The Goblin said.
Now that was an awful lot of Gold. So perhaps it'd been true what he had once wheedled out of Vernon that James had been unemployed. Looking at this he could very well have been an 'idle rich'. If Vernon started bashing Harry's father again within Big Boss's earshot he'd love to bring that up.
Still. As soon as he got of age Harry would have no problems getting himself set up then.
They approached another vault which Hagrid was going to pick something up. This one was a maximum security one.
He watched Hagrid picked up his small parcel.
'Now what can that be?' When Hagrid said he had to keep his mouth shut his curiosity tripled.
"Well... If it's so important perhaps you should return now. We can handle getting Harry's things ourselves."
"I couldn't do that. Yeh might be mugged."
"Trust me. Nobody will be mug us." Big Boss said with steel confidence.
"Well... If yeh say so." Hagrid said reluctantly.
"Look. I'm a veteran of hundreds of conflicts. They can try to attack me at their own risk."
"Okay then. I'll see yeh at Hogwarths Harry." Hagrid left.
"Okay... Where to start..."
****************************************************************
"Okay... I think we have everything." Jack said.
"Hm?" Harry said a bit pre-occupied with his own thoughts. His wand was the brother of the one that had killed his parents.
When they had discovered that Jack had just shrugged and said that the universe loves irony, but Harry wasn't as easy with it.
"Well we got everything, but I think we took a wrong turn."
Hours had passed and dark was falling. This area looked somehow more rundown.
"Uncle Jack. I think we should get out of here." Harry commented. It felt somehow more dangerous than the main areas of Diagon alley.
Jack opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was forever lost in time as someone beat him to it.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The famous Boy-Who-Lived protected only by a mere muggle."
Three young people people, wands out, stood fairly close together and their expressions reminded Harry of schoolyard bullies.
"It's not safe walking through knockturn alley in the dark you know." The feral grin scared Harry, but then he took one look at Jack and he stopped worrying about that.
The expression on Jack's face was far scarier. He was silent though, sweeping the alley with his gaze.
"Not everyone are as happy with what you did you know. Some of us think that the dark lord had the right idea."
Jack's expression hardened even more.
"I would turn around and leave if I was you." He said. The thug in the lead looked taken aback for a moment, but recovered.
"Ah look. The Muggle thinks he can play hero. What are you going to do granddad grab our..." He never got to finish as Jack moved.
For someone so old Harry had always known Jack was spryer than most young people. He realized now he had never seen him cut loose and give it all.
Jack grabbed the wand arm of the closest thug and pulled him in hard, the one that had called him granddad, there was a loud crack as the arm apparently broke. Another one in panic snapped off some spell and a red light impacted straight on the lead thug Jack was using as a shield who didn't even get to start to scream from his broken arm.
Jack shoved the unconscious meat-shield forward into the farthermost thug and charged forward into the closest one grabbing him... And throwing him, slamming him HARD into the ground. He was out like a candle in a tornado.
The third one was pushing his friend out of the way when the kick impacted with his wand hand sending the wand flying upwards, straight into Jack's hand where he added it to the other three he had recovered.
"You attacked in close group against an enemy you had not the faintest idea of what he was capable of. You sacrificed surprise to attempt to unnerve your target. And most stupid of all: You walked within arms reach to do it. Be glad I let you off this easily." He tossed the three wands onto the roof of the building besides them.
"If I ever catch you within one hundred meters of Harry I will personally ensure you do not threaten anybody again. Is that clear!?"
The last was loud, straight into the face of the shaking thug. Harry saw a puddle of liquid forming at his leg.
"I asked: IS THAT CLEAR?!"
"Y... Ye...Yes..." The terrified young man stuttered.
Harry was gaping. He knew that Jack was military, but he had not imagined anything like this. Jack had told some rather outrageous stories, like the time had been forced to come face to face against everyone he had killed due to a ghost he called "The Sorrow". But he had figured most of them for false.
Now he wondered if Jack had just picked the most outrageous ones in the hope that Harry wouldn't believe it. He wasn't sure if he could be scared of Jack or not.
"Harry. You okay?"
Jack was looking down at him, worry covering his features.
"I'm okay. It's just that... Well..." Harry wasn't sure how to explain it. Jack seemed to understand.
"I'm sorry you had to see that Harry."
"It's okay." He answered. Jack had protected them, he was dangerous, but only to people who he needed to be dangerous against.
"We need to do something about that scar of yours. It's too conspicuous. I think I have just the thing..."
*********************************************************************
*September 1st*
"Why do Wizards seem to always make things so difficult?" Big Boss lamented as he helped to carry Harry's school trunk.
They were between platform nine and platform ten.
"Maybe it's somewhere else?" Harry said. Obviously worried they might be lost. He was in his normal clothes with a grey-blueish Bandana covering his scar.
"Nah I don't think so. These wizards seem to have a thing for hiding in plain sight."
A redheaded woman that was practically surrounded in kids, all wearing some strange robes, approached a wall, then suddenly the kids started walking through the wall.
"Does that qualify as plain sight?" Harry asked.
"Close enough for me." Big Boss nodded as he walked over to get some more information.
"Excuse me madam..."
"Yes?" The red-headed woman said as she turned around, took one look at the eye-patch, then continued.
"Ah yes Cherry mentioned that you would probably show up here today. You are Jack right?"
"Well yes." He said, kind of annoyed with Cherry right then.
"Well anyway..."
"You need to get Harry onto the platform?" She said kindly.
"Yes. That's pretty much it."
"Oh not to worry..." She turned to Harry explaining how he got through.
They got through the Barrier no problem and as Harry was getting on the train Big Boss turned to the woman again.
"So... How do you know Cherry then?"
"Oh she married into the family. I'm Molly Weasley by the way."
"Right..." He though for a moment skimming through all of Cherry's family rants he could remember and tried to place a Molly.
"I think she mentioned you a few times. I mostly remember something about seven kids, six boys and one girl." She chuckled.
"Yes. Surprised she mentioned us though, we are a bit farther out in the family tree."
"She worships family. I endure at least one long rant a week from her. Say... You are the first one I've met who didn't react like a groupie to Harry. Or didn't she tell you who he is?"
"Oh she told me. It's just that he's not an animal in a zoo to be gawked at."
At that the little girl squealed when she realized just who 'Harry' was.
"Can I see him mom? Please?"
"You already saw him dearie, when we helped him through the barrier."
Big Boss started to wonder if it was a natural law that said everyone who was a Weasley (Even if only by Marriage, probably because they seemed to attract others like them) were eccentric, but very nice people.
Given how eccentric just about everyone in Foxhound were he could live with that. He decided he liked the Weasley's. Even with his rather small sampling so far.
"Hey Harry! Remember to write okay?" He called out to the window as the train started moving.
He was going to use what little remained of his leave to confirm that the Patriots indeed didn't know about the Wizarding world.
And then he'd set about figuring out how to use the wizarding world against them...
He may have to push back his outer heaven plan, but that was okay. Overall helping Harry back then was turning out to be the best decision he had ever made, both for personal reasons and now professional.
He still had no idea just how much this would change his plans...
******************************************************************
*Omake*
Petunia put down the tray of freshly baked cookies. Dudley was still out with his friends and having fun like a ten year old should, but he'd appreciate it when he came back in.
Now she just had to keep that little freak away from them until then.
The last two years he had gotten a lot more nerve and now dared to try and take some of the cookies. And if they gave him the treatment he deserved that awful uncle of Vernon's might take action.
She walked past the cardboard box on the living room floor on the way to the couch and sat down.
Wait? Cardboard box? She looked over at the cardboard box on the kitchen floor.
Was the box from Dudley's computer he had gotten last week? What was it doing down here?
Dudley must have been cleaning and put trash into it to take out later. Yes her Dudley was so hard working and considerate.
Meanwhile the cardboard box finished sneaking up on the cookie tray and grab a few cookies before it quickly retreated back to his second floor room.
Those tricks uncle Jack told him really worked! He had to try out the other ones too.
-
Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
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MY GOD!
This is awe-fucking-some! AWE-FUCKING-SOME! I've seen the second and third movies, read everything from the end of Goblet of Fire up to the last book, and I watched my buddy play Snake Eater and loved it! This is great! Snake is such a badass and the way things mesh up, it's awesome! Sure, the bit about him taking Harry in was a bit awkward, but things are progressing awesomely! I love this! And Draco getting CQBed was great.
I demand more! And I demand you make more also!
This is awe-fucking-some! AWE-FUCKING-SOME! I've seen the second and third movies, read everything from the end of Goblet of Fire up to the last book, and I watched my buddy play Snake Eater and loved it! This is great! Snake is such a badass and the way things mesh up, it's awesome! Sure, the bit about him taking Harry in was a bit awkward, but things are progressing awesomely! I love this! And Draco getting CQBed was great.
I demand more! And I demand you make more also!
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
Well can't argue with that sort of persuasion can I? 
Chapter 3:
'Dear Uncle Jack.
Hogwarts is great! One of our teachers can turn into a cat! The food is fantastic, and so far all the classes except two have been great fun. The exceptions are history of magic and potions.
History of magic is taught by a ghost, a really boring ghost not like The Sorrow from your stories. I think half the class sleeps in that class.
Potions is taught by what Ron refers to as a "greasy git." First class and he asks a bunch of questions that are way above first years and dock points when I can't answer as well as ragging on me for being a celebrity.
I suppose I should explain the points. We are divided into four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin and gain and lose points based on our conduct, by the end of the year the house with the most points get the house cup. I'm a Gryffindor, supposedly house of the Brave and noble.
Anyway, Snape is head of Slytherin and really biased. He docks points at any excuse from Gryffindor.
The train ride went okay. I met Ron, that'd be Ron Weasley, son of that lady who helped me through the barrier. He's become my best friend in the school.
Made a few enemies too. Draco Malfoy. World class prat. Going on how he's so much better than everyone due to being filthy rich.
I bet that if we had him on one of our camping trips he'd die of shock of how simple things are before the second day was over.
I need to wrap this up. Got a potions essay I need finished before tomorrow. I will see you next summer I hope.
Harry'
*********************************************************
*Somewhere in the Middle East*
"... And finally you assumed that you could take the enemy commander hostage during negotiations without considering that maybe there is a reason he's got so few body guards."
The terrorist leader was restrained on the ground. Big Boss took any excuse he could get to be in the field. Even using himself as bait for a trap.
The terrorist that they had just captured had been preying on relief organizations like the red cross for a while now and finally NATO had decided that since Foxhound was on hand they could earn their pay.
Right now the leader, some of his closest lieutenants and several of his grunts were on the ground all of them incapacitated somehow, either by guns pointed at their heads or by over-ventilation and lead poisoning combined.
And Big Boss was berating them for amateurish tactics. He hated going up against foes that didn't rate Foxhound. That led to a lot of unnecessary deaths on the enemy side.
"Grey Fox. You are in charge here. I'm going back to headquarters." The man nodded as Big Boss turned.
He wished he had a camera for the face of the terrorist when he realized the old man who came to negotiate was capable of.
He nodded to the driver and gave him the rest of the afternoon off as he got out of the car to enter the field office.
"Hey Boss. Owl for you. Poor thing looks like it's flown all the way from Scotland." Cherry spoke sounding sickeningly cheerful as usual while she was getting some food for a very, very tired snowy owl.
"And I though I was mean to animals. At least I don't force birds from temporate zones to fly several hundred miles into a scorching desert to deliver a letter."
"Its tradition, they are big on that." Cherry replied as if that answered everything. Maybe it did, but he didn't like that.
Still. They were his best chance yet of taking on the patriots on even ground, probably a better plan than Outer Heaven. He would put up with some eccentricities to get access to that.
He had figured out that the best person to get a few hints on how to use it would be Arthur Weasley, Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts sounded very useful for his needs.
Some of the minor stuff he'd heard about sounded pretty nifty, like the conjuration charm, items conjured might not last long, but they still affected things in that time, so a repeating conjuration charm on say, that big gun one of the newer member, Vulcan Raven, carried around and he'd get infinite ammo with it.
Scary thought.
He picked up the letter. A usual school letter, pleasant surprise, but he wasn't really good at correspondence. He wrote up a short letter with the general niceties and advice (Advice like: Remember the 11th commandment, "Thy shall not be discovered". And "When in doubt, attack. Worry about the corpses later." In the end it's probably a good thing that Big Boss wasn't Harry's full time guardian).
He was about to give it to the owl, then held it back and (while feeling like an idiot) spoke to it.
"I'd highly recommend not starting flying back until its dark or you may be one cooked owl. I'm sure you can be forgiven for staying around here until nightfall." Harry wouldn't like it if Hedwig dropped dead on the way back.
"You are handling the wizarding world far better than I expected." Cherry said from behind him.
"Well, when you've seen as many weird things as I have you get used to it. It's more a difference of scale than anything else." Big Boss replied.
"Heh. I still can't quite handle it when my eldest do some accidental magic and vaporize a small apple." So she wasn't a witch herself. Good to know. He hadn't been THAT blind to it then.
"Well... I don’t have kids and don't expect to get any." She didn't know that overexposure to radiation had rendered him sterile, he didn't see any point in telling her either.
Granted there WAS the enfants terrible project, but honestly, he wasn't too big a fan of that. It just felt... Wrong... Somehow.
"So, how is Harry doing?"
"Fine so far, Harry doesn't know it, but I've convinced his guardians to forward his report cards to me. They'd just toss it out anyway."
"I think it's much healthier of you to treat him like a son instead of doing the same to your troops."
"Come again?" Big Boss knew that his mentor had done this after the war because of her missing child and inability to get more, but he didn't think he had fallen into that trap. Or had he?
"Well you treat your troops like they were your children. And take any threat to them deeply personal. Frankly if Harry hadn't come along I would be afraid you'd snap and try to make a small dictatorship nation just for soldiers somewhere." She was odd like that. Hero worship combined with saying what she though he needed to hear no matter what that was.
What really hit him was how similar that last comment was to the Outer Heaven plan. Was it like that? Was he rationalizing things, sacrificing the fight against the patriots to protect those people he viewed as family? Trying to fool himself into thinking it was to make a safe base of operations while he got ready to make his move against them.
In the original timeline he'd answer no against this without hesitation. He could only fight if he got a safe haven to work from that they hadn't infiltrated and everywhere else was infiltrated. However in this he'd given some thoughts to how he'd take threats against the only family he cared about.
And he came to the conclusion that the answer may very well be yes.
'At very least I need to do a total reassessment of the Outer Heaven plan. Perhaps even make a new one altogether. I've been worried about what happens if I get too close to Harry without noticing it might well have happened already to somebody else.'
"Hey Boss? You awake?" Cherry's voice woke him out of his introspection.
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking."
"About what?" She asked blunt as ever.
Normally he'd be evasive, but by now he was learning that this aide had an annoying tendency to be right whenever she gave an opinion. He could try to be partially truthful.
"Just considering your words, I've got enemies. I've been so worried about what they might do to Harry if they find him that I didn't realize they might achieve the same effect just by hitting the Fox-Hound field agents."
"Maybe you should consider retiring?" She looked far more serious than he had seen her.
"Retire? Why?"
"If you have reason to think somebody is pissed enough at you to strike at people you care about perhaps you should get out before that happens. Pentagon is complaining that you are getting too old and would let you go in a heartbeat."
If you disregarded the Patriots it made sense, as much as he may hate giving up his career it wouldn't go much higher anymore. He may not have flag rank, but he had more influence than any single general. His name, or rather title, was known in all of the secret warrior world and in a lot of the regular military world.
Except he couldn't give up fight against the Patriots, and he needed this influence to fight them, he needed to be able to pull in favour and inspire people to follow him despite insane orders.
Or did he? He'd still have access to the old boy network after getting out. And it would get him off the Patriot's radar. His position would be weakened sure, but it wouldn't be wrecked. And he'd need time to work the magical world into his plans.
Again she gave advice that might be right. Right now it felt like Cherry had been placed here by some omnipotent force to prod him in specific directions at the right times, ridiculous as it sounded.
Still... Give it all up? He wasn't sure he could do that.
"Oh and by the way Boss, I almost forgot. The weekly report from psychological is here."
He had requested weekly reports about the progress on deprogramming a young girl he had saved during the Gulf war. A deadly sniper despite being awfully young and programmed by the republican guard to be lethal, as far as he knew she had no name only known by the moniker "Wolf".
Well that would have been a plus if she had been assigned to Foxhound. No need to worry about finding an animal to assign her. As it was he had on his personal authority ordered psychological to give her help, he wasn't sure why he did it. Sure, part of him though he could make use of her lethal skills, refine them further to make her a truly top notch sniper to add to Foxhound, but the part of him that had started caring about children the last years just wanted to get one child soldier that had been taken alive away from the battlefield.
He had to be growing soft; it was the only explanation that made sense.
******************************************************************
*Week after Halloween*
Big Boss was floored. Okay granted he wasn't really surprised at it Harry doing it. Harry did seem to have tendencies to UHAD (Unreasonably Heroic Actions Disorder. His own invention), what floored him was it happening in the first place.
'If that is the safest place in the Wizarding World I'm going have to have artillery support on call when I go in there from now on.'
Mountain troll had gotten in and attempted to kill a student, only Harry's bravery had saved her from certain death.
He was swelled with pride that Harry was able to do that and survive, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Somehow he suspected it was tied with the Boy-Who-Lived crap.
Well next summer at least he'd give the kid some training to ensure he wasn't as flat footed next time something like this happened.
*****************************************************************
The explanation for the Mirror made a lot of sense. It explained why he had seen what he had.
He saw his hearts desire, which was a solid family. And it explained the three people he'd seen.
He had wondered what relation the last man had to his parents, but he was the only real family he knew, so it made sense that Jack would be added to the mirror.
****************************************************************
"Boss? You there? Jack? C'mon this isn't funny!" Cherry was talking. It didn't really matter.
He supposed he should have considered it. After all he'd died once, and he was still kicking. He hoped it was a joke
The letter didn't imply so though. And he knew Harry wouldn't joke about this.
The dark tosser Harry had vanquished was still alive. And he'd be seeking revenge on him as soon as he restored his power somehow.
Now contrary to what Cherry probably was thinking he wasn't in shock. He was debating internally furiously.
Harry was the only family he cared about, he wanted him safe, he was tempted to go AWOL and just hunt down this fucker and ice him somehow. The threat against Harry came not from his past as he had feared it would, but from Harry's.
Yet, he couldn't protect Harry, not all the time he needed to. Not as commander of Foxhound.
It was a choice, Family or Fight.
'No, that's just how it looks like on the surface.'
Strategically speaking Harry became vital as an objective the moment it was known he was a wizard. He was Big Boss's only avenue into the Wizarding world, and hence vital for the patriot fight.
What it really came down to was Family or Career. Both would let him continue the fight, but in different ways, perhaps Harry could handle it if he gave him some combat training, and he could continue soldiering on.
He had to make a decision, and it was one he couldn't allow himself to post-pone.
Logic said that he had most influence as Foxhound commander. It was unknown just how useful the magical world could be, but Foxhound was a known quantity.
Yet, he knew that if Harry died and he could have done something to prevent it he'd never forgive himself. His career in the army would end shortly no matter what, but the kid would keep on living and unless something ended it prematurely live far beyond the rest of Big Boss's life.
It was in some ways harder than pulling the trigger on The Boss.
"Cherry... I'm going to retire. Effective ASAP." He finally spoke.
She gasped. Somehow she had though he would just continue in charge until he died of old age.
"What?"
He was tempted to snap at her, but fought it down.
"That guy Voldemort isn't as dead as I was told he was, and he'll be coming after Harry some day." She visible flinched at that name, but he didn't care right now and continued.
"And when he does... I need to be there to kill the bastard."
*End Chapter 3*
Omake:
Snape turned around from the potion he was brewing, he could have sworn he had heard a knocking noise.
"Who is it?" No reply, but there was more knocking.
He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't concentrate with it going on so he got up to check it out.
He walked by the cardboard box down to the door and opened the door. There was nobody outside.
'Damn children.' He said making children sound extremely derogative in his mind and went back to the potion making not worrying about the cardboard box to the right of him.
Then there was a clattering noise on the left.
Had someone broken in? He turned to look. Nothing there, so he turned back to his potion now bubbling ominously.
"Oh bugger..." It exploded in his face...
When he woke up again his face was neon green and the colour just wouldn't wash off.
He REALLY shouldn't have docked so many points from Harry that morning.
Chapter 3:
'Dear Uncle Jack.
Hogwarts is great! One of our teachers can turn into a cat! The food is fantastic, and so far all the classes except two have been great fun. The exceptions are history of magic and potions.
History of magic is taught by a ghost, a really boring ghost not like The Sorrow from your stories. I think half the class sleeps in that class.
Potions is taught by what Ron refers to as a "greasy git." First class and he asks a bunch of questions that are way above first years and dock points when I can't answer as well as ragging on me for being a celebrity.
I suppose I should explain the points. We are divided into four houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin and gain and lose points based on our conduct, by the end of the year the house with the most points get the house cup. I'm a Gryffindor, supposedly house of the Brave and noble.
Anyway, Snape is head of Slytherin and really biased. He docks points at any excuse from Gryffindor.
The train ride went okay. I met Ron, that'd be Ron Weasley, son of that lady who helped me through the barrier. He's become my best friend in the school.
Made a few enemies too. Draco Malfoy. World class prat. Going on how he's so much better than everyone due to being filthy rich.
I bet that if we had him on one of our camping trips he'd die of shock of how simple things are before the second day was over.
I need to wrap this up. Got a potions essay I need finished before tomorrow. I will see you next summer I hope.
Harry'
*********************************************************
*Somewhere in the Middle East*
"... And finally you assumed that you could take the enemy commander hostage during negotiations without considering that maybe there is a reason he's got so few body guards."
The terrorist leader was restrained on the ground. Big Boss took any excuse he could get to be in the field. Even using himself as bait for a trap.
The terrorist that they had just captured had been preying on relief organizations like the red cross for a while now and finally NATO had decided that since Foxhound was on hand they could earn their pay.
Right now the leader, some of his closest lieutenants and several of his grunts were on the ground all of them incapacitated somehow, either by guns pointed at their heads or by over-ventilation and lead poisoning combined.
And Big Boss was berating them for amateurish tactics. He hated going up against foes that didn't rate Foxhound. That led to a lot of unnecessary deaths on the enemy side.
"Grey Fox. You are in charge here. I'm going back to headquarters." The man nodded as Big Boss turned.
He wished he had a camera for the face of the terrorist when he realized the old man who came to negotiate was capable of.
He nodded to the driver and gave him the rest of the afternoon off as he got out of the car to enter the field office.
"Hey Boss. Owl for you. Poor thing looks like it's flown all the way from Scotland." Cherry spoke sounding sickeningly cheerful as usual while she was getting some food for a very, very tired snowy owl.
"And I though I was mean to animals. At least I don't force birds from temporate zones to fly several hundred miles into a scorching desert to deliver a letter."
"Its tradition, they are big on that." Cherry replied as if that answered everything. Maybe it did, but he didn't like that.
Still. They were his best chance yet of taking on the patriots on even ground, probably a better plan than Outer Heaven. He would put up with some eccentricities to get access to that.
He had figured out that the best person to get a few hints on how to use it would be Arthur Weasley, Department of Misuse of Muggle Artefacts sounded very useful for his needs.
Some of the minor stuff he'd heard about sounded pretty nifty, like the conjuration charm, items conjured might not last long, but they still affected things in that time, so a repeating conjuration charm on say, that big gun one of the newer member, Vulcan Raven, carried around and he'd get infinite ammo with it.
Scary thought.
He picked up the letter. A usual school letter, pleasant surprise, but he wasn't really good at correspondence. He wrote up a short letter with the general niceties and advice (Advice like: Remember the 11th commandment, "Thy shall not be discovered". And "When in doubt, attack. Worry about the corpses later." In the end it's probably a good thing that Big Boss wasn't Harry's full time guardian).
He was about to give it to the owl, then held it back and (while feeling like an idiot) spoke to it.
"I'd highly recommend not starting flying back until its dark or you may be one cooked owl. I'm sure you can be forgiven for staying around here until nightfall." Harry wouldn't like it if Hedwig dropped dead on the way back.
"You are handling the wizarding world far better than I expected." Cherry said from behind him.
"Well, when you've seen as many weird things as I have you get used to it. It's more a difference of scale than anything else." Big Boss replied.
"Heh. I still can't quite handle it when my eldest do some accidental magic and vaporize a small apple." So she wasn't a witch herself. Good to know. He hadn't been THAT blind to it then.
"Well... I don’t have kids and don't expect to get any." She didn't know that overexposure to radiation had rendered him sterile, he didn't see any point in telling her either.
Granted there WAS the enfants terrible project, but honestly, he wasn't too big a fan of that. It just felt... Wrong... Somehow.
"So, how is Harry doing?"
"Fine so far, Harry doesn't know it, but I've convinced his guardians to forward his report cards to me. They'd just toss it out anyway."
"I think it's much healthier of you to treat him like a son instead of doing the same to your troops."
"Come again?" Big Boss knew that his mentor had done this after the war because of her missing child and inability to get more, but he didn't think he had fallen into that trap. Or had he?
"Well you treat your troops like they were your children. And take any threat to them deeply personal. Frankly if Harry hadn't come along I would be afraid you'd snap and try to make a small dictatorship nation just for soldiers somewhere." She was odd like that. Hero worship combined with saying what she though he needed to hear no matter what that was.
What really hit him was how similar that last comment was to the Outer Heaven plan. Was it like that? Was he rationalizing things, sacrificing the fight against the patriots to protect those people he viewed as family? Trying to fool himself into thinking it was to make a safe base of operations while he got ready to make his move against them.
In the original timeline he'd answer no against this without hesitation. He could only fight if he got a safe haven to work from that they hadn't infiltrated and everywhere else was infiltrated. However in this he'd given some thoughts to how he'd take threats against the only family he cared about.
And he came to the conclusion that the answer may very well be yes.
'At very least I need to do a total reassessment of the Outer Heaven plan. Perhaps even make a new one altogether. I've been worried about what happens if I get too close to Harry without noticing it might well have happened already to somebody else.'
"Hey Boss? You awake?" Cherry's voice woke him out of his introspection.
"Oh sorry, I was just thinking."
"About what?" She asked blunt as ever.
Normally he'd be evasive, but by now he was learning that this aide had an annoying tendency to be right whenever she gave an opinion. He could try to be partially truthful.
"Just considering your words, I've got enemies. I've been so worried about what they might do to Harry if they find him that I didn't realize they might achieve the same effect just by hitting the Fox-Hound field agents."
"Maybe you should consider retiring?" She looked far more serious than he had seen her.
"Retire? Why?"
"If you have reason to think somebody is pissed enough at you to strike at people you care about perhaps you should get out before that happens. Pentagon is complaining that you are getting too old and would let you go in a heartbeat."
If you disregarded the Patriots it made sense, as much as he may hate giving up his career it wouldn't go much higher anymore. He may not have flag rank, but he had more influence than any single general. His name, or rather title, was known in all of the secret warrior world and in a lot of the regular military world.
Except he couldn't give up fight against the Patriots, and he needed this influence to fight them, he needed to be able to pull in favour and inspire people to follow him despite insane orders.
Or did he? He'd still have access to the old boy network after getting out. And it would get him off the Patriot's radar. His position would be weakened sure, but it wouldn't be wrecked. And he'd need time to work the magical world into his plans.
Again she gave advice that might be right. Right now it felt like Cherry had been placed here by some omnipotent force to prod him in specific directions at the right times, ridiculous as it sounded.
Still... Give it all up? He wasn't sure he could do that.
"Oh and by the way Boss, I almost forgot. The weekly report from psychological is here."
He had requested weekly reports about the progress on deprogramming a young girl he had saved during the Gulf war. A deadly sniper despite being awfully young and programmed by the republican guard to be lethal, as far as he knew she had no name only known by the moniker "Wolf".
Well that would have been a plus if she had been assigned to Foxhound. No need to worry about finding an animal to assign her. As it was he had on his personal authority ordered psychological to give her help, he wasn't sure why he did it. Sure, part of him though he could make use of her lethal skills, refine them further to make her a truly top notch sniper to add to Foxhound, but the part of him that had started caring about children the last years just wanted to get one child soldier that had been taken alive away from the battlefield.
He had to be growing soft; it was the only explanation that made sense.
******************************************************************
*Week after Halloween*
Big Boss was floored. Okay granted he wasn't really surprised at it Harry doing it. Harry did seem to have tendencies to UHAD (Unreasonably Heroic Actions Disorder. His own invention), what floored him was it happening in the first place.
'If that is the safest place in the Wizarding World I'm going have to have artillery support on call when I go in there from now on.'
Mountain troll had gotten in and attempted to kill a student, only Harry's bravery had saved her from certain death.
He was swelled with pride that Harry was able to do that and survive, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Somehow he suspected it was tied with the Boy-Who-Lived crap.
Well next summer at least he'd give the kid some training to ensure he wasn't as flat footed next time something like this happened.
*****************************************************************
The explanation for the Mirror made a lot of sense. It explained why he had seen what he had.
He saw his hearts desire, which was a solid family. And it explained the three people he'd seen.
He had wondered what relation the last man had to his parents, but he was the only real family he knew, so it made sense that Jack would be added to the mirror.
****************************************************************
"Boss? You there? Jack? C'mon this isn't funny!" Cherry was talking. It didn't really matter.
He supposed he should have considered it. After all he'd died once, and he was still kicking. He hoped it was a joke
The letter didn't imply so though. And he knew Harry wouldn't joke about this.
The dark tosser Harry had vanquished was still alive. And he'd be seeking revenge on him as soon as he restored his power somehow.
Now contrary to what Cherry probably was thinking he wasn't in shock. He was debating internally furiously.
Harry was the only family he cared about, he wanted him safe, he was tempted to go AWOL and just hunt down this fucker and ice him somehow. The threat against Harry came not from his past as he had feared it would, but from Harry's.
Yet, he couldn't protect Harry, not all the time he needed to. Not as commander of Foxhound.
It was a choice, Family or Fight.
'No, that's just how it looks like on the surface.'
Strategically speaking Harry became vital as an objective the moment it was known he was a wizard. He was Big Boss's only avenue into the Wizarding world, and hence vital for the patriot fight.
What it really came down to was Family or Career. Both would let him continue the fight, but in different ways, perhaps Harry could handle it if he gave him some combat training, and he could continue soldiering on.
He had to make a decision, and it was one he couldn't allow himself to post-pone.
Logic said that he had most influence as Foxhound commander. It was unknown just how useful the magical world could be, but Foxhound was a known quantity.
Yet, he knew that if Harry died and he could have done something to prevent it he'd never forgive himself. His career in the army would end shortly no matter what, but the kid would keep on living and unless something ended it prematurely live far beyond the rest of Big Boss's life.
It was in some ways harder than pulling the trigger on The Boss.
"Cherry... I'm going to retire. Effective ASAP." He finally spoke.
She gasped. Somehow she had though he would just continue in charge until he died of old age.
"What?"
He was tempted to snap at her, but fought it down.
"That guy Voldemort isn't as dead as I was told he was, and he'll be coming after Harry some day." She visible flinched at that name, but he didn't care right now and continued.
"And when he does... I need to be there to kill the bastard."
*End Chapter 3*
Omake:
Snape turned around from the potion he was brewing, he could have sworn he had heard a knocking noise.
"Who is it?" No reply, but there was more knocking.
He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't concentrate with it going on so he got up to check it out.
He walked by the cardboard box down to the door and opened the door. There was nobody outside.
'Damn children.' He said making children sound extremely derogative in his mind and went back to the potion making not worrying about the cardboard box to the right of him.
Then there was a clattering noise on the left.
Had someone broken in? He turned to look. Nothing there, so he turned back to his potion now bubbling ominously.
"Oh bugger..." It exploded in his face...
When he woke up again his face was neon green and the colour just wouldn't wash off.
He REALLY shouldn't have docked so many points from Harry that morning.
-
Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
- Joined: 2003-05-11 08:39am
- Location: Bleeding breasts and stabbing dicks since 2003
- Contact:
My god. Snake has taught Harry how to be a dick, awesome!
Hey, can I have one more chapter? I'm going to bed soon...
Hey, can I have one more chapter? I'm going to bed soon...
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
I wasn't intending to post that one this fast, but all right.
Chapter 4
*June 1992
The Dursleys were not happy to see him. Nothing new there, the silence in the car was stifling. They had no wish to hear about his year, and he didn't feel like telling them. He had his own worries. Following his last letters Uncle Jack had been oddly silent. No new letters from him apart from a 'Talk to you during summer' note. After that, nothing had arrived. He wondered if Jack was angry at him for trying to save the stone.
As they entered privet drive he noticed the moving lorry. The people next door, not Mrs Figg the crazy cat lady, but on the other side, were moving out.
As they drove up and got out of the car a very familiar person walked up to them.
"Good day new neighbours." The one eyed man said with his characteristic smug little smile. Harry in particular enjoyed watching the blood drain from Vernon's face.
"What are you doing here?!" Vernon blurted out.
"Oh I was getting old and everyone was whining about me having to retire so I figured the better man gave in. And I also remembered this charming neighbourhood my nephew lived in. So using large amounts of cash, you'd be surprised at how much money you get as a colonel when you don't use much and have been drawing hazard and combat pay since the fifties, I convinced the old owners of these house that the much larger house on the other side of town would fit them much better."
Vernon was still white. Harry imagined Vernon could see the property values dropping behind his eyes by the second merely by having his uncle here.
Summer just got a whole lot better than he had expected it to.
*July*
Harry was angry, he wasn't sure exactly with who, it depended on weather uncle Jack was right or not.
He though Harry's magic mail was usually being inspected by the magical government, and since he usually didn't get any magical mail during summer they had just taken vacation without getting a summer replacement. This was going to bite him in the ass when he got back on work and a small mountain of mail was waiting for him.
He hoped Jack was right; the other possibility was that his friends had forgotten completely about him.
At very least the Dursleys were downright tolerable, in between Harry learning magic and Jack practically breathing down their necks they didn't dare do anything to him.
They did their best to pretend he didn't exist, which was far better than usual.
What wasn't too pleasant either was that it was his birthday, and so far he was alone. Jack had told him yesterday that he'd need a few hours to arrange something, but it was still annoying.
He bent down over the bag again. Jack had also said that afterwards they'd go for a trip so it might be smart to pack in advance. Though he hadn't said where they were going.
The Dursley's were downstairs preparing for some business visit, they didn't want Harry present when having it, and they were expecting Jack to pick him up before the visitors arrived.
That was when he became aware he wasn't alone in his room.
He spun around... And saw the small creature.
"Uh... Hello."
*************************************************************
Big Boss approached Number 4 with in a good mood.
It had been a bitch getting hold of his old aide now that he was retired, but he had managed, and she in turn had put him in touch with the Arthur and Molly Weasley. They had been as pleasant as he remembered, and when he had made his suggestion they had upped the ante and made a far better suggestion. Harry was going to like this and it should more than make up for him being missing for most of Harry's birthday.
As he approached he heard the tremendous crash inside combined with Petunia's shriek. Combat reflexes took over, he pulled out his .45 from inside the trench coat and took position just outside the door and listened to steps tuning out backround noise as best he could.
He could hear two adults moving about, one of them unmistakably the heavy steps of Vernon.
He though he could hear two kids.
And for just a fleeting moment he though he heard something else. A noise he couldn't identify with any creature he knew about.
He opened the door slightly and peeked in, then holstered his gun. No threat he could see. At least none in the open and if it was hidden showing he was a threat could be the worst move.
He moved in silently. In fact nobody in the room noticed he was even there.
A letter arrived with owl. Vernon read it and advanced on Harry menacingly.
He decided it was time to make himself known and coughed.
Vernon turned. Face changed from rage to fear.
Only then did Big Boss realize his expression probably looked ready for war.
'Whoops. Well no harm done. It's only Vernon who's scared.'
"Letter please. Remember our deal."
For once Vernon didn’t argue. He had probably been looking ready to kill something.
He read the letter. Noticing that Harry was being accused of underage magic, but he also noticed that it didn't say anywhere in specific that they had identified Harry as being the one who did it.
He looked at the pudding on the floor. He could figure out what had been levitated easily enough, but that didn't fit Harry's behaviour at all. While he could have been changed more by school than he though there was another and far more sinister possibility. After all even harmless tools could be lethal if you knew how to do it.
He had himself killed a few people using only a fork.
Okay, first, get Harry out of here to somewhere safer.
"I'll deal with this. Harry, come with me." His voice was hard, he could see Harry gulp as he followed him.
As soon as he was outside he took his back to Harry and put his hand on the butt of his pistol.
"Harry. Run to my house, don't stop for anything." He could see Harry's puzzlement at his words, but right now getting him clear was more important.
His gaze swept over the area, nothing visible, but given the cloak Harry had told him about and his experiences with the Fear he didn't see that as a guarantee.
Once he was satisfied that Harry was as safe as he could make it he turned to the kid.
"Okay. Now explain to me what happened. As much detail as possible."
***********************************************************
Jack believed him, that was a reassurance. When he saw how Jack looked after Dobby had dropped the pudding he had been scared. He had seen that expression only once before, in the alley they had been attacked.
"So you are sure he was just trying to warn you of something?"
"Well he said so, but he had been stopping my mail. And he did try to get me into trouble."
"Pretty innocent compared to what I feared." Jack admitted. Jack had been somewhat overprotective after the events at the end of the school year.
"He didn't seem evil, but he didn't seem entirely well... There in his brain either."
"Well meaning wackos are more dangerous than sane enemies. If he appears again treat him with extreme caution."
"Yes Uncle Jack" He could hear in his tone that no argument would be accepted right now.
"Well... From bad news to good news: How would you like spending the rest of the summer visiting the Weasleys?"
Jack had the 'I wish I had a camera right now' expression, which given how Harry must have looked was perfectly understandable.
"That was what you were arranging today?"
"Yeah, took longer than expected. I had to reach a top secret mobile base camp somewhere in the middle east to get a hold of my aide who is a Weasley by marriage, arrange for her to put me in touch with the Weasleys up here and then get hold of them. I figured if mail didn't get through I'd get you physically in touch with some of your friends."
He paused for a moment.
"Happy birthday Harry."
That was certainly a big turnabout from the earlier part of the day.
******************************************************************
The Burrow was certainly not like anything he had seen before. He had remembered Cherry describing these Weasleys home as 'unique' though he had not guessed just how unique.
Nor had Harry's letter or Cherry's stories done the Weasley twins any justice, which was why he was examining the sandwich in front of him with an extremely critical eye.
'No unusual smells, doesn't look discoloured, no signs of unexpected ingredients.'
The first day he was here they had noticed he had an uncanny ability to notice when they were trying something, because of that they had made it their goal to prank him thoroughly at least once this summer, despite Molly's wrath.
All his instincts were screaming that they had somehow gone a step up now. Sabotaging food Molly had made since he never fell for the other food they left around.
Yet he couldn't find anything wrong with it.
They were getting sneakier. He had an almost superhuman ability to notice food stuffs that weren't proper food. Regardless of if they used magic or muggle tricks.
He stared at it... He saw some barely imperceptible movement inside the sandwich and reacted. He tossed it up into the air.
He could hear behind him Fred and George start a small "aaaw" That he had caught on to whatever they were trying, but he wasn't done yet.
In a smooth motion he pulled out his custom Colt Army 1911, lots of memories related to that gun, and working the slide as he got it up he flicked of the safety and nailed the sandwich three times in mid air.
The sandwich fell to the ground and the transfigured cheese slice finished its transformation back to a rat. For a moment he was afraid he'd killed Ron's pet rat Scabbers, but thankfully this one had all of its toes.
Molly was recovering from the thundering booms of the gun and turned to Fred and George about to unleash her wrath.
Big Boss again pre-empted them by picking up the very dead rat and taking a bite out of it, and after swallowing it said:
"Not bad, I prefer them grain fed myself, but the forests around here has left it healthy so it's pretty tasty. Sorry about the commotion. It just startled me a bit."
He enjoyed the sight of the twins turning slightly green immensely and continued just to rub it in.
"I prefer snakes though for future reference." Rule number one in the Secret Warrior world: Mess with Big Boss at your own risk. 'Cause he messed back and had more experience.
The days passed quickly, and while Fred and George backed off for a while after seeing how violently he had reacted to the rat they didn't let up. He found that he enjoyed this little game quite a bit. Though Molly had chewed him out after she had recovered from the shock properly, he was absolutely not allowed to use weapons.
He found that the first rule of the Burrow was that Molly Weasley's word was law. DO NOT ANGER HER.
Harry was enjoying himself immensely, that much was clear. He found all aspects of the magical daily life fun, even what the others viewed as chores like degnoming the garden.
Arthur had been a bit annoying the first few days with his almost obsessive interest in anything non-magical, but after that got out of the way he found the cheerful man a gold mine of information about the workings of the Ministry of Magic.
Molly was well, the dictator of the Burrow. No other way to say it. A just and fair dictator sure, but still a dictator. And the first one Big Boss doubted that Foxhound could oust if they tried.
Percy was the outsider, he was really the most normal of the lot and hence in this mad-house the only one sane, which meant he also didn't quite fit in. As Big Boss rarely got on that well with anyone who weren't even slightly insane (Sig-Int from snake eater being a notable exception) he fit in better with the Weasleys than Percy did.
The twins were well... The Twins, Horror of Hogwarts, willing to take on any challenge, even elite spec ops troopers armed to the teeth.
Ron was the runt of the lot, obviously feeling in the shadow of the rest of the family.
Little Ginny was too shy for him to get a good read of except her obvious crush on Harry. Since Big Boss never went far from Harry it meant he didn't notice her much as she was almost deathly afraid to speak around Harry. Still he estimated she'd grow out of it. It was always the quiet ones...
All in all they were a merry bunch of lunatics who were right up Big Boss's alley.
**********************************************************
The day they were going to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies started like most days in the Burrow. Jack came holding his trench coat with a coat hanger very careful not to touch it, put it on a chair and turned to the twins.
"Nice try, now remove the curse."
"How did you..."
"...Notice anything..."
"... Was amiss?" The twins asked.
"Two words: Static electricity." Jack said with that characteristic smile of his.
"Static what?" The twins asked in unison.
"Explanations later, curse removing now. Got it?"
The twins still hadn't managed to prank Jack. He seemed to elevate subtle paranoia to an art form, always vigilant despite not looking it. Frankly Harry had been more curious the last weeks than all the years before. Even the assault attempt hadn't seemed as odd as this consistent ability to dodge The Twins. Not even Dumbledore could do that.
"So. How are we getting to Diagon Alley? I presume we aren't walking." Jack asked.
"By floo of course." Mrs Weasley replied and proceeded to launch into an explanation of it.
Jumping into a fireplace sounded unhealthy to say the least, but none of the other looked worried.
After having seen some of the kids go through he approached the fireplace anxiously, threw the powder in mispronouncing the name.
The store he ended up with was both dark, and very creepy.
'I wouldn't like meeting anyone who would shop at this store.' As if on cue he heard the voices approach.
He got himself out of sight as Draco and an adult which looked a lot like him got into sight. His father?
He listened to their discussion about dark artefacts and Draco's school situation. Draco wasn't planning to move up from git status, that much was clear. That was when the discussion changed subject.
"Speaking of Potter. Have you had any success with the mission I gave you?"
"Yes recently. He appeared in a Muggle newspaper in regards to their so called 'Gulf war', a military man of considerable renown. I don't know his name, but according to the papers he goes by the name his government assigned him. Big Boss. Head of something called Special Operations Foxhound."
Malfoy sneered.
"Any information on what this 'Big Boss' wants with the Potter kid?" Harry didn't know any Big Boss. Did he? Could it be?
"We got a few supposed 'boy who lived' sightings from a few years ago that mention he was in the company of a one eyed man. So he has apparently known Potter for quite some time. He is as far as I can tell remarkably capable for a muggle, but you already knew that didn’t you?"
"Indeed."
He had to ask Jack about this 'Big Boss' thing later.
*****************************************************************
Big Boss was worried. Harry had gone wrong with the floo and he had no idea where he was. He really needed to teach the kid some self defence moves so he wouldn't have to worry so much.
"That floo network of yours could do with some modification. Something like a 'Destination invalid, please restate' function." He said dryly.
"A what?"
"Something us muggles have a tendency to add when we make things that require accurate destinations. If there is no match it would say so and refuse to let you travel until you gave the right destination. It's called a safety feature."
Arthur looked fascinated and opened his mouth, but a quick glare from Molly closed it. She was busy being worried. And unlike Big Boss she didn't hide it.
"How can you be so calm about it?"
"I'm as worried as you are, but losing my head will only lead to mistakes. And I've learned too many times over the course of my job that doing that only gets people killed." Big Boss replied.
"Just what did you do anyway? Cherry was never very clear on that." Arthur asked
"Classified, most of it probably won't get de-classified for at least fifty years. Sorry." Just then he noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Rubeus Hagrid, and next to him came Harry.
"Hey kid. You had us worried for a moment. They really need to do something about that floo thing. Where did you end up?"
"I found him wandering around in knockturn alley. Not a safe place to kids to go alone. Yeh might want to be more careful in the future."
"Oh we will. Thank you Hagrid." He gave him a nod.
As they walked away Harry started speaking.
"Guess who I saw at Borgin and Burkes? Malfoy and his father."
"Where they buying anything?" Arthur asked from behind the kids. Big Boss wondered on why the interest?
"No they were selling. And they were also talking about you Jack."
"What?"
"Well, they called you Big Boss, but they mentioned you had been with me when I got my school things last year."
"How much did they know about me then?"
"Only something from recent newspapers about the Gulf War." Just about nothing then.
"Good. Oh and please. Don't ever call me Big Boss. I was hoping to leave that name behind when I retired."
He caught Molly chiding Arthur behind him about the Malfoy family being trouble and interjected his own two cent.
"If the family is trouble it's paramount that someone take them on and clear them out before they become more trouble. Otherwise they will become even more dangerous. Don't pull your punches or you will regret it. That is years of experience speaking." He in particular remembered an individual there he had initially felt was a likeable kid and let live despite him repeatedly trying to kill him. Thought Ocelot seemed to have some sort of oh... Chronic Backstab Disorder going by now.
Still it also applied to dozens of dictators and terrorists he had neutralized.
"Just what sort of life have you led?" Molly asked after a pause.
"One I wouldn't wish on anyone I actually like." He answered with complete honesty.
The rest of the trip to the Weasley's vault in gringotts happened in complete silence among the adults.
******************************************************************
He'd heard mention of Gilderoy Lockhart in the Burrow, hadn't heard much except he was popular with the girls and that he had supposedly a lot of achievements that went above and beyond
He had no idea they were talking about this... Prettyboy, from what he had heard him do he had expected someone more like Jack, worn and scarred. Obvious marks of having been there, done that.
This guy looked like he just came out of a beauty salon and as if he would scream if someone broke one of his nails.
"Reminds me of Major Raikov or whatever his name was." Jack said from behind him.
They just had to get past without getting noticed. The good thing about this guy was that he drew all the attention from Harry, and he seemed to self absorbed to notice Harry.
Unfortunately seemed was the operative word.
"It can't be Harry Potter!" He exclaimed.
'Oh bugger.'
As the crowd parted and Gilderoy reached for Harry something intercepted the arm. Someone in the crowd gasped.
Jack stood there, his hand having a firm grasp on Gilderoy's arm.
"Do you mind?" Gilderoy looked mildly annoyed.
"Sorry, reflex." Harry knew Jack well enough to realize he was lying, but he wasn't sure what he was lying on as Jack relinquished the pretty-boy's arm.
"Now, What did you want with Harry?" He asked.
"No need to be rude. I just want to borrow Harry here for a picture for the press." Gilderoy replied sounding slightly more annoyed.
Jack turned to Harry.
"You want to end up on the front page kid?"
"Not really." Harry said shaking his head.
"There you have it. Scram." Jack was dismissive. Apparently Lockhart was rubbing him the wrong way.
Lockhart was not one to take such insulting attitude, nor being denied what he wanted so blatantly.
"Now listen here..." Whatever he was going to say was forgotten as Jack met Lockhart's eyes with a stare that Harry could only describe as soul piercing.
"You are a fraud." Jack stated. There was nothing accusatory in the tone. It was simply a fact as far as he saw it. Someone in the crowd gasped again.
"Excuse me?"
"You can't possibly have done what you claim to have. It's in your eyes. They are the eyes of someone who's never really had any hardships, not the eyes of a veteran."
"And you'd be able to tell who's a veteran?" Lockhart said, obviously off balance. As it was it was the wrong words.
"I once killed several soldiers using only a fork, during an escape from a prison, just after a torture session, which was when I lost the eye mind you, so yes. I would have some experience to go on for telling that." Jack said, his voice colder than liquid nitrogen right then. He flipped his eye patch up for a moment showing the empty socket to Lockhart
Harry had somehow figured that Jack had killed people, but this was the first time he had heard him say it out loud.
Lockhart however had paled as white as a sheet. He had obviously never been in the presence of someone as dangerous as Jack.
"Now if you'll excuse us..." Jack motioned for Harry to move. The crowd didn't make a word as they extracted themselves from it and joined back up with Mr Weasley, Ron and Ginny.
"Bet you loved that Potter. Getting all that attention." An all too familiar voice said from behind.
"The fameous Harry Potter can't even go to the bookstore without making a scene." Draco apparently had the self preservation instinct of a drunk frat boy with a chainsaw.
"Leave him alone! He didn't want all that!" First time Ginny had spoken in his presence.
"Potter you've gotten yourself a girlfriend!"
Harry opened his mind to deny it, then decided to copy Jack in that regard. Don't get defensive, counter attack.
"Could you stop being so envious at what I have? It's so annoying." Okay perhaps not the best counter attack ever, but the sheer unexpectedness of the move caught Draco off balance, though Ginny seemed to blush even redder.
Draco tried to sputter out some reply, but was apparently unable to form it through the shock.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" Mr. Malfoy had just entered the scene...
***************************************************************
Big Boss studied the man closely. He had seen that look in a person's eyes before, the case he remembered best was Volgin.
'This man has a cruelty about him. And a disregard with life that I last saw in a traumatized child soldier. Combine those two and in his own way that man is as dangerous as me, not as capable, but far more erratic and liable to kill.'
That Arthur wasn't intimidated at all said a lot about either the man's courage or his sanity, quite possibly both.
"What is the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?" Lucius put the book back into the Cauldron. Big Boss though he caught some other movement as well, but he hadn't been paying close enough attention. He'd come to regret that later of course, but right now he had other things on his mind.
Big Boss however hadn't been accused of being sane since the start of the sixties.
"That'd depend on if those that define it shame it by merely existing." He fired off. The insult less covered than an average porn star.
"And you are..." He cut Lucius off before he could show off how well informed he was in an attempt to intimidate Big Boss.
At least that was what Big Boss though Lucius had been about to do and Big Boss was a big believer in shooting first.
"Jack, though from what I hear you only know me by the name Big Boss. At least not unless your inquiries have had any more luck since last I heard about them." The look on Lucius's face was priceless, but it only lasted a split second. Whatever else you could say about him he wasn't easily knocked off.
"It appears you live up to your renown then. For a muggle you are quite formidable. Too bad you aren't able to rise above that."
"People who stick too far up have a tendency to catch a bullet on the battlefield so I take that as a compliment."
"Take my advice. Keep taking that attitude around your betters and you will regret it."
"Probably, getting blood out of my clothes is hard. Now could you please move? You are blocking the way." Big Boss said. The translation was 'This conversation is over. Get the hell out of my sight.'
The entire conversation could be translated like that. He had been involved in the politics of Pentagon for years and knew political code, even if this was more simplified due to both wanting to make sure the other guy got the message over the usual flair.
The entire conversation could be summed up to 'Do not meddle in my matters or you will suffer.' With Big Boss's reply being 'Try me.' He was really a man of few words in politics.
"Come Draco." Lucius pushed past them.
"Yeh should be more careful around the Malfoy's. The whole family is rotten to the core." Hagrid coming with Molly and the other kids said.
"For people like that the only limitation for what they'll do is what they think they can get away with. I am just trying to make it clear that with me that isn't much, but I apologize for causing a scene both here and earlier." He turned to Arthur, ever since he saw their vault as well as the prices for books he had been looking for a chance like this.
"To make up for it I insist on paying for the school books."
"I cannot possibly accept that." Arthur said with a frown.
There are two types of corruption. There are outright bribes. Then there are friend and family connections. Big Boss preferred the latter if at all possible. This did straddle the line, but honestly thanks to that Lockhart fraud the school curriculum was obscenely expensive. He liked the Weasleys and if he could help them out and get more friendly with them if he ever needed favours in the future he felt the favours was a bonus.
"I said I insist didn't I? Besides I owe you that much just for the last month or so. I think that is the best summer Harry has had ever." He used friendly words, but the command tone he always used in Foxhound. He'd accept no argument on this.
Still... Lucius was going to be a problem. The only question was 'How soon.'
He had no way of knowing that Lucius had started the problem before Big Boss had opened his mouth.
*End chapter 4*
Chapter 4
*June 1992
The Dursleys were not happy to see him. Nothing new there, the silence in the car was stifling. They had no wish to hear about his year, and he didn't feel like telling them. He had his own worries. Following his last letters Uncle Jack had been oddly silent. No new letters from him apart from a 'Talk to you during summer' note. After that, nothing had arrived. He wondered if Jack was angry at him for trying to save the stone.
As they entered privet drive he noticed the moving lorry. The people next door, not Mrs Figg the crazy cat lady, but on the other side, were moving out.
As they drove up and got out of the car a very familiar person walked up to them.
"Good day new neighbours." The one eyed man said with his characteristic smug little smile. Harry in particular enjoyed watching the blood drain from Vernon's face.
"What are you doing here?!" Vernon blurted out.
"Oh I was getting old and everyone was whining about me having to retire so I figured the better man gave in. And I also remembered this charming neighbourhood my nephew lived in. So using large amounts of cash, you'd be surprised at how much money you get as a colonel when you don't use much and have been drawing hazard and combat pay since the fifties, I convinced the old owners of these house that the much larger house on the other side of town would fit them much better."
Vernon was still white. Harry imagined Vernon could see the property values dropping behind his eyes by the second merely by having his uncle here.
Summer just got a whole lot better than he had expected it to.
*July*
Harry was angry, he wasn't sure exactly with who, it depended on weather uncle Jack was right or not.
He though Harry's magic mail was usually being inspected by the magical government, and since he usually didn't get any magical mail during summer they had just taken vacation without getting a summer replacement. This was going to bite him in the ass when he got back on work and a small mountain of mail was waiting for him.
He hoped Jack was right; the other possibility was that his friends had forgotten completely about him.
At very least the Dursleys were downright tolerable, in between Harry learning magic and Jack practically breathing down their necks they didn't dare do anything to him.
They did their best to pretend he didn't exist, which was far better than usual.
What wasn't too pleasant either was that it was his birthday, and so far he was alone. Jack had told him yesterday that he'd need a few hours to arrange something, but it was still annoying.
He bent down over the bag again. Jack had also said that afterwards they'd go for a trip so it might be smart to pack in advance. Though he hadn't said where they were going.
The Dursley's were downstairs preparing for some business visit, they didn't want Harry present when having it, and they were expecting Jack to pick him up before the visitors arrived.
That was when he became aware he wasn't alone in his room.
He spun around... And saw the small creature.
"Uh... Hello."
*************************************************************
Big Boss approached Number 4 with in a good mood.
It had been a bitch getting hold of his old aide now that he was retired, but he had managed, and she in turn had put him in touch with the Arthur and Molly Weasley. They had been as pleasant as he remembered, and when he had made his suggestion they had upped the ante and made a far better suggestion. Harry was going to like this and it should more than make up for him being missing for most of Harry's birthday.
As he approached he heard the tremendous crash inside combined with Petunia's shriek. Combat reflexes took over, he pulled out his .45 from inside the trench coat and took position just outside the door and listened to steps tuning out backround noise as best he could.
He could hear two adults moving about, one of them unmistakably the heavy steps of Vernon.
He though he could hear two kids.
And for just a fleeting moment he though he heard something else. A noise he couldn't identify with any creature he knew about.
He opened the door slightly and peeked in, then holstered his gun. No threat he could see. At least none in the open and if it was hidden showing he was a threat could be the worst move.
He moved in silently. In fact nobody in the room noticed he was even there.
A letter arrived with owl. Vernon read it and advanced on Harry menacingly.
He decided it was time to make himself known and coughed.
Vernon turned. Face changed from rage to fear.
Only then did Big Boss realize his expression probably looked ready for war.
'Whoops. Well no harm done. It's only Vernon who's scared.'
"Letter please. Remember our deal."
For once Vernon didn’t argue. He had probably been looking ready to kill something.
He read the letter. Noticing that Harry was being accused of underage magic, but he also noticed that it didn't say anywhere in specific that they had identified Harry as being the one who did it.
He looked at the pudding on the floor. He could figure out what had been levitated easily enough, but that didn't fit Harry's behaviour at all. While he could have been changed more by school than he though there was another and far more sinister possibility. After all even harmless tools could be lethal if you knew how to do it.
He had himself killed a few people using only a fork.
Okay, first, get Harry out of here to somewhere safer.
"I'll deal with this. Harry, come with me." His voice was hard, he could see Harry gulp as he followed him.
As soon as he was outside he took his back to Harry and put his hand on the butt of his pistol.
"Harry. Run to my house, don't stop for anything." He could see Harry's puzzlement at his words, but right now getting him clear was more important.
His gaze swept over the area, nothing visible, but given the cloak Harry had told him about and his experiences with the Fear he didn't see that as a guarantee.
Once he was satisfied that Harry was as safe as he could make it he turned to the kid.
"Okay. Now explain to me what happened. As much detail as possible."
***********************************************************
Jack believed him, that was a reassurance. When he saw how Jack looked after Dobby had dropped the pudding he had been scared. He had seen that expression only once before, in the alley they had been attacked.
"So you are sure he was just trying to warn you of something?"
"Well he said so, but he had been stopping my mail. And he did try to get me into trouble."
"Pretty innocent compared to what I feared." Jack admitted. Jack had been somewhat overprotective after the events at the end of the school year.
"He didn't seem evil, but he didn't seem entirely well... There in his brain either."
"Well meaning wackos are more dangerous than sane enemies. If he appears again treat him with extreme caution."
"Yes Uncle Jack" He could hear in his tone that no argument would be accepted right now.
"Well... From bad news to good news: How would you like spending the rest of the summer visiting the Weasleys?"
Jack had the 'I wish I had a camera right now' expression, which given how Harry must have looked was perfectly understandable.
"That was what you were arranging today?"
"Yeah, took longer than expected. I had to reach a top secret mobile base camp somewhere in the middle east to get a hold of my aide who is a Weasley by marriage, arrange for her to put me in touch with the Weasleys up here and then get hold of them. I figured if mail didn't get through I'd get you physically in touch with some of your friends."
He paused for a moment.
"Happy birthday Harry."
That was certainly a big turnabout from the earlier part of the day.
******************************************************************
The Burrow was certainly not like anything he had seen before. He had remembered Cherry describing these Weasleys home as 'unique' though he had not guessed just how unique.
Nor had Harry's letter or Cherry's stories done the Weasley twins any justice, which was why he was examining the sandwich in front of him with an extremely critical eye.
'No unusual smells, doesn't look discoloured, no signs of unexpected ingredients.'
The first day he was here they had noticed he had an uncanny ability to notice when they were trying something, because of that they had made it their goal to prank him thoroughly at least once this summer, despite Molly's wrath.
All his instincts were screaming that they had somehow gone a step up now. Sabotaging food Molly had made since he never fell for the other food they left around.
Yet he couldn't find anything wrong with it.
They were getting sneakier. He had an almost superhuman ability to notice food stuffs that weren't proper food. Regardless of if they used magic or muggle tricks.
He stared at it... He saw some barely imperceptible movement inside the sandwich and reacted. He tossed it up into the air.
He could hear behind him Fred and George start a small "aaaw" That he had caught on to whatever they were trying, but he wasn't done yet.
In a smooth motion he pulled out his custom Colt Army 1911, lots of memories related to that gun, and working the slide as he got it up he flicked of the safety and nailed the sandwich three times in mid air.
The sandwich fell to the ground and the transfigured cheese slice finished its transformation back to a rat. For a moment he was afraid he'd killed Ron's pet rat Scabbers, but thankfully this one had all of its toes.
Molly was recovering from the thundering booms of the gun and turned to Fred and George about to unleash her wrath.
Big Boss again pre-empted them by picking up the very dead rat and taking a bite out of it, and after swallowing it said:
"Not bad, I prefer them grain fed myself, but the forests around here has left it healthy so it's pretty tasty. Sorry about the commotion. It just startled me a bit."
He enjoyed the sight of the twins turning slightly green immensely and continued just to rub it in.
"I prefer snakes though for future reference." Rule number one in the Secret Warrior world: Mess with Big Boss at your own risk. 'Cause he messed back and had more experience.
The days passed quickly, and while Fred and George backed off for a while after seeing how violently he had reacted to the rat they didn't let up. He found that he enjoyed this little game quite a bit. Though Molly had chewed him out after she had recovered from the shock properly, he was absolutely not allowed to use weapons.
He found that the first rule of the Burrow was that Molly Weasley's word was law. DO NOT ANGER HER.
Harry was enjoying himself immensely, that much was clear. He found all aspects of the magical daily life fun, even what the others viewed as chores like degnoming the garden.
Arthur had been a bit annoying the first few days with his almost obsessive interest in anything non-magical, but after that got out of the way he found the cheerful man a gold mine of information about the workings of the Ministry of Magic.
Molly was well, the dictator of the Burrow. No other way to say it. A just and fair dictator sure, but still a dictator. And the first one Big Boss doubted that Foxhound could oust if they tried.
Percy was the outsider, he was really the most normal of the lot and hence in this mad-house the only one sane, which meant he also didn't quite fit in. As Big Boss rarely got on that well with anyone who weren't even slightly insane (Sig-Int from snake eater being a notable exception) he fit in better with the Weasleys than Percy did.
The twins were well... The Twins, Horror of Hogwarts, willing to take on any challenge, even elite spec ops troopers armed to the teeth.
Ron was the runt of the lot, obviously feeling in the shadow of the rest of the family.
Little Ginny was too shy for him to get a good read of except her obvious crush on Harry. Since Big Boss never went far from Harry it meant he didn't notice her much as she was almost deathly afraid to speak around Harry. Still he estimated she'd grow out of it. It was always the quiet ones...
All in all they were a merry bunch of lunatics who were right up Big Boss's alley.
**********************************************************
The day they were going to Diagon Alley to get their school supplies started like most days in the Burrow. Jack came holding his trench coat with a coat hanger very careful not to touch it, put it on a chair and turned to the twins.
"Nice try, now remove the curse."
"How did you..."
"...Notice anything..."
"... Was amiss?" The twins asked.
"Two words: Static electricity." Jack said with that characteristic smile of his.
"Static what?" The twins asked in unison.
"Explanations later, curse removing now. Got it?"
The twins still hadn't managed to prank Jack. He seemed to elevate subtle paranoia to an art form, always vigilant despite not looking it. Frankly Harry had been more curious the last weeks than all the years before. Even the assault attempt hadn't seemed as odd as this consistent ability to dodge The Twins. Not even Dumbledore could do that.
"So. How are we getting to Diagon Alley? I presume we aren't walking." Jack asked.
"By floo of course." Mrs Weasley replied and proceeded to launch into an explanation of it.
Jumping into a fireplace sounded unhealthy to say the least, but none of the other looked worried.
After having seen some of the kids go through he approached the fireplace anxiously, threw the powder in mispronouncing the name.
The store he ended up with was both dark, and very creepy.
'I wouldn't like meeting anyone who would shop at this store.' As if on cue he heard the voices approach.
He got himself out of sight as Draco and an adult which looked a lot like him got into sight. His father?
He listened to their discussion about dark artefacts and Draco's school situation. Draco wasn't planning to move up from git status, that much was clear. That was when the discussion changed subject.
"Speaking of Potter. Have you had any success with the mission I gave you?"
"Yes recently. He appeared in a Muggle newspaper in regards to their so called 'Gulf war', a military man of considerable renown. I don't know his name, but according to the papers he goes by the name his government assigned him. Big Boss. Head of something called Special Operations Foxhound."
Malfoy sneered.
"Any information on what this 'Big Boss' wants with the Potter kid?" Harry didn't know any Big Boss. Did he? Could it be?
"We got a few supposed 'boy who lived' sightings from a few years ago that mention he was in the company of a one eyed man. So he has apparently known Potter for quite some time. He is as far as I can tell remarkably capable for a muggle, but you already knew that didn’t you?"
"Indeed."
He had to ask Jack about this 'Big Boss' thing later.
*****************************************************************
Big Boss was worried. Harry had gone wrong with the floo and he had no idea where he was. He really needed to teach the kid some self defence moves so he wouldn't have to worry so much.
"That floo network of yours could do with some modification. Something like a 'Destination invalid, please restate' function." He said dryly.
"A what?"
"Something us muggles have a tendency to add when we make things that require accurate destinations. If there is no match it would say so and refuse to let you travel until you gave the right destination. It's called a safety feature."
Arthur looked fascinated and opened his mouth, but a quick glare from Molly closed it. She was busy being worried. And unlike Big Boss she didn't hide it.
"How can you be so calm about it?"
"I'm as worried as you are, but losing my head will only lead to mistakes. And I've learned too many times over the course of my job that doing that only gets people killed." Big Boss replied.
"Just what did you do anyway? Cherry was never very clear on that." Arthur asked
"Classified, most of it probably won't get de-classified for at least fifty years. Sorry." Just then he noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Rubeus Hagrid, and next to him came Harry.
"Hey kid. You had us worried for a moment. They really need to do something about that floo thing. Where did you end up?"
"I found him wandering around in knockturn alley. Not a safe place to kids to go alone. Yeh might want to be more careful in the future."
"Oh we will. Thank you Hagrid." He gave him a nod.
As they walked away Harry started speaking.
"Guess who I saw at Borgin and Burkes? Malfoy and his father."
"Where they buying anything?" Arthur asked from behind the kids. Big Boss wondered on why the interest?
"No they were selling. And they were also talking about you Jack."
"What?"
"Well, they called you Big Boss, but they mentioned you had been with me when I got my school things last year."
"How much did they know about me then?"
"Only something from recent newspapers about the Gulf War." Just about nothing then.
"Good. Oh and please. Don't ever call me Big Boss. I was hoping to leave that name behind when I retired."
He caught Molly chiding Arthur behind him about the Malfoy family being trouble and interjected his own two cent.
"If the family is trouble it's paramount that someone take them on and clear them out before they become more trouble. Otherwise they will become even more dangerous. Don't pull your punches or you will regret it. That is years of experience speaking." He in particular remembered an individual there he had initially felt was a likeable kid and let live despite him repeatedly trying to kill him. Thought Ocelot seemed to have some sort of oh... Chronic Backstab Disorder going by now.
Still it also applied to dozens of dictators and terrorists he had neutralized.
"Just what sort of life have you led?" Molly asked after a pause.
"One I wouldn't wish on anyone I actually like." He answered with complete honesty.
The rest of the trip to the Weasley's vault in gringotts happened in complete silence among the adults.
******************************************************************
He'd heard mention of Gilderoy Lockhart in the Burrow, hadn't heard much except he was popular with the girls and that he had supposedly a lot of achievements that went above and beyond
He had no idea they were talking about this... Prettyboy, from what he had heard him do he had expected someone more like Jack, worn and scarred. Obvious marks of having been there, done that.
This guy looked like he just came out of a beauty salon and as if he would scream if someone broke one of his nails.
"Reminds me of Major Raikov or whatever his name was." Jack said from behind him.
They just had to get past without getting noticed. The good thing about this guy was that he drew all the attention from Harry, and he seemed to self absorbed to notice Harry.
Unfortunately seemed was the operative word.
"It can't be Harry Potter!" He exclaimed.
'Oh bugger.'
As the crowd parted and Gilderoy reached for Harry something intercepted the arm. Someone in the crowd gasped.
Jack stood there, his hand having a firm grasp on Gilderoy's arm.
"Do you mind?" Gilderoy looked mildly annoyed.
"Sorry, reflex." Harry knew Jack well enough to realize he was lying, but he wasn't sure what he was lying on as Jack relinquished the pretty-boy's arm.
"Now, What did you want with Harry?" He asked.
"No need to be rude. I just want to borrow Harry here for a picture for the press." Gilderoy replied sounding slightly more annoyed.
Jack turned to Harry.
"You want to end up on the front page kid?"
"Not really." Harry said shaking his head.
"There you have it. Scram." Jack was dismissive. Apparently Lockhart was rubbing him the wrong way.
Lockhart was not one to take such insulting attitude, nor being denied what he wanted so blatantly.
"Now listen here..." Whatever he was going to say was forgotten as Jack met Lockhart's eyes with a stare that Harry could only describe as soul piercing.
"You are a fraud." Jack stated. There was nothing accusatory in the tone. It was simply a fact as far as he saw it. Someone in the crowd gasped again.
"Excuse me?"
"You can't possibly have done what you claim to have. It's in your eyes. They are the eyes of someone who's never really had any hardships, not the eyes of a veteran."
"And you'd be able to tell who's a veteran?" Lockhart said, obviously off balance. As it was it was the wrong words.
"I once killed several soldiers using only a fork, during an escape from a prison, just after a torture session, which was when I lost the eye mind you, so yes. I would have some experience to go on for telling that." Jack said, his voice colder than liquid nitrogen right then. He flipped his eye patch up for a moment showing the empty socket to Lockhart
Harry had somehow figured that Jack had killed people, but this was the first time he had heard him say it out loud.
Lockhart however had paled as white as a sheet. He had obviously never been in the presence of someone as dangerous as Jack.
"Now if you'll excuse us..." Jack motioned for Harry to move. The crowd didn't make a word as they extracted themselves from it and joined back up with Mr Weasley, Ron and Ginny.
"Bet you loved that Potter. Getting all that attention." An all too familiar voice said from behind.
"The fameous Harry Potter can't even go to the bookstore without making a scene." Draco apparently had the self preservation instinct of a drunk frat boy with a chainsaw.
"Leave him alone! He didn't want all that!" First time Ginny had spoken in his presence.
"Potter you've gotten yourself a girlfriend!"
Harry opened his mind to deny it, then decided to copy Jack in that regard. Don't get defensive, counter attack.
"Could you stop being so envious at what I have? It's so annoying." Okay perhaps not the best counter attack ever, but the sheer unexpectedness of the move caught Draco off balance, though Ginny seemed to blush even redder.
Draco tried to sputter out some reply, but was apparently unable to form it through the shock.
"Well, well, well. What have we here?" Mr. Malfoy had just entered the scene...
***************************************************************
Big Boss studied the man closely. He had seen that look in a person's eyes before, the case he remembered best was Volgin.
'This man has a cruelty about him. And a disregard with life that I last saw in a traumatized child soldier. Combine those two and in his own way that man is as dangerous as me, not as capable, but far more erratic and liable to kill.'
That Arthur wasn't intimidated at all said a lot about either the man's courage or his sanity, quite possibly both.
"What is the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?" Lucius put the book back into the Cauldron. Big Boss though he caught some other movement as well, but he hadn't been paying close enough attention. He'd come to regret that later of course, but right now he had other things on his mind.
Big Boss however hadn't been accused of being sane since the start of the sixties.
"That'd depend on if those that define it shame it by merely existing." He fired off. The insult less covered than an average porn star.
"And you are..." He cut Lucius off before he could show off how well informed he was in an attempt to intimidate Big Boss.
At least that was what Big Boss though Lucius had been about to do and Big Boss was a big believer in shooting first.
"Jack, though from what I hear you only know me by the name Big Boss. At least not unless your inquiries have had any more luck since last I heard about them." The look on Lucius's face was priceless, but it only lasted a split second. Whatever else you could say about him he wasn't easily knocked off.
"It appears you live up to your renown then. For a muggle you are quite formidable. Too bad you aren't able to rise above that."
"People who stick too far up have a tendency to catch a bullet on the battlefield so I take that as a compliment."
"Take my advice. Keep taking that attitude around your betters and you will regret it."
"Probably, getting blood out of my clothes is hard. Now could you please move? You are blocking the way." Big Boss said. The translation was 'This conversation is over. Get the hell out of my sight.'
The entire conversation could be translated like that. He had been involved in the politics of Pentagon for years and knew political code, even if this was more simplified due to both wanting to make sure the other guy got the message over the usual flair.
The entire conversation could be summed up to 'Do not meddle in my matters or you will suffer.' With Big Boss's reply being 'Try me.' He was really a man of few words in politics.
"Come Draco." Lucius pushed past them.
"Yeh should be more careful around the Malfoy's. The whole family is rotten to the core." Hagrid coming with Molly and the other kids said.
"For people like that the only limitation for what they'll do is what they think they can get away with. I am just trying to make it clear that with me that isn't much, but I apologize for causing a scene both here and earlier." He turned to Arthur, ever since he saw their vault as well as the prices for books he had been looking for a chance like this.
"To make up for it I insist on paying for the school books."
"I cannot possibly accept that." Arthur said with a frown.
There are two types of corruption. There are outright bribes. Then there are friend and family connections. Big Boss preferred the latter if at all possible. This did straddle the line, but honestly thanks to that Lockhart fraud the school curriculum was obscenely expensive. He liked the Weasleys and if he could help them out and get more friendly with them if he ever needed favours in the future he felt the favours was a bonus.
"I said I insist didn't I? Besides I owe you that much just for the last month or so. I think that is the best summer Harry has had ever." He used friendly words, but the command tone he always used in Foxhound. He'd accept no argument on this.
Still... Lucius was going to be a problem. The only question was 'How soon.'
He had no way of knowing that Lucius had started the problem before Big Boss had opened his mouth.
*End chapter 4*
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
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Awesome. Honestly, awesome. I kinda feel funny, giddy or excited or something. I really hope you write more of this, continue it and all. It's truly awesome!
Come on, a crossover between Metal Gear and Harry Potter! What the hell?! Yet it's done in a really good (at least to me) way.
EDIT:
I want to see everything expounded upon! But you know what? It doesn't matter. I want to see Snake kick everyone's ass! And it'd be awesome if he taught Harry how to break limbs. Oh, oh! Awesome! And it'd be cute if Snake and the Weasley family got along swell. And such.
Goddamn Snake is a hardass. Despite the "how the hell can you crossover both of 'em", turns out Snake is an ideal candidate for crossovering with HP. I mean, he's non-magic but he's been around all sorts of downright weird stuff. And just because he's in the muggle world doesn't mean he's sane.
Oh, and I concur. The only sane person in Snake Eater was Sigint. When Major Zero started rambling about James Bond and snakeguns, right then and there I knew everyone else was batshit nuts.
EDIT2:
I honestly think this is so awesome (halfly because it's so well-written, but the other half because the premise is so ludicrous and unexpected - MGS and Harry Potter, WTF?!) that I am advertising this thread to another forum I go to.
Come on, a crossover between Metal Gear and Harry Potter! What the hell?! Yet it's done in a really good (at least to me) way.
EDIT:
I want to see everything expounded upon! But you know what? It doesn't matter. I want to see Snake kick everyone's ass! And it'd be awesome if he taught Harry how to break limbs. Oh, oh! Awesome! And it'd be cute if Snake and the Weasley family got along swell. And such.
Goddamn Snake is a hardass. Despite the "how the hell can you crossover both of 'em", turns out Snake is an ideal candidate for crossovering with HP. I mean, he's non-magic but he's been around all sorts of downright weird stuff. And just because he's in the muggle world doesn't mean he's sane.
Oh, and I concur. The only sane person in Snake Eater was Sigint. When Major Zero started rambling about James Bond and snakeguns, right then and there I knew everyone else was batshit nuts.
EDIT2:
I honestly think this is so awesome (halfly because it's so well-written, but the other half because the premise is so ludicrous and unexpected - MGS and Harry Potter, WTF?!) that I am advertising this thread to another forum I go to.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
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consequences
- Homicidal Maniac
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Sidewinder
- Sith Acolyte
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I like this story. By the way, are Solid, Liquid, and Solidus Snake making cameos in the later episodes?
I imagine Big Boss give Harry firearms safety and pistol and rifle marksmanship lessons, and teach him how to conceal weapons. Even magic has limitations, and it'll be amusing to see the look on the Malfoys' faces when they learn this lesson. (Maybe you can have Lucius set up a magic nullification field to defend himself, only to be hit by non-magical .45 caliber bullets?)
I imagine Big Boss give Harry firearms safety and pistol and rifle marksmanship lessons, and teach him how to conceal weapons. Even magic has limitations, and it'll be amusing to see the look on the Malfoys' faces when they learn this lesson. (Maybe you can have Lucius set up a magic nullification field to defend himself, only to be hit by non-magical .45 caliber bullets?)
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
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montypython
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
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*froths at the mouth*
MORE!!! MORE!!!! *mutaloids into slugman* BLAAAARRRGGHH!!!! *eats Sidewinder* Ho! Ho! Ho!
MORE!!! MORE!!!! *mutaloids into slugman* BLAAAARRRGGHH!!!! *eats Sidewinder* Ho! Ho! Ho!
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
Hold your horses it's coming! Chapter 5 wasn't finished when I stopped writing so I had to finish it before I could post it. Hence the delay. At any rate: Here it is.
Chapter 5
The train barrier wasn't opening.
"Damnit. Isn't this thing supposed to give way for students?" Jack had been bringing up the rear when they were going through and was thoroughly annoyed to see what he though was another failure of magic.
"How are we going to get through?"
"Right now kid. I'm considering C4."
"What is C4?" Ron asked.
"High powered explosives." Jack replied.
Ron gulped, just imagining what kind of trouble he'd end up in if they blew up the barrier.
"Maybe that isn't such a good idea uncle Jack."
"No, but it'd work."
"So how are we getting to Hogwarts?" Ron was slightly panic.
Jack assessed the situation.
"Well nobody is shooting at us. You can afford to not be at the feast, and they gotta fix it some time. I say we just sit tight for your parents to come out and use that flying car or floo to get you there."
"But what if they don't?!"
"Then I call in a few favors and oh… Maybe just have you two para-dropped from a C-130 straight over school. That should be pretty dramatic, but you know how it is. Use what works."
"Para-dropped?!" Ron asked panicked and unsure what the hell was going on.
Harry noticed this and decided he shouldn't be riled up further..
"I'll tell you later. It's not as bad as it sounds." 'I think.' He added mentally.
Thankfully it didn't get that far. As the train left the barrier went back to normal and the Weasleys managed to get out.
"What happened? We couldn't get through the barrier to check on you." Mrs. Weasley asked.
"It decided to just stop working. We couldn't get through. How are we going to get to school?"
"Well we could..." Mr. Weasley started, but stopped since Molly wouldn't be so keen on it.
"I could call in a C-130 transport plane, have them dropped over the school with only flimsy pieces of cloth slowing their fall and hope they get down okay... OR Mr. Weasley could make use of some charms he put on that car for experimental purposes, in his job knowing what to expect can be vital to get things done so I'm pretty sure he's put some on that car, inactive and only for experimental purposes of course."
Mr Weasley looked very grateful and dreading at the same time.
"Well. Since it is an emergency I don't think we have much choice do we?" Mrs Weasley answered reluctantly, but her glance told Harry that she'd have words with Mr. Weasley later.
"Then let's get moving."
A flying car was something new altogether. Following the train tracks they made it there barely ahead of the train. They got a little close to the whomping willow but managed to avoid hitting it. Jack appeared to have an odd reaction as they closed though.
*******************************************************
It could only be described as a desperate need to be elsewhere. Something he had to do anywhere but here.
As he was in the car it wasn't that strong, but it took everything he had not to reach for the steering wheel and force a turn.
'Psychic compulsion, it's the only thing that fits.' He'd been exposed to it before.
The right state of mind though could fight both that and mind reading. It was hard to describe. It was like you started thinking an alternate path while leaving the regular mind inactive. All the compulsions and reading attempts hit the first inactive layer and got nothing, while you retained full control.
Once he had described it to a geek and he said that it sounded like you switched to the second controller port. Whatever that meant, but it was as good a description as any.
Just calling it 'second controller port' confused the hell out of the enemy too even if it was by now a technique that everyone in foxhound should at least be familiar with even if it was a bitch to learn.
It did however change radically. The ruins right ahead of them turned into a full castle. The need abated, and he was able to think clearly.
"So this is the school Harry goes to?" He asked.
"Yes. This is Hogwarts."
"Place is huge all right. All right kid. You better hurry to the feast and I'll see you later. Take care."
"I will uncle Jack."
The carriages of the students were still arriving.
"So, What are those animals drawing those carriages? I'm not up to par with magical creatures." He asked after studying the beasts for a few seconds.
"You can see them?" Arthur asked in surprise.
"Well yes. Shouldn't I?"
"Only those who have seen and understood death can see Thestrals. And I didn't think muggles could see them anyway" Arthur said in a low voice as to not let the family present hear.
Big Boss considered himself one of the few who truly understood death. Especially death in battle, the time at the river hadn't been the last time Big Boss met the Sorrow, but he could remember every face he had seen during that little detour perfectly.
"Perhaps what I lack in magic I make up for with the death I've seen." He answered since he wanted to avoid having to explain how he was resisting the mind affecting magic surrounding the area.
"Perhaps..." Arthur answered unconvinced.
Big Boss studied the Thestrals closely. He though he had seen a few of these on a battlefield once. In the seventies during the early days of fox hound they had been betrayed as an African nation had decided that the field Foxhound Headquarters was just a big fat target and that they'd make better hostages to get more modern weapons than what covert military aid they could give. They had seriously miscalculated but it left the Fox-hounders behind enemy lines for several days. Just after a fight mid-day in the scathing heat the enemy had assumed would incapacitate the Americans (Again grossly underestimating who they were dealing with) he had looked up and seen a creature much like these. He had blinked and it was gone, he had back then assumed it was his imagination. Now he wondered how many soldiers across the world had seen something like this.
He would try and find out more about this fascinating animal when he got home.
The car caused some spectacle, but nothing that lasted beyond a week or so, and Harry got to school without further incident.
*********************************************************************
So maybe retiring wasn't the best idea he had. He hadn't expected it to be so boring and even lonely.
Right now he was taking apart and cleaning this defence machine gun for the fifth time this week. Without having used it at all in the meantime.
He might have been a tad too paranoid, but he had done some serious rebuilding on the house. The walls were reinforced. Nearly all the windows had artfully concealed machine gun mounts and most of them had machine guns in boxes artfully decorated to be unobtrusive under them. Most of them were 7.62 but there were a couple of bigger 50.cal machine guns too.
That didn't even mention the Claymores he had riddled the area with that could be armed from inside the house.
And the shed back outside was best left unmentioned. If he ever had to make use of that part of the house defences persecution by law for having that sort of firepower was the least of his worries. But when the thing had shown up on an African black market Foxhound had been tasked to shut down he couldn't resist hiding it away for own use later on. And when he got this house he figured he might as well fit it. If he ever fell under heavy air assault it'd come in handy.
He was considering getting some even heavier ordnance having read up on magical creatures. Some of them sounded nasty.
At any rate all that firepower did jack shit to prevent him from being bored out of his skull.
He was considering getting a dog. It would have to be a big and aggressive one to scare away those damn cats from Mrs. Figg that always tried to sneak in here for some reason.
'It's like if someone is asking them to get in here'
He froze. Before he would have discarded the though as overly excessive, but knowing about the magical world that might well be the case. Harry claimed to have once talked to a snake, and then why not cats?
Surely if he was so important in the Wizarding world someone would watch him. And if someone could use cats as spies that'd be much more effective.
But how could he know that it was a bodyguard and not something more sinister? The answer was that he couldn't and should prepare for the worst.
Which meant cat-proofing the house, as insane as it seemed it was the only way to be sure.
At very least it'd give him something to do for a while.
Big Boss VS the Neighbours cats. It seemed lopsided, but he was of the opinion that cats were some of the most sneaky, intelligent and malicious creatures on the face of the planet. Ever since that cat one of his fellow officers had owned had snuck in and peed all over his paperwork for some unknown reason.
Yes he was insanely bored.
'If I'm reincarnated when I die next time I'm not retiring until I die. Preferably in a fight against the currently most dangerous man on earth'
The mail proved slightly more interesting. A routine letter from Harry, it was almost Halloween now and he hoped that no trolls would ruin this one.
There was a letter Cherry had forwarded to him. The progress report on the girl's deprogramming. Apparently they considered themselves almost finished in finding and neutralizing hidden triggers in her mind, but they were expressing worries about what to do with her afterwards. Her skills were far too lethal to just let go when she also had a rather ruthless disposition.
Frankly Big Boss hadn't been thinking that far ahead when he saved her, and wondered what they would settle on, he was glad that decision was out of his hands now.
The last letter was from a floo installer. They had agreed to have his house added to the floo Network and would be coming by shortly. That'd make things easier, though he'd have to set up some security measures around his fireplace.
Ah well at least it was something to do.
************************************************************
The days passed almost reluctantly it seemed. Halloween came, and the day afterwards he got the first of several very unnerving letters he'd get that year. Though it was by far the least unnerving one of them, there had been an attack on Hogwarts and a cat was petrified.
He wrote it off as a prank-gone-wrong in his mind and didn't worry about it for a while.
It was only much later after Harry's first Quidditch match he really went off the wall.
To summarize, Harry was hospitalized for a night due to teacher incompetence and Bludger sabotage. The House elf from last time admitted to the sabotage to keep him away from the horrible thing that supposedly was happening at Hogwarts.
Now that would be bad enough without the attack on the boy outside of the medical wing. Harry had been in it at the time and hence was the likely actual target.
Now, Big Boss had lost just about everyone he ever loved through his life, which meant that the few people he cared about still he were fiercely protective of. This did mean that he would not stand by and let the school get rampaged by some assailant while Harry was in the middle.
With a determination he hadn't had in months he stood up and headed towards the fireplace stopping only to pick up extra magazines for his pistol. Never hurt to be prepared.
He reached for the Floo powder. It was time to pay Hogwarts a visit.
********************************************************
The room was almost entirely bare. The resident of it didn't own much and was considered too dangerous to be allowed to go out and get more. She had virtually no family, friends or barely even acquaintances left alive. By all rights she too should be dead. She had been cut off by rapid enemy advance. Everyone else in her unit dead, she herself wounded, but her 'programming', for lack of better words wouldn't let her surrender. She had attempted a last ditch attack on a high profile enemy commander that had entered the survey the area. A Colonel who led what was universally regarded as the most capable spec-ops team on the planet.
She had failed, the commander had been more capable than expected, and because her rifle had been destroyed she had been forced to engage at short range. In which she had no chance of victory.
Yet she had been spared. The old man she had been trying to kill hadn't returned the favour. He had taken her away from the battlefield, and taken her here, where she could be safely de-programmed.
Marvels beyond what she had stopped believing were possible: Plentiful food, comfortable bed, safety. Hell she even got a shower.
Now after almost a year of hypnotherapy, psychologists asking dumb questions, and everything else needed to find and neutralize the programming that made her a near robotic killer that programming was gone.
Oh she was still a killer. Still put little value on life, still would kill for a bad word. She was still a man-made sociopath. And unfortunately the psychologists were rapidly all reaching the same conclusion. They couldn't really help her much more. She was resisting too much now. Not willing to talk or let herself be put under other processes. They could drug her up for about 24/7, but they feared what would happen if her benefactor ever found out.
She glanced at the sole decoration again. A group picture of Foxhound, the image itself was officially classified to the nth degree, but it was a gift that nobody had been willing to attempt to take from her. Both because she'd probably hunt down and kill them and because of who had given it.
She didn't know what he was called. In the orders she had been given then he had just been referred to as "The Foxhound commander" and a few times in hushed voices "The Legendary Soldier."
She had her own name for him though. The hero who had saved her from hell, the only person since her parents who had cared enough to put his own life at risk (if only slightly given her state when she attacked him) to help her.
"Saladin." Wolf whispered under her breath.
************************************************************
"Look. I just want to find the head master to have a little chat with him." Big Boss repeated yet again to the teacher he was beginning to think that Harry had been all too right to refer to as a 'Greasy Git'.
Severus Snape, potions teacher of Hogwarts and all around greaseball.
"And I assure you he won't have time for a mere muggle anytime soon."
"Then he'll have to make time." Big boss replied annoyed.
"You do appear to be related to Potter yes. The same arrogance as he has." Snape answered apparently feeling confident he'd be able to chase away this muggle that had somehow entered the school.
"Excuse me? I heard this was a school and not a set of personal fiefdoms with wannabe dictators pretending to be teachers for tax purposes. He's the headmaster and it's in his job description to soothe the irrational fears of families of the students." How the hell did this idiot get to be a teacher? That was when he felt it. The prickling in his head that told of mental invasion in progress. He was annoyed with Snape so he decided to be a bit brutal. He pulled up one of his more recent horrible memories and completely totally on it forcing for an instant Snape to see it too.
A kurd village, burned to the ground. The population massacred one by one. Signs of horrible depravations everywhere, the massacres had happened several days ago and by now the corpses were well and truly rotting under the hot Middle Eastern sun.
And the hatred, the burning hatred that Big Boss felt then, against everyone responsible. The hatred that felt like it could eat through a main battle tank like it would flare up and consume everything in an all destroying fire.
If it was scary to look at from the outside it was even worse from the inside.
Snape recoiled back in shock as Big Boss slammed his mental defences shut.
"Next time stay out of my head. Don't lecture people about arrogance when you dig into people's minds at a whim." Big Boss answered coolly. He resolved to find out if he did this to students too. And if so put an end to it. By rough means if he had to.
Snape didn't answer. He had the look of someone who had seen a lot of horrible things in his life, but nothing that compared to what Big Boss had just showed him.
"Now you will show me to the Headmaster. Right this very moment." Cold, calm, but definitely the command voice, no arguing accepted.
Snape was in no shape to protest either.
"Cotton candy" Snape muttered and the gargoyle moved aside.
Dumbledore had known they were coming. There was no other way to explain how he sat waiting for them to enter as they arrived.
"Ah. Harry Potter's illustrious uncle Jack. We've heard a lot about you."
'From whom?' Big Boss wondered.
"You seem to have made young Potter into quite the ghost from what we've seen."
"As much as I'd like to talk about my favourite relative I'm not here as a social call. Your school security is inadequate."
He raised an eyebrow in amusement, Big Boss suspected it was feigned, but damn this headmaster was hard to read.
"Oh. And what makes you say that?"
"Just the fact that random students appear to be petrified at inconvenient times." Big Boss replied.
"Ah. You know how easily stories get exaggerated." Dumbledore replied. He obviously didn't want Big Boss prying for some reason, but Big Boss wasn't about to stop.
"Yes and if you know the story teller well enough you can guess how much roughly is exaggeration and how much is fact. Fact is that Harry got attacked by a sabotaged piece of school equipment and was only luck that he survived. If he had say, broken a few ribs that rookie you hired as a Defence teacher would probably have killed him,
"Now after that we have the fact that the student that was petrified was right outside the hospital wing where Harry was, which implies to me that whatever it is was going for Harry given that he was near the first attack too."
"Surely you aren't being a touch too paranoid now?" Snape had recovered finally and was trying to become his sneering self again.
"No, excessively paranoid is when you think the neighbours cats are trying to spy on you. This is a reasoned guess. There were murder attempts on him last year after all. If this is repeating every year I might convince his guardians to send him to another magical school. I hear there's a nice one in France."
Dumbledore looked at him again. He felt the telltale prickling of the mind reading, but his defences were solid, he though he had caught a flicker of astonishment on the headmaster's face, but he couldn't be certain.
"Hogwarts is the best wizarding school in the world." He stated simply.
"I'd rather see him live to graduate than be the most powerful wizard he can be. And right now this school's track record isn't too good."
"If he doesn't become the most powerful wizard he can be as you put it then he probably won't live long beyond graduation." Dumbledore said with a surety that worried Big Boss.
"Power alone is worthless. Common sense is a lot more valuable. And right now I get the impression there is a distinct shortage of that here. You could at least do a serious effort to track it down."
"And I supposed you know how to do that?" Snape said derisively. Whatever reply the greaseball was expecting a conscending glance saying 'Is it even possible to be that stupid naturally?' from Big Boss wasn't it.
"Of course, search and destroy is a common mission I've undertaken. You got the floor plans of the castle? It shouldn't take much more than a week to have the entire castle searched stone by stone." Snape's face was worth seeing. He wished he had brought a camera. So many expressions he wished to remember so little attention he could afford to pay.
"That won't be necessary." Dumbledore intervened.
"We are already doing everything we can to catch the perpetrator and expect to find him shortly. So your aid however skilled it might be is not needed. We do however appreciate the offer."
He got the distinct impression that Dumbledore didn't trust him. Maybe he was prejudiced against muggles and muggle methods. Or perhaps he though that he was too dangerous to be around Harry, whatever it was, it meant that the headmaster was unlikely to accept his help.
'Whose idea was it to give headmasters massive government influence?' He wondered. He never really liked school teachers that much.
Right, plan B then. He just needed to figure out what plan B was. Not to worry, he did some of his best thinking on his feet.
******************************************************************
Harry hated defence against the Dark arts, primarily because of the teacher.
"Honestly Harry. He's not that bad." Hermione said, but she was starting to lose a bit of her conviction regarding Lockhart.
"He's a fraud Hermione." Harry said. He hadn't been entirely sure he believed Jack's statement back at the bookstore, after all how much could a muggle even one like Jack know about DADA? But after a few classes he had been convinced that Jack indeed could tell exactly what kind of person you were just from the eyes, at least in a limited sense.
That or Jack had read the books and decided to show off after realising Lockhart couldn't do what he did. Right now he gave both even odds.
"He is not. He is just rusty... Or something..." Grasping at straws but unable to admit error Hermione argued on.
"Rusted to dust then." Came out of nowhere from the shadows. With a gasp the trio spun around and finally noticed Jack who had apparently been waiting there for a few minutes.
"Where did you come from!?" Ron exclaimed more startled than the rest.
"That's not really relevant right now. I just need a minute. Harry just exactly what happened, as detailed as possibly, everything unusual."
Harry did. He explained about the Halloween, how Dobby had appeared after the bludger attack. How they had found Colin outside the hospital wing clutching his broken camera. Even about the voices he had been hearing.
Jack stood absorbing it for a few moments. Considering things for what he should do next.
"This is nothing within my experience at least. But I am pretty sure that the voices are somehow connected with the attacks. Keep your eyes open and your reflexes sharp. This can get very nasty. And if they do, use this."
He handed him what appeared to be some sort of weapon.
"This is a modified M9. It carries tranq darts instead of bullets. It has much less power than a normal pistol so it needs to be reloaded after each shot. The suppressor makes it completely silent. This is not a toy so do not under any circumstances use it for pranks."
Harry looked at the gun and the two spare magazines Jack gave him.
Jack was putting a lot of trust in him he knew. Handing him a weapon, even if supposedly non-lethal, to use unsupervised. He had gotten to shoot a bit in the last years, low calibre pistols in very controlled circumstances.
"I won't."
"Good. Now if there is anything you need that could help resolve this situation just owl me. I still have a lot of connection and can manage to procure a lot of equipment. And it'd be wise not to underestimate what us muggles have come up with over the years."
"You can't give Harry a weapon. We should let the teachers handle this." Hermione interjected.
"Kid. I had quite a few good teachers when I went to school, but I wouldn't trust them to cover my back in a fire fight. They are teachers first and if they got any useful skills I think a lot of them have let them deteriorate too much. So I need to find alternate means to help out."
Harry was still looking at the M9 in his hand, but then hid it inside his robes.
"Uncle Jack. Do you really think they are after me?" Jack nodded.
"There's a fair chance yes. And I'm not one for taking chances. You better hurry along now or you'll be late for potions." Jack seemed to fade away into the shadows and was gone.
"How can he do that!?" Ron exclaimed.
"It's not hard. Just mind where the lightening is and move the right way." Harry said.
"So that's how you could disappear at will like that last year. Your uncle taught you how to sneak around." Hermione stated. Even before he got the cloak it had been noted that Harry when alone was not easy to find.
"Jack figured that if the Dursley's didn't want to see me they wouldn't have to. And he said it gave me a way to get back at them if I ever wanted to." Harry answered.
"And you never told me? Blimey Harry think of what we could do to Snape with that?" Ron answered.
"You won't prank Professor Snape with that!" Hermione replied.
The argument about the morality of pranking potions professors continued up until they got to the classroom.
******************************************************************
Time went by. Big Boss felt like he was on the verge of insanity.
Sure he got a dog now, in typical Big Boss fashion he'd gone to some extremes getting a rather weird crossbreed. It was half wolf, one fourth German Shepherd and one fourth Collie. Not legal, but he didn't really care.
The good news was that thanks to the dog he knew the rest of the neighbourhood slightly better. And he knew for instance that the Dursleys weren't as liked as they liked to think.
If they ever truly realized it they'd probably commit suicide, but the rest of the street saw them as weird. Their son a spoiled bully and they really didn't know anything about Harry except that he supposedly made trouble and was in a school for incurably criminal boys. The general consensus was that Vernon honestly didn't care if Harry was criminal or not. Just that it was the cheapest school they could find and they didn't want the boy in their sight more often than they had to. Which in turn the neighbours expected would turn the boy into a criminal irregardless of what he was before due to the Dursley's lack of common sense.
That was good to know that the Dursleys weren't average civvies and instead a few notches below.
It was odd what people you met while walking your dog casually mentioned about their neighbours, and Big Boss despite his grizzly appearance had an ability to inspire confidence and trust that helped even more.
Even so while he was friendly with the neighbours he didn't really click with them. They just had led too different lives to really understand each other.
But so far retirement really wasn't agreeing with him.
The dog was next to his chair, despite being one hell of an aggressive son of a bitch when it wanted to it was remarkably lazy whenever it got the chance and nothing else happened that it felt needed to be done. Like attacking a cat or convincing a kid that it was just another friendly dog to pet and not a vicious half breed whose ancestors probably ate babies at some point.
The regular mail looked as boring as ever. The first two were bills, then a bank statement. But when he got to the fourth letter he got something to break the monotony. It was a letter from Cherry Weasley. He opened the letter finding a plane ticket inside.
'What the hell is she playing at now?'
If he was to guess it was that she was a poor liar (even with written words) and was afraid he'd not bother to come along with whatever she wanted if he knew.
Of course there's the fact that with nothing to do and a normal sense of curiosity the plane tickets were remarkably appealing.
There was the issue of whatever was going on at the school, but according to the date the plane left in two weeks. Plenty of time for the tool he was waiting for to arrive so he could send it to Hogwarts.
Now he just hoped he had taught Harry enough that he'd employ it correctly.
*************************************************************
"Do we have any other suspects than Draco?"
"About half of slytherin" Ron replied to Harry's question.
Harry was taking this a lot more personal than he should probably, but after what Jack said he wanted to ensure it got taken down before more people were hurt. If it was after him it should stay between him and it. No innocent bystanders caught in the middle.
They'd need over a month to get ready though. The Polyjuice wouldn't be ready until then at least.
"Ron be realistic. Slytherin aren't all evil." Hermione said.
"They aren't?"
Harry ignored them. Hedwig was arriving and looking really tired carrying that large package.
He took the note.
'Harry, I figure you'll try to find out what is going on yourself. I have severe doubts I could stop you if I tried. So instead I'll just help out as best I can. This gadget has been charmed a bit with the help of Arthur (He owed me one) so the scant electronics in it will work properly there. And its minimal magic signature even with that should allow it to be more unnoticed than most means of listening in on conversations on Hogwarts.
Just don't abuse the capabilities it gives you too much okay?
Jack'
He took off the wrapper. He had been shown one of these before. It was a directional microphone ready for use.
Harry put it on testing it.
He picked up snippets from the Ravenclaw table, some girls talking about how cute Cedric Diggory was, a conversation from the Slytherin table on what the 'golden boy of Gryffindor' had gotten now (they had no idea), but the really interesting part came from the teachers table.
"So his other uncle decides to pander Potter even more. Why am I not surprised?" Snape of course.
"It is more for the boy's safety, he doubts our ability to protect Harry and given that he can't be there he tries to give the boy some things that can help him."
"It is going too far when he hands him muggle weapons. I want to confiscate the weapon he gave Potter when he visited. Potter is far too reckless to be entrusted with anything like that."
They knew about the pistol? And hadn't taken it yet?
"Harry has been remarkably mature with it. No misuse yet. The boy worries a lot on how his uncle thinks of him and would go far to avoid disappointing him.. That sort of respect can be dangerous. Especially when it is to someone as dangerous as this Big Boss fellow, he has a lot more influence over Harry than I am comfortable with."
Despite it being a whispered conversation Harry could hear it as well as if he was standing there. This microphone was good.
"Potter has been pointing that thing at us for quite some time. It might be some sort of weapon."
"No it isn't, but it could be a surveillance device. So we will have to talk later."
Just as it started getting the interesting bits,
"Harry what is that?"
"I'll tell you back to the common room. Don't want to say it when there's this many people around."
And right now his head was swimming as he tried understanding all the ramifications of what he had just heard.
*******************************************************************
Big Boss stepped off the plane as the hot and dry air hit him.
'Welcome to the middle east. Please don't tease the camels.' He though to himself.
The guy who was supposed to meet him was easy to pick out. The young kid in uniform that snapped much too eagerly at attention when he saw him.
"It's an honour to meet you sir." He said quickly.
"Drop the sir, I'm retired. So why am I being flown all the way down here?"
"Sorry Sir, I mean Mister, but I've been specifically ordered not to tell you whatever I might have guessed or gathered."
Yup, it was bad whatever it was.
The drive was spent mostly in silence. As they entered the army base and approached their destination he finally recognized it.
'Why'd they want me here? Unless... Ah shit.'
"Welcome Colonel. We've been expecting you."
There were three people there. Cherry Weasley, Colonel Campbell his replacement and some guy in a white coat he didn't recognize.
"I presume this is about the girl?" Big Boss asked.
"Yes. We got a problem with her that we think only you can help with."
'Run Big Boss run.'
His Paranoia listed all scenarios. He made the plans for the worst he could come up with first.
'If this tries to turn into a cheap porno flick I'm grabbing a weapon and shooting my way out.'
Yup being alone in retirement had really screwed with his head he reflected.
"Basically we've gotten the patient's subconscious triggers and overt programming fully neutralized, but re-socialising her isn't proving too easy. She has severe issues with positive emotional attachments."
"In English please." Big Boss demanded.
"She has her own mind again, but she's got trust issues. She can hate just fine thought." Cherry replied.
"Right, and I'm supposed to do what to help this?" Big Boss asked as he as subtly looked around for decent weaponry.
He noticed that the office they were entering had a TV set up with what was apparently the security feed from Wolf's room.
She was just staring at her ceiling apparently bored in the extreme.
"Well... We need to get her able to function in a modern society. She's too young for Foxhound after all even if she got the skills." Campbell stated.
He should perhaps not mention that his initial plan had been to train her specifically with that in mind so as soon as she was old enough she'd become a Foxhounder. It didn't seem like anyone in the room would appreciate the idea though.
"So put her with a foster family."
"Think it through colonel. She's got problems with trust. She's a top trained killer and she thinks violence is an acceptable answer to a problem." Cherry said.
'Sounds kind of like me then.'
"So basically... You need someone who can either reign in her killing or who has her trust..." Big Boss said dreading where this was heading.
'Screw shooting my way out. I'll only need one round to get out of this.'
"Yes. Or someone who can do both. And frankly there's only one person alive who can take this on."
"Oh hell no! I'm not qualified to take care of a teen girl. I got zero experience in parenting and she'd likely grab a Dragunov and start blowing people's heads off within a week."
"Don't tell me you got one lying around in the house." Cherry said on some level already knowing the answer.
"Okay. I won't. Anyway, I'm a battle hardened soldier with likely a few traumas that snuck by undetected. And I'm supposed to watch over a young girl who can only be called damaged who I saw shoot the eye out of a soldier at six hundred meters with a rifle."
"Boss. She adores you. You should hear her growl if you try to take that picture you gave her. I swear when they demonstrated she was about to try and rip his arm off. She'll listen to you. And you really aren't doing too bad a job with Harry are you?"
"That's different. I'm not his guardian." Big Boss protested.
"You could have fooled me. This summer you about were. His real guardians don't do anything for him and it's a miracle he hasn't just gone on a shooting incident. I'm laying the credit for that solely on you by the way. Think of this as a promotion with more challenge and responsibility."
"Colonel. If you don't accept this, nobody can. She'll probably spend the rest of her life in institutions and on medication. She will never have a chance at a normal life." The doctor chimed in.
'Like I got any idea what a normal life is.'
"Jack..." Okay she was about to apply her finisher. She never called him Jack.
"...At least talk to her before you make your decision. Know what kind of person you are dealing with."
'Leave it to her to throw that in my face. The need to know who you are dealing with.'
"All right I'll talk to her at least, but no guarantees beyond that."
******************************************************
Something was up. The last few days she had far more visitors than usual. In general they seemed to just be there to meet her, they didn't ask her any questions or give her any statements or orders.
While she appeared to be bored she was actually intently listening. Waiting for something to happen, for them to decide that she wasn't worth the bother and just kill her like a stray dog they didn't want to feed anymore, for them to find something else to do with her.
Everyone who visited had been so serious. Whatever was up couldn't be good. The Americans couldn't be trusted. They had betrayed the kurds repeatedly and from what she had read while in this institution they were far from the only ones. While Saladin was an American she considered him that in name only. He was something more.
She heard footsteps. They were odd. There was a... Sense of purpose or determination about one of them and the other sounded like a guard.
It was probably an officer or even just another soldier. Alone, so perhaps just a quick into shoot her and then leave. Or perhaps escort her outside as to not dirty up the room.
They had been nothing but nice to her yet, but she couldn't get herself to believe it wasn't an act. And when they decided she wasn't worth it anymore they would come for her.
She had picked up snippets. Saladin or Big Boss as she had figured out he was called had retired (Probably forced into it). That meant she had no protector in the military anymore. She was living on borrowed time.
Well when the time came she'd die on her feet. She braced herself for quick move as she heard the footsteps stop outside the door
Then the door opened and in surprise she forgot all about her fear for a moment.
"Saladin." She said.
*********************************************************************
It was surprising really. He recognized the signs, the tensed muscles. The too-casual sitting pose, that sort of things. She had been ready to leap up for a fight.
Yet the moment she recognized him she relaxed immediately. She felt safe in his presence. She went back to her usual calm.
'That's not really that smart. I only spared her because I thought she could be useful and it wasn't difficult to stop her. I'm perhaps the biggest threat to her safety in this entire base.'
Yet as he looked over the room and saw how bare it was. The sole picture on her wall was of him and Foxhound. He had given her that to kick start her recovery, not to have her obsess over it.
'Then again, looking back this was in the reports. I just didn't read them carefully enough.'
For all their opinion that she was recovering they still kept her in her room, and her odd behaviour meant she didn't bond well with any staff. She was basically kept isolated from that sort of influence and had nothing else to focus on. She had an almost unhealthy respect and indeed adoration as well for him. For that he considered that perhaps he should stay away to avoid making it worse.
Her eyes... There was a coldness in there the kind of cool personality of someone who was a casual killer, but the killer wasn't alone in there. There was a scared, lonely young girl in there too. That made for a really bad combination to tackle normal society. She'd need to be able to feel at least mostly safe for her not to end up with a body count by the end of the month.
She was a young desperate girl, and frankly outside of a battlefield she had little chance of ever managing.
And right now he couldn't in good conscience condemn her to that. Not when it wasn't war critical.
'I'm the biggest threat to her, but I'm also just about her only hope. If there is a God he loves irony.'
"Hello Wolf." He said finally trying to appear as friendly as he could.
"I hear they can't help you here anymore. So I'm here to take you..." He hesitated at the word, like saying it was the point of no return.
"...Home."
*******************************************************************
Christmas was upon them. Harry had seriously considered going home this time, but had elected not to. They needed to find out if Malfoy was involved or not.
At the start of the brewing he'd thought it was a fun idea, by now he was tired of everything named polyjuice. He was seriously beginning to wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to try to use muggle methods of disguise. Jack had told him some stories of what that could achieve.
And now Hermione refused to come out of the bathroom he was on the verge of cursing everything magic. Did she think they were idiots? Perhaps it was just the years he had known Jack, but right now if something was wrong they had to deal with it immediately before it got worse.
"Come on out Hermione. We won't move before you get out."
"But then the Polyjuice potion will stop working!" She exclaimed from the inside.
"That's a risk we'll just have to take. If something went wrong it could be really bad for you." He thought he had read once that wrongly made polyjuice potion could turn you inside out, but he wasn't certain.
The door opened. It wasn't quite as bad as he had feared, not to say it was good either.
"She must have had a cat. The polyjuice potion isn't meant to be used with animals."
He resisted the urge to use one of the more colourful expressions he had picked up from Jack.
"This isn't good. What do we do Harry?" Ron asked.
The mission or the team-mate, it's an ancient dilemma. Which do you risk to save the other? It's never easy, but it varies how crucial it is. You took into account what was at stake, how much it'd jeopardize the mission and if you would get another chance.
The Polyjuice potion had taken months to brew, they would not get another chance before the year was over.
On the other hand they had no idea what would happen to Hermione. Would she be part animal forever? Would she reverse normally or would it get worse?
However, the polyjuice potion wasn't the only weapon in the arsenal. He made his call.
"We're aborting Ron. Let's get Hermione to the hospital wing."
"What?! After all this work?" She protested despite her condition.
"We'll find another way in. This isn't worth risking your health over." Harry stated confidently, thought inwardly he wasn't sure.
He knew he was good, but he had never tried to sneak into a common room before. And who knew how long he'd have to hide until Malfoy said something useful if he got in?
He'd have to improvise. Right now they'd take care of Hermione weather she let them or not.
*End chapter*
Chapter 5
The train barrier wasn't opening.
"Damnit. Isn't this thing supposed to give way for students?" Jack had been bringing up the rear when they were going through and was thoroughly annoyed to see what he though was another failure of magic.
"How are we going to get through?"
"Right now kid. I'm considering C4."
"What is C4?" Ron asked.
"High powered explosives." Jack replied.
Ron gulped, just imagining what kind of trouble he'd end up in if they blew up the barrier.
"Maybe that isn't such a good idea uncle Jack."
"No, but it'd work."
"So how are we getting to Hogwarts?" Ron was slightly panic.
Jack assessed the situation.
"Well nobody is shooting at us. You can afford to not be at the feast, and they gotta fix it some time. I say we just sit tight for your parents to come out and use that flying car or floo to get you there."
"But what if they don't?!"
"Then I call in a few favors and oh… Maybe just have you two para-dropped from a C-130 straight over school. That should be pretty dramatic, but you know how it is. Use what works."
"Para-dropped?!" Ron asked panicked and unsure what the hell was going on.
Harry noticed this and decided he shouldn't be riled up further..
"I'll tell you later. It's not as bad as it sounds." 'I think.' He added mentally.
Thankfully it didn't get that far. As the train left the barrier went back to normal and the Weasleys managed to get out.
"What happened? We couldn't get through the barrier to check on you." Mrs. Weasley asked.
"It decided to just stop working. We couldn't get through. How are we going to get to school?"
"Well we could..." Mr. Weasley started, but stopped since Molly wouldn't be so keen on it.
"I could call in a C-130 transport plane, have them dropped over the school with only flimsy pieces of cloth slowing their fall and hope they get down okay... OR Mr. Weasley could make use of some charms he put on that car for experimental purposes, in his job knowing what to expect can be vital to get things done so I'm pretty sure he's put some on that car, inactive and only for experimental purposes of course."
Mr Weasley looked very grateful and dreading at the same time.
"Well. Since it is an emergency I don't think we have much choice do we?" Mrs Weasley answered reluctantly, but her glance told Harry that she'd have words with Mr. Weasley later.
"Then let's get moving."
A flying car was something new altogether. Following the train tracks they made it there barely ahead of the train. They got a little close to the whomping willow but managed to avoid hitting it. Jack appeared to have an odd reaction as they closed though.
*******************************************************
It could only be described as a desperate need to be elsewhere. Something he had to do anywhere but here.
As he was in the car it wasn't that strong, but it took everything he had not to reach for the steering wheel and force a turn.
'Psychic compulsion, it's the only thing that fits.' He'd been exposed to it before.
The right state of mind though could fight both that and mind reading. It was hard to describe. It was like you started thinking an alternate path while leaving the regular mind inactive. All the compulsions and reading attempts hit the first inactive layer and got nothing, while you retained full control.
Once he had described it to a geek and he said that it sounded like you switched to the second controller port. Whatever that meant, but it was as good a description as any.
Just calling it 'second controller port' confused the hell out of the enemy too even if it was by now a technique that everyone in foxhound should at least be familiar with even if it was a bitch to learn.
It did however change radically. The ruins right ahead of them turned into a full castle. The need abated, and he was able to think clearly.
"So this is the school Harry goes to?" He asked.
"Yes. This is Hogwarts."
"Place is huge all right. All right kid. You better hurry to the feast and I'll see you later. Take care."
"I will uncle Jack."
The carriages of the students were still arriving.
"So, What are those animals drawing those carriages? I'm not up to par with magical creatures." He asked after studying the beasts for a few seconds.
"You can see them?" Arthur asked in surprise.
"Well yes. Shouldn't I?"
"Only those who have seen and understood death can see Thestrals. And I didn't think muggles could see them anyway" Arthur said in a low voice as to not let the family present hear.
Big Boss considered himself one of the few who truly understood death. Especially death in battle, the time at the river hadn't been the last time Big Boss met the Sorrow, but he could remember every face he had seen during that little detour perfectly.
"Perhaps what I lack in magic I make up for with the death I've seen." He answered since he wanted to avoid having to explain how he was resisting the mind affecting magic surrounding the area.
"Perhaps..." Arthur answered unconvinced.
Big Boss studied the Thestrals closely. He though he had seen a few of these on a battlefield once. In the seventies during the early days of fox hound they had been betrayed as an African nation had decided that the field Foxhound Headquarters was just a big fat target and that they'd make better hostages to get more modern weapons than what covert military aid they could give. They had seriously miscalculated but it left the Fox-hounders behind enemy lines for several days. Just after a fight mid-day in the scathing heat the enemy had assumed would incapacitate the Americans (Again grossly underestimating who they were dealing with) he had looked up and seen a creature much like these. He had blinked and it was gone, he had back then assumed it was his imagination. Now he wondered how many soldiers across the world had seen something like this.
He would try and find out more about this fascinating animal when he got home.
The car caused some spectacle, but nothing that lasted beyond a week or so, and Harry got to school without further incident.
*********************************************************************
So maybe retiring wasn't the best idea he had. He hadn't expected it to be so boring and even lonely.
Right now he was taking apart and cleaning this defence machine gun for the fifth time this week. Without having used it at all in the meantime.
He might have been a tad too paranoid, but he had done some serious rebuilding on the house. The walls were reinforced. Nearly all the windows had artfully concealed machine gun mounts and most of them had machine guns in boxes artfully decorated to be unobtrusive under them. Most of them were 7.62 but there were a couple of bigger 50.cal machine guns too.
That didn't even mention the Claymores he had riddled the area with that could be armed from inside the house.
And the shed back outside was best left unmentioned. If he ever had to make use of that part of the house defences persecution by law for having that sort of firepower was the least of his worries. But when the thing had shown up on an African black market Foxhound had been tasked to shut down he couldn't resist hiding it away for own use later on. And when he got this house he figured he might as well fit it. If he ever fell under heavy air assault it'd come in handy.
He was considering getting some even heavier ordnance having read up on magical creatures. Some of them sounded nasty.
At any rate all that firepower did jack shit to prevent him from being bored out of his skull.
He was considering getting a dog. It would have to be a big and aggressive one to scare away those damn cats from Mrs. Figg that always tried to sneak in here for some reason.
'It's like if someone is asking them to get in here'
He froze. Before he would have discarded the though as overly excessive, but knowing about the magical world that might well be the case. Harry claimed to have once talked to a snake, and then why not cats?
Surely if he was so important in the Wizarding world someone would watch him. And if someone could use cats as spies that'd be much more effective.
But how could he know that it was a bodyguard and not something more sinister? The answer was that he couldn't and should prepare for the worst.
Which meant cat-proofing the house, as insane as it seemed it was the only way to be sure.
At very least it'd give him something to do for a while.
Big Boss VS the Neighbours cats. It seemed lopsided, but he was of the opinion that cats were some of the most sneaky, intelligent and malicious creatures on the face of the planet. Ever since that cat one of his fellow officers had owned had snuck in and peed all over his paperwork for some unknown reason.
Yes he was insanely bored.
'If I'm reincarnated when I die next time I'm not retiring until I die. Preferably in a fight against the currently most dangerous man on earth'
The mail proved slightly more interesting. A routine letter from Harry, it was almost Halloween now and he hoped that no trolls would ruin this one.
There was a letter Cherry had forwarded to him. The progress report on the girl's deprogramming. Apparently they considered themselves almost finished in finding and neutralizing hidden triggers in her mind, but they were expressing worries about what to do with her afterwards. Her skills were far too lethal to just let go when she also had a rather ruthless disposition.
Frankly Big Boss hadn't been thinking that far ahead when he saved her, and wondered what they would settle on, he was glad that decision was out of his hands now.
The last letter was from a floo installer. They had agreed to have his house added to the floo Network and would be coming by shortly. That'd make things easier, though he'd have to set up some security measures around his fireplace.
Ah well at least it was something to do.
************************************************************
The days passed almost reluctantly it seemed. Halloween came, and the day afterwards he got the first of several very unnerving letters he'd get that year. Though it was by far the least unnerving one of them, there had been an attack on Hogwarts and a cat was petrified.
He wrote it off as a prank-gone-wrong in his mind and didn't worry about it for a while.
It was only much later after Harry's first Quidditch match he really went off the wall.
To summarize, Harry was hospitalized for a night due to teacher incompetence and Bludger sabotage. The House elf from last time admitted to the sabotage to keep him away from the horrible thing that supposedly was happening at Hogwarts.
Now that would be bad enough without the attack on the boy outside of the medical wing. Harry had been in it at the time and hence was the likely actual target.
Now, Big Boss had lost just about everyone he ever loved through his life, which meant that the few people he cared about still he were fiercely protective of. This did mean that he would not stand by and let the school get rampaged by some assailant while Harry was in the middle.
With a determination he hadn't had in months he stood up and headed towards the fireplace stopping only to pick up extra magazines for his pistol. Never hurt to be prepared.
He reached for the Floo powder. It was time to pay Hogwarts a visit.
********************************************************
The room was almost entirely bare. The resident of it didn't own much and was considered too dangerous to be allowed to go out and get more. She had virtually no family, friends or barely even acquaintances left alive. By all rights she too should be dead. She had been cut off by rapid enemy advance. Everyone else in her unit dead, she herself wounded, but her 'programming', for lack of better words wouldn't let her surrender. She had attempted a last ditch attack on a high profile enemy commander that had entered the survey the area. A Colonel who led what was universally regarded as the most capable spec-ops team on the planet.
She had failed, the commander had been more capable than expected, and because her rifle had been destroyed she had been forced to engage at short range. In which she had no chance of victory.
Yet she had been spared. The old man she had been trying to kill hadn't returned the favour. He had taken her away from the battlefield, and taken her here, where she could be safely de-programmed.
Marvels beyond what she had stopped believing were possible: Plentiful food, comfortable bed, safety. Hell she even got a shower.
Now after almost a year of hypnotherapy, psychologists asking dumb questions, and everything else needed to find and neutralize the programming that made her a near robotic killer that programming was gone.
Oh she was still a killer. Still put little value on life, still would kill for a bad word. She was still a man-made sociopath. And unfortunately the psychologists were rapidly all reaching the same conclusion. They couldn't really help her much more. She was resisting too much now. Not willing to talk or let herself be put under other processes. They could drug her up for about 24/7, but they feared what would happen if her benefactor ever found out.
She glanced at the sole decoration again. A group picture of Foxhound, the image itself was officially classified to the nth degree, but it was a gift that nobody had been willing to attempt to take from her. Both because she'd probably hunt down and kill them and because of who had given it.
She didn't know what he was called. In the orders she had been given then he had just been referred to as "The Foxhound commander" and a few times in hushed voices "The Legendary Soldier."
She had her own name for him though. The hero who had saved her from hell, the only person since her parents who had cared enough to put his own life at risk (if only slightly given her state when she attacked him) to help her.
"Saladin." Wolf whispered under her breath.
************************************************************
"Look. I just want to find the head master to have a little chat with him." Big Boss repeated yet again to the teacher he was beginning to think that Harry had been all too right to refer to as a 'Greasy Git'.
Severus Snape, potions teacher of Hogwarts and all around greaseball.
"And I assure you he won't have time for a mere muggle anytime soon."
"Then he'll have to make time." Big boss replied annoyed.
"You do appear to be related to Potter yes. The same arrogance as he has." Snape answered apparently feeling confident he'd be able to chase away this muggle that had somehow entered the school.
"Excuse me? I heard this was a school and not a set of personal fiefdoms with wannabe dictators pretending to be teachers for tax purposes. He's the headmaster and it's in his job description to soothe the irrational fears of families of the students." How the hell did this idiot get to be a teacher? That was when he felt it. The prickling in his head that told of mental invasion in progress. He was annoyed with Snape so he decided to be a bit brutal. He pulled up one of his more recent horrible memories and completely totally on it forcing for an instant Snape to see it too.
A kurd village, burned to the ground. The population massacred one by one. Signs of horrible depravations everywhere, the massacres had happened several days ago and by now the corpses were well and truly rotting under the hot Middle Eastern sun.
And the hatred, the burning hatred that Big Boss felt then, against everyone responsible. The hatred that felt like it could eat through a main battle tank like it would flare up and consume everything in an all destroying fire.
If it was scary to look at from the outside it was even worse from the inside.
Snape recoiled back in shock as Big Boss slammed his mental defences shut.
"Next time stay out of my head. Don't lecture people about arrogance when you dig into people's minds at a whim." Big Boss answered coolly. He resolved to find out if he did this to students too. And if so put an end to it. By rough means if he had to.
Snape didn't answer. He had the look of someone who had seen a lot of horrible things in his life, but nothing that compared to what Big Boss had just showed him.
"Now you will show me to the Headmaster. Right this very moment." Cold, calm, but definitely the command voice, no arguing accepted.
Snape was in no shape to protest either.
"Cotton candy" Snape muttered and the gargoyle moved aside.
Dumbledore had known they were coming. There was no other way to explain how he sat waiting for them to enter as they arrived.
"Ah. Harry Potter's illustrious uncle Jack. We've heard a lot about you."
'From whom?' Big Boss wondered.
"You seem to have made young Potter into quite the ghost from what we've seen."
"As much as I'd like to talk about my favourite relative I'm not here as a social call. Your school security is inadequate."
He raised an eyebrow in amusement, Big Boss suspected it was feigned, but damn this headmaster was hard to read.
"Oh. And what makes you say that?"
"Just the fact that random students appear to be petrified at inconvenient times." Big Boss replied.
"Ah. You know how easily stories get exaggerated." Dumbledore replied. He obviously didn't want Big Boss prying for some reason, but Big Boss wasn't about to stop.
"Yes and if you know the story teller well enough you can guess how much roughly is exaggeration and how much is fact. Fact is that Harry got attacked by a sabotaged piece of school equipment and was only luck that he survived. If he had say, broken a few ribs that rookie you hired as a Defence teacher would probably have killed him,
"Now after that we have the fact that the student that was petrified was right outside the hospital wing where Harry was, which implies to me that whatever it is was going for Harry given that he was near the first attack too."
"Surely you aren't being a touch too paranoid now?" Snape had recovered finally and was trying to become his sneering self again.
"No, excessively paranoid is when you think the neighbours cats are trying to spy on you. This is a reasoned guess. There were murder attempts on him last year after all. If this is repeating every year I might convince his guardians to send him to another magical school. I hear there's a nice one in France."
Dumbledore looked at him again. He felt the telltale prickling of the mind reading, but his defences were solid, he though he had caught a flicker of astonishment on the headmaster's face, but he couldn't be certain.
"Hogwarts is the best wizarding school in the world." He stated simply.
"I'd rather see him live to graduate than be the most powerful wizard he can be. And right now this school's track record isn't too good."
"If he doesn't become the most powerful wizard he can be as you put it then he probably won't live long beyond graduation." Dumbledore said with a surety that worried Big Boss.
"Power alone is worthless. Common sense is a lot more valuable. And right now I get the impression there is a distinct shortage of that here. You could at least do a serious effort to track it down."
"And I supposed you know how to do that?" Snape said derisively. Whatever reply the greaseball was expecting a conscending glance saying 'Is it even possible to be that stupid naturally?' from Big Boss wasn't it.
"Of course, search and destroy is a common mission I've undertaken. You got the floor plans of the castle? It shouldn't take much more than a week to have the entire castle searched stone by stone." Snape's face was worth seeing. He wished he had brought a camera. So many expressions he wished to remember so little attention he could afford to pay.
"That won't be necessary." Dumbledore intervened.
"We are already doing everything we can to catch the perpetrator and expect to find him shortly. So your aid however skilled it might be is not needed. We do however appreciate the offer."
He got the distinct impression that Dumbledore didn't trust him. Maybe he was prejudiced against muggles and muggle methods. Or perhaps he though that he was too dangerous to be around Harry, whatever it was, it meant that the headmaster was unlikely to accept his help.
'Whose idea was it to give headmasters massive government influence?' He wondered. He never really liked school teachers that much.
Right, plan B then. He just needed to figure out what plan B was. Not to worry, he did some of his best thinking on his feet.
******************************************************************
Harry hated defence against the Dark arts, primarily because of the teacher.
"Honestly Harry. He's not that bad." Hermione said, but she was starting to lose a bit of her conviction regarding Lockhart.
"He's a fraud Hermione." Harry said. He hadn't been entirely sure he believed Jack's statement back at the bookstore, after all how much could a muggle even one like Jack know about DADA? But after a few classes he had been convinced that Jack indeed could tell exactly what kind of person you were just from the eyes, at least in a limited sense.
That or Jack had read the books and decided to show off after realising Lockhart couldn't do what he did. Right now he gave both even odds.
"He is not. He is just rusty... Or something..." Grasping at straws but unable to admit error Hermione argued on.
"Rusted to dust then." Came out of nowhere from the shadows. With a gasp the trio spun around and finally noticed Jack who had apparently been waiting there for a few minutes.
"Where did you come from!?" Ron exclaimed more startled than the rest.
"That's not really relevant right now. I just need a minute. Harry just exactly what happened, as detailed as possibly, everything unusual."
Harry did. He explained about the Halloween, how Dobby had appeared after the bludger attack. How they had found Colin outside the hospital wing clutching his broken camera. Even about the voices he had been hearing.
Jack stood absorbing it for a few moments. Considering things for what he should do next.
"This is nothing within my experience at least. But I am pretty sure that the voices are somehow connected with the attacks. Keep your eyes open and your reflexes sharp. This can get very nasty. And if they do, use this."
He handed him what appeared to be some sort of weapon.
"This is a modified M9. It carries tranq darts instead of bullets. It has much less power than a normal pistol so it needs to be reloaded after each shot. The suppressor makes it completely silent. This is not a toy so do not under any circumstances use it for pranks."
Harry looked at the gun and the two spare magazines Jack gave him.
Jack was putting a lot of trust in him he knew. Handing him a weapon, even if supposedly non-lethal, to use unsupervised. He had gotten to shoot a bit in the last years, low calibre pistols in very controlled circumstances.
"I won't."
"Good. Now if there is anything you need that could help resolve this situation just owl me. I still have a lot of connection and can manage to procure a lot of equipment. And it'd be wise not to underestimate what us muggles have come up with over the years."
"You can't give Harry a weapon. We should let the teachers handle this." Hermione interjected.
"Kid. I had quite a few good teachers when I went to school, but I wouldn't trust them to cover my back in a fire fight. They are teachers first and if they got any useful skills I think a lot of them have let them deteriorate too much. So I need to find alternate means to help out."
Harry was still looking at the M9 in his hand, but then hid it inside his robes.
"Uncle Jack. Do you really think they are after me?" Jack nodded.
"There's a fair chance yes. And I'm not one for taking chances. You better hurry along now or you'll be late for potions." Jack seemed to fade away into the shadows and was gone.
"How can he do that!?" Ron exclaimed.
"It's not hard. Just mind where the lightening is and move the right way." Harry said.
"So that's how you could disappear at will like that last year. Your uncle taught you how to sneak around." Hermione stated. Even before he got the cloak it had been noted that Harry when alone was not easy to find.
"Jack figured that if the Dursley's didn't want to see me they wouldn't have to. And he said it gave me a way to get back at them if I ever wanted to." Harry answered.
"And you never told me? Blimey Harry think of what we could do to Snape with that?" Ron answered.
"You won't prank Professor Snape with that!" Hermione replied.
The argument about the morality of pranking potions professors continued up until they got to the classroom.
******************************************************************
Time went by. Big Boss felt like he was on the verge of insanity.
Sure he got a dog now, in typical Big Boss fashion he'd gone to some extremes getting a rather weird crossbreed. It was half wolf, one fourth German Shepherd and one fourth Collie. Not legal, but he didn't really care.
The good news was that thanks to the dog he knew the rest of the neighbourhood slightly better. And he knew for instance that the Dursleys weren't as liked as they liked to think.
If they ever truly realized it they'd probably commit suicide, but the rest of the street saw them as weird. Their son a spoiled bully and they really didn't know anything about Harry except that he supposedly made trouble and was in a school for incurably criminal boys. The general consensus was that Vernon honestly didn't care if Harry was criminal or not. Just that it was the cheapest school they could find and they didn't want the boy in their sight more often than they had to. Which in turn the neighbours expected would turn the boy into a criminal irregardless of what he was before due to the Dursley's lack of common sense.
That was good to know that the Dursleys weren't average civvies and instead a few notches below.
It was odd what people you met while walking your dog casually mentioned about their neighbours, and Big Boss despite his grizzly appearance had an ability to inspire confidence and trust that helped even more.
Even so while he was friendly with the neighbours he didn't really click with them. They just had led too different lives to really understand each other.
But so far retirement really wasn't agreeing with him.
The dog was next to his chair, despite being one hell of an aggressive son of a bitch when it wanted to it was remarkably lazy whenever it got the chance and nothing else happened that it felt needed to be done. Like attacking a cat or convincing a kid that it was just another friendly dog to pet and not a vicious half breed whose ancestors probably ate babies at some point.
The regular mail looked as boring as ever. The first two were bills, then a bank statement. But when he got to the fourth letter he got something to break the monotony. It was a letter from Cherry Weasley. He opened the letter finding a plane ticket inside.
'What the hell is she playing at now?'
If he was to guess it was that she was a poor liar (even with written words) and was afraid he'd not bother to come along with whatever she wanted if he knew.
Of course there's the fact that with nothing to do and a normal sense of curiosity the plane tickets were remarkably appealing.
There was the issue of whatever was going on at the school, but according to the date the plane left in two weeks. Plenty of time for the tool he was waiting for to arrive so he could send it to Hogwarts.
Now he just hoped he had taught Harry enough that he'd employ it correctly.
*************************************************************
"Do we have any other suspects than Draco?"
"About half of slytherin" Ron replied to Harry's question.
Harry was taking this a lot more personal than he should probably, but after what Jack said he wanted to ensure it got taken down before more people were hurt. If it was after him it should stay between him and it. No innocent bystanders caught in the middle.
They'd need over a month to get ready though. The Polyjuice wouldn't be ready until then at least.
"Ron be realistic. Slytherin aren't all evil." Hermione said.
"They aren't?"
Harry ignored them. Hedwig was arriving and looking really tired carrying that large package.
He took the note.
'Harry, I figure you'll try to find out what is going on yourself. I have severe doubts I could stop you if I tried. So instead I'll just help out as best I can. This gadget has been charmed a bit with the help of Arthur (He owed me one) so the scant electronics in it will work properly there. And its minimal magic signature even with that should allow it to be more unnoticed than most means of listening in on conversations on Hogwarts.
Just don't abuse the capabilities it gives you too much okay?
Jack'
He took off the wrapper. He had been shown one of these before. It was a directional microphone ready for use.
Harry put it on testing it.
He picked up snippets from the Ravenclaw table, some girls talking about how cute Cedric Diggory was, a conversation from the Slytherin table on what the 'golden boy of Gryffindor' had gotten now (they had no idea), but the really interesting part came from the teachers table.
"So his other uncle decides to pander Potter even more. Why am I not surprised?" Snape of course.
"It is more for the boy's safety, he doubts our ability to protect Harry and given that he can't be there he tries to give the boy some things that can help him."
"It is going too far when he hands him muggle weapons. I want to confiscate the weapon he gave Potter when he visited. Potter is far too reckless to be entrusted with anything like that."
They knew about the pistol? And hadn't taken it yet?
"Harry has been remarkably mature with it. No misuse yet. The boy worries a lot on how his uncle thinks of him and would go far to avoid disappointing him.. That sort of respect can be dangerous. Especially when it is to someone as dangerous as this Big Boss fellow, he has a lot more influence over Harry than I am comfortable with."
Despite it being a whispered conversation Harry could hear it as well as if he was standing there. This microphone was good.
"Potter has been pointing that thing at us for quite some time. It might be some sort of weapon."
"No it isn't, but it could be a surveillance device. So we will have to talk later."
Just as it started getting the interesting bits,
"Harry what is that?"
"I'll tell you back to the common room. Don't want to say it when there's this many people around."
And right now his head was swimming as he tried understanding all the ramifications of what he had just heard.
*******************************************************************
Big Boss stepped off the plane as the hot and dry air hit him.
'Welcome to the middle east. Please don't tease the camels.' He though to himself.
The guy who was supposed to meet him was easy to pick out. The young kid in uniform that snapped much too eagerly at attention when he saw him.
"It's an honour to meet you sir." He said quickly.
"Drop the sir, I'm retired. So why am I being flown all the way down here?"
"Sorry Sir, I mean Mister, but I've been specifically ordered not to tell you whatever I might have guessed or gathered."
Yup, it was bad whatever it was.
The drive was spent mostly in silence. As they entered the army base and approached their destination he finally recognized it.
'Why'd they want me here? Unless... Ah shit.'
"Welcome Colonel. We've been expecting you."
There were three people there. Cherry Weasley, Colonel Campbell his replacement and some guy in a white coat he didn't recognize.
"I presume this is about the girl?" Big Boss asked.
"Yes. We got a problem with her that we think only you can help with."
'Run Big Boss run.'
His Paranoia listed all scenarios. He made the plans for the worst he could come up with first.
'If this tries to turn into a cheap porno flick I'm grabbing a weapon and shooting my way out.'
Yup being alone in retirement had really screwed with his head he reflected.
"Basically we've gotten the patient's subconscious triggers and overt programming fully neutralized, but re-socialising her isn't proving too easy. She has severe issues with positive emotional attachments."
"In English please." Big Boss demanded.
"She has her own mind again, but she's got trust issues. She can hate just fine thought." Cherry replied.
"Right, and I'm supposed to do what to help this?" Big Boss asked as he as subtly looked around for decent weaponry.
He noticed that the office they were entering had a TV set up with what was apparently the security feed from Wolf's room.
She was just staring at her ceiling apparently bored in the extreme.
"Well... We need to get her able to function in a modern society. She's too young for Foxhound after all even if she got the skills." Campbell stated.
He should perhaps not mention that his initial plan had been to train her specifically with that in mind so as soon as she was old enough she'd become a Foxhounder. It didn't seem like anyone in the room would appreciate the idea though.
"So put her with a foster family."
"Think it through colonel. She's got problems with trust. She's a top trained killer and she thinks violence is an acceptable answer to a problem." Cherry said.
'Sounds kind of like me then.'
"So basically... You need someone who can either reign in her killing or who has her trust..." Big Boss said dreading where this was heading.
'Screw shooting my way out. I'll only need one round to get out of this.'
"Yes. Or someone who can do both. And frankly there's only one person alive who can take this on."
"Oh hell no! I'm not qualified to take care of a teen girl. I got zero experience in parenting and she'd likely grab a Dragunov and start blowing people's heads off within a week."
"Don't tell me you got one lying around in the house." Cherry said on some level already knowing the answer.
"Okay. I won't. Anyway, I'm a battle hardened soldier with likely a few traumas that snuck by undetected. And I'm supposed to watch over a young girl who can only be called damaged who I saw shoot the eye out of a soldier at six hundred meters with a rifle."
"Boss. She adores you. You should hear her growl if you try to take that picture you gave her. I swear when they demonstrated she was about to try and rip his arm off. She'll listen to you. And you really aren't doing too bad a job with Harry are you?"
"That's different. I'm not his guardian." Big Boss protested.
"You could have fooled me. This summer you about were. His real guardians don't do anything for him and it's a miracle he hasn't just gone on a shooting incident. I'm laying the credit for that solely on you by the way. Think of this as a promotion with more challenge and responsibility."
"Colonel. If you don't accept this, nobody can. She'll probably spend the rest of her life in institutions and on medication. She will never have a chance at a normal life." The doctor chimed in.
'Like I got any idea what a normal life is.'
"Jack..." Okay she was about to apply her finisher. She never called him Jack.
"...At least talk to her before you make your decision. Know what kind of person you are dealing with."
'Leave it to her to throw that in my face. The need to know who you are dealing with.'
"All right I'll talk to her at least, but no guarantees beyond that."
******************************************************
Something was up. The last few days she had far more visitors than usual. In general they seemed to just be there to meet her, they didn't ask her any questions or give her any statements or orders.
While she appeared to be bored she was actually intently listening. Waiting for something to happen, for them to decide that she wasn't worth the bother and just kill her like a stray dog they didn't want to feed anymore, for them to find something else to do with her.
Everyone who visited had been so serious. Whatever was up couldn't be good. The Americans couldn't be trusted. They had betrayed the kurds repeatedly and from what she had read while in this institution they were far from the only ones. While Saladin was an American she considered him that in name only. He was something more.
She heard footsteps. They were odd. There was a... Sense of purpose or determination about one of them and the other sounded like a guard.
It was probably an officer or even just another soldier. Alone, so perhaps just a quick into shoot her and then leave. Or perhaps escort her outside as to not dirty up the room.
They had been nothing but nice to her yet, but she couldn't get herself to believe it wasn't an act. And when they decided she wasn't worth it anymore they would come for her.
She had picked up snippets. Saladin or Big Boss as she had figured out he was called had retired (Probably forced into it). That meant she had no protector in the military anymore. She was living on borrowed time.
Well when the time came she'd die on her feet. She braced herself for quick move as she heard the footsteps stop outside the door
Then the door opened and in surprise she forgot all about her fear for a moment.
"Saladin." She said.
*********************************************************************
It was surprising really. He recognized the signs, the tensed muscles. The too-casual sitting pose, that sort of things. She had been ready to leap up for a fight.
Yet the moment she recognized him she relaxed immediately. She felt safe in his presence. She went back to her usual calm.
'That's not really that smart. I only spared her because I thought she could be useful and it wasn't difficult to stop her. I'm perhaps the biggest threat to her safety in this entire base.'
Yet as he looked over the room and saw how bare it was. The sole picture on her wall was of him and Foxhound. He had given her that to kick start her recovery, not to have her obsess over it.
'Then again, looking back this was in the reports. I just didn't read them carefully enough.'
For all their opinion that she was recovering they still kept her in her room, and her odd behaviour meant she didn't bond well with any staff. She was basically kept isolated from that sort of influence and had nothing else to focus on. She had an almost unhealthy respect and indeed adoration as well for him. For that he considered that perhaps he should stay away to avoid making it worse.
Her eyes... There was a coldness in there the kind of cool personality of someone who was a casual killer, but the killer wasn't alone in there. There was a scared, lonely young girl in there too. That made for a really bad combination to tackle normal society. She'd need to be able to feel at least mostly safe for her not to end up with a body count by the end of the month.
She was a young desperate girl, and frankly outside of a battlefield she had little chance of ever managing.
And right now he couldn't in good conscience condemn her to that. Not when it wasn't war critical.
'I'm the biggest threat to her, but I'm also just about her only hope. If there is a God he loves irony.'
"Hello Wolf." He said finally trying to appear as friendly as he could.
"I hear they can't help you here anymore. So I'm here to take you..." He hesitated at the word, like saying it was the point of no return.
"...Home."
*******************************************************************
Christmas was upon them. Harry had seriously considered going home this time, but had elected not to. They needed to find out if Malfoy was involved or not.
At the start of the brewing he'd thought it was a fun idea, by now he was tired of everything named polyjuice. He was seriously beginning to wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to try to use muggle methods of disguise. Jack had told him some stories of what that could achieve.
And now Hermione refused to come out of the bathroom he was on the verge of cursing everything magic. Did she think they were idiots? Perhaps it was just the years he had known Jack, but right now if something was wrong they had to deal with it immediately before it got worse.
"Come on out Hermione. We won't move before you get out."
"But then the Polyjuice potion will stop working!" She exclaimed from the inside.
"That's a risk we'll just have to take. If something went wrong it could be really bad for you." He thought he had read once that wrongly made polyjuice potion could turn you inside out, but he wasn't certain.
The door opened. It wasn't quite as bad as he had feared, not to say it was good either.
"She must have had a cat. The polyjuice potion isn't meant to be used with animals."
He resisted the urge to use one of the more colourful expressions he had picked up from Jack.
"This isn't good. What do we do Harry?" Ron asked.
The mission or the team-mate, it's an ancient dilemma. Which do you risk to save the other? It's never easy, but it varies how crucial it is. You took into account what was at stake, how much it'd jeopardize the mission and if you would get another chance.
The Polyjuice potion had taken months to brew, they would not get another chance before the year was over.
On the other hand they had no idea what would happen to Hermione. Would she be part animal forever? Would she reverse normally or would it get worse?
However, the polyjuice potion wasn't the only weapon in the arsenal. He made his call.
"We're aborting Ron. Let's get Hermione to the hospital wing."
"What?! After all this work?" She protested despite her condition.
"We'll find another way in. This isn't worth risking your health over." Harry stated confidently, thought inwardly he wasn't sure.
He knew he was good, but he had never tried to sneak into a common room before. And who knew how long he'd have to hide until Malfoy said something useful if he got in?
He'd have to improvise. Right now they'd take care of Hermione weather she let them or not.
*End chapter*
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Mutant Headcrab
- Jedi Knight
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
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This is so fucking awesome. And Harry's all shades of kickass now!
The only problem is...damn! You don't have anymore saved-up chapters to post, you have to write 'em now. Please don't take long, I truly love this fic. I'm hooked.
The only problem is...damn! You don't have anymore saved-up chapters to post, you have to write 'em now. Please don't take long, I truly love this fic. I'm hooked.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
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montypython
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
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I...really...need more! I'm suffering from withdrawal!
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
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Shroom Man 777
- FUCKING DICK-STABBER!
- Posts: 21222
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"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
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Sidewinder
- Sith Acolyte
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Is Big Boss going to do anything about Dobbie? Mistake the house elf for a monkey and have him killed, roasted, and eaten? Feed Dobbie to the dog? Have Sniper Wolf use the house elf for target practice?
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
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Shroom Man 777
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Goddamn, I thought there was an update. Anyway, yeah, at some point the Big Boss should off someone. And since this is...well, fanfic, it'd be cool if he starts offing the really annoying useless characters. Like Dobby!
Hm, I showed this to a buddy and he says it's fucking brilliant, by the way.
Hm, I showed this to a buddy and he says it's fucking brilliant, by the way.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source)shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN!
Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people
- PeZookShroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic
Pink Sugar Heart Attack!