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Harry Potter and the Secret Link	By : LeAnnRingo Category: Harry Potter Crossovers > General - Misc Views: 3407 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
- 15
~*~*~*~*Harry Potter and the Secret Link*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*Capricious Purple Clarity*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*Chapter Fourteen*~*~*~*~

As Harry had been spending Christmas Eve with his surrogate
family in the privacy of the Room of Requirement, where his
godfather and the congenial werewolf would be staying for the
night, he was not present to avert the disaster that was
Malfoy in the Gryffindor Tower. In fact, he had no idea that
at the very moment he was telling Sirius about the latest
Quidditch match against Hufflepuff in full detail that Malfoy
had actually been left alone long enough to plunder through
Harry’s trunk (“Potter needs to clean this thing out... Hello,
what is this?...”), wardrobe (“Gross! Ugh, is this how muggles
dress? No wonder everyone wants to wipe them off the face of
the earth...”), and other personal belongings (“Scrap sheet of
parchment, Frog card, Frog card... Agrippa? Ooh, haven’t got
her yet...”).

It’s an interesting, yet unknown fact that there hasn’t been a
Malfoy in Gryffindor Tower since William Honua Malfoy, who was
so upset about his Sorting that he actually went about carving
“W. Malfoy wasn’t here” over random surfaces, dates going as
far back as 09-01-1852 and ending somewhere around 05-28-1860.
The Gryffindors of the time had been so ashamed of the
presence of a Malfoy that they wiped away any and all traces
that William Malfoy had ever been there after the Malfoy had
graduated, and William never spoke of his time at Hogwarts.
However, if anyone bothered to look hard enough, one could
clearly make out the faint scarring of “V. Nallou was ‘l neie
02-08-1855” near the fireplace... or something to that effect.
The source of the scarring remained a complete mystery to
present day Gryffindors all around, as anyone name Nallou had
never been found on the registry for that time.

Though the researcher had found a Malfoy. He refused to
mention the shame to his fellow Gryffindors, and carried the
secret to his death on the eighth of February in the year A.C.
002. Coincidentally, it was the same date as the carving near
the fireplace and, should anyone bother to do the math, A.C.
002 would be the Year of Our Lord 2055 -exactly two entire
centuries after the marks had been carved.

It was already late by the time Harry had entered the Tower,
feeling elation, giddiness, and bubbly good cheer all rolled
into one hyperactive punch. He was confused when he saw six
people gathered around the fireplace instead of the five he
was expecting. He was downright horrified to see that the
extra person happened to be one Draco Malfoy; the same Draco
Malfoy that was looking over at him with a smirk on his
pointy, handsome face and a butterbeer bottle hanging casually
from his long, slim fingers.

Duo, of course, was pretending ignorance to the entire thing.
“Hey, Harry! We were just about to start a game of I Never.
Grab and butterbeer and pop a squat.”

Almost immediately Duo turned back to Draco. “It’s a really
good drinking game. See, I say something I’ve never done, and
if anyone else has done it, they have to drink. It’s better if
we could actually play with hard liquor, but I couldn’t
convince my contact to sneak in anything stronger than
butterbeer. Besides, I don’t think Heero, Trowa, Quat, and Wu
would have gone for the hard stuff anyway. It’ll be fun either
way, though.”

Harry didn’t move. “How about I start? I never... invited
Draco Malfoy into the Gryffindor Tower.” He wasn’t surprised
when Duo tipped back the bottle of butterbeer
enthusiastically. It figured.

Harry wanted to rant and scream, the prevailing question on
his mind being, “What the hell were you thinking, you daft
git?” However, upon seeing the devious joy on Malfoy’s face,
the Boy Who Lived refused to lose his cool in front of the
Slytherin Prince. Instead, he grabbed a butterbeer and threw
himself into the chair closest to the hearth, refusing to even
so much as glance in Malfoy’s general direction. Out of the
corner of his eye, he could see, very clearly, the blond
Slytherin snicker silently.

“Yeah, Draco wasn’t doing anything all by his lonesome in
Slytherin Tower, so I just thought I’d invite him to actually,
you know, have some fun tonight. Didn’t think you’d mind,” Duo
said casually, his tone implying that he did think Harry would
mind quite a lot, but not enough to short sheet Duo’s bedding.

Harry let him think that, and simply said, “Hm.” He instead
chose to look at Malfoy. “You haven’t stolen anything yet,
have you?”

“Why, Potter, do you really have so low an opinion of me?”
Malfoy said mockingly, his left palm stretched flat above his
black heart. Harry noticed that Malfoy really didn’t deny or
admit to anything. He silently vowed to take inventory of all
his possessions before Malfoy left the Tower with whatever
item(s) he’d purloined.

“Ooh, me next,” Duo cheered. “Um, I never...”

There was a long moment of silence as everyone stared
expectantly at the American who was lost in thought.

“I never, um...”

Clearly, Duo was having a lot of trouble thinking of things he
hadn’t done. “I never stripped somebody else’s, er, mode of
transportation for -no, done that... I never stole from a -no,
done that, too... Oh! I never set my own broken leg.”

“That’s profiling,” Heero said, but he drank anyway. Harry was
somehow not surprised that Heero would be intense enough to
actually set his own broken leg.

Duo grinned. “Your turn, Hee-chan!”

The Japanese boy raised an eyebrow. “I never talked to my...
mode of transportation.”

“Now you’re just being unfair,” Duo grumbled as he, Wufei, and
Quatre took a swig of butterbeer (in Quatre’s case, a polite
sip -rich people didn’t take ‘swigs’). Harry was only a second
behind them after a moment of silent debate on whether brooms
counted. “You’re up, Quatre.”

“I’ve never played I Never,” Quatre admitted with a small
grin. Duo and, surprisingly enough, Trowa ended up drinking to
that after a small debate on whether that was actually a
legitimate question, which brought about something about a
rule book that, apparently, only Duo had heard of.

“I never held a grudge against anyone for blowing up and-or
destroying my mode of transportation,” Trowa said calmly.

“You’re all just targeting me today,” Duo mused; he was the
only one to drink besides Harry, who thought back to the point
in time his treasured Nimbus 2000 was destroyed by the
Whomping Willow. “You’re up, dragon boy.”

“Stop calling me dragon boy,” came twin responses. Draco and
Wufei glanced at each other wearily.

“Latin,” Draco pointed out.

“Chinese,” Wufei admitted grudgingly.(1)

And over the silly nickname, it seemed a bond was formed.

“I’m talking about his highness Malfoy over there,” Duo said
after a short break for his laughter.

“I’d feel better about being called his highness if I didn’t
know you were being sarcastic,” Malfoy drawled, putting a
finger to his lips and tapping daintily in thought. “I never
really underestimated Maxwell.”

Duo pouted when, one by one, everyone but he and Draco tilted
the bottle back. “You guys are so mean.”

“You wear that fool’s mask like it’s made of your own skin,
Maxwell,” Wufei pointed out stoically. Then, with a smirk on
his lips, he said silkily, “I never had a crush on Yuy.”

Duo’s face was flaming red as he guiltily brought the bottle
to his lips, avoiding eye contact with Heero. To his
amazement, he wasn’t the only one who was drinking to that
announcement. “Trowa?... Draco! Quatre?!”

“He’s very intense,” Trowa said simply. “Whatever attraction
garnered eventually became more like respect.”

“I’m a sixteen year old wizard, for the sake of the spirits,”
Draco grumbled. “Linoleum turns me on.”

Which wasn’t something Harry really wanted to know about
Malfoy’s private life... kinda.

“Um,” Quatre said sheepishly, “I have a thing for the quiet
type? Only, uh, it’s more of a sort of thing for the passive
quiet types now...”

Harry really couldn’t see the appeal. Besides the fact Heero
was handsome and, well, intense, there really wasn’t anything
that the Slytherin did for him. His taste led more to the
sardonic, witty, arctic type...

What Harry didn’t realize that his type was exactly Draco
Malfoy. He just refused to admit it to himself on the most
basic level. And Draco... well, linoleum. Enough said. Green
eyes a plus. He had a thing for green.

Heero, on the other hand, suspected that Trowa, at one time,
might have had feelings for him. Quatre was a shocker, and
Draco’s admittance was bordering scandalous, but when he saw
Duo put the bottle to his lips and take a healthy swig, none
of that seemed to really matter much. If Heero had been
anything like Duo, he would have mentally cried Score! to
express his jubilance; but Heero is Heero, so he contented
himself with feeling somewhat satisfied that the chances of
his mission’s (tentatively called Operation Get the Boy)
success increased by fifty-three point four percent.

Harry, feeling slightly devious at this sudden development,
said, “I never had a crush on Duo.”

Wufei cursed in three different languages and almost refused
to drink until he realized that, damn it all, he was bound by
honor to be truthful. Draco, of course, was shameless in
admitting that, yeah, at one point in time, if there was a gag
available, he’d probably pursue a relationship with the
Gryffindor American, too. And Heero... well, Heero made sure
Duo was looking directly at him when he confidently tilted the
bottle back.

Harry recognized the rare moments when Duo was struck
speechless, and this was one of them.

“I... Um...” Duo fumbled, blinking owlishly at Heero. Heero
smirked at him. The braided boy shook his head slowly and,
instead, voted to look at Wufei with a raised eyebrow. “Wu? Is
there something you haven’t been telling me?”

“It was once, it lasted about a week, I liked your eyes, drop
it before I string up your guts for garland,” the Chinese
youth grounded out.

Duo grinned. “Heh... Well, touche. I never had a crush on
Harry!”

Draco wasn’t going to drink to that. He really wasn’t. He
didn’t feel bound by some stupid honor code or sense of
nobility, and he was a Slytherin, for the sake of the spirits,
he lied when it pleased him for reasons large and small. So
imagine his surprise when he found his hand mindlessly lifting
the bottle to his mouth, wrapping his lips around the neck,
and tilting back against his own will.

Harry’s entire brain lost functional capabilities for the next
three seconds. And then -What the bloody hell?!

“You jinxed it!” Draco accused, the bottle of butterbeer
sloshing as he pointed at Duo. “I wasn’t going to answer
that!”

“But that would have been lying,” Duo pointed out impishly.

“What’s that stupid Americanism you’re always spouting o- duh!
No shit, no kidding, no joke, no duh, Maxwell!” Draco ranted.
“No more crush questions! No more! In one sitting you’ve had
me admit to thinking unfit thoughts about you, about YUY, and,
of all people, POTTER! That’s more than I’ve admitted to in my
entire life! Guess what, Maxwell, you’ve done the impossible!”

“The improbable,” Duo corrected primly. “Because, apparently,
it’s possible.”

“Hm,” Trowa hummed. “I never got all bent out of shape because
someone found out I had a crush on him.”

“Then tell your little blond boyfriend that you have a crush
on him and get it over with,” Malfoy said haughtily, downing
the rest of his butterbeer in almost two gulps. “All the
tiptoeing and the naivete and the unintentional sexual
innuendos that goes on between the two of you makes me want to
lock you in a closet together for an obscenely long period of
time. Get a libido. Want mine? Hell, apparently it’s a very
healthy one.”

“There are unintentional sexual innuendos?” Quatre whispered
timidly, cheeks pink.

“Of course there are,” Draco said. “When Barton says ‘let’s go
study’, what he really means is ‘let’s go-‘”

“That’s enough,” Trowa said softly, the threat in his voice
implied but belayed by his placid face.

“-‘play charades’, I was going to say. Because Barton’s not
one for conversation. What did you think I was going to say?”

“Good save,” Duo said, honestly impressed.

Draco shrugged gracefully. “I like waking up in the morning.
It’s like saying ‘oh, look -I’m not dead’ and actually feeling
relieved about it.”

Harry snorted wryly. Even Quatre looked entertained, and at
least Trowa seemed somewhat mollified by the object of his
affection’s amusement. Only Draco could stir up that much crap
and end up defusing the entire situation in the same breath.

“Well,” Duo said brightly, “that was fun.”

“You would classify a moment of utter chaos as ‘fun’,” Wufei
pointed out sardonically. Duo pretended not to hear.

“But, alas, it’s getting late. Time for all good boys and
girls to lay down their heads for good ol’ Saint Nick to come
with gifts and... well, no, all anyone really cares about are
the presents.”

“All good boys and girls, huh. So what are you going to do in
the meantime?” Heero asked blandly.

“Ooh,” Duo bemoaned. “Cut to the quick there, didn’t you?...
Hee-chan.” The affectionate nickname, so used to the
infliction of teasing, suddenly seemed to carry a gentler,
more caring meaning as the American looked at the Japanese
Slytherin with a soft, glowing smile on his face.

It was decided early on that everyone would be sleeping in the
common room, and the sleeping bags were quickly spread out
along the floor around the fireplace. Draco, of course,
“politely” refused a sleeping bag by informing him that he was
a Malfoy, and Malfoys didn’t sleep on the floor. In fact,
Malfoys barely tolerated sleeping on the couch, but he’d take
what he could get in this situation -he didn’t think he was
going to get a better offer than the couch. A simple banishing
charm ridded the common room of the evidence of alcohol, and,
one by one, the seven boys settled in for a long night’s rest.

----------

Duo woke to the oddest sensation of something sprinkling some
weird dust over him.

When he opened his eyes, he was left with his bemusement as he
spied a sprig of mistletoe hovering overhead, sprinkling
silvery dust all over his face and hair.

“What the hell...” he mumbled, not quite believing what he was
seeing.

A voice near his ear rumbled, “Is that mistletoe?”

Gah... Duo felt his face flush hotly, unwilling to even dare
glance at the object of his affection, who he had somehow
managed to cling on to sometime during the night. “Um... y-yeah.”

The mistletoe emitted a sound.

“Is it... laughing at us?” Well, at least Duo wasn’t going
crazy; he thought the odd, tinkling laughter was in his
imagination. On the other hand, he’d never heard Heero Yuy
sound so perplexed since he’d known the guy.

“Sounds like it...”

“Why isn’t it going away?”

Duo stared at the mistletoe. The mistletoe -obviously
charmed... giggled. “Um. Christmas tradition states that we
have to, erm... kiss. Under the mistletoe.”

“Westerners have strange traditions.”

“In defense of my people -you’re absolutely right. Ever hear
of the nationally celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day?”(2)

“No.”

“It’s one of our lesser known holidays.”

Neither made a movement. The entire room was silent, save the
soft breathing of their fellow pilots and the slightly heavier
breathing of Harry and Draco. The mistletoe continued to gaily
secrete silvery sparkles all over the two Gundam pilots.

“So, um...” Duo probed hesitantly, finally gathering enough
courage to meet the calm Prussian blue eyes that were
regarding him almost... tenderly? Which, of course, did
nothing to tame his wild libido. “If we want it to go away...”

He didn’t get to finished. He didn’t have to. Suddenly hot,
soft lips were pressing oh-so-softly against his own for a
single, chaste moment. Duo’s stomach trembled and his heart
beat wildly in his chest at the intimate contact, barely able
to believe that this was Heero, Heero Yuy who was kissing him
with an amount of tenderness that Duo had no idea the Japanese
pilot was capable of. It was forever and only a moment,
tightly bound in the same explosive package, and Duo...
melted.

The moment was broken when the mistletoe emitted a loud coo of
delight, startling the others back into the land of the waking
and effectively ending the kiss. The mistletoe danced around
gaily before detonating, exploding into a shower of silver
sparkles and small, familiar foil wrapped candies that almost
covered the common room floor alone.

“Did I just see a sprig of mistletoe explode?” Wufei asked
gruffly, picking up a Hershey’s Kiss from his lap and
examining it.

“Oh,” Draco said wearily. “I thought I’d dreamt that part.”

It was Harry who found the small sheet of thin parchment that
had fluttered to the ground. “‘Christmas Kisses to all! From
Forge and Gred Weasley of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, introducing
our hottest item on the market this holiday season -Mischievous Mistletoes.’” Harry grinned, shaking his head.

“Nice to see they’re actually putting their dropout, dead
weight brains together and making something of themselves,”
Draco grumbled. “Clearly they’re the only ones with any
business sense in that lot.”

“Shut up, Malfoy,” Harry said lightly, folding the note and
putting it to the side.

Duo sat up, face flushed and eyes twinkling merrily. “Merry
Christmas! Oooh... Look at the goodies...” This, of course,
was not only directed toward the candies that littered the
ground, but the large piles of presents set beside each of
them.

“Merry Christmas, Duo,” Quatre said sleepily, having yet to
unravel himself of his sleeping bag cocoon.

“No sugar for Maxwell in the mornings,” Wufei warned. “It’s
about as bad as giving him coffee.”

“Don’t be cruel,” Duo chided, popping a Kiss into his mouth
and grinning feverishly, still recovering from Heero’s chaste
kiss. Heero, kissing... Helllooooo, libido!

Draco had already separate his large sprawling pile of
presents into two, the one closest to him being the smallest.
As per his Christmas morning ritual, he’d broken open
Gregory’s gift, revealing a large boxful of miscellaneous
favorite treats from Honeyduke’s, as was Gregory’s normal
routine. “Denying chocolate in the morning is a mortal sin,
Chang.” Mmm. Chocolate covered raisins...

Once everyone was settled into full upright positions and
aware enough to really take note of their surroundings, Duo
clapped his hands eagerly and eyed the mountains of gifts with
glee.

“In all fairness, since he’s our favorite little pacifist,”
Duo said teasingly, grinning at Quatre, “I think Q-bean should
open one of his presents first.”

“I couldn’t possibly -Duo, this is your holiday, maybe you
should-“

“Gag it and open one, Quat,” Duo said eagerly. “C’mon, c’mon!
Pick one and tear it open already!”

Quatre carefully checked over his pile of gifts and shyly took
a plainly wrapped present that he knew came from Trowa. It
only took a moment to carefully tear away the wrapping and pry
the lid from heavy box. The blond Winner heir gasped almost
soundlessly as he softly ran his fingers down the wooden case.
“My violin case...”

“And your violin,” Trowa added simply. “I had Iria send it and
the flute.”

Quatre smiled brightly at his taller friend (boyfriend? Who
knew) and slowly opened the case, gazing at his treasured
violin lovingly. “Thank you, Trowa. I... thought I was going
to have to buy a new one. I never even thought to ask Iria to
send mine. This means so much to me...”

Draco was very careful not to gag noisily at the scene. Ugh.
Hufflepuff sap was liberally dripping everywhere. He supposed
that, if he had to look at the bright side, at least it was in
the Gryffindor Tower and not Slytherin -the Slytherins would
be trying to get the sap out of the atmosphere for months.

“That one is from me,” Quatre said softly, pointing out a slim
package wrapped in gold and silver. Trowa slid the package out
from under another and calmly tore the front of the present,
concealing whatever it was that Quatre had decided to give
him.

“A music book,” Trowa murmured, “for violin and flute duets.”

“I thought that we could maybe play another duet sometimes,”
Quatre admitted. “It’s been so long since...”

“I’d enjoy that,” Trowa replied.

Get a room, Draco thought amiably, biting the head off a
vigorously wriggling chocolate frog. He was slightly irritated
that he felt compelled to bite his tongue on every scathing
thought that entered his head, but Slytherins (and Malfoys in
general) had keen survival instincts. There was no way he was
airing his thoughts to this group of homey psychos without a
lot of reliable witnesses and bodyguards. Even then, he wasn’t
sure that would help.

Duo felt no need to preserve much of anything. “Get a room.
Wufei, you’re up! Open mine, open mine!” the American chanted
giddily, shoving a gaily wrapped present at the weary Chinese
youth. The other looked hesitant to open his present, as if
fearing what Duo could have possibly picked out for him.
Finally, with a certain amount of resolve and resignation,
Wufei carefully opened the package and pulled the lid from the
box.

Wufei’s almond-shaped eyes widened marginally after pulling
the thin white paper away, revealing a carefully folded white
leather material. He pulled the white leather from the box,
and held the product up, very clearly surprised by the creamy
white leather duster in his hands. “This is... spectacular,
Maxwell. It must have cost a small fortune.”

“Eh,” Duo shrugged bashfully. “Suddenly I found myself with
this butt load of money. What better ways to spend it all than
buying gifts for your friends, right, Wuffers?”

“Un,” Wufei murmured, slipping the duster around his slim
shoulders. A perfect fit. “Don’t call me Wuffers. I do believe
it’s your turn, Maxwell.”

Duo squealed again and dove for his rapidly dwindling pile,
pulling out a rather heavy present with red wrapping and gold
ribbons, simply marked “From Heero.” Duo favored his friend
(boyfriend? Who knew -this group was so damn secretive, Draco
noted irritably) with a small smile and eagerly tore away the
wrapping.

“Heero,” Duo breathed, delicately lifting the gift from its
velvet trappings. It was an intricate sort of crystal chime
hanging from soft, silky threads from the metal ring. The
crystals were lavender in color, glinting brightly and
beautifully in the light of the common room, tiny beams of
light falling on every surface. Between the cylinder crystals
hung labyrinthine black stone roses, carefully carved so that
they almost appeared to be real. “It’s... it’s beautiful.
Thank you.”

“Hn.” Heero stared at the soft look in Duo’s violet eyes and
decided, then and there, that he liked that look. “It reminds
me of you.”

Duo smiled softly, tilting his head as the crystals clinked
together, creating a soft, melodious sound that gave the
indication that the chimes certainly were magical in nature.
“It’s perfect.”

Draco tamed the wide smirk that wanted to paste itself on his
face. Oh, yeah -Heero was in there. With the lube. To keep
himself from smirking, he continued tossing his chocolate-covered raisins into his mouth, feigning disinterest at the
lovey-dovey scene before him.

The trend continued from there. Wufei received a book about
the magical history of the Chang clan from Heero, which he
accepted with gratitude. From Duo, Harry received a pair of
expensive dragon hide Seeker gloves, the other Gryffindor
having noticed weeks ago that Harry’s old pair were in dire
need of repair or burial. Heero studied the heavy Glock from
Wufei with an appreciative eye, and Duo practically squealed
over his new muggle board game that he called Monopoly, which
actually sounded quite fun once Duo explained the purpose of
the stupid muggle game to Draco, appealing to his inner
business mogul. A set of throwing knives, a nice pair of
dragon hide boots, a political book, and various other gifts
(including, oddly enough, a small square of linoleum that had
Duo laughing gaily as Draco shot the smirking Boy Who Lived a
vicious glare, unable to help the small tick of amusement at
the corner of his mouth from rearing its ugly head) later, it
came to Duo again. If the braided boy hadn’t been thrumming
with concealed glee at the beginning of this Christmas
tradition, he was by this point.

“My turn!” Duo grinned like a kid in a candy store, eagerly
ripping into the present that was very clearly from Quatre by
the tag’s mark. Shredded wrapping paper went flying by the
handful, finally revealing...

“A state of the art digital disc player,” Duo whispered, truly
awed as he checked over his gift. “Flat screen panel... I hear
the clarity of these things are supposed to be amazing, but it
won’t actually be released until six months from now. How in
the world did you manage it, Quat?”

“What is it?” Draco muttered, peering at the invention with a
slight curl of distrust to his upper lip. It looked incredibly
muggle...

“It’s like a painting,” Trowa explained, tossing one of his
new throwing knives hilt over blade and catching them deftly
in his palm. Very good balance, amazing quality... “Only the
scenery can change along with the figures, depending on what
disc you place in it. It’s meant for entertainment.”

Quatre smiled. “The company developing it is a sub-branch of
Winner Enterprises. That’s the current working prototype, and
the developers were looking for someone who was
technologically savvy to give them feedback. I hope the
digital discs I got are to your liking... It really doesn’t
seem like something you’d enjoy, but when I described you to
my sister Nenet, she assured me they would be in your taste.
She’s generally a good judge of character...”

Duo glanced at the box set that had been hidden under the DDP
and stared. There, on the cover of the box, was an odd
assortment of smiling, happy-looking fury animals surrounding
a giant tree. The title proclaimed it Happy Tree Friends: The
Complete First-Third Seasons.(3) And Duo began to laugh. Quite
maniacally, in fact.

Draco took the time to care to look at whatever muggle device
Duo was cackling over. “I don’t get it. What’s so funny about
a bunch of insipid, cute furry animals and a tree?”

To which Duo proceeded to show him what was so funny about a
bunch of insipid, cute furry animals and a tree.

“I want one,” Draco murmured breathlessly, the violent, gory
deaths of furry animals appealing to his inner
Bastard!Slytherin immensely. “Make it so.”

“You want something muggle?” Harry said grumpily, not quite
seeing the appeal. “That’s really gross and disturbing.”

“It’s great!” Duo said giddily.

“It’s you,” Quatre pointed out faintly, a green tinge to his
face as he watched a cute furry green bear in army fatigues go
ballistic and slaughter dozens of hapless animals due to what
appeared to be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “I’m...
slightly worried that one my sisters knows this show exists.”

“One of ‘em is bound to have taste,” Duo pointed out happily,
lovingly placing his new toy to the side. Draco smirked when
he saw the blond Hufflepuff mouth the word ‘taste’ doubtfully,
as if he’d accidentally bit into a vomit flavored bean.

“Thanks, guys,” Duo murmured finally. “This was the best
Christmas ever.“

“Considering it’s the only Christmas...” Wufei muttered lowly.
The rest was a confusing jumble of mumbles and grunts that
Draco was almost sure it wasn’t English. A casual glance at
Potter assured him that the Golden Boy of Gryffindor hadn’t
caught Wufei’s bitter words either.

His friends had. All five new students fell into silence.
Quatre was looking into the healthy fire contemplatively as
Trowa merely focused his gaze on Quatre. Heero was this shy of
an actual scowl, and Duo busied himself with playing with one
of his many new presents without saying much of anything.

Draco flinched under the sudden intensity of the silent
atmosphere before he threw back another handful of chocolate
raisins as he curiously poked at the muggle thing Maxwell
called a DDP. “You people certainly don’t celebrate by halves.
My, this has been the most excitable Christmas since that time
Mother caught my cousin snogging his sister under the dining
hall table.”

Duo blinked. “What, and that isn’t perfectly acceptable
behavior in your circles?” Before Draco could shoot off a
scathing comment about there being something of a difference
between keeping it in the family and incest, the braided
American boy pointed out, “I noticed you hardly opened any of
your presents since you found your treats from your friends.”

“Malfoy,” Draco said, pointing to himself. “Christmas. Silly
muggle holiday that lost it’s novelty to the wealthy since
it’s introduction into the wizarding world.” He waved his hand
carelessly at the extensive pile. “It’s from my Mother. I
already know she’s got me everything I wanted.”

“Yeah?” Duo smirked, throwing Draco a modestly sized, gold and
silver wrapped box. “Here’s something I know she didn’t give
you.”

Draco blinked, putting his treats aside. He tore open the
wrappings, finding something that, like the DDP, looked very
muggle and curious. “What is it?”

Duo grinned. “Handheld Tetris.”

Harry blinked. “Like the video game? Duo... that game is
almost as old as this castle.”

“And when Draco gets the hang of that,” Duo said pleasantly,
“I shall proceed to get him addicted to Luminous.”

“That’s assuming I’ll like this,” Draco said with a curl to
his lip, holding out the muggle device as if it were unclean.

“Oh, that’s addiction you’re holding in your hand,” Duo said
evilly, well on his way to corrupting the pureblood wizard.
“Odd, colorful shapes fall from the top. Your goal is to make
a straight line disappear, giving you points. The entire
purpose of the game is to get a Tetris -four straight lines in
a little row. You can flip and move the shapes accordingly by
the use of those nifty little buttons.”

Draco sneered. “Sounds dull.” Once Duo informed him how to
turn on this muggle gadget, Draco immediately began proving
how dull it was for the next two and a half hours. While Draco
was fiddling with the device, the others finished opening
their various gifts. They were all well on their way into a
rousing game of Monopoly when the Malfoy heir let out a
displeased grunt.

“You didn’t say it goes faster the further you go along,” he
said accusingly, not even looking at Duo as another game
began.

“Oops.” Duo and Harry exchanged amused smirks.

Draco Malfoy was successfully enthralled in the addiction that
was Tetris.

----------

In the Granger home, it was traditional that after all
presents were opened and carefully placed in cautiously marked
piles (for instance, “return for refund and find correct
size”, “return for refund and find something better”, and
“we’ll keep it, but we’ll probably never wear it”) and all
excess paper and bows were either thrown away in a handy trash
bag or saved for reuse (the bows, for instance, could be
reused for next Christmas, and if they were careful enough in
the unwrapping process, the paper could then be reused as
well), the close knit familial unit would curl up on the wide
couch with hot cocoa -Mrs. Granger to the far left, Hermione
Granger in the middle, and Mr. Granger to the far right- and
watch the news.

Some would view this as boring; most children would prefer to
go off and explore the depths of their gifts. As most of
Hermione’s presents consisted of books, whether fiction or
nonfiction, science or magic, she didn’t have this problem.
Instead, she rested the book in her lap and, during something
she deemed uninteresting on the news, she would crack open the
book and begin to read while waiting for something to catch
her interest.

She almost missed it. Enthralled with the intricacies of
Science Versus Magic: When the Worlds Collide by Matilda Muggs
(a thoughtful present from Duo; one she hadn’t expected) she
was barely aware of her surroundings when a name pierced the
fog around her ears.

“Tomorrow marks the sixteenth anniversary of the death of
Colonial rights activist Heero Yuy. Yuy was a prominent figure
in standing up for equal rights amongst the colonies and peace
between both the Earth Alliance and the Sphere United -coincidentally, today’s new Earth Sphere Alliance was named in
reverence to this great man whose life was cut short when he
was assassinated on Christmas day, After Colony 180.(4)”

“Yuy’s remaining family will be holding a small memorial
service for anyone who wishes to visit the mausoleum, which is
only open to the public one day out of the year.”

“Speaking of Heero Yuy,” the female reporter said, turning to
her male counterpart, “have you seen this boy?”

Hermione frowned down at her book, glancing up from the text
to see a blurred black and white photo flash on screen. She
could make out wild, dark hair, a wiry frame... The photo was
too low in quality to actually make out any distinct features,
but...

... It was recognizable enough.

Heero Yuy. Duo’s friend and new Slytherin.

“He’s between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, 5"4' or 5"5',
with blue eyes and brown hair. He’s been known to wear a green
muscle shirt and either faded blue jeans or black spandex
shorts. He goes by the name of Heero Yuy, and he’s suspected
of terrorist activities during the War to End All Wars. Though
his role in the war is unrevealed at this time, the Earth
Sphere Alliance has declared that Yuy is wanted for
questioning. If you happen to see Yuy at any given time, the
Earth Sphere Alliance and the media strongly urge that you do
not, in any way, approach or irritate Yuy. The preferred
method of dealing with this sighting is if you contact the
local authorities immediately and evacuate the area. Relena
Dorlian, former Queen of the World and princess and heir
apparent of Sanq Kingdom, maintains her stance that Heero Yuy
is not a threat and is, in fact, a good friend of hers. She
urges the Earth Sphere Alliance to revoke the warrant of
arrest, but so far, the Earth Sphere Alliance has left her
plea unanswered.”

“Along with Yuy,” the male anchorman said in lieu of his
female counterpart, “are his cohorts, one Trowa Barton;
however, little is known about Barton, and the authorities
cannot seem to find an appropriate photo to give us any
indication as to what he looks like. He is approximately 5"7',
green eyes, with light to medium brown hair.

Another of Yuy and Barton’s partners is a confirmed Gundam
pilot. Duo Maxwell-“

Hermione could barely breathe for the sudden intensity of her
lungs seizing up, the book in her limp hands falling noisily
to the floor. That’s... That’s not possible... Duo’s a wizard!

“-is the only confirmed Gundam pilot at this date.” Instead of
a picture this time, a prerecorded video reel began to play, a
cheering, jostling crowd of supporters silently egging on the
woman at the podium. The camera took that moment to pan in to
the side, revealing the limp form of a boy that was being
supported mercilessly by the elbows. While his head was bowed,
revealing no facial features to the camera, the long braid
trailing down his black clad back was unmistakable. The camera
froze, and the screen panned back to reveal the solemn face of
the anchorman.

“Duo Maxwell is reportably the Gundam pilot responsible for
the destruction of Manson Marine Base outside of Honolulu,
Hawaii, killing a hundred and fifty two Marines personnel and
costing the United States up to four billion credits in
damage. He’s also one of two Gundams responsible for the
destruction of the Lunar Base that was destroyed a little more
than fourteen months ago.”

“Maxwell has quite the reputation for sticking close to
popular figureheads,” the anchorwoman continued, “and it is
for that reason that most speculate why the Earth Sphere
Alliance is also looking for Quatre Winner, heir of the Winner
fortune and inactive CEO of Winner Enterprises; and Chang
Wufei, head of and only surviving member of the Chang clan of
L5. The Earth Sphere Alliance, while tightlipped about their
reasons for wanting these boys, is unclear at this time, but
spokesperson for the E.S.A., Alicia Handle, has emphasized
time and time again that the speculation that Winner and Chang
may have funded Maxwell’s operation is unfound.”

“This is almost mind-boggling, Trina(5),” the anchorman said,
turning to his counterpart. “None of the boys wanted by the
Earth Sphere Alliance seem to be over the age of eighteen.
It’s a dispiriting moment indeed when mere teenagers already
have such negative publicity.”

“You’re right, Tod,” Trina said. “What’s most dispiriting
about the manhunt for these boys is that the presence of the
one confirmed Gundam pilot indeed supports the rumors that at
least one, maybe all of the Gundam pilots, are barely out of
their childhood.”

“There’s one other thing that the E.S.A. hasn’t confirmed, and
it’s whether all of the boys being pursued at this moment are
Gundam pilots,” Tod pointed out. “Five boys, five Gundam
pilots -the chances of it being mere guilt by association are
astronomical. It would also explain why the five fugitives
have the support of such powerful figureheads like Relena
Dorlian Peacecraft, former Queen of the World; Lady Une,
former commander under General Trieze Khushrenada and current
head of the Preventers Organization; and Milliardo Peacecraft,
formerly known as Zechs Marquise of General Khushrenada’s
army, later defected to head the extremist White Fang group,
now a Preventer agent himself. All of these people from
opposite sides of the battle that occurred only last year seem
to be pulling for these boys. I tell you, Trina, this could
only immortalize the boys in the eyes of some, and damn them
in the eyes of others.”

“Of course, the Gundam pilots are held in high regards in most
circles,” Trina added, “while some who have lost family and
friends to their outrageous attacks are clamoring for
accountability. The Gundam pilots are the same people who
almost single-handedly saved the Earth from an eternal winter
after one of them, pilot of Gundam designation Wing Zero, went
to great lengths and at the risk of his own life to destroy a
large piece of the Libra base while entering Earth’s
atmosphere, nearly tearing his suit apart. For that alone, he
is a hero in the eyes of many.”

“That’s not to say these five boys are Gundam pilots, Trina,”
Tod reminded her. “For now, it’s only speculation that all
five boys are Gundam pilots.”

“Coming up after the break-“

But Hermione didn’t hear much of anything beyond that point.
She dazedly excused herself from the den and went to her room,
her mind filled with confusion and questions, and none of the
immediate answers were comforting at all.

----------

Duo didn’t think it was possible for anyone to be any happier
than he was on that Christmas day. No one fought, no lives
were taken, no blood was shed, and even Draco managed to keep
a civil tongue -mostly. Besides that one infraction where
Draco had insisted that the new clothes he’d given Harry were
actually necessary because -quote “Your wardrobe is absolutely
atrocious; I should have received compensation pay for going
through it” to which Harry replied angrily, “You went through
my stuff!” unquote- nothing bad happened. In fact, that one
situation was defused rather quickly when Duo pointed out
that, like the linoleum (which still made Duo laugh out loud),
Draco probably meant the clothes as something of a joke.

Duo still wanted to know how those two managed to find
appropriate gag gifts for each other on such short notice.
He’d planned to grill them later to find out their secrets.

The others had gone off to their own towers to drop off their
new goodies -well, all except Draco, who was still reclined on
the Gryffindor couch playing a four hour long marathon of
Tetris. Harry had decided to sneak off with Heero and Trowa to
go plunder through Slytherin territory (something about not-so-fond memories, Crabbe, Goyle, a potion, and Hermione
turning into a half-cat half-human thing), leaving Duo with no
company other than himself.

He left the paper where it lay; somehow, messes in the
Gryffindor common room always managed to find themselves
tidied up again, so Duo saw no reason to break his back
picking everything up. He chalked it up to the magic that was
Hogwarts (Hermione would be furious if she ever heard that Duo
was leaving things for the house elves to clean up, never mind
that he didn’t realize there were actual little gremlin things
following him around waiting to do such things for him). As he
was finding places to put all of his new stuff, he paused to
lift the chimes from their bed of velvet, enjoying the way the
light reflected and shot off in every which angle.

Maybe Heero really did like him. Well, he knew the Japanese
pilot once had a crush on him (that thought still boggled the
mind), but Duo had no idea if Heero still felt that way. The
present, though... And Heero’s reaction to finding out that
Duo had a crush on him, too...

“There’s hope in that guy yet,” Duo announced drily to the
empty common room, hanging the chime directly above his bed
where his head would lay so he could stare at it and be
reminded nightly that this was just further proof that Heero
might care.

He didn’t notice the lone gift lying at the foot of his bed
until he was finished hanging his chimes. It was slim black
box tied with a gold ribbon. Duo’s immediate thought was that
it must have been from Heero; another gift that Heero wanted
to keep between them. Only Heero would realize that his
favorite colors were gold and black. The thought made him
smile giddily as he fell back on his calves after pulling the
gift toward him.

The American pilot carefully slid the bow away and slid the
lid off of the box. Nestled in soft, wispy black paper was
what looked like a leather holster of some sort, but not for a
gun; the shape was all wrong. After a moment he slid the
buckles from their trappings and managed to wrap the black
holster carefully around his forearm, smiling as the thick of
the holster fit comfortably at the underside of his arm,
starting just above his wrist and ending just below his elbow.
He flicked his wrist to test the feel of it, and was startled
to find that something had slid effortlessly from the holster
and into the flat of his palm, his fingers automatically
wrapping around the cool cylinder object.

“Weird stuff, Heero,” Duo murmured aloud, studying the
cylinder with a careful eye. He could hardly tell if it were
wooden or metal. As a test, he wrapped it once against his
headboard. For the second time in less than a minute, Duo was
startled to find that, instead of a cylinder object as long as
his forearm in his hands, he had a six foot tall bo staff.

“Cool,” Duo breathed, crawling out of bed and standing tall,
setting the bo staff on the floor. He wrapped it twice against
the floor, expecting it to retract. Instead, there was a slick
shink of noise that indicated a blade was being drawn, and the
curved blade flipped out from the top of the staff, curved to
a deadly point.

“A scythe...” Duo whispered. “Heero, you know me so well it’s
almost scary.” With three more raps against the floorboard,
the scythe became an unassuming cylinder object once again.

He didn’t just like his gift. He freaking loved it, and he was
planning to show Heero just how much he appreciated his new
present.

END CHAPTER FOURTEEN

(1) Um, if memory serves correctly, “wu” means five and “fei”
actually has three or four meanings. One of them is “dragon”
(I think?). Another, more amusing meaning is “concubine.”

(2) True holiday that was, hm, Monday, I think. Apparently the
Official Holiday Maker-Upers thought that everything in the
news was making everyone batty, so to counter that, they
invented Talk Like A Pirate Day to make everything seem funny.
Know what I thought was funny? Pirates, being unscrupulous
thieves that sailed the seven seas who killed anyone they
wanted, took what they wanted, and had sex with whomever they
wanted... and now they’re used as a humorous means of
distracting everyone from all the terrible news. Priceless
irony there -life’s just full of it. What it’s full of...
well, won’t go there. :grins:

(3) Kudos to whoever recognizes the popular cult classic Happy
Tree Friends. You few are officially on my cool list. If you
haven’t had the pleasure of watching a few episodes of cute,
adorable furry cartoon animals dying painful, graphic, and
often gruesome deaths, I’m deeply ashamed. If you have G4TV,
otherwise known as the gaming network, home of such shows as
Attack of the Show! and X-Play, you’re in luck; Happy Tree
Friends and Friends plays ever Wednesday night at midnight
(11:00 p.m. central). It re-airs at 3:00 a.m. (2:00 a.m.
central). Watch it and be merry. If you don’t have it, feel
free to scrounge up enough cash and head off to your nearest
Hot Topic -or any other punk store where they sale smarmy
black t-shirts, wicked punk accessories, garage band shirts,
and Hello! Kitty accessories. (Because, for reasons I’ve yet
to find out, Hello! Kitty is just so popular in the grung/punk
world...)

(4) I don’t remember when the pacifist Heero Yuy was
assassinated, so the date might by off by a longshot. My bad.

(5) Would you laugh at me if I admitted that the anchorwoman’s
name was originally Katrina? Would you laugh if I admitted I
live in Louisiana? Would you giggle about me changing her name
because of Hurricane Katrina? You can if you want. I kind of
sheepishly giggled at myself.
- 13
- 14
- 15
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Harry Potter and the Secret Link