Welcome to Lightman's Group, Wizarding Branch
folder
Harry Potter Crossovers › Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
3
Views:
2,712
Reviews:
6
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter Crossovers › Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult
Chapters:
3
Views:
2,712
Reviews:
6
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter or any of his characters. I don't own Lie to Me, either. I (sadly) do not make any profit from this.
How did I get roped into this?
Chapter 2: How did I get roped into this?
Sometimes Harry hated the World at large. Wizards and muggles alike, they had all hurt him, they had all lied to him. He didn't want to become a cynic, not in the way Cal did, but knowing the truth, knowing when someone was lying, was more of a curse than a blessing, at least until he found Loker.
He hadn't told anyone, of course –at first. He had always been able to read other people, as far a his memory went, and that may have been the only reason he survived his childhood–knowing enough to avoid some of Vernon's beatings, knowing when it was better to run or sit or be quiet or just stand still and take it. Knowing when to make himself scarce, and when to be on hand. It may not have stopped the abuse, but it had made it somehow bearable. Seeing the disgust in Petunia's eyes, and something else –fear?- that he hadn't understood at first, a mystery that had remained unsolved until Hogwarts. Seeing the small shake of his uncle's head as he told Petunia he had been working late, and knowing he had been somewhere else.
Catching the tiny, brief signals that broke down the world he lived in and reconstructed it again, somewhat differently.
Knowing that when his primary teacher, Miss White, asked about his bruises, she didn't really want to know. Answering he had fallen down the stairs. The brief flash on relief on her face before it was masked.
He should have hated the world, he mused, during his childhood. Between the Dursleys and just knowing the skeletons on everyone's closets, it would have been easy. But he saw other things, too. He saw happiness, and kindness, and little white lies too, to avoid hurting others.
And then, at Hogwarts, he kept seeing through everyone's lies. He had hoped it would be just a wizard thing, being able to catch lies. It seemed it wasn't. Ronald's fake surprise at the train told him everything he needed to know. Hagrid's forced words, which seemed unnatural, as if rehearsed, spoke to him about the role he was expected to play. Hermione's most obvious smugness, the small trace of contempt she often tried to hide when around both Ron and himself –well, it did give the game away. He had been surprised by many things –how come no-one saw through Quirrel's act? It was so obvious to him it must have been noticeable to everyone else, too- but he played along. He had learned, from an early age, not to stand out, and so he forced himself to act in the role he'd been assigned.
It did help him, though. Some people had proven to be more difficult than others to read –Snape and Dumbledore being the most glaring examples- but with time and effort he had managed to crack them down. He had been shocked by what he found –Snape had been quite convincing in pretending to hate him, after all, and Dumbledore's grandfatherly facade had been quite the work of art- but he had kept behaving as was expected of him, working on his spare time on finding a way to stop Voldemort from coming back.
Ignoring the warning signs of both the youngest Weasley's possession and Mad Eye Moody's impersonator had proven a grueling task, but he had managed.
Taking both Hermione and Ron with him as he searched for the Horcruxes, however, had proven to be too much for him, and so he had played on both their personalities to get them to leave by their own volition. He had finished the hunt by himself, performed a complicated ritual in order to rid himself of Voldemort's soul –he wasn't about to kill himself, after all, he wasn't that desperate- and then faced the snake-faced man on the battlefield. Voldemort had been the only person ever he hadn't managed to read, his serpentine features too alien for him to get a grip on. Defeating the man had proven arduous, but he did it, and duty done he walked away from the war and disappeared into the muggle world.
He had been through so much, he just wanted to rest. Lead a calm, peaceful life.
He couldn't stay in England –too much of a chance of being found- so he moved to the States, and somehow found himself living in Washington D.C.
Not having any formal education, he got a job as a waiter in a small cafe near his tiny apartment. He may not need the money, but working gave him something to do, and if there was something he hated it was sitting, hand on hand, doing nothing.
That was how he met Loker. He had been working, as usual on Monday mornings.
He was handing a guy his latte when the man turned, checked him out and blurted out: 'I would like to sleep with you.'
To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Something in the way he said it, though, stopped him from punching the guy and walking away in a huff. There was nothing concealed in his face, or his body, or words, just...truth. That kind of things didn't happen; there was always something concealed, no matter how little.
He had given Loker the time to explain himself and had quickly been introduced to the concept of "radical honesty", as Loker liked to call it.
Work had soon put an end to their conversation, but the following day Loker came back for another latte, and in a matter of days he had become a regular.
Things like "You have beautiful eyes and horrid glasses" didn't surprise him anymore. Neither did Loker pointing at someone and saying "I would like to sleep with her, too". In fact, he had become used to Loker's radical honesty almost too fast. It was just so refreshing, so freeing.
In less than a month, they had become the best of friends.
Two months later, Loker introduced him to his boss, Cal Lightman. Well, if you can call saying "Want to get Gillian off your back? Here's the solution to all your problems" introducing someone. Cal's response of "That midget?" had't been very flattering, either.
It seems Dr. Foster had been pressing Cal into hiring another person for Lightman's Group's lie-detection staff, and despite Cal's contempt for naturals, he had said he'd think about it. During the course of the following week he had surreptitiously tested Harry on his deception-detecting skills.
Thoroughly satisfied, the man had decided the young wizard –though at the time, he didn't know that- was the best candidate to the post, and offered him the job. Though annoyed at Cal's antics, he had jumped at the opportunity, as he had grown quite bored serving tables and was ready to move on. Working with Loker was just a convenient coincidence. Really.
Even if he took the job, he hadn't been all that interested in the job itself at first. He reluctantly admired Cal's ability, that's true, but that didn't mean he wanted to be like him. And then, when the man started irritating him a little too much with his snide contempt –well, at least his face did- and he went to Loker to vent, he had the gall to say "That's because you're uneducated(1). Hey, don't look at me like that. You're a natural. The few naturals Lightman's come across have one thing in common: No college degree. You haven't been asked to focus on verbal skills, so you focus on body language.(2)"
And for some reason he didn't want to dwell on, that little comment had spurred him into studying the science behind what he had been doing for his whole life. It felt good, studying for himself at last, being able to do as well or as badly as he wanted, not having to keep an eye on how people saw his learning. It was liberating, and strangely fulfilling.
Cal, of course, hadn't been very impressed with his new found knowledge, but as he progressed the man had grown to tolerate him, and dare he think about it, even like him.
Maybe he should have thought about it more in depth before accepting the job, because really, if being a wizard wasn't a huge secret he didn't know what was, and being in close quarters with Lightman five days a week was cutting it close. Less than a year had passed by the time Cal had forced him into spitting it out.
To Harry's surprise, it didn't get spread around. The only people ever told were Gillian and Loker, and the three of them didn't seem upset about it. Gillian had even considered opening up to the wizarding market, until Harry told her about veritaserum. The stuff couldn't be used in muggles –it required a minimum amount of magic to work, and so was ok for squibs but useless for muggles- but it worked fine for the Wizarding World. Harry had kept in touch with the Wizarding World via The Daily Prophet and that was it. Not much changed after the revelation, and though it had been rather anticlimactic, it was just perfect for Harry.
That is, until rumors started to run rampant about some people being immune to the potion. Incredible as it may seem, some wizards proved to be able to overcome the stuff. Potion's Masters around the globe were puzzled, desperately trying to figure out how they did it. All trials were set on hold until veritaserum could be trusted. Two months after the breakthrough, they were as clueless as when they started.
Seeing as the Group was having some financial problems, Gillian and Cal talked to Harry about creating a Wizarding Branch, and while Harry would have rather given the money to them –he had enough for a couple lifetimes- he understood. They contacted Griphook, his account manager, and set things up for everything to be clean and legal. Three months after the breakthrough, Lightman's Group made the front page of the Prophet as they opened to the Wizarding World. Their first jobs were in the USA, then Mexico and Brazil, followed by France, Spain and Italy. England had been the last (to date) to hire their services, and Harry was quite annoyed over the results. Yes, he was Harry Potter. He had saved them from Voldemort. Couldn't they freaking get over it and start reading through the brochures?
----------
(1) and (2) are direct quotes from the Show.
I know this chapter is a bit boring -but I thought an explanation was necessary as to how Harry ended up working for Cal.
IMP: FROM NOW ON, REVIEW ANSWERS, A/N AND DISCUSSION OF PAIRINGS, FICS, ETC. WILL TAKE IN MY BLOG: (We've been asked not to answer so many reviews, etc. on the actual chapters)
http://akasha-aff.blogspot.com/
Thank you and see you there!
Sometimes Harry hated the World at large. Wizards and muggles alike, they had all hurt him, they had all lied to him. He didn't want to become a cynic, not in the way Cal did, but knowing the truth, knowing when someone was lying, was more of a curse than a blessing, at least until he found Loker.
He hadn't told anyone, of course –at first. He had always been able to read other people, as far a his memory went, and that may have been the only reason he survived his childhood–knowing enough to avoid some of Vernon's beatings, knowing when it was better to run or sit or be quiet or just stand still and take it. Knowing when to make himself scarce, and when to be on hand. It may not have stopped the abuse, but it had made it somehow bearable. Seeing the disgust in Petunia's eyes, and something else –fear?- that he hadn't understood at first, a mystery that had remained unsolved until Hogwarts. Seeing the small shake of his uncle's head as he told Petunia he had been working late, and knowing he had been somewhere else.
Catching the tiny, brief signals that broke down the world he lived in and reconstructed it again, somewhat differently.
Knowing that when his primary teacher, Miss White, asked about his bruises, she didn't really want to know. Answering he had fallen down the stairs. The brief flash on relief on her face before it was masked.
He should have hated the world, he mused, during his childhood. Between the Dursleys and just knowing the skeletons on everyone's closets, it would have been easy. But he saw other things, too. He saw happiness, and kindness, and little white lies too, to avoid hurting others.
And then, at Hogwarts, he kept seeing through everyone's lies. He had hoped it would be just a wizard thing, being able to catch lies. It seemed it wasn't. Ronald's fake surprise at the train told him everything he needed to know. Hagrid's forced words, which seemed unnatural, as if rehearsed, spoke to him about the role he was expected to play. Hermione's most obvious smugness, the small trace of contempt she often tried to hide when around both Ron and himself –well, it did give the game away. He had been surprised by many things –how come no-one saw through Quirrel's act? It was so obvious to him it must have been noticeable to everyone else, too- but he played along. He had learned, from an early age, not to stand out, and so he forced himself to act in the role he'd been assigned.
It did help him, though. Some people had proven to be more difficult than others to read –Snape and Dumbledore being the most glaring examples- but with time and effort he had managed to crack them down. He had been shocked by what he found –Snape had been quite convincing in pretending to hate him, after all, and Dumbledore's grandfatherly facade had been quite the work of art- but he had kept behaving as was expected of him, working on his spare time on finding a way to stop Voldemort from coming back.
Ignoring the warning signs of both the youngest Weasley's possession and Mad Eye Moody's impersonator had proven a grueling task, but he had managed.
Taking both Hermione and Ron with him as he searched for the Horcruxes, however, had proven to be too much for him, and so he had played on both their personalities to get them to leave by their own volition. He had finished the hunt by himself, performed a complicated ritual in order to rid himself of Voldemort's soul –he wasn't about to kill himself, after all, he wasn't that desperate- and then faced the snake-faced man on the battlefield. Voldemort had been the only person ever he hadn't managed to read, his serpentine features too alien for him to get a grip on. Defeating the man had proven arduous, but he did it, and duty done he walked away from the war and disappeared into the muggle world.
He had been through so much, he just wanted to rest. Lead a calm, peaceful life.
He couldn't stay in England –too much of a chance of being found- so he moved to the States, and somehow found himself living in Washington D.C.
Not having any formal education, he got a job as a waiter in a small cafe near his tiny apartment. He may not need the money, but working gave him something to do, and if there was something he hated it was sitting, hand on hand, doing nothing.
That was how he met Loker. He had been working, as usual on Monday mornings.
He was handing a guy his latte when the man turned, checked him out and blurted out: 'I would like to sleep with you.'
To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Something in the way he said it, though, stopped him from punching the guy and walking away in a huff. There was nothing concealed in his face, or his body, or words, just...truth. That kind of things didn't happen; there was always something concealed, no matter how little.
He had given Loker the time to explain himself and had quickly been introduced to the concept of "radical honesty", as Loker liked to call it.
Work had soon put an end to their conversation, but the following day Loker came back for another latte, and in a matter of days he had become a regular.
Things like "You have beautiful eyes and horrid glasses" didn't surprise him anymore. Neither did Loker pointing at someone and saying "I would like to sleep with her, too". In fact, he had become used to Loker's radical honesty almost too fast. It was just so refreshing, so freeing.
In less than a month, they had become the best of friends.
Two months later, Loker introduced him to his boss, Cal Lightman. Well, if you can call saying "Want to get Gillian off your back? Here's the solution to all your problems" introducing someone. Cal's response of "That midget?" had't been very flattering, either.
It seems Dr. Foster had been pressing Cal into hiring another person for Lightman's Group's lie-detection staff, and despite Cal's contempt for naturals, he had said he'd think about it. During the course of the following week he had surreptitiously tested Harry on his deception-detecting skills.
Thoroughly satisfied, the man had decided the young wizard –though at the time, he didn't know that- was the best candidate to the post, and offered him the job. Though annoyed at Cal's antics, he had jumped at the opportunity, as he had grown quite bored serving tables and was ready to move on. Working with Loker was just a convenient coincidence. Really.
Even if he took the job, he hadn't been all that interested in the job itself at first. He reluctantly admired Cal's ability, that's true, but that didn't mean he wanted to be like him. And then, when the man started irritating him a little too much with his snide contempt –well, at least his face did- and he went to Loker to vent, he had the gall to say "That's because you're uneducated(1). Hey, don't look at me like that. You're a natural. The few naturals Lightman's come across have one thing in common: No college degree. You haven't been asked to focus on verbal skills, so you focus on body language.(2)"
And for some reason he didn't want to dwell on, that little comment had spurred him into studying the science behind what he had been doing for his whole life. It felt good, studying for himself at last, being able to do as well or as badly as he wanted, not having to keep an eye on how people saw his learning. It was liberating, and strangely fulfilling.
Cal, of course, hadn't been very impressed with his new found knowledge, but as he progressed the man had grown to tolerate him, and dare he think about it, even like him.
Maybe he should have thought about it more in depth before accepting the job, because really, if being a wizard wasn't a huge secret he didn't know what was, and being in close quarters with Lightman five days a week was cutting it close. Less than a year had passed by the time Cal had forced him into spitting it out.
To Harry's surprise, it didn't get spread around. The only people ever told were Gillian and Loker, and the three of them didn't seem upset about it. Gillian had even considered opening up to the wizarding market, until Harry told her about veritaserum. The stuff couldn't be used in muggles –it required a minimum amount of magic to work, and so was ok for squibs but useless for muggles- but it worked fine for the Wizarding World. Harry had kept in touch with the Wizarding World via The Daily Prophet and that was it. Not much changed after the revelation, and though it had been rather anticlimactic, it was just perfect for Harry.
That is, until rumors started to run rampant about some people being immune to the potion. Incredible as it may seem, some wizards proved to be able to overcome the stuff. Potion's Masters around the globe were puzzled, desperately trying to figure out how they did it. All trials were set on hold until veritaserum could be trusted. Two months after the breakthrough, they were as clueless as when they started.
Seeing as the Group was having some financial problems, Gillian and Cal talked to Harry about creating a Wizarding Branch, and while Harry would have rather given the money to them –he had enough for a couple lifetimes- he understood. They contacted Griphook, his account manager, and set things up for everything to be clean and legal. Three months after the breakthrough, Lightman's Group made the front page of the Prophet as they opened to the Wizarding World. Their first jobs were in the USA, then Mexico and Brazil, followed by France, Spain and Italy. England had been the last (to date) to hire their services, and Harry was quite annoyed over the results. Yes, he was Harry Potter. He had saved them from Voldemort. Couldn't they freaking get over it and start reading through the brochures?
----------
(1) and (2) are direct quotes from the Show.
I know this chapter is a bit boring -but I thought an explanation was necessary as to how Harry ended up working for Cal.
IMP: FROM NOW ON, REVIEW ANSWERS, A/N AND DISCUSSION OF PAIRINGS, FICS, ETC. WILL TAKE IN MY BLOG: (We've been asked not to answer so many reviews, etc. on the actual chapters)
http://akasha-aff.blogspot.com/
Thank you and see you there!