Finders, Keepers

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Gundam Wing. I am making no money from this work of fanfiction. Also, in chapter 6, the lyrics to the song that Harry sings are also not mine—they belong to J.K. Rowling.

Summary: The war is over, and Harry has made a startling discovery: he has an older brother, who is a Muggle (most likely), who was adopted away before he was ever born. Crossover with Gundam Wing. Pairing: Heero/Harry Post DH (no epilogue), and Endless Waltz


Finders, Keepers
Chapter 6

“Hehehe,” Harry snickered, smothering his laugh into his hand.

After their “manly” bonding moment—Wufei refused to call it anything else—Harry had confessed to having never seen a movie before. Wufei found that odd. If Harry had been a purebred wizard or raised in a magical home, then it would be expected that he hadn’t experienced normal things like “Spaceballs 3000: Rise of the Killer Fembot,” which they were unfortunately now watching. But Harry had been raised by normal—“Muggle”—people, in a regular house in England.

Cho told Wufei that Harry had been raised by some of his mother’s relatives, who were Muggles. Harry confirmed this by his ability to use modern technology. Most of the purebreds Wufei met in his own family were fascinated with things as simple as batteries and a flashlight. Harry reacted to everything as a normal person would—like the electric lights, central heat, and refrigerators were an everyday part of life.

But he had never watched a movie, and was in fact drawn in by this ridiculously camp, C-list comedy about bumbling female robots. He reacted like a small child, laughing at every substandard one-liner, fascinated by every scene change. He kept his popcorn close to his mouth, and didn’t take his eyes off the screen.

The movie was one of Duo’s favorites, and Wufei had been made to watch it many a time. It wasn’t very good. But even given the possibility that Harry had a sense of humor as juvenile as his brother’s, that didn’t explain the way he was acting. He didn’t seem to remember that Wufei was even there.

This bore watching.

***

“Oh, Hee-chan, you’re the best friend a guy could ever have!” Duo gushed, jumping off Heero’s desk. They’d worked out everything, and Harry would be locked up tighter than a bank vault. Heero was such a lifesaver!

“Be still, my heart. Your words, they have touched me,” Heero declared in a monotone. “Remember, Harry will be safest for as long as no one knows you’re his brother.”

Duo sighed. He hated that part. He wanted to scream it to the world that he had a baby brother—and look at how cute he is! “Yeah, I know.”

“I know you don’t like it, but it’s very important. No one can hurt him to get to you, if they don’t know he exists,” Heero explained again, in his infinitely rational tone.

“Let ‘em try—I can take anyone.” Duo bared his teeth at the thought of anyone hurting Harry. Why couldn’t the bad guys just sign some kind of villain contract, agreeing not to go after the families and loved ones of the heroes (i.e. Duo and Heero and–oh, those other guys he called friends)? Life would be so much easier if all Duo had to worry about were perverted old men (or perverted young men, or perverted middle-aged men) going “grabby hands” all over his little brother.

That he had to worry about potential assassins or kidnappers out looking for revenge or a bit of quick cash (being a terrorist came with a cash prize, if you were on the winning side) made Duo sick to his stomach.

He would do anything to keep his brother safe. Anything.

“No one outside of these walls will know a thing about Harry,” Duo promised. He turned to face the exit, and pasted a smile on his face. “Now, let’s go make it known that this is to be L4’s best kept secret since a 15 year-old boy tried to blow it up. We can make sure Wufei’s been behaving himself at the same time.”

“Do you think Wufei would try to do anything of a sexual nature to Harry?” Heero sounded worried, the sweet guy. He realized Harry was too young for such escapades, as well. Maybe he would help Duo find a chastity belt in Harry’s size! It would be better than locking Harry in a tall tower, because the colonies had a shortage of castles, being built quite a long time after they were popular.

But, no, Harry wouldn’t like either option, and would probably get quite upset with Duo if he tried it, the silly boy. No, Duo would have to stick to the tried and true method of threatening castration and bodily dismemberment on any man, woman, or child who looked at Harry longer than ten seconds.

Maybe he could get Harry to dress up in a burka. That would get rid of two problems at once. No one would ever see his face, so no criminals would be able to tell who he was when he wore regular clothes. And no one would be able to see even a hint of his body. With both his face and body covered—and his hair, which was very recognizable—no one except the deepest of freaks would feel even the slightest hint of attraction for Harry.

It was the perfect solution, but somehow, Duo knew Harry wouldn’t see it that way. He would probably get offended.

“C’mon, ‘Ro, let’s go to the TV Room.”

Heero grunted, but Duo could hear his footsteps following as he left. It made him smile—Heero was so sweet when he pretended not to care

***

Heero walked into the TV Room mere moments after Duo. The place was in chaos, and that chaos had a name.

Duo stood perhaps five inches from the lead tech’s face. He was speaking so fast that Heero couldn’t quite catch the content of his words, but the meaning was quite clear—Duo was not happy.

“Sir, it seemed to us to be an innocent gesture,” the tech said. The tech—Chris, if Heero remembered correctly—wasn’t a big guy, and had no experience in the war or the following conflicts. He had obviously made it into the Maguanacs on his technical skills alone. He had no training on how to deal with an irate Duo Maxwell.

“If you put it in the logbook, you obviously must have thought it had some significance,” Duo growled.

Heero would have to step in.

Again.

“What is the problem?” Heero inquired. He put a hand on Duo’s shoulder, and slowly drew him back, making it seem to onlookers to be Duo’s choice.

Relief flooded the technician’s face. He turned all his attention on Heero. “There was a possible incident about twenty minutes ago, involving Wufei Chang and Harry Potter.”

“And they didn’t come get me right away!” Duo yelled. He flexed his shoulder under Heero’s hand, but did not move away.

Heero squeezed his shoulder. “Duo,” he said. That was all he needed to say—Duo understood what he meant.

“Yeah, fine,” Duo snarled. “Go ahead with your side, you useless, incompetent. . .” He viciously bit his lip and looked away.

Chris glanced at Duo and hesitated. Visibly gathering his courage—he must have learned well from the other “Maxwell Incidents”—he turned to Heero. “Thanks. Uh, as I was saying. Approximately twenty—I supposed twenty-five minutes, now—Janice, who watches the East Wing, reported a possible incident in the third corridor, between Wufei Chang and Harry Potter. She recorded the incident in her logbook, as “possible sexual indecency,” in accordance with Mr. Maxwell’s revised guidelines regarding his brother.”

“You changed the guidelines?” Heero asked Duo. He wasn’t sure why he was surprised—it was what he would have done in Duo’s position. “What did you change them to?”

“I—I made them more appropriate,” Duo huffed. “They weren’t strict enough. I mean—look, it only included sexual harassment, force, or “nonconsenting parties.” That didn’t cover enough!”

“No, of course not,” Heero agreed. He wasn’t sure how well he actually agreed—but, of course, Harry was a child and needed to be protected against sexual predators. Heero felt predatory when he looked at Harry—surely, other people did as well. People who would act on those feelings.

Without acknowledging his friend’s words, he turned back to the technician. “What exactly happened between Wufei and Harry?” he asked.

“Oh!” Chris jumped. “Harry—M-Mr. Potter,” he stuttered when Duo glared at him. “Mr. Potter initiated a close-body embrace with Mr. Chang. They held the embrace for several seconds, and then separated.”

“That—that--*that* tried to cop a feel, didn’t he?” Duo accused, pointing at the technician, who took a step back.

“Mr. Chang’s hands stayed above waist level at all times, which is the generally accepted standard for appropriate conduct,” Chris answered.

“Then why was it even reported?” Duo demanded.

“Because you don’t accept the general standards,” Heero said, before the technician could. “Do you still have the footage of the. . .incident?” Heero directed this to Chris.

“Yeah, yeah, of course, Mr. Yuy,” he said. “I even made sure Janice backed it up, since it’s in the incident reports.”

“Great.” Heero bared his teeth. He gripped Duo’s shoulder harder. “Could we perhaps see this footage, before my colleague has an apoplectic fit.”

The technician’s eyes widened and darted to Duo. “I—yes, of course. Just follow me.”

He darted off to a back room, and Heero had to restrain Duo as they followed, so he wouldn’t attempt to bound forward and cross 50 feet in three great leaps.

***

“That was a great movie, wasn’t it, Wufei!” Harry gushed, turning in his theater-style seat to face the other. He hung over the arm to see Wufei better. He had sat three seats away, for some reason.

“Yeah,” Wufei grunted noncommittally. “What we saw of it, anyway.”

Harry twisted right-way around in his seat, feeling guilty. About half an hour into the film, the screen died. The overhead lights, which were set to come on automatically when the film went off, did not, in fact, come on. Except for the emergency lights running across the walls, it was pitch black.

The movie—and everything else—died at a very funny scene. The robot princess was trying to disguise herself as human and walk amongst the populace. It didn’t work and, of course, hijinks ensued. It was such a different form of humor than what he was used to, he just couldn’t stop laughing.

Then the screen died, and things weren’t so funny anymore.

Apparently, even his good moods destroyed things, now. That had never happened before.

Frustrated—with his magic and everything else—Harry whirled back around to Wufei. He could barely see him in the dim theater. “Do you want to get out of here—go do something else until Duo’s done with Heero? I don’t think the lights are going to come back while I’m here.”

“You mean you. . .?” Wufei asked, then jumped up. “Yeah, let’s leave. I didn’t much like that movie, anyway. Danai’s earlier work was much better.”

Harry didn’t even pretend to understand that. He snagged his half-eaten bowl of popcorn and jogged up to the closed doors. He grabbed one of the handles and tugged on it. Nothing happened—it refused to budge. He let go and grabbed the handle to the other door. It wouldn’t open, either.

“Is there a problem?” Wufei asked, having taken a more leisurely pace in the dark.

“The door won’t open,” Harry said, blushing. He was going to be so embarrassed if they pushed open instead of pulled.

Wufei frowned and tried the handle of the left door, then the right. They remained closed. Wufei pushed at them, as well, but they still wouldn’t open.

“Shit,” Wufei swore, startling Harry.

He had never heard Wufei curse before. Granted, he had only known Wufei for a little over a day, but Harry got the impression that he didn’t often use fowl language.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked. “Are the doors stuck?”

Wufei huffed, and dropped to the ground, crossing his legs in front of him. “Worse. Locked.” He arranged himself in a comfortable position, and motioned for Harry to sit, as well. “It’s a security precaution. Most of the doors and windows of the place have an electric current going through them. When locked, only a key or password will open them.

“In the event that unsavory persons enter the grounds and shut off the electricity—which has been tried before—all entryways are set to lock everyone in, in the even of a blackout.”

“So, we’re locked in until the lights come back on?” Harry asked, playing with the carpet under his fingers.”

“That’s correct.” Wufei leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

“Shite,” Harry said. He hated dark, unfamiliar places.

They were going to be here forever.

***

“That was clearly not innocent,” Duo argued with anyone who would listen.

There were several people in the room, besides himself and Heero. Chris What’shisface, the guy in charge of the TV Room; Janice Something-or-Other, who reported the incidents; Rashid, who was trying to mediate; and a gaggle of other Maguanacs who really had no business being there, but always seemed to congregate whenever Duo raised his voice.

“Duo, I think Mr. Perelli and Ms. Walker were correct in logging the incident for future review,” Rashid explained patiently. “Your brother was in no immediate danger from Wufei.”

One of the mid-level Maguanacs ran in, out of breath and panting. Duo ignored him—he was one of the crowd who liked to watch the sparks fly.

“Maybe not from your lax up standards,” Duo retorted, “but I—“

“Sirs!” the young man who had just come in shouted, saluting. “There is a situation in the East Wing, second through fifth corridors.”

Duo whipped around. Second through fifth? Harry was there! He was last seen in the third corridor!

“What’s going on?” Duo demanded, advancing on the messenger. “Where is my brother?”

Heero smacked an arm across Duo’s chest, effectively stopping him.

Heero looked intently at the messenger, his face expressionless.

“What code?” Rashid asked, his hand clenching at his side.

“Grey Four,” the young man answered, and Duo flinched. Grey Four was just a little better than Black One—complete power loss in the effected area. At Grey Four there might be some power, but not a lot, and enemy infiltration was suspected but not confirmed.

“What’s the Lock-Out stage?” Heero asked, letting go of Duo. They began to hurry to Hub One, where everyone would be reporting.

“Still in Stage One,” the messenger replied. “It only happened about five minutes ago.”

“What caused the outage?” Duo asked, running up to a station. The tech was running a sequence of diagnostics that, frankly, made Duo’s head hurt.

“Unknown,” the messenger replied. “We believe it to be outside forces, and not a glitch in the system. The blackout happened in too specific an area for it to be coincidence. The disturbance is a perfect circle, only five hundred feet in diameter, surrounding Theater One.”

“Is anyone located in Theater One?” Rashid questioned.

“Yes,” the messenger said. “Wufei Chang and Harry Potter were seen there immediately prior to the situation.”

Shit, Duo thought.

Rashid began giving orders, gathering the necessary people and equipment so they could override the security commands and retrieve everyone who had been caught in the affected areas. Duo barely heard him—he couldn’t move.

Shit.

They were going after Harry. Duo’s enemies had come to take his little brother away. This would be the perfect time to do it. With everyone scrambling to fix the problem, no one would notice one young man leaving the grounds.

Shit.

He should have seen this before—the way the cameras fizzed out around Harry. Only around Harry. Obviously, these people—whoever they were; there were so many to choose from, given Duo’s track record—had been able to find out who he was, and were able to track his location.

Shit.

If they had technology that advanced, Harry could already be gone. The messenger had come to them over five minutes ago, close to ten. There was no telling how long before that the blackout actually occurred. He wouldn’t have wanted to report a minor variance in the system to Rashid. It could have been upwards of ten, fifteen minutes.

Shit.

“We have to find Harry,” Duo pleaded, grabbing Heero’s forearms. “I’m going to look for him—you make sure nobody leaves the premises. Don’t trust the cameras.”

“I’ll post guards at all exits, and around the grounds,” Heero said. He broke away from Duo and went to organize that. He would make sure Harry didn’t leave the mansion—if he were still here, that is.

Duo bit his lip and ran to Rashid. “I’m going with you to the East Wing,” he said.

Rashid looked away from his subordinate to Duo. “Fine. You will follow procedure.”

“Of course,” Duo agreed. He reserved the right to go back on that, if and when it was needed.

***

“Said "Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees, and I turned to a gibbering wreck,” Harry sang. He trailed off in mid-song, and looked at Wufei, who appeared to be sleeping. He bit his lip. “I—I could try opening the door with magic.”

“Don’t,” Wufei said, his chin resting on is chest and his eyes closed. “You’d probably fry the circuitry, and then we’d be in here for days. Not to mention, we’d have to come up with some logical explanation as to what happened. I don’t think Quatre will believe that we started a small fire with only the seats and your popcorn.”

“I guess not,” Harry said. He bit his thumb, looking around as well as he could in the dark. The electricity had been out for twenty minutes, and he was getting bored. The lights didn’t show any sign of coming on anytime soon.

Harry went exploring down the aisles. He’d never been to a real theater before, so he might as well take the chance to check this one out, while he had it. He could impress Mr. Weasley with his knowledge of Muggle structures, the next time they saw each other.

“How long until the rescue team gets here?” Harry called, poking the film screen. He wondered if there was anything behind it.

“In situations like this, it can take up to an hour. They have to assume enemy infiltration.”

Harry winced. He’d caused a lot of trouble. Duo was probably worried.

“How long will it take for them to rule that out?” Harry turned to face a monster poster that someone—most likely Duo—had hung on the wall. It was of a pre-colony film monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. There were similar posters hung up all down the wall.

“They won’t know for sure until they’ve checked every room in the mansion and accounted for every missing person. Even then, they won’t be sure.”

“I could—I could tell them it was my fault,” Harry offered. He didn’t want to, but he felt like he should.

“That might work—but it could be more trouble than it’s worth. You would have to convince Rashid and his staff you were telling the truth, and that would take some time,” Wufei said. “Besides, is that really the way you want Duo to find out about magic?”

Harry sighed, and made his way back to Wufei. “No,” he answered, slumping down beside him. “If I have to tell him at all, I’d rather wait until we were alone, and show him something amazing. That’s how you’re supposed to learn about magic.”

“Is that what happened with you?” Wufei asked. “My experience was slightly different.”

“Sort of—one of my school staff showed up at the house my relatives and I were staying at, and gave my cousin a pig’s tail. That was pretty neat.”

Harry and Dudley got along fairly well these days, but that would always be one of Harry’s favorite memories.

“What about you?” he asked. “How’d you learn about magic?” He’d been doing most of the talking, and it made him self-conscious.

“I tracked down my relatives after the war—the ones who’d stayed on Earth,” Wufei said. He shifted, pushing his legs flat to the ground. “My entire colony was lost during the war, and with it, all the family I knew. After the Marimeia incident, I wanted to feel like I belonged somewhere. I wanted a family.

“I joined the Preventors, and using their resources, I was able to track down a very distant cousin of mine. He was a half-blood—his mother was a Muggle. He went to a Muggle school when he was a child, so he was in the system. He had a daughter only a few years younger than me—Cho.

“After exchanging several rounds of email with him, and meeting once in a public place, he invited me to his home. At the time, I still was unaware of the existence of magic.”

“What happened?” Harry asked. He’d never been told how someone else had been introduced to magic. Not even Hermione had talked about it. Harry had never thought to ask.

Wufei smiled. “I got to the house and knocked on the door. I remember thinking how strange it was that they didn’t have a doorbell. The man—Lee—answered and yelled for his daughter to come down and meet me. There was a loud racket, and a banging loud enough to be a heard of buffalo stampeding toward the stairs.

“Just when she got far enough to the landing that I could see her, she tripped. Her father grabbed this stick—his wand—and floated her down. The kid didn’t even have a scratch on her when he laid her on the couch.”

Harry smiled. “That must have given you quite a start.”

“Yeah,, I—do you hear that banging?” Wufei jumped to his feet and rushed to the door. He banged on it with both fists. “We’re in here! We’re in the theater!”

A loud voice boomed from the other side—through either a microphone or loudspeaker. “Identify yourselves.”

“I’m Wufei Chang!” He shouted. “Harry Potter is here with me. It’s only the two of us!”

“Harry? Are you okay?” The voice was different this time. It was Duo!

Harry surged to his feet and ran to Wufei’s side. “I’m fine!” he shouted. “We’re both all right!”

“Great!” Duo shouted, and Harry winced. Even through the door, it was too loud. “Stand back; we’re going to break the doors down!”

Wufei grabbed Harry and hauled him away from the doors. “We’re clear!” he yelled.

The walls shuttered as the doors were hit. The noise was very loud, and Harry saw some plaster fall from the ceiling. After less than a dozen strikes, the doors bent inward. Only a few moments later, the entryway had been cleared away, and Duo was striding towards Harry, who was still in the corner with Wufei.

Duo grabbed Harry, and pulled him into his arms. “I was so worried,” Duo said, hugging Harry tight enough to bruise. Harry’s shoulder felt wet where Duo’s head rested. He didn’t mention either fact.

Harry brought his arms around Duo’s shoulders and hugged him back. “I’m okay, Duo. I’m okay,” he said. “Nothing happened. I’m perfectly safe.”