Hanging By A Moment

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own anything to do with Harry Potter or with Gundam Wing. I am not getting paid for this in any way, it’s merely for entertainment purposes.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story contains slash which means male/male pairings and is a Harry Potter/Gundam Wing crossover.

There’s been a lot of anticipation for this chapter, I hope it lives up to the hype!

0 0 0

Harry felt numb from the tips of his toes to the roots of his hair. It was hard not to daze out, and only the extra weight on the back of his broom kept him from doing that and most likely plummeting to his doom. The arms tightened around his waist as he spiraled up and into the clouds overhead, spotting the lights of a town beneath them.

Though the mist that washed over his body left no real impression on him, he could feel Wufei behind him shivering violently with every breath he took. Concern for his passenger laced through him, but like everything else that happened around him, the feeling was muted, pale and colorless, disappearing almost as soon as it came.

At one time the thought of taking Chang Wufei out for a ride on his Firebolt would have excited him. It wasn’t often he got the chance to really impress the Chinese pilot, and flying was one of his only real talents. Not even 5 hours ago he had entertained the idea of actually seeing a real smile cross Wufei’s face when they flew. Now he was very impressive, acting like a headcase.

Tilting the broom slightly, he tried to resist the urge to swoop into a dive, not sure what the extra weight of Wufei would do to his timing. They poked out of the clouds, taking a good look at where they were, following the remains of a familiar train track. Harry didn’t know if it was still impossible to apparate to Hogwarts…most likely the enchantments had been destroyed long before if what he had heard was true, but he hadn’t been willing to test the theory.

From the moment that he had mounted his first broomstick, flying had been his passion, the one thing he could lose himself in. When he was on his broom, there was nothing but him, the air and the rush. When he was on his broom, he could just be HARRY, could forget everything that was troubling him. In the wake of the news he had received, Harry needed this flight more than he needed food, water or air to breathe. The icy air kept him sane.

Wufei shivered behind him again, though he didn’t say a word. Harry knew what the flight had to be doing to the Chinese boy, balanced precariously above the Earth on nothing more than a broomstick, speeding along through the clouds directed by nothing but Harry’s will, and yet Wufei hadn’t uttered one word of complaint.

Harry spiraled down as he spotted the familiar forest beneath him, and his heart contracted painfully at the sight of the trees, charred black and only starting to grow with new life in a few places. He landed with a hard crash that sent them both to the ground, rolling to a halt. Harry glanced to his right, and spotted Wufei getting to his feet, looking a little dazed but not hurt. “Sorry. Wasn’t used to the extra weight.”

Harry could easily imagine what the reactions of his friends might have been at that statement. Fred or George Weasley would have demanded to know if they were fat. Hermione would have merely gone on a rant about why she hated flying, with what had just happened as the newest reason. Ron would have demanded to know why Harry hadn’t tried a Wronski Feint and would have ordered Harry back onto the bloody broomstick.

These thoughts gave him a strong sense of nostalgia, and he nearly fell to his knees beneath the strong emotion. Wufei nodded his acceptance of the apology, eyeing him as if he thought Harry was unbalanced. Harry frowned at Wufei’s concern and picked up his broom. “We walk from here.”

Wufei studied him carefully for a moment before shrugging and falling into step beside him. Wufei broke the silence a minute later. “You want to tell me what’s going on now?”

Harry shook his head, and saw Wufei’s jaw clench. For a moment he wondered if the Chinese boy would attack, he looked that irritated. They walked in silence for another five minutes. The forest around them was silent in an awful way that pressed against Harry’s consciousness until it was nearly a physical weight. He could hear his raspy breath, and knew from the looks Wufei was giving him out of the corner of his eye that he could hear it too.

“I spoke with a few wizards in London. They thought I was the enemy because of this.” He said, noticing the way that Wufei had shivered again. He pulled off his cloak and handed it over, the Hogwarts crest up where the pilot could easily see it. “Put it on.” He said, not looking at his companion. “You look cold.”

He didn’t wait for a reply, the words nearly tumbling out past his lips now that he had finally worked up the nerve to say them. “That’s the monogram of my old school.” Wufei nodded and slipped the cloak over his shoulders, pulling it around his slender body.

“Did you know that this area was bombed?” He asked a moment later, glancing at his companion out of the corner of his eye.

Wufei didn’t look surprised, his face impassive. “It would appear there were several blasts from the looks of the trees.”

His heart tightened at the casual way it was said, and his next words were bitter. “Do you want to know why?”

Wufei glanced at him sharply and frowned. “If you would like to tell me.”

Harry walked steadily, almost wishing he could run into a herd of angry centaurs, wishing he could find a giant spider’s web. The silence was oppressive and he found his breathing getting shallow with every step he took. “For a long time wizards have looked at themselves as outside of muggle affairs. When muggles fought against each other, the wizarding world didn’t get involved. Eventually their refusal earned them hatred.”

Harry paused, trying to get control over his shuddering breath when he saw Wufei looking concerned again. “There are always muggles who know how our world works, you see. They understand the power we command.” He smiled bitterly. “You mentioned that magic seemed like cheating. You were right, Fei.” Wufei glanced at him sharply at the mention of the nickname, but didn’t comment, not that he had much of a chance to get a word in edgewise.

“People like my aunt and uncle. They feared us, resented our presence in a world we didn’t want to help defend. There are always a few who knew where the homes of magical learning are.”

His breath caught in his throat as the trees came to an abrupt end and the pile of rubble ahead came into view, dimly washed in light purple light from the last minutes of twilight. Harry drew in a great, shuddering breath that rattled through his body. “Hogwarts.” It was not so much an explanation to Wufei, but an acknowledgement of the misery rising in his chest.

They walked around the ruin in silence, Harry lost in memories. He barely saw the giant piles of stone rising to kiss the stars that were coming out above them, feeling as if his heart had shattered. The first place he had ever seen as home had been destroyed. The people he had loved were dead, the things that had seemed as if they could outlast time itself had been obliterated, and all that was left was rubble bathed in a cold, forlorn silver.

Harry gasped as arms slid around him from behind. Turning, he pushed against the arms that bound him, panic setting in when they remained like steel and drew him in tightly, effectively blocking any escape left to him. Wufei’s breath flowed over his cold neck like velvet, his voice gentle in Harry’s ear. “Grieve, Harry. Let it out.”

The words spoken so gently acted like a pressure release and his back arched against the strong arms that bound him. His head tilting back to see the tip of the rubble, Harry released the scream of anguish that had been building since he left London. He dissolved in Wufei’s arms, body wracked by heavy sobs, crying for what he had loved in the past and for what he was growing to love in the future.

0 0 0

Wufei tossed a few logs onto the fire he had built, eyeing Harry uneasily. The wizard looked dazed, but the shattered look in his green eyes had solidified, hardened. He hadn’t spoken since his outburst, but no longer looked as if he was in a blind state of panic. Wufei quietly handed him one of the hot dogs Trowa had packed for them, and watched as Harry slid it onto a stick and held it out over the fire, looking at the hot dog with barely concealed disgust.

Wufei could easily concur. He hated hot dogs, a fact he knew Trowa was well aware of and had blatantly ignored. The only reason he now held the food over the fire was because he had the feeling that if he refused to eat, Harry wouldn’t bother eating either…and the wizard looked as if he needed a little food on his stomach.

He jumped when Harry abruptly broke the silence. “Why did you destroy your Gundams?”

Wufei looked at his hot dog in irritation before answering. “It was a sign of trust. When the war ended, Mariemaia destroyed her weapons, even the uniforms of her soldiers. When she destroyed her weapons, we destroyed ours. The war was over, and they trusted we wouldn’t attack on some mission of vengeance.”

Harry frowned, his hands clenched into fists around the stick. “That was stupid.” He whispered.

Wufei scowled at his words. Why was Harry trying to pick a fight? It was the one time that the uneasy tension between them had been broken and here the wizard boy was ready to get into a fight again. Wufei sighed. At least he had the energy to do SOMETHING. “How so?” He asked casually.

Harry’s green eyes blazed into life, and Wufei felt his breath catch in his throat in both relief that Harry felt enough to have this reaction, and the feral beauty in his face. “I told you before that with the responsibility I was born for, there came specific obligations. You and the others were charged with the protection of your people and you allowed that protection to be destroyed.”

Wufei stared at Harry in shock for a long minute, stunned that the wizard had dared say anything like that to him. “Politics dictated the destruction of our weapons. There were no choices, Harry.”

Harry’s eyes flared at him and he dropped the stick and the hot dog into the fire without seeming to notice what he was doing. “YES THERE WAS! There WAS a choice, Wufei! There had to be something else you could do! You gave up the last weapon you might have had to stop what’s coming!”

Wufei was shaken by the desperation in Harry’s voice, and he waited until the wizard had calmed down to speak. “All right, Harry.” He said quietly. “Why don’t you tell me what the hell is going on and do it without the riddles.”

Harry stared into the fire. “What I told you about people resenting our world where things are so easy comparatively was true.” He sighed. “They were destroyed, Fei.” His voice had broken, and Wufei found he didn’t even care that Harry was using a nickname he had forbidden anyone else to ever speak in regards to him. “Ron. Hermione. My friends, the only family I had left. In the explosion of only a few bombs, my past was destroyed.”

Wufei could feel the pain radiating from the wizard in waves and his skin prickled in sympathy for the tension in Harry’s muscles that would hurt in the morning. “Breathe, Harry.”

Harry drew in a shuddery breath. “They were trying to resurrect the school. Hogwarts was one of the most highly regarded schools of magical learning in the world. In the memory of our old headmaster Professor Dumbledore,” His voice broke but he continued to speak though Wufei could tell that each word was almost a physical blow. “they were trying to bring Hogwarts back to life. My best friends, Ron and Hermione, Ron’s siblings, Fred, George, Ginny and Charlie, Blaise Zabini. Some of the brightest minds at the time, though they made more than their share of trouble were willing to try and teach, willing to try and bring normalcy back to a world ravaged by war against the darker side of magic.”

Harry stared at the flames, but didn’t appear to see much of anything before him, his eyes lost in a past Wufei didn’t entirely understand and couldn’t follow him to. “My godparents.” His voice choked and he looked away. “The children weren’t there, were in Diagon Alley with their godfather, a man I had once thought was my enemy.” He gulped. “Draco raised them as best as he could to make up for some of his sins in the past, but the pain remained.”

Harry waved his hand at Wufei. “What we’re dealing with is a bitterness that has been festering like a wound for 400 years waiting for the moment when you would leave your world as vulnerable as ours was when it was destroyed.”

Wufei felt something cold seize his heart and squeeze it. “The Gundams wouldn’t have been able to stop magic.”

Harry inclined an eyebrow in agreement. “You’re right.” He looked at Wufei seriously now. “But the wizards who live here wouldn’t have bothered to try something like that. They had no interest in ruling the world, no interest in destroying your entire existence.” He gulped. “Fei, they waited until they had a way to destroy the human AND the wizard resistance.”

His face had gone dead pale, his eyes haunted. “They’ve been poisoned. Their magic, their essence perhaps. I’m not sure and neither are they. Perhaps my old potions master would recognize the disease they have but I don’t. They’re rotting away, Fei. Their wands are being destroyed and it’s destroying them at the same time. The wizards can’t help us now.”

Ice ran through Wufei’s blood as he realized the magnitude of what Harry was saying. “How many wizards are we facing?”

Harry laughed without mirth. “I have no idea. Neither did they…but the people heading it, the descendants of the people I love…they’re training a new generation in bitterness. They’ll start with the colonies.”

Wufei’s hands clenched into fists. “Are you sure?”

Harry laughed again. “Of course. I wouldn’t be telling you if I wasn’t. The colonies are unprotected, they’re isolated. It’s easy to take over there without anyone interfering.”

Wufei sighed softly. “I’m…sorry for your loss.” He said awkwardly.

Harry smiled at his attempt, and it was the first genuine smile Wufei had seen from him all day. Something in him relaxed at the sight of the smile. “Come on, we should get some sleep before heading back. We’ll find a plan to put a stop to this with as little bloodshed as possible.”

Harry smiled sadly and nodded, looking for more relaxed now that the story had come out. There was still pain in his eyes, but it was a clean pain, without bitterness. It was still raw, still bloody and bruised, but the rot that had been eating away at him had been cleaned out. “I’m sorry.” He said about ten minutes later, holding out yet another hot dog but looking as if it might be more appetizing than he had previously thought. Wufei was pleased to see the boy caring about food, though the hot dog he was now burning still held very little interest to him.

“For what?” Wufei blinked at Harry, frowning at the look in his green eyes.

Harry pulled the stick out of the fire and checked the hot dog with two fingers, putting it back into the fire. “Wasting time like this. Dragging you out here when they could attack anytime.”

Wufei snorted. “Harry, they’re not going to attack in the next 24 hours. If your sources are correct and they’re attacking the colonies first, they’ll wait until the last moment.” He paused as he looked into the bruised green eyes. “You needed time to grieve, Harry. Even soldiers need to grieve. We all have our wounds to try and deal with, why do you think you should be any different?”

The ghost of a smile that appeared on Harry’s tired face made Wufei’s heart skip a beat. “You needed to come here, to see proof if you will. You needed to stand on the stones out there and remember those you loved.” He stretched his arms over his head. “Plus I liked the flying. It was cold but…nice.”

It had been more than nice. Wufei loved flying, and next to his own Gundam, believed that Harry’s broomstick was probably the greatest invention ever created. It was exhilarating to be that high in the air, supported by nothing more than a stick of wood and the abilities of one wizard to keep them from falling.

The pilot of the broom had something to do with his exultation, and he was man enough to admit that. Wufei didn’t believe in deluding himself, in living in fantasies…and the simple fact was that the green eyed wizard had to be the sexiest person on the planet and had no freaking clue. Harry’s grace and agility was only matched by his noble spirit, and Wufei would gladly kill anyone who tried to harm this boy.

Harry grinned and Wufei’s heart nearly stopped. “I was hoping to take you out in better circumstances. Show off a little, impress you.”

Wufei stared. That had not been the response he had been expecting. “Why would you need to impress me?!” He asked in shock.

To his surprise, Harry laughed as he slipped the cooked hot dog into a bun and took a bite. “Let’s see…you make me look like an idiot every morning when you attack me with a sword. All you ever do is snarl at me for something or other, and you ask why I want to impress you?”

Wufei was stunned by this admission. “Harry…”

Harry shook his head. “I guess all I wanted was for you to see MORE than me as a wizard. To see I have some skills outside of waving a wand and making things happen.” He looked away and finished his hot dog.

Wufei stared. Harry had no freaking clue. His reflexes rivaled those of Wufei’s, he could cook like nobody’s business, could calm Duo’s destructive tendencies, had a sensitive heart to match Quatre’s. He was smart, it was easy to hold an intellectual conversation with him….and he was sexy as hell. He shook his head, trying to comprehend Harry’s thought process. “You must be insane.” He replied dully. “You impress me all the time.”

“Yeah, as he guy who can make things appear out of thin air.”

His eyes widening, Wufei understood suddenly. “Don’t be stupid.” His voice was soft. “I’m not like those people who killed your family and friends. When I look at you, I see a man who has courage, brains and a will of iron. The magic I see comes from inside of you, not from the damn wand.”

Harry’s face went pink and he looked away. “Oh.”

Wufei smiled slightly and got up, walking over to the trunk and pulling out the bundle. He swore as he got a good look at what Duo had packed for them. “What?” Harry glanced up from the marshmallow he was roasting, raising one eyebrow. “It’s a sleeping bag. Something wrong with it?”

Damn straight there was something wrong with it. There wasn’t another one in there. Wufei recognized the sleeping bag instantly as one that Heero and Duo commonly shared while on camping trips. He was going to KILL the braided baka when he got home. So lost was he in dreaming up different and much more painful ways to commit homicide, he didn’t even notice Harry walking up beside him. “He forgot to pack another bag, didn’t he?”

Wufei grit his teeth. Yes, it was better to allow Harry the illusion that this was what had happened. “Probably got distracted by something shiny.”

Harry touched his shoulder and he looked into dazzling green eyes. “It’s not a big deal. You have the bag, I’ll take my cloak. It’s not too bad out here.” Yes, it was. The temperature was dropping steadily, and Wufei suspected that it might snow sometime during the night. There was no way in hell he would allow Harry to sleep outside with no cover but a cloak.

“Do me a favor though?” Harry was already crawling beneath the heavy material, sliding closer to the fire. Wufei cursed under his breath. “Don’t kill Duo when we get home, and try not to say anything to hurt him.”

Wufei stared. Harry was going to freeze and he couldn’t even try to kill the braided pilot? “Why?” He demanded.

Harry smiled slightly, hurt in his eyes. “Because you love him even if he is a baka sometimes. Because you’d miss him if he was gone. Don’t cheapen your friendships, Fei. They are sometimes the only things you have left.” He stared out over the rubble, his eyes far away.

Wufei slid into the sleeping bag. “Harry, get in.”

Harry looked startled and blinked over at him. “What?”

Wufei sighed. “You heard me. Get in. It’s the double person sleeping bag Duo and Heero share. He probably packed it to keep us warm.”

Harry frowned, the expression on his face unreadable. “Fei…are you sure?”

Wufei sighed. “Harry, just get in the damn bag already.” He said gruffly. “And bring that cloak. It’ll make a good pillow.”

He bit his lip hard enough to make it bleed to keep from moaning as he felt Harry slide in next to him. Their legs intertwined, and he felt Harry’s body press against his as he zippered the bag closed. The scent of almonds invaded his senses, nearly sending Wufei over the edge of sanity. “Harry, I’m sorry.” He whispered.

Harry turned toward him, and Wufei was lost in the emerald of his eyes, in the feeling of Harry’s chest against his hands. He lowered his head and caught Harry’s lips in a soft kiss. Wufei hadn’t thought there could be anything better than flying, either in a Gundam or on broomstick. He had been wrong. There was nothing better than feeling those soft lips beneath his own, nothing more satisfying than sliding his arms around the body he had dreamed of holding.

For a long moment there was passive acceptance from Harry, too stunned to do much of anything but allow himself to be gathered into an embrace. Wufei was about to pull away and apologize again…and sleep in the damn cloak since only extreme cold could cool the fire he had ignited the moment Harry had appeared in his life…when the kiss became deeper, changed as Harry’s lips beneath his own pressed back.

Wufei nearly passed out as he felt Harry’s hands hesitantly, almost shyly touch his waist. He drew the wizard in closer, and at Harry’s gasp, he took the opportunity to slide his tongue into the green eyed boy’s mouth. Wufei didn’t care if Harry had been correct and the world would end tonight, only cared about the teen pressed against him.

The need to breathe forced them apart, and Wufei could hear Harry’s shallow breath. Hesitantly, not sure what he would see in the reflective green eyes, he slowly opened his eyes and stared into the face half an inch from his own. “Harry…” He began, not even sure what he was going to say at this point, only sure he needed to say SOMETHING.

Harry beat him to it. “Fuck you if you tell me you’re sorry.” He said in a harsh whisper. “I told you once before not to lie to me until you take the time and patience to do it well. Don’t tell me this was a mistake.”

Wufei touched his cheek lightly with the back of his palm before he leaned down and closed the distance between them, his heart hammering, blood roaring in his ears. To his intense relief Harry returned the kiss…he had been half afraid the boy would simply punch him then disappear and leave him there, too angry to stay put. No…there were no mistakes.

Harry’s breathing was deep and rhythmic, his chest falling softy against Wufei’s, and the pilot knew he had fallen asleep. He smiled as he pulled Harry’s sleeping body tighter against his own, resting his head in the scent of almonds, tasting the scent of roasted marshmallow on Harry’s breath. He looked up at the starry sky for a long time, content for the first time in his life…he would have to find a way to thank the damn baka when he got home…damn him.