Ginny, the utter bitch, took one look at his face and lit up like the Hollyhead Harpies had just sent her a personal invitation to join the team.
“Oh my fucking god, Harry!” she shrieked gleefully, slapping his arms and chest.
He groaned in utter mortification because of course his ex-girlfriend would notice. “Ginny, stop it!” he hissed, face burning as he tried to bat her hands away.
“Which one is it? Tell me! Is it the tall one? Cho was pretty tall, and she had dark hair, you have a thing for that. No? Your face says no,” she babbled quickly as the twins appeared on eitherside of their Lord.
“What's this?” Fred crooned mischievously as they draped themselves over his shoulders, and Harry felt his stomach clench in horror.
“Does ickle Harrykins have his eye on someone?” George asked slyly.
“What?” Ron yelped while Hermione looked up from her papers in interest. Luna giggled.
Ginny was eyeing the group thoughtfully, head tilting this way and that as she looked each of them over with narrowed eyes. Her fingers twitched on her chin, and her eyes widened before she slowly turned to look at him. Oh no. He knew that look. She knew. She knew exactly who. And she took one look at his face and knew that he knew she knew.
She grinned, all teeth, and Harry wheezed lunging for her – Fred and George handily picking him up before he could get to her and cackling as they pulled him away.
“OI SAWADA!” she screamed down to the group in her slightly awkward Japanese, immediately stopping the chaos happening below, and making them all look up in surprise. She pointed at him, and Harry hissed, twisting and slipping free of his Dark Sapphires in one of Felis's favourite evasion techniques. “MY FRIEND THINKS YOU'RE HOT-” Harry tackled her, just that split second too slow to cover her mouth as they both went down, Harry with a furious shout, and Ginny with a cackle of laughter while the twins positively hooted with glee.
Someone from Sawada's group 'hiiiiiieeee'd, and the group exploded into noise, laughter, and screaming while Ginny rolled backwards under him, planted her feet against his legs and neatly threw him over her head. He let her, rolling to his feet and directly into the hands of the twins.
He froze at the identical evil grins on their faces, “The best way to gather information,” Fred began.
“Is to cause chaos and see what happens,” George finished as their grips tightened on him.
“Oh hell no!” Harry squawked, squirming desperately as his Knights grinned wickedly.
“Hey, let's not – ” Ron began to say, taking a step forward right before the twins scooped him up bodily and threw him at the approaching Vongola group, flickers of Sapphire Aspect catching at his eyes, ears, and ankles. Light touches, not enough to dye their hair or eyes, but enough to disorientate their little Lord, prevent him from righting himself. Making him blind wouldn't work, he was too well trained for that, but putting his perception half an inch off, and tricking his inner-ear into thinking he was rightside up when he was upside down, and making him think his ankles were heavier than they should be....
He flailed like an alarmed cat in the split second before he landed on the Vongola.
Yelps went up amongst the teenagers, the girls squealing as they scattered, and shouts going up from the pale haired boys while the tall one danced back with a burst of laughter.
“Juudaime!” the silver haired Ruby Knight yelled, and Harry groaned, shaking off the lingering wisps of Aspect that clung to him and glared at his cackling Knights.
Someone groaned under him.
The Gryffindor yelped, scrambling to his feet, “I'm sorry!” he squawked feeling his face burn dark red as he found himself getting shoved away by the Ruby Knight who immediately began to flutter around his Lord. Harry covered his face with a hand, “I didn't think they would actually throw me at you.”
Sawada huffed an embarrassed laugh as his Ruby helped him up, and Harry wanted to die a little because that smile was not fair. “It-it's okay. It's not the first time someone's landed on me,” he assured him as he dusted himself off and looked up, immediately turning red when he realised who landed on him, and rubbed the back of his head as he quickly looked away. Harry was going to kill Ginny, and the twins. Tell their mother what they did and watch the – damnit, no, he couldn't do that, because then she'd know that he left the country as well. “A-are you alright?” Sawada stuttered awkwardly, peeking up at him and then away again.
“I'm fine! I – ah – I had a soft landing,” he joked quietly.
The smallest of the children, the little boy in the hat that had been waving around a rifle earlier, leaped up and kicked Sawada in the back of the head, pitching him forward directly into Harry, who froze on the spot. Did he catch him? Did he sidestep? What did he do?
“Don't be so pathetic Dame-Tsuna!”
Harry caught him. The child landed lightly where Sawada had been standing a moment later, and pointed at the pair of them scoldingly as the brunet grabbed the back of his head in pain, whirling around to face the child.
“Reborn! What was that for?!” he cried in dismay.
“You're too naïve, Dame-Tsuna,” he chided, “Your seduction techniques are too childish, and shoddily demonstrated! You are still Dame.”
The brunet went sunset red, wheezing and spluttering in utter mortification as he flapped his arms, frantically trying to formulate something to say. Frantic garbled denials and incomprehensible stutters spilling from his lips as he blushed from ears to neck, and possibly lower. And to Harry's complete and utter horror, his brain disconnected from his mouth and he found himself saying: “...I wouldn't call it shoddy.”
Immediately everyone looked at him, and he felt his face burn.
Fuck.
He immediately turned away, woodenly dropping his hands from where they had been braced against Sawada's shoulders when he caught him, “Excuse me. I need to kill my cousins,” he decided tightly, distantly hearing the sound of Ginny and the twins howling with laughter in the background.
Ginny took one look at his face as she wheezed on her laughter, and bolted, while the twins squeaked in alarm and followed suit, splitting up in three different directions; leaving Ron, Hermione, and Luna to watch their retreating backs and then see the way that Sawada caught hold of their Lord's wrist when he moved to follow the trio with a scowl.
“W-wait!” the brunet spluttered, only to freeze when Harry glanced back at him, his eyes frantically darting to anywhere but his face as his mouth opened and closed soundlessly, “...C-can we exchange numbers?” he finally burst nervously.
Harry's stomach clenched, and he felt his heart give a particularly hard thump.
“I uh...” he didn't have a mobile phone, but, he couldn't – he really wanted – but – “...S-show me where to buy a mobile phone first,” he said, butterflies erupting in his stomach at the way Sawada's face went very still for a moment as he blinked, before he lit up excitedly.
“Sure! I'd be happy to!” he said brightly, only to freeze for a moment and then turn brick red, “I – I just realised, I never asked for your – m-my name is Sawada Tsunayoshi! It's very nice to meet you!” he shouted, letting his wrist go and darting backwards a step to bow frantically and repeatedly at the waist.
Harry almost wanted to say that he knew, but he recognised a social cue when he saw one and quickly followed suit, “Ah, it's nice to meet you too! I'm Potter Harry! Uhm, my cousins behind me, the red heads are Weasley Fred and George, the twins, Weasley Ron, and Weasley Ginny, the girl. The blonde girl is another cousin, Lovegood Luna. And the brown haired girl is my friend Granger Hermione, and Ron's girlfriend,” he introduced, turning and gesturing to his trustworthy and most beloved Knights to come down and join him.
Sawada flushed and flapped his arms, “Hiiiiee! I – yes – these are my friends! Yamamoto Takeshi-kun, Gokudera Hayato-kun, Sasagawa Ryohei-niisan, Sasagawa Kyoko-chan, Miura Haru-chan, Dokuro Chrome-chan, Bovino Lambo-kun, I-pin-chan, and Reborn-san,” he introduced quickly, turning to each of his Knights in turn, the unknown little girl who seemed to have a Sworn Hand bond instead of Knight one, and the child that kicked him earlier, Reborn. His bond was.... strange. Almost a Knight bond, or would have been if the male Sasagawa sibling were not already filling that position. Regardless, there was a bond there, a powerful one. The other two girls were only Aspect Apparents, an Inverted Dark Sapphire for Sasagawa Kyoko, and a Classical Emerald for Miura Haru, neither of which had any manner of bond beyond the faintest of Territory Influences to Sawada. Aside from them, Gokudera, the Ruby Knight, glared hot death at Harry from where he was in a firm headlock, his mouth covered, by the Turquoise Knight Yamamoto who was smiling brightly at them all, the male Sasagawa stood to the back looking confused, but quiet, next to his sister while the three girls were beaming and giggling to one another with the two children, the girl, I-pin, and the seven year old Lambo who happened to be Sawada's Emerald Knight.
A seven year old Knight. Harry found his gaze lingering on the little boy with a sting discomfort. What kind of person would drag a child so young into such a dangerous situation that their Aspect would manifest? He was seven, and Sawada had been fully Crowned for three years already, meaning the child would have had to be four or five when he was put into a situation so dangerous he believed himself about to die.
“What are you guys doing in Japan? Are you liking it so far?” Sasagawa Kyoko asked brightly as the rest of Harry's friends and family arrived.
“We only arrived today,” Hermione explained with a small smile, “It's probably why Ginny and the twins have been such a pain, they don't particularly like being cooped up for long periods of time.” She, of course, meant Grimmauld Place and the Order, but the teenagers took it to mean the plane flight over and nodded knowingly. “It's very clean, I've not seen at litter yet which is surprising!” she gushed a little with a grin.
Ron rubbed the back of his head, “I – haven't really seen enough to say. Sorry,” he apologised with a sheepish smile while Luna faceplanted into Harry's back, wiping her face on his t-shirt.
“The heliopaths are mating today,” she complained breathily.
Harry squawked, “Luna! Don't wipe your sweat off on me!” he complained.
“But the heliopaths – ”
He sighed and patted her head, “I know it's hot, we'll stop off for icecream in a bit, yeah?” he suggested kindly as she nodded miserably, looking flushed and damp in the summer heat. He felt a bit like kicking himself, he had no idea Japan would be so hot in Summer, but he knew that Luna spent a lot of the summer up in Sweden and other equally Scandinavian territories to avoid the heat and sun of the British summer. She was going to burn pretty badly in this weather. He looked at Hermione, “Did we think to pack any sunscreen?” he asked anxiously.
It took her a moment before she glanced at Luna and realised what was bothering him, her eyes widened as a hand rose to cover her mouth, “No, we didn't. Damnit, I knew I should have researched more!”
He shook his head, “Not your fault. We'll just have to pick some up in a bit.” He turned to Sawada with an apologetic smile, “Sorry guys, we should probably head off. I promised this one icecream, and we still haven't found a hotel yet,” he explained as he patted the thoroughly miserable looking blonde girl on the head as she clung to him, getting him just as hot and sweaty as she herself. Gross, but he wasn't about to shove his Amethyst off when she actually wanted physical affection – it had taken a long time for Luna to feel comfortable to get clingy, and he didn't want to undo that.
“Ah, I – we could show you a good icecream place?” Sawada suggested in tones bordering desperate as he glanced over to his friends, “Right? And- Gokudera-kun should know some good hotels right? From before?” he asked the still restrained Ruby Knight who kept giving Luna wide-eyed looks of interest, having practically lit up like a puppy at the mention of heliopaths as he did at the mention of UMAs.
“Sounds like fun, I'm in! Oh, and I can show you the best sushi place in Namimori! My dad runs it, so maybe I can swing a discount on your first meal!” Yamamoto boasted proudly with a laugh.
Miura Haru giggled, “Sorry, I have a lot of homework tonight, you guys go without me,” she said.
“Yeah, me too. Sorry, Tsuna-kun,” Kyoko-san agreed with a bright smile and a small bow.
Tsuna drooped a little, “Oh, that's too bad. Get home safe you two, see you tomorrow.”
“WE WILL BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL, SAWADA!” the thus far quiet Sasagawa Ryohei abruptly roared, making all of the foreigners skip back a step. The movement jarred Luna, drowsy and miserable as she was, it startled her into snapping her hand up to her head where she had her wand twisted into her hair, her other knotting into the back of Harry's T-shirt, ready to physically launch him halfway down the street and out of danger if need be. Harry jerked at her hold, making her pause, and hummed soothingly, pushing back against her hand as he glanced over his shoulder to her. Slowly, the slightly heat-frazzled Knight relaxed, and then whined, burying her face into his arm as he huffed a small laugh at her. She didn't appreciate the momentary alarm ramping her Aspect, and thus her temperature, up.
“Bye bye, Tsuna! Nice to meet you all, I hope you enjoy your stay in Japan!” the two girls chorused as they moved off with the noisy Topaz Knight.
“You have good reflexes,” Reborn observed from beneath his hat, his head tilted towards Luna and Harry.
Harry shrugged, “We get into a lot of trouble at school,” he admitted self-depreciatingly as he gently petted his Amethyst.
“That's for sure,” Ron grumbled shoving his hands into his pockets.
“S-should we wait for your friends?” Tsuna asked, using the excuse of peering over Harry's shoulder for any sign of the trio of red heads that ran away to get a little bit closer to him.
Ron snorted in amusement wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's shoulders, “Nah. They'll come back begging for scraps soon enough. Or rather, the twins will. Ginny'll just try to steal either mine or Harry's,” he said with a grimace while Harry folded his arms and huffed.
“She'll get it in her hair if she tries that after earlier,” he promised, flushing darkly in embarrassment. She was super lucky that he loved her, or he'd have done more than tackle and try to tickle her for that stunt. She knew he hated it when people drew attention to him, screaming down the street that he thought someone was hot was.... he suddenly wanted to strangle her all over again.
“LAMBO-SAMA WANTS ICECREAM!” the Emerald Knight yelled brattily latching onto Sawada's trouser legs, “Dame-Tsuna! Let's gooo! Icecream! Icecream!”
“Lambo-kun, don't yell,” the little girl, I-pin, scolded as Sawada laughed.
“Yes, yes, let's get icecream,” he agreed brightly, making the boy leap back with a 'diabolical' laugh as he struck a pose, it was actually pretty cute, a moment before Reborn attempted to round-house kick the young Emerald Knight. It probably would have landed, if Harry hadn't reached over and caught the little Knight by the back of his school uniform, neatly hoisting him out of the way, and onto his own hip. Somehow, he got the feeling that attempting to do the same to the violent child, Reborn, would have gotten his arm removed, or one of those guns aimed at his face. The fight that would have kicked off then would not have been pleasant.
“SHUT THE HELL UP, COW-BRAT!” the Ruby Knight bellowed, snatching the seven-year-old away from him, and then shaking him. Harry spluttered in horror, glancing back to Hermione who had her lips pursed in anger. Was this normal behaviour towards Emerald Knights in other parts of the world? She nodded unhappily, and he scowled. The first person to raise a hand to her was going to be beaten to death with it.
“G-Gokudera-kun!” Sawada squawked immediately flailing and snatching the seven year old away while his Turquoise Knight just laughed. Well, at least their Lord didn't treat him poorly, he noted as the brunet gently allowed the slightly dazed seven-year-old to slide down to his feet.
“Che, bothering Tenth all the time,” the Ruby Knight huffed caustically.
Ron strained chuckle, falling into step with his contemporary as the large group of teenagers began to walk away, “He's a kid. All kids are like that,” he pointed out.
“And what about you? Bothering Tenth, I won't accept it. No way,” he seethed glaring at the back of Harry's head as Tsuna lead them towards the only dessert parlour in Namimori that hadn't yet banned them for Lambo or Reborn's antics.
Ron shrugged a shoulder, “Well, you kind of have to,” he pointed out lazily, meeting his fellow Ruby Knight's furious glare with his own steady one, “It isn't your place to decide how he lives his life, y'know?”
“Just to make sure he doesn't get hurt in the process, and pick up the pieces afterwards,” Hermione agreed solemnly as she rummaged through her bag, careful to prevent their research papers from being seen as she carefully pulled out a rolled up sun hat. “Luna? Here, this should hopefully help a little,” she said, gently plonking the large hat on top of her fellow Knight, and then handing her a small wooden hand-fan.
“Thank you, Hermione. Harry, look what Hermione gave me,” the blonde said dreamily, wafting cool air in his direction using the fan.
“That's nice. But I'm alright, Loulou. You focus on yourself,” he told her gently, nudging her wrist back so she could fan herself under the hat. “– We're looking into a few things our School Headmaster said,” he explained to Tsuna with a small smile, “We wanted to form our own opinions before agreeing or disagreeing to his plan.”
“Plan?” Tsuna asked curiously.
“S-so,” Gokudera began, sliding to the otherside of the foreigners to get closer to the tiny blonde girl, “You said something about Heliopaths earlier? What are those?” he asked excitedly, digging into his pocket for a notebook and pen.
Harry nodded, paying no mind to the conversation that started up next to him between Sawada's Ruby and his Amethyst, only patting Luna's hand when she linked their arms instead of hung off him. “Mm. He wants some kind of business deal, but it involves a bit of a sacrifice on my part. So I figured I'd look into the situation personally and find out whether it was worth my while.” Right now, while part of him wanted to say yes please right away, the other part of him was significantly more pragmatic and wary. “The others came because I could find trouble in a laundry basket and refuse to leave me unattended,” he added with a grin over his shoulder at Hermione and Ron who snorted and laughed in agreement.
“When we were eleven, Harry and I were in detention helping out the groundskeeper. One of the school horses had been found dead, and another had gone missing, so we were helping him look for tracks in the forest next to the school, just in case she got loose and one of the local wolves got her. Instead, Harry manages to not only find the horse, but also the psycho that had been killing and eating them raw,” Hermione explained with a disbelieving shake of her head as she edited that horrible first detention they ever received and their adventure finding Voldemort eating unicorns in the forest, ignoring the horrified squawking of those present. “He was lucky that one of our teachers had been out star gazing that night and heard the commotion.”
Ron nudged her with a grin, “Don't forget the time when you were too ill to leave the hospital wing where we found Slytherin's secret lab, and all the horrible creepy crawlies that had been in there,” he continued blithely.
“Or the one unguarded secret passageway from the school into the village where you ended up face to face with a rabid wolf and a murderer,” Hermione continued as Harry grimaced.
“In Sirius's defence, he never actually killed anyone, he was just trying to,” he said weakly, attempting to defend his late godfather's poor decision making skills.
“Hiiiiiiieee! Th-that doesn't make it any better!” Tsuna shrieked flapping his arms in disbelief while Yamamoto-san laughed, and Gokudera sweated, making notes over whatever it was Luna had been saying in his little notebook, his recently appeared glasses fogging up with excitement.
Luna hummed dreamily and leaned even more firmly into Harry's arm, “Harry started a school wide rebellion against Government interference where he taught all of us self-defence when Professor Umbridge started torturing us.”
“And told Snape to go fuck himself!” Ron added with relish.
“Clearly the greatest accomplishment of my life,” Harry added dryly.
“Definitely the most dangerous,” the red head agreed, the two high fived while Hermione groaned, rubbing her temple in exasperation.
“Ahaha, sounds like you guys had as interesting a school life as we did, right Tsuna-kun?” Yamamoto laughed breezily, hands braced behind his head as he followed the group next to Chrome and Hermione.
Tsuna seemed to be struggling with himself as he stared between Harry and the rest of his friends, flushed to the tips of his ears, and twisting his fingers, “I – uh – Gokudera-kun and I blew up the school playground once?” he offered shyly, “B-but we were told to! One of the teachers said there was a time capsule there and that we had to find it!” he spluttered.
“What, really?” Harry squawked, while Ron whispered a heartfelt 'wicked'.
Hermione spluttered, “Blew it – you blew it up?!” she screeched, eyes widening.
“Uh oh,” Ron muttered, exchanging a glance with Harry who nodded grimly and quickly slid himself between the two as Hermione bore down on the Japanese boy, while her boyfriend caught her by the shoulders to try and hold her back.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?!” she shouted, “You could have been hurt, or even killed! Or worse! Expelled!” Harry snorted, turning her glare onto him, “I don't see what's so funny Harry James Potter!” she exclaimed, jabbing him in the chest.
“Just that you said that the first time we met Fluffy,” he pointed out cheerfully, not in the least bit cowed as Tsuna practically cowered behind him.
“I knew what I was doing, damn woman!” Gokudera spluttered in mortal offence, “Tenth was perfectly safe and knew exactly what to do! If not for him, we'd have never found the proper fault line! He did the most damage and found the time capsule!” he gushed proudly, turning adoring eyes to his Boss who wobbled a weak smile in his direction.
“I think Snape would have pickled our entrails if we ever dared do something like that,” Harry said with a grimace and an admiring glance at Tsuna who flushed and smiled.
“Haha, it was really cool! They got Nezu-sensei arrested for fraudulent teaching qualifications after that stunt!” Yamamoto Takeshi explained with a cheery laugh as Hermione spluttered in wide eyed horror.
“Sorry about her, she's, uh, pretty intense about education,” Harry whispered softly to Tsuna who flashed him a significantly more relaxed smile and, fuck, his stomach fluttered making his fingertips tingle. That smile was entirely unfair.
He tripped.
He actually tripped. Him. Heir to the Black family legacy, personally trained by the World's Greatest Master Thief Felis Black, The Ghost.
He tripped over his own goddamn feet because a boy smiled at him.
Someone kill him. Please. Let the floor swallow him whole. Let him become one with the stone he was about to meet with his face.
Tsuna caught him, and they both went down with yelps.
“Tenth!” - “Harry!” - “Ahaha, wipe out!” - “You okay there, Tsuna?” - “Boss, are you alright?”
Harry grimaced and looked down at the Japanese teenager, “This is getting ridiculous. This is the second time I've ended up on top of you in an hour, and you haven't even bought me dinner,” he complained making the other seventeen-year-old squeak and flail as Harry got to his feet, and hold a hand out to help him up.
That seemed to be a bit too much for Tsuna's Ruby Knight who immediately knocked his hand away and got between them, “Keep your hands to yourself! Tenth, here, let me help you up!”
Tsuna drooped in disappointment as he let the silver haired boy pull him up, “Gokudera-kun....”
The Ruby Knight ignored him, or just didn't notice his expression as he turned on them, “Who the hell do you think you are, coming out of nowhere, bothering Tenth like you're actually worth his time! Go sniff elsewher– ”
“Ah, noisy as ever, Hayato-kun,” a smoky female voice greeted, making the group turn and the Ruby Knight to gurgle, his face immediately greying as he crumpled like wet tissue in front of the plum-pink haired young woman.
“Bianchi-san!” Sawada yelped as she immediately swept forward to hug the tiny Reborn, blushing happily as she cuddled him to herself.
The woman smiled serenely at him, and Harry felt a fissure of unease but.... She was most definitely Scorched. A broken Knight. But it was old and healed. Sawada's Amber had patched her up, she was supported by a small rainbow of Aspects belonging to the Tenth Generation, the little Topaz in her arms, and a muffled Inverted Sapphire had wrapped her up in the feeling of home and contentment. This was unprecedented, a broken Knight, almost whole? How?
“Your father rang,” the young woman announced sweetly, “He intends to visit next month. Your mother and I are cooking tonight in celebration, I'm just fetching more ingredients of love.”
Sawada blanched, “I-I see. Wh-what will you be cooking Bianchi-san?” he asked warily.
She blushed happily, “Mama said I could help her with the rice and the sauce. I should get back soon.”
“You should take Gokudera too. He's had a hard day,” Reborn pointed out, nodding to the boy on the floor that Hermione was slightly panicking over. He was foaming at the mouth now.
She sighed and set the child down on the floor, “My troublesome little brother. He's old enough now to know not to push himself.” She blushed happily then, cupping her cheek, “But it would be nice to share a meal together. Alright.”
“Forgive me if I'm too forward,” Hermione began tightly, scowling as the strange woman walked off with her brother slung over one shoulder, “But I can't help but notice the lack of concern any of you displayed when one of your own collapses like that.”
Sawada stuttered, flapping his hands while Yamamoto-san just laughed, “It's always been like that. Though sometimes it doesn't happen. I wonder why,” the taller of the two mused curiously, blinking up at the sky.
“That's because Bianchi hides half of her face,” Sawada whimpered, covering his face in both hands with dispair.
“GYUPAA! WHO CARES! LAMBO-SAMA WANTS ICECREAM! DAME-TSUNA MAKE THEM HURRY UP!” the Emerald Knight screeched, stomping and jumping up and down in the middle of the street.
“Lambo-kun!” Sawada moaned in a mixture of annoyance and embarrassment.
The girl who had been silent thus far, Chrome, knelt down next to the screaming child, “You want icecream, Lambo-kun? That shop sells really good grape flavour, why don't we get some, and Boss can help Potter-san and his friends while we play?” she suggested sweetly, her girlish voice barely above a whisper but enough to be heard and get the tantrum throwing child to stop immediately.
“And we'll play? And get more candy?” he demanded insolently with narrowed eyes.
“Yes. But not too much, or Mama will be upset when you don't finish your dinner,” she explained, casting a small smile up at Sawada who relaxed and looked like he could have kissed her.
“Thank you, Chrome-chan!” he exclaimed, “I'll buy you lunch tomorrow!” he promised, clapping his hands together and bowing his head.
She giggled, “Have fun, Boss,” she said as she corralled the two older children and began to lead them towards a small cafe down a side road.
Tsuna smiled awkwardly back at them, “Shall we? The icecream place is only another ten minute walk,” he said.
Harry exchanged a glance with the others, Luna was still fanning herself and a little dazed, she would follow his lead regardless. Ron and Hermione though. Hermione wore that sour lemon expression of displeasure she had once when she found out about the house elves, he knew he was going to have to brace for an earful tonight. Ron looked a little disturbed, but he wasn't angry, just watching the way Bianchi walked away with her younger brother with a thoughtful look on his face. He caught Harry's eye when he realised he was being watched. Harry twitched an eyebrow in askance. Ron twitched his nose and flicked his eyes between Sawada and his Turquoise before looking back to Harry and then over to the departing Ruby. He shrugged a shoulder, and Harry nodded slightly in understanding. Alright, Ron wasn't too worried about that, something he was going to have to talk to him about later. Of them all, Harry had the most reliable and finely tuned Intuition of them all, but both Ron and Luna could sometimes get insight that bordered on foresight sometimes. It depended on the circumstances, he just had to trust them.
The Gryffindor turned back to Sawada and nodded with a small smile, “Sure. Lead the way.”
He'll give it a bit more time, get some more information, before he passed judgement on Sawada and his Court. Nothing was ever clear-cut, and he wanted to know the why's over the how's right now. He just had to talk Hermione out of bundling them all up and immediately cutting back to England to reject Dumbledore's plan straight out.
Sawada beamed at him, his cheeks flushed happily, and Harry swallowed back the fluttering in his stomach.
He really hoped this didn't bite them in the ass. Ginny would never let him hear the end of it if he got duped by a pretty face.
0000
Done. Special thanks to Reighost and Eyugho for helping me hash out this chapter. Also, as a heads up. I am moving TOMORROW. And the new place isn't going to have any internet for at least a week, on top of that, my phone has no data anymore, and I have no means of getting more. Hah, great stuff. O2 your mobile top-up plan sucks testicles.
So, I'll be gone for a while. Hopefully with a few more chapters to give you once I'm back but still. I'll be exhausted and probably bruised from getting everything up three flights of stairs. Should be fun 8/
