So... heads up: All my knowledge of khr is from reading fanfics and the wiki, so If anything is wrong, please tell me. This is also my first fic, so if I do anything to somehow offend you, sorry in advance.

Also, just a heads up. There's one more Harry Potter character here - it's one of my many plot bunnies and just hijacked this fic.

My first language isn't English, so if anything is iffy, please tell me.

Disclaimer: I own neither khr or Harry Potter, I'm just writing this for fun.

Full summary:

When he thinks back to it, Skull thinks he blames Verde (well he does, but he also blames himself, because if he didn't freeze, if he didn't hide, if he...). Because who was he kidding, Verde couldn't, or rather wouldn't, sate his curiosity for a god damned moment, a moment Skull could have used to explain his past, because he really felt that the Arcobaleno deserved to know that the 'lackey' wasn't just that.

Or in which Skull is Harry and reality moved three steps to the right.

o-o-o-o-o-o

It was a normal morning, with a dash of bland and a pinch of boring.

o-o-o-o-o-o

The day started normally enough, with Skull dragging himself from bed. He walked to the kitchen, rubbing his eyes to fend off the tiredness. Fon is there, as are Viper and Reborn. They look like the hadn't slept in years, which is exactly how Skull felt like right now. Verde was probably holed up in the lab somewhere, Lal and Colonello were training for whatever reason they thought of this time and Yuni was sleeping in.

After the curse was broken, Yuni had decided that, for at least the time it took for their bodies to grow into their original sizes, they would live together. In theory it was an okay idea, but with them, who were essentially collection of misfits, not so much. They got into too many arguments and fights to be healthy. Skull took a moment to hope for something that would improve their relationships. He almost snorted. Not bloody likely. His original accent was pronounced in his thoughts.

Skull plonked down into on of the chairs at the table and sluggishly started eating his breakfast. Viper counted their change, most of which was originally the Arcobaleno's, Reborn was staring into his coffee, looking at the contents of the cup, seemingly lost in thought. Fon sat there quietly, nursing a cup of oolong tea.

It was only six in the morning when Lal and Colonello wandered in, sweat making their clothes to their bodies, collapsing into chairs. They were only acknowledged by the others in the barest sense - a faint nod of recognition.

Yuni came in next, looking the most awake of them. She bounced up to the table, hopped into a chair and cheerfully greeted them.

"Good morning!" She giggled at their exhausted expressions, tone dropping to a whisper, "Are you awake?"

Half hearted grumbles were her only answer. Yuni sighed and settled down, resigned to wait until they woke up properly, not that she had high hopes of them doing so any time soon - it was seven and she knew they wouldn't be even remotely awake unless something

interesting or potentially harmful happened, or it was past 8 am.

It was not what most people expected of the seven strongest - acting like ordinary people, what with most of them being essentially

zombies in the morning.

o-o-o-o-o-o

The kitchen door opened with a bang. There stood Verde, looking like the mad scientist most thought he was, with what looked like the ten

year bazooka in hand.

"I have reversed the function of the ten year bazooka. It now switches the person in the present with their past counterpart." Verde smirked and, with a predatory glint in his eyes, aimed the weapon at Skull.

Verde fired, hitting his target exactly where he wanted to hit him - that is to say, square in the chest.

A cloud of pink smoke surrounded Skull and in his place appeared a young man that looked barely fifteen, but Verde knew, that he had to be at least seventeen. Well, at least if Skull didn't lie to them about his age.

The boy had messy shoulder length black hair that covered up the right side of his face and green eyes.

Green, green eyes that seemed to glow captured the ex-Arcobaleno's attention. His eyes weren't emerald or lime green, they were a vibrant, almost electric shade. They looked at him, gazes captured by the trap that were his eyes.

It was a strange feeling, it was as if his eyes could see into their souls.

It was strange, yet they couldn't look away.

It was strange, that he could seemingly see their every thought.

It was strange, but they did nothing to stop it.

The boy blinked, and, as if it was never there, the spell was broken. The ex-Arcobaleno were no longer imprisoned by his eyes, prisoners in their own minds.

o-o-o-o-o-o

The boy with hair the colour of raven's feathers was an enigma.

He didn't look like Skull, their cloud, at all. Everything was foreign to them, from his stance to small, minute mannerisms.

The most important difference, the most chilling was his appearance. His very bone structure was wrong, different.

"So... do you know how I got here?" Skull's eyes searching for something, anything, familiar.

Reborn, their de facto leader, recovered first. He planted a hand onto the table and stood up. Leaning on the wooden surface for support, he closed his eyes and steeled himself, composed himself.

"I know this seems crazy, but you got here because Verde, the one with green hair and the lab coat, tinkered with a time machine. You're in the future." Reborn inwardly cringed at his blunt explanation.

Everyone bar past-Skull braced themselves for the loud exclamations that were surely going to follow.

They didn't.

Skull's eyebrows furrowed. He eyed them, as if evaluating them, judging them. He started to bite his lower lip, reminding them once again

that this wasn't their Skull, the Skull they knew. Their Skull never showed weakness, covering it up with false bravado.

Skull-not-Skull appeared to make a decision. "How many years in the future am I? And exactly how does my future self know you? I mean the person with the ominous cloak of mistery looks shifty to me." Skull started to play with the hems of his shirt, obviously uncomfortable.

"You are approximately 35 years in the future. You will stay here for a period of time between two minutes and five hours," answered

Verde promptly.

"Oh, and we met your future self through a job a some time ago. Yuni you met fairly recently - you met her grandmother through the job though." Lal chimed in, shifting in her seat, uncertain of Skull-not-Skull's reaction.

"Huh," Skull said, tone nonchalant. "So... where is my counterpart? I mean he should be here somewhere if this method of time travel works anything like the one I'm used to." His eyes flitted from one person to the next, watching their movements, searching for his future self.

"Umm... he's in the past - exactly where you were before. You switched places, essentially." Colonello was the one that answered that question.

"Oh. Oh. Oh. That's not good, not good at all." Not-Skull's eyes widened with what seemed like realization. "That's not good, not good at all. Well... hope he doesn't... freak."

The ex-Arcobaleno wanted to ask him what he meant by those off-hand comments. They wouldn't ask now, but would ask their Skull, the Skull they knew and could trust.

Skull slumped in his chair, running his had through his hair, brushing the strands behind his ear, exposing the right side of his face.

A scar was on his forehead in full view of them, a scar that looked like a bolt of lightning in the sky, branching out like a branch of a wizened oak. It was faded, but obvious to them nonetheless. The Arcobaleno didn't know how to react; this was their cloud and they never knew he had scars, or at least one, and especially not a large one like that. Their arrogance had made them blind. All they 'saw' was a pathetic lackey, one who didn't really know what pain was, what it was like to have a scar, a memento of battle. In their eyes, he was hopelessly naive, like a newborn fowl.

Their reactions were somewhat muted - they couldn't start fussing over someone who was essentially a stranger. The only exception to this was Viper - Viper gasped.

The Arcobaleno, as one, whipped their heads around to stare at them. Viper never showed their emotions, never let themselves react outwardly, never let themselves relax, even in the presence of people they considered family.

Viper, gaped at Skull their jaw dropped.

"What the fuck, Potter?" They snapped, clearly trying to regain some control over their emotions.

Skull-but-not looked at them, really looked, and, slowly, comprehension dawned upon him, changed his expression. He grinned a Cheshire grin.

"Did my future self call in that favour yet?" A smirk spread across his face. "Or did neither of us know who the other was? I'm guessing the latter, because of your reaction."

Before Viper could even think up a reply, pink smoke enveloped Skull-not-Skull and Skull, their Skull returned.

He looked different. A self-satisfied smirk was just starting to form on his lips, Skull's face gaining a terrifying quality, somewhat like one would expect murderer to look after a particularly satisfying kill. His black shirt was soaked, his eyes glimmering with mirth. A strong smell hit them - the smell of blood.

"Who...?" Viper asked, not fazed with the knowledge that Skull killed in what was probably cold blood now that they knew who Skull really was like, behind his mask of a coward.

"Your mother's sister. The crazy one," Skull's smirk got predatory. "You know how much I wanted to kill her, and I know you wanted to do so yourself, too."

Viper realised something. Their face contorted into something furious, dangerous. "Wait a minute." Viper's tone was frigid, much like ice, cutting into Skull like a knife. "You knew. You knew. You knew who I was from the very beginning and you didn't say anything? Is this all just a joke to you?"

Their words cut through Skull's mask of amusement. "No, I didn't know." Skull's voice broke. "I didn't. I honestly didn't. I... I 'lost' the memories of the meeting," he chose his words carefully, hesitantly, as if a single misstep would get him killed. He clearly meant something else, but all but Viper didn't know what.

"Oh!" Skull snapped his fingers as he realised something "That time in Venice I couldn't show up was because some idiot I killed turned out to be Don Carcassa and I had to fix the internal problems of their famiglia, because apparently the person that kills the boss becomes the boss. That's why I couldn't tell you."

Skull got the distinct impression that Viper raised one of their elegant eyebrows. "I didn't really mind that you missed the meeting - I missed plenty myself. Besides, I knew that you wouldn't skip out on it for no good reason."

The ex-Arcobaleno watched their exchange as if it were a tennis match - that is to say back and forth, seemingly straightforward, but actually working with rules nobody but the players seem to know and terms thrown around that only a select few knew the meaning of.

Reborn finally had enough. He stood, straightening to his impressive height and slammed his hands down onto the table. His expression was unreadable to most, but the ex-Arcobaleno saw the underlying anger and confusion. Skull jerked in surprise, almost knocking over Fon's tea, and threw Reborn a piercing look.

"Explain. Everything. From the beginning." Reborn knew he sounded desperate, but he was and he needed to know what his friends, a part of his family was talking about. He looked first at Viper and then Skull, throwing them a meaningful look, one that left no room for argument.

"Fine. Don't interrupt us. And sit down, for God's sake, Reborn. It's going to be a long and unbelievable tale." It was surprisingly Viper that answered, surprising mostly because the Arcobaleno knew how much they hated offering information willingly, and especially for free. They really shouldn't have been surprised, Viper considered them family, after all and they didn't charge their family.

"We should probably start with our birth names. Mine is Harry Potter and Viper's is Draco Malfoy. Don't use them. They're not us anymore, and probably never will be again."

"I was known, at first, for surviving a terrorist attack when I was barely a year old, which is also when my parents died. When I was older I was famous for killing the same terrorist that killed my parents." Skull closed his eyes, memories obviously painful to remember.

"We first met when we were eleven. We went to the same boarding school in Scotland." Skull paused, thinking about the best way to start

their story.

Viper shook their head and took over from there. "Skull and I couldn't stand each other at first. Our rivalry was legendary. Every day, without exemption, we would taunt each other. It was pretty harmless, most of the time, the sixth year incident notwithstanding." Skull grimaced, opening his mouth to apologise, but thinking better of it, for which Viper was glad. "I became Viper when I was twenty and finally discovered what freedom really was. I changed my name, appearance and voice, got people to use the pronouns I actually identify with and quadrupled my savings, all within in a week. I gained a reputation as the go-to person for information in Palermo, and a couple months later in most of southern Italy. A couple years later I was the world's best information broker." They smiled. "It was fun. I could do anything, I didn't have to pretend to be the perfect heir to the Malfoy family. I was a member of the British nobility, you see. Heir Malfoy, they called me.

"That is until my father was arrested and his, and by extension the Malfoy family's, fortune was handed over to the government. Most of my so called friends abandoned me." Viper's fist clenched. "I was the convict's son, then. I was a social pariah, but so was Skull. He had it worse - he was one of the people that caught my father. He was revered - a hero that caught the bad guy, the murderer."

Skull scowled. "Everyone wanted something from me. Be it a place in the spotlight, a little sympathy from the resident hero or my inheritance. I felt like I couldn't trust anyone, especially since my best friend took part in it, too."

Viper quickly changed the subject. They didn't want Skull to dwell on that part of the past. "We had the weirdest relationship after graduation. Our respective friends kept teasing us about us fighting like an old married couple. We thought it weird - we tolerated each other, at best, at that time. We actually warmed up to each other about a year after graduating, the only downside was us drifting away from our friends." Viper paused, collecting their thoughts.

"We went our separate ways, each of us choosing a career. I chose information brokering. We met by chance in Palermo, where I was starting out my career and he sightseeing. We promised each other to meet up every two months, to check up and exchange new information. It was refreshing after the repetitive motions of information gathering. We had a routine. We started to meet up more frequently - two times a month, sometimes more," Viper's voice was warm, remembering fond memories.

"That was, understandably, the moment things went to hell." Skull cut in when it became obvious that Viper would start to wax poetic about their relationship. "My old friends couldn't accept that we weren't friends anymore. They filed a missing persons report. They essentially started a manhunt, searching for me. Once I found out about it, I created a new identity. That's how Skull Demort came into being."

o-o-o-o-o-o

Skull Demort is officially born on the eighth day of august, in nineteen seventy seven.

In reality, Skull was 'born' in a bar in Romania with a few words written on a paper towel.

o-o-o-o-o-o

"Somehow, impossibly, the day one day I wasn't in 'disguise' my old friends found me. They backed me into a corner, trying to guilt me into coming back to kill some new terrorist that decided to pop up." Skull's expression turned angry. "They tried to cage me. They took one of mine hostage. It was the first time I went into a cloud rage."

The Colonello flinched. He was the only one of the Arcobaleno, except perhaps Viper, that saw Skull in a true cloud rage. It was terrifying,

like any cloud rage, but more focused, more logical, as opposed to the mindless anger of a regular cloud.

The Reborn grimaced. He knew exactly what type of territory Skull had - people. If someone took someone he considered precious hostage, he would do anything in his power to free them. He wouldn't be in his right mind, his worry making him act irrationally. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Skull, what with a cloud's instincts amplifying emotions like those.

Lal closed her eyes, extending a silent sympathy to Skull. She knew what being pushed into a corner felt like to a cloud - she had some cloud flames, after all.

Fon could feel his calm slipping. All these things, these revelations about his friends, his family, were chipping away at his firm control over his emotions. His eyes flashed crimson as more emotions filled him.

Verde, while a heartless bastard to most, simply wasn't to the ex-Arcobaleno. Never to the only people who accepted him, the family he never really had.

Yuni, while mature for her age, couldn't really comprehend all this information. She was naive, but that was a part of herself that she accepted. Besides, she was constantly being sheltered by the others from the horrors of their world.

"We are all here now, and we're happy. Isn't that all we need?" Asked Yuni.

"Yeah," replied Skull. "We needn't obsess about little details like names or sad pasts. But, sometimes, we have to remember how we got to the place we are now for us to be able to enjoy the present."

Viper let out a soft noise of agreement and smiled.

o-o-o-o-o-o

It was a normal morning, with a dash of misty mystery and a pinch of cloudy confusion.

o-o-o-o-o-o

There's a reference to the wonderful fanficton 'of the dead (say nothing but good)' by mokona-puyh in here, somewhere. If you by any chance find it, tell me - I want to know if it was obvious or not. Also, Go read the fic - it's delightful. It's so much better than this sorry excuse of a fanfiction.

Please review!

Hope you enjoyed this,

Kat