The Family of Magic

Chapter One: Summer of Sun Before the Storm

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Final Fantasy VII they are the property of J.K. Rowling and Square Enix. I am simply taking a few creative liberties with the characters and a touch of the plot.

Harry stretched and smiled at the pops that sounded from his joints and back. Humming softly to himself, Harry placed his new glasses, an almost invisible metal square around the lenses that connected to faux wooden arms in a light brown color, and looked around the room he was sharing with Sephiroth.

The Fairs had picked up both him and Sephiroth from King's Cross at the end of Harry's, rather strange and enlightening, Third Year. Zack and Aerith-and the three terrors-had appeared just as excited to see Harry as they had Sephiroth and their assurance that Harry would be coming home with them had made this year's return from Hogwarts one of the best that he had ever had, but he still could not shake the small ball of anxiety in the pit of his stomach that said he would never really be free of the Dursley's control, that they would always be hovering on the edges of his life, a looming shadow ready to snatch him back up and dump him again into a life of pain, hunger, and belittlement.

Aerith, or Zack-the man could be scarily observant when it came to people's emotional reactions, must have sensed his unease, no matter how well he had it hidden, and together they had pulled him aside later that evening. Sitting in the kitchen, Aerith's homemade hot chocolate warming his palms as he clutched it to his chest, Harry listened as Zack and Aerith took turns explaining.

During the school year, Zack and Aerith had apparently convinced the Dursleys to quietly sign guardianship of Harry over to them. They had also visited the goblins and somehow managed to get his magical guardianship as well. Harry was not too clear on how they had managed all of that, both of his new guardians had offered to explain in greater detail, but the borderline fury radiating from both caused Harry to believe he would not enjoy either what they had found, or what they had done. Harry had cautiously asked if they could discuss the circumstances surrounding his change in guardianship at the end of the summer instead of the beginning, at the moment he was content just to know that no one, the great Albus Dumbledore, included could send him back to the Dursleys. Both Zack and Aerith had been happy to comply, promising that the three of them would sit down before the end of the summer and discuss what had been done/found, what was going on, and what would happen in the future.

After that, the first two weeks of summer were spent bringing Harry to the eye doctor, the general practitioner used by the rest of the family, and a nutritionist at the insistence of the general practitioner. Each visit had been a new experience for Harry and he was very glad Aerith had been the one to take him, her fury at the treatment that the Dursleys had given him was much quieter and less overwhelming than Zack's or Sephiroth's would have been. Plus Aerith was very straight forward in her handling of the doctors and Harry-never showing any pity for what Harry had been through or keeping the doctors' findings from him.

The eye exam had been scary until the doctor had entered the room, then it had become fun. The doctor had cracked jokes and discussed what Harry planned to do for the summer while they were finding the right combination of lenses to bring the letters on the wall into focus. Once they had finished the exam, the doctor had shown them to a well lit room where the walls were lined with all the different frames offered by the office. While Harry and Aerith looked through the different options the doctor explained that in a year or two Harry would most likely be able to get contacts, but the doctor had warned that Harry's eyes would likely undergo a change during the year as his eyes adjusted to having proper lenses. He was under strict instructions to inform someone if his vision started getting blurry or he began experiencing headaches as those could show that his prescription was becoming either too strong or too weak.

The visit to the general practitioner had been much different than what Harry had been expecting. Every time Dudley had gone to the doctor it had been a fight on Aunt Petunia's part and involved a multitude of tears and bribes, and Harry had spent their time in the waiting room either bouncing his leg up and down or wishing Sephiroth had been there with them. The young nurse who called them back from the waiting room had been bubbly and excited as she started the exam by taking Harry's weight, height, and temperature. She gave Harry a sticker as she showed them into an exam room for being still while she had slid the blocky weights up and down the slide beam and adjusted the flat plastic board down to find his height. Noticing his nervousness, the nurse had allowed him to play with the stethoscope and had shown him how the blood pressure cuff would work before ever putting it on him.

The doctor had been nice when he came in, also allowing Harry to observe the stethoscope and practice trying to hear how the lungs sound when people breathe, the device he called an otoscope-used for looking in his ears and down his throat, and the blood pressure cuff before using them on Harry.

From the general practitioner they had received a referral to see a nutritionist, apparently Harry's first ten years of poor eating, the influx of rich foods from Hogwarts, and the periods of starvation between First and Second year and Second and Third year had damaged his growth, bone density, skin thickness, muscle retention, and compromised his immune system. The nutritionist drew blood work, something that fascinated Harry as he had never seen blood collected using a needle and vial, and created a plan of the types of food and amounts that Harry would have to eat as well as a supplement for him to take two times a day in order to reverse some of the damage done to his body. Unfortunately, the majority of the damage had taken place during the period of time the nutritionist labeled the "developmental" years. If the plan that the three of them settled on was followed, it was predicted that Harry would be able to put on a little weight but he would always be more susceptible to breaks, colds and other small infections, and eating would likely be the first thing lost during periods of stress. Harry would always have to keep an eye on what he ate and make sure that he continued to get the proper amount of nutrition he would need. However, the doctor was optimistic that since they had caught the problem in his teens, eating healthy and in the proper amount would be easier as he grew.

After the multiple doctors visits, the entire family had traveled to London where they had completely overhauled Harry's wardrobe, the only thing preventing Harry from feeling bad about how much money his new guardians were spending was the fact that they were also buying clothes for Sephiroth, Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. Plus Yazoo seemed quite determined to see Harry in clothes other than Dudley's or Sephiroth's hand-me-downs and was quite happy each time Harry liked an article that he had chosen.

On the fourth week of summer break, Harry got on an airplane for the first time in his life as the family flew from Heathrow Airport to Tokyo, Japan. From Tokyo they had taken a smaller plane and a car to small village high in the mountains of Northern Japan. For the past six weeks, Sephiroth and Harry had explored the village and surrounding forest, visiting shrines and sacred spots, talking to locals-Harry waiting for Sephiroth's translations when the person didn't speak English- and learning the history of the small town they were at for Zack's work.

Harry's birthday had occurred while they were in Japan and had been the best he had ever had, even better than learning he was a wizard on his eleventh birthday. Aerith had allowed Harry to help her bake a cake while Zack had taken only the two oldest boys to get ramen at their favorite little stand for lunch. Grilling their own beef and vegetables for supper had been fun, but eating watermelon on the porch while playing with sparklers had been the perfect ending to a perfect day.

Today after six weeks of being in Japan, they were returning to England in order to get ready for Harry and Sephiroth to return to Hogwarts on September first and Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo to go back to primary school. They were returning early in order to give time for shopping at Diagon Alley for Harry and Sephiroths' supplies. Harry also had a follow up appointment with both the general practitioner and the nutritionist to see how six weeks of eating healthy and running around in the fresh mountain air had affected his health and if any changes needed to be made to his health plan.

'But first,' he thought with an evil smirk, 'I have to wake up Sephiroth.'

Harry was still laughing as he slid into the kitchen and hid behind a barely awake Zack. Sephiroth stormed into the kitchen soon after Harry's dramatic entrance and threw himself into a seat, glaring murder across the table at a quietly laughing Harry.

Aerith giggled, setting a cup of hot chocolate in front of Sephiroth and ruffling his mused silver hair before pointing Harry to his own cup of hot chocolate on the counter. Smiling brightly, Harry skipped out of his hiding place and took a seat at the table, looking at the two equally blurry eyed people sitting at the table. Zack and Sephiroth were definitely not morning people, the triplets being only slightly better, with Aerith being the only one who enjoyed the quiet morning hours with Harry.

Harry watched with twinkling eyes as Aerith kissed Zack's head and left the kitchen to wake the triplets and basked in the quiet feeling of love that flowed around the kitchen and was grateful once again to this family for taking him in.

Author's Note: For the people following this from "The Magic of Family," sorry it took so long, I have a knitting commission that the finish date snuck up on me on and restarting schools has been an interesting (and exhausting) endeavor. I had planned on making this first chapter a little longer, but I felt it served as a nice bridge between the end of Book Three and the events of Book Four.