三

The Boy Becomes A Man

少年は男になる

Fourteen nearly fifteen year old Harry Potter sighed angrily, staring hard at the nearly full moon. It just wasn't fair. He had been a central point of that ritual that had taken a bit of his blood to make the man who had killed his family rise once more, he had seen Cedric be killed by the man who had betrayed his family to the Dark Lord and had framed Sirius.

So why was he being kept in the proverbial dark? Didn't he deserve to know what was going on?

Ron and Hermione's letters didn't help matters at all.

"We're in the same place, Harry We wish you were here Harry, we really do but Professor Dumbledore said it's too dangerous." their letters would say, practically being picture perfect with the other and others that had come before. " We can't tell you want to but the Headmaster said no. We don't know anything so stop asking us Harry. Does your scar hurt Harry - Write the Headmaster a letter if it does. How are you, we're doing great. But we can't say where we are or what we're doing... Dumbledore said this, Dumbledore said that. Blah bla Blah blah."

Harry was sick of it. The only letters that Harry looked forward to where Sirius'. He felt like those from his dogfather were the most sincere. They were never the same, never sounded scripted and they definitely didn't have the robotic feel his "best mates" had in their letters. Besides both of them knew how to read between the lines. It was one of the better codes they had come up with on the fly, they could hold totally different conversations than those that were actually written up by figuring out what the other was saying. It also helped that there were muggle word puzzles stuck in them that most wizards would never figure out. Those usually were where most of their hidden conversations were placed.

"The Darkness is greatly expanding..." was practically the only thing the same in all of Sirius' letters. It was part of a riddle that they had developed; to verify who was writing the letter and it was slipped into a random spot every time, even in the middle of a sentence that would talk about something almost entirely different.

Harry's return phrase meant more to him than he could ever express since it gave him some sort of hope.

"But the stars give light and guidance to those who have lost their sense of direction."

Harry sighed. Oh yes, he was certainly lost. Lost and confused. He didn't want to fight in a war, he wasn't even sure he wanted to go back to Hogwarts.

It was his last year that had made his see everything in perspective. How in every year, he was faced up with some dangerous hairbrained scheme of adventure. The Philosopher's Stone, the Basilisk, a "mass murderer escaped convict" after his guts who had turned out to be his innocent godfather, the Triwizard Tournament which he had never even signed up for that had led to a fellow student to be killed and now everyone else expected him to be the hero while the public and ministry continued on their way, pretending that there was no problem; that war was upon them.

If Hogwarts was the safest place in Europe, then Harry would hate to see the unsafest. It half made his want to move very far away. Away from his fame, away from this stupid mass murderer who really shouldn't even be after him - so what he had survived being killed, the snake-faced jerk should really just leave him alone!

The teen who had already seen too much in his short life sighed and turned his eyes away from the bright celestial body. It wouldn't do him any good by brooding on things he couldn't change. Past was past but the future was an open book.

Harry glanced at the clock and the numbers jumped out at him. 1:30 AM

Groaning softly, he fell face first onto his bed, the sounds of the city and the flap of a bird - possibly his owl Hedwig's - wings lulling him to sleep as a faint warm summer's breeze gently brushed against his cheek like a kind hand smoothing the hair from his forehead revealing the lightning bolt shaped scar for just a minute. And then, Harry Potter was dreaming.

A man with dark brown hair and startling teal blue eyes raced through a city, a small boy clutched tightly to his chest. "Kudo, what has he done to you?" he whispered in a choked tone, sounding like he wanted to cry.

"...Mmh. 'M ok'kay...he didn' hur' me too bad…"

The man's eyes flashed angrily, a teal fire burning brightly in them. "That's bull an' yah know it!"

"...m' sorry...Hattori...glad...I...could….see you again…" the boy called Kudo said weakly "...at least...one...last time…".

"Don' talk like 'dat!" Hattori swore softly under his breath. "Yah' gonna make it Kudo!"

The boy smirked tiredly then winced in pain as the older male jostled his bruised and broken body. "...mph. Hattori… M' tired…"

Hattori's eyes widened even as he reached a crossroad. "No no no no! Kudo don' yah fall asleep! Don' yah give up!" he swore again, harsh words falling out of his mouth like sharp stones.

The boy gave the older man a reproving one eyed glare, the other one closed firmly. "...What did...I tell you…'bout...callin'...me Kudo...?"

Hattori winced but glared firmly back down at his charge. "Ah don' care, cause if yah fall asleep, yah die so ah'll call yah whatevah ah wan if it will keep yah awake, yah ahou!"

Kudo's head fell back limply as the boy closed his dark eyes. "...Hn..." he grunted tiredly. He was so tired, why wouldn't the older detective let him go to bed? Dimly the boy heard a voice warning him on the dangers of falling asleep with a concussion was a bad thing but he couldn't remember why. His head felt so heavy and everywhere hurt, some places even more than others.

Hattori swore again and glanced around in a panic. He needed help and he needed it yesterday!

A dove's coo caught the tan detective's attention and the teenage detective whirled around. "Who's there!?"

Then, Hattori saw the white cloaked figure sitting casually up in a tree branch.

"Maaa… tantei-han I mean no harm." the Kaitou raised his white gloved hands in supplication. "Tantei-kun needs medical care, I can offer my own services."

"How can ah know if yah -"

"Kai...to...ni…"

The Kaitou froze as Hattori blinked down at the concussed chibi-detective, a strangled noise escaping the white clad figure who sat up in a tree branch, a peculiar expression clear as day on his face despite being hidden by shadow.

"N-Nani?" Kaitou Kid stuttered, shifting slightly. "W-who's that, T-Tantei-kun?"

"Yeah, Ku-Conan yah mus' be really concussed if yah thin' Kaitou Kid's yer older brother…"

The two adults traded nervous laughs, though Hattori's teal eyes were narrowed.

"Kid, if yer serious, ah think it'd be bes' if yah took us somewhere… discreet…"

The Kaitou seemed to regain some balance as he grinned down at the adult detective. "I know just the place, Tantei-han…"

AN:

Maaa…. got a flash of inspiration from this thing… I thought I'd never update it… *shrug* eh, inspiration does that for ya. Sorry for if my writing of Heiji is crappy… I suck at accents despite having an original character in my own novel who talks like that. Hope you enjoyed it!