Title: It's been a long time.

Summary: Harry doesn't want to fight the long-haired assassin, but he was terrorising the middle-schooler. He might not even help things, it's been a while since he'd fought... but he did always learn best in the thick of things.

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Harry has had a few lives now and all but one included teenage years. So, from that, one would think he knew the mannerisms and techniques of a teen. They would be correct. So Harry gathered all his collective knowledge on the subject and screamed it out at the silver-haired assassin trying to hurt a scared, brunet boy.

"Oi, dick face with the overcompensating sword!" Harry called out.

A jerk and a snarl was his only reply but the man still stopped slashing at the kids. Progress. Now he just had to wait for Hibari to get his text and arrive and no one would be hurt.

"How about you piss off before I call pest control to take care of you," Harry snaps, maybe having a little too much fun.

Now the assassin spun around to glare at Harry and waved around his sword in a vaguely threatening manner that had nothing on Voldemort... Then again, it's not like Harry had magic so maybe it was a little threatening.

"Go back to your mother you ignorant little brat!" The long haired man bellowed back.

Harry expression was dominated by a mocking grin because frankly the guy set him up for this. "Or maybe I'll go your mother and get her to suck my dick like last night." Okay, maybe that was too much. Harry twisted around and ran for his life, the assassin right behind him, screaming intelligibly in rage.

Just distract him and –

Swoosh!

Holy mother of-!

Harry skidded to a stop and twisted away, the man having appeared right in front of him, slashing the sword uncomfortably close to his neck. He let out a sigh of relief at the near miss, already sprinting off again, picking a random direction.

Again he was cut off, but this time he only rocked backwards to avoid the downward swing, throwing his body forwards the next second to reach up and grab the man's shoulders. A hand came up to punch him in the face and glanced off his shoulder instead as Harry scrambled up the assassin like he was climbing a tree.

One hand on the man's head, the other on his shoulder next to a knee, and his other foot on the guy's chest, Harry cursed his saving people thing. He could hear screams of panic but blocked it out to concentrate on (notdyingdontdie!) fighting. The knee not on the shoulder jerked upward into the face held still with a hand with a crunch and Harry leaped off.

(rollrollroll) He yelled at himself, not at all confident his knees wouldn't buckle from such a height (he only came up to the guys chest and he had leaped off his bloody shoulders) and he needed the time the shock would cost. His feet thudded to the ground and he rolled, ending upright and running again.


Well that wasn't expected, Reborn thought, as the boy (a year above Tsuna, Harry.) executed a smooth maneuver, on, up, and over a greatly feared killer. The insults were juvenile but got attention all the same and gave civilians as well as Vongola members a chance to clear out.

It would be a good addition to the Decimo generation even though Reborn sensed no flame. The kid was also fast, could think rationally - past just defending and attacking- in tight situations, as demonstrated by the murmured insults whenever Squalo got close to him to rile up the killer so he would make more mistakes, blind by anger.

Well, the rings were fakes and Basil had passed out. Reborn wanted to get something out of this so from his spot on top of a tree branch he shot the ground near Tsuna, shocking him out of the stupor he was in.

"Gah! What Reborn?"

Was that a tone from his student? The baby's eyes glinted from under the shadows of its fedora, not really caring if it was, but planning to torture him anyway.

"Aren't you going to help." Reborn wasn't really asking a question.

Actually, was that Hibari Reborn sees charging towards them? Can't be from the noise, the teen was too far away. Reborn might have thought it because of the panicked populace that just ran away if he hadn't seen a completely at ease Harry texting while everyone else ran as Squalo destroyed a wall.

Smart boy, getting backup, but how did he command Hibari? Probably more insults, or perhaps telling the Prefect there was a strong opponent.

"Why would I help? Isn't he mafia?" The honestly confused tone from Tsuna made Reborn mentally schedule observation lessons.

Harry's motions and dodges were showing desperation now and slowing from the fast paced cat and mouse game even though the insults still flowed.

"Wrong!" A foot slammed into Tsuna's head, buckling the boy's knees and making him hiss in pain. "Potter Harry, a year above you."

Now Tsuna snapped into full terror, but before he managed to say anything Hibari joined the fight.


Harry was getting tired, ducking and weaving through swings that were noticed through sheer instinct that anything else remotely like skill. After a frankly ballerina like move, where Harry spun away from a slash and hopped over a kick, his knight in black gakuran arrived. Tonfa flashed through the air and Harry threw himself into a roll to get out of the way. A clang sounded and Harry deduced that he could leave.

Now, he would have stayed if he had any confidence he could actually help. He could duck, he was very good at that, but had no actual physical offensive training past witnessing it. He would get in the way, a hostage or distraction. By the look of things -as in the terrifying smirk on his face- Hibari could take care of things here, or at least be nowhere near as hurt as Harry would if he fought. So he would run...

Or he would have, if the flat of a sword didn't trip him.

Landing hard on his hands and knees, he skimmed his palms and jarred his legs, barely stopping himself from face planting. A sword flashed across his vision but when he tried to jerk away the end of a tonfa to the back of his neck stopped him. He was caught; the sword was diagonally along his left wrist and neck, pressing against his right shoulder, while a foot was lightly stepping on the back of his heel to press his toes into the ground.

"I don't like being manipulated," came the deep voice of the Prefect.

A voice much like Hermione spoke up, even as he replied. Oh Harry, why do you do this to yourself?

"You still came anyway though-gah!" Harry collapsed sideways (the left, to avoid the sword slicing his neck) and clutched his foot after Hibari mercilessly stomped on his heel. "I think you broke my toes!"

"I don't recall you being this mouthy," Hibari hissed.

A threat was there so Harry wisely chose not to say 'so is your mum but I had no objections' or even a sarcastic 'because we have regular tea parties to get to know each other' in favour of staying alive.

"Now this isn't fair, two against one. I want a teammate as well," he said instead.

Which immediately turned them against each other because neither wanted to be accused of having to rely on another to take down someone like Harry, who was only a fast brat and someone who helped with paperwork in their eyes.

He waited till they were sufficiently distracted with hurting each other -which only took seconds- before he stood, keeping his weight on his heel to not harm his toes anymore.

"Thank Merlin for Gryffindor mindsets," he muttered, limping away.

He passed the kids he saved (that up close were mostly taller than him, damn everything), and strangely enough a baby on the shoulder of one looked at him in consideration with a cunning glint in his eye.

He didn't regret helping his school mates but the fight had brought back bad memories, so Harry proceeded to forget that look, because his head and body hurt, and while habits from the war like paranoia and contingency plans have been ingrained as instincts and never forgotten, they faded over time...

And it's been a long time.


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A/N:

Okay, clarifying time!

Harry is Master of Death, that's why 'many lives' was mentioned (cause Harry can't truly die).

He knows Hibari because he does paperwork for him. If I bother to continue this, the reason he does it is because Hibari lends him a room to stay.

It got a bit weird there at the end, sorry. The whole 'memories of the war' thing is because since Harry is MoD, the war would have gone differently (and I like painful pasts because I'm a bad person).