Burn Me With Fire is still melting my brain, and No Good Deed was being a pain.

Yes, I realize I have other ongoing projects, no I cannot summon up the proper enthusiasm for them either.

Dammit.

This is probably going to update slooooooowly, and is sort of a gift-fic for Ghiro who was kind enough to correct my terribly Google Translate fail in Burn Me With Fire Chapter Three and beyond.

Seriously, I was trying to be cool, and Google had me talking about cows or cow measurements or something! They also came up with some badass Italian names for later on if I can, you know, ever get those parts written. $#%$#$%$#

Thanks, Ghiro!

Ghostish-Hermione is not a psychologist, and neither am I, but we pieced things together based on real life observations and, naturally, internet research.

Also, the updates might be irregular in length, even though I usually try to keep my updates in-fic pretty even.

Slow build, there is a romance end pairing, but I'm not saying what it is and will try my best to not make it obvious, but it might just not happen because gen fics are my thing.

Exhausted. Shattered. Drained. Hollow. Finished.

That pretty much summed up how Harry Potter felt as he listened to the visage of his old Headmaster ramble on about life, love, and going back to the war that had just killed him.

His arms twitched slightly at his sides as he glanced back at the pitiful baby-sized thing that was wailing in agony under one of the benches in the ethereal King's Cross Station. The Headmaster's words continued to wash over him, the tone pleasant despite the message as Harry ached for things to finally just end.

(He wanted his Mum and Dad and Cedric and Sirius and Remus and Tonks and Fred-

Family. He wanted his family. He wanted to feel their arms around him, see their smiles, and finally just belong.)

Harry was so focused on his thoughts that he really didn't notice the Headmaster's panicked visage as the Station melted away and the man abruptly faded being replaced by a being of incomprehensible gender phasing smoothly into existence, a cowl obscuring their features and a gnarled staff in their hand.

Harry looked up, startled, as he finally noticed the changes in his surroundings, and then he saw his visitor and he smiled- sun bright, elated, and brilliant- as he took in the terrifying being before him, "Hello, Death. Have you come to take me home?" he asked breathlessly as he held his hand out unhesitatingly towards his fate.

The being seemed almost amused as spindly, frigid fingers wrapped around his wrist.

Not quite, Master. The Being seemed to breathe into the air around them, though the visible mouth never actually moved.

Then the visage of Lily Potter appeared, "Hello, sweetheart." His mother said tenderly, bright green eyes shimmering with tears as she moved to rest a gentle hand against his cheek.

Harry closed his eyes and savored the contact, his mother's hand was actually warm against his skin and something deep inside him keened as he leant further into her touch. "Mum." He managed though traitorous, trembling lips.

Lily's other hand came up to cup his face and she smiled warmly even as the tears finally overflowed her eyes, "It's alright, baby. You haven't done anything wrong. You-" here her breath hitched and she tugged her son forward, cradling him to her breast as her beautiful boy shakily wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck. "You've been so brave, sweetheart. We're so proud of you, all of us."

"Then why-" Harry sobbed into her neck as he clung to her tighter, "-why can't I just come home?"

Lily soothed her boy gently, rocking him slightly as her own tears dripped down her cheeks, "It's my fault, sweetheart. It's the debt that I incurred that night, and the one that's been added to throughout the years. You see, to gain something, something of equal value must be lost. It's a law inherent to all the worlds."

"Worlds?" Harry mumbled into her neck.

Lily laughed lightly, "I can't really explain it, baby- being dead has its perks, you know! I've learned so much!- but there are countless worlds that exist simultaneously and independently, is the easiest way of saying it."

"What?"

Lily laughed again and pulled back just slightly so she could wipe the tears from her son's face, "The specifics don't really matter, sweetheart. But instead of coming to us now, you owe a debt to Death." Se smoothed the wrinkles from Harry's expression with another smile, "Death exists on every world because Death is constant, unchanging. There is a world where a young man has an incredible destiny, but he will be terribly lonely and suffer greatly, but Death is using the debt that you owe to place you into the young man's life to help be a light so that he might reach his full potential."

Harry's lips twisted bitterly and rage welled up inside him, but it quickly died back down as his mother's smile turned softer and she kissed his brow, "I'm not sorry, sweetheart. I know it's selfish, but I am your mother and I want to see you live, even if it is in a different world with different people. Heaven is universal, and we'll all still be here waiting for you, darling, but even though this world is much darker and different than ours there's still a chance that you'll be able to be truly happy and I want that for you, baby."

Lily tugged her son back down and she wrapped her arms around him tightly as she whispered in his ear, "I love you, Harry. Even though your name will change and you will have an entirely new life, I love you and I want you to be happy. Do it for your mother, won't you, sweetheart?"

Then there was a whisper of cloth, a kiss to his brow, a thousand voices all clamoring to be heard, a million stars in the sky, the bright green of his mother's shimmering eyes, (full of love and compassion and tenderness and hope), and then-

Sawada Tsunayoshi was welcomed into the world on October 14th, his father barely making it back in time for his birth.

Literally- Sawada Iemitsu came barreling into the Maternity Ward of Namimori General Hospital eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds before little Tsunayoshi finally made his appearance, but all the hassles, threats, and favors he had been banding about like a madman the past few days were worth it to see the bright smile on Nana's face when he made it into the Delivery Room.

"Meet your Otou-san, Tsu-kun." Nana had said, exhausted but exhilarated as she handed the precious, squirmy bundle to Iemitsu barely fifteen minutes after he had walked through the door.

Iemitsu had looked down at his sleepy little bundle, eyes baby blue and body still slimy and wrinkly, and promptly fell in love.

"Hey, little Tuna-Fish, I'm your daddy." Iemitsu whispered reverently before breaking out into his signature goofy grin and starting to wail about how 'manly' his 'cute little Tuna-Fish was'.

Iemitsu had managed to wrangle nearly eight weeks of leave- even though he was working from an office a city away three days a week- before he had to go back to Italy for work.

There was lots of wailing, (Iemitsu), watery giggling, (Nana) and sleeping, (Tsunayoshi), during the parting but Iemitsu left and the three-person Sawada household became two.

(In most worlds the baby that young Sawada couple conceived not long after Nana was cleared for sexual activity does not survive the early stages of pre-pregnancy and Nana is never aware that she was nearly a mother twice over. The stress the young woman is put under as a suddenly single mother having recently undergone childbirth is too much for her body to handle and her body simply rejects the young organism before it can fully assimilate and alert her to its presence and the remains are gently washed away in her next cycle.

In this particular world, however, there is a meddling Being with a Debt to be Paid and so Nana is not only a newly single mother of a newborn, she is a newly single newly pregnant mother of a newborn.)

Nana regularly offers up thanks every ancestor she knows of, (including Hina-obaa-san who had absolutely hated Nana as a child), that Tsuna was mostly an angel. He was still a baby, of course, but he was an angel baby.

She is also exceedingly grateful that though her husband isn't here with her, he makes enough money to allow her to stay home and just take care of her baby as her second pregnancy has been much, much less smooth than her first.

It hasn't been complicated in a medical sense, but in terms of body aches, nausea, and mood swings it has been hell.

Nana really hopes that these things are not an indication of her second child's temperament-to-be.

Nana's projected due date is late early September.

Iemitsu was bewildered by the news of her second pregnancy, (he hadn't been aware that she could conceive again that quickly and had needed to have things explained to him), but once he wrapped his head around things, he was almost just as or more excited about this child than he was about Tsu-kun.

Iemitsu had plans to be home in late August and stay for nearly two months, although he wouldn't be able to take much time off over the next few years to make up for all the time he had taken lately.

So, naturally, Nana went into labor suddenly on July 30th and delivered the baby just after midnight on the 31st.

As she held her new child in her arms, absently noting that one of the nurses had brought nine-month-old Tsu-kun into the room and he was peering curious recently-turning-brown eyes down at the little pink bundle.

Wait.

What?

"Sensei? I was told I was having a boy?" Nana trailed off uncertainly, utterly bewildered and exhausted.

The doctor- a woman in her forties- grinned at the Sawada matriarch, "Sometimes the techs make mistakes, and that one has been pretty shy. I assure though, Sawada-san, that she is a perfectly healthy girl, no extra appendages or anything."

Nana nodded distantly, looking down at her daughter again and smiling brightly as her daughter opened baby-blue eyes and gazed up at her curiously, "Terasu. Sawada Terasu."

"Ma'am, that's not really not a name befitting a young lady-"

Nana looked at the doctor, then back down at her new daughter who was cooing at Tsu-kun, and something within her hummed happily, "It means to 'illuminate' or 'to shine on' doctor. Little Terasu- that is what we would have named her had she been born a boy for my family's traditions anyways- is going to do something great and as her mother I have faith that she'll light her own path. Sawada Terasu, I am Sawada Nana, your Mama, and this is Sawada Tsunayoshi , your big brother."

Tsunayoshi peered curiously down at the squirmy bundle and smiled brightly.

Sawada Terasu jolted upright in her bed with a soundless scream on her lips as seventeen years of Harry Potter's life and meeting Lily Potter in the In-Between finished playing in her dreams.

She panted lightly and clutched at her chest as she tried to sort through everything.

The dreams had been happening for a while, but it always seemed like they were enshrouded in mist in the mornings as she could never truly remember them. Having all the information suddenly snap into place wasn't so much painful and fresh as it was startling in its suddenness.

(What she didn't know what that Death had been allowing her subconscious to sort through the memories and relegate them to the 'ancient history' part of her in an effort to assist her in her transition to this new world without losing her advantage or forgetting her purpose.)

Formerly being a boy didn't really bother her, she was a she in this life and that was that, so that was one difference assimilated- at least for now, but at the grand age of five it wasn't as if puberty was complicating her life and Harry hadn't had much time for such things anyways.

She would have to check and see if she had magic though, and she spoken English in her past life, so now that she fully had those memories maybe she could speak it again?

Terasu wriggled out of her bed, wrinkling her nose at the overt about of pink in her room, making a mental note to change that as soon as possible. She padded over to her door and quietly slipped into the hall, just as easily slipping into her brother's room and nearly tripping over the stuff on his floor. Note to self: Help Tsuna keep his room cleaner. She thought with amusement as she picked her way across the room and slipped under the covers with her ten-months-older brother.

"Mm, 'Tera-chan?" He murmured sleepily.

She ran tiny fingers through wild brown hair, "Shhh, Tsu-nii, go back to sleep."

"Mm." He said, breathing evening out soon after as she continued to stroke his soft hair.

Terasu smiled tenderly down at her brother as she propped herself up on an elbow and watched the gentle rise and fall of Tsuna's chest in the gentle lighting of the room. Tsuna was shy and clumsy, he had trouble with the basic katakana he was learning in school and utterly failed at most sports. He was bullied by some of his teachers and most of his classmates had started calling him Dame-Tsuna last year in Nursery. He cried when he got frustrated and had never gotten over an '11' on a history test.

Tsuna was also the best brother ever. Tsuna always smiled for her, even when people were still whispering about 'that no-good Sawada boy' loud enough for him to hear, and he protected her even when he was scared- even from the neighbor's dog!- and he was pretty much everything that really mattered in a good sibling.

She could see now, how she could have become desensitized to her brother's treatment over time. Terasu would like to think that she never would have been so self-absorbed to join in on it, as there are some things about a person that never change and Terasu hated bullies, but now that she had Harry's memories-

Now she could help.

Being all of ten months apart meant that most people often mistake Tsuna and Terasu for twins, despite the fact that Tsuna has fluffy, flyaway brown hair and doe-like chocolate colored eyes while Terasu once again has raven hair and brilliant green eyes- thanks to his maternal grandparents for the hair, though it was curly this time, and his father's mother for the eyes- but by the time they were around three Mama had pretty much given up explaining this and since Terasu didn't seem to mind being thought of as being nearly a full year older, so she just introduced them and let people draw their own conclusions.

Mama. That was another situation that gained a new perspective in Terasu's mind as she shifted around to arrange herself a bit more comfortably next to her brother in such a way that she could continue to pet his hair as she thought about things.

Thinking back through conversations with Hermione- or rather, the brilliant witch filling the silence of the tent during the Horcrux Hunt with rambling about anything and everything once it had only been the two of them, had dying made her memory better? Or were the memories just fresh?- about psychology, Terasu thought back over the past few years and began to patch together a disturbing set of theories.

Sawada Iemitsu was their father- he was supposedly a construction worker- and he had been home a total of two months in Terasu's memory, and that had been just after her third birthday.

So, basically Sawada Nana was a single mother of two children.

Hermione had rambled on about Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Anxiety, and Postpartum OCD, when she had been going on about Mrs. Weasley and her obsessiveness, and about how it was fairly common and treatable, but she had listed out a whole bunch of symptoms and among those was a 'sense of disconnect from things around you' and 'feeling the need to constantly be busy' and how the condition could evolve into Maternal Depression which could peak and ebb, and impacted the sense of trust between parent and child.

Like the way the Weasley family hadn't understood Percy and had allowed the others to push the boy around and 'prank' him past his breaking point and then wonder why he turned into a stuck up prat and left.

Percy made his own decisions, of course,, she'd said while waving her hands around in emphasis in front of their tiny campfire one night, but his mother- as the primary caretaker- had an obviously difficult time connecting with him, and I think the rest of the kids in the household understood that on some level, especially the younger ones, and tried to increase that distance in order to get more of Mrs. Weasley's attention for themselves. What makes the situation worse is that Mrs. Weasley is an excellent mother and caretaker and her 'failure' only made her obsess over what she was doing 'wrong' and so she ended up smothering her children, and exasperating the issue by distancing Percy even more. It's difficult and scary for a mother to admit because it is so 'wrong' and 'bad' to feel and there is a stigma even if you do get help, as there is obviously something 'wrong' or 'broken' with you. It would be doubly so for someone like Mrs. Weasley as the only real point of pride she has are her children and being a mother.

(She had also said that like any psychological conditions the symptoms could be blatant and brazen or subtle and introverted, and that conditions such as depression could span several different 'categories', but Terasu thought that Postpartum is where his Mama's issues began.)

Terasu could look back on daily life in the Sawada household over the past few years and see little tells that she never would have seen before that Mama felt overwhelmed and alone and stressed. Maybe not depressed, per se, but she definitely had issues connecting with Tsuna and Terasu for months at a time, usually right before or right after one of their father's phone calls.

So, maybe not exactly what Hermione was talking about, but somewhat?

Mama had some stuff she needed to work through, but with people in the neighborhood already talking about how a waitress married a construction worker who made good enough money for them to live in the house that they lived in, not to mention their father's absence, and her and Tsuna being kids, it was unlikely that Mama wanted to even admit that there might be an issue that she need to work through.

So, Terasu needed to make sure that Tsuna got all the support he needed, because she didn't want her brother to be like Percy- so willing to do anything for the first people willing to accept him.

(She ignored the little voice that pointed out that Harry had done that, too.)

Right, so, she had to make sure that she got put in Tsu-nii's class.

"Please, Mama?" Terasu begged the next morning, after Tsuna had left for school.

"Ara? But why Tera-chan? Don't you like to be with Mama all day?" Nana asked her daughter with a pout as she washed dishes at the sink.

"Of course, I do Mama!" Terasu protested as she grabbed a dishcloth and started to clumsily wipe down the table, "But Tsu-nii and I aren't that far apart in age, and if I can join his class early and learn my alphabet, they won't mind me being in his class later, right? Then Tsu-nii and I can do our homework together and spend more time with you!"

Nana turned around and ran a hand through her daughter's curls, "Well, if you're sure, Tera-chan, I'll let you take the entrance tests at term if you study with Tsu-kun until then."

Terasu threw her arms around her mother's waist and tipped her head back to grin up at her, "I promise I'll do my best, Mama!"

"Hie! You want to do what?" Tsuna shrieked when she told him her plan that afternoon. They were sitting in his room and he had gotten home from school not too long before.

"I wanna study with you so that I can test into your class." She repeated patiently, she hadn't anticipated her brother literally wilting. "Tsu-nii, what's wrong?!"

"Even my baby sister is better than me." He said sadly, not bitterly, just sadly.

"Stop it!" Terasu burst out fiercely, causing Tsuna to look up at her with watery eyes and she promptly wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear, "That's not it at all! It's you and me against the world, Tsu! That mean that we've gotta stay together!"

Tsuna's arms came around her and he cried into the juncture of her neck, "But you'll just see how bad I am at everything for yourself." He mumbled after a few minutes, "How I'm not the cool brother you think I am, I'm just 'Dame-Tsuna' and you won't-"

Terasu tightened her arms around Tsuna and fairly hissed her words, "It's you and me against the world, Tsu. Always."

Tsuna hiccupped, "Promise? He asked shakily.

"Promise." Terasu repeated, throwing every ounce of her conviction behind that word, and within the two children, the Hyper Intuition that rested within their souls purred.

Studying with Tsuna was like trying to color a Vincent van Gogh painting with a color-by-number template.

It wasn't that he didn't understand the concepts, they just seemed to slide over him when he needed to reach for that knowledge.

Terasu looked at the times tables and had an epiphany.

Brightest witch of her generation, indeed.

"C'mon, Tsu-nii, let's try something!" She called brightly and her brother groaned, as over the last few weeks, her version of 'let's try something' usually had ended badly for him.

It wasn't her fault accidental magic usually involved a certain amount of emotional distress or imminent harm.

She dragged her brother down the stairs and turned him to face them when they got to the bottom, "Ok, this is the way this is going to work. We're going to go through the times tables, and take a step for each one, since there are fourteen steps, we won't make it all the way to the top for this exercise. Ready?"

Her brother moaned miserably but acquiesced.

The months passed, Tsuna turned six, and his grades slowly improved, though Terasu was less worried about paltry First Grade tests and more about building a solid foundation for both of them to learn from for the rest of their lives- katakana was hard and most of the history was new to Terasu, even with some of her other advantages afforded from her memories of Harry's Primary education.

It took a lot of repetition- meaning much use of the stair climbing method, much to their mother's amusement-, but once he got something to stick it stuck.

Their father called for Christmas, and for about a week their mother was on top of the world before she crashed and retreated so deeply into the household chores that they barely remembered she existed save for meals and their laundry being done.

Terasu taught Tsuna to keep his room clean and his clothes neat through gentle teasing and playful display of his underclothes when he didn't place them in the hamper properly.

The siblings had gotten Nana to buy a nice golden paint for Terasu's room and they spent a full weekend painting it, Terasu using stencils over the next several weeks to carefully color reliefs of phoenixes, unicorns, dragon, and any other magical-ish creature she could find a template for with acrylic paint, (the craft kind from small tubes, it was small enough that Nana let her buys several colors) on her newly-golden walls. Tsuna had chosen to read his manga or do his schoolwork in her room while she painted.

Terasu took the exams, and would be allowed to start with Tsuna's class in April, when the new school year began.

Nana came back to herself about a week before school was set to begin, and the clothes shopping experience had been exhausting.

When Mama was good she was great.

Terasu entered Namimori West Elementary technically four months ahead of schedule and a grade level ahead, but she was in Tsu-nii's class and she would fight to stay there.

She turned to her brother just before they entered their classroom for the first time and smiled brightly at him, "You and me against the world, Tsu-nii!"

Tsuna smiled gently at her- though there were shadows in her brother's eyes that she absolutely loathed- and agreed, "You and me against the world, Tera-chan."

It takes Tsuna's bullies exactly an insult and a half to realize that while Tsuna would let them pick on him, he would not let them pick on his little sister.

Not that he got to do anything about it that first time, as Terasu balled up her tiny hand and punched the idiot in the face before rounding on his cohorts, "Well," she all but growled, "Does anything else have anything to say about my absolutely amazing brother who you're not fit to lick the shoes of?"

The older elementary student- maybe nine or ten- had been one of Tsuna's tormentors the entire previous year when he had still been in Nursery, "Crazy little bit-"

This time it's Tsuna's fist to his face that sends him crashing to the floor.

"Never." The brown-haired boy says in an alarmingly controlled voice, orange fire dancing in his eyes, as something roars inside of him, "Talk to my sister like that again."

Then there are the Sawada siblings, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, faces set in determined lines with two older children on the ground and the third terrified when a staff member happens upon them and they refuse to apologize, even when threatened with calling their Mama, and then made good on the threat.

Sawada Nana knows that there is something broken inside of her, and that it had been broken for a very long time.

She likes to pretend that Iemitsu fixes it, that he soothes her soul as her one true soulmate and that there is nothing that their love cannot weather.

Nana is perfectly aware that most of those thoughts are pretty lies.

Oh, Iemitsu loves her, she knows this. He loves her with the desperation of a man who clings to an ideal that he knows that he can never reach, and so, even though their love is real it is also fake- because Sawada Nana had been all alone, a pretty, but dim waitress with a penchant for taking care of people and utterly alone in the world, slowly fading away from not being needed by a single person despite how much of herself she poured out to absolutely everyone around her.

They'd take a little, and then leave her there with so much more to give and so little to give it from.

Then Iemitsu had blown in to her little café. All tall, blonde, and handsome with shadows in his eyes and weariness in his soul and Nana did what she always did: she gave. She poured herself and her light and her laughter into this darkened man and quickly grew to love him as he clung to her desperately, making her feel important and needed for the first time since she had been left all alone in the world.

When he had lied to her about his job she had accepted it with a smile, because that was alright- it wasn't important, he needed her, he wanted her- that was important.

When he had asked her to marry him after their extremely brief courtship, she had accepted even though he had warned that he could be gone for years, and she suspected that he thought her a bit too dim to consider all her options.

Nana had been sixteen when she had gotten married- there had been no one to object and they had faced no complications filing the paperwork.

She would wait months- years- for her husband to return. She had taken some college classes, but though she had graduated from High School, she was enough in the median that colleges were difficult for her to attempt entrance to, and most were outside the range she could comfortably travel to consistently from Namimori, which was one of the few things that Iemitsu had asked her not to do often.

So, she stayed in the house that she and her husband had spent so little time together in and tried to make it home.

All the while she kept pouring herself out to everyone around her- feeding them, listening to them, accepting them- even though they whispered hurtful things behind her back, (dim-witted, slow, trophy wife, gold digger), and never, ever returned the favor.

Then Tsuna came, quickly followed by Terasu, and while she was thrilled to be needed and wanted she was also overwhelmed and terrified. There were days where she would lock herself in her room after the two went to sleep and cry her eyes out- What kind of mother thinks about how fragile their baby's neck is? What kind of mother wants to run away from two wonderful children? What kind of woman is so ungrateful to a man who works hard to provide for them?

She would sit with her back to the door all night, tears and hiccups and mucus her only company until dawn would break and she would muster herself into the shower and through another day.

Nana despised the gentle understanding she saw in Terasu's eyes nowadays.

(Nana despised that it needed to exist, for if she wasn't there quintessential wife and mother, what good was she?)

So, when she was called into the office about her children getting into a physical disagreement, Nana knew that this was a pivotal moment and she resolves to dig deep and be a true mother. She squared her shoulders and pushed extra hard against the judging gazes and critical stares as she held her head high and looked the principal directly in the eye, "I will not punish my children for standing up for themselves, even if I do not approve of fighting."

She trembled, but Terasu's small hand slipped into one hers and Tsuna smiled brightly up at her as he slipped his hand into her other hand.

(Nana might not be quintessential mother, but she could push past her own struggles and be a true mother when it counted. Really, that's all that matters in the end.)

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