Well. It's been a long time coming but the writing is now on the wall.

I'm officially leaving the KHR fandom, so I will not be updating any of my remaining fics. Sorry guys. It's been fun, but it stopped being fun a while ago. I stopped enjoying this fandom largely because of the people in it and when I moved in I found it so much more fun and less stressful in other communities. So I'll be posting what I had planned for each of my KHR fics, I ask that people please do not copy or continue them further, I worked hard on them, they're still my babies, and Rei and I have already shared a lot with this community. Please respect our wishes, mine especially, when it comes to my fics. Do not repost or continue them, please.

It's been a fun eight years (almost exactly) since I started writing here. But the time has come to say goodbye.

00000

LAST UNFINISHED CHAPTER OF DRIFTING CLOUD

CHAPTER TEN

The next day, after hearing about Harry's domination of the Duelling Tournament, Mouzey opened the first of the sub-basement training rooms. It seemed as though the mansion, for all of it's minimalist and open and airy appearance, was riddled with hidden passage-ways and secret rooms and tunnels, and crawl-spaces that criss-crossed the property in the house and out of it. Mouzey laughed as he explained that his children had spent probably about eighty percent of their time playing hide and seek with him in those very tunnels, and avoiding their mother at bath-time. Not that it saved them any when the woman was armed with a wand and a will to use it. The small handful that both Harry and Sirius found when they first moved in were in no way all of them.

They took the door hidden in the kitchen, hidden in the pantry floor that rolled back like a set of blinds at Demeter's command. Looking remarkably like the sub-basements in Grimmauld Place, the two stepped down the creaky wooden steps into the pale grey painted depths. It was lighter than they expected with the odd shifting light-runes on the ceiling and eventually they came to a long, high-vaulted corridor filled with nothing but doors framed between columns. The doors were plain wooden ones without handles, just metal sheets much like Harry used to see in the double-hinged doors at his junior school. On the right hand-side of each door was a weird oval shaped stone about six inches high and four across. Above it was a torch bracket that had nothing in it but a queer colour-less crystal.

"We have a total of ninety nine training rooms hidden within these cliffs. There are less in the other properties as this was our main property, but there are training facilities in them all. If it had not been so desperately needed to vacate the Lightning Estate I would have allowed you to start out there, the beginner chambers are less strenuous and more Flame orientated," Mouzey explained from the small portrait in Sirius's arms. "The chambers extend right through the property and even down into the ocean for some extra fun. The wonder of endless expanding charms, no? Each of the doors is keyed via a marriage of Ancient Runes and Charter Magic, meaning that each room will only unlock for someone capable of handling it."

Sirius wrinkled his nose, "That's... surely the whole point of training is to push past your limits, right? Sounds a bit pointless to have the doors only open to someone who can handle it."

Mouzey scoffed dismissively, "I said 'capable of handling it', I never said ANYTHING about it being easy," he corrected condescendingly before dismissing the Dog Animagus completely. "Place your hand on the stone circle, yes like that. Now, just wait for a moment. The light brackets above the doors you can access will light up – ah, there we go. Perfect, not bad, not bad," he observed proudly, grinning and rubbing his chin as the brackets lit up a blazing violet. "Seven doors at starting. That's more than your predecessor, and even the two before him. You'll have to do each room in order as at these early stages they will each have an important foundation stone for your training to be learnt before you can move on," Mouzey explained excitedly before his expression sobered up and he stared the young Gryffindor firmly in the eye, "Promise me you will not skip a room without first consulting me. Doing so could permanently damage your health depending on the circumstances so please just ask first. I will never not explain my reasonings, but I cannot answer a question that is never asked. I am a painting, not a mind reader. Understand?"

Harry nodded, glancing down the corridor, four on the left side that he was currently facing, and three on the right. It looked like the chambers would increase in difficulty the further down he went. "Yes sir," he agreed.

"None of that 'sir' nonsense. I have never been Knighted and the idea of it gives me hives. I'd just steal the sword. It is either Grandfather and variations there-of, or Felis, my name," the portrait corrected with a grimace before gesturing him onwards. "Now, step through the first door. I have portraits in all of these rooms to aid with your training. After the line was nearly wiped out the first time I took care in ensuring that even if it took a thousand years there would still be some way of training a successor when they eventually showed up. Chop, chop, we don't have all day!"

Whatever Harry was expecting when he pushed the door open, leaving an anxious looking Sirius behind, a regular bog-standard summer camp assault course was not it.

"You have a minute to complete the course," Grandpa announced from the huge portrait tapestry that dominated the right hand wall from floor to ceiling and wall to wall, an actual mirror image of the room but with the flamboyant thief instead of the confused Gryffindor. "You may not use magic," he added with a smirk before making a chivvying gesture, "Hurry up then. Get going."

There was no way Harry could do this in a single minute.

He shot his ancestor a sour glare that more than conveyed his scepticism and irritation. Much to Felis's amusement. His beloved was right, the lad was the very image and substance of their Castor, right down to the bitchy facial expressions. It was almost as though his youngest son had been made flesh to walk the earth once again. And give him stomach ulcers from stress.

"Don't give me that look. It can be done. Perhaps not with your present ability, but that will change soon enough. Just do your best for now, complete it as quickly as possible and we will come back to it tomorrow. Nothing stops you from re-entering a room, in fact, I would encourage it. Every day, go through as many rooms as quickly as you can before lunch. Eventually you will be able to complete this room in less than half a minute, I guarantee it," he explained soothingly with a knowing grin.

Castor was almost exactly like this little Cloudling, one of those annoyingly balanced kind of Clouds that, while perfectly docile and seemingly mild-mannered, could become raging disagreeable walls about doing what they were told without knowing WHY. Felis could remember many an afternoon wondering if he could get away with giving his youngest a well deserved beating without his beloved ripping his ballsack out through his asshole for daring to raise a hand against their children. Mio dio, that had been a culture shock. Magicals, especially purebloods, abhorred violence towards children; what he had grown up experiencing as perfectly reasonable disciplinary methods for misbehaving little boys had driven his beloved white, then red, with a rage so potent she burst into tears and held him as if he were made of glass on the verge of breaking. Promising over and over that she would kill anyone who dared ever do that to him or their children. He had been SO confused. But he most certainly hadn't complained when she took him to bed to try and comfort his 'horrors'. Their lovemaking had been particularly intense and tender in the aftermath of those revelations, he recalled almost dreamily. Thoroughly distracted from his Heir as the youngster shucked off his robe with a grimace.

"This will probably take a while," he murmured, dragging Felis back to the land of the living and out of memories of soft skin and inner thighs.

The thief chuckled in nostalgia, Castor had said much the same when he first started out as well.

000

The first room had been an assault course.

The second, a constant series of locked doors he had to get through without using magic – in other words, a test of how good he was at picking locks. Harry wondered how useful this training could be for a thief when all the locks were probably as old as the house (a good four hundred years), and hadn't been updated at all recently. Or so he thought until he came nose to nose with an electronic keypad lock. Felis had been a smug little shit for all of thirty seconds until Harry had the lock open and the wiring pulled out. While he had never been fantastically great-shakes genius level magician (that honour belonged to Hermione), Harry did possess years of being the Dursleys' personal electrician and having various books lobbed at his head to study whenever Vernon wanted him to do something that he wasn't willing to shell out money for. It took Harry two minutes to rewire the keypad and get through the door.

The third room was pitch black and filled with things that gave him a short-sharp electrical shock when he brushed against them. Somehow he had to navigate his way through the room without touching anything except the doorhandles – he would even get shocked by the wooden parts of the doors themselves.

Harry was, against his better judgement, having a lot of fun.

He had always been active, he preferred DOING to sitting and trying to chew through heavy tomes. He did best with practical work, so it came as no surprise, even if it was a little embarrassing because Felis looked so damn smug and pleased with himself, that he found himself flushed, excited, and eager to get through the other rooms. It was only Sirius catching him by the arm before he could dive into the fourth room and reminding him about lunch, and the fact that they were having their first meeting with the social worker today that stopped him.

Felis just looked confused as the two trooped up the stairs back into the main house, "What is a Social Worker?" he demanded curiously, meandering after them through the portraits.

"Someone who could take me away if they don't like what they see," the young Cloudling explained grimly, green eyes narrowing into a very familiar look. If those eyes had been silver and his hair longer, it would have been Castor gearing up to rip into his brother for some imagined slight or insult.

The portrait scowled, "Well, lock them out then. No one can get through the wards, Demeter and Vega laid them personally."

His Heir shook his head, "Social Workers... they check in on families to make sure the children are being properly taken care of, that they're being fed, schooled, and not hurt by their guardians. I don't want Sirius to be a wanted man again just because we didn't let this person into the house to see that everything is fine," he grit out, hunching over defensively. Felis wrinkled his nose unhappily, he would have to make himself scarce then. He was unsure of how well known he was at present within the magical communities, but he was still very well known within the mafia ones, and who knew what connections a stranger could have. Demeter could come and fetch him when the nosy annoyance was gone.

PLANS FOR: DRIFTING CLOUD

Harry ends up returning the the Coliseum and becoming a gladiator there. He meets Squall and Cloud (Kingdom Hearts 1 versions), gets a crush on Squall. Sirius gets therapy. Harry gets home tutors in magic, he learns flame control from Mouzey.

Sirius has a one night stand who gets pregnant because it's been a while for him and he wasn't as careful as he should have been. Mouzey manages to convince Harry to go on a very small minor heist, steal some already stolen goods and return them to their rightful owners. Harry gets hooked from that point on. Baby is dropped off on their doorstep, Sirius names him Teddy after Andromeda's husband because he was a pretty cool guy and the only one in the family that tried to push a trial for him. Baby Teddy also happens to be a metamorph (Yes we were putting Teddy in the fic as Harry's little half brother). Harry takes over caring for Teddy as Sirius isn't that great with babies despite loving them, and his mental health isn't amazing.

Sirius meets Reborn. Sirius and Reborn hook up. Reborn finds Harry utterly precious. Little baby Cloud getting all defensive and aggressive at him, like a kitten trying to pick a fight with a doberman.

Harry hides with Squall increasingly often, taking Teddy with him. They eventually get into a relationship, and Sirius hits the roof. Squall then finds out that Harry isn't the short eighteen year old he thought he was but in fact a sixteen year old and takes a step back. He's still willing to be together, but ain't nothing physical going to be happening what so ever for a few more years (Squall is 19/20, and yes, 4 years isn't too bad, but he's not comfortable with it).

Harry becomes a very good thief, the official next Ghost.

Reborn attempts to catch him but being both a Cloud and younger than the prior Ghost Harry is able to slip the net and escape with his goods in tow. This happens repeatedly.

Outside of Italy, Dumbledore is arrested and thrown into Nurmengard.

Voldemort is suppressed by joint task forces.

Harry gets into underground racing thanks to Cloud who is a motorbike junkie, and he proves to be very good at it. Just as good as he is at broom racing. After one race with a bad crush that he was forced to use his Cloud flame on, Harry notices he's being watched, and out of fear of leading whoever it is back to Teddy and Sirius, he doesn't go home. Checker Face approaches him and Harry goes to investigate the meeting spot, sees Reborn, plus other assholes he's been peripherally aware of as Ghost, and decides to troll them.

Enter Skull. The civilian stuntman.

Luce sees through him immediately and is utterly delighted.

The whole time they work together she's on the verge of peeing herself through laughter because she knows he's trolling everyone in the room horrifically, and pickpocketing them in the process. Harry flame is ruined because of Dumbledore and Voldemort, he physically can't harmonise with Luce though they get as close as he physically can to the act. She promises him that it's alright. And then the curse hits them, and Luce dies. And Harry is destroyed, he can't go back home, not with the curse, he won't risk his dad or Teddy, though he does call them often. Luce knew what was going to happen to them, and he takes that as a betrayal, especially since – since she was as close to his Sky as he could get and she knew that and she still let this happen, still hid it from him. Didn't give him time to make arrangements or even attempt to make things right.

It takes a while before he can show himself and take care of Ariah. By that point the other Arcobaleno have fractured and left. He spends his time taking care of her instead.

He continues being a troll, and occasionally overcharging his Cloud flame to return to his original form to perform a heist as Ghost just to maintain the illusion.

And then the curse gets broken and he decides he's had enough, absolutely enough, of the Arcobaleno. And stops trolling them, casually tells them his real contempt for them and vanishes. Goes home. He is finally reunited with Sirius who has grown like fine wine and found himself a lovely girlfriend who works at the robe shop. He meets Teddy, middle aged, with his own little whoops baby, a six year old menace by the name of Felix who has a Sun flame with all the hyperactivity that comes with it.

Verde decides to get into contact with a friend of his who had been exploring curse breaking on his behalf and the other Arcos decide to join him because they've grown wary of 'curses' and anyone connected to them. Up they rock and Teddy is happy to finally put a name to the face. He apologises for the mad house, his older brother finally came home after being under a curse himself. Verde commiserates and assumes that Teddy was so interested in the subject because of that. Just so, the Metamorph agrees before calling Harry down to meet his research buddy and his friends.

Harry walks in and its only the fact that Reborn recognised the house before he walked in that he realises that Harry is actually Skull and flips his shit.

There would be serious and hard talks. The end-game pairing was for Reborn/Harry but there would be Voldemort and Dumbledore to deal with at this point, and Reborn was going to have to do an awful lot of soul searching and character development before Harry will give him the time of day after all the shit they went through, that Reborn put him through on top of that. Not to mention the fact that the guy had fucked his father, that's kind of a romance killer.

And that was all I had planned that I can remember.

Again, please do not continue or repost these fics. Or regurgitate these ideas either.