Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Katekyoshi Hitman Reborn! I just wish I did.

Beta: the lovely Midnight-Kitsune11.

Warning: KHR and Harry Potter knowledge required. This fic is drabble-ish, meaning that I didn't write everything down to the last details, these are just some scenes I came up with and wanted to share with you.

If some scenes or details are missing, please just assume they happened like they did in canon. I won't describe these scenes in detail! Also, I moved the KHR timeline forward so it would fit the story! (Just so you know.)

Also, this can be considered crack-ish (especially towards the end…)

You've been WARNED!

This story is complely written and will be posted everyday for a week.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! This is my present to all of you! XD

Once More

Why? Of all the bad luck in the world, why did this kid have to be his twin?

He'd had a perfectly good twin before. One who liked the same stuff as him, who loved laughing, having fun and making other laugh and even one who didn't mind crossing the lines now and again.

One who had meant the world to him.

This kid was soft, shy and squeaky. Scared of everything, including the rat-sized dog that lived next door. He had to be forced to go outside to play, didn't even seem to like playing.

He sighed.

If only he hadn't died.

Reincarnation was a bitch.

Seriously.

He had died, fighting the good cause. Though he probably should have been paying more attention at the time, but it wasn't everyday your boring, always sticking to the rules older brother tried out his sense of humour for the first time in his life. Bad timing, really…

It had been a shock.

Dying, that is.

And it had been over before he realised what had happened.

Being reborn, as in reincarnation, was not something he had believed in before.

Not something he had ever imagined, especially not without his twin.

Magical twins were rare. Only two or three pairs were born every century. Bonds like that were barely documented, but it had meant the world to him. To be that close to someone. It was a gift.

He had not thought he would have ever have to give that up. Even in death.

They'd had a scare when his brother had lost an ear a while back, but this… this was different.

He didn't have a bond like that with this new kid.

Good, because he didn't want to. He would never replace his once-twin.

Remembering what had happened once-before hadn't been easy. It had taken him a while to realise what his weird magical dream and equally magical nightmares meant. Waking up screaming as a five year old after dreaming of dying wasn't easy. Not on either him or his small family.

He had a small family now. That was new. He'd never had that before. He's used to lots of people in too small a space, all trying and fighting for some attention. Five brothers, one sister, and their parents and it was loud and chaotic and he loved every one of them. Sure, most of them had moved out over the years, even he had done so with his twin, but they were never too far away. They always had time for each other.

Now he had a father he could not remember, who was off into the world doing who-knows-what for his job. If he was still alive, because their mother had told both now-twins that 'Papa was off being a star'. Which could easily be interpreted as: he's died and gone to heaven, or he was trying to become a music star or something, and didn't want his ordinary family weighing him down.

Hideyoshi (and yes, that was his name now) wasn't sure which it was, but neither option made him like the man even a bit. His once-father had been very busy with his job, often having to pull all-nighters and coming home exhausted, but even then he made time for all his children. He came home after every shift, and only now did Hide (Hideyoshi was such a mouthful) realise how much he had taken that for granted before.

His now-mother… she was sweet and kind and was a queen in the kitchen, and she clearly loved both her kids fiercely… but honestly ..., and he didn't want to be rude about it, something was definitely wrong with her.

Sawada Nana made Luna Lovegood seem like a normal person.

She was so absent-minded all the time that he was surprised she hadn't lost her children before today, or her head. She lived from day to day and didn't seem to really hear other people when they talked to her. Like the day they started kinder garden. His now-twin had begged and cried not to go, and she hadn't paid him any mind, had dropped them both off and they had both gotten a pat on the head before she had left. Their teacher had spent the next half an hour taking care of his now-twin, trying to calm him down.

And his twin… well, he still wasn't sure what to make of the kid. Having had a once-twin made the situation difficult for Hideyoshi. On one hand, he longed for such a relationship again. His whole being ached for it. Having lost it once, it hurt like hell, even now. On the other hand, no one could ever replace his once-twin. No one should have ever had to. He still wasn't sure what he thought about having a twin now, another one. It might have been easier if they had been brothers, him and Tsuna, instead of twins.

And how in hell was he the youngest of the two?!

Tsuna was tiny, a pipsqueak really (never mind that they were completely identical, except for their hair colour – Hide's was bright Weasley red). He screeched like Hide had never heard before (and he had been around mandrakes before!).

Big brothers were supposed to take care of their little brothers; that was what his own once-big brothers had taught him, and sure, his once-twin had always been more of a big brother to their remaining siblings than he had been but he had tried! Their little brother didn't need it anymore once they all went to school, and their little sister hadn't wanted or needed it. Ever. That's what happened when you grow up with six brothers.

Tsuna, however, shied away from him. Merlin, the kid could barely talk to him.

Their house was big, much too big for only three people. There were four or five rooms, not including the one the twins were still sharing and their mother's room and, if he wanted, Hide could build a pillow fort in the living room that could fit his whole once-family if they had been here.

It did make him wonder what their father's job was to make enough money to afford this, since their mother didn't work.

One thing he knew, that comforted him and helped him adjust to this change, was that magic was real.

He remembered it from once-before. He had had it his whole once-life. He had never lived without. So … Shouldn't he have noticed if it hadn't been there? Sure, he would have noticed the difference now… Right?

And their so called-grandfather had used magical flames on his now-twin. During the one visit from their father he could remember. Quite a while ago now…

So magic had to exist.

But he was in the muggle world. Not even sure if this still was the same world as once-before, so Hide had no idea if there even was a magical world here, and if there was, he had no idea where to look in Japan to find it and he couldn't exactly go to England to check. (Though he had to admit those airplanes were really fascinating. He couldn't wait to try them out. And yes, he realised he sounded like his once-father now.)

He was stuck in Namimori. At least until he could gather enough money together for a plane ticket (when he was old enough to travel, of course. His mother might not be all there, but she still wouldn't let him make such a journey alone at eight years old).

However, that meant no wand. And no way of getting one…

No way to check if he still had magic.

He was about eight years old now. He frowned thoughtfully. Could he find a way to make accidental magic work like regular magic? Once-before, it was possible for children to have bouts of accidental magic in emotional situations. Not every time, it was pretty random, but it did happen.

He remembered accidentally transforming Ron's teddy bear into a spider when they were kids…

He could try that.

Nothing to lose after all.

Maybe he could even try some potions… Potions had always been a passion of his. George was good with charms, he was good with potions. He had none of the more exotic ingredients (or magical) but he could try out some of the beginners potions? Like a wiggenweld potion, or a sleeping draught. Those were pretty simple to make.

Nope, maybe not wiggenweld potion. While very simple to make, something told him that most of the ingredient would be very hard to find in the muggle world. Like unicorn horn, or boom berries or even a mandrake. Stupid.

Still, hope brewed in his heart.

He might just be able to make this work.

He spend the next school-less day first shopping for ingredients. Their mom gave both twins some pocket money each week (not much but it was something) and he spend at least an hour in the supermarket before he realised this wasn't where muggles sold things like valerian roots.

He cursed, and promptly entered the first plant store he could find.

Not good, they only sold flowers and decorative plants. No roots, no whole valerian plants either.

There were a lot of pretty flowers, in lots of colours, but right now, that wasn't what he was looking for.

He did ask the nice lady at the counter for help and she gave him directions to the nearest garden centre.

It was well after midday when he finally got home. He was still small, so he hadn't been able to get all he wanted. He couldn't carry all that. He had recognized several plants in there that he could use in the future, but he had focused on the ingredients of the sleeping draught first.

He could always go back when he got it to work.

If he got that far. He had no idea where to get Flobberwurm mucus in this now-world, but he had a few ideas for substitutions…

The herb mix which made up the standard ingredient in all potions was easy to make and they already had some lavender in the garden.

He still needed to wait however. The valerian plant was small and thus was probably still very young. Probably too young to harvest yet. He'd need to wait until either fall or spring to start harvesting…

He grit his teeth in frustration.

He never had been good with patience.

He planted the valerian plant in the garden, in a sunny spot.

And then, since he had nothing better to do, he went to the library.

Now, to be clear, Hide had never been someone who enjoyed spending hours in a dust covered library to read and look up information.

Not now, and not before.

However, that did not mean that he didn't recognize the need or appreciate the information he did find.

Turned out muggles had lots of different subjects in their libraries. He found a whole section on plants and their healing properties. Who would have thought?!

The science section would come in handy as well, especially if he wanted to make substitute potion ingredients. He would need to come back to study both these sections in detail.

There were a lot of different sections, one bigger than the other, but he was shocked to find a shelf on … magic? Muggles had books on magic?!

His excitement died quickly, however. The section on magic and fantasy (as they called it) was laughable. He knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up but this was useless. He briefly touched a book that mentioned reincarnation, but that was a bust as well. No real information and theories so vague they didn't mean anything.

He's not sure why he kept looking through this shelf.

Really, a book on candle rituals that need to be performed during various stages of the moon cycle? Really?

How did Muggles get these crazy ideas?

He did see a book about the witch hunts in passing and it made him raise an eyebrow. They had learned about that once, at Hogwarts, but the whole thing had seemed like joke. From their perspective, the hunts had been a funny anecdote, nothing too important. He and his once-twin had a lot of fun after those lessons in school thinking of possible ways they could have escaped the Muggles if they had been around at the time. Just for fun. No real witches or wizards had been hurt after all.

Their old textbooks had never mentioned how many muggles had died, though.

There didn't seem to be any exact numbers, but even the estimates were sickening…

He put the book away and wandered through the library after that, trying to find something else to read, to take his mind of off what he just read.

Finding the history section, he pulled out a general world history book (the size that Hermoine would have thought of as some light reading) and started leafing through it.

That was eye-opening…

In a not-good way.

This is even worse than the witch-hunting book. He could feel himself get physically sick when he read about the world wars.

Both of them.

And the countless, millions of casualties…

Was this really the same world? He had never heard of anything like it. The second world war would have happened at about the same time as Grindelwald's rise of power.

Had those Muggles wars happened at the same time and was Wizarding kind just so ignorant to not know about it?

He honestly wouldn't put it past them, but he had to put the book away to prevent getting sick.

He had only ever been in one battle (before) and it had killed him but compared to what he had just read, what he had been through didn't even come close enough to compare the two, and the battle of Hogwarts had been brutal.

He didn't want to imagine the Muggle wars…

He didn't get any sleep that night.