batsutousai | FIC: Fayth -- HP/FFX -- Chapter 5 -- Harry/Tidus -- eventual R/M

Title: Fayth
Fandoms: Harry Potter & Final Fantasy X
Author:

tsuki_no_suzu
Rating: eventual M/R
Pairings: Harry/Tidus
Warnings: OoC, AU (etc, etc, etc....)
Summary: Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, but at a price. When a new evil comes that he cannot defeat alone, he and his friends lock themselves in stone to fight it. One day, thousands of years later, Harry is freed and starts a journey with another young man who is equally lost to finish the job Harry once started.

Disclaim Her: You may or may not have noticed that I changed the rating a couple of chapters ago? Harry and Tidus will eventually have their moment. ^.~

A/N: So, someone finally guessed Harry's aeon! O.o Well, she named it in a list of ideas, at least. Which is all that counts.
And, yes, the rest of you poor sods have to wait until chapter chapter still to find out which it is. (Don't complain, there's only two left. And at the rate I'm updating this, you'll know by the beginning of next week. XD)

-0-
Operation Mi'ihen
-0-

The Mi'ihen Highroad, Tidus decided, was looking to be a long and tedious trip. Almost right away, he got told off by Auron when they faced a tougher enemy than his sword could cut through, and Wakka had laughed at him a bit. He'd been feeling quite miffed since, and had kept to the back of their group, with Harry and Rikku.

"Are you moping?" Harry eventually asked, green eyes sparkling.

Tidus huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "No."

"Now you're pouting, instead," Harry commented.

Tidus glared at him.

Rikku rolled her eyes at them, then glanced ahead to make sure the rest of their party was distracted before saying, "Harry? You were complaining about your adoring public at the game..."

"Huh?" Tidus looked over, all his personal angst forgotten at the prospect of learning more about their somewhat secretive companion.

"Yuna started introducing him to the people in the stands as a fellow summoner at the game when they flocked to her, and he kept trying to hide behind me," Rikku explained.

Harry looked between the two teens and sighed, knowing they would pester him about it until he told them. "Remember how I said we'd just finished fighting a war?" he asked.

"Yeah, before that dude came. Hey, did he have a name?" Tidus asked.

Harry looked at him suspiciously. "Not that I can remember, no. Why?"

Tidus shrugged. "Just wondering."

Harry grunted. "Well, the war we'd fought before was in two parts. The bad guy, for a lack of better term, went by the name Lord Voldemort, an anagram of his birth name. He preached the superiority of magical blood, and the killing of those without, or those who came from a family without magic. A lot of the older families flocked to him, and they were on the verge of completely decimating what was left of their opposition when I was born. A prophecy had been made about a child who would destroy Voldemort, and he attacked my family. My parents were killed, but my mother willingly sacrificed herself to save me. Voldemort's spell, which should have killed me, bounced off me and hit him, instead."

"So he died?" Rikku asked, eyes wide. Both teens were quickly drawn into the story.

Harry shook his head. "Voldemort had performed some magic early on that kept him in a sort of half-life. He spent thirteen years floating around as something like a spirit – a pyrefly would be an apt description, I suppose."

"Not a full unsent?" Rikku asked.

"No, just a pyrefly. Eventually, he managed to come back to life, and started to attack our world again. I was hailed as the saviour, because I'd defeated him once, so I should be able to defeat him again." He grimaced. "I did, in the end, with a little help and a lot of luck. And then that other wanker showed up and blew everything to hell. Quite literally, actually..."

"So, you were famous?" Tidus asked.

Harry nodded. "From the age of one. Didn't find out until I was eleven, though, and before that, I lived with relatives who hated my guts..."

"I'm sorry," Rikku whispered.

Harry smiled and shrugged. "It gave me a nice, tough shell, at any rate. Which was good, because during my six years of schooling, the public of the wizarding world waffled between treating me like their saviour and considering me mad or evil, depending on the circumstances." He glanced at Rikku. "I know all too well how fickle the public is, and I'd rather stay out of the lime light in this life."

"We'll do our best," Tidus promised.

"It'll be hard, travelling with Yunie, though," Rikku warned.

Harry sighed. "I've no doubt of that. I'm hoping, at the least, that her having a famous father will mean that she gets most of the attention. Perhaps I'll just be the rookie summoner who's following her around in hopes of getting some pointers." He grinned.

"Uhm, Harry, I hate to break it to you, but you don't look or act like a rookie anything," Tidus commented.

"Bugger."

"Hey, so, Tidus! What did Auron want?" Rikku asked, bouncing a bit.

Tidus looked away, cheerful mood completely gone.

"Tidus?" Harry asked, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder and forcing him to stop. Rikku stopped next to them, looking worried.

Tidus looked up with a forced smile. "My old man didn't die like I thought," he said bitterly. "He came here, to Spira, and acted as one of Braska's two guardians. The other was Auron."

Harry's eyes widened in understanding, but Rikku frowned. "Yeah? So?"

"Your father is Sin," Harry whispered.

Rikku gasped and covered her mouth with both hands, eyes wide, while Tidus just nodded.

Harry pulled the teen into a hug, closing his eyes. It wasn't right, what Sin had done to this world. Done to all the worlds, even the dream ones.

"I'm so sorry, Tidus," Rikku whispered, wrapping her arms around both guys.

Tidus forced a smile. "It doesn't matter. Just gives me another reason to get rid of Sin for good. Right?"

Harry looked up at the teen and nodded. "I wish such a reason didn't exist..."

"Yeah, me too. But you just grin and bear it, right?" Tidus said.

Harry nodded, understanding swimming in his darkened green eyes. "Right."

"Hey!" Wakka shouted. "You guys okay?"

"We're fine!" Harry shouted back. "Just give us a moment!" Then he turned back to Tidus. "You'll be okay?"

Tidus managed a grin at that. "Now who's worrying too much?"

Harry quirked a smile. "Payback's a bitch, eh?"

Tidus and Rikku both laughed and the three sped up a bit to catch up with the rest of the party.

Once everyone had stopped glancing back at the three every few steps, Tidus said, "Thanks. Auron was just so..." He waved his hands around in the air a bit, lost for words.

Harry and Rikku just smiled at him. "That's what friends are for," the summoner said.

-0-0-0-

"We rest here," Auron said as they came upon a shop along the road.

"But this is an Al Bhed shop!" Wakka complained.

"Is that a problem?" Auron asked.

"They don't believe in Yevon!"

"Neither do I," Harry calmly commented, then pushed past the gaping red-head and walked into the shop.

Rikku and Tidus cheerfully joined him, Tidus commenting, "That reminds me, I wanted to try and learn Al Bhed..."

"I'll see what I can do," Rikku replied before the door closed behind them.

Yuna cleared her throat. "Wakka, Sir Auron is just worried about your health."

"I'm not tired one bit!"

"Well I am," Auron replied, and turned to the shop, effectively ending the entire argument.

-0-0-0-

Tidus was seated at one of the tables in the shop with a book on the Al Bhed language that Rikku had found him and a cup of coffee when Wakka plunked down across from him. As soon as the older guardian saw what Tidus was reading, he groaned and said, "Not you too."

Tidus eyed the other blitzballer with a frown. "Wakka, why do you hate the Al Bhed so much? Really."

"They don't believe in Yevon!" Wakka insisted.

Tidus cocked an eyebrow at him. "They're people too. Just as affected by Sin as we are. What does it matter if they don't believe in Yevon?"

Wakka narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you don't believe in Yevon, either."

Tidus sighed. "Does it matter? Words won't save you from Sin, and praying to someone won't win you a game of blitzball. Only you can decide the outcome of your future, not some order or god or whatever that's supposed to watch over the whole world."

Wakka just sort of gaped at him like a fish out of water.

Tidus sighed again and gathered up his book and drink. "I'm going out for some fresh air," he said, then turned and did just that.

Outside the travel agency, the sun was setting, and Tidus had to stop for a moment and watch it, awed by the simple beauty. Then he noticed Harry and Yuna sitting on the knoll ahead of him and wandered over.

"–Really think so?" Yuna was asking.

Harry shrugged. "I want to believe so," he corrected. "I want there to be a way to get rid of Sin for good."

"If you ask Wakka," Tidus grumbled, sitting down next to Harry, "he'll tell you Sin will leave when Yevon feels the world has atoned for its sins."

Yuna sighed. "Wakka is... very devoted."

"But you're not?" Tidus demanded, setting his book to the side and looking at the female summoner.

Yuna considered the question, then shrugged. "My father was a summoner, and I believe that summoners are the only people who can defeat Sin, but I'm not willing to completely ignore the possibility of there being another way."

"Which is good," Harry commented sadly, "because without finding another way, this cycle will never end."

"What do you mean?" Yuna asked.

"Yevon doesn't want Sin gone," the young man replied, watching the setting sun. "Well, the order might, but Yevon, the man who was once called Yevon... He doesn't care."

Yuna looked troubled. "Are you saying the Order is built on lies?"

Harry shrugged. "Some of it, yes. Others..." He glanced at her. "Machina did a lot of damage before Yevon's rise to power. All those ruins aren't just Sin's doing, some of it was done by the people that lived there to begin with." He shuddered. "This whole world used to be bigger, but war destroyed it, crushed it into just this small corner of land. Yes, Yevon was the one that ended the war, that protected the last of Spira, but he's also helped to destroy it. And that's the lie."

"How do you know all that?" Yuna pleaded, desperately wanting it to not be true.

"I listened to different people," Harry murmured. "You can ask the fayth, if you don't believe me. Many of them have lived through the changes, and others have seen it from their prisons of crystal and stone. They won't tell you what Yevon wants you to hear, because they are older than him."

Yuna swallowed and nodded. "I...think I might. When we stop at Djose."

Harry nodded.

Yuna glanced past Harry at Tidus, who had returned to his book after letting Harry flitch his coffee. "What are you reading, Tidus?"

Tidus blinked, then grinned. "Teaching myself Al Bhed. I mean, Rikku knows it, and Harry learned it, so it seems kinda silly, being the only one who doesn't know it."

Yuna smiled. "Will you lend me the book once you're finished? It might be nice, learning my mother's tongue. Now that I might have a chance to live after Sin..." She glanced briefly at Harry, who was looking towards the sun with a small smile.

"We'll do it," Tidus insisted. "I know we will."

Yuna gave a short nod and stood, brushing off her skirt. "Well, I think I might go rest a bit. Don't stay up too late!"

"Yes, mum," Harry replied drily, but he had a smile on his face.

Once the sun had gone too low for Tidus to read anymore, he put the book to one side and leaned back on his hands, eyeing Harry out of the corner of one eye. "Harry?"

"Mm?"

"Will you tell me something?"

Harry paused for a long moment, then sighed and turned to face Tidus. "I can try."

Tidus blinked in confusion at the response, but shrugged it off. "Why don't you like Auron?"

"Ah, the million gil question," Harry murmured, looking back over the water.

"Harry? Will you tell me?" Tidus asked when the summoner was quiet for too long.

"You won't like my answer," Harry replied. "But, then, I suppose we often dislike the answers we most need to hear..." He looked back at Tidus. "Auron is unsent. He's dead."

Tidus swallowed hard and fell back on the grass, staring up at the stars that were just now appearing. "...are you going to send him?"

Harry shrugged. "Honestly, being around him makes my skin crawl. But he helped raise you, you said, and he's the last link both you and Yuna have to your fathers. I...I can't take that away from you."

Tidus glanced over at the other's dark profile. "Because you wished you'd had someone like that?"

Harry smiled grimly into the night. "I did, once. One of my teachers was my dad's best friend, but he died near the end of the war with Voldemort. Sirius, my godfather, died early on. He'd been wrongfully accused for the betrayal of my parents, so he spent the better part of his life in a prison which stunted his maturity, and then spent the last two years on the run from the law."

"I'm sorry."

Harry shrugged. "I had my friends. They weren't parents, but they were family." He glanced over at Tidus and the teen could only just make out him touching his head. "They still are."

Tidus smiled a bit at that and nodded. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Harry turned back to the ocean.

The two sat there for almost another hour before they both got up and wandered inside to sleep.

-0-0-0-

The next morning, everyone woke on their own time and crawled out into the main area of the shop to have a light breakfast. They were just getting ready to leave when a scream came from outside. The group of eight jumped to their feet and hurried to the door, squeezing a bit to get out.

Outside, in the nearby clearing, a large monster stood, clutching a yellow bird in one hand. As soon as it saw the party, it let the bird go and turned on them, dual tongues dancing madly in its mouth as it roared.

"Lovely," Harry muttered drily as Tidus, Wakka and Rikku all dashed forward to start an attack. Harry sighed, almost in sync with Auron, and shot a Fire spell at it.

With the entire party attacking, they were able to knock the beast back and reduce it to pyreflies without too much trouble. The chocobo attendant happily let them rent some free chocobos for their service and the group set out down the other half of the Mi'ihen Highroad all the faster.

"Can we always travel like this?" Tidus jokingly asked at one point.

"If you're always on a chocobo," Auron had replied darkly, "you'll never be able to fight the fiends that you face when you eventually get off."

"Spoil-sport," Rikku told the unsent, getting her chocobo to run circles around the bird he was riding.

Auron had just stared at her until she backed off, cowed.

"Now he's making my skin crawl," she complained to Harry, making the summoner laugh and getting a grin from Tidus.

They were stopped at the entrance to Mushroom Rock Road.

"I'm sorry, I can't let you pass," the Crusader watching the overhang between the two roads said, then looked the party over. "Oh, hey! You're a summoner and her guardians, right? Sorry for the inconvenience."

"What are you doing up there that requires closing the road, eh?" Wakka asked.

"We're bringing Sinspawn from all over Spira here," the man explained, eyes bright. "Sinspawn brings Sin, right? We're luring it into a big trap!"

"Sounds like a plan doomed to fail," Harry mumbled to himself. Tidus and Rikku were close enough to hear and winced in agreement.

"So, now what'll we do?" Tidus asked as they turned away from the road.

"We could try and catch a boat?" Rikku suggested. When everyone looked at her like she was a little mad, she smiled sheepishly and said, "Yeah, I guess normal boats don't make stops around here, do they?"

"We could always camp out until they're done, I guess," Harry said with a frown.

"Oh! Maester Seymour!" Yuna said, looking down the Mi'ihen Highroad.

Seymour calmly greeted Yuna and, after finding out about their concerns about passing through the blockade, arranged for them to come through and watch the operation with him at the command centre.

"He's up to something," Harry commented once the maester had continued on, leaving them in his wake.

"Hold your tongue!" Wakka snapped.

Harry cocked an eyebrow at him and held his staff forward warningly. "Wakka, don't make me Silence you."

Wakka looked like he might have something rude to say to that, but Lulu ended the confrontation by grabbing his arm and dragging him along behind Kimahri and Yuna.

Tidus sighed. "Do we have to go with them?" he asked of Harry and Rikku.

"We could always just lose Wakka," Rikku commented cheerfully.

Auron eyed them oddly before starting out after the rest of the party. Snickering, the three friends followed him.

-0-0-0-

After ten minutes of Wakka complaining about Al Bhed and the Crusaders using their machina, Harry finally shot a Silencing spell at him. When Wakka glared at him, Harry snapped, "I have little patience for prejudiced bastards who insist that their view of the world is the correct one. If you insist on continuing with your ranting, feel free to do so in silence. And if anyone cures him, only for him to start ranting again, I'll do the same to them." Then he stalked off in a huff.

Tidus and Rikku both waved cheerfully at the staring Wakka before running off after their summoner, intent to not let himself get killed by fiends.

Yuna cleared her throat and glanced at Wakka. "He's kind of right, you know," she said, receiving a wounded look. "Well, I mean... Well, the Al Bhed and the Crusaders are doing just what we are, right? They're trying to find a way to stop Sin. Even if it goes against Yevon... Wakka, isn't that something worth fighting for?" she finished, then started off after their fellow party members at a much more sedate pace.

Everyone else fell in line behind her, considering her words in silence.

-0-0-0-

Operation Mi'ihen was once of the most horrible fights anyone in the party had ever seen. Sin's first attack practically destroyed the entire camp, scattering the party all along the beach with the dead. The second attack finished the job.

Tidus, waking on the beach, wandered around until he came upon a young crusader who had been desperate to fight, earlier. The boy was curled into a ball, sobbing and questioning the slaughter that had occurred. Tidus, half-mad with anger, shouted after Sin and might have gone swimming after him, but Rikku reached him first and held him back, silent tears falling down her face.

On the ledge where the command centre had once stood, Yuna desperately made to summon, but Seymour snapped at her that she couldn't. When she looked back at him, hurt, she saw Harry, expression shuttered and holding himself as if he felt just as helpless as she did. When the older summoner shook his head at her, she turned back towards where Sin was leaving, tears slipping down her face.

Rikku led Tidus back up to the ledge while Harry and Yuna performed a strange sort of duet as a Sending. The two stood there, watching their friend and family help the dead pass on.

After the dance had finished and their friends had started gathering again, Tidus turned on Auron and demanded, "What did that prove?!"

Auron just watched him for a minute, then said, "He was showing you what he could do, why you need to destroy him."

"I already know what he's capable of," Tidus hissed. "I saw Kilika. I didn't... This shouldn't have happened!"

"And yet," Harry said, walking over with a listless Yuna, "it did. Yes, perhaps Sin did it to give us the strength to destroy him, the drive. But perhaps he also did it to punish those who would taunt him with his spawn. Perhaps he felt the world needed a reminder of exactly how cruel he is."

Tidus looked away, feeling sick, and refused to be comforted by Rikku's gentle hand on his shoulder.

Once the others had joined them, they headed out again, continuing to Djose with the weight of the world bearing down on their shoulders.

-0-0-0-0-0-

A/N: I had, honestly, considered continuing on to Djose for this chapter, but I ended up deciding that this was the perfect place to stop it. Really.
Anyway, I kinda wanna get through Djose again myself before writing it. I mean, I'm using a game script from GameFAQs, but it's always nice to have just played that part of the game, since the script doesn't have all the little nuances or the movements the characters while they're saying something, which could completely change the meaning. (There MIGHT be a script that DOES cover those things, but I looked over four of them and picked the one that gave me less of a headache. ^.^" )

Next chapter, Djose, the Moonflow and part of Guadosalam.

And your author needs love!! She just found out she might get kicked out of her program because she had a horrible, horrible professor who failed her. T.T
(For serious. I'm not just making this up for more reviews. Although... I suppose that's the point in mentioning it?)

Cheers~!
~Bats ^.^x

Chapters:
1 - The Beginning ||| 2 - Ruins ||| 3 - Besaid & Kilika
4 - Luca ||| ~~5 - Operation Mi'ihen~~ ||| 6 - Guadosalam
7 - Macalania & Bevelle ||| 8 - Calm Lands & Mt. Gagazet ||| 9 - Zanarkand & Sin
10 - Epilogue

..