Chapter Text
Shouta’s kids were confused when he announced the field trip. Well, mostly confused. Several of them, namely those who had already been to England with him rather recently, looked suspicious.
“Aren’t we trying to keep Harry out of England?” Hagakure asked, hand in the air but before she’d actually been called. There were nods and shouts all around.
Harry snorted. “More away from certain segments of the English government. But where we’re going they won’t dare to interfere!”
He placed his bag on Zawa’s desk and grinned merrily. Zawa was so proud of the uneasiness and fear that grin instilled in his kids.
Bakugou scoffed after a long pause. “Gonna tell us where that is, Spices?”
“Hogwarts!”
“What the fuck is a Hogwarts?” Bakugou demanded.
“My former school!” Harry rocked forward on his heels.
“So we're going on a field trip to another Hero School?” Ashido asked, clearly uncertain if that was exciting or not.
“Nope! We’re going on a field trip to a magical school!”
There was a beat or two of silence before the class exploded in noise.
“Magic, like, like, magic?” Kaminari managed to yell over the general commotion. A commotion that included the exchange of several different amounts of money and remarkably little disbelief.
Harry nodded and stuck his hand into his back, shoulder disappearing. He talked as he pulled several items out oh the very small opening. “Magic like wand-waving, broom-riding, cauldron-brewing, pointy-hat-wearing wizards and witches, yes!” He twirled his two wands in his hands in a tada motion as he finished, pointed hat tilted sideways in a way that Shouta was pretty sure meant it had almost never been worn.
Shouta took the brief return of the silence to look at the cauldron skeptically. “What was in there last and do I need to be concerned it’s on my desk?”
Harry waved off the comment. “Do you really think Hermione would let me practice improper equipment care?”
Which no, Shouta didn’t.
“Nerd.”
“Yes, Kacchan?” Izuku asked, only slightly resigned.
Bakugou had twisted around to place both hands on Izuku’s desk. “You knew.”
“I mean, yeah, of course. But look, there are secret societies, and then there’s an entire Secret Society. I couldn’t just tell you?”
The scowl on Bakugou’s face only grew. “But you were told?!”
“Please.” Hitoshi waved as he leaned forward. “He figured it out.”
Izuku blushed. “So had most of you!”
“Well, sort of.” Hitoshi tilted his head, purple hair swaying. “I mean, there’s things not adding up, and then there’s an entire Magic Society. How long, exactly, did it take you to make that jump?”
“Awhile?”
“Ah.” Uraraka smacked a fist into her palm. “The night of the first zombie attack! With the flying and the texts and the being smitten.”
Harry raised an eyebrow when Izuku didn’t deny anything but instead banged his even redder face into the table.
“I chose to work with teenagers,” Shouta told no one in particular. Harry patted his arm in a gesture that was not at all comforting.
“Sensei, may I ask why we’re learning about magic, officially, now?” Yaoyorozu asked. She also didn’t look very surprised.
Shouta sighed, but it was Harry who answered. “Because the Ishikawas were part of that society.” The class immediately sobered. “Because the holes in the law enforcement of both worlds were large enough for them to operate for years. Because there are going to be some new approaches to communication and crime regarding both worlds in the next year or so. Because one of those approaches is going to include magically aware hero agencies that are going to need to hire magically aware heroes.”
“And which agencies are those?” Hitoshi asked.
Harry grinned. Izuku grinned. The entire class grew suspicious.
Shouta stamped down on his growing pride and turned to the board. “Enough on magic. There will be books for you back at the classroom and practical lessons with the DA at Hogwarts.” He ignored the protests and the shock that he was blithely moving on from ‘mother-fucking magic, Sensei.’
“Today’s lesson: Agencies. We we be discussing in greater detail the different agency models, the politics they face, and how to build and maintain success. I expect you to take excellent notes.”
He expected them to be excellent. But they already knew that. (They hadn’t let him down yet and he rather doubted they ever would).
“You alright, Zawa?”
Shouta turned to his Problem Cousin, who grinned abashedly at Shouta’s expression. “You are not the one supposed to be asking that question.”
“I’m allowed to ask the question,” Harry deflected.
Shouta hummed and Harry ran a hand through his hair. “Enjoying your date?” Shouta asked.
Harry clearly didn’t appreciate the change in topic as much as Shouta, who just grinned sharply at him before they both turned to where Eri had bounced over to Izuku and thrown herself into his arms, as if they hadn’t just seen each other at lunch.
Harry and Izuku had been, much as Shouta and Eri, walking along the quiet edge of the Forbidden Forest. It was a Saturday, and while many students were out enjoying the cool sunshine, they were mainly over by the lake or closer to the school.
Eri occasionally still got overwhelmed by large groups of people, so Shouta had been giving her a bit of a break while spending some quality time with his daughter. Somehow, he imagined Izuku had similar motives for taking Harry on their own stroll.
Harry watched Izuku swing Eri around subtly away from the two men, and sighed. “It’s a lot. It’s, it’s good. But also kind of a lot.”
Which was absolutely fair. The level of hero-worship Harry got even from the Hogwarts kids was a little hard to believe if Shouta hadn’t seen it himself. He’d almost hugged Yagi when the man, in all his rainbow scarfed glory, had pulled Harry aside to talk about it. Popularity was not a conversation Shouta felt equipped to handle.
He could handle this one, however.
“Good?”
Harry huffed, before coming to stand beside him so they could stare at the castle and not look at each other.
“Yeah, good. Everyone’s been good about it, about being back. They’re patient if I get tripped up in a memory or stuck at a spot where someone died. And. I like showing 3A Hogwarts. It’s, it feels like I’m reclaiming my home.”
He shook his head, sending black hair flying, and ran both hands through it, this time, jarring his glasses when he dragged his palms back down his face.
“I mean, it’s not my home, it never will be again, and that’s fine. Objectively some really awful stuff happened here, and I, I love Japan and what I’m building there, but, well, some really good stuff happened here, too? And when I’m showing Hagakure secret passage ways, or introducing Koda to Pygmy puffs, or showing Kaminari the kitchens, or watching Momo stare in awe at the library, it’s easier to remember that. The happiness.”
Harry didn’t look back, but Shouta didn’t need him to, not really. Shouta knew his cousin had oceans in his eyes and carried his loved ones like ships in the ice-melt of his veins.
Shouta could also see that Harry’s stance wasn’t the trembling steel lattice that had been barely holding the boy up all those months ago when he’d stood between Shouta and Ministry wands, righteous fury and desperate one-last-hope stamped into the line of his spine.
Shouta placed a palm there, on Harry’s lower back, and stepped closer to so his cousin could feel Shouta’s warmth.
He didn’t have anything to say as response to Harry’s confession. Was pretty sure there wasn’t anything he could or should say. But he had something to offer.
“Grandfather Marius raised me. He never hid magic from me, never hid the darkness in people, either. He came so far, did so well for someone who had to rebuild his entire world in an entirely new society. I think that the kind of people that my parents turned out to be, that his daughter turned out to be, almost destroyed him. He saw the Black family in her, and couldn’t help wonder if that was its own kind of curse, one he’d inflicted by thinking he’d escaped.”
Harry half turned, but was stoped by Shouta hooking his chin over Harry’s shoulder.
“It felt like a gift. I wanted to be a hero for many reasons, but it always felt like a gift. Like something I could offer him as proof that he did better, that we could be good. He didn’t live to see me get my licence, but he never once doubted that I would. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so proud as the day I got transferred into the hero course.”
Shouta let Harry go, but only to step in front of him, blocking the castle from easy view.
“You feel like a gift, Harry. Like my grandfather’s last gift. A reclamation of the Blacks as something good, as something worth being part of again.” Shouta cupped his hands around Harry’s face. “And I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
Harry threw his arms around Shouta’s back and buried his head into Shouta’s chest. There wasn’t a sob or a sound, but there didn’t need to be, not with the magic that tumbled and weaved around them, softly swirling eddies and life-giving depths.
They stood like that, breathing together, for a long moment before Shouta briefly tightened his arms and prepared to let go.
Harry beat him to it, but not before a whispered, “Thank you,” reached Shouta’s ears.
“Can we go look for more unicorns?” Eri asked eagerly as she pulled Izuku over by the hand. Izuku looked sheepish at having failed in his distraction attempts, but relaxed when both men smiled at him.
Hagrid had already provided several lessons on magical creatures, including the Unicorns that Harry had apparently promised Izuku and Eri. Eri had been enthralled.
The lesson had also emphasized unicorns could be approached by the pure of heart, rather than any other metric, which was useful later that afternoon when they’d broken up into smaller groups. Yagi had looked like he was going to cry the entire time he was being followed by a unicorn foal, and Shouta was ninety percent sure that a picture of the foal trying to curl up in the large man’s lap was Izuku’s new phone background.
Yagi had only stopped looking so weepy when he was firmly and inescapably taken under Headmistress McGonagall’s tartan coloured wing. That was a friendship that Shouta admitted scared him just a little. He was glad Nezu had stayed in Japan, not that distance would actually stop the creature.
Shouta also knew they were going to look for more unicorns. He absolutely recognized that he was wrapped around his daughter’s finger, but it was always amusing to see others capitulate just as fast. And Harry and Izuku were the fastest of them all.
He was a little surprised, however, when Harry looked from Eri to Shouta, and picked her up with a twirl. “Why don’t you let Zuku and I take you, Eri-berry. I haven’t spent nearly enough time with my favourite little cousin this week!”
Left unsaid but deeply appreciated was that Shouta might need a few moments to recover from Emotions before going to wrangle teenagers for this afternoon’s practice duels.
“Sounds good to me,” Shouta said with a look to check in with his daughter.
Eri was quite happy with this plan, since she was happy with any plan that let her spend time with her favourite people. And also unicorns. Shouta stepped forward to ruffle the Problem Child hair, kiss his daughter’s cheek, and then kiss his startled Problem’s Cousins head.
“Love you, Problem Cousin. Bye,” Shouta said, before walking away in a move that was far less dramatic but just as definitive as the time Harry apparated himself and Murata to the Ministry.
He could hear both Izuku and Eri laughing at Harry, and smiled as he ambled further into the woods.
Shouta had said those words before, but only as part of larger conversations and Shouta wasn’t always sure Harry heard them. Besides, it was always good to be reminded.
He wasn’t planning to go far into the woods, as both Harry and Hagrid had mentioned exactly what lurked here. Shouta wasn’t too worried about wandering along the edges, though. Harry had made sure to mention that there were wards to keep the more dangerous creatures away from said edges and that forbidden for an untrained eleven year old wasn’t quite the same as forbidden for a professional adult.
It took less than ten minutes to realize he was heading deeper than he intended and come to the realization that this was not entirely by choice. Shouta stood in the quiet yet not completely silent woods, listening to the sound of wind running through leaves and birds swooping through branches.
He kept going. He kept going because he was curious and he knew dark didn’t always mean malicious. He kept going because the magic that was calling felt like Harry’s.
Not entirely. Shouta doubted this was one of his cousin’s spells, but the sudden drop in temperature and the ringing, pealing peace was something he’d only felt when Harry had let his magic go free.
The pull stopped in a patch of forest that was like any other and Shouta stopped next to one of many trees. He was about to lean back on it and start calling himself several kinds of idiot when he saw the cracked stone nestled in a crevice by the roots.
Shouta picked it up, because it was Harry’s. He picked it up, turning it over in his hand a couple of time to get a better look, and suddenly dropped to his knees as his cousin’s grief and a crippling, harrowing, calm washed over him in frozen waves.
“Yeah, I imagine it’s a bit of a doozy. Deep breaths, mate.”
Shouta took the breath, because that was really sound advice, and clenched his fingers around the stone. He wasn’t incapacitated. He knew all he had to do was release his grip, let the stone hit the moss below, and the magic would end.
He couldn’t do that, however. He couldn’t let go when he felt like he would be abandoning his cousin to face this pain alone.
But he hadn’t been alone, had he?
Grey eyes met Shouta’s when he finally looked up. Kind, exhausted eyes set in a greyscale face bordered by long, lanky hair that Shouta saw any time he looked in a mirror.
“Sirius Black.” Shouta’s tone was flat.
“Aizawa Shouta. Nice to meet you. Always good to meet family that isn’t some combination of bloody monster or arrogant prat.”
Shouta blinked, and sat back on his heels, hand still tight around the stone but Harry’s magic receding slightly. Or, rather, separating. Shouta could feel Harry’s magic linger over his skin and reach out to wrap around Sirius’s spirit, but there was a darker presence. This presence was deeper, emanated from the stone itself, and was recognizable only because traces of it were diluted in his cousin’s clear waters.
Sirius, because the man would hardly want to be called Black, nodded as Shouta stood up, somewhat shakily. “The Resurrection Stone. Supposedly a myth, but not so much. Wasn’t sure it would work for you, but I suppose it’s only logical.”
The man smiled with his teeth and not his eyes, grey rippling around him even as he made no move to step away from the tree he was pretending to lean against.
“The stone is Harry’s, even though the bright lad threw it away. No need to linger with the dead even if you’re the Master of Death. Sorry you can’t see your own dead, I suppose. But you don’t have enough magic yourself to power the stone and I’m merely a remanent of Harry’s.” He glanced around, looking at something Shouta couldn’t see. “And the Blacks, I suppose. Potent stuff, Black blood and Black magic, for all the good it never did. Probably the only reason you can see me.”
There was a lot there, but only one part Shouta was really worried about. “Master of Death?”
“Yes, it was an accident and Harry doesn’t want it, but the stone will always be his.” Sirius hesitated, which looked odd on a ghost. “Please don’t give it back to him.”
“I won’t.” Because wow, was that a bad idea. Particularly if Harry didn’t want it, and Shouta absolutely agreed with Sirius that the kid didn’t. Harry had never wanted power unless it was to protect someone else. And the kid had all the power he needed now, what with a very nice cross-section of Japan’s most powerful heroes, current and incoming, being very attached to him.
They stared at each other for a moment, and Shouta couldn’t tell if the moment was awkward or fucking sad, when Sirius flickered and reappeared with a smirk on his face.
“You really want to punch me, don’t you?”
“Just a bit,” Shouta admitted. The man had done his best under ridiculous strain and the complete shit show that was English Magical Society, but he had still left Shouta’s cousin.
Sirius laughed. It wasn’t a kind sound. “Fair. I wasn’t always - I fucked up.”
Shouta sighed. He was not equipped for this and had already done the feelings thing today. “You were also young with no support whatsoever, extremely fucked over by your Ministry as well as people you should have been able to trust, and a torture survivor. You can probably give yourself a bit of a break.”
“I can see why he likes you so much,” Sirius responded, then shook his head when Shouta went to speak. “But this isn’t my absolution.”
“Then what is it?” Because Shouta really wanted to know.
“A thank you. From all of us. Thank you for saving him.”
There was something about Sirius’s expression in that moment that was all Grandfather Marius.
“He never doubted you loved him, you know.” Shouta put his free hand in his pocket and made sure to look the ghost or spirit or whatever of his family in the eye. “Not once. Not once from the moment he knew who you were, did he doubt that you loved him and would have gotten him out if you could.”
They’d talked about, over her chocolate and midnights. Shouta curious despite himself about his family and Harry bursting with emotions and guilt and love.
“And for a kid living under that much uncertainty, betrayal, and cruelty,” Shouta continued,” that belief was an accomplishment beyond measure. You may not have been his hero, Sirius Black, but you were his family, and that’s all Harry ever wanted.”
Shouta looked at the stone in his hand, cold seeping into his palms and tracing its way up his arm. “And thank you, because that’s also all I ever wanted. Thank you for giving him to me.”
Sirius laughed again, but this time it was a bark of rusty bells. “I’d tell you to look after him, but I’m not that kind of idiot. Live well, cousin.”
With a grin that was all mad-delight, Sirius’s form began to waver, and Shouta wondered if he was disappearing. Instead, the man shifted into a large dog that Shouta could somehow tell was black, despite the persistent greyscale. The dog barked twice before bounding around Shouta in a series of dizzying circles and leaping away, leaving nothing but a trail of echoing light behind.
“Rest well, cousin,” Shouta murmured into the sudden gloom.
He then turned to make his way back to the castle and find Uraraka, because Space sounded like an excellent location for this rock and the threat it posed to his cousin.
Harry had already beaten his past, and it was certainly the kind of past that had to be battled. Harry didn’t need the reminder of his ghosts when his nightmares would do the job well enough on their own. Just as Shouta didn’t need the reminder of Grandfather Marius's stories to know the dangers of tarrying with the dead, not when he had more than enough of his own experiences as blaring warnings.
He also didn’t need the reminder to look after Harry. Of course he would look after his cousin. Blacks were all possessive little shits at heart, after all.
(Shouta and Harry were hardly the type to let go of something they wanted.)
Harry didn’t let go of Izuku’s hand as they walked deeper into the forest, Eri running several steps ahead but always circling back.
Izuku didn’t ask if Harry was alright, and Harry was grateful. He was grateful that Izuku already knew the answer, probably better than Harry did. Certainly better than anyone other than Hermione and Ron did.
Not a single night had passed since they had returned to Hogwarts had Harry spent the night alone. He’d crashed with Zawa and Zashi occasionally, generally after being picked up from a couch or overstuffed chair, and had fallen asleep on Zuku at least twice. Most nights, however, he’d spent curled with Hermione and Ron in the large bed that had stood in the guest dorms that had been opened for the DA, right across from the ones for 3A.
They’d actually done a fair bit of sleeping, but a lot more talking, laughing, and crying. They’d needed this return to Hogwarts, still healing as the building was, to settle something in themselves. None of them had tried to name that something, just as any mention of closure had been danced around like a snitch in the wind.
But they settled. It hurt, yes, but that was why they had each other.
Izuku had run interference with remarkable subtlety, somehow able to tell by the twitch of Harry’s eyebrow or some other such nonsense exactly when Harry needed to be distracted or needed time with his thoughts. Or needed someone to listen.
They’d talked a lot about monsters these last few days, their voices frozen whispers released into the midnight air of the empty astronomy tower and its cruel, lingering memories. They talked about pain and scars and the weight of belief that was not your own. They talked about titles that once donned could never be removed. They talked about fighting and stopping and why the latter was so much harder far too frequently.
Harry loved him. Loved the lightning forests in Izuku’s eyes and the solemn strength in his fragile bones.
He also loved the feel of Zawa’s hand on top of his hair and Zashi’s ringing laugh whenever he was amused by some innocent spell. He loved the way that Nezu had signed Mrs. Midoriya into this trip as a chaperone and the way the woman had taken to magic with barely a blink and a hum. He loved the way the DA and 3A were challenging each other and growing together.
He loved the weird friendship that Bakugou and Draco were forging by way of ridiculous insults and the tiny smile neither of them would admit to wearing. He loved flying with Fawkes and Princess as far as they wanted under star-filled skies and the occasional company from bleary-eyed friends. He loved that Keigo had texted every day since they’d left and whined about his schedules and not being able to join the trip.
Harry loved the tightening hold of Izuku’s hand around his and the thump Eri made when she ran into his legs.
(Never had Harry loved so much).
“What are those?” Eri asked, caution but not fear in her voice.
Harry still let go of Izuku to immediately pick her up, because his version of caution was perhaps a bit different from the standard. He was also very aware of exactly how deep they were in the forest and the events that had happened rather near this spot (his feet had not been taking them randomly in search of unicorns, and he resolved to pay better attention to their direction going forward).
His shoulders, and thus Izuku’s, relaxed however when he looked up and saw dark bodies and leathery wings.
The smile that tugged his face as he watched the small herd play in a stream was completely involuntary and entirely genuine. He hugged Eri tighter, savouring the small arms wrapping around his neck.
“Thestrals.”
“They’re beautiful.” Her voice was quiet.
Harry hummed. “I’ve always thought so.”
He knew many others wouldn’t agree, often to the point of avoiding or harming the creatures. The prominent bones and skeletal figures could be disconcerting, he supposed, even without the superstition that surrounded them. Thestrals would always be beautiful to Harry, though, and not just because they were survivors and flyers and so much more besides.
They’d helped bring him to Hogwarts for years, after all, and that was a gift he would never forget.
“You can only see them once you’ve seen death.”
Izuku’s hand twitched where he’d placed it on Harry’s back. They watched for a moment as a small thestral, clearly younger than most of the others, stumbled and was gently nudged back onto firmer banks.
“So they’re special then,” Izuku said.
“Like us,” Eri replied quietly, before gasping and turning to press both palms to Harry’s cheeks. “If my hair is the colour of unicorns, then yours is the colour of thestrals.”
She was so proud of her discovery and Harry didn’t think he’d been so well complimented in years. Possibly ever.
“Did you want to go meet them? This herd is used to humans. One even gave me a ride, once.”
“Really?!” She bit her lip. “But that would mean no unicorns.”
Harry exchanged a glance with Izuku, because it would mean that.
“Only for today, Eri.” Izuku brushed a hand through her hair. “We do need to head back soon, but we can always return to the forest tomorrow.”
She hesitated, and the moment of quiet was what allowed the faint sound of breaking underbrush and branches rustling in something other than wind to reach their ears.
Harry quickly handed Eri to Izuku, who took her easily, before stepping forward, arm slightly raised but wand not yet drawn. The thestrals mostly ignored the sound, however, even as one sentry raised her head in curiosity and caution before flickering her tail and nosing a younger creature with a huff.
Harry relaxed again, trusting the herd’s assessment of their immediate surrounds, but sent his magic spiralling out in a detection spell that more instinct than deliberate craft.
He laughed at what he found, startling both his companions and the herd.
“I have a better idea. Come on!” Harry reclaimed Izuku’s hand and tugged the other boy into a run, even ask Eri giggled and clung to his back.
The stopped a short while away, Harry releasing his hold and indicating Izuku should put Eri down.
There was moment full of quiet breaths before a large grey shape stepped out from behind some trees and stopped barely a brooms length away.
Harry laughed again, bowing lowly, somewhat distantly aware that Izuku and Eri were copying the motion behind him.
Buckbeak returned the motion, rather quickly if Harry was being honest, then stepped forward to lower his feathery head. Harry pressed his own forehand to the feathered crest right above the creature’s eyes.
They stayed like that for one long moment as Harry breathed warmth and wind and freedom. Harry then collapsed forward, pressing his entire body into Buckbeak’s and wrapping his arms as far around Buckbeak’s neck as they could go. Buckbeak lowered his head and shifted on his front legs to bring Harry closer, and the feeling was like Hagrid and Sirius and Zawa all together.
Harry laughed again, perhaps somewhat wetly, as he turned to a softly smiling Izuku and a beaming Eri. “This is Buckbeak. He’s a hippogriff. And an old friend.”
They both came closer, and Buckbeak seemed particularly pleased with Eri’s awe and careful hands. Pleased enough to shift sideways on prancing feet and look at Harry expectantly.
“Okay, okay!” Harry exclaimed when he apparently took too long and grey feathers whopped him gently in the face. “Want to fly?” He asked Eri, knowing well Izuku’s answer.
“Yes!” Came her delighted shriek as she threw herself into his arms and he lifted her smoothly onto Buckbeak’s back.
Izuku’s hand rested briefly against the back of Harry’s neck, tracing along the side as Harry turned to look at him.
“Are you alright?” Izuku asked with a sheepish look that held genuine warmth and concern. A rough thumb traced under Harry’s slightly damp cheek and Harry tilted his head.
“Yes.” Harry pressed in to give one fast, hard kiss. “Yes, I bloody well am.”
Eri giggled and whipped her head around to the other side, pale hair flying. “I’m not looking!”
Buckbeak on the other hand, very much was, and Harry hadn’t realized hippogriffs were capable of so easily conveying such amusement. Still, Harry leaned in for one more, slightly longer, kiss, letting the warmth of the hand once again at the back of his neck seep into his bones.
After he pulled away, Harry placed a palm on Buckbeak and vaulted himself up and behind Eri with only the littlest jolt of magic.
Izuku took another moment, lingering by Buckbeak’s head and murmuring something too softly for Harry to hear. When he finished, a faint green glow appeared for the instant it took the boy to send himself landing behind Harry.
Harry leaned back the moment Izuku’s warmth settled along his spine. “What were you telling him?”
“The same thing I’ve told all your old friends.” Izuku wrapped both arms arms around Harry, one going just a little farther forward to wrap around Eri, too. “Are we good to go?”
Buckbeak clearly thought so, since he started forward, quickly speeding into a trot.
Harry let his questions go as they moved, Eri’s laugh dancing back and Izuku’s body keeping him safe. He absently cast a lightening charm on himself and Izuku, just a small one, to make sure they weren’t too much for Buckbeak, and got smacked by a tail in response.
Harry laughed, brushing his own hair out of his face, and then leaned forward. Buckbeak, the magnificent creature that he was, was heading out of the forest before taking to the skies.
Harry let out a breath that he was pretty sure he’d be holding for days and placed his hand overtop Eri’s on Buckbeak’s feathered neck. His fingers slipped a bit as the brushed over the soft warmth and buried themselves there. “There’s a clearing back a ways. We can take off from there.”
Buckbeak’s feathers twitched with something other than wind, but he did adjust course. Izuku’s arms tightened as well, though Harry was sure if the other boy had understood.
He might have. Harry would never underestimate Izuku.
They hit the clearing at a run, Buckbeak’s hooves pounding in the grass where Harry had once died with a sound that carried all the finality of a train on a one-way track.
Outstretched wings beat cool air into Harry’s face as they rose, freezing the lingering tears on his face. He wasn’t worried.
Harry knew that the lighting heat of Izuku’s hold and the sunlight warmth of Eri’s joy would thaw him long before they choose to land.
Harry knew that when they landed, late but laughing, in the middle of the magic-quirk duels taking place between the DA and 3A, Zawa would smirk and call him Problem Cousin.
Harry knew that they be alright. He’d make sure of it.