1. Chapter 1

**AN-So here's the redone version of Enterprising Young Men. Hopefully, some of the problems that were in the last version have been fixed and things will be more easily understood and questions will have been answered so the story is more enjoyable. If any mistakes are found, please point them out to me in a constructive way so that I can fix them as soon as possible. **

**The pairings have changed, as well as some of the major plot points so even if you think you know the first one, please give this one a look see. You won't be disappointed. **

**Title: Enterprising Young Men 2.0**

**Author: KLW**

**Summary: Lily wasn't a Saint, Petunia isn't a demon, and Harry Potter gains family in odd places. Star Fleet will never be the same. SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! **

**Pairings: Scotty/Harry, Sulu/Checkov, Bones/Chekov, Spock/Kirk...all subject to change!**

**Warnings: SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! I can't say that enough. SLASH! Language, violence, substance abuse, brief mentions of child abuse, sexual situations, underage sexual situations, age gap between partners. All other warnings will be stated as they apply.**

**Disclaimer-I own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended or implied. No profit is being made from this work, and all recognized property remains the sole intellectual property of their copyright holders. **

**A new story will be put up shortly, a Harry Potter/Supernatural crossover with a pretty unique story line if I say so myself, along with a redone Even Heroes Bleed. Please check them out if you get a chance, comments and reviews are always welcome. **

**A big big big big thank you goes out to my awesome beta FearMeFrancis and my wonderful husband who looked over this first, despite his dislike for the slash content. They are the only reason it is halfway legible. I am slowly but surely going over all the responses to my beta request and making decisions, but I am also still taking applications for a second beta. FearMeFrancis also gets a special shout out for breaking through the block I had on this and enabling this hopefully awesome new version. **

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**Prologue  
**

"He's so small..." Leonard Horatio McCoy couldn't tear his eyes off the small bundle in his arms, his heart thudding in his chest as he tried to soak in every aspect of the infant.

"He was two months Premature, Leo, he's much bigger than he was." Lily Evans Potter came up behind him and reached down to smooth the small bit of black peach fuzz her son had back from his forehead, a soft small smile gracing her features as she stared at the most important thing in her entire world. "I wanted you to see him, though. You've been so hard to find lately."

It wasn't accusing at all, but Leonard still found himself flinching back from the statement while trying and failing to come up with an excuse. There wasn't one, not for his behavior, and he wasn't going to insult Lily's monumental intelligence by trying to give one. He had no excuse for not visiting during the pregnancy, or for not showing her he cared as much as he truly did. Leonard Horatio McCoy had always been a coward, and fatherhood would not buck that trend.

"I'm sorry" was all McCoy could force himself to say. Lily just sighed, shaking her fiery hair and moving towards the camera that she always kept on hand since she first found out that she was carrying a child. "I know." It was all that had to be said, and McCoy went back to staring at the perfection he held, tracing every aspect of his son's face.

No, not His. Not anymore. He'd given up all legal rights to the small boy the moment he allowed James Potter to adopt him. It hurt, even now it it hurt, but it was the best for the boy.

And that was all that mattered.

He'd always heard that being a parent was all about sacrifice, he just didn't think he'd get that from the very beginning.

"What's his name?" He hadn't asked since he got here, as engrossed as he was in soaking in every detail about the baby. "Harry James Potter." Lily's voice was soft, and as McCoy looked up at the name, more emotion than he knew he could hold was flooding through him.

He blinked rapidly as a bright flash went off, blinding him momentarily. Harry started screaming in his arms, small arms waving angrily in the air and green eyes watering. Leonard tried his best to comfort him while Lily just laughed as she watched.

**Twelve Years Later**

Leonard McCoy fingered the picture he had stuffed in his pocket before he stepped into this farce of a court proceeding, wrinkling it beyond repair. He listened to each and every one of the character witness Jocelyn and her damn lawyers had been able to call explain just how much of a failure he had been. _"He was never home. Jocelyn was always tied to the house taking care of sweet JoJo. Poor thing was never able to have a life while he was drinking himself into a stupor every night." _Mara Stevens, Jocelyn's best friend since they were all in elementary school, had really put on the water works from the moment she sat in that chair, holding up proceedings for five minutes as she 'fought' to get herself under control. McCoy wasn't surprised, he had expected no less. Though that didn't make it any easier to hear.

It would have been easier if it wasn't true. He had been a horrible husband, a horrible doctor, and a horrible father. To more than one child, but McCoy pushed that thought resolutely from his mind and focused on what was going on around him. He couldn't go back and fix that any more than he could fix this. He'd made his mistakes, he would have to live with them.

"_He was never social at work. Dr. McCoy is always brusque, his bedside manner is atrocious, and he is utterly convinced that he's always right. He doesn't accept help, cusses worse than my grandpaw, and all the staff is scared of him. I can't imagine him being any different at home." _McCoy sat stonily in his chair as his peer played down every life he'd saved, every child he'd given a parent back to, because he hadn't. Been. Social. It was maddening, infuriating, and ridiculous, but McCoy kept his peace. Only the clenched hand stuffed in his pocket showed his anger. It didn't help that the man was sleeping with his wife. Ex-wife. Soon to be ex-wife. It didn't really matter anymore.

It was his mother-in-law, the old harpy that had never approved of him even when they were younger, that gave him the first sign of hope that things were not going to be as bad as he had thought going into this nightmare.

"_Leonard McCoy is the worst thing that has ever happened to my little girl." _The self proclaimed Southern Bell spoke softly, having to be told to speak up several times by the court reporter, but there was a length of steel that underlaid her words. If anyone was going to put the nails in his coffin, it was going to be Mary Bell Higgins. She knew everything about their marriage, had from the very beginning, and she was not the type to keep anything back. All the dirty laundry, all of the skeletons they kept in the closet, would come out. And all he could do is sit there and take it.

"Are you going to refute any of this?" John Conners, McCoy's cousin and attorney, leaned over and spoke quietly in his ear. "If you don't, there is no way we can win this one. We are tanked before we even get started." McCoy just shook his head. "There's no point, John." He turned his head back towards his executioner, beginning to tap out a rhythm with his fingers on his pants leg as he tried to ignore the filth and recriminations that were flowing from his ex-mother in law.

"_My Joce could have been anything she wanted. Top of her class, brilliant, head of the debate team. She had a career and stardom ahead of her. I told her not to marry that...boy, that he wouldn't give her the stability and opportunities that she deserved. The McCoy's have never been the most stable of families, and Leonard is not any different. He never has been. Between his father's illness sucking more and more of his time from my baby, the drinking, and forcing Jocelyn to stay home with Johanna all the time, she was drowning!" _Mary Bell was getting more and more emotional as her testimony rolled on, her blue eyes that were usually calm and demure to the public, cold and biting to those who knew her, were welling with tears.

And then she said it.

_"The only good thing he ever did for my Jocelyn was dropping his whore and their ill begotten son when she asked him to. And even then she had to destroy the letters to make him keep even that promise!"_

The courtroom was so quiet that you could hear a pin fall, the judge slowly moving his hand away from the gavel he had atticipated using. Jocelyn's attorney's jaw dropped and James dropped his pen, sending it wheeling across the floor.

Leonard could only turn and stare and Jocelyn, who had placed her head in her hands, and glare. She had done what? Lily hadn't stopped sending updates on Harry?

McCoy had to fight to keep himself from showing the anger and betrayal that was flowing through his veins, gripping his fist so hard around the picture in his pocket that he could feel it rip, knowing that if looks could kill he would be an ex-widower.

Things went simply from there. He still lost everything, there were too many facts stacked against him for it to go any other way especially with the Judge being Jocelyn's little known and little loved until he was needed cousin, but he gained the most important thing. The only thing that mattered. Joint custody, he wasn't going to lose Johanna like he had Harry. Jocelyn hadn't been able to take both his children away from him, no matter how much she tried.

And if some one up there was feeling generous, he would be able to reconnect with the person he missed most. And fix one of his biggest mistakes, very very soon.

McCoy stood up from his chair, shook hands with James and headed down the aisle without looking at the hysterical Jocelyn pushing Mary Bell away from her screaming about how she'd lost her little girl. He had to find Lily, and James, and most of all Harry. That meant only one thing.

Next stop, Merry Olde England.

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**AN-There's the Prologue. Its short, shorter than the full chapters will be, but I didn't want to overwhelm each chapter like the first version. Either way, Read and Review, let me know what you think. **

**There is also a Yahoo Group up for this story, and the rest of my fictions as well. There will be NC-17 scenes, cut scenes, lots of tidbits that will only ever be available there. Each member has to be approved (Due to age purposes), but I will be reviewing the requests daily. You can find it on the yahoo groups pages under of Wizards and Vulcans, of course. The address to the group is below:**

**Groups. yahoo. com/ group/ WizardsandVulcans, but you have to remove the spaces, of course.**

**Again, all comments and criticism is welcome, as long as it is done respectfully. IF you don't like it, let me know, if you love it, let me know. Rudeness will not be tolerated, and will be posted on several different sites to be mocked and poured over by the masses. **

**KLW **


	2. Chapter 2

**AN-So here's the next chapter of EYM. I'm, as always, overwhelmed by the response to this. Reviews are awesome, but so are all the alerts and favorites that I've gotten. Even a "Good Job", or "I hate it" is always appreciated. Constructive Criticism rocks my socks off. **

**Some of you will notice that this story is taking off a little slower than the previous one, which is true, but never fear, action and lots of it will be coming in the later chapters, I'm just trying to set it up a little better than I did last time.**

**Reminder! The pairings are currently in flux. I'm not sold on any of them at the moment, so they are subject to change as the story goes on until I find a groove with them that I like. Hopefully Harry will make up his mind soon, and Bones will stop polishing his shotgun. **

**WARNING: This has yet to be betaed! I'm waiting for it to come back to me, and will be replacing this version with the corrected version as soon as I have it back, but I couldn't wait to post. I want to get these parts over with so I can get Harry to the stars, where the fun starts!**

**Disclaimer-Between this chapter and the last, I didn't suddenly become J.K. Rowling, Gene Rodenberry, J.J. Abrams or anyone who has a claim to the Star Trek or Harry Potter universes. No copyright infringement is intended or implied, and no profit of any kind is being made on this work. It is purely for entertainment purposes.**

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**Chapter One**

McCoy stood shakily to his feet as he took in the grave sight, unashamed of the tears that flowed down his face.

They were dead. Lily and James, had been for almost twelve years, and he hadn't known.

How could he not have heard about half a village being destroyed? Even if it was in England, an event like this should have been Federation news. Big Federation news.

But not a word, not a sign, nothing at all.

McCoy had searched for weeks, months, looking for a clue for where Lily and James Potter had gone when there was no sign of them at Havershim, James Potter's ancestral home, and the last place McCoy had known them to be. Even when he joined Star Fleet, and gained access to their considerably more advanced databases, it had taken him almost a year to find the information that he was looking for.

Jim Kirk had been more help that McCoy wanted to admit. The young Iowan was a genius with the computer, he was the one that found the brief mention from a tourist site, a small picture of a grave sight and the names James and Lily Potter.

He had found himself in Godric's Hollow, a small village in Wales, and McCoy almost wished he had taken Jim up on the offer to come with him.

He didn't want to face that thought that his son was dead before he got the chance to get to know him, to fix his mistake. Facing it alone was even worse.

"You aren't one of those freaks, are you?" The voice came from behind him, and McCoy (Bones, the voice of Jim Kirk whispered in the back of his mind with a smirk) spun around, heart hammering and mind going rapidly over all the self defense lessons the Academy had managed to shove into his mind during the last year. The old man did not look impressed and merely raised an eyebrow at him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Its not right, the dead should be left in peace, not flocked too."

Bones blinked rapidly, downgrading the man from threat to crazy, and relaxed.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't think I exactly know what you mean by Freak." His momma had beat manners into him from an early age (Ain't no son of mine going to act like one of those blasted Hatfeilds, Leonard. You're going to be a proper gentleman, or so help me!), and this was no exception. "I'm looking for my son."

Honesty was sometimes the best policy, and he'd beg at a Klingon's feet if it would find Harry, and find him safe.

"The Potter's grave has always been some sort of...shrine to a certain sort of people. I should have known you aren't one of them. You aren't wearing those odd robes they all seem to love." The man's face broke out in a smile, and Bones returned it, though he knew it wasn't realistic. He wouldn't be able to smile, and truly feel that smile, until he knew Harry was safe and sound.

If he wasn't...Bourbon would be his constant companion, and his cause of death, he was sure.

"Robes sir?" Bones began to follow the old caretaker when the other man crooked his finger, knowing from experience that the old timers were the ones who had the knowledge.

If you knew how to ask, and had the patience to listen to an answer that included more information that you were honestly likely to need.

The caretaker laughed, running a hand through his barely there red hair, winking at Bones. He found something funny in this situation, and Bones gritted his teeth behind the smile to keep from punching him.

There was nothing funny in this situation, at all.

"I'm sorry, lad, I'm just remembering some of the...more interesting of the visitors I've met over the years." They reached a cottage situated at the far end of the cemetery, the man unlocking the gate and holding it open for his guest enthusiastically. Bones could imagine that the man didn't get many visitors to his...humble abode. Bones was ushered unceremoniously inside, and shooed to a table to wait while the caretaker bustled around the small kitchen, gathering things for tea.

"I swear," he commented as he put the kettle on. "All hours of the day and night those weirdos show up. Now, I didn't know the Potters personally, kept themselves to themselves mostly. But no one needs to treat the dead like that. And that's not to mention anything about their boy."

Bones sat up straight in his chair, heart beginning to pound in his chest like it was going to explode.

"Their Son survived?", Bones said it as nonchalantly as he could, trying his hardest not to look like his entire world hinged on the man's answer, and the caretaker merely nodded.

"Aye, he did. As far as we know, anyway. No one found any trace of him when the house went up, and the coroner said the fire wasn't hot enough to destroy bones, so we're pretty sure the lad is still out there somewhere." The man turned back around, a shrewd look in his eyes that hadn't been there before. "What did you say your name was? You're not a reporter trying to capatlize on the dead, are you?"

Bones was hasty to reassure him.

"Leonard Horatio McCoy, Dr. McCoy. I...I knew Lily, briefly." Bones kept it short, not wanting to give out more information than he had to, the last thing he wanted was for the man to think that he was looking to kidnap Harry. The boy was probably with James' parents or his godfather, with no idea that he wasn't a Potter by blood.

Did Bones really have the right to step in and change everything?

It didn't really matter, at this point he had to admit. He had to know if the boy was even alive.

"Gregory Hockley, pleasure. You said you were looking for your son." the caretaker leaned against the stained sink across from the table, and reached to his left to grab for a carton of cigarettes within easy reach. He lit one up, exhaling away from Bones, and cocked an eyebrow. "Why would you be looking for him with Lily and James Potter? They only had one son, little Harry."

McCoy sighed, debating to himself. He didn't want his personal business plastered over the news.

But if this man could help find Harry...

"I lost track of my son, it was a messy custody dispute. Lily was her friend, I thought she may know where they were." He plastered his most pathetic 'that's all, I swear,' look on his face and hoped that it held.

"hmmm. I'm sorry to hear that." He wasn't, but it was a nice sentiment either way. "I heard Lily had family down Surrey way, I didn't know her much but my granddaughter, they were close. As close as neighbors could be anyway. You may check with her."

Bones nodded, filing the information away in his memory as he made small talk and waited for the best opportunity to leave. He hadn't known that Lily had a sister, and all he knew was that Lily's maiden name had been Evans, but it was more than he had to begin with, and that was something to be grateful for. When it was polite, Bones excused himself and headed for the nearest shuttle port, looking back towards the statue that stood at the head of Lily's grave one last time.

With any luck, he would know if Harry was safe and happy by the end of the week.

* * *

Petunia Dursley sighed as she closed the door behind her husband and sister-in-law, allowing herself to lean against said door for one moment of relief.

She loved Vernon from the bottom of her heart, she would do everything for him...but she could do without Marge.

Petunia despised the woman, and every word that came out of her mouth against Lily made Petunia want to slam her oversized head into the table. Petunia disliked her only sibling, there were things in their past that even after Lily's death Petunia couldn't let go, but she didn't want that over sized _cow _saying anything about her. Vernon loved Marge though, and that meant that Petunia would have to hold her tongue.

The house had only been hers for a few scant minutes, Dudley scampering off to a play date with the Polkiss boy (Petunia refused to admit to herself that Dudley, at 13, was far too old for a play date and would be mortified to her his mother refer to it as such. He would always be her little boy, and she would forever turn a blind eye to the things he got up to in the neighborhood.

It didn't matter. He was still her little boy, and he would remain that way. Petunia shook her head to herself, a soft smile on her face that always showed when she was thinking about he family, and decided that she would be productive the few moments she had to herself. Lord knows she hadn't been able to since Marge invaded and the Boy...did what he always did. Her lip curled as she thought about her nephew and Petunia reached over and grabbed the mail from the door side table, flipping through it as she tried to distract herself from the thoughts of the Boy. There was nothing interesting in the mail, there never was when The Boy was gone to that infernal school of his and that Dumbledore didn't feel the need to check up on him every three days or so.

There was no need to be so protective, in her mind. They never gave him more than he deserved. They weren't child abusers, after all.

"What's this?" Petunia asked herself, placing the rest of the junk mail and trash in the bin next to the cupboard under the stairs. Now that the boy wasn't staying in there, it was more useful. Petunia flipped the heavy manilla folder over in her hands and studied the insignia on the front.

The Starfleet Federation, the military peacekeeping armada that roamed the stars. Petunia curled her lip up and started hunting for a letter opener, finally finding on in the bread box in the kitchen. What it was doing there, she had no idea and wasn't going to contemplate too closely. Vernon was known to strange things when he was sleepwalking at night, and this was most likely just another one of them. She leaned against the counter and slit open the letter, starting to pull out the sheath of papers within it, when she was interrupted by the ringing doorbell. The noise echoed throughout the house and Petunia scowled in irritation, sat down the papers on the kitchen counter and straightened out her cocktail dress, going to open the door with a plastic smile on her face.

"May I help you?" Petunia examined the man standing on the other side of the door with a critical look, taking in his messy black hair and slightly rumpled suit, and the nerves he showed by twitching from foot to foot. Most people wouldn't have seen it, but Petunia prided herself on seeing every twitch and every move anyone made. It was a good way to know if something was coming at you, growing up in the same house with a witch with an unhealthy appetite for accidental...magic.

"Yes...I'm looking for Petunia Dursley?" He was American, a drawl in his voice that was slightly difficult to understand if not entirely unpleasant, but she had no idea why an American would be standing on her doorstep looking for her.

She had never even been to the bloody colonies, and why anyone would go she had no idea. The only thing they had going for them was Federation Headquarters, and even that could be considered more of a curse than a blessing at times.

All of those aliens, she couldn't imagine.

"Do I know you?" It was rude, but Petunia couldn't really find it in herself to care. Vernon would only be gone an hour at most, she had been planning to enjoy the time she had to herself, not deal with uninvited guests.

The man cleared his throat and held out a hand, clearly for her to shake.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Leonard McCoy. We've never met, I was an acquaintance of your sister." Petunia yanked her hand back from where it had been about to shake the mans, her lip curling as she glared.

He was one of _them. _ One of those freaks. Hadn't they already dealt with enough of them in the last three days?

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you are talking about. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment. Good day." She snapped the door shut in his face and stalked away, muttering unladylike curses under her breath, putting everything to do with the Boy and the man standing on her doorstep out of her mind.

Or trying too.

The doorbell rang again, and a second time, and a third, before she turned back on her heel and pulled open the door with more force than she would ever admit to using, glaring at the bloody american that stood on her doorstep, a dark look on her face.

"I have already told you, Dr. McCoy, I have no idea who you are talking about, and I want you off my step before I am forced to call the police." She kept her voice as calm as she possibly could, seeing Mrs. Number 6 peeking out from behind her drapes, no doubt ready to spread the fact that Petunia Dursley had a row with a strange man on her stoop. It would be through the entire neighborhood by tea if she didn't do something to stop it. And that just wouldn't do. Petunia gossiped about others, she wasn't to be gossiped about.

"So, you aren't the Petunia Marie Evans who married one Vernon Luke Dursley, who has a deceased sister named Lily, who left her infant son in your care?" His voice was serious, and he held his hands behind his back tightly, much more relaxed than when she had first slammed the door in his face.

Petunia sucked in a deep breath, and held the door open wider. If he had done this much research, freak or not, he wasn't going to be dissuaded by her denying anything.

"Come in, then. We'll get this over with." She kept a sour look on her face, but he smiled non the less, the familiarity of the smile striking her but she couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.

"Thank you ma'am. I swear, I won't bother ya anymore than I need too." He stepped past her into the house and allowed her to shut the door behind both of them, looking around the hall and taking everything in.

"We can talk in the living room, I hope we can conclude...whatever this business is, before my husband arrives home. He doesn't like your type." Petunia almost sneered the words as she led him to the living room, sinking down into the closest arm chair and pointedly not asking him to make himself at home.

As far as she was concerned, this was an unwelcome visit, and an unwelcome guest, and would be treated as such.

"I'll make this as quick as I possibly can, Mrs. Dursley." Dr. McCoy sat down without being asked, though he sat on the edge of the seat and tried not to look too imposing. "I would have written about the...situation, but my leave is coming to an end and I wanted...need, to make sure that everything is okay, before I head back to San Francisco. I'm sorry its taken me so long to contact you to begin with."

Petunia listened to him ramble with ill disguised impatience, cutting through the rest of whatever explanation he was trying to give with a sharply raised hand, glaring at him out of her watery blue eyes (Though she always declared they were periwinkle blue) and doing her best to look intimidating.

"I don't care, Dr. McCoy. All I care about is finding out WHY exactly you are here, and getting you out of here." Short and sweet, and she was relatively proud of herself. No matte how rude the whole statement was. Petunia Dursley couldn't be steamrolled over, she wasn't a weak little flower.

Not anymore.

The doctor's face clouded over with anger, but it was gone just as soon as it appeared, leaving steely determination in its wake.

"Mrs. Dursley, as you seem to want me to be blunt, I will. I'm here about my son, Harry Potter." He dug through the bag that was hanging from his side, previously unnoticed by her, and pulled out what looked to be a certified birth certificate and passed it over to her.

She took it and examined it carefully, her mouth dropping open as her mind comprehended what was written.

"What is this?" It couldn't be true...if it was true, the Boy would never have been given into her custody, not legally. She remembered those weeks, those horrible weeks, when she actually wanted her nephew, when she fought the courts to get legal custody, not understanding why they were fighting her. She had only just been granted what she wanted, taking the Boy home to raise him next to Dudley as a brother, when the first bits of accidental magic appeared and ruined the dreams she had of raising him Normal. "Are you one of those Death Eater Freaks?" The words were capitalized in her brain, the atrocities they had committed over the years faithfully relayed from Dumbledore making them the one thing she feared above all others. Already, her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt lightheaded that she may have let one of them into her home.

Gave them the way to kill her and her family.

"Death Eater Freaks?" McCoy sounded puzzled, running his eyes over her as if he was looking for some visible sign of injury "Mrs. Dursley, have you fallen and struck your head at any point in the last 24 hours?" He sounded concerned, and that shook Petunia out of her shock.

"No...No, I haven't." She took a deep breath, "I'm sorry, Dr. McCoy, this is just...such a shock." Petunia put her eyes back on the paper, hoping that by reading it again and again it would make sense to her. That she would get a reason for Lily keeping this from her, from everyone. "My sister and I...we were not close, but I...I wish she would have told me about this." Petunia was disgusted to find that she was crying, and she dashed the tears away with a hand, hoping that she didn't look ridiculous.

Dr. McCoy, Leonard she thought his name was, looked uncomfortable and shifted in his seat, opening and closing his mouth until he managed to get something out.

"It...it wasn't something that we wanted getting around, if I'm honest with ya." He took a deep breath and sighed, "James Potter adopted Harry the moment he was born, with my blessing. I wasn't ready to raise a child, and James was more than well equipped to give Harry everything he could possibly want. I don't expect anything from you, or him, for that matter. I just...I just wanted to know that he was okay, and...talk to him, at least once, if that's okay with you. You're his legal guardian, I'm just the sperm donor." His voice was heavy, and Petunia knew with a mother's instincts that walking away from The Boy...Harry, was the last thing that the doctor wanted to do.

"Hes...fine." the words slipped from her mouth unbidden, "He's headed off to spend some time with his school friends before the new year started, but he's fine." It was a lie, more of an unknown, but she said it anyway. The Boy...Harry, was probably in more danger at that school of his than McCoy would be out in space, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

She knew that there was more to keeping Harry here than being protection for him. Petunia had the feeling that if Harry left her custody, her family would be walking around with a humongous bullseye painted on their backs and it wouldn't take long for someone to come and take advantage of that.

"So, he's happy?" There was such a look of hope on his face that she couldn't help but nod, feeling warm at the happiness on the mans' features. "What school is he at?"

Petunia shook her head, hearing a car pull up in the driveway and stood, wiping her hands on her dress to rid them of the sweat, and motioned him to his feet.

"I'm sorry, Dr. McCoy, I really am, but I can't in good conscious give you his school based on a piece of paper. Not only am I not sure you are who you say you are, Harry has gone through his entire life believing that James Potter," She forcibly tried to keep herself from sneering the name, "is his biological father. I have to take his feelings into account." Petunia took a deep breath. "I don't even know how the two of you met, as far as I can recall Lily was never in the Americas."

It wasn't like she knew much about Lily's life at Hogwarts and after, she hadn't even gone to Harry's christening though Lily had called her in tears and asked her to attend.

Dr. McCoy nodded and stood, accepting her decision though she knew it wouldn't sit well. She was glad that he was accepting things like an adult, she wasn't sure what she would do if he was crazed by her refusal. She had no perceptions that she was able to fight off a male of the doctors size. Petunia walked him to the door, and opened it for him, allowing him to step past her, shaking her head over his shoulder at Vernon who stood carefully at his car, watching the strange man with his wife.

"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Dursley. I'm sorry to have bothered you." He turned to walk down the stairs, his shoulders slumped almost unconsciously, and Petunia couldn't help herself.

If he wasn't one of those freaks, she couldn't let him walk away, not looking like that.

"Dr. McCoy!" He turned to look back at her, and she smiled at him, "I'll write to Harry, let him decide if he wants to know you, after I've verified the...truth of your claim." She wasn't going to sugar coat it for him, she shouldn't even be doing this much. "Do you have an address he can reach you?"

The transformation of his face was miraculous, and he bounded back up the walk and to her, pulling a piece of paper out of his bag and a pen, jotting down two quick addresses.

"The first is my Padd, unless I'm in the hospital or in class I'm always reachable through it. The other is my personal suite, any paper mail can reach me there. And Mrs. Dursley? Thank you, more than I can ever express, thank you."

He left without another word, and with a bounce in his step, getting into the lorry that waited for him at the end of the driveway, while Petunia tried her hardest to explain to Vernon what had gone on in the last...she glanced at the clock on the wall as she ushered her husband inside, the last hour and a half. Vernon blustered, and made demands, and finally sank down on the couch with his head in his hands and looked at his wife.

"What are we going to do?" It was a loaded question, and Petunia just sighed shrugging.

"I suppose there's only one thing we can do. We verify the information, I'm sure there's a few places we can look up the certificate, and then we write to the Boy. We both know that Dumbledore isn't going to let Dr. McCoy, if what he says is true, take Harry from us without a fight."

* * *

Harry sighed as he followed Ron and Hermione to the Great Hall, listening to their bickering with a small smile.

He wished sometimes that they would just accept the tension between them for what it was, and date already. They may only be thirteen, but this was just ridiculous.

"But Ronald! Potions is important! If you're ever going to be an Auror you'll need to know how to brew!" Hermione's curls flew around her head as she lectured, her left hand waving in Ron's face, while Ron just rolled his eyes.

"Hermione, he's a bloody batty grease ball! Besides, I'm not going to need to know how to brew, that's what I have you for!" Harry winced at the red head's statement, speeding up to get ahead of the two and in the Hall before the argument could start.

"RONALD! I can't believe you! I'm not always going to be there to fix everything for you and Harry!" Hermione's shriek followed him into the hall, and Harry threw his legs over the bench at the Gryffindor table, nodding a hello to Seamus as he reached out and began to fill his plate with bacon and eggs, only grabbing a piece of toast because he could hear Hermione in the back of his brain lecturing him for not eating a balanced meal.

She was all about nutrition, it must be her dentist parents bleeding over.

"Ron say something stupid again?" Seamus asked through the mouthful of hash browns he had just stuffed in his mouth, and Harry nodded, digging in to his own plate.

"What else? He's awake, isn't he?" The Gryffindor's around him laughed, Gred and Forge the loudest among them. The twins, Ron's older brothers, were always the first to take the mickey out of their little brother, and the first to defend him.

Harry wished, sometimes, that he had siblings who would do that for him. The closest thing he had was Dudley, and that was a scary thought.

"Come on guys, I'm not that bad!" Ron popped up from behind them and slid onto the bench to Harry's left, Hermione flounced onto the seat against them, both steadfastly ignoring each other.

"Yeah you are, mate, just accept it. You live to take the piss out of our dear Mione here, and she lives to lecture you until you straighten up. It works!" Dean Thomas said, quickly shoving a piece of toast in his mouth as Hermione turned her glare on him, wilting back.

It was no secret that Hermione had all the boys in their year steamrolled. Even some of the older years could say the same.

"Well if Hermione wasn't such a..." Ron's face was flaming, but thankfully his retort that would almost be guaranteed to have Hermione ranting for the next four hours was drowned out by the arrival of the mail, hundreds of owls fluttering above and dropping letters off into students laps. Harry glanced up once, and then back to his plate as he didn't spot Hedwig's signature white wings. He was totally surprised when a letter dropped into his lap, a school owl flying away.

"Does little potty have a letter from his fan club?" Harry rolled his eyes and ignored the snide voice coming from behind him, well used to Draco's taunts and determined that this year he wasn't going to rise to it.

He was going to have a calm, peaceful, _safe _year this year.

Well, as safe and calm as he could with an escaped prisoner on the run that everyone seemed to have determined was after him for some reason that he wasn't entirely sure of.

"Well, we better open the letter! We can't keep the Potter Bunch in suspense, can we? Oooh maybe its going to be another valentines!" Draco moved before Harry could, showing that even though his father bought his way onto the team to begin with, he was as capable as Harry was as a Seeker.

"Malfoy, give that back!" Harry stood from his seat and faced the blond, his hands clenched into fists at his side. Draco just smirked and ripped open the letter, keeping it just out of Harry's reach as his gray eyes ran over the letter, reading random snippets along with his commentary to the utterly silent Great Hall. Everyone always wanted to know what the two third years were up to, they had watched the rivalry from the moment the two stepped through the doors and instantly hated each other.

"Oooh "Boy," look at that Potter, someone in the world doesn't know your name! I think I want to meet these people and see how they do it" Harry's stomach plummeted to his feet. There was only one person who called him boy, one family he should say, and it was his worst fear that Hogwarts finds out. "blah blah blah, hope you haven't died at that school and if so, tell Dumbledore we expect things to stay the same...blah blah blah, wow, Potter, these guys are my new heroes!" It went on and on, Draco finding new and hilarious things to point out in the letter from his relatives, even the professors looking at them in silence, not taking a step to stop Harry's utter humiliation.

"...Bloody hell!" Whatever Draco read in the last few bits of the letter caused his eyes to widen and he almost lost his grip on the paper, but not enough to allow Harry to yank it back.

"Well what do you know! Not only was Potter's mother a Mudblood, she was also a whore! James Potter is not your father!"

It hit the room like a bomb, sucking all the air out, before Harry felt his temper snap. The Boy Who Lived lunged at the Slytherin, taking the blond down to the ground and hitting him as hard as he could. He had learned a few things from being on the other end of Dudleys' beatings, though he never wanted to admit it to himself.

"You take that back Malfoy! You take it back!"

Draco fought back, the two boys rolling around the floor, students jumping on top of the tables and benches to get out of their way, some of the girls screaming while the other boys cheered them on.

"ENOUGH!" Dumbledore's voice, and a not too small amount of his power, rolled out through the room and froze everyone in place. "STUDENTS! REPORT TO YOUR FIRST CLASS! POTTER, MALFOY, MY OFFICE!" The headmaster was leaning over the head table, power crackling around him in a visible halo, and the students emptied out of the Great Hall like they were emptying through a sieve, leaving only Harry and Draco panting as their heads of house kept them physically apart.

As they were being led out of the hall and towards Dumbledore's office, Harry lunged one more time, managing to snag the ripped piece of paper that Draco still held in an iron grip and stuff it deep into his pockets, looking at McGonagall moodily as she cuffed him on the ear.

"That will be quite enough of that, Mr. Potter. I will be having my own talk with you once the Headmaster is finished. You're going to be in detention for the rest of your life! Imagine, one of my students behaving like such a hooligan!"

Harry didn't care, just kept his hand wrapped around the letter. Either Malfoy was lying, or he wasn't. Either way, Harry was going to find out just what in the name of Merlin was going on.

* * *

**AN-Well, there it is. Chapter Two. It was hell to write, though I hope it cleared up a little bit more confusion than the last version did. For those of you who think this may be going just a little bit slowly, never fear it will pick up very soon. There is going to be one more chapter of backstory, and then chapter four will pick up where we started on the original version, just as edgy and exciting as it was the first time around, I hope. **

**Thank you all for reading ,and I hope you enjoyed it! If you did (or if you did) Drop me a little review and tell me what you think, I love hearing from all of you!**

**KLW**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN-I apologize for the wait for this chapter, RL and the working world has completely sucked up my time. Hopefully, the length of this chapter and the next one will make up for the wait.**

**Thanks for all the awesome reviews! I haven't been able to reply to them all, but each and every one feeds the muses.**

**This chapter will contain SPOILERS for Books 3 and 4 of the Harry Potter series, though it is mostly in chunks. I do not go over every thing that happened in books three and four, just the parts that matter to the future story line. The next chapter will be the beginning of the old story and the plot will actually start to make sense. I am NOT happy with this chapter, but after three months of rewriting several times, I just had to be finished with it. Several important plot points are brought up, Kudos to those who pick up on them, and hopefully the next chapter will be more enjoyable. All mistakes are my own, as this chapter has not been edited.**

**WARNING! The letters from Harry are awkward. They are VERY awkward. I know this, and they probably aren't the best written thing in the world, but it has been a very long time since I was thirteen, and I have never been a thirteen year old wizard finding out my father wasn't my father, so I'm working off what I think Harry may have written. If anyone has any ideas how to correct the letters, I'm all ears...err, eyes.**

**Disclaimers-Yeah, I still don't own any recognizable characters. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied and no money or profit of any kind is being made off this work of fiction. All copyrighted material remains the sole intellectual property of their owners in all ways.**

**Chapter Three**

* * *

"For God's sake Jim! I'm a Doctor, not your personal training dummy!", Bones griped as he waved his hand over the sensor on his door and let both himself and the infant otherwise known as James Tiberius Kirk into his quarters. He didn't know why he had allowed the boy to talk him into a sparring session in the Academy's gym, but he knew that he was going to feel it in the morningIf he didn't feel it sooner. Jim may talk a big talk, and 90% of what he said was complete and utter horse shit, but when it came to his fighting skills, he wasn't exaggerating. Jim just laughed and sat himself down on one of the barstools that Bones kept, reaching for the bottle of water he knew was waiting for him by the sink. "Oh hush, Bones. You need the practice, I know your practical is coming up. And lets face it," He gave the doctor a shit eating grin, "with moves like that you'll be lucky to pass." Bones flipped him off but helped himself to one of his own waters, unscrewing the top and downing it in one go.

"So, have you heard from Harry?" With timing too perfect to be anything other than planned, Jim asked the question just as Bones was drinking, causing the dark haired southerner to spew water across the room as he choked. Jim knew about Harry, had been an integral part of helping find Leonard's son, but they hadn't mentioned the boy in the three months since Bones had come back from leave with Petunia Dursley's' promise to let Harry know. Bones just assumed that Harry didn't want to have anything to do with him, and was trying to deal with that.

"God Damn you, James Kirk." Bones glared at the other man. "And no, I haven't." He really didn't want to talk about this, but he knew that Jim was going to push it. Jim Kirk couldn't leave something that caught his interest alone, no matter who it hurt. It was a failing, and one that Bones didn't think he would every be able to train out of the younger man. Jim frowned.

"Then what's that?", Jim raised a hand and pointed to the bed behind them, and Bones turned. Jim was pointing at the small pile of mail that had been dropped off while they were gone, and Bones immediately dismissed it as the usual threats from Jocelyn's lawyer, and his mother ranting about how she hadn't been able to see her grandchild, and maybe possibly his grades from last semester. Or he would have, if it wasn't for the rather large, yellow looking envelope lying on top of the pile, his name written in spindly black handwriting.

"I don't know Jim, I was with you remember? Its probably just something from a relative. There's nothing that says this is from Harry." He still wanted to choke up at the thought of his lost son, but he just knew that this was going to be yet another disappointment. So yeah, he wasn't very keen on opening it if he didn't have to.

"Except that it could be?" Jim pointed out, adjusting himself to lean back against the table behind him, watching the doctor with a calculating look on his face. "Are you scared to find out?" Bones scowled and stomped angerily towards the pile of letters, picking the one in question up and ignoring the other ones.

**_Dr. Leonard H. McCoy_**

**_℅ Starfleet Academy_**

**_Williams Hall Room 336A_**

**_San Francisco, California _**

It was written on a thick paper, rough to the touch. It didn't feel like anything Bones had felt before, and he flipped it over curiously. A large red seal graced the back flap, a stylized H in the middle of the seal with symbols Bones couldn't quite make out surrounding it. But that wasn't what caused his breath to catch in his throat.

** _Harry James Potter__  
__Gryffindor House__  
__Hogwarts School for the Gifted_**

Bones sat down, hard, barely able to maneuver himself to land on the bed instead of painfully on the floor. He had honestly thought that Harry was just going to ignore that Bones ever existed, and Bones honestly wouldn't have blamed him.

"Are you going to open it?" Jim asked from his perch, an unusually serious look on his face, and Bones just scowled at him.

"Yes, infant, I am. Once you leave." Bones flicked his eyes pointedly from Jim to the door and back, raising an eyebrow. Jim was his closest friend at the academy, that was the truth, but there were somethings that he had to do by himself. And he didn't really want to have his son say he didn't want anything to do with him in front of someone else.

"Okay, I get it, I'm going." Jim gave him a grin and unfolded himself from his seat, heading towards the door and scooping up the other letters Bones had left to lay in place. Jim stacked them neatly on the desk by the door and waved a finger at Bones, "But I expect you at Doc Jones' tonight, either to celebrate or mope, don't make me drag you." Bones nodded and focused back on the letter as the door whooshed open and closed behind Jim. Did he really want to open this? Did he really want to have his thoughts cemented in reality?

"Dammit." Bones had never considered himself a coward, despite his many phobias, and he wasn't going to back down now. He leaned over from his shaky spot on the bed and pulled a letter opener out of his desk drawer, glad that his small quarters made getting up and walking unnecessary. At this point, he wasn't sure that his legs would be able to support him for even that short of a distance. He slid the blade under the flap and pried the seal up, pleased to see that despite the nerves and emotions flooding through his veins, his hands stayed completely wouldn't be much of a surgeon if he couldn't keep steady hands no matter what situation he found himself in. Bones opened the letter and spread it over his knees, surprised by both the thickness of the paper and the length.

If this was a 'thanks, but no thanks' letter, the boy had certainly drawn it out over multiple pages. Maybe there was a chance?With hope blooming in his chest, despite his attempts to smash it down, Bones began to read.

** _Dear Doctor McCoy, __I..don't really know what to call you, to be honest. I don't really know what to do, either. I always thought my parents were dead, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon said they were, and now...and now you're not._**

**_ Aunt Petunia said that the birth certificate you gave her is real, she had some test done on it or something, so I guess its not a prank. __I still don't understand what everything means. I was adopted, according to everything that Aunt Petunia told me, but there are also some kind of paperwork saying that I was supposed to go to you, before my Aunt got custody of me. I guess what I'm __asking is...why didn't you come get me? Was it because you didn't want me, or did something keep you from getting me? _**

**_I won't blame you if you didn't want me. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon say its my choice if I want to get to know you, that they can't 'legally keep you from contacting him now that Starfleet has gotten involved', whatever that __means. What is Starfleet? I didn't really pay much attention to the news before I came here, and __Hogwarts doesn't allow outside interference so I guess I'll have to wait for term break to look it up. Hermione won't tell me anything, just looks at me like I've been living under a rock. Maybe I have __been._**

Bones felt his heart clench in his chest. There weren't any cliche teardrops on the paper, no outward signs of Harry's distress, but Bones could feel it like it was a physical wave coming out at him. He had no idea how Harry was feeling, wasn't even going to try and imagine the emotions the boy was experiencing, but he knew that it couldn't be a fun experience. McCoy sighed and continued to read, not knowing how he was going to explain to Harry why he didn't take custody of him. But he would make damn sure that Harry knew it wasn't because Bones didn't want him. Damn sure. He was also going to find out what Harry meant by Starfleet getting involved, other than letting the higher ups know that he was trying to find and gain custody of a son, he hadn't involved anyone from the Armada. That he knew of.

** _I've never really written a letter from school before, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon just get my progress reports and stuff from the Professors, but I guess school has been going okay. Uncle Vernon wouldn't sign the permission slip I need to go to Hosgmede (Thats the village that's outside of our school, all the upper years say its brilliant. Maybe next year), said its too dangerous and my Headmaster agreed with him._**

**_ Hermione and Ron (They are my best friends, ever) are supposed to bring me back sweets from Honeydukes but its not quite the same thing as going myself. It gave me time to write this letter though, with the school cleared out of everyone but the younger years. You wouldn't believe the chaos that goes on in a school this size, you can't find a moment of quiet to save your life. _**

**_It's already October, but this is the first time I've been able to think of what I want to say. And I'm not sure I know what I should say even now. _**

**_I've been here since I was eleven, Mum and Dad...I mean Mum and James I guess, had me signed up on the rolls since I was born. I guess you can say my spot was hereditary, as long as I met the qualifications. I'm glad I did, I hated the school in Surrey. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't want me to go at first, but I'm glad they changed their minds. _**

**_Hermione and Ron have been my friends since I started here, though Hermione was a little...bossy at first. She still is, but she grows on you. I don't know if I would have passed all my classes if it wasn't for her, she makes sure that Ron and I actually turn in our assignments. She's a first generation student, but she's top of our year so there's not doubt that she belongs here. Her parents are dentists, so they are always sending us sugar free treats. Don't tell her I told you, but I don't like them very much._**

**_ Ron loves chess, I don't think there's anyone in the school that can beat him, and that includes the upper years. He's brilliant, and has six siblings. I can't imagine having that many brothers and sisters, though his are fantastic. __Classes are okay, most of the Professors are completely brill, but History and Chemistry are horrible. _**

**_Our History professor has been here for years, I think he was a professor when Mum was here, and the Chemistry professor was a student with Mum and Dad...Mum and James, and hates me. He had a problem with dad...James, and takes it out on me. But I'm passing the class, so I guess that's a good thing?_**

The letter rambled on, and Bones soaked up every word. There was a lot written about Ron and Hermione, Harry's best friends, and the Professors at the school. Bones got the feeling that there was a lot that Harry wasn't telling him, and there was a lot that that Bones didn't understand, but he was thankful for every word of it. It was obvious Harry was feeling awkward, talking about anything and everything that came into his mind, but it was something. And the last paragraph gave him hope.

**_I guess, if you want to keep in touch after this, you can write me? Maybe? We don't have computers here, so you'll have to write me on paper, but I think I'd like to hear from you. If you want to that is. Professor McGonagall, she's my head of House and the Deputy Headmistress of the school, gave me the address to give to you, she'll make sure I get any letters you send._**

**_Harry James Potter__  
__Gryffindor House_**

There was a hastily scribbled address written at the bottom of the last page that Bones committed to memory, before smoothing the letter out and laying it reverently to the side, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. Harry didn't hate him. Harry was open to having a relationship, of some kind.

Bones had a chance.

* * *

Captain Christopher Pike leaned back in his chair and looked the Admiral on the other side of his desk straight in the eyes. Coming from anyone else, his forwardness would have been just this side of insubordination, but Pike had known Admiral Archer for years and this situation was too crucial to stand on protocol. The Commanding Officer had barged into his office ten minutes before, poured himself a drink without so much as a by your leave, and dropped into one of Pike's chairs.

"McCoy knows." It was a statement that wouldn't have made sense if you weren't in the know before hand, and Pike hadn't almost spit out what he was drinking at the statement.

"Are you sure we should have sent the letter on?" Pike was going to be blunt, there wasn't any point in bouncing around the subject like they were tap dancing, "Dumbledore isn't going to like it, I don't want to cause an international incident." Archer nodded and crossed his right leg over his knee, smiling brightly at the mention of Dumbledore getting upset. Pike really didn't blame him, no one on 'this side of the pond' like Dumbledore, and that went double for Starfleet. The Wizarding World was separatist, and elitist, and thought that no one outside their little circle was capable of doing anything that a wizard couldn't do faster and better. It was infuriating, especially to an organization that dealt with alien civilizations that could wipe out the Earth on an almost daily basis.

"That's the exact reason I sent it on, Chris." Archer smiled again, showing all of his teeth, "If Cadet Doctor McCoy's son is who I think it is, and every bit of intelligence that we have suggests it is, then allowing him to get in touch with his father, who by all rights should have had custody from the moment Lily and James Potter died, is going to do a lot more than simply upset our dear Dumbledore." There was more than a brief glimpse of teeth in the smile this time.

"Starfleet has a responsibility to every human being on Earth, and that includes those backwards idiots in the Wizarding World. Harry Potter," It seemed they were done playing the 'I know something you don't know and aren't supposed to know' game, and Pike could only grin back. He hated being kept out of the loop, "has a big importance to wizards and witches in Britain, though I haven't been able to ferret out exactly what that importance is exactly. We have to be ready to help him, if and when he gets tired of his treatment and tries to run. Having McCoy here, under our command, gives us the perfect reason to step in." He smiled again. "After all, if we can't help our own people and their families, how can we keep peace in the universe?" Pike laughed loudly and stood up, walking quickly across the room to pour them both a glass of neat scotch.

"Dumbledore is not going to like this, and that is a cause for celebration!" He handed the second glass to the admiral and knocked his own back in one go, biting back the laugh that wanted to bubble up from within his , Albus Dumbledore, and the next move they made would be Checkmate.

* * *

It was Halloween, and Harry Potter was in a foul mood.

"Honestly Ronald! Crookshanks is a cat! Cats chase mice and rats!" Hermione and Ron were arguing over their respective familiars, yet again, and Harry was about sick of it. It had been like this since Hermione got the Bloody cat, and the Boy Who Lived wished privately to himself that one of the two would get rid of their familiar, just to keep the bloody peace.

It was only 8 in the morning for Merlin's sake, it was too early for anyone to be arguing.

Harry looked up from his plate towards the High Table, making noncommittal noises as Ron and Hermione badgered him to join in on their conversation and back one of the other, and met the eyes of Remus Lupin who gave him a sympathetic look.

By this point, every professor in Hogwarts knew that the feud was going on between the two, but not a single one of them was willing to step in and make it go away.

Harry thought they found it funny, though none of the students did.

"Harry? Harry are you even listening to me?" Hermione's voice cut through Harry's woolgathering, and he looked over at her, blinking carefully.

To be honest, he hadn't been, but he wasn't going to tell her that. Harry liked his head attahed to where it was, on top of his neck.

"Well, Hermione," Harry was cut off as the flutter of mail owls came through and he looked up, carefully looking for Hedwig or an owl that seemed to be heading for him. It had been three weeks since he sent off the first letter to Dr. McCoy, Harry being very careful to avoid thinking of the other title he could call the muggle, and Harry was waiting on the edge of his seat to see if he would get a reply back. The letter hadn't contained much, it had been mostly rambling Harry was not ashamed to admit, but it had been more than Harry had ever sent.

Meant more too.

"Harry, you don't really think he's going to write back do you?" Hermione's voice was condescending but he tried not to think too much into it. The muggleborn didn't seem to be very enthusiastic about the 'new father' Harry had found and had been attempting to turn him away from Dr. McCoy at every turn. She was always pulling out some fact or the other that showed this was all an elaborate prank.

Dumbledore as well, but Harry expected that much from the Headmaster.

"I don't know Hermione, but I can hope. Not that you even want me to do that." It came out more angry than Harry meant for it to, and the bushy haired genius flinched back like she'd been struck. Clearly, she had expected Harry to agree with her, or at least ignore her.

"Harry...Harry, I just don't want you to get hurt!" She sniffled at him, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, "You know you're James Potter's son, you look just like him!"

Harry ignored her. They had gone around and around this same subject for months, and Harry was frankly getting sick and tired of it. Ron had the good sense, or at least the good manners, to not say anything about it one way or the other.

With a flurry of feathers, an owl dropped down in front of Harry and extended a leg for him to take the letter tied to it with black string. Harry took it excitedly, while Hermione looked on with narrowed eyes as he unraveled it and read the address.

"He wrote back!" Harry didn't mean for the announcement to be as loud as it was, or get chuckles from the rest of the students around him along with some good natured ribbing from older students.

"Awww Potter has a crush!" "Isn't that just cute!"

Harry waved them off with a laugh and stuffed the letter in his bag, taking care to make sure it was stuffed in between his Defense book and his astronomy notes, disguised as another note.

He loved Hermione like a sister, but he wouldn't put it past her to dig through his bag to try and 'save' him from himself.

"I'll see you later guys, I want to go check on Hedwig before we have to be in class." Harry swung his bag over his shoulder and stood up quickly, cramming one last scone in his mouth before turning and walking rapidly from the Great Hall, not giving anyone the chance to stop him. Harry could feel multiple eyes on the back of his head, and knew that his actions were going to fuel the Hogwarts Grapevine for weeks, but couldn't bring himself to care.

Taking a right turn immediately once he left the Hall, Harry tucked himself into an alcove out of sight, counting to ten in his head, waiting.

He wasn't disappointed. He had barely made it to a count of 'nine' when Hermione can sprinting from the hall, bushy brown hair flying behind her, and stormed up the stairs across from him.

The stairs that just so happened to lead to the Owlery. She never looked back, though he could hear her calling his name until she was out of hearing range.

He just smirked and shook his head. Hermione was so predictable, and now that she was on a wild goose chase to the owlery, he would be able to read his letter in peace. Harry wandered out the front doors of Hogwarts, thinking idly to himself that he should have grabbed an apple to hold himself over since he hadn't eaten much at breakfast, and took his favorite spot underneath the tree closest to the lake.

The Gryffindor pulled out the letter and smoothed it over his knees, taking a moment to trace the handwriting addressing the envelope.

'Come on Harry, just open the bloody thing.' He had to give himself a pep talk before he was able to force himself to open the letter, sliding his wand back in his pocket when he was done.

It was long, was the first thought that came to his mind. Three pages of lined paper, covered in a script that would have been almost unintelligible if it hadn't been so similar to Harry's own, and Harry felt his heart thumping in his chest.

Maybe...just maybe...this could be a good thing.

Maybe.

* * *

Hermione Granger, Gryffindor Know-it-all and Muggleborn, tapped her foot in agitation as she waited for the gargoyle to finally decide to let her in. She had already tried the password the Headmaster had given her last week, and gotten no reaction. If she didn't know better, she would say that the Gargoyle had actually sneered at her as she spoke, taking perverse pleasure in denying her entrance.

Of course, it was just a stone statue, and couldn't feel a sick sense of pleasure. Even in the wizarding world, some things just weren't possible.

At least, that's what she told herself.

"Miss Granger! Why are you not in class?" Hermione spun on her heel and tucked her hands behind her back, staring up at Professor McGonagall with wide eyes.

"Ummmm..." For the first time in her school career, Muggle and Wizarding, Hermione didn't know what to say to a professor. Professor McGonagall just frowned at her, eyebrows arching as she examined her student.

"Well Miss Granger? I am waiting." Hermione gaped again, her usually bright mind whirring over a reason that she would be waiting outside the Headmaster's office, a room that she should by default not know the location to unless she was called to it.

"Its alright, Minerva." Albus Dumbledore appeared over McGonagall's shoulder, his blue eyes twinkling as always, and squeezed his old friends arm. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that not answering the Deputy Headmistress would have resulted in another mar on her record, once again related to Harry James Potter. "Miss Granger was waiting on me, I was held up by Sinstra."

Professor McGonagall eyed her employer carefully, before nodded and straightening her robes carefully, giving the other two standing in the hallway with her a stern look.

"See that you aren't late for my class, Miss Granger, without a note." Without another word, the Deputy Head turned and swept down the hallway, clearly not mentioning what had brought her to the head office in the first place.

Dumbledore transferred his look from his oldest friend to the young student standing in front of him, the twinkle disappearing and a more serious look taking over.

"He has received another letter hasn't he?" Hermione nodded mutely, and walked quickly to catch up to the Headmaster as he swept towards the gargoyle, the stone statue leaping aside without a word being spoken as the resident of the tower it guarded advanced towards him. Hermione couldn't keep herself from shooting it a dirty look as she followed the Headmaster.

"Were you able to get it from him?" Dumbledore sank into his chair and steepled his hands on top of the desk, fixing Hermione with a stern glare as she perched on the edge of the single chair sitting in front of him.

"I...I tried, but Harry is so stubborn!" Hermione blurted, clenching and unclenching her fists in the fabric of her skirt. She couldn't understand why Harry just wouldn't let her help him! "He disappeared with the letter, I couldn't find him anywhere!"

The headmaster sighed, and shook his head.

"I'm very disappointed in you, Hermione. I thought we had an understanding when you started at our great school." His voice dripped disapproval and Hermione cringed back into her seat. She knew how fragile her standing at Hogwarts was, and it made her blood boil that Ron and Potter had it so easy at Hogwarts, they knew that they belonged without a thought in their small little minds to the contrary, while she had to work harder and longer at every subject in order to keep her spot.

Hermione was not stupid, and she knew that Dumbledore would only allow her to stay as long as it was prudent and in his best interests.

"I'm...I'm sorry, Professor. I'll do better, I swear I will!" Hermione jumped up from the seat and stared at her Headmaster, determined to do everything she had to in order to keep the amazing gift the man had given her three years before.

Dumbledore nodded and fixed her with a steely glare.

"See that you do, Miss Granger. See that you do. Harry Potter must not be allowed to contact this muggle, at all costs."

Hermione understood, and steeled herself.

She would prove herself worthy of the great gift she'd been given. Harry Potter would fall in line, and quickly. It was all for the Greater Good.

* * *

**Four Days Later**

Petunia Dursley thought she was going to have a peaceful day at home. Dudley was back at Smeltings, Vernon was at his office most likely yelling at an underling (or reading a Michael Crichton novel, not that he would let anyone know that.), and she had number 4 completely to herself.

It was a nice feeling, and she could help but smile to herself as she curled up in her favorite arm chair and turned on Doctor Who.

Obsession with normalcy or not, she loved the Doctor, in all of his forms. There was just something about the time lord that drew her in.

Just as she was watching the Doctor and his Companion run from the Daleks for the nth time, the data pad sitting precariously on the edge of the coffee table began to beep wildly, the vibration nearly shaking the slim silver square off the piece of furniture.

Scowling, Petunia reached over and glanced at the number popping up, planning on sending it to message and getting back to her show.

"Why on earth would he be calling?" she hit the ignore button, waiting until her screen saver popped back up, and turned the sound on the TV back up, cursing under her breath as she realized that she had missed The Doctor's brilliant idea of a plan to defeat the Daleks again.

Well, at least it was a rerun, and she already knew what happened. Still, calling at such an hour was just rude. Americans never did have the sense that God gave them.

"Now that's just rude!" Petunia threw the remote down on the table next to her and reached for the pad as it rang again, the same number on the screen.

Someone out there was determined she not enjoy her day off, and she knew exactly who's fault it was.

Petunia tapped the button to answer the call, ignoring the urge to straight and fluff her hair, glaring at the American on the other end.

"What do you need, McCoy? The Lawyers are working through everything and Harry is not here." She was being short with him, she knew that, but dammit! Why was someone always interrupting her when she tried to get five minutes to herself? First Vernon, and then Dudley and the Boy, and now this man! It was maddening!

"Well good morning to you too, Mrs. Dursley," Doctor McCoy mocked her, his voice hoarse and stubble lining his cheeks worse than she had ever seen it. She frowned at him but bit back the retort that she wanted to give, "I'm sorry to have interrupted your glorious morning, but I wanted to know what your plans are." He looked at her over the electronic screen, and she found herself blinking.

This was why he had interrupted her? To ask what her plans were? He already knew what the plans were, and he knew that they couldn't and wouldn't be advanced until Harry asked for it. She may not have been the greatest aunt in her nephew's life, but she wasn't going to uproot him from the only family that he knew on a whim. It would be his choice, dammit, and she wasn't going to give in on that.

Not this time.

"You know very well what the plans are, McCoy. Your starfleet lawyers were very thorough." She sniffed at him and leaned back into her seat, moving the screen so it was more comfortable for her. She wished dearly that Vernon would indulge her wish for a bigger, wall mounted screen so she wouldn't be craning into a padd all the time, but he wouldn't give in. Muttered something about the boy destroying it like he had that flat screen Television he bought when the boys were young. She had to admit, he may have a point, Lily had certainly destroyed many electronics when she was younger in a fit of pique over something or other. "Nothing can be done until at least summer, at the earliest, and knowing Harry I expect it will take much longer before he is willing to change the circumstances he finds himself in."

That was an understatement, the boy was nothing if not stubborn. Another quirk he inherited from his mother.

McCoy spluttered at her, outraged. His eyes were bloodshot, but quite able to aim a glare at her that would have her shaking if she wasn't made of sterner things. She was an Evans, and Evans women never quailed.

"I'm talking about what are your plans to get Harry out of that school until that madman is caught? Christ, an escaped mass murderer gaining access to a school full a children? When he's after Harry?" He blinked at her as she just stared at him with an open mouth, "Good God woman, you have to know? Harry wrote me the night it happened! Attacking on Halloween, we're just lucky none of the students were hurt!" McCoy took a deep breath.

Petunia's mouth opened and closed as she tried to figure out what to say. Why hadn't Dumbledore let them know? He had never been quite on things of this nature before, he was always the first to write them when Harry got himself into some kind of trouble or another, usually praising the way they had raised him. Petunia wouldn't lie to herself, she knew that the way they'd raised the boy hadn't been the best, but they'd had their reasons, and she would continue until he either left completely or it worked. They were too far in to give in now.

"This is the...first I've heard of it." Petunia said, a hand going to her throat as she thought about the situation. Harry had been in trouble before, had even been in danger, but nothing like this. A mass murderer? Knowing...those people, it was the most danger that Harry could be in, and Petunia didn't like the pit that was growing in her stomach. "Harry and his Headmaster failed to inform us."

He slammed a hand down on something out of her sight, and stared at her in shock.

"You weren't informed? What kinda damn school is that man running up there?" Dr. McCoy muttered under his breath in a very rude manner, and then fixed her with a glare. Petunia returned it, not liking the presumption behind that look.

"But now that you know, you'll be taking steps right?" She raised an eyebrow, but nodded her head.

Of course she would, not that she would tell him what those steps were.

"Yes, Vernon and I will contact the Headmaster tonight. But, I will remind you Dr. McCoy," Petunia almost sneered the title, the ending credits for Doctor Who fueling her anger almost more than the danger her nephew was in did. "I will remind you that until this issue is resolved, you have no legal standing to question how we handle situations such as these."

It was cruel, she knew it as it came out of her mouth, and McCoy reacted like he had been struck, rearing back from the screen and his nostrils flaring, but she said it anyway.

It was only the truth after all.

"I...understand your position Mrs. Dursley," The drawl was back in the American's voice, and he looked at her more formally and coldly than ever, dark eyes glittering at her, "I hope you keep me updated though, so I don't have to rely on Harry's letters alone."

He disconnected the call without another word, leaving Petunia to stare into the emptiness of her living room, before picking up the phone and calling Vernon.

Why could she never get a decent day off?

* * *

Hermione had to wait for the perfect moment, and she was almost out of her mind with nerves and impatience when the opportune moment finally presented itself. Things with Harry and Ron had been tense since Halloween, Ron determined that Crookshanks was trying to eat his stupid rat and Harry suspicious of her. On top of it all, she had the Headmaster reminding her of what she owed him every time she turned around.

It was enough to drive anyone mad, and Hermione would freely admit she was beginning to feel resentful.

Harry Bloody Potter should do as he was told, and be grateful for it.

But of course, he never did, and Ron just egged him on.

"No way!" Hermione shook herself out of her mental wanderings and refocused her attention on the tree and presents in front of her, sharp eyes quickly latching on to the forms of Harry and Ron in the center of the room, half the Gryffindor house who had remained over the holidays crowded around them and reaching out to touch the object Harry held reverently in his hands.

"Is that a firebolt?"

"No Way!"

"We're going to CREAM Slytherin this year!"

"Who sent it Harry?"

Hermione's eyes narrowed as she took everything in, her mind beginning to whir as Harry admitted he didn't know who sent it.

This might be her chance...if she could get someone to take the Firebolt, she would be able to take the letters as well, and the Headmaster would know what the two had been saying.

It was all to protect Harry, the Headmaster was just worried about him, and this Muggle was not working in Harry's best interest.

Harry's parents were dead, they had never been anything but faithful to each other, and it was cruel to tell him otherwise. Harry needed to buckle down, and prepare. He knew more than others that Voldemort was back on the rise, it would only be a matter of time for the War to break out again.

For the Greater Good should be at the front of his mind, at all times.

"Where are you going, 'Mione?" It was the first time that Harry had spoken to her with any kind of friendliness at all in the last two months, and she almost stopped in her path the door and getting McGonagall, turning to look at him and taking in the bright eyes and the happy smile that had been missing for so long.

She almost regretted what she had done, seeing that smile, but steeled herself and gave him a cool smile, before continuing on her way out of the portrait hole.

It was only a few hallways down to the Deputy Headmistress's rooms, and Hermione shifted from foot to foot as she waited for the Professor to answer the door.

"Miss Granger! What is the meaning of this?" Hermione bit back the urge to jump as Professor McGonagall finally pulled her door open and stared down at her student, pulling her tartan robe around her tightly. "You should be in your common room opening your gifts." The Professor's face was cold, and the familiar lack of warmth that had become common place when Hermione was speaking with her Head of House was more commonplace than normal.

"Professor, I think Harry...I think Harry just opened a gift from Sirius Black." Hermione gulped as the words flew out of her mouth in a flood, mentally saying a prayer to the Virgin Mary for lying, but pushing on. "Its a Firebolt, I just...I'm worried he could get hurt!"

McGonagall's face changed, and her wand appeared in her hand quicker than Hermione could follow. She was envious of that speed, and promised herself that she would one day be able to match the Pureblood Witch in speed and power.

As long as she did what she was told.

"Thank you for letting me know, Miss Granger. I will take it from here." It was a clear dismissal, but Hermione followed closely behind the Professor anyway, taking the chance to steal up the boys stairs and into the third year dorm room.

Hermione could hear the commotion rising up downstairs, but knew that her time was limited. She slammed to her knees in front of the trunk that she knew was Harry's, and thanked his Muggle upbringing that he didn't have one charmed to only open to him like most purebloods did. She threw socks and clothes over her shoulder as she searched for the letters she knew had to be in it somewhere, growling in disgust as a loud whine and bright lights came through a particularly disgusting pair of socks, but she was unsuccessful.

"Where are the blasted things?" Waving her wand to send everything packing back into the trunk, Hermione surveyed the room, anxiety coursing through her. The noise from the common room was still loud, and she hoped she had a few more minutes to search before the boys started their trek to the dorm to bitch and moan about losing their 'chance at Quidditch Glory'.

It wasn't in his bedside table, it wasn't in the desk against the wall (though she did find some questionable material that Seamus Finnigan certainly wasn't old enough to be reading, her cheeks glowed at the mere thought of what she saw on those loose bits of parchment), and she couldn't think of another place that a boy Harry's age would hide anything.

He wouldn't have any reason to hide anything from anyone, it just didn't make sense. Hermione groaned and turned to walk away, the position putting her in just the right angle to see it. If she had turned just a little bit further, she would have missed it.

The edges of an envelope peeked out from under the bed, and she pulled it out with shaking fingers. It was thick, and she recognized the writing on the front as Dr. McCoy's from her brief glimpses when Harry received them.

Hermione stuffed them inside her robe, close to her skin, and ran towards the door, hoping to slide down the stairs withoout being seen.

McGonagall was just taking the broom and heading towards the door, ignoring Harry's cries of outrage with tightly pressed lips, when Hermione stepped into the common room. The bushy haired muggleborn followed the transfiguration professor out, ducking her head as the recriminations of her housemates spewed at her. She couldn't help the tears that flowed, fleeing out the door and rushing past the professor.

Who made no move to stop her. McGonagall was loyal to her lions to a fault, and as far as she was concerned, Granger was conducting herself as more of a Snake that a Lion.

* * *

Harry stared out the window of the Hogwarts Express, watching the passing scenery with disinterest. Ron and Hermione were talking stiltedly behind him, their relationship never having gotten back to what it had been before the Firebolt incident. Hermione was trying, the Boy Who Lived would give her that, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Not when she had done the unthinkable. Harry had no proof, but he knew, he knew with everything in him, that she was the reason the letters had stopped.

Harry didn't know how, and he hadn't been able to make himself ask, but she had given them to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore had done something to force the letters to stop.

Sirius had understood, Sirius had backed up everything that Dr. McCoy had said, and Dumbledore took him away too. Sirius had been glad the man got in touch, though Harry had seen sadness in his eyes when he encouraged Harry to reach out to the Muggle.

But Dumbledore hadn't allowed it, Dumbledore had denied it all and said the holding of his mail was for his own good. As the Boy Who Lived, Harry had a responsibility to the Wizarding World as a whole, not just to his own wants and desires. One day, Dumbledore claimed, Harry would understand that and support it.

The Boy Who Lived, how Harry hated that title. Everyone said it with such reverence that it was a weight hanging around his neck, dragging him further and further down with their expectations until each and every day was a chore.

And he was expected to smile, say thank you, and lay his life and happiness on the ground to save them. To give up everything for them.

It was this thought that went around his head as he climbed off the train and walked into the Muggle station without stopping to speak to anyone, dragging his trunk behind him.

It was that thought, the knowledge that an entire community expected him to sacrifice himself for them while they did nothing but cower in the corner, that followed him throughout that summer, and into the worst year he had ever experienced yet at Hogwarts.

It was that knowledge that followed him like a ball and chain attached to his neck as he portkeyed back to Hogwarts grounds, with Cedric Diggory's lifeless body clutched in his arms, only to be faced with recriminations on why had hadn't been fast enough or strong enough to save the other boy, on how he was a failure and a liar once again.

It was that thought that led him to stand before Uncle Vernon, his wand laying in his hands, before it snapped in half under the strength of his grip. Harry threw the pieces on the ground with a sneer and looked his uncle clear in the eye.

"I don't want to be a Freak anymore." He almost snarled the words, Uncle Vernon almost stepping back at the anger in his nephews voice...before giving him the first smile the fourteen year old could remember in the thirteen years he had been living under their roof.

"Welcome to the Family, Harry."

* * *

**AN-Well...I really don't have an excuses for this chapter. It sucks, its unrefinied, its rough, and it probably makes about as much sense as a Duckbilled Platypus, but it is what it is. After three months of continuous rewrites and more frustation than I care to admit, I finally decided to put it up so I can focus on the next chapter and the plot that I am more sure about. This chapter may be edited as I get time and more inclination than I have now, but for now, it is what it is. **

**Any criticism for this chapter will be justly deserved, and I welcome it. Hopefully, the next chapter won't take me as long to post, and will be more enjoyable. **

**Please read and review.**

**KLW**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is the new version of the original first chapter. Much of it has changed due to the back story that I have created for the characters, but much of it will be the same. Hopefully it will flow more smoothly and make more sense than the first version. As always, thanks so much for the reviews, favorites, and awesome feedback you guys have given me from the beginning of this.**

**I apologize for the almost year long wait between this and the last update, but real life quite frankly kicked my ass and I am just now getting it under control enough that I can even think about writing, along with finally getting access to internet again after my move back in October.**

**This chapter was originally 11K, but after looking over it, I decided that it would flow a little better if it was split into more than one chapter. It has been heavily edited, some things have been taken out, new points of view have been added, and I hope that it ends up being more interesting and more easily followed than the previous version. **

**There has been some concern over the pairing differences from the previous version to this one, and I promise that whatever pairing I decide to go with (or they decide as it were) will be believable. If it happens to be a Scotty/Harry, it will hopefully read just as well as a Sulu/Harry, but we'll just have to see how the characters decide to play themselves out.**

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied, and no profit of any kind is being made on this work of fiction. All copyrighted material remains the sole property of its owners who are in no way me.**

* * *

Chapter Four

Fingering the note in his pocket, Harry squared his shoulders and pushed open the car door, nodding to Uncle Vernon, who had happily driven him to this rendezvous. It had been a month to the day since the end of his fourth, and final if Harry had anything to do about it, year at Hogwarts and it had taken every bit of his nerve to follow through with this plan.

Rolling down the window, Vernon gave him a half-hearted smile, the motion looking unpracticed, but heart felt either way. Ever since Harry had stumbled downstairs in the middle of the night a few days after the beginning of summer holidays, stood in front of his uncle and snapped the wand that had once meant so much to him clean in half, the whale of a man had been trying to be...better, towards his only nephew. It wasn't perfect, but that the man Harry had always thought hated him was even attempting to change meant a lot.

"I'll be here to pick you up at Five. If...you need me before then, you have my work number. I'm just around the corner." Harry nodded and turned towards the small coffee shop behind him, not waiting for Vernon to drive away before he faced what he'd come here to do.

If he had the option to leave, Gryffindor Bravery or not, he was afraid he would run from it and any everything that it represented.

Harry took a deep breath and pushed the door open, the bell over it ringing merrily. A few heads turned in the small cafe, but quickly turned back around when they found he was of no consequence.

All but one, and Harry felt his heart begin to race as he stared at the man at the corner table out of the corner of his eye, making his way shakily towards the counter to order himself a drink.

Something that would take a while to make. Maybe one of those half-caf, low-fat mocha things that Hermione was always raving about. Those sounded complicated.

Complicated was good.

"Can I help you?" The girl behind the counter, her name tag obscured by the spill of bright red hair that fell over her left shoulder, stepped up towards him with a bright smile, bouncing on her toes.

She seemed entirely too happy to see a customer. Harry tried to ignore her, glancing quickly over the menu and picking what seemed to be the most complicated thing he could.

He had no idea what a skim-milk carmel macchiato with a twist was, but it looked like it would take a few minutes to make and he could stand at the counter while he waited.

Anything to avoid facing those eyes that even now were boring into his back without moving. Harry had to fight to keep from squirming.

This was a mistake, he shouldn't have come here. It wasn't going to work out. Harry turned around quickly and headed towards the door, ignoring the wide eyed barista behind him holding his drink and started walking down the sidewalk towards where he knew Vernon worked, cursing himself for even thinking this would be a good idea.

He never noticed the sandy haired man following him, a frown on his determined face.

* * *

Jim Kirk knew that he shouldn't be here.

He wasn't family and this was most certainly a conversation and a meeting that was only for family.

But that hadn't kept him behind. Not by a long shot.

Bones was his best friend, had been since he threatened to throw up on him the day they met.

And Jim knew, some of it first hand, what Bones had been through with so-called family over the last year. From Jocelyn refusing to let him have any contact at all with Johanna, to Johanna herself telling Bones in a clearly pre taught conversation that she never wanted to see him again, that he was a "Bad Daddy" for leaving her alone and not giving Mommy what she wanted, Bones had been sent through the ringer by the few people that should have cared about him before anything else. No matter how much the dark haired southerner tried to reach out, he was always brushed callously aside like yesterdays' garbage.

Jim wasn't going to let this kid, his fault or not, ruin something good that Bones may have. He'd watched, from the moment that Harry Potter, so clearly a McCoy it was almost painful to look at, stepped into the coffee shop and so quickly stepped out again, whatever courage he may or may not have failing him at the crucial moment, and followed.

'Sorry kid, but you don't get to take the easy way out. Not after you got his hopes up.' Jim trailed the boy for about a block, to just within sight of a large office building, Grunnings Drills written on the placard by the door. Clearly, Harry was going to meet his Uncle, the Vice President of the company. Or trying to anyway.

Not happening, even if Jim had to drag him back kicking and screaming by his shirttails. It would at least provide some amusement for the passersby...maybe even shake up that famed British composure. The four year old in James Tiberius Kirk was dying to try. The adult him could get behind that plan as well, truth be told.

"You know, after he came all this way to see you, the least you could do is tell him no to his face." Jim spoke quietly, hands stuffed deep in his pocket as he stepped right up behind the smaller boy, for his ears only. Harry tensed, his hand going for his pocket before it aborted the motion and clenched at the empty air. Clearly he was used to something being there that wasn't there any longer, or there at the moment.

Jim filed that away in his facts to investigate later folder, knowing that there was something familiar about that motion but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, before turning his rather impressive intelligence to the matter at hand.

Getting Bones a Son, come hell or high water.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" The boy's british accent, so similar yet so different from Bones' own southern one made Jim smile, and he gave Harry a hand to shake, introducing himself with his trademark shit eating grin.

"James Tiberius Kirk, call me Jim. And you're Harry James Potter, son of one Leonard Horatio McCoy." He bounced on the ball of his feet, until the boy took it and shook, pulling his hand back in as quickly as he extended it. "Nice to meet you."

Harry looked at him like he was an escapee from a mental facility, edging back from him. Jim pouted, or tried to. Why did people always think he was crazy? He wasn't, he was just a little...high strung. That was all. Just High Strung.

No matter what anyone said.

"Pleasure. I'll be going now." Harry seemed determined to not pay attention to Jim's earlier words, trying to turn back and head into Grunnings Drills like he'd never met Jim or had any ideas of coming into actual physical contact with Bones.

Again, that wasn't going to happen. Jim was not one to let things go easily, and now was sure as hell not an exception.

"Seriously kid, you at least owe him an explanation. It wasn't easy for him to get over here, and its going to kill him if you never show up." Jim was serious, and Harry knew it as soon as he turned around again and met the older man's eyes. "If you don't want any contact, that's one thing and we'll understand, but running away like a coward? That's not acceptable. Especially after two years of letters, and everything both of you have been through"

Harry frowned, real temper flying into his eyes at the drop of a hat and Jim hid his smirk.

The boy was a McCoy alright, he'd seen that look plenty of times when he'd come back to the dorm broken from some fight or another and Bones had to patch him back together, most of the time painfully as Jim refused any and all suggestions that he go to an actual hospital.

He trusted Bones, Bones would never let him down, and Jim wasn't going to let him down either.

"How is what I do any of your business?" Harry spat across the distance between them, eyes snapping murder at Jim, "I don't have to have anything to do with him, it wouldn't work out anyway. Its not like he tried to find me before he lost his other family, after all."

Jim frowned, raising a hand at the other boy.

"Now wait just a damn minute kid. That's below the belt and you know it. Bones...Leonard wanted you but thought you would be better off, or did you think he was lying to you in all of those letters? He thought you were happy and healthy with James Potter and your mother!" Jim was mad, but he tried to hold onto his temper as much as he was able. It wouldn't do to be the cause of Harry running the other direction and never coming back.

He wasn't going to let this damn kid besmirch his best friends name like that, no way in hell.

Harry just frowned and crossed his arms, trying not to hear the truth in those words. He didn't want to bring anyone else into the mess that was his life, he wouldn't be worth it and it wasn't fair to them at all.

'But you came to the meeting anyway, didn't you?' his subconscious whispered in the back of his brain, telling him that there was more to him coming to the visit than having a possible out if and when the Wizarding World became more of an issue than it was at the moment.

"Just give him a chance, one chance Harry. If you want to leave and never look back after today, I'll be the last person to say anything. But, at least attempt it. You owe both of you that much at least."

That was all Jim could do, short of dragging the smaller male back towards the cafe forcibly, and wouldn't that just do wonders to endear Harry to Bones? And he only hoped that his words were enough. He had never been eloquent, at least he didn't think he was, but there was nothing that he wouldn't try to make everything right for Bones again.

Harry studied him, his eyes weighing, making Jim feel like he was under a microscope and about to be dissected by an intrigued scientist.

"Is he worth it?" Harry didn't know why he was asking this complete and utter stranger, loud and asserting, a question that he wasn't even sure he wanted to know the answer to, but he was and once it was out there was no taking it back.

Jim just smiled, and nodded.

"He's more than worth it, kid. If I had a dad alive, I'd want it to be Bones before anyone else. He'll go through hell for you."

Harry nodded slowly and despite the fear that was still churning in his gut, he turned and walked back towards the cafe with Jim, bolstering his spirit with the smile that was directed towards him.

Harry was never a good judge of character, he wasn't going to lie, but anyone who inspired that type of confidence was worth giving at least a single chance.

He ignored the voice in the back of his head, probably his equivalent of the devil on your shoulder, that said he'd said the same about Dumbledore and the rest of Hogwarts and look what happened.

'Shut up.'

* * *

Leonard 'Bones' McCoy was not a patient man. He preferred, a trait learned from years of working in trauma situations, for things to go ahead and happen so they could be over just as quickly.

So he could be onto the next thing, the next life that he could save, the next parent that didn't have to lose a child.

Unfortunately, this situation couldn't be handled like he was used to.

Kids never did what you wanted them to do, especially kids that you had never met before. Letters didn't count, letters weren't the same as face to face contact.

As Bones sat in the nondescript coffee shop, in the middle of the business district of London, a cup of cold coffee at his elbow and a data pad sitting on the table in front of him, his mind drifted to why he was here.

Harry James Potter, fourteen, attended a school for the gifted up until four weeks ago. And the son that Leonard thought he had given up fourteen years before.

"Can I get a refill for you, sir?" The overly perky counter girl was making the rounds again, but Bones waved her off with a distracted air, not taking his eyes off the pad. He had a few patients he was consulting on for a friend back in Georgia, and they were great for keeping him distracted.

Besides, his coffee wasn't even empty yet. He hadn't taken a sip of it since he sat down, his stomach rolling at the idea of anything entering it.

Even though every ringing bell had him looking towards the door with a pounding heart, wondering if this would be him.

It had yet to be, and Bones wasn't sure he should be happy or distressed by that. This was not exactly a situation that he had found himself in before.

"Idiot, its never Lupus." Jotting down a notion and probable diagnosis, sending the whole file to Dr. House (No relation to the famous 21st century diagnostician), McCoy sat down the pad and began tapping his fingers on the table, staring towards the door.

He'd seen Jim come in half an hour before and slide into a shadowy corner, and fought his instincts to go over and give the brat a piece of his mind.

McCoy didn't want to go into this meeting angry. The least he could do for his..son, was keep his temper in check for the first meeting. And confronting Jim about his latest batch of stupidity, always got him angry.

The bell ringing over the door caught McCoy's interest, and as he stared at the figure stepping through the door his heart jumped into his throat and his fingers stopped in mid-drum.

"My God." It fell from his lips in a whisper, his mind accepting the implications of what he was seeing quicker than he thought he would be able to.

Seeing was believing, after all.

Standing at the corner, ordering one of those sugary, over caffeinated confections that the younger generation were overly enamored with, was a younger version of himself. A smaller build, but it was like looking in a time warped mirror.

The boy was nervous, his eyes darting from person to person but never falling for long on Bones. The Doctor knew he'd been seen, this was the only table in the entire cafe that fit the criteria he'd set in their final letter before things got too hectic for both of them.

Avoidance seemed to be one of the traits the boy had inherited from him.

The eyes though, those were all Lily.

Lily with the Green Eyes and Red hair...and the temper to match Bones' own.

As he turned his abandoned coffee cup in small circles between his hands, cold liquid splashing out over the digits and falling to puddle on the table, telling himself that he wasn't hurt, and wasn't surprised when the boy turned and walked out of the cafe with a stiff back and quick stride, McCoy found himself thinking back to the first time he'd ever seen Lily, sixteen years before.

He'd been star struck from the very first moment, following her around like a lost puppy, praying for a kind word or a sweet glance from her. At fifteen, he'd been awkward and gangly, and this beauty from across the oceans, talking so animatedly to his class about the wonders and excitement of being in StarFleet, had stolen his heart from the very beginning.

He'd poked, and prodded, and gone after her with the single mindedness of a man madly in love, long before he even knew what love really was.

He didn't care that she was engaged to be married, the southern manners his mother had beaten into him since he was old enough to understand what she was saying flying out the window at her smile and bright hair.

All he cared about was getting her into his bed.

Lust in its basest form. The simplest of emotions.

"Mind if I sit?" McCoy blinked out of his memories at the voice, meeting Green eyes so like Lily's.

Harry stood with his hands in his pockets, spots of color highlighting his cheeks, shifting from foot to foot.

"Sure," Bones pushed the chair across from him out with a foot, straightening his body from the lazy slouch he'd been in. Harry sank down into the chair, folding his hands across the top of the table and just as quickly pulling them off the table, fiddling with them in his lap.

They sat in silence for a few moments, neither of them saying anything for what seemed like years, before both of them opened their mouths

"I'm sorry for being late"

"I'm glad you came"

Harry blushed, the color spreading from his cheeks to his ears in an ever widening wave until his entire face was covered in the color and he gratefully took the, now cold, drink that the not so perky any longer waitress brought over to him, busying himself with drinking it down in long gulps that would have scalded his tongue off if it had been the temperature that it was intended to be.

Bones chuckled, his heart despite the situation. It was good to see a kid, his kid, acting his age even with the pressure and awkwardness of the situation.

"Go ahead kid," Bones leaned back in his seat, crossing his feet at the ankles, feeling more relaxed now that the 'I wonder if he'll show' phase of today's agenda.

"No, its nothing." Harry sat the cup down, making a face, Bones laughing a little louder.

"Not what you expected?" It was obvious that the kid had only ordered it to waste time, and Bones had always been more comfortable with teasing than with uncomfortable silences. He'd do anything he had to do to make this easier on both of them.

But especially on Harry. It was a father's job, no matter how long you'd been in the role, to make things as easy as possible on his children, and father had always been McCoy's favorite job.

He'd only forgotten that before.

Seeing this boy, his boy, who looked so much like he had at that age, cemented the feelings he should have felt from the very beginning in his heart.

No matter what, if Harry wanted him to be a part of his life or not, Leonard made a vow to himself to do what ever he could to make Harry's life good. He'd failed with Johanna, Jocelyn wouldn't even let him see her, not even on christmas despite the custody agreement they had hammered out years before, McCoy wasn't going to fail again no matter what.

"Its just...how do people drink that? Its vile!" Harry wiped the back of his mouth off with a napkin, the look on his face saying that he wanted to wipe his tongue with the napkin but wouldn't out of deference of the polite company he was surrounded by. Leonard made a sympathetic face and pushed more napkins towards him, raising his hand and signaling the waitress over. She made a sour face and took her sweet time making a circuit of the room, not wanting to go near the sour faced man who hadn't wanted a drink the thirty times she'd offered him one when she wasn't busy, but now that the lunch rush was trickling in, he got demanding.

"Too much sugar. Can't stand those things myself, we'll get you something you can drink without choking." Gentle teasing and Harry nodded, laughing though he seemed surprised that he was relaxing. "Relax kid, I'm not going eat you."

"What can I get you?" Pen poised above her pad, the waitress finally made her way around to their table and stared down at them, annoyance written over her face. Harry shrank back, his shoulders twitching and his eyes searching around the room.

McCoy frowned, the doctor in the back of his mind peeking up in interest. If he didn't know any better, he would say the kid was looking for exits and enemies.

But that was ridiculous, a kid of fourteen would have no reason to look for exits and enemies like a solider on a battlefield.

It was probably just embarrassment and stress from this meeting. Talking face to face was totally different than talking in letters like they'd been doing.

Yeah, just stress.

"Ummm I'll take a water." The waitress, Carrie, rolled her eyes and nodded, not bothering to write anything down as she turned around and headed towards the counter, muttering under her breath.

She was too far away for Bones to actually catch any of the words that she was saying, but he got the general tone and made a memo in his brain to speak to her manager before he left.

"So, you said you'd be busy after Christmas, anything interesting or just those exams?" Bones waited to speak again until their waters had been dropped off and Chirpy Carrie walked away to bother some other poor patron, "How'd those go by the way? You sounded worried about them."

Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair, sipping at his water with no more strange faces.

"They were...okay, I guess. Won't find out my results until mid august I guess." Bones cracked a half smile at his son's accent, coming out more strongly now that he was somewhat relaxed.

Lily had that same accent, and it brought back fond memories.

Memories that led to the boy sitting in front of him.

That, he would never regret.

"One of my classmates was killed during that tournament I wrote about, it was...unexpected. ." Bones choked on his water, having a pretty good idea that his son had timed it to get the best reaction he could out of it.

Had to admire that ingenuity. Even if it did give him a wet shirt front.

And the news was horrifying.

"I thought you said they had safety precautions in place? Where the hell were the teachers? Were you hurt?! " Harry laughed and Bones had to admit that it wasn't his best or most coherent speech, but hearing that your son, that you only just found out you had, had a fellow student killed during a sporting event they themselves were apart of.

It was disconcerting.

"Yeah, the person responsible was killed by security. I'd really rather not talk about it, I don't know why I brought it up honestly. "

Bones just stared, tossing and turning the thoughts around in his head.

"Ok, sure kid, we can change the subject." Another water was brought, another stink eye, but Bones had more important things to worry about than a bitchy waitress. "So...do you have any summer homework?"

It was a lame attempt at changing the subject, but it had the desired effect.

Harry raised an eyebrow and gave a short laugh, turning the glass on the table until the ring left by the condensation widened to cover half of his side of the table.

"No, I um, decided to withdraw from the school, attend somewhere close to home. Aunt Petunia set up an exam with Smeltings where my cousin attends, for next week. My uncle attended as well, so they are pretty sure I'll get in, though I do have to catch up on some subjects that Hogwarts doesn't offer any longer. Honestly l don't know why I attended so long, other than it was the school Mum and Da...James went to," Harry's eyes were wide, he seemed worried that now that he was talking he wasn't able to stop, but Bones had the idea that this had been wanting to spill out for a while.

It was a McCoy trait to hold on to feelings until they bottled up and exploded with more force than the first atom bomb. His father did it all the time, it led to some interesting arguments while he was growing up. Leonard himself, however, took his mother's side of the family and let everything go as soon as he felt it.

His mother...now that was a subject he didn't want to deal with right now. She already blamed him for losing Johanna and her first grandchild, she was going to kill him if he didn't tell her and soon that she had a grandson.

If Harry wanted anything to do with him after today. Bones, no matter what the DNA said, wasn't going to tear Harry away from a family that loved him just because he got it in his head that it was time to play daddy.

If Harry wanted to walk away and never have further contact, Bones would spend the next six months in a drunken stupor but he would abide by that decision.

He legally had no other choice. Lily hadn't named him on the birth certificate, and unless Star Fleet decided to help him gain custody, all he was was a sperm donor.

'Please God, don't let him walk away from me. I can't lose another child.' He didn't believe in some, all knowing all seeing deity that decided all of their fates, but he would pray to a million such gods if it gave him even a little bit of hope that he wouldn't lose his remaining child.

'...r. McCoy? Are you listening? Do I need to get help?" Harry's voice filtered into Leonard's distracted thoughts and he blinked, tearing brown eyes away from their study of too small hands around a too cold glass, and looked at his son.

Who stared back at him with confusion written in every line of his face. Green eyes, bright behind broken glasses, were locked on Leonard, who said the only thing that came to mind.

"Mr. McCoy? Kid...call me Leonard. Or Len, hell you can even call me Bones, but I don't want to hear Mr. McCoy again. That man was my father." He made a face, able to look back on his father with less hatred and guilt, and more fondness now that the years had softened the memories, but there was no way that he was going to let his own son call him Mr. McCoy.

"Oh...okay, umm...Bones?" It was a question, and Len just nodded, his eyes sparking thinking of the other kid who called him Bones, and he couldn't help but laugh.

He'd laughed more at this meeting than he thought he would, and he hoped that it was helping to relax Harry.

"Its a long story kid, one that you'll have to ask Jim about." He gave Harry a knowing smirk. "I'm sure he'd tell you, without much asking."

Harry nodded, and began twiddling again, keeping his hands busy.

"He does seem to like to talk." Harry smiled, lighting up his face, "Reminds me of my best mate, actually,"

"Ron...Weasel right?" Harry had gone on and on about his friends in the letters, about the only part of them that had been filled with any kind of excitement. He hadn't known the boy for very long, even through letters, but it seemed like there was very little in his life that he was excited about.

Harry made another face, one of a million in the afternoon so far.

"He would kill you for calling him that. Its Weasley, actually. Weasel is what Malfoy calls him."

Malfoy...Malfoy was the prick, the one that Harry always said was causing trouble with his group of friends. Sounded like a spoiled Daddy's boy that needed a good kick up the keister to get his ass under control.

Not that Bones would either say that out loud, of course, he was the parent he couldn't promote violence...at least when it wasn't deserved.

"Oh, my apologies to Mr. Weasley." What strange last names these brits had, "What about your other friend, Miss...Granger?"

That was an easy name to remember, though he couldn't exactly remember what her first name was. Herm something? Maybe? Bones had never been good with names, though he could remember the most obscure intergalactic diseases off the top of his head.

The traits of a Doctor, he supposed.

"Hermione, yeah. She's vacationing this summer with her parents, I think, I haven't really heard from any of them since we got out." He seemed sad, and Bones didn't like that.

"Well vacations can be hectic..." Looking back later, Bones wasn't exactly sure what it was that clued him in. He didn't know if it was something out of the corner of his eye, if he heard something, or if it was just intuition and that little voice on his shoulder, but he had learned to trust all of his instincts, and now was no different from all the times before.

He grabbed Harry by the shoulder and yanked him down, turning the table on his side as he did and curling his body as much around his son as possible, pushing his head down and ignoring Harry's protests.

Seconds after he started moving, squealing tires filled the cafe and screams rang out as something heavy and fast slammed through the front window of the building, glass flying everywhere.

Pandemonium broke out, people running and screaming, shouts of pain as those unluckily enough to not get out of the way of the moving vehicle were run down. Others went down slipping on glass or being impaled on big enough pieces to do major damage. Coffee flew everywhere as the vehicle slammed into the bar, pinning Chirpy Carrie between the grill of the car and the wood behind her. Bones saw it out of the corner of his eye as he stayed ducked down behind his shield, wincing as glass got around it and flew into his back, but it was a paltry wound.

As long as Harry was okay, he could focus on getting the people he could still help...help.

"Harry, stay down. I'm going to get up and see who I can save, but I want you to stay. Right. Here." Bones began to unravel himself, wincing as the glass in his back pulled, but climbed to his feet. Harry stared at him, green eyes wide and mouth hanging open. He flinched back as he put a hand down on a stray splinter and quickly shifted to his knees, catching his balance and staring. Bones kept looking over his shoulder, eyeing the people laying and moaning on the floor, counting their minutes down in his head.

He didn't have long to stand here and argue.

"I need to help." Bones shook his head, his eyes soft as he ran a quick hand over Harry's head, wishing that this meeting had gone differently but not regretting that he'd met him. Not at all.

"No, kiddo, you need to stay here and stay safe. Let the adults handle this, okay?" Harry gave him a shaky nod and settled back onto the ground, wrapping his arms around his knees and hugging them to his chest. "Will you be okay?" Bones wouldn't, couldn't, go anywhere without seeing to Harry, but he knew that any delay on his part cut the chances of the injured surviving in half. More than that because he didn't have his bag.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He didn't sound it, sounded just this side of going into shock, but he would live just fine. Bones, with one last pass of the boy's hair, turned and strode into the carnage, looking around for Jim in the debris.

Seeing the towheaded farm boy, bent over calming a group of children who were huddled in the furthest corner, little faces covered with the dust of plaster and rubble that blew up from the collision, and avoided them for the moment.

A quick press of fingers against the pulse point of Chirpy Carrie, and a quick run of his fingers to close her eyes, he was on to the next person, his mind whirring.

Not much he could do for pain without his bag, clothes would do for bandages until an ambulance and paramedic team could get there, triage was about all he would be able to do, but it was something.

As he hurriedly cleared a space around the body of an elderly gentleman, the bloodstained tattered apron signifying he was one Chirpy Carrie's compatriots, checking for a pulse and ripping the cleanest portions of the victims clothes, putting as much pressure as he dared on the gaping wound in the man's side, someone leant down and tried to jerk him away.

"Sir! I can't let you do that, we have to wait for 911!" He barely looked over his shoulder, keeping his hands pressed down, and glared.

"Dammit, I'm a doctor. And if we don't stop the bleeding on this man, he's going to die." His brows furrowed down, "And so are all these other people."

The woman put a hand over her mouth, yet another Cafe Hell employee, and sobbed in relief.

"Thank god," Bones rolled his eyes, cutting her off mid sentence. He didn't have time for prayers, he needed people to help.

"Get down here. I need you to hold this here, press as hard as you can, and don't let go until I or another medical professional says so." He grabbed her hands with one of his and moved them over the wound, pressing until he thought that she had the idea, sliding his hands out from under hers and moving to the next victim.

The driver of the car was closest to him, and a quick glance showed that he was a lost cause. Was probably dead long before he crashed into the window, if the slit throat and taped to the steering wheel hands were any indication.

"Oh My God." Bones whirled around at the choked cry, his eyes going pained as he reached out with a bloodied hand, pulling Harry hard to his chest and pushing his eyes away from the dead body staring out of the car at them with wide open blue eyes.

"Harry, don't look Kiddo. Just don't look." Harry fought his arms, but a scrawny (too scrawny, for a boy his age) teenager was no match for a man in his early thirties, and who kept in enough shape to pass all Star Fleet physicals. "I told you to stay where you were, sweetheart, you don't need to see this."

Harry let out a sob, just one, before Bones felt the muscles in his back tighten as he stood straighter in the embrace, taking deep breaths until his shaking stopped.

"That's my uncle." Bones blinked, pushing Harry back until he could look at him in the face, hands tight and, attempting to be comforting, on Harry's shoulders. He hoped to whatever deity was out there that he'd misheard.

"Harry, what?" Harry looked him in the face, strangely calm though his face was stark white, his lips pressed into a bloodless line. "What did you say?"

Harry shook his head hard, flopping hair flying into his face, and Bones pushed it back absently, the old man's blood leaving a finger print behind that McCoy wanted to wipe away but he didn't have the time. He didn't have the time to be standing here, doing this, but his child came first no matter what.

That was a feeling he had missed, without access and contact with Johanna.

"That's my Uncle. Vernon Dursley. I don't know his middle name." Harry pulled back, drawing into himself, and Bones cursed himself that he just didn't. Have. Time. To stay here and comfort his only remaining child.

"Hey Harry, why don't you come over here with me, I've got a group of munchkins over here that I need help with," Bones could have kissed James Tiberius Kirk at that particular moment, releasing his son into his best friends care with only the slightest bit of regret.

Bones had other things to do, saving lives topping that list.

Harry would have to wait.


End file.
