Skull stared at his reflection. His bright purple hair was messier then usual. He had bags under his eyes from the nightmares, and were lacking their usual spark. Over all he looked like a mess. He sighed as he put on his makeup. Making sure to cover every scar on his face, especially the lightning one on his forehead. The scar that caused him so much pain when he was younger.
The memories of his childhood are not ones he likes to remember, they're filled with so much pain and bloodshed; he had run away from his past do a reason. They all wanted him to be a savior, but he was a broken man, who couldn't even stand to look at himself in the mirror. They had broken him with all of their betrayals. They were never his friends, the Weasley Family had been paid, with money from his vault, by Dumbledore to spy on him before he even started Hogwarts. Ron's personality had always been greedy and arrogant, he had betrayed him more the once. Hermione had been getting rare books for being his friend and giving info to Dumbledore after he saved her from the troll. They had planed for him to either die in the final battle or to marry Ginny and then kill him off, so they could get all of his money. Ginny was a delusional fan-girl who thought he belonged to her after he saved her. Plus Molly read false stories about Harry to her when she was little; she also told Ginny that she would grow up and marry him. If he hadn't left they were going to sneak love potions in his food so he would be too in love to notice them killing him. What they didn't realize was that he collected all of the Deathly Hollows, making him immortal. His immortality made it so poisons, even the strongest ones, wouldn't work. Luckily love potions were under the category of poisons..
He was once a sky, who had a cloud as a secondary flame type, but the war and the betrayal broke him and his flames changed so his secondary flames became his primary. When his flames changed, they also changed his outward appearance; however, he was not against this change. No longer was his hair black and his eyes green, now they were a vibrant purple. The change helped him separate his experiences and form a new identity. He renamed himself Skull De Mort to keep a reminder of what he went through. He joined a circus and started doing stunts, it wasn't a year later that he was called to the meeting of the 'I Prescelti Sette'. By that point in time he had solidified his new personality as Skull. A fact he was grateful for, during the meeting.
After meeting the others that were chosen, he decided to change the mask he wore only slightly. Instead of just being the cocky stuntman, he acted like the weakling. Acting as the 'lackey' of the group had its advantages, after all why would someone want the 'lackey' to lead anything when the others were much more experienced. Skull had to be careful though, Viper, while a squib, was very knowledgeable about the wizarding world. If he was found out to be who he was, he would be forced back into the spotlight. Something he didn't want. Skull was honestly happy with his new life, and had no desire to go back to the old one. Over the time that he knew the others, he began to become closer to them. Sometimes, he would be so relaxed with them that his mask would slip. He would say something insightful, or something that could change an outcome of a mission. Skull learned to cover these mishaps up. He would make it seem like he got the idea from someone else, and that he was not the person who came up with it, it would work, most of time. After all, he was still the lackey in their eyes, but sometimes he saw the suspicion in their eyes when he didn't play it off quite as well. Eventually, he started thinking of the other Arcobaleno as his own. His cloud flames making him become more attached to them, more so than what he would have wanted. Even with his cloud flames affecting him, he had never had a place he felt like he belonged to as much, even with Sirius.
Then they were cursed. The worst thing about being cursed to be the size of a baby, was that he couldn't do his stunts. He was not as upset about being a child again, as the others. He was actually glad, most of the time, that he was a child again. It let him continue his act while also acting the age he appeared to be. It was fun for awhile. He never really got the chance to act this way when living with his relatives. The only downside was he couldn't continue riding his bike, until he ended up getting Verde to make him a miniature version of it. But throughout the time they were cursed, the Acrobaleno grew closer. No longer did they only see each other when on big missions, but they decided to stay in touch and bond over the curse they shared. Although, he is still grateful to be in his original body, after the curse was broken.
Yuni wanted them to stay together after the curse was broken. The others weren't as opposed to it as they would have been, in the beginning. They all agreed to stay together. Skull made sure to secretly put wards around the house. He had to make sure that those that were his were safe. He wasn't going to lose anyone that he considered his, he was a Cloud after all.
For the first few months it was fine. Skull was being the lackey everyone knew him to be, however there were more moments when his masked dropped. Living with the others made him more careless.
One a day when they were all outside practicing their skills outside, even Verde was dragged out of his lab by Yuni, when they were disrupted by a group of four people in robes trying to break the wards he put up. It was Viper noticed what they were doing and stepped in front of the group. Skull made his way behind everyone. Reborn, who had Leon in his hand, spoke first,
"What are you doing here?"
The group all snapped their heads to Reborn, finally noticing that we were all there. A red head, who Skull knew to be Bill Weasley, spoke up, "We have been tracking a person and our search lead us here, so if you let us have him then we can be off, without a fight."
"If you know where they are why don't you just come and get them?" Reborn asked
Viper was the one that responded,
"They can't, somebody put wards up around the area, they keep people, with a certain amount of magic, out, except for the caster."
"Magic, kora?" Colonello asked.
"Yes, The magical world is a secretive one. Only people with magic or born from people with magic know about it. I am a squib which means both my parents were magical, but I was born without it. You all are technically muggles, which are people who don't have any relations to magic. I was unaware of the wards though, until I noticed them trying to get through. The caster is certainly skilled."
Skull blushed, but luckily for him it was hidden by his makeup.
"Yes, yes. Now, can one of you hand over my future husband before I get angry," A red headed female was the one who said it. When she said that, Skull internally sneered he was never going to marry that pathetic woman.
"Now, now Ginny don't worry, we will get him back soon," the frizzy-haired brunette tried to calm her down. "First we will introduce ourselves, I am Hermione Granger, the one currently taking down the wards is Bill Weasley, and his sister and brother here are Ginny and Ron Weasley."
"Thank you, but the only people in this house are us, so it has to be one of us. How about you describe them and we can find out if your in the right place," Fon smiled gently as he motioned to the rest of the group.
"Also if the person your looking for doesn't want to come back what will you do?" Lal suddenly asked with a serious look on her face, having noticed Skull trying to go unnoticed. The rest of the Arcobaleno also noticed the cloud's strange behavior. They were starting to get suspicious.
"We will knock him out and kidnap him. It's four against one and all of you muggles, except for the squib who can't do anything to stop us. Then, we will wipe your memories of him as well as of this encounter." Ron stated with a superior look in his face.
"Woah, leave me outta that I'm just here to make sure Harry is happy, and then I'm leaving, I wouldn't be here if Luna and Neville hadn't begged me to check up on him for them and make sure you guys don't ruin him again," Bill had a disapproving look on his face. Skull sighed and was glad he still had some friends in the wizarding world. That reminded him that he should see how Luna and Neville are. Maybe he would send them a patronus with a message at one point.
The rest of the Arcobaleno hid their emotions well, but Skull could tell, just from their body language, that they were mad and ready to kill. Skull, himself, was trying hard not to butcher them right there for threatening what he considered his, but he held himself back, knowing they could take care of themselves.
"Shush Ron, no need to scare them" Hermione smacked Ron on the back of his head.
"I'll start describing him, his name is Harry Potter," at this Viper stiffened slightly, "He has black hair, green eyes, and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead," Hemione stopped in order for them to see if they knew who she was talking about. It was the description everyone in the wizarding world knew Harry by, and only a fool or muggle wouldn't recognize him.
"I'm sorry, but no one here looks like that, maybe if you described his personality we can find—" Fon was interrupted,
"Got it!" Bill exclaimed "that was one tricky ward but it's finally down," he sighed, "sorry, continue what you were saying please," Bill rubbed his neck sheepishly.
Ron suddenly started speaking, "He's a total prat, ran out on us when we were planing his and Ginny's marriage. He also is very controlling, he was always telling us what to do..." Ron started to go on a rant about how bad a person this Harry Potter was. Skull was seething, Ron was completely disregarding that it was him and Hermione who did most of the things he's saying to Harry. The other Arcobaleno were also starting to notice that this Harry Potter person sounded like none of them. The story itself was fishy and had a lot of contradictions. Ron finally seemed to be finishing
"... And if he just let us dose him with love potions and then kill him, none of this would be happening"
"RON," Hermione had a horrified look on her face, "you can't tell them that, one of them could be Harry!"
"It's fine we can just obliviate them now that the wards are down," Ron took out his wand, ready to cast the spell when a red light shot out from the back of the Acrobaleno group.
"How dare you," Skulls whispered voice traveled throughout them, "I spent my entire childhood in an abusive home, only to be told on my eleventh birthday that my parent's death is celebrated and I'm a celebrity, only to be told a few years later that their sacrifice was not enough and I needed to die as well," Skull started hysterically laughing, "But no I couldn't just die because I needed to lead a war against the mad-man who killed my parents. You expected me to die, but what you didn't expect was that I would be immortal after gathering all of the Deathly Hallows. That's right! I can't be killed, because I'm the Master of Death. I'm immune to anything you could throw at me!" Skull had started to cry, his bottled up emotions that he stuffed down from all the times they hurt him coming to the surface.
The other Arcobaleno were not used to seeing such raw emotions in their Cloud and were shocked at the fact that Skull was the one who these wizard were looking for. Viper was extremely shocked that the one who saved their life, because eventually the Death Eaters would have came for the Squib child of an ancient pureblood family, was Skull. The person who they only ever thought of as the weakest link and a burden. Viper owed their life to him, and would never charge him for anything again.
The Wizards were in shock that the purple featured man in the back of the group was the person they were looking for. They had expected the guy with the fedora to be Harry because he seemed to be the leader. Their plans were also ruined. If what Harry said was true, even though they thought them selves to be the most powerful beings on earth, even they can't kill someone favored by death.
The rest of the Wizards, except for Bill who put his wand on the ground and put his hands up, whipped out their wands to stun Harry and the rest of the Acrobaleno, but they weren't The Strongest Seven for nothing. The Acrobaleno all knocked out the attacking Wizards before they could cast a spell.
"I am just here to take them back and give a message from Neville and Luna," Bill waited for the approving nod from Harry, "Neville says he's glad your alive and hopefully well and to send him an owl from time to time if you can. Luna said, and I am really confused by her message but she said you would understand it, she's happy you found the rest of your rainbow and that you were never meant to hold the power of a sky and instead to live freely as a cloud. Again I have no idea what that meant, but it's Luna so you never know what's going on in that head of hers."
Skull smiled, his tears having dried up from gaining control over his emotions, at Neville's message and promised to send a letter, but he was shocked at Luna's, but then smiled as well knowing he was where he belonged.
"Alright now that I've done that I'm gonna take these crazies back to Britain and erase any knowledge of where you are, Harry. Also I'm glad your surrounded by friends you deserve it after everything you've done." Giving one last smile to Skull, he grabbed the passed out wizards and apparated away.
Skull looked at everyone around him, and after a second of thought, decided to make a break for it. He got as far as his bike, until Reborn started shooting at him.
Reborn started, "Lacky, where are you going?" his voice getting angrier with every word. "You have a lot of explaining to do."
Skull laughed, "You're right, but I just have this one thing to do," he tried to get on his bike but Colonello and Lal took his arms and redirected him back to Reborn.
"We deserve an explanation, Lacky," Lal scolded in his ear.
"I think it's about time you told everyone, Skull," Yuni pitched in.
"I thought you would've already known, Luce only called me by Harry, when we talked privately," Skull shot back.
Yuni giggled, "Oh, I know, but everyone else doesn't, and it's unfair to them, except for Viper they know the basic points."
Skull sighed and began the recount his past, abuse and all.
After Skull finished, everyone was silent. The whole Acrobaleno was in shock that their weak cloud could go through so much. Since Skull was a civilian before he was inducted into the Mafia, they thought he had the easiest life out of all of them. They promised themselves that they would never see him as weak again. After the story was said and done nobody ever mentioned it again, and things went back to normal, except they didn't beat on Skull as much.