milliways_bar | (no subject)

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It has been a million and a half years since James was last in the bar.

So, what is the first thing he does? (Well, after a quick bite to eat and a visit to his old room.) He takes his broom out for a spin.

Later, while his younger brother is elsewhere in the bar - at an older age than James currently is, might we add (only in Milliways!) - James himself (in his Quidditch robes) is outside by the porch, absent-mindedly picking at the worn leather of his boots. His broom is propped next to him.

He'd forgotten how much he missed this place.

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"Right." Enzo looks sour. "He might even follow them."

"Well if he doesn't, Security'll do something about it."

James has faith in the members of Security.

Even if he doesn't actually - personally - know any of them.

"Yeah." Enzo scowls grimly. "And if they don't, we will."

By 'we' he means himself and his family, but, y'know, James is welcome to help if he wants.

He would!

If he could be of any help.

"Do the rest of your family know he's around?"

"Yeah, I found out from Bob. Megabyte fell out of the sky right in front of him."

Eek.

"That's a terrible surprise."

"Seriously."

"Is he still around? Or did he leave?"

Megabyte, that is.

"I'm not sure if he can leave. He didn't input a normal way. Anyway, he came here from the Web. I wouldn't go back there."

"What's wrong with the web?"

...

Actually -

"What is a web? I reckon you're not talking about the sort that spiders make."

"No, it's... sorta like a parallel dimension in our world. Only it's not parallel to the systems, more to the 'Net pathways. It's another way to get between systems, but it's really, really dangerous. I mean, your code can degrade just from being there unprotected."

Enzo's world has always been something of a confusing field to James.

That hasn't changed, since.

"And does this bloke live there?"

Enzo actually smiles at this, somewhat viciously.

"He does since Mouse and Matrix trapped him there."

Okay. The smile is kind of a good indicator that this is a Good Thing.

James nods.

Approvingly-like.

He also has no idea who Mouse or Matrix are. But that's besides the point.

"Oh - brilliant. Er, though I suppose he doesn't think so."

"Tough. He sent Bob there for five years. We almost didn't get him back at all."

"Is it that bad there?"

"No... well, yeah, but that's not what I meant. The system was locked down. They'd been fighting Webcreatures before Megabyte took over, and Mouse protected Mainframe's Web address so nothing could get near it without setting off her traps. So once Megabyte sent Bob into the Web..."

... h'okay. All of that is sailing over James' head like a particularly mis-aimed Bludger.

So he nods slowly.

"Right. Right. Well - er. It's rubbish that Megabyte's here anyway. Sometimes I don't know why the Bar lets some people in when it really shouldn't."

"Yeah. But I'm not letting it ruin things for me! As long as he doesn't start anything, it's totally fine."

See? See how calm and cheerful he is?

... Uh.

Yeah, definitely. He can see it.

Another slow nod.

"Er."

Enzo's not so mad that he's oblivious to James' reaction. He closes his eyes and does his best to breathe slowly and evenly.

"Sorry," he says, opening his eyes again. "It's stupid, anyway, it's not like it was totally safe here to begin with, but..."

"S'all right," says James with a shrug.

"I mean, if someone like ... I dunno ... Voldemort or something came here, I reckon I'd be pretty angry too."

... actually, he wouldn't - but that's mostly because he never even knew Voldemort aside from what he'd read in books.

(Which isn't very much.)

"Voldemort?"

Sounds... vaguely familiar.

James nods.

"Yeah. He was this really evil bloke from when my mum and dad went to Hogwarts. He nearly destroyed the entire Wizarding World and he wanted to kill my dad."

"Oh. Yeah, in my world he'd be a virus. Why your dad? Like, specifically?"