FicWad

"Oh my, almost a year old, and I can't believe your other one - Bruce - will be starting school soon," the mayor's wife gushed as she stared at him and his brother.

"Yes, they are growing quite fast," his mother replied politely, shifting him in her arms.

At the moment, Harry and his family were at a lavish fundraiser for the children's hospital, and he was not enjoying the occasion at all. This was his first official appearance to the 'elite' society, and so far, it consisted of strangers pinching his poor cheeks repeatedly and cooing at him in a high pitched voice. Indeed, he was definitely not a happy baby right now.

Compared to his first sojourn into the wizarding world, this was worse - far worse. At least the wizards' profuse handshaking and pats on the shoulders were tolerable. It was overwhelming, but not as numbingly suffocating as this.

"And little Adrian is simply too cute for words," the blathering woman continued on. "He certainly inherited his parents' good looks."

'Merlin, can we please get away from this woman already?' Harry pleaded as he looked towards his mother imploringly, hoping that she would understand his silent message for escape.

"It's been wonderful speaking with you, Carol," his father broke in, "but I believe Jacob from the legal department has been meaning to speak with us."

'Good ol' Dad to the rescue,' he cheered in his mind as Bruce gave a sigh of relief once they hastily walked away from that monstrosity of a woman.

"Hang in there, Bruce," their father said quietly. "Just another hour and we'll leave here soon."

"Okay," his brother replied before brightening up. "Does that mean we can go to the park after this?"

Their mother hummed in thought at that. "Well, it has been a while since we last visited the park."

"Then the park we'll go," the Wayne patriarch decided as he ruffled his brother's hair.

"Yay!" Bruce excitedly exclaimed, echoing his own thoughts.

'Anywhere is better than this place,' Harry agreed whole heartedly with a happy babble.

As the minutes past, his family subtly situated themselves near the snack table, hoping to perturb anymore over zealous acquaintances. Having nothing else to do, Harry took this chance to practice his legilimency. While he had been slowly building his occlumency shields, he had yet to enter a person's mind. Harry absolutely refused to use that ability on his family, so he really didn't have anyone to practice on until now.

He looked out at the mingling groups, trying to choose a person to be his unwilling volunteer. All he needed was a single glance into their eyes to begin.

"Ah, Dr. Wayne and Mrs. Wayne," a loud voice announced. "It's so good to see you both at this auspicious event."

'Oh, great,' Harry grumbled internally. 'Not another one.'

A large man lumbered towards them, and his eyes widened at the size of the person. The man's body was formidable enough to rival that of Vernon Dursley, with a round protruding stomach to match. He was also dressed in oversized trousers that were held precariously up by a thin belt. It was like déjà vu - very bad déjà vu.

"Yes," Thomas Wayne said neutrally, "and you are?"

From his father's tone, it seemed he didn't like the man either, and Harry had a feeling his father's instincts were usually sharp regarding other people.

"Pardon my manners - I'm Frank Stiltson," the man said easily, "and I would like to discuss my company's project with you."

The man then launched into an explanation of the project that centered on finding a resource for alternative fuel and how it will benefit the environment greatly. The only problem was a lack of funding to support the research, and Stiltson was hoping that donations from their generous family would help start them off.

As Stiltson went on, Harry grew more suspicious of the man and his true goals, not believing in Stiltson's words for a moment.

'I guess I found my volunteer,' Harry thought with a grimace. He was not going to enjoy rummaging through this man's mind. Not at all.

He gazed directly into Stiltson's eyes, waiting for the man to make eye contact with him. Perhaps feeling his stare, Stiltson glanced fleetingly at him and that was all it took.

'Legilimens,' Harry whispered to himself, and he dove through the man's thoughts.

Legilimency was about hearing a person's surface thoughts, and if one was skilled enough, they would be able to pull a memory up and view it. That was how he used the spell in his previous life, but what he experienced now was completely different and unexpected. Not only was he able to hear the man's current thoughts, but he also knew all of the man's previous thoughts from the past. In addition to that, he had access to not just one or a few, but all of Stiltson's memories. Everything that made up the man, Harry was able to see and hear. It was all too disturbingly easy.

Harry knew that he was adept when it came to legilimency over occlumency, but this was beyond mere mind reading. Did this new world changed how his legilimency skill worked? He truly didn't have an answer to that, but he would certainly look into it later. For now, Harry had to concentrate on Stiltson.

What he discovered in Stiltson's mind was what you would see in a low-class thief. Stiltson planned to use the money for his own ends, collecting it for himself and never intending to finance his company's project. Stiltson's intent from the beginning was plainly to deceive and steal from naive philanthropists.

Disgusted, but satisfied at what he found, Harry decided to get rid of the man from their presence right away. Concentrating on Stiltson's belt, he worked his magic to rip a tear right through it. 'Diffindo'.

"And as you know-" Stiltson then stopped in mid-sentence as his trousers fell to his feet, exposing his polka dotted briefs for everyone to see.

His mother gasped in shock and immediately covered his eyes, though he doggedly tried to peek through her fingers - he didn't want to miss the action!

Horrified, Stiltson's face turned a deep red in embarrassment, and he tried to pull up his trousers while stumbling out, "E-excuse me - I have to...". The man didn't finished as he rushed away, bumping into other people and out of the room.

Immensely proud of his work, Harry then glanced at his brother and father.

Bruce covered his mouth with a hand, trying to stifle his laughter while their father appeared disapproving though Harry could see the glint of amusement in his eyes.

"Well, that was strange," Thomas Wayne said lightly.

Bruce giggled at that. "Can we please leave now, Daddy?"

Smiling at them all, their father replied, "Of course. I think I've seen more than enough for today."