Harry "It's Saotome" Potter.

[LassyD]

Just another dumb idear springing fourth from this insanity driven mind.

Ranma ½ and Harry Potter Crossover, Nothing that is recognizable belongs to me.
Well, where to start, the beginning is always a good spot, so
In the beginning there was a vast void, inky darkness all encompassing to those whom would try to be there.
Uhhh, a bit too early, Fast Forward. . . . . . . and from that primordial ooze, single celled organisms started to form. Ok, still to early continue the fast forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The first amphibians crawled their way out of the oceans and onto the land masses of earth. Fast forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Homo Erectus was born. . . . . . . . . The Romans then turned their sights towards the north. . . . . . The black plague swept across England. . . . . . The American anti war protesters were soon known as hippies. Ah, almost there,. . . . . . Night had spread across Japan, a young couple were snug in their ancestral home, visions of training journeys dancing in the young man’s head. The young woman’s head held something slightly different, visions of her wonderful three year old boy. She suddenly woke to the sound of crying, her boy almost never cried.
Upon arriving in her son’s room, she could see that he was sleeping peacefully, so where was the crying coming from? Following the noise, it led her to the door, where upon opening she was startled to see a small baby. He looked half foreign. She bent down and gently picked up the baby while whispering “who are you little one?”. Carrying him to the table, she made sure his diaper wasn’t foul, then started to look in the cupboards where she had some baby formula left over from her darling son Ranma. After making sure the baby was alright, she looked at the small envelope that was with him. It was in English, luckily she remembered most of her English lessons from school.
“Dear Mrs. Saotome,
We regret to inform you that last night your sister
and her husband were murdered by one of the
most dangerous wizards to date. Their son, Harry
Potter somehow managed to survive by turning the
Killing curse back upon it’s user.
Further enclosed is young Harry’s records and a
letter explaining his heritage to him, which he is to
receive upon being able to read.
We deeply regret having to inform you of this
tragedy.

Albus Dumbledore and the staff at Hogwarts
school for witchcraft and wizardry. “
The young woman looked from the letter to the small child resting on the table. True he was only a half breed, but he is family, so she will take care of him. Looking back to the letter she realized that if someone managed to kill her sister, whom had also practiced the family art, he was dangerous and probably had followers. This boy had to be trained to protect himself. When he becomes old enough, she will have Genma train him along with little Ranma.

[LassyD]

Ch 1, The letter

Ten years later. . (ohhh, I love that fast forward button.)

Two young boys wearing similar training gee’s were sparing in a small clearing of a lush forest. The older by two years had his long black hair tied into a tight braid, his blue eyes sparkling in the sun. He had a slim yet muscular build and was taunting the other boy as they fought. The other was the younger one, his tousled black hair managed to cover the right half of his face with a small rat tail trailing down his back. His visible emerald eye glinted with mischief as the returned the taunts of his sparring partner and cousin. Even though he was younger, he seemed to be equally matched with the older boy.

Their match came to an end when a large owl swooped between them and came to a rest on the top of the tent that rested in the clearing. Normally something like that would not have caused them to stop, but the fact that it was holding a letter was odd enough to get them to break up and investigate.

<What do you think it is?> the younger one said.
<I don’t know, let’s look at it.> the older one went to the owl and quickly snatched the envelope from the bird. Giving it a further look he shrugged and tossed it over to the younger.
<It’s in some foreign language, you look, you’re the one who payed attention in that school pops put us in last year.> The letter exchanged hands. The younger one looked at the address and slowly started to sound out the words. “Hari” <hey, I think it’s for me> the younger one said as he looked to his cousin, who just nodded. Looking back at the envelop he continued “Potaru” <what’s a potaru?>
<I don’t know, you should know more of that than me.>
<yeah but we only spent a month there, you were in a higher class, they should have taught you more.>
<You actually payed attention, I didn’t.>
<What’s going on, why are you two not practicing?> a gruff looking man in a yellowed gee walked into the clearing, he was wearing a bandana on his head to cover his receding hair line and wore glasses. His belly was starting to bulge as a sign of overindulgence.
<Hari’s gotten a letter.> the older man raised an eyebrow in surprise.
<How we haven’t stopped by the post office.>
<That owl brought it.> the younger one, Hari, said while pointing to the owl that was sitting on the tent.
<Well boy what’s it say.>
<I’m not sure, it’s in English and I don’t know enough to know what it says.>
<Well if whoever wrote it to you didn’t write it in Japanese it isn’t important, toss it in the fire and continue with your training.>
The boys shrugged. Hari tossed the small parchment envelop into the fire and turned to face his cousin.
<Hey half-breed, I’ll whip you this time.>
<Not in your life moron.>
And with smiles on their faces, the two continued their fight from earlier.

The next day the camp woke to an invasion of owls, all carrying letters. It seems that the sender is very insistent about the letter. The three just ignored the owls and continued with their training regimen. That night they collected all the letters and used them as kindling for their fire, This was turning out to be convenient. They didn’t have to go looking for small combustible twigs. They also had a fresh supply of owl meat just sitting on hand. Sadly after the first owl, they figured out that there wasn’t much meat there and way too many feathers. Seeing no real gain from the first one, the boys were sent to hunt for something more succulent.

A few days passed in a similar manner until, one day around noon, while the three were sparring, a faint rumble could be heard. They ignored it until it got louder and suddenly a giant of a man riding what looked like a children’s bicycle landed in their clearing. The three instantly went into defensive stances around the man. The man’s face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but his eyes could be seen, glinting like black onyx under all the hair. His large coat was riddled with pockets and he looked like he hadn’t slept in a day or two. He slowly got off the bike he was on to reveal not a children’s bicycle, but a rather large motorcycle. His size dwarfed everything in the clearing.

<Who are you and why are you here?> Genma took the initiative by demanding of the man.
The man just gave him an odd look and said something. The only recognizable word, just barely recognizable was “Harry” it was the English form of the youngest of the group. Genma gave a slight sigh of relief that this person wasn’t after him or his son Ranma. He didn’t really care about Harry, but the boy did make a good test subject for training for Ranma.

There was a stand off with both parties not understanding what the other was saying. The giant turned to the small fire they had going. After fishing around in his pocket for something, he tossed some powder into the fire that turned it’s yellow glow green. He said something to the fire and after a moment, an image of an old man’s head appeared. It was all green so finer details other than he had a long beard and a pointed hat could not be seen. The two talked for a bit, back and forth until the old man said something and his image vanished. Just afterwards a small medallion flopped out of the fire.

The man picked the medallion up and put it on. He then said something an then there was a weird echo in Japanese.
<ah, this should work, can ya understand me?>
The three who had relaxed their stances a bit tensed up again. Genma slowly gave a nod.
<yes, now who are you and why are you here?>
<The name’s Rubiasu Hagurido, keeper of the keys and grounds keeper at Hogwarts.> Genma gave him a nod, <And?>
<oh yea, Hari, I made this for ya, it’s a bit squashed, but happy birthday.> Hagrid pulled a small pink cake box from one of his pockets and handed it to Harry. Harry just gave him a shocked look and whispered, <it’s my birthday?> He looked to his traveling companions who both shrugged with similar remarks of the “it’s new to me” variety.

Seeing this Hagrid gave an angry shout. <havn’t ya told him anythin about ‘imself? ‘Is past?>
Genma just looked back in a “I’m a mysterious martial artist” way and said <if I knew anything like that, I’d have told him.> Meanwhile, Ranma looked at the cake that Harry held. <hey bro, ya going to share some of that?> Harry looked at Ranma, then the cake, then Genma, back to Ranma and quickly nodded. The two boys quickly scarfed down the cake before Genma noticed and tried to take it.

Just as Harry and Ranma put the last pieces of cake in their mouths, Hagrid turned his attention to the pair. He looked directly at Harry, kneeled so as to be near eye-level and said <‘ari, you’re a wizard.> He then handed another letter to the boy. Harry just looked at it and responded. <It’s in English, I can’t read English.> A look of dumbfounded understanding crossed Hagrid’s face as he quietly whispered, <so that’s why ya wern’t replying.> in a louder voice he said, <it’ a letter of acceptance to the greatest wizarding school in the world. Run by the greatest wizard Albus Dumbledore.>

Genma broke in, <Now wait a minute, I’m not going to be paying for the boy to be slacking off in his training.>
<He’ll be going under a scholarship, already been paid. He has to go, it’s his heritage.>
Genma paused for a bit and took on a stoic thinking pose. After a few moments of consideration he finally said, <and how much can I get for giving up one of my best students? He’s a valuable asset and I couldn’t just let him go without compensation.>
Everyone in the clearing was shocked by Genma’s words, both Ranma and Harry had never heard him say that either one of them was a good student or valuable, while Hagrid was shocked at the idea that the man would “sell” his nephew.
<He’ll be learning valuable skills and magics, that should be enough shouldn’t it?>
<No, because while he’s learning your art, he will be neglecting mine, he is one of my heirs. I could not in good conscience let him go with you with out some sort of monetary dispensation.>
Hagrid looked at Genma with a dumbfounded expression on his face, seeing that Genma’s face was solemn and severe, he started to look through his pockets. Upon finding a gold galleon, he offered it to Genma in payment for young Harry.
Seeing the gold, Genma’s eyes lit up and a loud “yooosh” was heard.
<You have yourself a deal, Hari, go with the man.>
The two boys just looked at each other before Harry started to pack. They had been through similar situations before, but usually it was Ranma that ended going off with someone for a couple of days when Genma would then come to pick him up.
A few moments was all that was needed to collect everything he owned.
<Come on Hari, off we go, need to get ya school supplies.>
Harry cheerily straddled the bike and waved to his family as Hagrid got on and they took off.

[LassyD]

TO ENGLAND

Harry was getting worried. He figured out that Genma would be taking a while to come and get him seeing as the giant man and he had ridden a motorcycle across the world. He knew he was in England now, far far away from Japan. Being so far away from where he started, he thought Genma might not even come and get him. He could tell that Genma didn’t really care for him. Maybe the man was happy he was gone. With Harry gone, Genma could have larger portions of whatever Ranma managed to get for food, he also would be able to concentrate on training only Ranma.

Harry suddenly started to feel anger. He knew Genma wanted Ranma to learn more than he, why else would he, Harry, be the one stuck doing all the work at the temples and dojo’s they came across. Every time it was the same thing, Genma would feed his face and sit around. Ranma would get training from the masters and priests, while Harry was left to do the Temple duties for the both of them. He’d lost count of the times he had to stay up all night cleaning floors or laundry. Just to have to get up early to help the kitchen staff with the morning duties. He couldn’t feel mad at Ranma though, Ranma had tried to help and when they moved on, he would help Harry by trying to teach Harry all he had learned during the stay. Needless to say, Harry had become very good at cooking and cleaning over the trip. Sometimes one or two of the priests would help Harry, staying with him and talking during his cleaning duties. Once in a while he would get training that Ranma never got. He never shared this training because of that deep feeling he had, one that this training was for him and him alone. Well that and Genma always chorused on how weak meditation and mystical training was. He gave a small sigh and put his anger aside as he was taught (by one of the priests, not Genma).

The trip had been rather awe inspiring. He spent hours traveling over ice covered lands then wide flat plains, every so often passing over a city finally the two crossed over a sea. The view had been incredible and majestic. They landed in the outskirts of a large city and rode through the streets that though nicely paved, gave a sense of great age in the city. It gave him the feel of the outlying parts of Kyoto before you really got into the city. But it was different too. The random shrines and plentiful parks were missing, in their place, wide car parks and artificial feeling parks rested. The big man steered the motorcycle down a small alley and stopped in front of a nondescript pub.

Hagrid then took the pendent of his neck and handed it to Harry. The thing was rather plain, it was just a small circle of wood with the image of a hand holding an eye carved into one side and a mouth on the other. The circle was attached to a strip of leather so it could be worn around the neck. Harry could feel something strange about it. It’s aura was off, he was still examining it when Hagrid said something. That strange echo had disappeared and now he had no idea what the man had said. Quickly realizing that this had somehow been translating for the man, Harry put on the pendent. He felt a slight tingling in his ears and throat, if he hadn’t spent so much time doing those meditation exercises, he probably would have missed it.

“‘ave you been listening?”
“Huh wha?” Harry looked at Hagrid, the man must have been talking to him while he was so intent on the pendent. “What’d you say? I was distracted.” In actuality the man had talked almost constantly from Japan, but as they had gotten further from Japan, Harry had gotten more introspective and tuned the echoie man out.
“I said, ‘ere we are, The Leaky Cauldron, It’s a famous place.” Harry just looked at the door and was startled at the feeling of wrongness that came from around it. Like someone was subtly telling everyone to “go away, there’s nothing interesting here.” before he could do anything else, Hagrid gently nudged him inside.
The inside was dark and shabby, it mildly reminded him of some of the places that Ranma and he had to drag Genma out of. A few old ladies were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, “the usual, Hagrid?” Harry heard the strange echo of the words being spoken then translated for him. He unconsciously shuddered, it was a very creepy feeling.

“Can’t, Tom, I’m on Hogwarts business,” the big man replied, clapping his large hand on Harry’s shoulder, Harry gritted his teeth a bit at the unconscious strength the man had just used.

“Good Lord,” said the bartender, peering at Harry, “is this – can this be –?”
The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.
“Bless my soul,” whispered the old bartender, “Harry Potter. . . What an honor.” The man hurried around the bar and rushed towards Harry, Tears in his eye. As he clutched at Harry’s hand, he found it and the owner of it quite a few paces back with an angry expression on his face.
Harry glared at the man, “I think your mistaken, my name is Saotome, not Potter,” The whole pub silenced as they heard the echo of the boy talking in some other language and what sounded like a rather outdated translation charm trying to keep up with it.

The confused bartender looked to Hagrid who gave a shrug and said, “‘he was raised in Japan, probably took on his family’s name.” the whole pub gave Harry and Hagrid a bewildered expression. Why would such a famous boy change his name? But excitement started to prevail once again, the savior of the wizarding world was right in front of him weather or not he admitted his name. The scraping of chairs alerted Harry to the whole bar standing up. The excited faces made him slightly nervous, usually the faces are angry and drunken. He’s had to pull Genma out of quite a few bar fights and this looked like it was going to turn into one.

Hagrid must have noticed his unease because he softly said, “easy lad, they’re just excited to meet ya.”
Soon Harry was surround with people trying to shake his hand, what ever was translating for him seemed to have trouble with so much happening at once, he only heard bits and pieces coming from the crowd. “Honor,” “pleasure” “meet” the rest just merged into a horrible cacophony of indistinguishable sounds. The crowd must have noticed the confused expression on his face and quieted down.
“Harry,” Hagrid said after the pub lowered into a low rumble, “this is Professor Quirrell,” Hagrid indicated a pale nervous looking young man, one of his eyes twitched as he stammered, “P-p-potter” grasping towards Harry’s hand when the boy interrupted with an annoyed “Saotome.” The nervous man didn’t seem to notice the interruption and continued, “c-can’t t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you.”

Harry stared at the man for a moment, he could feel something really off about the man but couldn’t figure out what. Shoving the feeling aside for the moment, he bowed slightly, “it’s nice to meet you too,” he paused for a moment. Noticing that they seemed to expect more out of him he asked, “what sort of classes do you teach?”

“D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts” the professor muttered as if it was comparable with elephant manure shoveling. “N. Not that you –need it, eh P-P-Potter?” he gave a nervous laugh, “you’ll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I’ve g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m.-myself.” He seemed to shiver in horror at the thought.

The others in the bar seemed upset that the professor got to speak to Harry more than they and almost barricade the back exit until Harry had a short conversation with all of them.

After managing to escape into the back alley that only held a trash can and a few weeds, Hagrid looked at Harry and with a smile said, “Told yeh, didn’t I? Told yeh you was famous, Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin’ ter meet yeh– mind you, he’s usually tremblin.” Harry just gave the big man a nod, Hagrid must have said it while he wasn’t paying attention.
“Is the professor always that nervous?”
“Oh Yeah. Poor bloke was fine while he was studyin’ outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience. . . . They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o’ trouble with a hag– never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject -- now, where’s me umbrella?

Harry was accepting this as a person accepts oddities expecting that it’s a dream and they will wake up any minute. Hagrid was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.
The man was muttering too low for the translation charm to catch until he spoke louder, “right, stand back, Harry.”

He tapped on the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he tapped quivered = it wriggled- in the middle, a small hole appeared = it grew wider and wider - in a second later they were facing an archway large enough ever for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.

“Welcome,” Hagrid grinned at the astonished face of the boy, “To Diagon Alley.”

[LassyD]

Part three Shopping time.

The two stepped through the archway. Harry turned to see it slowly closing in on itself. Noticing this mode of exit disappear, he quickly scanned the area for exits. It seemed like he’d have to roof hop out of there in case of emergency.

There were many people in brightly colored robes wandering around the cobblestoned street. A woman off to Harry’s left was carrying several brightly wrapped parcels and was being followed by a young looking boy. Off to the right a group of green clad men were joking and laughing while making their way down the street.

“Come on ‘arry we’ve got to get you’re stuff fer school.” The large man said. Harry nodded and followed the man while scanning his surroundings. As they got to the larger road, Harry noted that the crowds increased in size. He caught bits and pieces of conversations as he passed by, none of which made very much sense. He couldn’t read the signs above the doors of the shops, but often could figure out what they sold by the displays in the windows. In one shop he saw old fashioned broomsticks along with balls and what looked like sports team paraphernalia. Another held Owls, it seemed as if there were dozens of types in there. Just before getting to a large white marble building, he saw a shop that sold robes of all colors and sizes.

“There ‘arry, that’s where we’ll got to get yer money, Gringott’s safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe – ‘cept maybe Hogwarts.” Harry just nodded and followed the large man through the large bronze front doors.

There was a medium size crowd in the building, some milling about others standing in lines and yet more talking to some short clever faced people. Hagrid went to the left where there was no line for the small creature.

“Morning,” he said to the creature, Harry didn’t know what to call it. “We’ve come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter’s safe.”

“You have his key, sir?” it asked, Harry shuddered at the odd tones the thing’s English made while mixing with the Japanese translation.

“Got it here somewhere,” Hagrid said as he patted down his pockets then started emptying them all over the counter and the book the creature had been writing in before they interrupted it. Harry’s attention wandered to the other patrons, off to one side, a couple of people that looked travel worn were standing in-front of another of the weird creatures whom was weighing large red stones. Harry couldn’t figure out why people would think them valuable. But then again, these people were silly and not really intelligent about the arts. He could see it by the way they walked.

“Got it,” the proud proclamation by the large man standing next to him brought Harry’s attention back to the immediate proceedings. Hagrid was holding up a tiny golden key while the creature scrutinized it.

“That seems to be in order.” Harry cringed again, but not as noticeably this time.

“An’ I’ve also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore,” Hagrid said importantly, he was puffing his chest out like Harry had seen Genma do in-front of many Dojo masters. Harry just barely prevented his eyes from rolling. “It’s about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen.” Hagrid handed the letter over and the creature studied it for a few moments before looking up.

“Very well,” it handed the letter back, “I will have someone take you down to both vaults.” It turned it’s head slightly before elevating it’s voice, it did not bellow, that would be undignified, “Griphook!”

It turned out that “Griphook” was the name of another of those creatures. Hagrid quickly re-stuffed his pockets before he and Harry followed the creature towards one of the many doors lining the walls.

Harry’s curiosity got the better of him and he had to ask the large man, “what’s You-Know-What anyway?”

“Can’t tell yeh that,” Hagrid replied, “Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore’s trusted me. More’n my job’s worth ter tell yeh that.”

Griphook held the door open for the two. As he entered, Harry noted that the white marble of the interior lobby was replaced by smooth dark stone. The corridor shrank and couldn’t get much smaller without hindering Hagrid’s passage. Flickering light came from torches lining the walls and casting unnerving shadows over everyone. Harry could feel the slope of the land, it gave him a slightly off center of balance. He wondered how far down they would go, but didn’t wonder long because they were soon by little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small boxlike cart appeared from the darkness. The three of them climbed in, though it took Hagrid a bit, and the cart zipped off.

The maze of tunnels and directions went by so fast that Harry couldn’t catch the rout incase he wanted to return. His eyes stung as the cold damp air rushed by, but he had to pay attention. This was so foreign he had to catalog everything. Once he thought he saw bright orange flames down a corridor, but even though he tried to see the source, he missed it. They rounded a corner and skirted along an underground lake, the surface shining eerily in the darkness. Large stalagmites and stalactites grew from the ceiling and floor like a gaping maw.

Harry looked over to his large companion and saw that Hagrid was very green. The sharp movements probably didn’t agree with him. The cart came to a stop and Hagrid did an odd half lunge half flop out onto the ground. After a few moments of letting his legs stabilize, he looked to Griphook.

The small creature unlocked the door in a puff of green smoke. As the smoke cleared, Harry gasped, inside the vault lay piles of coins. What caught him off guard was the fact that Genma had been willing to let him go for one, ONE of the gold coins. Which there had to be hundreds at least in this vault. The realization started Harry’s unconscious anger to simmer.

“All yours,” smiled Hagrid, not noticing the anger under the astonishment on his face.

All his? Harry took a moment to think about it, for if it were all his, then he had to be especially careful around Genma if the fat man ever came to get him. Lest it all be used on drink and filling his stomach. Harry stood there still as stone as Hagrid pilled some into a bag.

“The gold ones are Galleons,” he explained while holding one up for Harry to examine. “Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, It’s easy enough.” he paused as he put the coins he’d been showing Harry into the bag. “Right, that should be enough fer a couple o’ terms, we’ll keep the rest safe for yeh.”

Finishing up with the vault, Hagrid turned to Griphook, “Vault seven-hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go slowly?”

“One speed only,” Griphook replied.

They shuffled back onto the cart and it sped of, going even deeper and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder and the corners seemed to tighten. They went rattling over an underground ravine. Harry curiously peaked his head over the side wondering if he could see the bottom in all the inky darkness. Before he could get any definition, Hagrid groaned and pulled him back.

Vault seven hundred and seventeen had no key-hole.

Stand back,” the creature said with puffed up self importance. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it melted away.

“If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they’d be sucked through the door and trapped in there,” said Griphook. So that’s what the creature’s called, a goblin. The word sounded odd even when translated to his Japanese ears.

“How often do you check t’see if anyone’s inside?” Harry queried.

Giving an evil smirk, Griphook responded, “maybe every ten years.”

With security like that, something important had to be inside, and whatever it was Harry knew that many would want to get their hands on it. Curiosity made him watch carefully hoping that maybe there were scrolls with martial wisdom. Instead there was a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper just off center of the middle of the floor. Harry wanted to know what was held within, but learned that sometimes answers had to be found without the aid of those with knowledge.

“Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don’t talk to me on the way back. It’s best if I keep me mouth shut,” said Hagrid.

Another wild ride later, they walked out into the bright sunlight. Harry blinked a couple of times before adjusting to the sunlight. The reality of what just happened hit him. Somehow he had inherited what looked to be a fortune from long dead parents. He hadn’t spent much time thinking about them over his life. He was just too busy surviving to contemplate the past. Even with so much money, his survival instincts kicked in. He’d have to conserve this as long as possible and not give any hints that he had this. Maybe that way he could eat more regularly, or at least precooked food. Small game and berries were ok, but a person got tired of them after a while. Harry seriously doubted that there was any small game in this city.

“Might as well get yer uniform,” Hagrid’s voice broke into Harry’s thoughts. He gestured towards the shop that had the robes in the window. “Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringots carts.” The man still looked a bit sick so Harry nodded and walked onto the shop. He knew the necessity of a uniform, but was nervous, what if this school had a uniform that was restrictive? He wouldn’t be able to fight if the situation came up. Perhaps he could alter it if it came to that.

The proprietor of the shop was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.

[LassyD]

“Hogwarts, dear?” she said with a kindly voice. Harry nodded but couldn’t say anything before she continued. “Got that lot here– another young man being fitted up just now, in fact.”

In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. The witch in mauve stood Harry on a stool next to the boy, slipped a long rove over his head and began to pin it to the right length.

“Hello,” the boy said, “Hogwarts too?”

Harry gave him a quick look over, before replying with a quick “yes.” The boy didn’t notice the translation charm or ignored it and continued on. Maybe he hadn’t really been listening to the answer.

“My father’s next door buying my books and mother’s up the street looking at wands,” his board., drawling voice was a little irksome, “Then I’m going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don’t see why first years can’t have their own. I think I’ll bully father into getting me one and I’ll smuggle it in somehow.”

Harry was reminded of some of the rich boys he’d seen at some of the dojo’s they were never there to learn, but bought their way up in status. He’d never had respect for that sort.

“Have you got your own broom?” the boy went on. Harry decided to amuse the boy so replied negatively.

“Play Quidditch at all?”

Quidditch? What was Quidditch? Might be another art, but because he didn’t know what it was he had to reply negatively. These westerners are funny people he decided.

“I do - Father says it’s a crime if I’m not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you’ll be in yet?”

“No” Harry replied. He felt out of the conversation, he didn’t really know any of what this boy was talking about. But then that’s to be expected, he’s in a different country.

“Well, no one really knows until they get there, do thy, but I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been - imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?”

Harry just replied with a non committal noise.

“I say, look at that man!” the boy exclaimed nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing to two large ice creams to show he couldn’t come in.

“That’s Hagrid,” Harry told the boy, although he didn’t see why he bothered. “He works at Hogwarts.” The boy finally noticed that Harry was talking in a different language. He gave Harry a puzzled look.

“Why aren’t you speaking English?”

Harry rolled his eyes at the boy. “I don’t know English. Not everything revolves around you westerners.”

“So why are you going to Hogwarts and not wherever you’re from?”

“Because this Hogwarts seems to want me to go there. They’re going through a lot to get me too.” his voice lowered “stupid Genma, selling me for a Galleon.”

Before anything else could be said, the woman said, “That’s you done, my dear,” Harry hopped off the stool and started for the door.

“Well, I’ll see you at Hogwarts I suppose,” the boy drawled as Harry made his escape.

Harry looked at the chocolate and raspberry ice-cream warily before trying a bit. It was rather good and in the blink of an eye, Harry’s was gone, and a part of Hagrid’s too. Hagrid gave Harry a look of shock before raising his own ice-cream to above easy height for Harry.

“Well seein as yer finished, lets get the rest of yer supplies.” the large man still looked shocked by the missing half of his ice-cream.

They stopped by the stationary store and picked up parchments and quills with a few comments from Harry, “You expect me to write with a feather?”, “ut uh, no way am I writing in multi colored ink.”

The next stop was a bookstore, but one unlike any Harry had ever seen. The books were large, larger than most dictionaries he’d seen and there wasn’t a manga to be seen. The books were bound in leather and some had gold lettering along the spines. A section later, the books were small, almost postage stamp sized with silky looking covers. Harry looked around in disinterest at all the books. He did understand that there was value in books. Some masters put their teachings and techniques to paper, but he doubted he’d find a good book in this place. Let alone one in Japanese. As they walked out of the book store with a large pile of books in Harry’s arms, he asked Hagrid, “Where am I going to put this stuff? I can’t take it with me, it’s too heavy and bulky,”

Hagrid laughed and said, “at Hogwarts o’course. That’s where yel be needin them.”

“Yes but you said earlier that term doesn’t start for a month. So what will I be doing until then?”

“Yel go back to you’re cousin and uncle an’ tha’ neckless will port ya back for the train.”

Harry turned to the large man. “And you expect me to carry all of this?” he held the books and other parcels up for display, “all that time?” He also was surprised that the large man would be letting him go. By that speech he would be returning in about a month though.

Hagrid raised an eyebrow, “Well ain’t yeh going to be puttin them in a room or somethin?”

“No, we’re on a training trip, there is no storage, whatever you can carry is what you can keep.”

Hagrid chuckled, “guess we’ll be puttin them in storage at the platform then.”

Harry breathed a small sigh of relief, now that he didn’t have to take his new purchases back, he didn’t have to worry about Genma selling them. He gave Hagrid a smile of gratitude before they continued with their shopping. The parcel pile growing ever so much. The pewter cauldron here, a collapsible brass telescope there, a miniature scale from the shop in the corner. They walked into the Apothecary, the smell of which reminded Harry of some of the more remote medical establishments. Collecting all of the ingredients on the list, the two exited the establishment. Hagrid rechecked Harry’s list.

“Just yer wand left – oh yeah, an’ I still haven’t got yeh birthday present.”

Harry looked at the large man curiously. “Why would you want to get me a present? I hardly know you.”

Hagrid got a sad look in his eye, “I knew yeh parents, they were good people Lily and James Potter. I jus want to do somethin for ya,” he looked away with a suspicious glitter in his eye, “Tell yeh what, I’ll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh’d be laughed at – an’ I don’ like cats,” he didn’t notice Harry shudder at the word, “they make me sneeze. I’ll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they’re dead useful, carry yer mail an’ everythin’.”

Some time later the two were walking out of the Owl Emporium Hagrid with a happy glint in his eye and Harry carrying a cage. Contained within was a snowy white owl crouched on the perch with its head tucked under its wing. Harry was thanking the large man profusely, but Hagrid was waving it off with a smile.

“Don’ mention it,” Hagrid starting to be embarrassed by the thanks said, “Don’ expect you got many presents with yer uncle, seeing as he didn’t know when yeh birthday was. Just got to get yeh wand now. Ollivanders is the place fer wands, and yeh have got to have the best.”

Harry nodded and watched where they were going over the pile in his arms. A wand, he wasn’t sure what to expect, was it the size of a tonfa? Larger? Smaller? And what practical application did it have? What could his opponent do with it if they managed to take it from him? Could this magic be done without it? Now there was a question, so he vocalized it.

“Well, some say it can be done, bu’ the last wizard to was Merlin.”

[LassyD]

Ch. 4 The Wand.

Harry followed Hagrid into a narrow and shabby shop. The sign on the door was weatherbeaten and the gold lettering pealing with age. In the window, a single smoothed stick lay on a fading purple cushion. That was a wand? Harry felt almost let down. The thing was too small and frail looking to make a good weapon and seemed like it would snap easily.

A bell chimed as the two passed through the door. Within the shop, Hagrid’s large body dwarfed even the walls. It didn’t matter that he took the lone spindly chair and sat. Harry almost reeled at the feeling of so much raw unfocused power emanating throughout the building. Most of it was coming from the small narrow boxes piled all about the walls. Covering them as if they were a second wallpaper.

“Good afternoon,” the soft voice broke through the sense of building. Harry jumped into a defensive position. He hadn’t heard the man enter. The man was old, he had wide pale eyes that shined like moons in the dim lighting of the shop.

Harry relaxed his stance before giving the man a quiet albeit translated, “hello.”

“Ah yes,” said the man. “Yes, yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon. Harry Potter.” Harry immediately put in a quick “Saotome.” which the man seemed to ignore. “You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten asnd a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.”

The man moved closer, as if his unblinking silvery eyes were trying to pierce the curtain of dark hair over Harry’s right eye. It was creepy, but Harry held his ground.

“Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say you father favored it — it’s really the wand that chooses the wizard of course.”

The wand maker seemed to inch forward, while Harry inched back, never quite letting him get close.

“And that’s where. . .”

The man pointed towards Harry’s forehead that was hidden behind his thick dark hair.

“I’m sorry to say I sold the wand that did it,” he said softly. He either didn’t notice or chose to ignore Harry’s half snort half laugh, the type that a person gives when they don’t believe. “Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands. . . well, if I’d know what that wand was going out into the world to do. . .”

He shook his head and then spotted Hagrid.

“Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again. . . . Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn’t it?”

“It was, sir, yes,” said Hagrid.

“Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?” the stern voice showed more emotion on the subject than openly expressed.

“Er– yes, they did, yes,” Hagrid said while shuffling his feet. “I’ve still got the pieces, though,” he added brightly.

“But you don’t use them?” the man said sharply.

“Oh, no, sir,” Hagrid said quickly. He was grabbing his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.

“Hmmmm,” he said while giving Hagrid a piercing look. “Well, now – Mr. Potter” “Saotome” “Let me see.” He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. “Which is you wand arm?”

“What do you mean by ‘wand arm’” the man gave him an odd look, either he just noticed the translation charm working, or he wasn’t sure that a person wouldn’t know their wand arm.

“When you work, which arm do you favor?”

“I don’t, it’s folly to rely on one arm alone. So I use both. I’ve trained both with equal dexterity and strength.” Harry was given a raised eyebrow for that one.

“Then hold out both arms.” Harry complied and the man started to do all sorts of measurements. Finger to elbow, shoulder to hips, around the head. Harry couldn’t figure out why any of these would be necessary, but remained still anyway. As he was measuring, he started to speak. “Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter,” “Saotome,” Harry’s bored voice cut in. Mr. Ollivander ignored it and continued on. “We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenix are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand.” Harry knew what that meant, if he was disarmed, someone could use his wand.

Harry realized that sometime during the speech, the man wandered into the back room and yet the tape measure was continuing on measuring regardless.

“That will do” he said as he returned from the back room carrying a small pile of boxes. The tape measure fell to the ground forming a small heap of twisted strands. “Right then, Mr. Potter,” “Saotome” “Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartsring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave.”

Harry took the wand, but as soon as he touched it he could feel something wrong, like it was dead. Flicking his wrist to test if the sensation would change, but didn’t get the chance as Mr. Olliavender snatched it back.

“Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try –“ It was dead too.

“No, no – here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. GO on, go on, try it out.”

This one was also lifeless. So was the next one, and the next one. Harry was beginning to wonder if there was a wand in this place that was alive. Pile of discarded wands grew on the counter, and the higher the pile became, the happier the man seemed to become. Harry knew the look, it was the look of someone discovering a puzzle.

“Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we’ll find the perfect match here somewhere – I wonder, now – yes, why not – unusual combination – holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple.”

Harry took the wand. It was alive, he could almost feel life pulsing through the thin wood. He flicked his wrist and from the end of the wand a stream of color and sparkles shot from the end like fireworks. Hagrid whooped and clapped while Mr Ollivander cried, “Oh bravo! Yes indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well . . . how curious . . . how very curious . . .”

He put the wand back into it’s box then wrapped it in brown paper, all the while muttering, “curious . . . curious . . .”

Curiosity got Harry so he asked. “Sorry, but what’s curious?”

The man stared at Harry for a moment as if deciding weather or not to tell him. Finally after a moment of silence he said. “ I remember every wand I’ve ever sold. Mr. Potter,” “Saotome” “Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gav e another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother – why its brother gave you that scar,” he pointed towards Harry’s forehead.

Harry snorted softly, he already knew where he got his facial scars, and it didn’t involve a wand.

“Yes, thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember. . . I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter” “Saotome” “After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great.”

Harry decided that all these people were delusional, this man more so, they all seemed to think he was this “Harry Potter” person and refused to believe his take on the subject.

Harry quickly paid the seven Galleons for the wand and made his egress into the late afternoon light. Harry rubbed his tired eyes as the two made their way back down Diagon Alley and through the wall. Harry was nearly sleepwalking for he’d been awake for nearly forty eight hours at this point. Somehow they managed to balance all the odd packages on the cycle when Hagrid said “I nearly fergot, yeh got to have a trunk to put all this in.” Seeing Harry almost asleep on his feet, Hagrid said. “You wait ‘ere and I’ll go get it fer yeh.”

Harry watched as the big man disappeared down the street.

After getting the trunk and all his school supplies fitted within, the two somehow managed to put it onto the motorcycle and rode to the train station.

Hagrid led Harry into platform nine and three quarters which at the time looked barren. There was a block of lockers along one of the walls and a roped off area that had a sign.

“Come’on ‘arry,” Hagrid said while hauling the trunk to the lockers. Opening one of the doors he slid the trunk inside and told harry to close it then take the small key. The key had a small string attached. Harry was going to need the key to get his stuff out. After attaching the key to the wooden necklace he’d been given, Harry looked at Hagrid and with a sleepy tone asked, “now what?”

“Well, now yeh get sent back to where I picked you up, and you’ll be brought here on September first to catch the train.” Hagrid surprised Harry by giving him a quick, bone crunching hug, “I’ll see yeh then lad.”

Harry suddenly felt a strange sensation, like someone was trying to pull his insides out through his navel. After a few seconds of that, the world blurred and then reformed in the clearing that he had been in when Hagrid picked him up, however many hours ago that had been.

Genma and Ranma were long gone, but Harry expected that, they were always moving, so he’d just have to track them down. But not now, in the morning. Harry put his pack down and shortly after laying down using it as a pillow was asleep.

[LassyD]

CH5 Home for a bit.

Harry was confused as he woke. No one had attacked him yet. Genma had been waking both Ranma and he that way for the past few months. Could it be he woke up first? No, the bright light was evidence that the sun had long since risen. Sitting up he remembered the day previous. Genma selling him for a Galleon, One. Then again, a Galleon was made of gold and Genma didn’t have any idea about the lizard’s money system.

Dismissing his annoyance at the situation, Harry got down to tracking his wayward relatives. It seemed that they left soon after Harry, their trail blended in with regular forest trails, but Harry hadn’t been hunting animals most of his life for nothing. The trail seemed to be leading towards south west, Harry wasn’t sure, but he thought that there would be a town or city in that direction. Harry seemed to be creeping along, often he’d found that somehow he deviated from the trail. He’d never tried to track after so long before, that’s probably what had been messing him up.

The day passed quickly and soon the sun was on the Horizon. Harry quickly setup a small camp and ate some of the edibles that he’d grabbed along the way. Harry wasn’t worrying because he realized that Genma needed to go to a town of some sort to sell the money, and the trail seemed to be leading to Nara. They’d passed through there once, some of the dojo’s were old and their masters quite kind to the little boy that had been dragged around after his family. With this in mind, Harry drifted off to sleep.

Morning soon came, and just after it, the realization that Genma and Ranma had been moving much faster then he was. The trail was almost gone, time and animals covering up the day or two old trail. Deciding to give up on the trail and hope he had been right about their destination, Harry started off for Nara at a much faster pace.

Making it to the city didn’t help his situation much he realized. He also would have to be careful because school was in session and people would call a truancy officer if he wandered around freely. Harry did not want to spend his time in school when he should be finding Ranma and Genma. Deciding it would be best to train outside of the city during school times and after school scouring the bars for Genma, Harry set up a small camp.

Harry spent two weeks at his camp. He knew Ranma and Genma were in the city from the increase of reported thefts, but he seemed to be one or two steps behind the two the entire time. Finally lady luck smiled upon Harry in an unusual way.

While stretching and waiting for classes to be over, Harry heard someone shout <Where on earth am I now?> Quickly making his way to the source he found a scruffy haired boy in a tiger striped bandana. The boy carried a large traveling pack and seemed to be Ranma’s age.

<You’re half a kilometer east of Nara.> Harry’s voice startled the other boy.
<Oh, thanks> the boy gave Harry a half smile and turned south.
<Wait,> Harry called before the boy could disappear into the shrubbery. <That’s south> He said. Pointing east he continued <you’ll want to go that way>
<Thank you> the boy blushed slightly in embarrassment. <I’m Hibiki Ryoga.> He said with a slight bow.
<Nice to meet ya> Harry returned the bow and continued, <I’m Saotome Hari>
<Saotome?> Hibiki growled in surprise, <Do you know Saotome Ranma?>
<Yeah, he’s my cousin, in fact I’ve been looking for him.> Giving Hibiki a speculative look he continued, <you seem familiar with him, do ya know where he is?>
<We’re supposed to have a duel, but that’ll never happen if I can’t find the place.> Hibiki looked upset at the idea.
<How about this, you tell me the address of the duel and I’ll help ya there.> Harry gave him a friendly smile. Hibiki smiled for the first time since Harry had met the boy.
<Sure, that’d be great.> The two then started off towards Nara. Every once in a while Harry would have to drag Hibiki back on path.

A half of an hour later, the two found their way to an empty lot. It looked like someone had just broken camp recently. Harry looked at the small fire pit and noticed that it still gave off some warmth.

<Damn you Saotome! Running from our fight like a dog.> the angry shout from Hibiki made Harry jump.
<Just when was this duel for anyway?>
A slight blush crept across Hibiki’s face, <uhh, three days ago.>
<Well they just left, the fire’s still warm, if we hurry we can catch them.> pausing a moment Harry continued, <do ya know where they were goin?>
Hibiki’s face went thoughtful, <I think Ranma said they were going to China.>
Harry snatched Hibiki’s wrist and started to drag him north saying, <Come on, the lets hurry to Tsugaru-kaikyo, the swim should be shortest around there.>

The trip north took the boys about a week, Harry would have to constantly keep Hibiki on path which slowed them down a little, but the boys fighting style was interesting enough to make up for it when they sparred in the evenings. The boys quickly became friends as they traveled. Soon they were upon the Sea of Japan.

<You sure he said they were going to China?> Harry asked eyeing the water and realizing how far it would be.
<Of course I’m sure. Come on.> Hibiki said before diving in. Harry shrugged and dove in after his friend. Luckily for the two Harry had a keen sense of direction even in water.

They swam, and swam and swam. Days passed, and by some miracle, or more rather story telling license, they didn’t drown, die of dehydration or get off course. Time passed in a blur of the backstroke, freestyle and the breaststroke. Soon, but an undetermined amount of time later, they were almost on shore. The boys could see it in the distance, then could see it moving closer and closer. They were a mere ten meters from shore when Harry felt the oddest pulling sensation around his navel. Then he got a fuzzy feeling as his surroundings seemed to un-focus. ‘Great, just ten meters from shore and I’m going to drowned, just lovely’ he thought as his surroundings suddenly disappeared.

[LassyD]

Moments later Harry realized that he was in-fact alive, but elation at this discovery was soon covered by panic when he realized that he was near four meters off the ground, and quite a hard looking ground at that.
“KUSO!” Harry shouted as he neared the ground with a loud splash. Thankfully due to his training in the areal arts, he managed to roll with the impact and wasn’t hurt. The large quantity of water that had come with him couldn’t say the same.

Harry looked around as he sat up and wrung out his hair before shaking his head vigorously to get out the rest of the water. There was a large crowd and he seemed to be at a train station. Lots of children were getting onto the train while what looked like their parents were waving them off most of the children that had witnessed his entrance and subsequent hair drying were laughing. He heard the adults in the area murmuring but couldn’t make it out.

It took Harry a moment to realize that this was the same train station he had put his things with Hagrid nearly a month ago. Sighing with regret at the fact that they obviously remembered him, Harry stood and retrieved the trunk and empty bird cage from the locker and made his way onboard the train. His shoes squished and his clothes left a small dripping trail behind him.

He found his way into a small empty compartment near the back of the train. Quickly stowing his belongings, Harry stretched across one of the bench seats in the compartment, inadvertently soaking it with salty water from across the globe. He was fast asleep by the time the train started to move, and softly snoring when a young redhead with a black smudge on his nose peaked into the room and saw him asleep. Figuring the sleeping boy wouldn’t mind someone sharing his car, the redhead sat down on the other side.

The morning passed with only the sounds of Harry’s soft snores filling the compartment. Just after noon, a loud clattering noise out in the corridor. The door slid open and suddenly Harry’s nose twitched, he breathed a little deeper and his eyes sprung open. Harry’s visible eye locked with the smiling dimpled woman’s.

“Anything off the cart dears?”

The translation sounded odd, not like it had the first time he’d been in England, more soggy, if a voice could sound like that. Harry nodded enthusiastically and dug into the trunk to find the pouch of money Hagrid had left him. He hadn’t consciously noticed the other boy in the compartment yet, so he didn’t see the boy’s ears go pink and look at a bundle of sandwiches. After finding his quarry, Harry bound outside to look at the selection on the cart. To his dismay, it seemed that everything the witch sold was a candy of some sort. Not the type of thing he should be eating after the swim he just had. Looking it over again, he asked the cheery woman,

“Do you have anything that’s mainly protein? A rabbit perhaps?” The witch gave him an odd look and shook her head.

“Sorry deary this is all we’ve got.”

Harry sighed softly and looked for things that seemed to have the lowest sugar count. After all it was unmanly to like sweats. Taking his booty back into the compartment, he noticed the red haired boy for the first time. He also smelled the roast beef sandwiches that the boy was looking at glumly. As he dropped his stash on the wet bench the boy’s eyes went wide and he said,
“Hungry are you?”

Harry looked across to the boy, “As a matter of fact, I am, haven’t eaten for quite a while.” Eyes focusing on the sandwiches a thought came to him. “Hey you wouldn’t mind trading one of your sandwiches for some of this, would you?” The other’s eyes lit up.

“Sure I don’t like roast beef, you can have them all.” Harry smiled at the other boy.

“Thanks, I’m Saotome Hari by the way.”

“I’m Ron Weasley,” he paused a moment and looked at Harry carefully before asking, “why aren’t you speaking English?” Harry rolled his eyes and wondered how many times he’d get this question. He carefully selected some of the sweats in the pile and handed them to Ron.

“Not all the world speaks English Ron-san,” Ron handed over the sandwiches and stared in astonishment as they disappeared almost immediately. There one second and whoosh, gone the next. Harry gave a very feline smile before polishing off the rest of the food he had bought. Ron shuddered and turned his body to protect his new foodstuffs. Harry just smirked at Ron and reclined on the still damp bench.

Seeing Harry back away from his food gave Ron the confidence to turn back to Harry and eat a pasty.

“Why are you going to Hogwarts if you don’t speak English, wouldn’t you just go to school in your home country?” Harry’s face clouded at the question.

“Well, I’m here because someone,” he rolled his eyes, “seems to think I’m this Harry Potter person, and they’re making a big deal out of it.”

Ron sputtered, “But it is a big deal, Harry Potter is the savior of the wizarding world. He stopped You-Know-Who when he was only one.”

“No I don’t, who is he?” Harry asked even though his voice sounded disinterested.

“Well he was one of the most powerful dark wizards ever, no one likes to speak his name out loud.” Ron shuddered.

“How would a one year old child defeat him then?” Only mild interest eased into Harry’s voice.

“They say when You-Know-Who cast the killing curse, it bounced off Harry Potter and hit You-Know-Who instead. It left a lighting bolt shaped scar on little Harry’s head.” Ron tried to take on a mysterious air when he finished. “No one’s sure why it happened.”

Harry snorted, “there that proves it, I’m not this Potter, no lightning shaped scar on my head.” The two boys fell into silence. Out the window dark green hills cracked with rivers and spotted with gnarled forests could be seen. Ron looked back to Harry and saw that the boy had gone back to sleep.

Some time passed. The silence was broken by a knock on the door. A round faced boy that looked teary eyed came into the compartment, and noticing the sleeping boy looked at Ron and whispered. “Sorry, but have you seen a toad at all?”

Ron shook his head, the ride had been pretty dull.

The boy started to wail, “I’ve lost him,” but then remembered the sleeping occupant and quieted down, “he keeps getting away from me.” Harry just gave a soft snore and rolled over in his place. The round faced boy left and closed the door behind him. The compartment returned to silence.

Muffled noises came from behind the door, sounds of activity and excitement. They had to be nearing the school. Suddenly the door opened and a bushy brown haired girl, already in her Hogwarts robes, entered. Behind her stood the toadless boy, a nervous look on his face.

[LassyD]

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” she said in a bossy tone.

Ron shook his head and said, “I told him already I hadn’t seen it, and he’s” he motioned towards the sleeping Harry, “been asleep nearly the entire trip.”

“Well you’d better change I asked up front and they said that we’re nearly there. We should probably finish looking for Neville’s toad.” with that said, the girl and boy disappeared out the door.

Ron had moments more of quiet and solitude before the door opened again, this time a narrow faced blond boy came in with two hulking figures flanking him. Seeing Harry asleep, he said to the boys at his side, “Crabbe, Goyle, wake him up.”

The two boys lumbered over to the sleeping figure and poked at the mildly damp lump of boy. Harry managed to roll over in his sleep and avoided all the prodding fingers while snoring softly. The lazy dance continued for seconds before the boys started trying to poke at Harry harder and faster. A moment passed before the blond got annoyed with the scene. Ron sat watching quietly from the other side, ignored by the intruding trio.

“Stop it, it isn’t working.” He said then pulled out his wand and smirked. With a wave and a mumbled word, water flowed out of his wand and on to the sleeping boy, whom immediately shot up and sputtered.

“What did you do that for?” Harry shouted at the compartment in general.

“I wanted to know if it’s true, if Harry Potter’s in this compartment.” It was the same pale boy from the robe shop. Harry glared at him and nearly growled as he said. “No there is no Potter,” he seemed to spit out the name so that even the translation charm could get the annoyance in the tone, “here, if you’d kindly leave, I was sleeping.” His voice conveyed the danger of waking a hibernating bear.

The pale boy looked over the compartment quickly and said, “well if he’s not here than I see no reason to stay, Crabbe, Goyle, we’re leaving.”

A few seconds after the trio left, The bossy bushy brown haired girl reentered the compartment, she took one look at the disgruntled look on Harry’s face and the new puddle on the floor and asked. “What has been going on?”

Harry only growled while Ron took the initiative and explained the visit from the trio. The girl gave a humph noise and said, “well like I told you earlier, you’d better get your robes on, we’re nearly there.”

The girl was focused on Ron and hadn’t noticed Harry removing his robes from his trunk.

“Would you mind leaving while,” Ron’s eyes popped open as he noticed Harry was now in his robes doing a few tentative stretches. “uhh, I change?”

“All right - I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors,” she said in a sniffy voice. “And you’ve got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?” With that she left the compartment.

Out the window, it was dark, and Harry could feel the train slowing down. Ron took off his jacket and put on the long black robe. Although it was a bit short for him Harry could see his sneakers poking out the bottom hem.

Moments later a voice echoed through the train, “We will be reaching Hogwarts in time minutes’ time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately.”

[LassyD]

Harry waited for most of the students to pile off before he made his exit.

“Firs’ years! Firs’ years over here! All right there Harry?” Hagrid’s large hairy face called from above the see of students. “C’mon, follow me - any more firs’ years? Mind yer step, now! Firs’ years follow me!”

Hagrid led the group of first years up a steep slippery path. It was narrow and dark, the dense tree canopy shielding them from most of the little light the moon gave. The dark atmosphere seemed to suck the words right out of the children, leaving a quiet foreboding atmosphere.

“Ye’ll get yer firs’ sight o’ Hogwarts in a sec,” Hagrid called over his shoulder, “Jus’ round this bend here.”

A loud “Oooooh!” followed the bend for the narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a large black lake. Harry groaned softly on seeing the water. Perched atop a mountain on the other side, with its windows sparkling in the starry cloudless sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

“No more’n four to a boat!” Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry breathed a sigh of relief on noticing them, he was sick of swimming. Going with the flow, he found himself on a boat with Ron, the bossy girl and the boy who lost his toad.

“Everyone in?” Hagrid shouted from a boat of his own. “Right then – FORWARD”

As his word finished, the boats glided off shore in synchronization and glided across the glass still lake. The trip was quiet as all the new students were absorbed with watching the castle loom over head and get larger as they got nearer.

“Heads down!” Hagrid yelled as the boats neared the cliffs. Everyone ducked as the boats glided through a curtain of ivy that hid a opening in the cliff face. The tunnels they were now in were dark, noone had put any effort to putting up even a torch. Moments passed when dim light could be seen then the boats came up to a harbor that glowed softly with torches along the walls. As soon as the boats docked, everyone clambered onto the rocks and pebbles.

“Oy, you there! Is this your toad?” said Hagrid after all the boats were empty.

“Trevor!” Cried the boy, apparently that was the toad he was looking for. He held out his hands and gratefully took the toad. They then followed Hagrid’s lamp up a passageway in the rocks and emerged on some damp grass in the shadow of the looming castle.

Harry hung back as the rest crowded around a huge oak door.

“Everyone here? You there, Still got yer toad?”

Hagrid raised his large hand and knocked on the door three times. It opened while the third knock was still vibrating. A tall, black-haired woman with emerald green robes stood there. Her face was set sternly and her hair was up in a very businesslike bun.

“The firs’ years, Professor McGonagall,”Hagrid said.

“Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here.”

She opened the door wide allowing entry. The entrance hall was large, so large that Harry was sure a couple of nice sized Dojo’s could fit inside. Flaming torches decorated the walls giving ample light, but were not quite enough to reach the ceiling. A large marble staircase was prominently placed leading travelers to the upper floors.

Professor McGonagall led the group across the flagged stone floor. A drone of voices could be heard from a doorway to the right, the rest of the school must already be here, but the Professor led the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They group crowded in, standing rather close together, peering about nervously. Harry was reminded of a subway, not the incredibly crowded ones of Tokyo, but more like the mildly crowded ones of Nagoya during rush hour.

“Welcome to Hogwarts,” said the Professor as she towered over the first years, “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, You will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

“The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

“The sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.” Her eyes lingered on the toad boy’s cloak which was fastened under his left ear, on Ron’s smudged nose and then on Harry’s half concealed face.

“I shall return when we are ready for you,” she turned to exit, “Please wait quietly.” And with that she was out the door.

A low rumble of voices started as she left. Harry’s translation charm only caught bits and pieces, but it calmed down almost immediately after that. Most of the first years looked terrified. Their eyes were wide and some were ringing their hands nervously. The bossy girl was whispering very fast half of what she said skipped by Harry, and the other half made no sense. Harry stood confidently that whatever happened next, he’d be prepared, or so he thought he would be.

Harry was proud to have only jumped a couple of feet in surprise, others had screamed. Harry immediately went into a nonchalant defensive stance. Around twenty pearly white and semi-transparent people had floated through the wall. They glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glanced at the bunch of first years who were watching them nervously. The ghosts seemed to be arguing amongst themselves. What looked like a little fat monk was saying: “Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance–“

“My dear Friar, Haven’t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he’s not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?” The speaker, whom was wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the group of first years.

Nobody answered.

“New students!” exclaimed the Fat Friar with an air of self satisfaction. He smiled at the group. “About to be sorted. I suppose.”

A couple wide eyed people nodded.

“Hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My old house, you know.” He said with a big smile.

“Move along now,” McGonagall’s voice cut in sharply, “The Sorting Ceremony’s about to start. The ghosts floated away through the opposite wall, some giving cheery waves to the group of first years.

“Now form a line,” Professor McGonagall told the first years, “and follow me.”

Harry slipped into the back of the line, no point giving people fair shot at his back. In front of him was the boy that had lost his toad. The group made their way out of the chamber, back across the hall and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.

To say Harry was impressed would be a severe understatement. The Hall was lit by thousands and thousands of candles what were floating in midair over four long tables, it seemed that there were more candles than people sitting beneath them at the tables. Lying on the tables were glittering golden plates and goblets. At the head of the hall, a slender long table rested, a row of adults sat there. Harry presumed that they must be the teachers. Professor McGonagall led the first years towards that table until they were parallel with it. Students in front with teachers behind. Harry shifted slightly uncomfortable in not easily being able to see everyone. What seemed like hundreds of faces were staring at them, maybe mild curiosity in their faces. Harry’s gaze kept shifting and eventually landed on the velvety black ceiling, it was dotted with stars, and the constellations looked slightly odd, the ones he saw shouldn’t be out at this time. He heard the bushy brown haired girl whisper, “It’s bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in ‘Hogwarts a History’”

[LassyD]

Harry remained quiet but as he looked at it he couldn’t shake the feeling that there wasn’t really a roof above his head, and if he got enough momentum he could hop right out of the building. Keeping his gaze moving, he noticed Professor McGonagall placing a four-legged stool in front of the line. She placed a old battered pointy hat on the stool. It’s brim was frayed and it was patched in several places. The hat sat there a moment with all eyes of the student body on it, as if waiting for something. The hat suddenly twitched, it wiggled, it coughed up blood, err forget that last bit, got too much into another story. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth, and the hat began to sing.

“Oh you may not think I’m pretty,
But don’t judge on what you see,
I’ll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There’s nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can’t see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
. . . yadda yadda yadda, if you have the book, go look the rest up I’m too lazy to finish it.

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It did a funky little jiggy bow to the four tables and went still again.

Harry heard some of the other first years mumbling amongst them selves. A little tension that he didn’t notice before slipped away as he realized all he’d have to do is put on the hat. It seemed easy enough.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long scroll.

“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” she paused to look at the scroll. “Abbott Hannah!”

A pink-faced girl with blond pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over here eyes, and sat down. A moment’s pause -

“HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat shouted.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down there. The ghost of the Fat Friar was waving merrily at her.

And we’ll just skip all the superfluous people shan’t we? I mean, you know who they are, you wouldn’t be much of a Harry Potter fan if ya hadn’t read the first book, or at least saw the movie. Anywhoo, on we go.

“Potter, Harry!” Silence spread over the hall, and whispers broke out as no one stepped forward. “Potter, did she say?”
“The Harry Potter?”
“Where is he?”
The mumbling became more intense as a minute passed without anyone stepping forward. Suddenly the Sorting Hat shouted in an annoyed tone, “OH COME ON SAOTOME, GIVE IN! THEY’RE GOING TO CALL YOU POTTER WETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!!” The muttering increased in volume
Harry glided over to the hat, seeing as it called his name, and sat on the stool, he was aware of the stares he was getting from nearly the entire population, and Malfoy seemed to be glaring at him. The hat was soon dropped over his head and he heard a small voice in his ear. Luckily it seemed to know Japanese, <hmmm, interesting, you’re going to be the most challenging student of the century for me. Plenty of courage, loyalty and intelligence, but also an uncanny ability in manipulation and deception. You’d do wonderful in Slytherin, but Slytherin would not do well with you. You loyalty is the type Helga loved in a student, but then again, the Hufflepuffs would have trouble with such a wild horse as you in their midst. Your mind is keen, but applied totally differently, Ravenclaw is definitely not for you. Looks like Gryffindor might be the only ones that could handle you. Let’s pray the school survives.>

To the rest of the school, the hat’s shout of “GRYFFINDOR wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as usual.

The table on the left cheered quite loudly and Harry heard some people chanting “We got Potter.” He moved to sit at the end of the table next to Hermione and across from Parvati Patil. A ghost sat by Parvarti, Harry recognized the ghost as one from the small room earlier. Thomas Dean and Ron soon joined the table as they were sorted, and the hat and stool taken away by McGonagall.

Harry surveyed the teacher’s table now that he had a better view, Hagrid was at the nearest end making jovial faces and giving him the thumbs up. Down towards the end of the High table was Professor Quirell, Harry vaguely recognized him from that trip to Diagon Alley. The man had a funny looking purple turban on his head.

The man seated in the center of the table rose, Harry could see that his beard was longer than any other he had seen before, reaching past the waist. The man’s arms open wide in an inviting gesture. His eyes twinkled with mirth.

“Welcome!” he said, “Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!” The last four words were odd, for some reason the translation Harry had been hearing failed on those words.

“Thank you!” The man said before sitting down. Most of the hall cheered, but Harry saw some confused faces among the other first years at the other tables.

Harry turned his attention back to his table, and his jaw dropped in surprise for just a moment before a gleam appeared in his eye and a smirk appeared on his face. The food that had appeared was all foreign to him, but that didn’t stop his nose and stomach from recognizing some of it.

Harry removed his chopsticks from where he had secreted them, first tenant of life on the road, always be ready for food in case it happens by. And with no more pause, he initiated the age tested Saotome school of indiscriminate grappling hunger cessation techniques. This had the mild side effect of stopping everyone else at the table from eating as they stared at the blurring arms and disappearing food in-front of Harry. Even more remarkable, or at least to the people viewing the Saotome art, was the fact that none of the food missed Harry’s mouth and his place remained perfectly clean. The pause in everyone’s eating just left more for Harry in his mind, and they quickly started moving when they realized that there would be no food left if they weren’t quick.

Harry was very pleased to have his fill, and with a contented sigh leaned back on the bench.

“What a hearty appetite.” The ghost in the odd looking ruffled collar said with a smile.

“Always eat your fill,” Harry said with a shrug, “you never know when your next meal will be.”

The ghost paused for a moment, weather it was from the language, or the actual phrase Harry didn’t know. Then said, “oh, dear me, I forgot to introduce myself, I am Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower.”

“I know who you are!” Ron suddenly said through a mouthful of food. He quickly swallowed before continuing, “you’re nearly headless Nick. My brothers told me about you.”

The ghost looked flustered for a moment then replied in a stiff voice. “I would prefer Sir. Nicholas” Harry tuned the rest out and started to juggle with some fruit he found on the table. Very good hand eye coordination practice, and if there was anything he learned from Genma, it was to make everything into training and practice.

After everyone ate as much as they wanted, the food disappeared and desserts replaced it. Surprisingly enough, there was Harry’s favorite ice cream among all the other sweets. He took a small serving of amacha ice cream.

yadda yadda yadda, there was small talk, random things were discussed and I’m poking that fast-forward button again, but not too hard mind.

Harry glanced back to the teacher’s table, his glance swept over Hagrid, whom was taking a drink from a flagon and merrily chatting with the person next to him. Minerva McGonagall was talking with Dumbledore. The last person up there that he knew still had his head intrenched in that silly purple towel, or at least that’s what it looked like to Harry. He was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, sallow skin and a hooked nose.

The black haired man suddenly looked strait past the towel and into Harry’s eyes. A sharp stab of pain in his forehead accompanied it. But as quickly as it came, it was gone. Leaving Harry wondering, he hadn’t had any pains from his scars in a while. The look the teacher had given him also left Harry confused. He’d seen animosity in the man’s face. Harry wondered if Genma had ever been to Britain.

[LassyD]

A Nameless Bit

After the feast finished, Harry and the rest of the first years were shuffled off to their respective dormitories. The Gryffindor’s were led through winding corridors to the main stair hall. Harry was startled to see some of the stair cases moving platforms as if on whim. The uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching him wouldn’t go away.

Harry’s eyes darted back and forth trying to find the source of the sensation. It took him several moments before noticing that the paintings were, in fact moving. Many of them were staring at the train of first years, others went into other portraits, whispering amongst themselves, and giggling.

Soon enough the first years came to a full sized portrait of a woman in some of the oddest clothing Harry had ever seen. Then again, she was also one of the largest women depicted or otherwise Harry had ever seen too. The woman was fanning herself lazily.

“Password?”

“Caput Draconis,” The older boy, Harry vaguely remembered he was called Percy, said. The portrait nodded and swung open, revealing a hole in the wall. The small group scrambled into the hole and found themselves in a plushly decorated common room. The girls were directed through one door while the boys another. Beyond the portals were spiral staircases that led to doors every flight or so. The five boys stopped at the small plaque that had “First Year” written on it.

The room held five four poster beds with deep red velvet hangings. The trunks had been brought up and Harry noticed his pack resting beside one. There wasn’t any small talk made as the boys changed into their pajama’s and got into their respective beds.

Harry woke up slightly disoriented, and his back was aching. He sat and looked around the dim room and realized several things. First he was in a western style bed, which meant that either A, he had in fact drowned while chasing after Ranma and Genma with Hibiki-san. B, getting transported to the weird train station was not a dream. Or C, he was still asleep and searching for his wayward relatives. The stiffness and aching in his back told him that C wasn’t likely, and he was pretty sure that if he had died, he wouldn’t be mentally complaining about his back and staring around dumbly, so it was probably option B.

Standing, he looked around in the darkness of the room. The moon was out and some of its light peeked into the room. Giving Harry enough to make his way out of the room.

Somehow he managed to find his way outside without running into anyone or anything. Seeing as he now didn’t have anyone to spar with, Harry decided that he’d have to try to keep his skills up the best he could, and so started working on Katas. He practiced in the moonlight until the eastern horizon started to brighten.

He was finally pulled out of his exertions by the voice of Hagrid.

“‘arry?! What’re you doin’ out ‘ere so early? Yeh should be in at breakfast.”

Harry gave a petulant “Hai” which for some reason didn’t get a translation, before walking back into the castle. Unfortunately for him, his way back wasn’t as easy as his way out and was soon lost. Fortunately, he was found by Nearly Headless Nick and led back to the Tower. Where he had to do a quick change and bolt to the great hall, just in time to be handed his schedule and sent off to his first class of the day.

He didn’t make it to the classroom on time though, but when he entered he didn’t see a teacher. His eyes swept the room then he froze. One of those Demon things was sitting on the table. He wanted to back away and hope it hadn’t seen him, but he was frozen in fear, eyes locked on the vicious fur-ball resting on the table. Time seemed to streak towards infinity when it gave an evil smile and leapt towards him. Harry shrieked, turned and ran, strait into a wall, which brought him into blissful oblivion.

The cat morphed into the form of Minerva McGonagall by the time it hit the ground, and she ran to Harry’s still form. The rest of the students had started to laugh at the scene. Minerva gave the class a sharp look that worked to quiet the laughter. She lightly brushed Harry’s hair aside, only to pull her hand back as if burnt. Her hand flew up to her mouth as she saw the crisscrossing mesh of pale scares that covered the boy’s face. Even his right eye hadn’t escaped, the eyelid was stuck half open due to scar tissue.

Harry’s form started to move and he spoke, “Ranmaaaa, Chotto Uchitsukesugitaaaa.” Apparently his translation amulet only worked when he was fully conscious of what he said.

Minerva put a gentle hand on Harry, trying to keep him from sitting up. Harry sat anyway, his hair fell back over the scars. He blinked owlishly at the rest of the class before looking down and tugging on his rattail nervously.

“Etouuu, sorry about this.”

Minerva gave Harry a disapproving look and stood.

“Mr Potter,” she seemed to ignore his disgruntled “Saotome,” “Don’t be late for my class again.”

“Hai” Harry stood and found his way to a seat amongst the snickering students. Professor McGonagall turned sharply and the snickering subsided. She gave the class another stern look before speaking.

“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.”

She then transfigured her desk into a pig and back again. Harry felt his eyes pop out in disbelief. Sure he had seen some odd things since coming here, but he didn’t expect anything like this. This class had managed to spark his curiosity. A lot of complicated notes, many of which Harry didn’t understand but wrote down anyway, later, the class was given matchsticks and told to turn them into pins.

Harry tried unsuccessfully to follow the directions he had been given, and ten minutes til the end of class raised his hand.

“Yes Mr. Potter,”

“Saotome, Professor could you show me the transformation again please?” Professor McGonagall stood and came over to his desk.

“Watch closely, because this is the last time I’ll demonstrate it today.” Harry nodded and unfocused his eyes, he remembered that a person could see auras if they let their senses go free. He had been practicing since that monk at the Shinto shrine had taught him a couple years ago. The idea worked a little, and he saw how the Professor’s energy flowed out of the wand and around the matchstick, remolding it. He nodded confidently and gave his thanks.

Turning his gaze onto the match stick, he tried to push his own energy out through the wand and use it to change the match. Something was off because as soon as he felt his energy take hold, the stick made a loud pop and gave off a puff of smoke. All that was left on his desk were shreds of silvery material.

Harry’s brow furled in displeasure, and McGonagall stating that she didn’t know how he did it, refused to give him another matchstick, and so he had to sit and watch as the other students tried unsuccessfully to change their own sticks. The only near success was Hermione Granger, the bushy haired girl from the train, as Harry privately thought of her. Her stick had gone a little pointy and silver. McGonagall gave the bookish girl a smile and showed off the stick to the rest of the class.

His next class, which most people seemed excited about, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. The only thing that kept Harry awake in the class was the pungent aroma of garlic and the feeling of wrongness around Professor Quirrell. Harry left the room with an odd sense of being watched.

The days passed quickly, with his early morning practice sessions and the once weekly late night astronomy class, Harry started to fall asleep in the more uninteresting classes, History of magic, and DADA seemed to be the two that dragged his conscious mind into sweet night. Another unfortunate thing was the cats, especially Mrs. Norris, whom upon noticing his fear of anything feline delighted in torturing the poor boy by finding him during the day. A loud screech and thud became all too common between classes.

Friday came around and Harry was happy to have managed to get to breakfast in time to eat for the first time in the week. That’s when he also found out about the post. The snowy Owl he picked up in Diagon Alley when he first met Hagrid landed by him and gave him a loving nip.

“So, you’re sticking around even though I let you free? I guess I’ll have to name you something.” Harry looked at the owl in the eyes. “How about Kazema?” The owl tilted its head and Harry took that as a yes. Harry gave the owl a thoughtful look while eating a bit of sausage. “You’re a post owl, so could you get a letter to my bro?” The now named Kazema puffed up in indignation as if to say “of course you nutter.” Harry laughed lightly. “Then get some rest girl, I’ll be sending you to China tonight.” The owl seemed to nod and flew off, presumably to the Owlery.

Harry finished the rest of his breakfast before following the rest of his classmates down to the dungeons, where he would have his first potions lesson of the year. It was quite chilly down in the dungeon, but Harry didn’t pay attention to that, instead preferring to study the oddly shaped creatures floating in pickling jars. He didn’t recognize any of the animals or plants. He ended up in a seat next to Neville.

Snape’s cold coal black eyes swept over the gathering of students before in a cold voice started to call roll. He went quickly down a list of names, looking up at whomever raised their hand. After a few names, he paused and his face took on a peculiar look that reminded Harry of someone whom was just forced to eat an earthworm.

[LassyD]

“Ah yes,” he scanned the class, “Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.” Snape glared at Harry when he didn’t raise his hand, but continued on. When he started to put the list down, Harry raised his hand.

“Professor, you skipped my name, does that mean I can go?”

Some of the Gryffindor’s snickered behind hands.

Snape's glare quieted the classroom. "Certainly Mr. Potter, Celebrities get special status, and that will be ten points from Gryffindor."

Harry glared at the teacher before smirking.

"Thank you Professor Yamada,"

Harry watched as Snape's face darkened. "Mr. Potter, that will be a detention for your cheek."

"Professor Yamada," Harry emphasised the name, "You said I could go, and so I will." he swiftly collected his things before Snape interupted his exit.

"It's Professor Snape"

Harry paused only momentairaly before waving a hand in the air.

"Whatever you say Professor Yamada" and the door closed with a soft thump. Moments later the class heard a loud shreek and a more distant sounding thud.

[LassyD]

Bit number ? Silly me I stopped counting.

Harry wandered the stone halls after escaping the feline. The moving staircases were of particular interest because they seemed to like to move away from where a person wanted to be. Which is why he found himself staring at a closed locked door on the third floor. Harry smiled as he remembered something from the sorting, “I must tell you that this year,” the headmaster had said, “the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish a very painful death.”

Harry knew what that sort of warning meant. There had to be something interesting and probably challenging within. Pulling some lock-picks from his rat tail he said a quiet thank you to Genma for teaching both he and Ranma this particular skill. Seconds later, a quiet clank told Harry that the door was now open. He slipped the picks back into his hair before sneaking into the room.

The moment he entered he knew he was right, and he hit training ‘pay-dirt.’ For standing, or rather laying, in front of him was one of the largest dogs he had seen. Not to mention it had three heads. It was snoring, and Harry could see spiked collars on all the three necks.

“Hey, Puppy” he called to the dog. “Time to wake up and play.”

Two of the three heads snorted but seemed to ignore him, while the third growled. Then barked insistently enough to wake the other two heads. The one head lunged but because the other two were groggy, it was a clumsy lunge and easily dodged by the petite Harry. Minutes passed with the dog lunging and Harry dodging. As the time flew by, a carefree smile grew on Harry’s face. More time passed and as he got more tired from the speeds he was keeping, the dog’s swipes came closer and closer. Luckily the dog was tiring too, and only got one successful swipe of Harry’s upper arm before the boy backed out of the dogs range.

The hallway was crowded when Harry exited the room. Luckily no one noticed his exit of that particular door as the students were mobbing the Great hall. Must have been lunch time. Harry’s smile followed him all the way down and he polished off quite a quantity of food.

Just after sitting down, someone came by and slapped Harry’s arm. His eyes crossed and he gave a small groan but otherwise didn’t acknowledge the injury.

“Hey Harry,” it was one of the Weasley twins. “We heard about what you said to Snape today” the other one chimed in. “It had to be classic.” Back to the first, “Wish we could have seen the greasy git’s face.” They both said in unison.

They looked like they were going to continue when a stern voice interrupted.

“Harry, Ms. Granger, The headmaster wants to see the both of you.” Professor McGonagall glared at the twins before in a more commanding tone said, “Now!.” Harry looked over at Hermione, whom seemed to be near tears at the pronouncement, before standing up and waited for Professor McGonagall to lead the way.

The walk through the corridors to the stone Gargoyle was quiet. Hermione was walking stiff backed while Harry slinked behind the two. When they arrived, Professor McGonagall leaned in and whispered something to the gargoyle, it jumped to the side revealing a moving staircase.

McGonagall ushered the two eleven year olds up the stairs and knocked on the door at the top. There was a quick jovial “Come in.” To which McGonagall opened the door and motioned the children inside. Harry was almost overwhelmed by the intense feeling of power coming from the room.

“Ahh, Harry, Hermione, please take a seat.” Albus Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled while he motioned to two plush chairs. Hermione was the first to move. She stiffly moved into the chair on the left and sat down. Harry followed her example, but instead of sitting at attention, he instilled the belief that he didn’t have a solid bone in his body by sprawling all over the chair and looked rather like a limp kitten.

“Thank you Minerva, you can go.” Albus said, and as the door thunked quietly he turned his attention to the two figures in the chairs. “I’m sure you’re wondering why I called you two to my office.” Hermione looked like she was going to say something when Albus cut her off. “I assure you that it’s not because you are in trouble.” He gave Hermione a grand fatherly smile. “Hermione, all of your teachers have said that you are the brightest student in your year and that is why I’m going to ask you to tutor Harry in English.”

The tension in Hermione’s posture drained and the distress in her eyes turned to pride at the compliment. Harry started to scowl, what was with this man, deciding his life for him? He almost said something before realizing that on his honor, he would have to do what this man wishes. The mad did “Hire” him of sorts. Maybe it would be good to learn English, he’d take it if he was in school anyway.

“Of course sir, it won’t be a problem.”

Hermione was graced with another smile and dismissed. Harry was getting up to follow her when Professor Dumbledore said, “Harry, please stay, I need to discuss something else with you.” Harry flopped back into the chair. His visible green eye half lidded as he waited for the other to speak.

“Harry,” Albus paused as if deep in thought, “It has come to my attention that you were disrespectful to Professor Snape before walking out of his class today.” His eyes developed a hard glimmer. “Would you care to explain why?”

Harry didn’t change position, in fact it seemed that whatever bones the boy had melted as his body seemed to splay even more on the chair. To any observer it looked like arms of the chair was the only thing keeping him from oozing onto the floor. His visible eye held a hard edge for a fraction of a second.

“I only gave him the respect he gave me.”

“What do you mean by that.” The headmaster’s eyes softened.

“The man refused to acknowledge my name, and instead choose one of his own liking.” Harry sat up strait far faster than should have been possible from that boneless sprawl. “I have struggled for the Honor to be a Saotome, and I’m not very happy when someone refuses to acknowledge it.”

“But Harry, you were born a Potter.”

Harry glared at the old man. “I am NOT a Potter.” Harry spit out the name. “On the train here, a boy told me of this Harry Potter, a boy with a lightning shaped scar on his head.” Harry stood and stalked up to the desk. He lifted the hair from the scarred half of his face, revealing the patchwork of scars and halfway stuck eye. “Does it Look like there’s a scar in that shape on my forehead?”

Albus sat back, shock swept across his eyes. He covered it quickly, but Harry had noticed and put his hair back.

“How did you get those scars?” The man had managed to put that twinkle back into his eye, but it didn’t hold as much mirth as it once did.

“What’s past is past and it’s none of your business. If you’ll excuse me.” Harry turned and left the office without conformation from the Headmaster.

[LassyD]

Ch. 10 I guess, “Mail”

Harry stalked down the corridor, slowly finding his way to the Owlery. The paintings were rather helpful in pointing him in the right direction, and he was soon there. Kazema flew to him from a high perch somewhere. Harry patted the bird on his shoulder and sat down by the wall. “Just a minute girl, I’ve got to finish writing the letters.” Harry pulled out a ball point pen and a pad of paper, this whole having to dip the quill every line or so was really starting to bug him and if he didn’t have to, he wouldn’t.

<Translated for your enjoyment>
To Ranma,

Don’t freak out about the Owl, apparently the people that I’ve been sent off to use them as mail carrying pets. How’s it going? I’m stuck in a Kami forsaken place where nobody practices the arts. The only practice I get is fighting a large three headed dog. I’m sure that you’re going to whip me next time we meet. And yes there will be a next time. Apparently these people only want me around for 10 months, then they will be sending me back. It’s really annoying the way everyone here is insistent on calling me Potteru. Oh yeah, Hibiki Ryouga is angry about that missed duel. Yes I know you waited three days. You had just left when he got there, and so now he’s hunting you. If you want, I can have Kazema lead him to you next time I write.
The Owl will wait for you to write a reply.

From Harry

Harry tore the sheet off the pad, wrote Ranma’s name on it and handed it to the bird, but before Kazema could take off, he told her, “Wait, I’ve got one more to write.” Kazema settled back down onto his shoulder. Harry started in on his next letter.

To Hibiki Ryouga

I apologize for disappearing while we were so close to China. I would like you to know that I am alive and well, but am suffering from a lack of decent sparing partners. Apparently there is such things as magic, and it was used to pull me from the ocean to a school in England. The people who took me will send me back in ten or so months and maybe we could have a bout then. I’m sorry that I cannot give you a way to reply yet, My pet Owl is very busy and cannot wait around for you to write back. But next time I send you a letter Kazema will wait around.

Don’t get too good without me.

From Harry.


This time he wrote Hibiki Ryouga on the front and gave them both to Kazema.

“Girl, I want you to take this one to Hibiki-san first but don’t wait for a reply. Then take that one to Ranma and wait for him to write back. Just keep away from my uncle.” The owl hooted and flew off, notes clutched in its talons.

Seeing as he had the rest of the day, well until his detention, off, Harry made his way outside to practice. The sky was its usual calming blue, a cloud dotted it here and there. Harry started to do Katas moving slowly. As his body ran through familiar movements, his mind turned inward to his chi. This was always an exercise in frustration, but the rewards would be well worth the effort. He had already mastered using his chi internally. He could use it to heal wounds, increase his muscle strength and all sorts of things that were useful to him. As his body danced about the grass, the gash in his arm started to glow a soft white and heal.

After mastering the internal use of chi, he turned to externalizing it. It always frustrated him because he would get so close, and then his grip on the internal chi external ki barrier would fall apart. He got no closer today. In fact, the massive amounts of energy hanging about the place made Harry loose his grip much sooner than normal. He opened his eyes with a low growl at his failure, and noticed that the sun had moved quite a bit. In fact, it was time for dinner. He quickly finished his kata and ran into the castle. Never noticing the eyes that followed him in.

[LassyD]

Ch. 11, The Detention.

At 6:59 Harry found himself staring at the door to the Potions classroom. He knocked and entered the room.

“Shitsureshimasu” the translation charm sputtered a bit before falling quiet.

“Just on time.” Professor Snape said with a sneer. “I’m sure you know why you’re here.”

Anger quickly flashed across Harry’s face, but was quickly pushed down and in a chipper voice he said, “Yea I know.”

Snape lifted an eyebrow and said. “I’m sure you do, but many students end up here claiming not to know why. So you’ll be telling me why.”

Harry’s chipper facade fell and in a cold tone of voice he said, “I’m here because my uncle sold me to this school, and this time,” he growled, “he won’t be steeling me back.” He then muttered something softly and the translation charm failed to pick it up.

Shock flashed across Snape’s face, but the professor was good at hiding his emotions and unless someone had been studying his face, they would have missed it.

“No, you’re here because of your cheek. While you are at this school you’re to respect your teachers.”

Harry smirked at Snape, “I’ll give you respect once you give some to me.”

Snape gave Harry a glare that could immobilize a griffin. “Mr. Potter,” he over enunciated the name at a near whisper. Before he could continue Harry’s visible eye, burning with anger bore strait into Snape’s.

“My name is NOT Potter,” it came out in a growl. “I am sick and tired of you,” he spat out his next word, “people, not listening. Somehow you got it in your head that I am this, Potter, and I am not. I would leave now, but on my honor I cannot.” Harry was battling with the anger that he’d been repressing since his induction into the wizarding world. There was a few seconds of silence while Harry tried to calm down. Snape’s glare didn’t waver, but Harry wasn’t paying attention to it. He was annoyed with himself for his self perceived loss of control.

“If you are not a Potter” the name was spat, “Then who are you?”

Harry managed to get his eyes down to smoldering with anger before responding.

“I am a Saotome,” Pride shone in his eyes for a moment, “and unlike Ranma, I had to earn my name.”

Snape snorted, “I doubt you’ve had to earn anything in your life.”

Anger filled Harry at the comment. How dare this man, whom he only knew for a day, assume he knew anything about Harry’s life. Harry started to see red. A small part of his mind shouted that he should leave before he did anything he would later regret. It only just reached him past the roaring hiss of his anger. What he didn’t realize was the fact that he was seeing red because he had managed to form an anger fueled battle aura. Which at this moment was singeing Snape’s eyebrows.

<How Dare You.> Harry snarled, not knowing that the aura was interfering with the translation magic. <You know nothing about me.> The little voice in the back of his head was screaming for him to get out of the room, or at least redirect his anger. Listening to the little voice, Harry spun quickly and stalked out of the room.

Many hallways and singed doors later, he was by the lake. He threw himself into one of the highest paced Kata’s he knew, in hopes that it would work off his anger. It took until well into the night for the anger to work its way out of his system. By then he was sweaty and the moon had traveled quite a bit along the night sky.

The portrait of the fat lady gave Harry a disapproving look when he tried to enter.

“It’s after curfew young man. I’ll let you in this once, but no more.”

“Yes, yes, Sorry ma’am, I’ll try not to let it happen again.” Harry bowed as he said this.

She humphed and swung open. The common room was deserted. Just how late was it? Harry made his way to the showers and took a quick tub before retiring for the night.

[LassyD]

The next day at breakfast Hermione cornered him.

“Harry, the headmaster want’s me to tutor you in English. We’d better get started.” Her posture broke no argument. Harry figured it might be better to humor the girl, but his mind was with “lrocky” as he’d affectionately named the three headed monstrosity in the third floor corridor. Hermione started for the Library when Harry stopped her.

“Gurenjya-san, could we have our lesson outside?” Hermione turned and he gave her a winning smile. She looked thoughtful.

“Alright, but call me Hermione.”

“Hai Harmaioni-san.” She frowned at the way he said her name, but didn’t say anything about it.

What happened next was complete and utter frustration on everyone’s part. Hermione had seen that Harry was using the translation charm in the pendent as a crutch and so had him take it off. It was then she found out that she had severely overestimated Harry’s English speaking abilities. Or rather, he had none to speak of. After two hours of getting him to repeat the name of an object, then spending twenty minutes trying to correct the pronunciation, she let loose a scream and said something. Harry couldn’t understand, but then again, he didn’t really expect to. He did, on the other hand, try to mimic what she had said. She glared at him and gestured toward the pendant. Shrugging, he complied.

“Why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t speak any English?”

“Why did you assume I could?”

“Well you are in England. It’s only proper to learn the language.”

“You’re also assuming I wanted and planed to be here.” Harry’s eyes darkened, “both of which are false.”

She stared at Harry for a minute, confusion flashed through her eyes. After a moment she took a deep breath and said.

“Do you know anything in English?”

“Well, at the grade school I went to last year, they were teaching letters.” His visage took on a hint of pride. “I can sound out most written words. Don’t really know what they mean, but I can read them out loud.” He shrugged.

She looked at him, took a deep breath, sighed, and said. “We’ll continue later, I think I’m going to ask the Headmaster for a reader.”

“So we’re done?”

“Yes,”

Harry grinned and ran back into the castle. He had a “date” with fluffy. As he ran through the corridors, he noticed that though it was a break day, there were not many people in the corridors. He finally made it to the corridor on the third floor and with a grin pulled out his lock picks. The large dog was sleeping peacefully when he entered the room. Harry frowned slightly before grinning again.

“Hey lrucky, time to wake up and play.” One of the heads woke and looked at Harry through a slitted eyelid. A moment later it’s eyes opened wide and it started snarling. The other heads woke up and joined. Harry just grinned and waited for the dog to make the first move.

This time the fight went longer and both contestants seemed to be in better form. Harry did manage to avoid getting injured, that’s a plus, but he also spent the entire time dodging and never got to attack. By the time Fluffy was too tired to keep swinging, Harry was too tired to try an offense. Harry went over and gave each of the heads a hug before leaving. Each one growled a bit, but the panting made it seem less intimidating.

Harry went outside for a cool down then went in, bathed, and found he was just in time for dinner at the Great Hall. The house elves, used to the boys appetite after a week, sent up triple portions to his place. The rest of his house, also used to his eating habits, kept their plates at a safe distance.

Things seemed to fall into a pattern. Harry was starting to balance School work with is training. Although he still felt that he wasn’t getting enough time to train. The English lessons with Hermione started getting less frustrating when the easy readers arrived. Although they felt like a lesson in futility, but then again, it was only the first week. Snape had given Harry another detention, for skipping out on his first one, but had it carried out by Filch. Snape had taken something to heart after the first detention. He no longer called Harry by the name Potter, but he refused to use Harry or Saotome, so instead called him boy. All in all, that was an improvement so Harry wasn’t going to complain.

Harry ignored the whispers that his translation charm never managed to catch. He could tell they were about him. The culprits would stare at him then whisper to someone. Sometimes giggle. He tried not to let it get to him, he knew that he was an outsider here. He couldn’t even speak the language. The only person he really had contact with other than his teachers was Hermione, and that was because she was teaching him. The other boys in his dorm would either be out or studying by the time he dragged himself in from his training. The times where he did sit in the common room and do his homework, no one would approach him. He didn’t really mind, or so he told himself. It was weird being around so many people for so long. There were times in class, like now, where he would sit staring out the window. Professor Binns didn’t reprimand him, and he wouldn’t have payed attention any way. His heart was out there, not confined. He wanted to wander free with his uncle and Ranma again.

The weather was muggy today, and it threatened rain. Harry sat strait up when he saw something in the distance. He knew he didn’t have the best vision in the world, but the moving figure out on the lawn was familiar. He opened his senses and smiled widely when he recognized the feeling of the person on the lawn. Someone said something to him, but he wasn’t paying attention.

A quick glance at the window frame showed that these windows could be opened, wide enough for him to leave, and so that’s what he did. He vaguely registered the screams from his classmates as he dashed for, and jumped out the window. He used various bits of the castle as springboards to get himself down the building expeditiously.

As he got closer to the figure he ripped off the translation pendent. He didn’t want to be distracted by those strange double echos. He dropped it on the ground as he hit it and rolled. The figure had his back turned.

<Hibiki,> he roared, <prepare your self.>

Hibiki Ryouga turned around at his voice and, upon seeing his charge, shrugged off his pack and got into a ready stance.

Seconds later they met. The world was a blur of strikes, blocks, and counters. Harry was having the time of his life. Or at least he was much happier and felt more at home in the middle of this battle since the day he arrived here. It didn’t matter to him that he was losing. Hibiki was much more skilled than him, being several years older, and having more time to practice. Harry had gotten better at dodging, but whenever Hibiki landed a strike, Harry knew there would be a good sized bruise that would heal by morning. Harry landed more strikes than Hibiki did, but they were far weaker and didn’t seem to do much to the larger boy.

The fight stopped suddenly when Hibiki’s body went stiff. The boy fell over. Harry immediately pulled his punch and knelt by the fallen’s side.

<Hibiki-san?> His voice was rife with worry. <what’s wrong?> at that point he noticed his viewers. He glared at McGonagall, as she was the one with her wand out and pointed near them.

<WHAT DID YOU DO?> he shouted. His best friend had been hurt by the teacher. She said something, but it was incomprehensible. <Un-do it,> he growled, he would not have these people ruin his only chance to be with his friend.

[LassyD]

Professor McGonagall looked absolutely stunned at his outburst. Apparently whatever it was that she had said was a translation spell of some sort.

<He was attacking you,> Her tone was a mix between confused and scolding, <and we can’t have people attacking our students.> Harry glared for a moment before growling.

<NO, you attacked HIM>

McGonagall’s face started to color red and she sputtered in indignation.

<I never,> Her voice was scandalized, <you were clearly under attack by this strange,> the rest of her speech was cut off by both Harry’s growl and the introduction of another voice.

<Ahh, Harry, so this is where you’ve turned up.> McGonagall turned to see the headmaster. Harry retained his defensive posture in front of his friend’s form and didn’t say anything.

<You gave your class quite a scare I dare say. Mrs. Granger burst into my office saying that you’d jumped out the window.> He gave Harry a smile, <I know that Professor Binns is rather uninteresting, but you don’t have to such extreme methods to leave the class.>

Harry snorted but didn’t say anything.

<Headmaster, what are you talking about?> McGonagall’s voice was confused.

<It seems that Harry jumped out of Professor Binns’s classroom.> Professor Dumbledore’s eyes turned to Harry. His posture asking for an answer while McGonagall looked absolutely stunned.

Harry didn’t respond even though he knew the Headmaster wanted an answer to his unspoken question. The concept of being polite and a responsive just didn’t appeal to Harry at the moment. For it was these people who were keeping him away from what was really important, and then when he managed to snatch a piece of practice, they took it away.

After a moment of silence Professor Dumbledore spoke again, <Well, seeing as we can’t have students jumping out of windows, I’m going to have to give you a detention. It’ll be carried out with Mr. Filch next Tuesday.> He shifted his attention to the stupefyed boy at Harry’s feet. <And who might this young gentleman be?>

<Get away from him,> Harry growled while McGonagall spoke up < He was attacking Harry,>

Professor Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the two different answers. <Minerva, what’s this all about?>

The older woman composed herself while figuring out what to say.

<I was walking to my office when I looked out the window and saw these two fighting. I quickly ran up and saw that this strange boy,> Harry growled, <was attacking Harry, so I stupefyed him.>

<You attacked him, See you just admitted it.> Harry nearly shouted at the woman. <He wasn’t doing anything wrong and you came along and attacked him.>

<She did say that the boy was attacking you,> Dumbledore said.

<Well of course he was fighting back,> Harry said, his tone suggested that he thought they were pointing out the obvious, <It wouldn’t be a proper match if all he did was dodge and block.> he sneered at professor McGonagall, <It was going great until she attacked Hibiki-san for no reason.>

The talk stopped when a groan came from the boy on the floor. McGonagall looked at the Headmaster, people shouldn’t be able to throw off the effects of a stupefy without the aid of the counter charm. Harry scanned the two teachers for a hint of what they might do, then seeing that the seemed content to stand and stare, knelt down and gently patted the boy’s face.

<Hibiki-san, come on wake up,>

The boy grunted in response and muttered, <Hari, why don’t you ever call me Ryoga?>

<You never told me to,> Harry replied in a matter of fact voice, <but that’s not an issue right now,> he was going to continue when the Headmaster’s voice cut in,

<Hari, you know this boy?> Harry gave the headmaster an incredulous look.

<Why did you think I don’t know my best friend?> Harry was amused at the incredulous look on the professors faces but frowned slightly when he heard Hibiki whisper <Best friend?>

<Of course you’re my best friend,>

Ryoga looked stunned at the matter of fact proclamation.

<Well, as much as this seems to be a misunderstanding, you still have classes to attend.> Dumbledore said to Harry.


Harry did something that he never would have thought of doing before. He refused.

<No, I haven’t seen H. . Ryouga in a long time, and the last time he saw me I disappeared from the middle of the ocean.> he looked to Ryouga then back to Albus, <in all likelihood, he’s going to continue on his journey within a day, so I’m going to spend this time with him,> he tossed his head <I’ll go back to classes tomorrow.>

Albus frowned, <I really must insist. It is very important for anyone to attend their classes.>

Harry scowled back for a moment, glanced at Ryouga and returned his scowl to Professor Dumbledore.

<Can he come to classes with me?>

Professor Dumbledore gave Harry a searching look before smiling and saying, <I don’t see why not, as long as it’s only for the day.>

Harry paused a moment to think before nodding and he gave a curt <Deal> before grabbing Ryouga’s wrist and the amulet then sprinting into the building, leaving a confused Professor McGonagall and a smiling Dumbledore behind him.
#nosmileys#nosmileys

[LassyD]

Ryouga was surprisingly complacent during the day and didn’t even complain when Harry refused to let him wander alone. Harry had spent all of his charms lesson repeating what the professor said so Ryouga could understand. Ryouga was very attentive and asked questions. Harry was just glad that he didn’t have potions and wouldn’t have to deal with Snape. Professor Flitwick was very understanding and even gave him time to explain things to his friend.


Even with Ryouga being a good student, Harry couldn’t wait until class was over. He had wanted to talk with the boy since their spar was interrupted.

The minutes stretched on until the bell finally rang. Harry was out of the room like lightning, Ryouga flapping in the breeze behind. The rest of the school was a blur to the poor lost boy, he did manage to catch brief glimpses of confused faces as they sped by.

The journey outside was incredibly shorter than usual and it was certain that Harry would have lost house points if the teachers that his trail passed had been able to tell what house he was in.

<Where did you build up such speed?> Ryouga was rubbing his wrist as he spoke. Harry looked confused.

<What’d’ya mean by that? We weren’t going very fast.>

Ryouga just glared in response to the innocent look Harry was giving him.

<So,> Harry threw himself back on the grass to stare at the clouds. <How’s the hunt going?>

Ryouga’s face darkened, <The cowardly dog keeps running away every chance he gets.> he glanced at Harry upon hearing the younger boy snort. <What?> he said defensively.

Harry glanced over to meet Ryouga’s eyes for a moment before turning back to stare at the clouds laze by. <I don’t doubt that they keep moving, but the coward is my uncle, not my cousin.> he paused a moment, but not long enough for Ryouga to say anything before continuing. <You obviously don’t have to worry about having to follow your sense around. Whatever Genma wants to go, Ranma has to.> he paused for a moment and scowled slightly. <it was like that for me too until> he started to growl, <Genma, sold me to these people.>

Ryouga raised an eyebrow at the confession. <You don’t want to be here?>

<No,> Harry calmed down a little before continuing. <All I care about is studying the Art.> His eyes developed a maniac gleam. <You must know what I mean, the joy of the fight. The rush when you master a new ability.> Harry rolled onto his side and stared at Ryouga <And most of all, the feeling of satisfaction when you finally manage to beat a skilled opponent.>

Ryouga nodded thoughtfully, <I hadn’t really thought of it like that before, but you’re right.>

The two lapsed into silence.

Harry stretched in a catlike manner before hopping to his feet and smirking at the still sitting Ryouga.

<So,> He smirked, <you ready?>

Ryouga grinned and stood. The two stood facing each other for a moment. Suddenly, as if someone rang a bell they advanced on each other. Their limbs nothing more than a blur of strikes, perries, counters and blocks. Gravity defying jumps were interspersed here and there.

The grin on both their faces told the casual observer that they were enjoying the rather violent looking activity. Time seemed to fly for Harry as he was enjoying himself. Even though he was not as strong, nor sturdy as the older boy, he was a lot faster. He was using that speed to his advantage, but he was wearing down. Ryouga got a good blow in that sent him reeling. As he landed on the ground with a soft thump, his stomach growled loudly.

The sound was enough to cause both parties to notice that they were hungry.

<Come on, lets get dinner then you can be on your way.>

Ryouga’s eyes lit up at the idea of food and he nodded enthusiastically.

The two boys made their way into the great hall and down to the end of Gryffindor table. The other Gryffindors noticed the hungry gleam in Harry’s eye and backed away from that end. Even though the plates were re-filling they still didn’t want the food off their own plate stolen.

It was too soon that Harry and Ryouga were standing at the exit of Hogwarts.

“I’ll write,” Harry was having a difficult time holding up his stoic exterior. The people in this country just weren’t the same like home and seeing Ryouga if just for a day brought his homesickness for the open road and training to the fore.

“Yeah,” Ryouga’s voice was soft for a moment before hardening. “I’m still going to whip the cousin of yours.”

Harry laughed.

“Go for it.” And with that Ryouga turned and was gone.

[LassyD]

The next day most of the other first years were excited. They’d be having their first flying lesson. Harry wasn’t sure what was so exciting about flying. After all, he’d done enough training that he could clear ten feet in a bound from standing. He was sure he’d be able to get thirty eventually.

When he saw the Slytherins on the pitch he gave a slight groan. For some reason Draco Malfoy had seen his refusal to acknowledge whatever relationship with the Potters the wizards seemed to think had as a personal insult to his honor. Now the blond boy was always making snide comments. Harry didn’t catch the meaning of all of them, but the way the boy said them it was clear that they were insults.

For the second time this week Harry had to remind himself that a true martial artist does not fight those who are weaker. It just wasn’t honorable. His annoyance was interrupted with the entrance of Madam Hooch.

Harry was transfixed. He’d never seen anyone like her, foreign or not. His first reaction was that she had to be part oni or something. Her hawk like eyes peered over the group. Her short hair bordered on silver. The only thing he could liken her to was characters in animations that he’d seen while passing television sets on the road.

“Well, What are you all waiting for?” She barked. The normality of her voice broke Harry out of his trance. “Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, Hurry up.”

Harry glanced down a little confused. He thought they were her to learn to fly, not housekeeping. Never-the-less with a mental shrug he stood by an old warn broom.

“Stick out your right hand over your broom and say ‘UP’” She called to the group.

“UP!” All of Harry’s classmates shouted. He felt stupid doing it, but said it anyway.

The broom jumped into his hand almost immediately. Harry grinned. It was the first time he tried this magic of theirs with success on the first try. His was one of the few brooms that jumped on the first call. Hermione’s had rolled over, while Neville’s hadn’t budged.

It wasn’t long until Madam Hooch was showing them how to mount the brooms without slipping off the end. Harry had to grin when she told Draco that he’d been doing it wrong for years. The rest of the Gryffindores broke out into snickers that were quickly silenced with those sharp yellow eyes.

“Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard.” Said Madam Hooch. “Keep your brooms steady, Rise a few feet, and then come strait back down by leaning forward slightly. On my Whistle – Three – Two –“

Apparently Neville was so nervous and jumpy that he launched himself hard before the whistle had sounded. He rocketed up, unheeding, or probably more unable to heed the sharp shout from Madame Hooch.

“Come Back Boy!”

Neville’s pale face became whiter and whiter with every foot the broom climbed. Harry watched, preparing himself should the boy loose the death grip he seemed to be trying to maintain. At twenty feet he slipped.

Harry took only a fraction of a second to drop his broom and launch. Luckily for the both of them, Neville’s body ended up twisting sideways. Harry caught him at the apex of his jump. Where he was immediately treated to a death grip around his shoulders. Ignoring the grip and the gasps from the first years, Harry did a quick flip to disperse some extra momentum and landed with a soft thud.

“Neberu,” He said softly to the other boy. The grip was really uncomfortable. “You can let go of me now.” Harry wasn’t sure if the other boy got any translation because he didn’t let go.

“Way to go Potter.” Harry heard Malfoy’s voice drawl sarcastically. “You just had to go prove that your better than us mere mortals.” Malfoy’s voice was thick with disdain.

“THAT’S ENOUGH” Madame Hooch cut Malfoy off. “As the crisis has been averted we will get back to the lesson.” Her countenance was stern as she glared at the first years, Malfoy in particular.

The talk and shout must have gotten through to Neville because he finally let go of Harry. The boy looked around and patted himself down before hugging Harry.

“Erk.” Harry tried to get away from the new grip, eyes slightly wide.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” The boy was chanting.

“Let go!” Harry yelped and continued to struggle. Apparently the rest of the class found the situation entertaining because they started laughing. Even Madam Hooch was smirking.

“Neville, you’re excused from the rest of the lesson,” Harry could hear the smile in her voice, “But Harry still needs to take his lessons.” She moved to help Harry extricate himself from the other boy.

Soon Harry and the rest of the class were trailing around the Quiddich field following Madame Hooch’s directions. The sensations that the broom gave off made Harry feel odd. He figured later he could try to make his ki copy what he felt the broom doing. Might be worth a shot and would be really interesting to see if he could fly without the broom. Then flying would be worthwhile. He didn’t see the point behind depending on an object that you could be knocked off or have taken away.

[LassyD]

The next day Draco found Harry while he was studying English with Hermione.

“Potter.”

Harry ignored him.

“Potter,” Malfoy tried again. Harry could hear annoyance in his voice and continued to refrain from acknowledging the other boy. Hermione stopped talking to watch. Malfoy growled slightly.


“Goyle,” Harry heard him say and could tell that the large boy started moving towards him. Harry just dodged the grasping hands without ever turning to the three boys. Hermione started to look worried and so Harry gave her a reassuring smile.

<Where were we?>

She looked confused for a moment then handed him the pendent.

“Harry,” she stopped to let him put it on. Before she started again Malfoy spoke again.

“Stay out of this mudblood.”

Harry snorted,

“As if your’s is any cleaner.”

The look on Hermione’s face made Harry turn to see Draco’s pale face turning red with rage. His body was stuttering as if he couldn’t believe what Harry had said to him. Harry couldn’t do anything but laugh. The boy’s face was just so funny.

The laughter didn’t help and Harry couldn’t stop it because now he was sure that Malfoy’s head would pop off of his shoulders.

“A duel, at midnight.” The boy ground out of his teeth. Harry in response stopped laughing and looked at him critically, remembering everything he knew about the way the boy walked, held himself and dealt with potentially dangerous situations.

“Harry,” Hermione’s voice was somewhat disapproving, but he ignored her as he assessed the boy in front of him.

“No”

Harry heard Hermione breath a sigh of relief and smirked as he watched Draco shutter with rage.

“WHAT?!” the Draco nearly shouted, getting the attention of the handful of other people sitting outside.

“You’re just scared.” Draco switched tactics. Harry had seen this tactic before and it always worked on Ranma. Harry smirked again and spoke loudly so everyone in the area could hear him.

“I won’t taint my honor by dueling someone as weak as you.” Harry smirked as he lazily moved out of the way of the wild punch Draco sent his way. The boy was having trouble deciding weather to growl or scream and was trying to do both as he attempted to pummel Harry.

Harry was enjoying the taunting session. He hadn’t had good practice at this particular area of the art in a while. Ranma was immune to his taunts and he Ranma’s. It was good to know he could still piss off someone.

“You see, you’re absolutely awful, I’ve seen a five year old with more precision than you.” Malfoy screamed again. Harry noticed that Hermione ran off, probably to get a teacher. Crabe and Goyle were watching with fascination. They probably had never seen Malfoy try to fight with his hands. The other students started to watch with interest.

“Are you naturally this slow? Or did someone use a hex on you?” Harry heard someone giggle in the background.

“Stay still.” Draco growled. Harry paused for a moment out of Draco’s reach and put his hand to his chin in a thinking pose.

“Hmmmm, how about no.” he danced away from the next wild strike. A moment later McGonagall’s voice pierced the area.

“Stop this fight immediately.” Harry just grinned at her while he dodged the next round of fists.

“Professor, he’s attacking me.” He used his best sweetness and light expression while ducking under another punch. Malfoy seemed to be too far into his rage to have even heard the professor.

It was a very short time later that Harry, Hermione, Crabe, Goyle, Malfoy, and some of the other student who watched the fight were sitting in Professor Dumbledore’s office. Malfoy was still red and sputtering while Hermione made sure that there were at least three people between him and Harry.

Dumbledore looked over his spectacles at the small crowd, his eyes twinkled as he spoke.

“Ms. Granger, would you care to tell me what happened?”

Harry watched as Hermione composed herself quickly.

“Well sir, Harry and I were outside studying English when Malfoy” the afore mentioned boy growled, “came up behind Harry and tried to get his attention. Harry ignored him and then Goyle started to attack Harry.”

Goyle started to protest but a glance from Dumbledore quieted him down.

“I was going to say that we should go, when Malfoy called me a mudblood. Harry snorted and said something like Malfoy’s wasn’t any better.”

Malfoy snarled again. Harry smirked, that boy had a real anger management problem.

“Malfoy then challenged Harry to a duel and Harry refused saying that Malfoy was too weak. It was then that Malfoy jumped at Harry. Harry kept dodging and I ran to get Professor McGonagall.”

Professor Dumbledore looked at the group as a whole and asked,

“Is that what happened?” Everyone but Malfoy, Crabe and Goyle nodded.

“Harry attacked me first,” Malfoy said. Crabe and Goyle nodded backing up their friend while one of the other students laughed.

Professor Dumbledore looked at Malfoy then Harry,

“That was a very public display Mr. Malfoy, according to a majority of the witnesses you were the aggressor and Harry never attempted to strike back. I’m going to have to write to your father and give you a detention to be carried out with Filch.”

Malfoy paled when the letter to his father was mentioned.

“Mr. Po. . .” He paused seeing the defiant look in Harry’s eyes about the name and sighed a little. “Saotome,” Harry smiled at the man, “I’m glad to see that you are starting to take the school rules to heart and not fighting, so you may go back to your English practice with Ms. Granger.” He looked at the rest of the group, “You’re all free to go.”

[LassyD]

The weeks passed excruciatingly slowly for Harry. Sure he had Draco to taunt and it got to the point that the boy would throw hexes at Harry the moment he saw him. Harry didn’t mind, it gave him wonderful practice at dodging unexpected attacks. Every week Draco would also try to challenge Harry to a duel and Harry always refused with a smirk on his face and responses designed to enrage. It made him proud to know that he could instill such a rage in the pale boy that Draco would completely forget magic and instinctively throw himself at Harry.

Harry also had to deal with hero warship coming from Neville. It was annoying because the boy would follow him around almost everywhere and started helping with his English lessons. The boy had absolutely no self-confidence and usually cowered behind Harry if he saw something even remotely dangerous. Harry decided that he’d have to do something about it. Maybe he could teach the boy a little, not formally as he didn’t have a teaching certificate.

It was Halloween and he was running a little late, his meditation while doing his early morning kata’s had run over a bit. He smiled slightly as he remembered visiting Rlocky last night, the three headed dog had started to accept him as more than a sparing partner and would often demand to be scratched behind the ears and on the stomach. It was really funny to watch the jealousy between the heads. Harry wouldn’t tell anyone, but in a way the friendship with the monestrous dog made him feel a little more at home.

Harry raced into the charms classroom with just enough time to slip into a seat by Seamus. It turned out that they were doing their first practical charms lesson today, they had to float a feather.

“Now, don’t forget that nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing!” Professor Flitwick squeaked from atop his pile of texts. “Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too, – never forget Wizard Baruffio who said ‘s’ instead of ‘f’ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest.”

Harry gulped nervously and wondered why the professor was letting him try this if pronunciation was so important. He knew for a fact that he couldn’t say the ‘v’s.

As they started Harry noticed Professor Flitwick subtly put a couple extra feathers near where Seamus and he were sitting. Harry let Seamus go at it for a while, he wasn’t to sure if he was happy for the foresight of the professor, or insulted.

“WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA” Ron’s shout brought Harry’s attention to the two sitting by them. The redhead was pin-wheeling his lanky arms trying to get the feather to move. Even Harry could see that would never work.

“You’re saying it wrong.” Harry was glad that snappish voice wasn’t aimed at him this time. Hermione’s better-than-thou temperament was really hard to deal with all the time. He was regretting accepting her help as his English teacher. “It’s Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”

Harry watched as she rolled up her sleeve and said, “Wingardium leviosa.”

The feather lifted off the desk and hovered around. Harry turned back to Seamus as he heard a loud poof. Their feather was on fire. He quickly put it out while smirking to himself because this time the fire wasn’t his fault.

“Oh, Well done!” the professor cried, “Everyone see here, Miss Granger’s done it!” The then turned to Harry, “And you haven’t even tried. Go on,” Professor Flitwick floated a new feather to Harry, “Try it.” Harry nearly glared, the professor had brought all eyes on him.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to remember the movement of the aura he’d seen with both Hermione’s successful attempt and professor Flitwick’s demonstrations.

“Uin-gaaa-jiun Rebi-oo-saa” he attempted to push his energy in the same pattern, and to his surprise the feather floated a couple centimeters before spontaneously combusting, the ashes flew to the ceiling and scattered over the room.

Professor Flitwick jumped a bit.

“Ohh, I’ve never seen it do that,” Harry just sighed, still blowing things up, but at least it started to float before it got to the combusting. The class went on swiftly after that and he and Seamus went through the pile of feathers that Professor Flitwick had given them.

Harry hung to the back of the crowd and heard Ron loudly talking to Dean.

“It’s no wonder no one can stand her. She’s a nightmare, honestly.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione tear up and roughly shoving Dean as she ran by.

“I think she heard you.” Dean said.

“So? She must’ve noticed she’s got no friends.” Harry was amazed at how thick headed the boy seamed. He’d learned in some of the temples that girls were far more sensitive then boys and would get worse payback. He’d remembered some of the things he’d seen girls do as revenge and shuddered. A guy was strait forward and just tried to pound the dirt out of you.

Hermione didn’t show up for the next class and by that time Harry was hoping that she’d let him skip out on English lessons this afternoon. As it was he got out of it and spent the time doing kata’s by the lake. Neville was watching him and it unnerved him, but he still needed to keep up his form.

On his way to the great hall, his pendant translated a quiet conversation between a couple of the girls in his classes, one was telling the other that Hermione was crying in the girls’ bathroom and wanted to be left alone. He only payed this tidbit minor attention as he entered the Great Hall and ducked a random curse and the bats that were swooping by the door. There were quite a few more swooping about the place causing candles to stutter. Harry paid this no mind as he wanted to wail when he realized that the food wasn’t on the tables yet.

[LassyD]

He was mollified when the food appeared. He only managed to clear half of the nearest serving tray before Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew, smelly, and terror on his face. Harry finished off some more while other’s started at the way the professor reached Professor Dumbledore’s chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, “Troll – in the dungeons – thought you ought to know.”

The skewed man then slumped off the table in a dead faint.

Harry’s eyes gleamed, finally some action. The smirk that crossed his face caused Neville, the only one willing to venture within two seats of Harry, to back off.

There was a loud uproar in the hall, the students all stood and started to freak out. Harry took this distraction to slip away.

Harry cursed silently as he realized that all the ways to the dungeon were being used and slipped down a side corridor.

A few steps later he ducked into a nook in the wall and watched as Professor Snape passed by. He shrugged and waited for the man to clear off before making his own way, hopefully toward the dungeon. The next corridor over a horrible stench filled his nose just before he heard a low grunting. He made his toward the heavy shuffling footfalls.

Harry grinned as he saw the dull granite grey thing. It was twelve foot tall and had a lot of muscle mass. Harry was sure that if that thing hit, it’d hurt. A lot. It was dragging a large wooden club.

It stopped next to a door way and peered inside. It waggled its long ears as if making up its mind and slowly started to slouch into the room.

“Hey Big and Ugly” Harry’s shout stopped the thing from getting into the room. It’s head shot up, through the doorway but it didn’t seem effected by the stone barrier.

“Yeah you.” Harry grinned as it backed fully into the corridor, a stupid grin on its face. It raised its club as if the thirty foot distance meant nothing and it would be able to hit him. Harry grinned and launched himself at the large form. He ducked its surprisingly fast swings and kicked its knee from under it.

The beast roared in anger and started swinging faster. Harry was momentarily distracted when he noticed Hermione’s face pier at him from the door the troll had been about to enter. The distraction was enough for the troll and Harry met the business end of the club. He felt a rib crack and although he was in pain, it was familiar and he smirked as he rightened himself for landing on the far wall.

Harry sprung from his perch and smacked a knee into the troll’s ear with all his weight and quite a bit of speed behind it. The troll swayed slightly, grunted and continued flailing after Harry with its club. The next few minutes passed in a cat and mouse game where Harry dodged all the strikes but his counters didn’t seem to effect the troll.

Soon however Harry realized if he didn’t end this quickly, he’d run out of energy. Sure he could last a long time, but not at his current speed. He grinned maniacally when he came up with an idea, he just hoped he wouldn’t have nightmares about this.

He sprung onto the things’s shoulder and to the roof where he kicked off it to the floor, gathering momentum the entire time and re-directed all of it into a powerful, well aimed strike to the Troll’s groin. The troll reacted just like he expected, it dropped the club, grumbled what had to be a squeak for its kind and collapsed.

Harry waited for a moment to make sure it was down before panting and examining his ribs.

“What On Earth Were You Thinking Of?” Professor McGonagall’s voice nearly shrieked. Hermione ran from the bathroom. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed. Why aren’t you in your dormitory?” Harry looked up and noticed that Professor Snape was examining the troll, Professor Quirrell was leaning against the wall looking rather pale and Professor McGonagall was red faced.

Harry was about to respond with a curt “training” but Hermione spoke up.

“Please, Professor McGonagall – He was looking for me.”

Harry nearly snorted, that was a little presumptuous of the girl.

“Mrs. Granger!” But then again, Harry wasn’t going to interrupt the girl willingly getting herself into trouble.

“I went looking for the troll because I – I thought I could deal with it on my own – you know, because I’ve read all about them.”

Harry stopped paying a lot of attention because he needed to bind his ribs soon, otherwise it’d be a real pain. He was gathering his shirt tightly in hopes that it would help and he wouldn’t do too much before he could get it properly bound. He looked up when he realized that Professor McGonagall addressed him.

“Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You’ve won Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go.”

Harry bowed slightly and took off for his common room. When he entered through the portrait he could see that the rest of his house was eating away. He grimaced as he realized he had to wait until he could finish dinner. Hermione was standing by the door and looked at him.

“Thanks, if you hadn’t come. . .” she trailed off and joined the rest.

[LassyD]

To Hari,

The Owl is really cool. I thought it might be something like that from all those letters we received before you left. So Hibiki turned up did he? Sure bring him on, I’m always ready for a good spar and pops hasn’t been able to give that since you were six. We’ve been traveling around Tibet. The monks are fairly decent at the arts so I know you’ll get a whipping when you get back.

From Ranma


Harry could feel the ego oozing out of the letter and smirked. It wouldn’t be his bro if it weren’t there.

To Ryouga,

Hey there, I was so glad you made it by my school. You don’t know how boring this is. I wish Genma would just come and steal me away, but knowing the lazy bum, he won’t. I’ve instructed Kazema to lead you to Ranma for that honor match you’re hunting him for. Please when one of you wins remember to write to me.

From Hari

Harry received two letters in reply, one just screamed ego while the other held a promise for
revenge.

To Hari,

Pops somehow managed to get us kicked out of the temple we were staying at for a short while. They were yelling about some sort of seal, but then again, they’re just superstitious monks anyway. After hiking for quite a while we found the perfect spot to stop and train for a bit and then Ryouga found me, we fought and I won, as if there was any doubt. He’s bent on training harder and coming back for more. That’s great, I’ll just have to keep being better.

From Ranma


To Hari,

Thank you for helping me find that cousin of yours. Unfortunately he defeated me so I will have to train harder. I now swear off schooling and will only train from this day until the day I defeat that egotistical bastard. When I am ready could you please send Kazema to help me find him again?

From Ryouga

Harry laughed briefly before making his reply.

To Ryouga,

No troubles, I will have Kazema help you out. Did you know that these people fly on broomsticks. It’s a very odd sensation and I’d love it if I wasn’t so dependent on the broom. Maybe I can figure out how to do it without the broom. Well, I hope to hear that you’ll be back in school soon, but then you realize you’d leave nothing for Ranma to do and he’d then have to come for retribution. It might be easier just to stick with them and keep trying to pound him into the dirt. It’s your choice.

By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know how to get rid of annoying people whom keep latching on to you? I saved a boy from a nasty fall and now he won’t leave me alone.

From Hari

To Ranma,

Woah, take it easy there, I don’t think your ego can handle any more boosting. You do know Ryouga will be back for more. And I can just mentally see you smirking and saying ‘bring it on’ This place is so odd, did you know that these people fly around on brooms? They can’t seem to do it without the silly piece of wood. Maybe I can figure out how. And what’s this about a seal? Those can be bad business, remember the demon cave seal that we broke? How we had nothing but bad okinomiyaki chefs on our journey for more than a month. Makes me miss Ukyou and his yatti.

From Hari.

To Hari,

Flying? You can’t be serious. I’ll have to see it to believe it.

I’ve been training on my own and feel that it’s time for a rematch, please have Kazema lead me. I just know I’ll beat Ranma this time. The forest here is so different than the ones in Japan. It feels not right. Maybe I can find my way back and we could have a rematch.

Getting rid of annoying people? No can’t say I have any experience with that. I’d just try avoiding them.

From Ryouga.

To Hari,

It’s not an ego when you really are the best. So bring him on. I can take him, it’s good practice. What do you mean by flying? That’s not possible. It’s probably just really good air time.

You’ll never guess what happened, this really big wolf found us while we were camping and instead of attacking thanked us for breaking its prison. It ran off into the trees before we could reply. A wolf, Japanese, I didn’t think it could be done. Other than that it’s just been the same, training as usual.

From Ranma.

To Ranma,

Well at least it didn’t attack, saved you a bit of a bite didn’t it.

For some reason, the end of October these people hold a large matsuri (party/festival). I’m not sure why and they just told me it was because of this Harouiin, but no one would explain what the kami (divine spirit) did. A bakemono (generic word for monster) got into the school and I had a great match with it. It did manage to get a few good hits, so I’m going to have to work harder. It’s so difficult to keep my skills when there’s no other fighters.

Give the old man a few good whacks for me. Ryouga’s on his way for a rematch. Have fun.

From Hari

To Ryouga,

No problem, just follow Kazema. You wouldn’t happen to know what Harouiin is? These westerners celebrate it and it’s very strange. A bakemono got into the castle and I haven’t had so much fun in since you visited. Remember after you fight, try to stop by, It’s so boring here.

From Hari.

Harry smiled as he sent Kazema off with the most recent two letters. Over the past couple weeks all his free time was devoted to mimicking the feelings that being on the broom had given him and taunting Draco. He was sure he’d get the flying down sometime soon. Just as long as people didn’t continually interrupt him. For some reason Hermione couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that he just couldn’t say certain syllables and often cried out in frustration. His spell work in class was getting better. Or at least in his opinion it was. He no longer blew things up as quickly. So that was a positive. Then there was Neville. Harry couldn’t get rid of the boy. Maybe he should have just let the boy fall back during the first week of school. He mentally slapped himself at that thought. It’s a martial artist’s duty to protect the weak, but did they have to hound him for it?

Harry left the owlery and headed for the dungeons, he hadn’t totally explored there yet and the dank decor was great for practicing his stealth. The opportunity to continue to avoid Neville was an added bonus. As he passed by the potion’s classroom door, a smirk eased onto his face when he remembered the look on professor Snape’s face when Neville melted yet another cauldron. He was merrily making his way when one of those things appeared. He could feel the terror crawling up his spine and he swore he wouldn’t scream.

“I mustn’t run away. I mustn’t run away.” He kept telling himself, but it saw him. It moved closer. With a frightened squeak he jumped strait up and clung to the ceiling. Maybe if he stayed here long enough it would go away.

Harry had no idea how long he clung there quivering in fear when he heard the voice of the potions master.

“That boy is a menace. He must be expelled for the good of the school.”

“Now Severus, the boy is not that bad. Are you sure you’re not being a little prejudiced because of his father.”

“He’s worse than his father ever was, he’s got no respect for the school rules and regulations. Have you ever seen what he does in the mornings? And when that other boy was here, they nearly killed each other. Did you even see what he’d done to that troll? He cracked its skull and five other bones. What if he turns on his fellow students? They must be protected. What if he ever does accept one of the continual challenges that the Malfoy boy keeps issuing. I do not want to be put into the position of explaining to Lucius exactly why his son was beaten to a bloody pulp.”

That caught Harry’s attention. Were they talking about him?

“He’s a good boy,” The headmaster’s voice was soothing, but the effect was ruined by a snort from Snape.

“He’s a menace to this school and from what other professors are saying, he’s a squib, he needs to be out on his ear.”

“You don’t know how much I agree with you.” Harry quietly whispered to himself. Their voices were becoming softer but he did manage to hear Dumbledore’s last statement.

“The boy must remain here, even if he ends up being a squib. We cannot expel him.”

Harry dropped to the ground in shock. WHAT? Cannot be expelled? He didn’t think he could survive being cooped up in this castle for all that time. Suddenly the walls of the dungeon seemed to be shrinking in on him. He had to get out.

The student’s of Hogwarts did not see Harry for the rest of the day.

[LassyD]

Harry quickly looked around and made sure that there was no one there to notice him making his way toward the third corridor. He’d been coming here more often to spar with Rlocky since he heard the headmaster say that he wouldn’t be expelled.

As he neared the door he realized that it was ajar and he could hear shouting and growling. Harry pulled himself into the shadows a moment before Professor Snape tumbled out the door. As Harry looked over the Professor’s wounds, Snape lost some respect in Harry’s eyes. It was obvious the man was really slow. He had a slash along his side, his arm looked like one of the heads had gotten a good bite in and his leg was obviously damaged. The man limped away slowly.

Harry waited for the professor to disappear around the corner before rushing through the door. Rlocky was a right mess. Professor Snape had obviously used a couple of cutting charms and the results looked painful. One of the eyes in the center head was swollen shut. Harry was appalled and dodged right away as a swipe came. No one should hurt an animal, people at least can heal themselves. A few minutes later, Rlocky seemed to either be too tired or in too much pain to continue.

Harry quickly started to pet the undamaged parts of Rlocky’s hide. After a couple moments the dog fell asleep and Harry ran to go get some healing supplies. It took several hours and it was after curfew when he was done, but Harry was sure Rlocky would make a full recovery.

Soon enough the whole school seemed to be distracted by Quidditch and Harry decided to go to the first game to see what all the fuss was about. Half an hour of watching Slytherin pounding on Gryffindor was all he needed to know that it was absolutely dull. Sure the bludgers were good, but overall there wasn’t anything Harry found interesting. Harry used the rest of the Quidditch games as a distraction for the rest of the populous so he could practice without all those eyes on him.

The days grew shorter and snow started to cover the ground. Christmas was coming and all of the classes were excited. Harry was getting better with his English, but still couldn’t hold a conversation. He did get to the point where he could read and write very simple phrases. He was getting more stir crazy after being in the same spot for nearly four months and with the poor weather conditions he couldn’t send any letters to Ryouga or Ranma. He flat out refused to endanger Kazema just to keep in touch.

Everyone was absolutely excited about the holiday and going home to see their family. When the list for those whom were staying in the castle for the season came around, Harry noticed his name was on the list. His mood fell and he went to go ask Professor Dumbledore why he had to stay when most of the other students were going home.

“Harry” Dumbledore greeted him with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

“Sir, Why do I have to stay over the recess?” He really wanted to see Ranma and Ryouga. He’d even be happy to see Genma at this point. What he wanted most was to get out of this castle.

“As we had trouble with getting you back to your family the last time, we’ve decided that you’ll stay here. We’re doing research into how to get you back, but so far we cannot find anything yet.”

“Just drop me off in China, I’ll find them.” Professor Dumbledore looked startled by the idea.

“We simply cannot do that, you’d have no protection and you wouldn’t have your guardian with you. I cannot allow it.”

Harry’s visible eye darkened, No protection. . . the nerve of that man.

“I’ll have you know that I can protect myself, I don’t need Genma’s” he barely prevented himself from spitting his uncle’s name. He might have to do what the man directly commands if he wanted to keep his name, but he didn’t have to like the man. “Protection.”

“Weather you can or not is not your decision to make, we can’t leave an eleven year old boy in China. Especially when we don’t know where his guardian is.” Albus’s eyes were twinkling evilly, or so Harry felt. “We could send you to your aunt.”

Harry growled slightly.

“She’s dead.”

Professor Dumbledore’s face fell.

“Dead?”

“Yes dead, now can we change the subject to WHY I can’t visit my family when everyone else can visit theirs?”

“I told you, we simply don’t know how to track them yet. How did it happen, you’re aunt I mean.”

Harry shrugged, his anger calming down somewhat. It isn’t healthy to stay angry for too long.

“I dunno, she died when I was really little. Genma never talks about her. Are you sure I can’t go to China, I’m sure I could find them.”

“The answer is still no and it’s not about to change. Your uncle sent you to us and we must keep you safe.”

Harry glared a little, Genma wasn’t ever concerned with his well being unless it meant that food or money would be scarce. He was starting to feel resigned to staying the holiday, but he would leave for the summer, weather he had the headmaster’s permission or not.

“Thank you.” He said cooly and left.

Soon exams came and then the Hogwarts Express left with one of Harry’s prime pieces of entertainment. Christmas would be dull without Malfoy attacking him all the time. Although with the exit of his entertainment also came the exit of Hermione and Neville, so Harry was happy he wouldn’t have to do his English lessons. Ron Weasley was staying, but Harry didn’t know him very well.

Harry spent his holidays snooping around the castle and forest, and playing with Rlocky.

“‘arry? what you doin’ out here in the forest.”

Harry turned and tugged on his rat tail while trying to look innocent. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be in the forest. Then again, they wouldn’t expel him, so he could investigate all he wanted.

“Ehhtouuu, I was just. . . ehh. . hehe. . . “ he paused at Hagrid’s slightly suspicious look. “Looking for some herbs.” He brightened when he thought of something. “I needed some more after I had to use my supply of salve on Rlocky.”

“Who?” Hagrid’s voice was slightly confused but he didn’t seem quite as suspicious anymore.

“Rlocky.”

“Rocky?”

“No, Rlocky.”

“Lucky?”

“No, no, Rlocky, he’s a good friend and . . .” Harry wasn’t sure if he should tell Hagrid about Professor Snape hurting his friend. “He was injured a while ago. I had to use most of my stores to heal all the cuts.” He stopped talking when Hagrid’s face jumped to realization.

“You’re the one who healed fluffy.”

“FRU-FFY??” Harry looked at Hagrid incredulously. Hagrid nodded.

“Yep, ‘e’s a beute, bought him off of a Greek chappie I met in a pub last year.”

“How could you do that to him?” Harry’s voice nearly squeaked. “He needs a strong name like Rlocky, not Fruffy!”

“‘ow do you know fluffy anyway? No one’s supposed to go to that corridor.”

“I ran into him at the beginning of the year, we’ve been roughhousing ever since.” Harry replied with a shrug.

[LassyD]

“Yeh shouldn’ be out here, ‘ts dangerous.” Harry started to glare.

“I can take care of myself.”

“Maybe around the muggles, but this ‘ere forest is different. There’s many nasties in this forest, not even full wizards would want to meet.”

Harry’s interest was peaked.

“What sort of nasties?”

Thus a quasi friendship was born between the two.

Christmas came soon enough and Harry was wondering what the fuss was about. Sure he heard it was a western holiday, but never heard what the specifics were.

On Christmas morning he woke to find four packages at the foot of his bed. He looked over at Ron’s sleeping form and noticed the boy also had some packages at the foot of his bed.

It seemed that today was the only day that Harry’s early morning rising caused enough noise to wake up Ron.

“Merry Christmas,” Ron’s sleepy voice interrupted Harry’s musings. Harry looked at him for a moment.

“Meri Kurisumasu too. What are those for?” He asked pointing to the packages. In reply Ron’s eyes went wide.

“You’ve never gotten Christmas presents before?”

“No, never celebrated Kurisumasu before.” If possible, Ron looked even more stunned.

“But. . . but. . “ he trailed off in speechlessness.

“So, they’re for me?”

Ron just nodded.

“And I’m supposed to open them?”

Ron nodded again,

“I can handle that.” Harry said before moving to the small pile.

He first went for the smallest box which was wrapped in glittery paper with a little card attached to the bow. It said To: Harry From: Hermione. Harry was curious but opened the paper carefully. The concept that anyone would just give things to him because of the date was odd, but it felt nice.

In side of the package were a couple of chocolate frogs. Harry grinned and thought that it would be great to send one to Ryouga and one to Ranma, he just wished he could be there to see their faces when the candy frogs jump away from them.

The next package was in sky blue paper and was long and thin. He found a small note from Neville in it saying that the boy hoped he would have a Merry Christmas. In the box were a couple of sugar quills. Harry grinned slightly before taking a bite off of the end of one.

He opened the plain brown package next. On the package in messy scrawl was “To Harry from Hagrid” Harry opened it with a smile. It was good to know that even though the large man kept on scolding him for going into the forbidden forest, an act which he wasn’t about to stop, he liked harry enough to send him a present. Within the package was a hand whittled flute. Harry was sure that the large man had made it himself and was saddened when he thought that all the effort the man went through would be wasted. Harry didn’t know how to play.

Harry gently set the flute aside promising himself that he would try to play it anyway. The last package was unmarked and when he opened it something fluid and silvery grey slithered to the floor.

“ I’ve heard of those” Ron gasped, he’d obviously been watching Harry open his presents. Harry looked over.

“If that’s what I think it is, They’re really rare and valuable.”

“What is it?” Harry asked as he picked the fluid-like cloth from the ground.

“It’s an invisibility cloak,” the redhead said with a look of awe on his face, “I’m sure it is. Try it on.”

Harry looked him speculatively but humored him none-the-less. Ron gasped again.

“It is. Look down.” Harry looked down and sure enough, his legs were missing, but his aura was still there, it was rather intimidating. He shuddered slightly and took the material off. He noticed a note lying on the floor where the cloak had first fallen. Harry put the cloak away in his trunk and grabbed the note.

“I’d give anything for one of those” he heard Ron mutter. “Anything.”

Harry looked at the note and cast a translation charm. One of the few spells he could successfully cast.

Your father left this in my
possession before he died.
It is time it was returned to
you. Use it well.

A very merry Christmas to you

There was no signature or hanko mark. Harry was sure it came from one of the staff because they still considered him a Potter, and maybe he might be, but he spent too much time earning the right to the name Saotome. He wasn’t about to honor ancestors that never helped him out.

Fred and George Weasley bound into their dorm room. They were both wearing blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F on it, the other one had a G.

“Why aren’t you wearing your sweater Ron?” The boys bypassed Harry with their gazes. “Come on, get it on, they’re lovely and warm.” George demanded of Ron.

Harry slipped out the door just after hearing Ron moan about hating maroon. He quickly made his way to Hagrid’s hut to thank the man for the flute then spent the rest of the day practicing and sparing with fluffy.

Dinner soon came and Harry had never seen such an extravagant display. He quickly ate and left the room. The small mice that were running around everywhere were sure to draw the attention of one of those demons and he’d rather be elsewhere before that happened.

Harry worked at learning to play the flute that Hagrid gave him until he went to sleep later that evening. All in all, Christmas was an interesting day he decided.

[LassyD]

It was Boxing Day, but Harry didn’t know or care about a holiday celebrated in the west. The fact that the wizards didn't celebrate it either didn't help much. All he knew was that he was itching to find a place. He wasn’t sure where it was, or why he waited so long to look. He just knew that he had to find a private place for himself to practice. The feeling that someone was watching him kept haunting his practice sessions and he needed to be rid of it. He quickly got dressed and snuck a peak around the room before silently slipping out the door.

The forest seemed to invite him into its dark depths. Normally it felt as if the forest was trying to push him away, but maybe it had decided he belonged. He was stubbornly refusing to stay away even though both it and the humans around told him to avoid it.

Harry silently slipped through the trees. His passing was nearly soundless as he sought the sanctuary he knew was here. The canopy was getting denser and soon there was very little light. Harry started at the feel of something brushing by his leg, but was too slow to bound away before it ensnared his limb. It was a crushing embrace and he struggled. Whatever it the thing was started cinching on his lower body before he gave into the primal urge to scream. It wasn’t impressed.

Harry felt himself getting weaker as it cinched his arms to his sides. He was struggling weakly when a dim light appeared in his vision. Harry noticed that the thing that had him shied away from it and let up its grip a little. The light came closer and Harry was unsure if this rescue would not just put him into another problematic situation. Reasoning that if the carrier of this light was worse, it would be better not to be here, he struggled harder. It still wasn’t impressed.

Soon the light arrived to reveal Hagrid.

“‘arry? Wut’re you doin out here?” The friendly giant hadn’t noticed the predicament Harry was currently in.

“Being crushed to death apparently.” Harry tried to sound sardonic, but ended up managing to sound like he was a creaky rocking chair. Hagrid brought the lamp closer and the grip loosened fractionally.

“Yeh’ve found yerself a Devil Snare, Jus a moment.” He said.

Harry rolled his eyes while Hagrid pulled out his umbrella.

“Co’ver yeh eyes.” Harry didn’t and was blinded by the bright flash that came from the tip of the umbrella. The vine retreated and Harry could move again. He fell to his hands and knees and relished in the unobstructed breathing.

“. . . 'ow long 'ave aye been tellin yeh. Yeh canno go in'a the forest.” Harry sat on his heels and smiled cheekily.

“Oh, just as long as you've known me.” Hagrid scowled, “And you'll be telling me till the day I leave here.”

“Now see 'ere. Yeh don' know enough to be safe 'ere. Yeh canno come back.”

“I'm learning.” Harry replied with another grin, “And I've got you to help me.”

Hagrid scowled again, but Harry could see humor in his eyes.

“Yeh know I canno do tha. Yeh to stay away from da forest.”

Harry finished getting his breath back.

“You know I won’t. Thanks for the save.” He bowed and darted off before Hagrid could do anything.

Harry’s near death experience wasn’t enough to dissuade him from entering the forest and his next few trips were less eventful. He found a nice little clearing that gave him enough space to move around. It was near a half mile into the forest, without a clear path, but Harry liked it and soon went about to claiming it for his own.

It was during one of his trips back from the clearing that he found it. Harry stumbled across an injured unicorn. The poor creature was bleeding from a long gash in its neck. Harry immediately knelt and tried to stop the bleeding. His mind was working frantically trying to recall all he knew about first aid and how to apply it to animals. As he thought his hands were automatically taking the steps he knew would help the animal.

Slowly, the blood stopped flowing. The unicorn was fidgeting weakly but gave no resistance to Harry’s first aid. Harry looked around for any herbs he knew were good to make into a poultice and others he could use as a bandage. Unfortunately there weren’t any in visual distance and Harry didn’t want to leave the unicorn to look. Harry racked his brain again for anything that might help and remembered that he’d seen some of the priests heal by laying on hands. The only problem with that was, he wasn’t a priest. Maybe he could use magic. It would be worth a shot, he’d figured out that a lot of the way the spells they’d been casting worked was a combination of desire, concentration and the right patterning of magic.

The first two were easy. It was the right pattern that had Harry stumped. He had this dilemma and only two of the three resources. He’d hope that the desire and concentration would help the pattern fall into place.

After making some soothing sounds to the unicorn, Harry closed his eyes and found his center. He tried to pull some of his lively energy out slowly and gently brought it to the unicorn’s wound. The wound sopped it up like a dry sponge and soon Harry got woozy. He tried to stop the flow of energy but it wouldn’t. It didn’t take very much time before the world left him.

, . , . , . , (some time passes) , . , . , . ,

Harry woke up to the gentle nudging of his cheek. He groaned and tried to push the offender away but got a soft wicker and another nudge in return.

It took a few more moments and nudges until Harry groaned and sat up. He started spitting once he noticed an bitter metallic flavor in his mouth.

Opening his eyes was a mistake. The world seemed to have turned into a vast collection of colors with distinct shapes in the middle. The trees had a light hazy green obstructing them. Harry felt queasy as he looked towards a bright silver glow. He could see a unicorn within it. The unicorn nudged him gently and whickered again. The movement made his head spin.

Harry ignored the beast and focused on taming his queasy stomach. It settled down after a moment and he stood. Just to fall over again, his limbs felt weak and detached. The unicorn nudged him again.

'What?' He asked irritated, he wasn't sure what was going on and it kept interrupting his attempts to sort himself out.

It whinnied and moved away, then looked back. Harry grunted and tried to get up again. While he still felt weak and detached, he managed to keep his limbs under him. That is until he tried to take a step. The unicorn came closer and stood by him while he dragged himself up again. It nudged him with its shoulder and he put his hand on it for balance.

The unicorn gently moved forward and Harry barely managed to keep his feet while using the creature's help. As time passed and they got closer to the edge of the forest, Harry's footing became surer and he stopped leaning on the mare. He still felt horribly clumsy when they reached the edge, but he could walk on his own. The mare stopped walking and watched as Harry looked back at the castle. Harry didn't want to go back there now, the colors the walls were spraying everywhere were making his eyes hurt and his stomach remind him that it wasn't up to snuff.

The unicorn gestured toward the castle and whinnied once more before turning around and trotting off into the forest. Harry stood staring after the mare for a while before he turned and headed for the castle. His gait was wobbly and slow and he hated it. He couldn't figure out why he was so weak and his center of balance was off, but he vowed that he would fix it as soon as possible.

Harry spent the next couple days in rigorous training. He had to master his body before the rest of the students came back, specifically Draco. The colors wouldn't leave his vision and he was getting headaches from them. Harry hoped the headaches would leave in time but until then he stubbornly bore them. It was when he was walking back from dinner that he stumbled across it. Harry was at first entranced for within the mirror's glass there were no bright and interfering colors.

He could see the image clearly. The image did not show himself standing in front of the mirror, but it showed an image of him sparring with Ryouga while Ranma sat off to the side. Harry moved closer to the mirror so he could touch the surface. He felt a great surge of longing fill his heart. He slowly tore his eyes away from the sparing pair and looked at the image of Ranma.

It was the creature sitting in Ranma's lap that made him jump away from the mirror. It couldn't be. Harry shook his head to clear out the fear. Ranma would never hold one of those demons. He was just as afraid of them as Harry.
Harry looked back to the surface in time to see the image Ranma hand the demon to his image self. Harry couldn't believe it. It was wrong. It was evil, whatever this mirror was he had to get away from it. It took scares moments for Harry to back peddle and retreat from the room.

Harry avoided that room for the rest of the break.

[LassyD]

The Hogwarts staff piled into the professor's lounge.

“Alright,” Albus said to quiet the chatter down. “We're here to do the bi-annual problem child review.” The rest of the professors quieted.

“Any comments about the first years?”

Professor McGonagall was the first to speak.

“Albus, I've been talking with some of the teachers,” she glanced at Professor Flitwick before continuing. “It seems that young Potter is having an enormous amount of difficulty with even the simplest spell.” All of the first year professors excepting Professors Snape and Sprout nodded and made noises of agreement.

“And what do you two think?” Albus directed his question to Professors Snape and Sprout.

“He's not gifted, but he's also not having any undue problems with Herbology.” Professor Sprout spoke when it was obvious Professor Snape was happy with glowering for the moment and wasn't speaking up.

“Aside from his total lack of respect, superior attitude and disregard for the rules he has an” the professor sneered the next two words “adequate talent for potions.”

“Is there any way we could get him help?”

“Albus.” McGonagall's voice was tense. “His problems are unlike anything I've seen in a student before. He has magic, otherwise all of his projects wouldn't be blowing up all the time.” There was a round of affirmative noises while Snape's lips twitched ever so slightly. “But to figure out how to teach him without blowing up the school, I'm stumped.”

“We can't help him until we figure out what's wrong with him.” Professor Flitwick's voice continued. “And until that happens, we can't let him practice.”

“Has anyone ever wondered if it's because of his language?” Madame Hooch piped in. All eyes turned to her. “The first day of flying, he had no trouble getting his broom to move, but he didn't use English.” She stopped as if just saying something really stupid.

“Do go on Madame,” Albus said “I think you might have something here.”

“Well, Look at what he's having trouble with. All the magic that requires incantations, but he isn't having trouble with flying, herbology or potions. None of those require him to speak.”

There was a long pause.

“Albus, If she's right, then he shouldn't be here. We can't teach him when he can't pronounce the words.” Professor McGonagall spoke.

“I agree.” Professor Flitwick entered, “He should be going to a school in the east. Where they speak the language and can teach him properly.”

Anything else they were going to say was interrupted by the sound of crashing coming from the corridor. It was getting louder.

“YOOOOOOSH”

They piled out of the room wondering just what that shout was where it came from. They made it into the hallway just in time to be buzzed by a flying figure that was merrily dodging statues and suits of armor. It was laughing triumphantly.

“PEEVES” Professor McGonagall shouted and jumped when the poltergeist's voice came from right next to her.

“What?”

“That's not. . .” her voice drifted into silence as the figure made it to the stairwell.

“YATTA” another shout and yells from the stairwell took her attention back to the problem at hand. Namely whatever it was that just zipped through the corridor. All of the professors spared a quick glance between themselves before running at full speed after whatever it was.

When they reached the stairwell the blur paused for a moment revealing Harry Potter. He had paused for a moment in the middle of the air to get his bearings before zipping around some more.

“HARRY POTTER GET OFF THAT BROOM THIS INSTANT.” professor McGonagall shouted. He ignored her.

Madame Hooch gasped. “He's not on a broom.” Her voice was quiet but all of the professors caught what she said.

A moment of stunned silence followed and was quickly broken by a squeal of a Ravenclaw first year as Harry jetted by her and out a window.

“Well it's obvious he's not a squib.” Professor Snape deadpanned.

, . , . , . ,



Boy-Who-Lived is Boy-Who-Can-Fly?

Recent reports state that the Boy-Who-Lived was sighted flying without the aid of a broom. While this skill is not uncommon in Leprechauns it is unheard of for a Wizard to do so without the assistance of a broom or other charmed object. Harry Potter is the son of James Potter. A wizard of clean bloodline and his mother, Lily Potter was a muggleborn. According to genealogist Haziam Feneral, it is impossible for him to have blood history to be able to fly. Has the Boy-Who-Lived managed to preform another impossible feat? Or is the reported sighting by multiple Hogwarts students a sham.

When asked, the Boy-Who-Lived responded that he did in-fact fly. When asked how he did it he replied with “Go ride a broom and figure it out yourself.” This is ambiguous answer led to the questioning of the Hogwarts staff and students. Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy a member on the school board, stated that Potter probably snuck in an illegal broom and had someone glamour it. Cho Chang, a 2nd year Ravenclaw stated that she saw the boy as he buzzed her when leaving out a window and it didn’t look like he was ridding a broom. The staff had no comment to make but we have it from a reliable source that the Boy-Who-Lived is not doing well in his classes and cannot preform even the simplest charm. More page C6.

The long manicured fingers of Lucius Malfoy slammed the paper down and glared at the headline. A slight growl escaped his lips as the paper started to smoulder a little.

[LassyD]

Chapter 23

“Today we are going to work on transfiguring teacups into saucers.” Professor McGonagall gave the class a stern look. “I want no monkeying around. Now pick up your teacup and we’ll begin shortly.”

Harry didn’t notice when the area around him cleared of other students. He was focusing on the theory from last class. He watched closely as McGonagall preformed the example. He was sure this time he could do it. Especially because the words were fairly simple to say.

Harry concentrated hard on the image of a saucer. He slowly fixed the image with his magic and pushed it out of the wand. It took some more time, but he grinned when the teacup was finally wrapped in the web. He whispered the incantation then the grin fell off of his face. The magical web suddenly slipped and deformed before adhering to the cup. The cup started growing and burning bright red. Harry ducked just in time for the loud explosion to rock the classroom. Cries of pain soon followed.

Harry popped his head from under cover to see ceramic shards all over the ceiling. Apparently his teacup managed to hit all the other students and everyone was covered in cuts and bits of ceramic. Luckily they had all been sitting as far away from him as they could and the pieces had time to loose momentum before they struck. No one was critically injured.

“Ehhhh. . . . solly” he apologized as he grabbed his rat-tail.

“HARRY!” McGonagall shouted and seemed to compose herself. “Detention this Saturday”

“But I have one with Professor Flitwick Saturday.”

“Fine Sunday.”

“Yes Professor.”

“Now go and get Madame Pomfrey and be quick about it.”

“Yes professor.” Harry turned and sped off to the infirmary. He’d long since memorized the path. This time he only got half way before he ran into Madame Pomfrey.

“How bad is it today?” The elderly matron asked with a sigh.

“The teacup blew up.” Harry said sheepishly.

“I’m beginning to think I should just come to class with you.” Harry looked down. “Never mind that,” She said as she opened the door. The woman was an immediate whirlwind healing cuts left and right. It wasn’t long before the class was put to rights again.

Harry sat back down and waited for his reprimand. Professor McGonagall walked up and held out her hand. Harry quietly handed over his wand.

“Harry,” her voice was stern, “You said that you had this mastered and wouldn’t happen again.” She motioned to the shards that were still embedded in his work bench. “I am at a loss on how to teach you. Your speech problems will hinder your every spell.”

Harry tuned out her speech while staring at the shards on the bench. He idly fixed a new image of a saucer in his mind and poked it into the shards while using his fingers to weave the net. He jumped when the shards melted and formed into a saucer. Professor McGonagall’s monologue stopped at that moment. Harry looked up, their eyes met and the professor stuttered for a moment.

“How?” She looked at Harry’s wand which was resting in her hand. Harry just shrugged he wasn’t sure if he could do it again or how he managed to get it right in the first place.

She handed the wand back.

“Try it again. Turn it back into a cup.”

The class collectively shrunk back upon hearing her command to Harry.

Unfortunately that one small success didn’t translate to very much success in general. Harry did try it again. This time without the vocalized part. He formed the web, pushed it, Saw the newly made saucer reject it.

“Duck.” He told professor McGonagall before following his own advice. There wasn’t a loud explosion this time though. Instead, there was a collective sigh of relief. He popped his head back up and saw a pile of dust where the saucer had been. Harry blinked at it for a few moments before looking at Professor McGonagall.

“You’re making progress.” She looked disappointed but resigned at the same time. Harry grinned sheepishly at her.

The end of the school year was soon upon Harry and he was excited. He’d be going back to Ranma and Genma. He spent the last couple weeks happily going between doing homework, sitting in detention, dodging Neville, having language lessons with Hermione and sparing with Rlocky.

It was the last habit that brought Harry to his current situation. He stood at the door to the third corridor looking at an insensate Rlocky.

“Lrocky?” He gently nudged the three headed dog. It didn’t move. Harry started to see red. Someone had hurt his friend. He noticed the trap door that Lrocky had always been guarding was slightly ajar. He growled softly before opening it and jumping in.

The trip down reminded Harry of some of the temples that Genma had Ranma and he raid. He stopped falling after a few seconds and floated down the rest of the way. No point in breaking something. He stopped just before some sort of blockage. It was too dim to see what it was exactly, but he could tell it was plantlike.

Saying a quiet thank you to the kami that he could successfully cast the light charm he held up his wand and soon bright light filled the area. He could see the Devil’s snare shrink back from the light. He noticed a burnt patch on the way though and his blood started to boil. Whoever hurt Rlocky would pay.

He trudged though a sloping passageway and soon found himself in a room with a locked door, four brooms and a bunch of flying things. Harry went to the door and pulled his lock-picks out of his rat-tail. A few moments where he had to play with the magic webbing over the door and it clicked open.

This room held a giant chess set, that seemed to have had a game already played. Harry passed through without problem. As he passed through the next doorway he was hit with a putrid smell. It reminded him of the troll at Halloween. He looked around and noticed one unconscious on the floor.

This made him pause. Whoever hurt Rlocky was strong enough to knock out the Troll. He remembered the burnt Devil’s Snare and the helpless form of his friend. His anger flared again and determination set in. He walked into the next room only to jump when purple flames sprouted up behind him. In front of him stood a table with seven bottles across it. To the right was a door with black flames sprouting from the bottom.

Harry walked over to the black flames. Their heat was intense, but not abnormally so. Harry quickly brushed a hand across the flames and smiled. Just like a normal fire. If you move fast enough, you won’t get burnt. Harry prepared him self and sprung through the wall of flame.

He stopped to find himself in a fairly cavernous chamber. Its sole occupants were Professor Quirrell and that cursed mirror he’d found during the Christmas holidays. Professor Quirrell was looking into the mirror, waving his wand around and chanting softly.

“Professor Quirrell, for what you’ve done to Rlocky you will pay.” Harry growled at the man before coming at him with a flying kick. The professor turned quickly and sent a stunner at Harry. He quickly dodged and connected. Quirrell flew into the mirror with a loud thunk.

“What are you doing boy?” an eery voice demanded and Harry felt a sharp pain in his head.

“You hurt Rlocky.” Harry repeated as if it was obvious.

Quirrell quickly got up and started casting more spells which Harry nimbly dodged. Moving in for a good strike every once in a while.

“Who is Rocky?” Quirrell asked while tossing everything he could think of at the elusive boy.

“No Rlocky.” Harry corrected him, “and he’s my friend.” Harry got another jab in to the ribs.

The eery voice spoke again, “Let me talk to the boy.”

Quirrell gave the best grunt of assent he could and started to take off his turban while dodging the attacking boy. He wasn’t very good at it. As soon as the turban was off he turned his back on Harry.

Harry took the advantage but was stopped by pain in his forehead again. There was a sickly green cloud around Quirrell’s head and it seemed to explode when the turban came off. Harry could barely see a wraith like face on the back of the professor’s head. Now he knew he was dealing with a ghost as well. Harry smiled and pulled a small charm out of his pocket, wrapped it around his fist, ignored what the wraith was saying and slammed his fist into the back of the professor’s head with all his might.

It was at that point all hell broke loose. Harry wasn’t sure exactly what happened except for when he connected he felt gut wrenching pain in his head and he heard screaming. He wasn’t sure if it was his or the ghost-being’s. There was a loud crashing noise, the sound of a falling body and then blackness as the pain became too much.

[LassyD]

The Headmaster’s office was a flutter with teachers.

“Calm down everyone. We need to start the meeting.” Albus glanced over the crowd as they quieted. “We’re here to discuss the problem children. First off we’ll start with Neville Longbottem. How is the boy doing?”

Professor McGonagall stood up.

“The boy has progressed nicely and although at the bottom of his class he has shown an adequate talent in Transfiguration.”

She sat back down and Professor Flitwick stood.

“I agree. He has improved enough that he should stay.”

Professor Snape sneered and didn’t stand.

“His potions are dismal. If it weren’t for the fact that he can’t be dropped for just one class I should like to put him out on his ear.”

Professor Sprout glared at Professor Snape.

“Neville is wonderfully talented in herbology and I hear he’s decent in astronomy as well.”

Professor Sinistra nodded her assent.

“Well then, He’ll stay. Next, Wayne Hopkins,”

The professors spent a couple minutes discussing various first years whom were having trouble with classes.

“Finally,” Professor Dumbledore sighed softly before continuing, “Harry Potter.”

Professor McGonagall was the first one up.

“You can’t seriously be thinking of keeping him here. He’s unfit for our teaching methods. He can’t even say the words properly.”

Professor Flitwick nodded and voiced his agreement with Professor McGonagall.

Professor Dumbledore frowned.

“We must keep him in the school. Is there any way you can work with him?”

A round of stunned faces followed the pronouncement.

“What will the board of governors say. We shouldn’t be keeping on a child that can’t practice magic.”

“Ahh but he can.” Dumbledore responded to random teacher number B with a twinkle in his eye. “We’ve all seen him do it. It’s not that he doesn’t have magic. The problem is teaching him how to use it, and that is our job.”

“I’d say it’s favoritism because he’s the boy who lived.” Professor Snape snorted.

“Albus, you seem very insistent on this boy staying. Why?” Professor Kettleburn asked.

Professor Dumbledore sighed before placing an additional silencing and anti-spying charm on the room.

“You must give a wizard’s oath that what I tell you will not leave this room.”

A stunned silence followed the proclamation. It took a few more moments before all of the teachers made the vow.

“There is a prophesy that was made in 1979 pertaining to the Dark Lord.” He paused. “You also know that I do not believe him to be dead.”

The professors urged Dumbledore on.

“I take a great risk showing this to all of you, but in order to keep Harry here risks must be taken.” He turned and pulled his pensive out of its resting place, placed it on the table, and drew a memory from himself to place it in the pensive.

Seconds passed before the ghostly image of a younger Trelawney appeared over the liquid.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...”

The office was immediately filled with a din. All of the professors demanding answers to different questions. Only two of the professors were quiet. Professor Snape sat with his fingers steepled by his face and Professor Trelawney sat staring at the pensive with a look of shock.

~_~_~_~

Harry woke with the worst headache he could ever remember having. It was even worse than the time Ranma and he had gotten into Genma’s sake.

Harry threw his thoughts to the last thing he could remember. He remembered Quirrell standing in front of a mirror. The man had hurt Rlocky and Harry had to make him pay for it. There was a . . . something.

Harry couldn’t remember. He remembered there had been a fight and Quirrell wasn’t very good. Then . . . Something green?

Harry tried to calm down. He took slow deep breaths and centered himself before trying again.

There had been something green on the back of Quirrell’s head. It was ghost like. Harry was sure that he had pulled out his Omamori. He had gotten it at Kinkakuji a long time ago as protection against spirits. The charm had worked for him in the past so what went wrong this time? Something had to have gone wrong or he wouldn’t be laid up right now. He frowned at this and winced when the movement made his head throb some more.

“Ahh Harry you’re awake I see.”

The voice stabbed though his head and Harry wanted to murder whoever it belonged to. Or at least rip out their voice box. The only problem with that plan was that he’d have to open his eyes first and Harry was positive that would be a bad idea.

Harry felt a soothing presence moments before soft hands held a cup to his lips and a soothing voice that he had trouble placing spoke.

“Albus I will not have you interrupting my patient’s rest.”

Soon a minty liquid ran into his mouth and Harry felt his headache receding. He opened his eyes tentatively and noticed Madam Pomfrey glaring at Professor Dumbledore. He smirked internally.