Disclaimer: Don't own, don't care. Writing this for free.
Summary: Harry considered himself a very patient bloke. But, as he found himself in a brand new world, seeing Ron choking the house elf that kept getting him in trouble to "save The Great Harry Potter", he was extremely tempted to let Ron murder the little bugger.
AN: I couldn't help the lack of xovers in this area with Ron and Dobby in it. So I decided to take him with Harry to the wonderful (not really) world of Shinobi. This fic takes place in the second book, so Harry and Ron are 12. Everything is cannon up to their trip to ninja-land. Hope you have a fun read.
Betaed by:Ivanoma
.
Harry Potter and the Word of Shinobi
Chapter 1: The road to hell is paved with good intentions
As they watched McGonagall's retreating form, Harry and Ron gave a sigh of relief. They hadn't been expelled from Hogwarts, though they'd wish they had thought of sending an owl to the professors instead of getting there by flying car. Ron and Harry eventually joined their classmates, who stormed them with questions, asking them if they really did fly a car to the school. Some were even hailing their crusade as one never to be forgotten.
Harry's smile couldn't stretch further as he went to bed that night. He was finally back at Hogwarts, back at home. He could now spend time in the world he belonged in, free from the Dursleys and about to spend another magical year with the two friends that had so easily become his family. He was so lucky to have them.
"Hey, Harry, you awake, mate?" Ron peeked into his bed, moving the red curtain ever so slightly. Harry made an affirmative sound. It seems that after the excitement of the day neither was able to sleep. "Oh, Harry, did you see the face of Fred and George when they heard how we got here? It was brilliant! Worthy of the Marauders, they said (whatever that means), they were so bloody jealous!" Ron declared gleefully.
Harry grinned at his over-exited friend. It was so great to be back. And Merlin knew Harry wouldn't miss the chance to feel giddy while speaking of how great it was despite how foolish and dangerous the whole thing was. After all, tomorrow they would have to listen to Hermione rant about how stupid they had been, then she would smack them and recite something about responsibilities and whatnot. Harry could imagine Hermione eventually running out of synonyms to the word idiotic, then having cheerfully say that their stunt was so very Gryffindor.
"Well, I did see their faces. They had nothing on Neville's, though," Harry pointed out. Ron laughed, Harry joined right away.
The whispered conversation continued between small laughter, the adrenaline in their veins were enhancing the joy of victory. It was probably one of the best moments in Harry's life. He felt so alive, invulnerable even… needless to say, it was about to go to hell.
"Oh, no no no NO! The Great Harry Potter shouldn't have come to Hogwarts!" Harry was startled by the familiar voice and groaned "Dobby."
"Hey, I know what you are, you are a house elf!" Ron pointed unnecessarily then turned to Harry "what is a hose elf doing here Harry? I thought they were supposed to be in the kitchen until the rooms were empty?"
Harry, who had never even heard House Elves existed prior to this summer, was surprised by this piece of news, "there are House Elves in Hogwarts?" Harry asked and Ron looked at him like he had grown a second head.
"Of course there are House elves at Hogwarts, Harry. Who do you think makes the food and cleans the castle?"
Harry thought about it. He had never paused to think of it. He knew there was Mr. Filtch, but, now that he thought about it, there was no way a single man could make the beds of all the students in the castle, clean their clothes, clean the floors and wipe the windows. Heck, they would need several people to do any one of those tasks, with or without magic. Why had he never wondered about it before? And how many of those elves were around? If one little bugger could put him into so much trouble for his sake, he dreaded to think how he would fare against an army of them.
Harry's dread filled him to his very core.
Harry didn't answer Ron's query, a sudden realization hitting him like a Bludger. "You closed the platform's gate," Harry voiced and Ron's eyes grew wide.
"Dobby did. Yes. But The Great Harry Potter has to understand. Dobby was trying to protect The Great Harry Potter."
"That was you!?" Ron demanded incredulous.
"But Harry Potter still came to Hogwarts. The Great Harry Potter should have stayed away. Dobby will not allow The Great Harry Potter to come to harm," Dobby, who had gotten closer with every word was a breath away from him. Alarm bells were ringing in Harry's ears as those fingers inched closer. A big, ugly hand grabbed his wrist the very same instant Ron got hold of one of Dobby's ear.
With a loud 'pop' sound, Harry felt himself being whisked away from his bed. His magic rebelled at the feeling. It all happened so fast. They were in Gryffindor tower, then they weren't. They where nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It was as a hook was pulling him by the stomach, through a straw, all the while his magic and one completely foreign engaged into a battle of wills, sending waves that crippled the very fabric of reality. Harry could feel the very universe about him bend, then break. He felt more than heard himself yelling for there was no sound. It was a silence so powerful, it was deafening.
Then it was over.
One second later, Harry landed, face first, on a pile of sand. The wonderful feeling of air entering his lungs after being in the void would have been torturous even without the sand going up to his nose. There was blood on his lips and Harry suspected it came from his throat. It hurt so much. Everything did.
But then he heard a scream, not his own, and he looked to the right. Ron was curled upon himself, on top of the bloodied sand, looking as though he had gone through a meat grinder.
It took Harry longer than it should have to realize that the blood staining the sand underneath his friend meant his carrot-haired pal was bleeding profusely.
"RON!" Harry yelled in panic, trying to get up, only for a wave of nausea to make him tumble face first into the sand again. Determined to get to his friend, Harry used his elbows and arms to crawl his way forwards. The acute pain in his leg informed Harry that something was wrong with it, but he ignored it to get to his best friend.
"Ron, talk to me! what happened to you! Why are you bleeding?!" Harry whisper-yelled with his damaged throat. Panic laced every syllable. Ron grunted but kept on moaning, he was losing blood fast.
"Harry Potter's friend has been splinched." A new wave of nausea hit Harry as he turned around towards the source of the voice: Dobby.
"Splinched?" Harry asked, completely unfamiliar with the term. Dobby nodded. "Can you help him?" Harry let out like a plea.
Dobby shook his head. "Dobby is a house elf. Only Wizards know how to heal splinches. So Dobby can't heal Harry Potter's friend."
Harry felt his stomach drop. "We need to get Madam Pomfrey. Ron is going to die if he stays like this!"
"No," Dobby said with finality. "The Great Harry Potter cannot go to Hogwarts this year. If Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts, Harry Potter will be in grave danger!"
"In grave danger?" Harry asked incredulous. "So are you going to let my friend die because you don't want me to be in danger?"
Dobby looked conflicted, then the resolve took over once more. "Dobby will save Harry Potter's friend, if Harry Potter promises he won't go back to Hogwarts this year."
Harry felt like he had been slapped with those words. Hogwarts was his home. He belonged there. He needed to be back! But… could he really risk Ron's life just so he could go back?
No. He couldn't.
"Fine!" Harry snapped. "I won't go back this year!"
"Harry Potter has to swear it," Dobby demanded.
"Shite. I swear I… I swear I won't go back to Hogwarts this year… Happy?" Harry growled. Once Ron wasn't bleeding himself to death he was going to murder the little elf.
"Harry Potter swore!" Dobby cheered, then moved towards them, taking both his hand and Ron's, then tried to Apparate. 'Tried' being the operative word. Harry felt himself be pulled by a navel, through a straw again, only this time he felt like he had come out of the straw stright into a brick wall, then forced backwards through the same straw until his back hit the sand. The landing was as horrible as the first, but this time was worst, for the smell of blood and the magic backlash were revolting to a new level.
Harry threw up.
The Boy-Who-Lived felt his head swim as the panicked voice of a house elf filled his eardrums. He would not faint there. Ron needed him. 'Think, Harry, think. You have been in the infirmary longer than most first years, so, what did you learn?' Harry forced his head to remember the experience. He had been unconscious for most of it, but he did remember some blue potion being forced down his throat, and a red one, and a pink one… There were no potions in the dessert. "Well, so much for that," Harry mumbled, then tried to take on another road. What did he knew of the muggle way? Bandages and alcohol. It would hurt like a bitch, Harry figured, but it was all his 12 year-old mind could provide he could do by himself. Sort off.
One way or another, he was not going to let the elf try to teleport him away again.
"Dobby!" Harry yelled at the elf, who was hitting himself in the head with a frying pan… where in Merlin's name had Dobby gotten the frying pan?
'Magic, duh.'
"Dobby, I need you to lift Ron up like you did Aunt Petunia's cake, can you do it?" Harry commanded, Dobby nodded and a snap of his finger latter had the red-head floating. The bloodied sand cascading down from his body made Harry wince, belatedly realizing he had nothing to wrap around his friend's wounds. "Shite," then remembered the frying pan. "Dobby, I need you to summon bandages. Lots of bandages. And something to clean the wounds,"
With another finger-snap, there were dozens of gauze rolls floating in the air, along with a bottle of something Harry assumed was to put in the wounds. Harry poured the yellowish liquid, then hurriedly began wrapping every bit of exposed of Ron's skin, being aware of the fact he was trapping a lot more sand that should be healthy underneath the bandages. Soon enough, however, Harry saw himself on the need to strip Ron… which was hard. Undressing a floating person whose clothes were heavy with sweat and blood was difficult without the use of spells, but Harry knew none of those.
In the end, Ron looked like a mummy that had been wrapped in red bandages. The bandaging was clumsy and inefficient, but with a limitless supply of gauze Harry eventually managed to make wrap thick enough to keep the blood to keep from falling. Ron looked more like a cocoon than a human being.
Dobby had been uncharacteristically silent the whole time. Harry would latter realize. Harry finished with his friend's emergency wrap, Ron was now feverish and horribly pale on the few patches of face Harry let open so his friend could breathe. Hopefully, it would keep Ron alive long enough for Harry to find help. On the middle of the dessert. On foot… Crap.
"Where did you take us, Dobby? If you know where we can get a doctor… erm, 'healer' to help Ron it would be a great moment to tell me. Please."
The elf began to sob "Harry Potter said 'please' to Dobby."
Bloody hell, don't let him get started with that again. "Dobby, Ron is dying so it's kind of urgent," Harry tried to calm Dobby down from another emotional moment like the one he had on Privet Drive a few weeks ago.
That one felt like forever ago.
"Dobby doesn't know where this place is. Dobby was trying to get the Great Harry Potter back home, but Harry Potter's magic made Dobby's magic go wrong."
"So we are lost," Harry summarized "Great. And there is still the statute of secrecy, muggle's can't see you or Ron floating around, can they?" Harry groaned. He had heard horror stories from Hermione about how people got forever banned from the wizarding world because they breached the statute. Harry would never be allowed back Hogwarts if he brought Dobby and Ron with him and a muggle saw them. And, considering his luck, that would be exactly what would happen.
But Harry was willing to risk it if that meant his friend would live. "We should look for help." Harry declared, picking a random direction to start walking. He didn't need to ask Dobby to follow, Harry knew he would do so and bring along a floating Weasley with him; after all, Dobby was still babbling about wanting to save Harry and other such nonsense. Crazy elf.
…
Nothing. Absolutely nothing remotely resembling civilization was in sight. It made Harry want to pull his hair until he was bald. The continuing mumbling of Dobby was almost as maddening as the fact Ron had yet to wake up. Harry was also hungry, and thirsty, and his body hurt after the elf's teleporting technique; not to mention that sand had managed to get even into his trousers.
Harry's eyes were blurry, and not only because his glasses were constantly covered in sand: He was about to pass out.
"Harry Potter, sir, someone is approaching." Harry felt relief course his body at Dobby's words but the mirth was dampened by the surprise at seeing an approaching wave of sand that was at least two stores high.
"What is that?" Harry asked startled.
The question would remain unanswered as the wave came closer and Harry could see a red head on top of the moving dune. Which was odd, but hey, Wizards used chimneys to travel around, so why not a moving dune?
"Hey! Over here!" Harry shouted as hard as he could as he realized that, whoever that was, was not moving towards them. The person on the dune hadn't heard Harry, the person was too far. So Harry did the logical thing when trying to get a wizard too far away to get closer: he used magic.
"Lumos!" Harry channeled all his remaining magic into the spell and a ball of light the size of a truck shone true in the night sky with such a force it all turned white for a second. Harry wasn't able to hold the light for long, he was exhausted, but at least he accomplished what he had been aiming at: getting the other wizard's attention.
The wave of sand moved until it was a couple meters further away from them, then stopped and started lowering itself until it fused once more with the dessert underneath Harry's feet. The Boy-Who-Lived was surprised to see a kid, at least a head shorter than him and Ron –-'Ron and I, Harry' his inner Hermione corrected but he chose to ignore the feeling. It was not the time for getting distracted. "Thank Merlin you saw us. My friend needs help. He got splinched in our way here, so he needs to see a healer… there are healers around here, right? There have to be. Please. I don't have any money on me, but if you lend me and owl I could get someone at Hogwarts to bring me some from Gringots…" Harry kept on rambling nonstop.
Thankfully, there was a part of Harry's brain that was paying attention to the body language of the tattooed, red-haired kid with the creepy, black circles around his eyes. So, when lance-shaped sand-things came towards him, Harry ducked to the side.
"Why did you do that?!" Harry demanded. The kid, who Harry now decided should be around 6, maybe 7, spoke back and Harry was suddenly aware that the kid didn't understand a word of his long spiel. "Oh, bugger," Harry let out as he noticed the mad glint in the kid's eyes. Language barrier or not, he recognized the look of someone who was trying to kill him.
"We need to get out of here!" Harry announced to the house elf and his unconscious friend.
"I won't allow you to hurt Harry Potter!" Dobby yelled and a shimmering shield rose in the way of the second incoming attack and saved Harry from certain death, but that was as far as its usefulness went. After all, a plate-shaped shield only could do so much against the sand when you were in the middle of a freaking dessert.
Tattoo Kid attacked a third time from a different direction, words that made no sense to Harry traveling in the dry wind. Dobby was doing the best he could to form shield after shield while Harry tried piecing together a plan. He was coming up with a whole lot of nothing.
The one-sided battle between elf and tattooed lunatic had only been going for a couple of minutes, but it felt a lot longer. Dobby was getting more sloppy with each shield and Harry knew the elf wouldn't be able to hold much longer. "Wingardium leviosa!" Harry yelled towards the attacker, hoping it would buy him time to think of a spell in his limited repertory that he could use to fight. The kid seemed both baffled and murderous, and Harry could see the kid controlling the sand even from his floating point above him. The sand all over the place started moving like waves again and Harry's knew what to do. Thankful that the minutes of rest he had gotten while Dobby fought, and knowing the little elf had his back if his plan failed completely, Harry waved his wand, and the incoming wave of sand turned into one made of water. Incidentally, Harry was incapable of using the levitation charm and transfiguring stuff at the same time, so Tattoo Kid fell downwards straight to the transfigured pond of water.
And of course, throwing a huge amount of water into the sand made the ground unstable, turning the regular desert dunes into moving sand. The Tattoo Kid was buried alive into the parting sand.
Harry had killed a kid. The realization made a chill run down the young wizard's spine. Green eyes got trapped into green as Harry and Dobby exchanged a uncertain look…
Then the ground started to shake.
"GROARR!" A giant, beige claw with rose from the spot the kid had vanished at, then another, until a giant monster materialized on the moving sand.
"Bloody hell!" Harry cursed. The beast looked towards him with pure, single-minded rage, and, although it had yet to free itself from where it was half-buried, Harry knew it would loose himself soon enough if it kept on trashing like it was.
What happened next was as unexpected as the apparition of the monster. A dozen men dressed like ninja started shooting the beast with both weapons and unknown spells that seemed to manipulate the sand like the kid had been doing before.
Not wanting to get mixed in yet another fight while he was both magically drained and physically exhausted, he whispered to Dobby to take them away to somewhere else. Somewhere far away from here. Dobby warned Harry he would be Apparating blindly since he could not take them back to England for some reason. Harry didn't care about where he appeared, for he was instinctively aware that by staying they would be at the mercy of the men fighting the monster, if not the monster himself.
Harry commanded Dobby to do as he had asked.
Harry, Dobby and an unconscious Ron would latter find themselves between sickly tress and withering flowers, the ground beneath their feet was swampy and gross, and a cloud of flyers were swarming around the corpse of some small animal. The ugliness of the place didn't dampen the relief at being away from that freaking dessert.
They were safe.
Now that they were no longer in mortal peril, Harry's body stopped pumping adrenaline into his veins, making The-Boy-Who-Lived faint on the spot.
To Be Continued.
.
AN: I know I shouldn't be writing this. I have too many ongoing fics and I don't really have a long term plan on this one. However, I couldn't keep myself from typing this. I needed something to kick me back into writing because I know if I don't do so in a while then I take forever to do so… anyway, I hope all of whom are following my fics like this one enough not to want to kill me for getting side-tracked.
Also, I wanted to post this after I got Doeskin 7 out of the way, or had some idea of where this is going, but I couldn't wait anymore... sadly, updates will be slow an irregular. Hope you are not too mad because of that.
Thanks again to Ivanoma for being a super awesome beta who fixed typos and other small mistakes I always overlook.
Don't forget to review!