"RANMA! PREPARE TO DIE!" was the first thing the pig-tailed
martial artist heard as he stepped out of the Tendo Dojo.

"Dammit, Ryoga!" Ranma growled as he twisted out of the way of
an umbrella strike. "I don't have time for this! I'm almost late
for school!"

"I don't care what you're late for!" his fanged nemesis
retorted as he went into a hook kick to Ranma's temple. "Because of
you I have seen Hell, and I can't find my way home to Akari!"

"You've NEVER been able to find your way anywhere, stupid!"
Ranma commented as he ducked under the hook kick and countered with
an uppercut.

Ranma's volatile fiancee chose that moment to come out, and
growled as Ryoga was floored by Ranma's uppercut.

"Stop picking on Ryoga!" a mallet appeared in her hands and
she rushed towards Ranma, who was looking rather like a deer in the
headlights at the moment. One heavy impact later, Ranma took an
express route to Furinkan High.

Such an exchange wasn't a rare occurrence by any means, so
Ranma was prepared for it, and righted himself in the air in
preparation of the landing. Unfortunately, the ringing of clear
bells had other ideas, and a bicycle crashlanded on the back of
Ranma's head, driving his face into the roof of the building they
were currently on.

"Dammit, Shampoo!" Ranma grumbled as he plucked his face
out of the indentation it made on the roof. "You don't land bikes
on peoples' heads!"

"Shampoo sorry," the purple-haired Amazon gave a sheepish
grin. "Shampoo take Ranma out on date to apologize, yes?"

"No, dammit!" Ranma pushes himself back up, throwing the
bicycle and Shampoo off his back, the latter flipping in the air
to land on her feet. "I gotta get to school. See ya!"

He took off running as fast as he could at the direction of
the school, hoping to lose the affectionate Amazon.

"Hold, foul sorcerer!" the infamous kendoist called out to
Ranma as he approached the school grounds. "Today will be the day I
triumph against your sorcery and free my pig-tailed girl and fiery
tigress!"

"I'm not in the mood to deal with you, Kuno," Ranma waved
him off, dismissing him as a threat.

As he began to walk into the school grounds, Kuno charged at
him with an overhead sword strike. Pivoting on a foot to avoid the
overhead strike, he lashed out with a roundhouse to Kuno's chin before
the aforementioned kendoist had a chance to retract his missed strike,
and Ranma kept on walking as Kuno crumpled onto the ground, his brain
rattled from the roundhouse to his chin.

The afternoon passed relatively uneventfully compared to the
morning, he only made a dent in the wall as Akane slammed him into it
after he spit out the sushi she made him as soon as it made its way
into his mouth. It wasn't his fault, she must have used a whole box
of salt instead of a little vinegar to flavour the rice, and the
wasabi tasted eerily similar to toothpaste...

"See you at home, Akane!" Ranma called out as soon as the bell
rang and signalled the end of the school day, then sprinted towards
the nearest window and jumped out, twisting in the air to land
perfectly on his feet, and resumed running without breaking stride
after landing.

"Grr... that BAKA..." Akane fumed as she packed up her bookbag
for a lone trek home.

---------------------------------

"Why did you run off like that!" Akane threw her bookbag at
Ranma when she arrived at the Tendo Dojo and found Ranma sitting near
the koi pond. Her aim rang true and knocked the unaware martial
artist off balance, sending him into the koi pond to surfacing as a
her. "You went to see Shampoo again, didn't you!"

"No I didn't!" the now-female Ranma defended herself. "I just
left early because I didn't want to deal with Ucchan or Shampoo or
Kuno or whoever might pop up after school's done!"

"Sure," Akane didn't believe it for a second. "Isn't Ukyou
your CUTE fiancee?"

"Argh!" Ranma threw her hands up in frustration. "Why am I
explaining myself to an uncute tomboy like you anyway! It's not like
you'd understand! You're as brickheaded as you're flat-chested!"

"Why you... RANMA NO BAKA!" was the war cry as Ranma once
again sailed through the air.

------------------------------

It was near dark already by the time Ranma got home, and he
arrived just as dinner was being brought out to the table.

"Where were you, baka?" Akane demanded. "What took you so
long?"

"I don't know where you sent me, Akane," Ranma levelled her
with a glare. "I didn't even know where I was, that's why it took me
so long. Maybe you should think about that next time you send people
flying."

"Why you..." Akane was about to let Ranma have a piece of her
mind again, but Kasumi's gentle voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Now, I'm sure Ranma-kun had a good reason to be back so late,"
Kasumi offered. "Maybe he was telling the truth."

"Thanks, Kasumi," Ranma flashed Kasumi a smile.

"Foolish boy," Genma accused as his chopsticks moved towards
Ranma's bowl at lightning speeds, only to have it blocked by his
son's. "You should be nicer to your fiancee."

"It's not like I ASKED to be sent to who knows where..."
Ranma muttered darkly as he slapped away another offensive attack from
Genma's chopstick and countered with his own, stealing a broccoli off
the undefended bowl.

"RANMA NO BAKA!" Akane abruptly slammed down her food and
raised a mallet to attack her fiance. Or at least she tried to.
Since Ranma wasn't paying attention to anything but the battle for
food with Genma, he assumed it was another attack for his food, by
somebody else. Raising his chopsticks to meet the perceived attack,
he absentmindedly slapped it away, sending it crashing into the wall,
and then quickly moved his hands back to block yet another offensive
from Genma.

Slightly shocked, Akane just stood there and blinked at the
casual way that she was disarmed, and sat back down to finish the rest
of her food in silence, glaring at the oblivious Ranma.

------------------------------------

"Man, I don't wanna go to Potions..." the black-haired boy
complained as he ran a hand through his head in annoyance, revealing
the lightning-shaped scar in the process.

"You know you have to," Hermione sighed theatrically. "You
know Snape is just going to take the opportunity to deduct even more
points from Gryffindor. Don't give him anymore excuses."

"I guess you're right," Harry shook his head in defeat, then
glared around the Common Room at the people who were staring at him
and Hermione at the moment. "Ever since that Rita Skeeter published
that article, everybody's been staring at us. It's driving me nuts."

"Just ignore them, Harry," his companion patted him on the
arm, and the duo proceeded towards the Potions classroom.

------------------------------------

"You're late, Potter," Snape accused as Harry stepped into
the room, an arm around Hermione's shoulder. "Maybe next time you'd
like to join us on time, instead of having a fling with your
girlfriend? Ten points from Gryffindor."

"But I-" Harry countered, but was silenced by the Potions
master.

"No more excuses, Potter. Now get into your seat." Snape
snapped, cutting off further explanation from Harry. "Now that Mr.
Potter has finally decided to join us, let's begin. You will continue
making your antidote, and I will be going around the class to check
your progress."

Harry silently growled at Snape's obvious bias, but started
to prepare his antidote anyway. There wasn't any use in further
antagonizing the professor, all that would happen is more points being
deducted from the House.

"How did you ever even pass first year Potions, Potter?" Snape
scowled as he stopped next to Harry as he made his rounds around the
room. "You're not even stirring correctly. Maybe you should be the
one who gets poisoned and have a defective antidote."

Harry gritted his teeth and was about to retort, when his
target snickered and walked on to find the next victim.

When the class ended, Harry made his way over to Hermione and
reached an arm around her shoulder, and she was noticeably limping as
they made their way out of the room.

"What's the matter, Potter?" a hateful voice came from behind.
"Getting cozy with your Mudblood girlfriend?"

"No, Malfoy," Harry gritted his teeth. "Hermione sprained her
ankle and I'm just helping her walk. Or are you blind today? Maybe
you should have Madam Pomfrey take a look at you."

"Why you..." Draco growled, then his mouth became a smirk.
"Sure, I bet you're going to 'help' her to her bed too."

Harry tightened his grip on his wand, desperately wishing to
hex Draco until he squawks like a chicken. At the last minute, he
remembered what happened to Hermione last week, and he didn't want to
put her in jeopardy again, who knew what might happen this time.

"Shut up, Malfoy, before I make you," Harry held out his
wand and threatened. He wasn't going to shoot, but he wasn't going
to let him get away with it either.

"Or what?" Draco retorted. "You're going to send your smart
little Mudblood girlfriend after me?"

"What are you doing?" Snape came out of the classroom, cutting
off any responses that might have came from Harry. "Starting fights
again, Potter? Fifty points from Gryffindor."

"But he started it!" Harry snapped.

"Right," Snape snorted. "Past experiences tell me you start
all the fights around here, Potter."

"I-" a hand on Harry's shoulder silenced anymore retorts that
might be forthcoming.

"Let's go, Harry," Hermione urged.

"Fine," he relented.

------------------------------

"Why did you stop me? It was all Malfoy's fault!" Harry cried
as they were out of earshot.

"It doesn't matter, Harry!" Hermione countered. "You know
Snape as well as I do! Anything you say is just going to get more
points deducted from us, and you've already lost us sixty points
today!"

"And none of it was even my fault!" responded Harry. "You
sprained your ankle and wanted to get to class, so I had to help you!
It's not my fault Snape took points off for us being two minutes late!"

"What about the fight with Draco, huh?" Hermione asked. "That
was fifty points."

"I couldn't let him get away with calling you my Mudblood
girlfriend! That Rita Skeeter blew everything out of proportion
already!" Harry shot back.

"I'm used to being called a Mudblood, remember?" Hermione
offered. "And is it so bad to have people think I'm your girlfriend?
I AM the smartest witch in our generation, afterall."

"It's not that, it's just..."

"Just don't say anything next time this kind of thing
happens, okay?" Hermione interjected. "We don't need to lose anymore
points than we already have."

"Fine..." Harry relented.

----------------------------

Harry was once again reminded about the rapidly-approaching
Tri-Wizard tournament as he went back to his room, where Ron brooded in
silence.

It was all so unfair, his best friend was blaming him for
something that he's never even wanted.

With a sigh, he made his way to his bed and crawled in, feeling
miserable.

---------------------------------

"Man, I don't want to deal with this anymore..." Ranma said
to himself as the panda form of his father snored loudly. "I can't
stand this crazy life anymore. I wish I was somewhere else."

He slowly drifted off to sleep, missing the soft female
voice sending the word "Granted." echoing throughout the room.

--------------------------------

The approaching first task filled Harry's mind with dread. He
wasn't even supposed to be eligible for the tournament, yet there he
was, volunteered by someone and stuck with doing it, he wasn't even
old enough to be eligible, so his skills had to be lacking.

"I can't deal with this anymore..." Harry thought. "Snape is
driving me up the wall, and Hermione chews me out after that, and
the first task, which I don't even want to think about... Ron is STILL
blaming me for something I ever did... I wish I can just get away from
it all..."

"Granted," echoed through the dead of the night, when no one
was awake enough to hear.

---------------------------------

"Get UP already, you jerk!" Akane kicked Ranma in the side.
"It's time for school!"

< What? It's not time yet... > was the response, spoken in
English.

"Why are you speaking English, BAKA!"

-------------------------------

"Harry, it's time to get up, mate," Neville nudged Harry in an
effort to wake him up.

< Who was that? > Harry bolted up, looking around for the source of the unfamiliar voice.

"What was that, Harry? That sure wasn't English."