CHAPTER ONE
"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening," said the woman's voice.
The door of the telephone box burst open; Harry toppled out of it, closely followed by Neville and Luna. The only sound in the Atrium was the steady rush of water from the golden fountain, where jets from the wands of the witch and wizard, the point of the centaur's arrow, the tip of the goblin's hat and the house-elf's ears continued to gush into the surrounding pool.
"Come on," said Harry quietly as the six of them sprinted off down the hall, Harry in the lead, past the fountain towards the desk where the watchwizard who had weighed Harry's wand had sat, and which was now deserted.
Harry felt sure there ought to be a security person there; sure their absence was an ominous sign, and his feeling of foreboding increased as they passed through the golden gates to the lifts. He pressed the down button and a lift clattered into sight almost immediately, the golden grilles slid apart with a great, echoing clanking sound and they dashed inside. Harry stabbed the number nine button; the grilles closed with a bang and the lift began to descend, jangling and rattling. Harry had not realised how noisy the lifts were on the day he had come with Mr Weasley; he was sure the din would raised every security person within the building, yet when the lift had halted, the cool female voice said, "Department of Mysteries," and the grilles slid open. They stepped out into the corridor where nothing was moving but the nearest torches, flickering in the rush of air from the lift.
…
"Where do we go then, Harry?" Ron asked.
"I don't -" Harry began. He swallowed. "In the dreams I went through the door at the end of the corridor from the lifts into a dark room – that's this one – and then I went through another door into a room that kind of… glitters. We should try a few doors," he said hastily, "I'll know the right way when I see it. C'mon."
He marched straight at the door now facing him, the others following close behind him, set his left hand against its cool, shining surface, raised his wand ready to strike the moment it opened, and pushed.
It swung open easily.
After the darkness of the first room, the lamps hanging low on golden chains from this ceiling gave the impression that this long rectangular room was much brighter, though there were no glittering, shimmering lights as Harry had seen in his dream. The place was quite empty except for a few desks and, in the very middle of the room, an enormous glass tank of deep green liquid, big enough for all of them to swim in; a number of pearly white objects were drifting around lazily in it.
"What're those things?" whispered Ron.
"Dunno," said Harry.
"Are they fish?" breathed Ginny.
"Aquavarius Maggots!" said Luna excitedly. "Dad said the Ministry were breeding -"
"No," said Hermione. She sounded odd. She moved forward to the side of the tank. "They're brains."
"Brains?"
"Yes… I wonder what they're doing with them?"
Harry joined her at the tank. Sure enough, there could be no mistake now he saw them at close quarters. Glimmering eerily, they drifted in and out of sight in the depths of the green liquid, looking something like slimy cauliflowers. Shuddering slightly, not wanting to look too much at the brains, Harry's eyes searched the outside of the aquarium – the only inscription anywhere on the glass was at the bottom, near Hermione's feet, which read 'programmatium animus conmemoratio'.
"Let's get out of here," said Harry. "This isn't right; we need to try another door."
"There are other doors here, too," said Ron, pointing around the walls. Harry's heart sank; how big was this place?
"In my dream I went through that dark room into the second one," he said. "I think we should go back and try from there."
So they hurried back into the dark, circular room; the ghostly shapes of the brains were now swimming before Harry's eyes instead of the blue candle flames.
"Wait!" said Hermione sharply, as Luna made to close the door of the brain room behind them. "Flagrate!"
She drew with her wand in mid-air and a fiery 'X' appeared on the door. No sooner had the door clicked shut behind them than there was a great rumbling, and once again the wall began to revolve very fast, but now there was a great red-gold blur in amongst the faint blue and, when all became still again, the fiery cross still burned, showing the door they had already tried.
…
"Right, we're leaving that room," said Hermione decisively.
"But what if that's the one?" said Ron, staring at the locked door with a mixture of apprehension and longing.
"It can't be, Harry could get through all the doors in his dream," said Hermione, marking this third door with a fiery cross as Harry replaced the now useless handle of Sirius' knife in his pocket.
"You know what could be in there?" said Luna eagerly, as the wall started to spin again.
"Something blibbering, no doubt," said Hermione under her breath and Neville gave a nervous little laugh.
The wall slid to a halt and Harry, with a feeling of increasing desperation, pushed the next door open.
"This is it!"
He knew it at once by the beautiful, dancing, diamond-sparkling light. As Harry's eyes became accustomed to the brilliant glare, he saw clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps. The source of the dancing light was a towering crystal bell-jar that stood at the far end of the room.
"This way!"
Harry's heart was pumping frantically now that he knew they were on the right track; he led the way down the narrow space between the lines of desks, heading, as he had done in his dream, for the source of the light; the crystal bell jar quite as tall as he was that stood on a desk and appeared to be full of a billowing, glittering wind.
"Oh, look!" said Ginny as they drew nearer, pointing at the very heart of the bell jar.
Drifting along in the sparkling current inside was a tiny, jewel-bright egg. As it rose in the jar, it cracked open and a humming-bird emerged, which was carried to the top of the jar, but as it fell on the draught its feathers became bedraggled and damp again, and by the time it had been borne back to the bottom of the jar it had been enclosed once more in its egg.
"Keep going!" said Harry sharply, because Ginny showed signs of wanting to stop and watch the egg's progress back into a bird.
"You dawdled enough by that old arch!" she said crossly.
"Goodness," breathed Luna from a distance behind them.
"What now?" Harry hissed, whirling to face Luna and the others.
Luna was standing with her back to Harry by a bookcase which was littered with smaller clocks – stopclocks and wristwatches of all variety – and a thick black time turner, staring at a small glass case.
Exasperated, Harry couldn't see anything to have merited such a reaction from her, until Luna turned to the group.
"The Orbs of Shikong Lianxu!" said Luna reverently, holding a trio of gems in her hands, a look of avarice in her eyes.
"Luna," said Harry impatiently. "We don't have time. Put it back. We have to move on."
She looked up, surprised, as though he'd interrupted her and she'd forgotten he was there. Harry shot her a look, beginning to feel uneasy about them becoming too engrossed in any of the objects in this strange place.
"Yes," she said simply, turning back to the glass case.
Harry turned to see Ginny already moving towards the door. He beckoned to the others and stepped up behind her, wand at the ready, suddenly unsure of what to expect. Ginny paused at the door, hand outstretched. Harry went to push past her when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
He turned to find Luna looking at him dreamily, arm still on his shoulder. He hadn't even heard her approach.
"Luna," warned Hermione in a low voice, stepping forward.
Furious, Harry took in a breath to tell the blonde to get her act together, when without another word she raised the trio of orbs in her hands and thrust them into his chest.
Harry was too surprised – incredulous - to react as he felt the cold orbs press into the shirt on his chest.
"Good luck," explained Luna, before the world went black.
There was the strange sensation of falling through nothing as the orbs were thrust into his chest, until there was a wind rushing past him, and he was suddenly falling towards hard ground instead of nothing. He hit the ground with a loud thump, coating his clothes in a layer of mud. He was slightly surprised at the absence of the jewels on his chest, but he immediately felt tired and he let himself fall into unconsciousness.
Groaning, Harry turned over onto his back, opening his eyes slowly. His emerald eyes were greeted with the sight of some kind of poltergeist, which sent Harry immediately to his feet. The poltergeist was purple in colour, and shaped like a cartoon ghost. It had two hands with three digits, outlined with a red aura. Harry cocked his head and the ghost did also. The wizard absentmindedly realised that he wasn't wearing his school shirt anymore. Then, before Harry could do anything, the ghost reached out its hands with a cry of 'Haunter!' and tapped the golden, octahedron crystal that had embedded itself in his sternum. The colour faded from everything, leaving the landscape monotone. Wind swirled in front of him beside the ghost that he'd named Haunter. A cyclone swirled in mid air and a portal lined with a purple glow appeared. Harry reached forward to touch it, but was repelled by a invisible barrier. A moment later the portal disappeared and the colour returned to the world.
"Well." Harry said, glaring at Haunter. "That was entirely your fault."
That sent Haunter into chilling laughter. Looking downwards at the crystal in his chest, Harry realised he could see his sternum and his organs through it, which was disgusting, but admittedly quite cool. The crystal had fused with the skin around it, sending vein-like structures of gold throughout his skin. Reaching up to scratch the back of his head with his arm, he realised that both his elbows had a crystal infused there, the one on the right, being smooth and pearl-like; the other being more like a diamond: both sent vein-like patterns into the skin around them. Realising that they didn't actually do any harm, Harry let them be and instead observed the area he was in.
He guessed it was around mid-day from the position of the sun in the sky, causing little shadows from the trees that surrounded him. Ok, that cut it down a little. He was in a forest of some sort, though, from the unknown metal bird that just passed above him, Harry guessed he was in a different world. Wondering if magic still worked in this place, Harry pulled out his wand and muttered, "Inanimatus Conjurus!"
Slowly, a shirt materialised in front of him which was immediately put on. "I don't suppose you know which way is the closest city? I suppose I could always say I have amnesia."
Half an hour later, Harry finally saw the tops of the city buildings in the distance. Harry huffed, Haunter still hovering by his shoulder. 'Almost there' he thought as he carried on. Finally when he arrived, he noticed that there a commotion on a street, not far from the city centre. Wishing that he could see what was going on, he was shocked when he suddenly appeared on the street.
Two Pokémon, as he found out that they were called were battling it out. One, Darkrai, was pitch black, blending in with the sky, apart from the white wisp on his head covering a turquoise eye; the other, Cresselia, was purple, yellows and blues, shaped a bit like a duck with wings in different shades of purple. As soon as Harry appeared, Darkrai stopped attacking Cresselia and hovered beside Harry, conversing with Haunter in the weird language of Pokemon.
It went something like this: "Dar-Darkrai."
"Haunter."
"Dar?"
"Ter. Haunter."
"Grrr. Darkrai."
What happened next shocked everyone though. Darkrai nudged Harry, then gestured towards the red and white ball that the black-haired teen was holding and repeated the process. Harry looked towards the group with his eyebrow raised. "Have you got any idea what he wants?"
"I think he wants to be your Pokémon." The dark-skinned dude declared, before adding. "I'm Brock by the way. Here's a Poke-Ball." Brock tossed one of the red and white balls at Harry who caught it with ease. "Just tap Darkrai with it."
Harry nodded. Tapping Darkrai with the Poke-Ball, the Pokémon vanished inside in a stream of red light. The Poke-Ball wobbled a bit in Harry's hands before the button flashed once. Cresselia, apparently pleased with the turn of events moved further into the sky in a stream of sparkling lights before vanishing off into the distance.
Brock decided it was time for introducing everyone. "I'm Brock and its my dream to become the best Pokémon Breeder."
The black-haired teen decided he was next. "I'm Ash and this is my buddy Pikachu. I'm going to become a Pokémon Master!"
"I'm Dawn and this is Piplup; I want to become a Pokémon Co-ordinator."
"I'm Jenny and one of the Police Officers for Canalave City. You?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm Harry and I think I'm around 16."
"Think?"
Harry shrugged again. "Amnesia." he said, going for that trick. It would be far too complex to explain that he had come from another world of Magic without Pokémon; far too much work. "And I have practically no idea what the ghost-thing is that has decided to follow me all day."
Brock raised an eyebrow. "You mean that Haunter's wild?"
"If you mean that he hasn't been caught into one of those Poke-Balls, then yeah." Harry replied.
Officer Jenny, upon discovering that because of Harry's 'Amnesia' he knew nothing about the Pokémon World, took it upon herself to teach him everything. He soon learnt about the different types of Pokemon; the different regions; what the difference is between Pokémon Trainers, Masters, Breeders and Co-ordinators are; and so on and so forth until Harry was sure that his brain was going to burst. She also let him stay over in the station with Ash and co.
-
When Harry awoke the next morning he scourgified himself and made himself presentable and left his wand in the drawers beside his bed. After telling Jenny that he was going into town - Ash had already left for the gym battle he requested at Canalave City Gym - he slipped out of the station and started to wander around the shopping district. After noting the currency, he quickly transfigured some of his sickles into cash and used them to buy some more Poke-Balls and clothes. He stopped off at a cafe for lunch, but went back to shopping soon after; getting more clothes and the bare essentials, Haunter still following him.
It had started to get dark when Harry decided it was time to head back to the station. He was halfway there when he was ambushed by a gang of motorcyclists. They had their Pokémon out - mainly Ratticates and Pokémon that specialise in brute force. Unsure why he had been trapped, he let his hand waver to Darkrai's Pokéball attached to his belt.
"Looks like we've cornered the freak that caught that fucking Darkrai." one of them growled. Harry bristled at being called a freak and mentally nodded to himself that it was because he caught Darkrai. Harry noticed Haunter float away through the wall.
Harry glared. "And what's so bad about catching a Darkrai? If anyone's going to get nightmares it'll be me."
They cracked their knuckles trying to look intimidating. It worked. "That's not the point. The poin - "
He was interupted by Darkrai breaking out of his Pokéball, forming 'legs' to touch the ground as he floated beside Harry. Who Harry assumed to be the leader grinned evilly. "Looks like we get to advance in our plans earlier than we thought. ATTACK DARKRAI!"
Long-range attacks shout out from each of their Pokémon. Harry knew that if all of them hit, Darkrai could be done for, so he recklessly jumped in the way, getting most of the damage. He was not going to let his first friend in this new world die. Burned by both fire and lightning, a couple of bones cracked by punches, Harry dropped to one knee and spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor.
"Looks like we got a feisty one boys."
Harry glared. "Do you not get it? It may be in a Darkrai's nature to cause nightmares, but do you think he wants to!? He's fucking lonely! Anyone who he goes near gets nightmares and run away from him! I understand that pain! As for why Canalave City? Perhaps there's a Darkrai mating ground nearby or something, but I know that this time round he was attracted by the bunch of bastards that sold those fake Lunar Wings!"
"I don't give a flying fuck."
Harry breathed deeply and managed to stand up on two feet, arms outstretched, blocking Darkrai from the full brunt of their attacks. "I will not let you harm my friend!"
"ATTACK!"
That was all the warning Harry received before each Pokémon attacked individually, their Flamethrowers, Mach Punches and Thunderpunches, slamming into Harry. He cringed with each attack, not that it was worse than the Cruciatus Curse. He vaguely heard Darkrai behind him, firing Dark Pulses and Shadow Balls, but for each Pokémon that was knocked out, two more took their place and the alleyway was crammed full of Pokémon; it was a very wide alleyway.
Harry could feel himself weakening with each hit and knew that Darkrai was tiring. "I will not let you harm my friend!" he repeated, only to have what he assumed to be his magic react. As he flung his arms out to stop Darkrai from getting hit, a bright pulse of Phoenix Flame emanated from Harry's body, crashing into the Pokémon and the Bike Gang. The Flames didn't actually burn them, but knocked them out cold for at least a couple of days.
Harry let himself fall to the ground, wincing as his fractured knee touched the concrete. Vision darkening, he felt Darkrai catch him as he fell as saw Haunter and Officer Jenny running into the alleyway and scream his name. He heard rather then saw Jenny call for an ambulance before his vision went black and he was in the arms of Morpheus.