BLACK OLEANDER
By Salazarfalcon
Holy crap…Welcome to Part three of the Partners series, I can't believe it's so big! (Whoops like a jock) Please read the other two parts if you haven't already, because otherwise you will be exceptionally confused.
DRAWN TO: REPLACE (Ayumi Hamasaki)
Chapter One: Kimi ni Todoku You ni to Koushite Utaitsudzukete Iru yo
Translation: I Keep On Singing So That My Voice May Reach You
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TITLE REFERENCE: Well, none, really. I just thought it sounded cool. Better than the cheesy one I had before…
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DISCLAIMER: No. Just no. JKR-san owns Harry potter, and Toriyama-sensei owns DBZ and some dude who I think is named Satoshi owns Pokemon.
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REVEIWS FROM SHINRAI NO SAIKEN:
Nytingale: Thank you so much for reading Shinrai all the way through, you have no idea how much I looked forward to being able to count on your opinion at every chapter. It truly means a lot to me that people have stuck with me this long!
The one Sasu-chan called? Well…. I'm not telling' you yet! (cackles) It's. A. Secret! Yeah, I agree with you, Gohan did go through a lot.
I hope you don't mind that I ran off in a completely different direction, but I promise, Sasuke and Yumi will be in here! Count on it! (I'm kind of angry, I never did get those damn penguins in…)
Ashura-chan's pen pal will be explained in Oleander. Count on that too! But it'll be more toward the end, though. Not too keen on the idea of them actually meeting, though, some things should just be left alone, you know?
People really seem to like Kira….
Yeah, Hikaru was still really little, now that she's older she'll get much more of a say. I'm glad that you like her adorable-ness!
Golden Warrior 12: Do I even need to tell you how much your review made me laugh? Trust me, that's a good thing, because I think I may have just gotten my first negative review on a story. (sob) It's my brand new one, and no one seems to get it. Does there really have to be a purpose or reason for everything? It's Kai, damnit, he does what he feels like doing! (scowl) Sorry, didn't mean to rant at you.
TheShadowPanther: Wow, two reviews from you! (It doesn't matter, the mistype counts!) Oh, school is almost out! Almost out, almost out! (spins) Oh, Kyoku-chan says, "Hello!"
PH334 M4i 1777. Always.
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Disclaimer: No, just no. Don't speak to me, I don't own anything. I hate you all. -pouts and listens to L'ArcenCiel-
Begin:
"Checkmate."
Thirteen-year-old Gohan smirked deviously as the eldest Kaioshin, Sasshi, also known as his chess partner gaped.
"No. Way." The Kai shook his head in disbelief, staring in disbelief at the game board. Gohan's smirk merely widened and he held out his hand expectantly, leaning back in contentment.
"Yes way. Now pay up." The hybrid commanded triumphantly. Sasshi scowled and reluctantly handed over 50,000 yen. From the side, Yumi was cackling maniacally. Both males sweatdropped.
"Daijoubu desu ka?" The saiyan asked in concern, automatically backing up as the girl turned, fearing a case of madness, or perhaps rabies.
"Bwahahahaha! Onii-san, I told you that you couldn't beat him! Oh, I just love being right!" Then she did a little twirl. Sasshi quirked an eyebrow and stared at Gohan. Gohan quirked an eyebrow and stared at Sasshi.
"Um.. okay then." The youngest mumbled, getting to his feet when suddenly, he was jumped from behind. "Ack!" He yelped, and a familiar giggling Charmander poked her head up, sapphire eyes glittering with mirth.
Daddy, you're soooo weird. Hikaru remarked, as Gohan rubbed her head, smiling. Hikaru had gotten much bigger and had gotten into the habit of jumping him and challenging a very willing Kira to training matches lately, which Gohan wasn't sure if he was pleased with or not. On the bright side, it gave the little Charmander some practice with one who was guaranteed not to hurt her, but unfortunately she wasn't too skilled with controlling her flames these days and ended up torching East Kai and South Kai more than once. This had resulted in both Kais glaring at him every time they saw him. Never mind the fact that Gohan had very little to do with the entire incident.
"Heh, guess I am." The saiyan agreed cheerfully. "Hey, watch where you're swinging that tail, you little brat." he commented mildly, but frowning slightly, "Oi, where's Pika-tachi?" He inquired.
Hikaru shrugged.
I dunno. She answered, and Gohan shook his head.
"Dang. They've been really quiet today. I'm gettin' bad vibes from it. It's not good at all when they're quiet." Gohan suddenly stiffened as an odd feeling rushed through his body, one that told him that something was going to happen. However, it left as soon as it arrived. Just then, a familiar mind voice echoed in his head:
Gohaaaaaann! Heeeelllp! Hikaru started as she was picked up, and Gohan passed Yumi as a blur of color, tracking the frantic shout of Pikachu. They found them alright. They were at one of the dimension portals, and only Pikachu's rear end could be seen poking out of one. It was a swirling mass of color, of mostly blacks and silvers, though they didn't mix together. Without hesitation, Gohan leapt down and grabbed his starter by her tail, making an attempt to yank her out.
Ow! Gohan, that hurts!
"Be quiet!" Gohan ordered, but despite his saiyan strength found himself being dragged in. He felt Hikaru, Kira, and Aoi grabbing onto him to try to pull them out, but it was no use. In seconds, the entire group of them were sucked in. Insert whooshy-whooshy sound. How cliché.
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Gohan was promptly dropped on his butt several seconds later. Yes, he was quite used to dimension hopping, but he never went straight through the portal. The saiyan preferred using his own power, or if necessary, asking Yumi to transport him.
Owie…. Pikachu groaned, and Gohan scooped her up, ebony eyes showing his worry openly.
"Pika-chan, are you okay?" He asked, and she slumped over in his arms. "Ack!" Kira, Aoi, and Hikaru were in better shape, but still had to work to get to their feet; once they did, even Aoi had to lean on a white wall to keep herself there. Gohan's entire body ached, but despite this placed Pikachu inside his subspace bag (Never leave home without one!) and scooped up Hikaru as well, seeing as she was the one most effected, being the youngest.
"Okay, now, first things first." Once more, Gohan thanked Piccolo for teaching him how to be calm. Well, him and Chichi. "Question one. Where in the hell am I? I've never seen that portal before, for all I know it could only appear every century. Oh, that would suck so bad." Gohan soon decided that anything was better than sitting in a strange room and still having no clue of where he was. Silent as a shadow (Thanks to Piccolo again.) he slunk out through the door, Kira and Aoi at his heels, staggering slightly as if they were drunk but rapidly getting their bearings as their master was beginning to do.
His current environment looked like a castle, and when he stared out a window he found that he was correct, seeing nothing but turrets and towers. The place where he was overlooked a lake, and a forest sat to the side. The walls looked quite primitive, made up of stones, but if one looked hard enough he could see a lot of work had been put into designing this place and not one spot was on accident. Gohan almost stumbled several times, partly from exhaustion and partly because once a staircase began moving. On its freakin' own, damnit!
With a sigh, the saiyan slumped tiredly to the floor, beginning to feel the trip again, and stared at the ceiling.
"Now what am I gonna do?" he muttered, frustrated with himself.
So far he had seen no one, save a small fawn-colored cat that mewed at him, which he had gently shooed away. Gohan closed his eyes and absently ran a hand through Kira's soft fur, hoping it would soothe his nerves, which were completely shot and currently bouncing off the walls. Suddenly, he heard both dog and cat pokemon hiss angrily, and felt them move closer to him, protectively. Before he blacked out, he heard a somewhat harsh voice snap out something, then felt the owner of it lift him into his arms
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Severus Snape strode down the hall, in an absolute fury. Damn that idiot Longbottom. Severus had been grading the third year's essay when his quill ran out of ink. Of course, this really had nothing to do with Neville and was in no way his fault, but the Slytherin needed someone to blame for his foul temper and when in doubt, blame Longbottom.
In one hand he clenched his wand, as if ready to hex someone into oblivion (Knowing him, he probably was.) and the other held the quill that was now snapped in half. Damnit. Severus made a mental note to take off points tomorrow. He growled as he made his way down a hallway, and paused to give the one fingered salute to the painting of Sir Cadogan. The knight instantly began making very rude comments about him.
Suddenly, a strange shape caught his eye. A boy, he couldn't possibly be older than second year; lay sprawled out on the floor, out like a light. For a second, Severus was struck that this was a student, skipping class and having the nerve to sleep in the hallways, but upon closer inspection was forced to change his opinion. The boy's breathing was shallow and his face was stark white, and as Severus came closer the creatures that had been flanking him in concern stood protectively in front, shielding him. Severus rolled his eyes.
"I don't have time for this. Hey, boy. Wake up!" His command wasn't answered, if anything the stranger's condition worsened at the loud noise. The Potions Master was tempted to leave him for Filch to find, but found that his blasted, and very, very rarely used conscience refused to allow him to leave. With a scowl, Severus bent down, and ignoring the angry growls of the boy's guardians picked him up, unconsciously making a note that he had a fever.
"Another bloody patient for Poppy. Damnit. Why me?" He growled, and began making his way down the hall. The little, lizard-like creature instantly latched herself onto Severus' robes, and allowed herself to be dragged along in her bottom on the swooshy fabric. Severus swore that he could see maniacal grins on the other two's faces. He cursed loudly, causing several of the female portraits to scowl at him and some of the male ones to whoop and clap. A nice glare shutthem up.
"I am soooo taking points off those Gryffindors tomorrow."
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Gohan's vision was blurry when he awoke, and when he sat up yelped as he felt the stinging pain in his lower back. A hand roughly shoved him down.
"So. Finally awake, are you? And lay down, idiot child." A voice snapped. The saiyan looked up to see a man standing beside his bed, wearing black robes, and a nasty scowl on his face. Gohan's ebony orbs widened as he recognized the voice and matched it to the one he had heard before he blanked out. Instinctively, he ran his gaze up and down the form, sizing him up as only a warrior could. Very tall, with long, shoulder length black hair. Not very old, he looked around thirty or so years. Of course, growing up around saiyans, he knew it was always a bit difficult to guess age, seeing as Goku hadn't looked his age until eighteen, and at forty, Vegeta still looked like a twenty year old, but that was only the hybrid's guess.
In truth, the boy was rather surprised that the man even looked human. Or relatively, anyway. Of course, the teen didn't just sit there gawking for thirty seconds for this to sink in, the characteristics registered in his brain after only about three. Gohan cleared his throat.
"Um.. are you the one who found me?" His speech was soft, and well thought out, for two reasons. One, the he had found that being polite got you places and he was naturally well-mannered, no matter who he was dealing with, and two, English wasn't his first language and he wasn't quite over formalities, though he knew slang, courtesy of Sasuke, who had known a boy once in his elementary school who cursed like a sailor and had bestowed his knowledge upon the shinobi, who had then bestowed it upon Gohan. Of course, Chichi had never stood for slang being spoken in her house. The man's eyebrow rose at the soft and slightly submissive sounding tone.
"Yes. But I believe the question is, who are you, and how did you get inside the Hogwarts grounds without being detected?"
"My name is Son Gohan. Er, wait a second,-" Gohan trailed off for a second, letting it sink in that since English was being spoken he was in some English country. "Make that Gohan Son, on your terms. Son is my surname." The saiyan supplied, perfectly willing to answer questions. When in doubt, cooperate.
"I am Severus Snape, Potions Master and professor at the school of Hogwarts." Answered Severus, eyeing Gohan suspiciously. Never had he met such a strange child. As opposed to being put off by his obviously antisocial and snarky (Not to mention hostile) attitude, he seemed rather comforted by it. Strange. Not that he was going to admit it, of course. Gohan made a valiant attempt to bow, which looked rather strange, considering that he was currently in a horizontal position. Just then, a cough sounded behind them, and Severus whirled around to come face to face with Albus Dumbledore.
"Headmaster!" Severus exclaimed, slightly upset that Dumbledore had been able to get the jump on him so easily. The old man's blue eyes twinkled in amusement as he bent down to stare eye to eye with Gohan.
"So. Your name's Gohan, hmm?" He asked, and Gohan nodded.
"Yes… sir." Instinctively, Gohan added the sir, not even thinking about it after feeling the raw power being cast off of this strange man. He couldn't explain it, but he couldn't help being just a little bit intimidated. Sure, in a fist or weapons fight, Gohan could top anyone, even without his added abilities, but this man had a very different type of power signature. He had never sensed anything like it, and on reflex the young saiyan pulled back and slipped into a defensive stance, unable to relax, while eyeing Dumbledore with apprehension. The old man smiled.
"No need to be scared, child. I'm not going to attack you. My name is Albus Dumbledore. I must admit, I'm quite curious of how you were able to gain entrance to this castle without tripping the alarm system. Care to elaborate?"
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"-and that's what happened." Gohan finished, folding his arms stubbornly across his chest. Dumbledore said nothing after hearing the saiyan's story, and even Severus was silent, doing his damndest to allow this to sink in. After several seconds of silence, Dumbledore reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of candy.
"Would either of you two like a lemon drop?" He asked mildly, and Gohan politely accepted while Severus shook his head. Dumbledore, meanwhile, looked surprised.
"Please." The saiyan said, then raised an eyebrow. "These are kinda good. But I've always been one for cherry, myself."
"Oh, really? I've been a lemon person since my childhood, when Granny made me suck on a lemon as punishment for stealing my younger brother's pet salamander…" then he snapped back to business, about to laugh at the saiyan's attentive expression. Gohan wasn't quite sure if his own English was funny, or if Dumbledore was just telling a very strange story. "Alright, now, what to do with you..." Dumbledore mused, almost to himself. "Since it's obvious that you have no inkling of how to get back where you came from, it's only natural that you stay here. There are several choices. But first, how old are you?"
"I'll turn thirteen in March." Was the quiet response. Dumbledore nodded.
"Right, so you're twelve. Well, if you have magical ability, you can always get an education here. I will reimburse your school supplies, seeing as you came only with that bag. You're a bit young, but I'm sure that you can catch up with the third years." Dumbledore said. Gohan's jaw dropped, and he began making wild and highly amusing hand movements as he protested.
"What! I can't do that! It's not my place to intrude, I-" He was cut off as Dumbledore raised a hand for silence.
"Nonsense. I can sense it in you already, you have much magical talent, if it could be unlocked. And it's no trouble at all. Besides, you've already met Severus here and have your life; I don't see why not." Gohan made a move to protest again, but Severus ducked forward and shoved him back down before he could get anything out.
"Shut up." Severus snapped. Just then, a thought came to the saiyan.
"Hold on a second-.. Where's Kira and Pikachu and-"
"If you're referring to your companions, they're fine." The Potions Master said shortly, eyeing Gohan in warning. "Poppy fed them a light sleeping draft, so that they can regain energy faster. And stay down, will you!" Gohan scowled at being cut off, but left revenge for a later date for when he didn't owe these people so much.
"Well, what do you say, child?" Dumbledore asked, holding out a hand. Gohan stared at it for a second, then reluctantly took it, shaking it in a strong grip.
"Okay."
kimi ni todoku you ni to
koushite utaitsudzukete iru yo
mata aeru toki made
akiramenaide aruite ite ne
sono toki wa itsumo no egao wo misete ne
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END CHAPTER-
Yeah, I know it's short for me, but you guys know me and my prologues… (mutters darkly to self) So, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry for the recently overused cliché. I wasn't planning on it, really, I wasn't.
TRANSLATIONS:
Daijoubu desu ka: Are you okay?
Onii-san: Big brother
SONG TRANSLATION:
I keep on singing
So that my voice may reach you
I hope you will walk on without giving up
Till the time we can meet again
Please show me your usual smile then