Author's Notes: Finally, I'm uploading a fanfic for others to see! I hope it isn't too horrible... Anyway, for the full summary, go see my profile. Other than that, enjoy!
Disclaimer: I no own Harry Potter; he belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Harry stared, dumbfounded, at…the thing…that was sitting on the very edge of his bed. He'd never, even during all his time at Hogwarts, seen anything so strange in his life! Then again, it wasn't every day an alien creature fell from the inter-dimensional time-space gap and into one's own bedroom. Whatever it was, it was staring back at him, the gaze in its bi-colored eyes somewhat inquisitive, but altogether serious.
The creature had the same physical structure of a slim, though somewhat muscular, human, with bipedal legs and thumbs and everything. It was, however, covered from head to toe in short yellow fur, though the fur was red on its left hand, its right foot and at the double-spade tipped tail which made it look as if the tail's tip had been dipped in red ink. Two long, stiff, black wolf ears were perched at the top of its head somewhat like radio antennae, poking out of a shock of red, spiky hair.
It had paws instead of feet; it looked like it would stand only on its toes instead of the whole foot, the heel always off the ground but considering he was sitting it was hard to tell. It was wearing a pair of slightly torn, all at once dusty and muddy jeans that would've mortified Aunt Petunia had she seen them and a brown leather belt with a medium sized silver buckle. Harry's gaze was momentarily drawn to the katana attached to the belt, and gazed at the sword's long black sheath nervously, feeling somewhat intimidated by the object. There was a black, military style back pack clinging to the creature as well and a strange sort of brown leather harness over its shoulders that extended down into three long strips of leather tipped by dangerous-looking metal spikes that lay on his bed behind the creature.
There was a black fingerless glove on its red left hand that had a spiked metal plate on its backing that shone in the light of his dim bedroom and attracted Harry's sight to the shape of its fingers, which were sharp like claws, as if replacing the creature's absent nails. It was also wearing a necklace of black twine which had a strange pendant attached. The pendant had three parts; one was a flat oval of a bluish violet color, which acted as a backing for a flat, golden crown which had a silver crescent embedded into it. The twine was very long, so the pendent came to rest at just above the creature's abdomen. On the face was a small, black triangular patch of furless skin at the tip of a human nose which made it look like a dog's nose. The creature's mouth was slightly ajar, revealing that it also had very sharp fangs in its arsenal of weapons.
A single, thick strand of red hair fell into the right side of its largely human face, slightly obscuring the more intimidating of the two eyes. The left eye was a crimson red, with a slit for a pupil, and had a sort of insane sparkle in it behind the curiosity the creature was displaying. The right eye was a pool of black air with only a blue orb indicating what the creature was looking at. There was a more serious, calculating gaze in this eye and the gaze of both orbs on him made Harry's head spin. Both eyes had stitching on either side of them where, apparently, it'd had some type of accident that had cut across its face where the eyes were.
Speaking of which, the shirtless creature was littered with blackened scars. Its face alone was intimidating just because of that. There was a long scar across his left eye, as well as another over his opposite eye, trailing through his right eye and ending in a lightning bolt that made Harry's own scarred forehead tingle with a strange feeling of kinship. Another trailed up from the left side of his chin, nearly touching the scar on his left eye in its length. Several scars crisscrossed each other on its neck, leading Harry's gaze down to the two scars on the creature's chest. He nearly missed the scar on the creature's left arm and the burn scar on its left shoulder which was barely covered with white, pathetic hairs that did nothing to hide the disfigured flesh.
There were three large scars on its abdomen. One on its left side, surrounded on either side by marks of stitching that had also scarred. This one looked more like a surgical scar than a battle scar; too straight and clean. Another scar was just below its naval and, just like the other one, looked like a surgical scar surrounded by the same stitch scars as the first. The last, however, was definitely a battle scar. It went down diagonally from left to right over the creature's belly, before making a ragged 90° turn at the other side of its abdomen and trailing down to almost reach its belly button, which was stretched slightly toward the scar; probably a side effect of the healing, and the pattern of stitching around the scar indicated just how nasty the wound must've been.
Harry snapped out of his daze as Dudley's voice floated up from the hallway, asking for the Masons' coats. The creature, hearing the noise from downstairs, gazed at a place just right of Harry's feet for a moment, before looking back up at Harry. It brought a finger from its left hand, its red hand, to its lips, signaling Harry to remain quiet while bringing Harry's attention to the lit cigarette in its hand, which explained why the room smelled like tobacco and smoke. Harry nodded, closing the door soundlessly. The two stared at one another for a second, in silence, until Aunt Petunia's high, false laugh sprang up from the living room from almost just beneath Harry's feet.
"Sounds like a fucking animal dying…" the creature commented in a smooth, baritone voice, identifying itself as a male creature, although it wasn't hard to figure it out judging by the fact that he lacked a woman's anatomy. He took a drag from his cigarette, staring at the floor as if he could see Harry's skinny, horse-toothed aunt through the floorboards. Breathing white smoke out of the black nose he created a distinct image of Norbert's smoking nostrils and Harry had to wonder whether the creature was some sort of weird dragon. "Oi…"
Harry nearly jumped into the air upon realizing that the stranger was speaking to him. "Sorry if I curse a lot, but I sorta have a bad habit. You don't mind, do ya?" Harry indicated a 'no' by shaking his head, before coughing as the cigarette smoke found its way to his lungs. "Hm?" Noticing Harry's distress, the creature quickly extinguished the death stick, shoving the lit end into his gloved hand were it was extinguished without as much as a hiss. Harry froze at the unusual, self-abusive sight as the creature shoved the half-finished cigarette into his pocket for later use. "Anyway, sorry for invading your room and smoking in here; I kinda had no choice, seeing how this was the place where the portal dropped me and I just had a bad craving." Harry finally blinked and stared at his 'guest' for a moment.
"Portal…?" He hadn't even noticed that he'd spoken until the creature waved a hand at him, answering.
"Don't worry about it, kid; I'll explain later… By the way, we never properly introduced one another." He stood from Harry's bed, revealing that, despite the powerful air of an old, battle-hardened warrior he had about him, he was quite short, and not even half a foot taller than Harry, who was a solid 5ft 3 in. He held out his left hand, revealing another scar on his arm just above his glove. "My name's Stingchu Dragona. What's yours?" Harry hesitated a moment as the creature's rough, amiable smile showed off his fangs before accepting the friendly gesture and shook the offered hand.
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter" he replied, noticing how velvety the fur was on the stranger's hand. Noting how surprised Harry appeared, Stingchu chuckled.
"I'm guessing you've never touched a fuzzy hand before, have you?" Harry shook his head, still somewhat shocked by the unfamiliar sensation and suddenly confused by the fact that the stranger didn't recognize him. Wasn't he famous in the magical world? Surely, a creature so blatantly part of the wizarding world should know who he was, so why wasn't he getting a funny look or something?
"Um…I'm sorry if this is a bit rude, but I don't think this is the best time…"
"Don't worry; I'll be quiet…" He seemed to understand Harry's anxiety over his uncle and sat back down as he gave the young wizard a reassuring nod. There was another long, awkward silence, before Harry edged over to his desk chair and promptly collapsed into it, trying to get a handle on the situation.
"Why are you here?" Stingchu seemed surprised by the sudden question coming from the human, and thought for a moment, having momentarily forgotten what had just happened…
"Hm…" he put his chin in his hand, tracing invisible patterns on the bedcovers with the other "Leana threw me into the inter-dimensional time-space gap thingy again…" he sighed "I just flew for the nearest portal I could find, but it looks like I'm stranded again…" Harry stared, eyes wide, mouth ajar, at Stingchu, flabbergasted.
"Inter-dimensional what?" he squeaked, in shock.
"Hm?" As if suddenly noticing that Harry was all but completely in shock, Stingchu looked momentarily confused by the boy's expression, and then chuckled.
"Inter-dimensional time-space gap. Yep; I'm an alien to both this world and dimension." Harry paled considerably, his eye twitching.
"Oh my god…" Stingchu, noticing his distress, waved a hand at him dismissively.
"Don't worry about it; I don't bite nice humans like you." He winked "by the way" he suddenly looked curious "what planet am I on?" Harry, despite the mind-blowing circumstances of the situation, snorted as he suppressed laughter at the sudden, unexpected pun. Stingchu smiled "feel better?" Harry nodded; the small humor already did wonders to lift the tension from the air. "You have no idea how well that pun works to relax someone who's just found out about this kind of stuff."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you see I'm part of…well actually…hm…" for a moment, it looked, rather disturbingly, like he'd forgotten who he was "oh, right; I'm the co-founder of an inter-dimensional organization called the Trieen Squadron. We're basically trying to make sure there isn't another humongous war."
"You mean another Magical War?" Stingchu blinked at Harry's terminology.
"Magical what?" Harry also looked confused now.
"Well, I don't know about you, but here on Earth, certain people can use magic; they're called witches and wizards." Stingchu was silent for a moment, before he burst into an uncontrollable fit of snorts and chuckles.
"W-wizards…snort…fucking hell…" it took him quite some time to calm down. "Kid, you're not a wizard" he said when he could finally speak "you're an ethereal psychogenterran. If there was a wizard on this planet, I'd be with them right now." Harry looked very confused at the information. It was like half the things Stingchu said weren't even English…
"A…what?" He also felt somewhat offended by the snorting chuckles coming from the alien. "Hey, come on, I'm being serious…" Stingchu paused, saw that Harry was upset, and quickly calmed down enough to explain himself.
"Sorry if you're offended Harry, but I know what real wizards are, and although you guys, Vizors, are pretty close; you're still just a subspecies of human if you don't go through the rituals."
"Vizors? What?"
"Short term for what I called you before, but going back to what I was saying, our organization's trying to prevent another massive, inter-dimensional war from breaking out." Harry turned from confusion to a nervous curiosity.
"A…An inter-dimensional war?" Stingchu nodded as Harry swallowed nervously past a lump in his throat.
"Yeah, an inter-dimensional war. We called it the Era of Wars, 'cause it was like a whole mesh of hundreds of wars heaped up one on top of another." The cigarette was halfway to his mouth before he stopped himself and returned it to his pocket, remembering Harry's discomfort. "A whole species of a powerful alien, ethereal type decided they wanted to control everything and started killing everything and anything they could find and, as if that wasn't enough, whatever creature surrendered to them had their body taken over them by one of them and were forced to kill their own families, neighbors, friends, whatever."
Shocked by the tragic story, Harry couldn't look at the gleam in Stingchu's eyes anymore and turned away. It was a hard and painful expression; like someone trying to forget scenes of horror. "I'm sure, seein' me sittin' here, you've noticed how many scars I have." He sighed "I was alive and fighting during the whole damn war, along with a couple dozen other people kind of like me." he sighed again, appearing suddenly tired. "Unfortunately, the end of the war came because one of my dearest friends gave his life in order to practically destroy the enemy's central power source." He brought a hand to his right cheek, a wistful, mournful gaze in his eyes as he traced the wires stitched into either side of the stranger of the two orbs, his expression almost painful. He then snapped out of his daze, took a deep breath, and continued. "With that done, the rest of us made short work of the remaining bastards and the war was over."
He had to return the cigarette to his pocket again; this time, it had made it to his mouth. "So, me an' another good buddy of mine created the Trieen squadron. We go around to each dimension and weed out the remaining patches of enemy sources and establish peaceful connections with other dimensions capable of inter-dimensional travel. As you can see, however" he grinned, suddenly dropping the bitter cloud of hatred and sorrow that had momentarily surrounded him "sometimes, we drop by the wrong places by accident, like right now. I'm afraid I'm gonna be around for a little bit, neh…?"He scratched the back of his head nervously, grinning awkwardly but cheekily all the same.
--
Meeting Stingchu, Harry decided, made up for being isolated from the magical world for so long. He had told the alien his life story, including the part about his scar (Stingchu had commented that he'd sensed a story behind the mark). It was well into the night when Harry finished his story about his first year at Hogwarts. "Sounds like you led a pretty exciting first year at magic school." Harry grinned "Hearin' you talk about the 'Wizarding World', I've got to say that you Vizors have done a pretty good job for yourselves, but it looks like no one's really trying alchemy yet, neh?"
"Alchemy? Wha-oh, never mind, I don't want to know." Stingchu had, in between some of the more boring parts of his story, filled Harry's mind with enough new, fantastic ideas that the young wizard had a feeling his head would explode.
"So, how are your friends Ron and Hermione now?" Harry stiffened at the reminder that the two people he considered his friends had still not written.
"I don't know."
"Eh?" noticing Harry's suddenly stiff expression, Stingchu couldn't help but be concerned. "What's wrong?" Harry put his head in his hands, sighing.
"I haven't gotten any letters from them. Even today, on my birthday…" Stingchu gasped, shocked.
"Your birthday?" he was wide-eyed at the information and he all but flung his backpack off, opening the main compartment and rummaging through it. As he rifled through the items within, he muttered their names aloud to himself. "I know it's in here somewhere…mission reports…grenade, energy whip…ouch!" He withdrew his hand momentarily, revealing a small cut "fucking kyogetsu-shoge; I thought I left that home. Would've been useful to have known it was there earlier…" he grumbled from around his finger which was now in his mouth to stop the bleeding as he rummaged through the bag with his other hand, now more carefully knowing that whatever sharp object that had injured his finger was in there. "Hm…flare, grenade…condom…grenade…gren-…why the hell did I bring so many grenades?" He looked into the seemingly innocent back pack, unaware of the mortified stare Harry was giving him.
'Condoms and grenades,' Harry thought to himself 'who the bloody Hell carries around both condoms and grenades in the same bag compartment…?' Obviously, Stingchu did, and at the moment, he seemed to have found what he was looking for and took it out of his bag.
It was an oval, metal object about the size of a very large rock. Harry had to wonder, looking at its substantial size, how Stingchu could've missed it (no matter how many grenades there were); it was a bit eye catching, seeing as how it was a brilliant silver and was glowing a soft white, illuminating the room slightly. Stingchu brushed some nonexistent dust off of it, placing it beside him on the bed, revealing that the oval had four stubby little 'legs' which would probably hold it up off the ground. Stingchu also pulled a thin, blue book out of the bag and then closed the back pack and put it on the bed, sliding off the bed to sit on the floor, and motioning for Harry to join him.
Sitting across from Stingchu on the floorboards, the oval between them, Harry waited patiently as Stingchu read the book, muttering a strange language under his breath, his long black ears twitching every so often. Harry gazed at the cover of the book, but was unable to decipher the curvy symbols on it, and guessed that it had to be some sort of alien language. After a few moments of patiently waiting, Stingchu exclaimed "aha!"
"What is it?" Harry asked, intrigued by the object.
"Just wait a moment" Stingchu said, winking, and then turned to the object and spoke in a commanding voice "kirshav vlksci, marlkijugridle." As if he had said some kind of demented secret password, the object hummed to life.
"Nakato" the device said, its tone robotic "flgjashi kmyto. Jivlghin lnji?"
"Flt" Harry had no idea how Stingchu managed to be speaking such complicated words, but he was and was obviously replying an affirmative to the device, nodding. "English, please." Harry was startled by the sudden language change.
"Request confirmed" the device replied "language set to English. Is this the owner?" Harry stared and stared at the object, unable to keep his jaw from hitting the floor.
"No," Stingchu replied "the owner is Harry Potter."
"Owner Identification: Harry Potter confirmed. Please fill in the owner's profile." The side of the object facing Stingchu grew suddenly bumpy, changing shape and elevating slightly from the object's side. At the top of the object, a small hole opened up from its otherwise smooth, flawless surface and a beam of light shone into the air, widening into a rectangle. Looking at the rectangle of light, Harry read the backwards letters, seeing that the slot of 'name' had already been filled with his own name; correct spelling and everything.
"Well," Stingchu, cracking his fingers, attracted Harry's attention "I'm gonna need ya' to give me a hand with this then." He took out a watch from his back pocket, glanced at it, and then poised his fingers over the bumps in the side of the object, which had turned into a keyboard.
Taking a deep breath, Stingchu began typing furiously, not even looking at his fingers. It seemed that he was so accustomed to typing that he'd memorized the position of the keys. After a few moments, Stingchu grinned through the screen at Harry. "Well, then, what's your middle name?" Harry blinked for a moment, confused, before he realized that Stingchu was talking to him and gave a reply.
"James."
--
"Is that all?" Harry breathed, astonished at how much information Stingchu had typed in. It had been a whole 20 minutes since they had started and his legs were beginning to get cramped.
"Just one left, but don't worry about it. Now starts the fun part." Stingchu didn't ask him any question however, and filled in whatever it was himself. Hitting the enter key for the last time, the keyboard and light receded and the object was once again a smooth, untouched surface. It spoke up again.
"Owner's Profile confirmed. Please proceed to the customization section."
"Customization section?"
"Yeah, the fun part" he winked again. The object began to change once more; this time, however, it grew taller and thinner, until it no longer needed the stubby legs to hold it up, and it still grew taller! Soon it was large enough to be a mirror for the seated Harry. A light went on, illuminating Stingchu's ears, the only part of the emanchu that Harry could see over the object.
"Stingchu, what-?" All of a sudden, the light went off and he was blasted in the face by a pleasant, calm, aerial view of water. It was like flying over an ocean and looking straight down into it.
"New voice detected; identify the speaker."
"Um…Harry Potter…"
"Owner confirmed. Please, proceed to customization." The screen blinked, and suddenly, on top of the picture of water, there were three boxes labeled 'Domain 1', 'Domain 2' and 'Domain 3'.
"Uh…Stingchu…?"
"Domain 1" Stingchu replied immediately, not even having to be asked to know what Harry was looking at. Harry stared, dumbfounded, at the screen.
"Um…Domain 1…?" There was no response.
"You gotta touch the screen, kiddo" Stingchu advised.
"Oh" Harry touched the box on the screen, feeling rather foolish as he watched a ripple appeared under his finger, spreading out across the screen. As it passed across the screen, the boxes disappeared and another two boxes appeared with a question above them. It said 'is your home dimension a common dimension?'
"Yes" Stingchu said immediately, as if sensing the oncoming question. Harry touched the appropriate box again and 30 others popped up with the statement 'please identify your dimension'. "Multi-Cultural, Multi-Universal, Mammalian, Carbon" Harry had to wonder if his new alien friend was telepathic or not; it was starting to freak him out… Nevertheless, he scrolled down and found the box, which opened up into another list asking for the name of his galaxy.
It was a very long list this time, and Harry found that he had to scroll down quite a ways to find the Milky Way. As soon as he had, though, an even longer list popped up, which worried him. Exactly how many planets were there? He found Earth after a while though, and it rippled again, with only 4 boxes opening up; 'Technological', 'Alchemical', 'Tribal' and 'Other'. Harry, not seeing magic anywhere, pressed 'Other'.
"Please identify state of Earth." the machine requested.
"Vizor and Human inhabited, Dual World, Separate Human and Dominant Magical Society." Stingchu said simply. The machine was silent for a moment.
"Launching probe…10…9…8…" Stingchu looked a bit concerned, looking around the screen at Harry.
"Your planet's not very well known to the other dimensions, is it?" Harry just gave him a confused look, and Stingchu sighed. "Never mind" at that moment, a small, metal ball, barely the size of a pebble, emerged from the side of the screen, levitating out the window.
It was at this moment that Harry realized that the window was open and that Hedwig was missing. Her cage door was opened and the lock lay on the floor, crushed into pieces with the loop ripped off the main body. He gave Stingchu a piercing look, to which the furry alien acted like he didn't see.
"Stingchu? Where's my owl?" Stingchu blinked, as if he didn't know what Harry was talking about, and then his face lit up in realization.
"Oh!! You mean that beautiful snowy owl that was in here?" Harry nodded "well, I let her out; she looked pretty miserable all couped up and she looked like a nice owl, so…" Harry smiled at him.
"Stingchu, you've no idea how much you've just helped me…" He just smiled back at his human companion, nodding. It was at that moment that they heard a faint 'boom' in the distance. "What…was…?"
"You know that itty bitty little thing that just floated out the window?" Harry nodded "it was a probe. It just passed the sound barrier and will completely scan the entire planet, all of it, including the magical part, at the speed of light, and return in approximately 5 minutes." Harry's jaw dropped at the absurdity of what he'd just been told.
"You mean to tell me that little thing…?" he pointed out the window and Stingchu nodded "and it can…?" Another nod, and Harry slumped, his chin in his hand. "This is too bloody much…"
--
"Scan complete, please continue customization."
"Say, Stingchu, I don't think you ever told me what this is…" There was no reply from the yellow alien, who acted like he'd never been asked the question. "Stingchu?" Harry sighed, realizing that no answer was going to come. "Will you at least tell me what this customization is supposed to do?"
"It's going to turn into whatever you want it to." There was a brief pause as Harry mulled this over.
"Wicked…" He saw two choices on the screen now; 'humanoid' and 'animal'. He chose animal, knowing almost exactly what he wanted. Stingchu had, by now, come to sit next to Harry and watched the young wizard glide through a list of mythical creatures until choosing…
"A dragon, eh?" Harry nodded, but paused.
"This thing won't grow to-"
"Nah, you'll be stuck with somethin' real chibi-like. Small enough to tuck into your shirt…though there is that guardian function…" He trailed off after that, and Harry turned to see what had shut him up so suddenly.
"Guardian function?" It was no use; Stingchu was lost to the world, the oddest little, slightly thoughtful, expression on his face as he stared into the distance. Harry blinked at the behavior in confusion before shrugging and turning back to the screen, customizing the creature so that it had four legs, a pair of wings, a long tail and two horns that curved back along its head.
"May I, perhaps, make a suggestion?" Stingchu suddenly asked as Harry was about to skip over to color, obviously emerging from his trance. Pausing, Harry thought for a moment.
"Sure, why not?" Stingchu, at the small statement, looked at the dragon a moment, before making his decision.
"Put feathers at the elbows, and at its temples" he thought for a moment as Harry did so "and put hair on his head. Make the hair look like yours, and trail it along its back to make a tuft at the tip of its tail." He looked at the picture "yeah, like that."
"Hm…I kind of like how that looks…thanks."
"No problem, chibi" Stingchu replied, ruffling Harry's hair affectionately. Harry gave him an odd, slightly irritated look before turning back to the screen. Switching to color, Harry turned the claws black, as well as the hair, since Stingchu had told him to make it look like his. At that point, however, he was stumped. "Stuck?" Stingchu inquired, after noticing Harry's almost frustrated expression.
Harry nodded, and Stingchu stood, walking over to the window, and grabbed something out of one of the smaller compartments of his bag. It was small and cylindrical. Stingchu pointed it at the sky, one end to his left eye. He took a few moments just moving it around the night sky, to the curiosity of Harry, before he exclaimed "aha!" A small click resounded, identifying the object as a camera, and the emanchu padded back over to the screen. "Cable uplink to a CTSC version 2, please" he said to the object and a small knob formed at the side of the screen. Pulling on it, a cable emerged and Stingchu attached the plug into a socket on the side of the cylinder.
A small window opened on the side of the screen. "How about that?" he asked. Looking closer, Harry couldn't quite make out what was depicted among the night sky's stars.
"I don't know, let me see…" He touched the window, selected the area he wanted it to be on the dragon, and watched as the dragon's top scales turned into the night sky. On either side of the dragon, depicted like racing stripes…was the Milky Way. "Perfect, mate…" Harry muttered, amazed at the vision of color on the dragon's side. "I think I can take it from here, though…" he smiled at the emanchu, and went back to work, giving the dragon's underbelly and the wings' membranes a solid black color. He then added a splash of luminosity to the creature by giving it bright, baby blue eyes.
"Form Selected. Please complete profile" the machine piped up.
"What now?" Harry asked, looking to Stingchu.
"You choose a gender, customize personality and behavior and other such little traits, but more importantly, now you name it."
"Name it?" Stingchu nodded.
"Surely, you wouldn't like to call it 'Flgjashi' all the time?" Harry stared at the older alien for a moment, somewhat caught off guard by the sudden lapse into gibberish and at the bluntness of his question.
"Definitely not…I can't even pronounce that…well…I think I've got the right idea…" Turning back to the screen to see that the keyboard was back, Harry typed in the dragon's name.
"Galaxy, neh?" Harry nodded at Stingchu's inquiry, and then started choosing the dragon's other specifics. Stingchu looked on, his smile getting wider and wider at the young Vizor's choices.
--
"Please stand by for reset and birth." The object turned back into the oval, only now it no longer had the stubby legs and looked a lot like an actual dragon egg. It was humming softly, emitting a sort of 'om' sound. Harry blinked in confusion, turning to Stingchu.
"So, how long does this take?" he asked, curious.
"About 10 minutes. At this point, it's running the personality into every part of its CPU core. That way it can turn its exoskeleton, its memory banks and the majority of its processing hardware into an organic substance without losing any of the data we inputted as well as input the personality you constructed. Basically, it's really being born; it's kind of like a nicer version of artificial intelligence that has a conscience." They both then turned to stare at the egg, which was still humming.
"So…" Harry said, trying to fill the silence.
"Hm…"
"Well…what now?"
"We wait…quietly…" Harry turned to the alien in slight shock; had Stingchu just politely told him to shut up? Stingchu pretended that he didn't notice the flabbergasted look coming from the human beside him though, staring down at the glowing oval, chin in hand. Harry just shook his head and copied the pose, staring at the glowing orb.
--
Sure enough, 10 minutes later, a large crack formed in the object's side and in a matter of moments, the entire thing burst into pieces, revealing the dragon Harry had just created on the screen. The pieces of the 'shell' evaporated into nothingness, leaving only the small dragon, lying in a prostrate, spread-eagle position on the floor, its eyes closed. It was twitching; muttering in an indiscernible language that Harry could've sworn was made up of only clicks, beeps and whirs.
Next to him, Stingchu was twitching slightly. Then, as the wait grew unbearable for the emanchu, he removed his katana from his belt and nudged the dragon with the tip of the sheath. "Wake up, lazy ass…" The dragon stirred at the gentle prodding, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'go away'. Eye twitching, Stingchu whacked the creature violently with the sheathed blade, making Harry jump in shock at the sudden burst of hostility. "WAKE UP!!" Snapping awake, the little dragon spit a small burst of fire in Stingchu's direction, leaping back.
"What the fucking HELL?!" It yelped, a frazzled expression on its face.
"You were taking too long." Stingchu replied, once again completely calm now that the dragon had woken up "you're lucky I didn't swing harder…" He threatened at the defiant gleam in the dragon's eye, shaking a reproving finger at it. The dragon leaped onto Harry's shoulder, looping his serpentine form around the back of Harry's neck and sticking his tongue out at the menacing emanchu. Harry laughed, enjoying the sensation of the small creature's comforting weight on his shoulders.
"Happy Birthday Harry" Stingchu drawled as Galaxy the Mecha-Organic Chibi Dragon smiled up at him cheekily, bolder now that he was safely clinging to his owner's shoulders. Then, there was a loud 'pop' sound and a small cloud of smoke appeared in the room, followed by the strangest creature, besides Stingchu, that Harry had ever seen.
The creature had large, bat-like ears, huge eyes, a long nose, and was dressed in what looked like a pillowcase that had holes for its arms and legs. It was currently looking down the long, polished, metallic surface of Stingchu's drawn katana which the emanchu was pointing at him, looking fit to kill at the slightest of provocations. There was a brief moment during which the room was heavy with the sense of danger and the little house elf looked ready to faint before Stingchu blinked, relaxing as he saw that the little thing was not a threat. He returned the dangerous blade to its saya (sheath), before smiling gently at the creature, crouching down to its eye level. "Sorry little guy" Stingchu said "I didn't mean to scare ya; I'm just not keen on folks appearing out of nowhere so suddenly…"
"Dobby didn't mean to upset you, sir" the little house elf said, bowing. "It's just that he must speak to Harry Potter, sir." Galaxy, instead of retorting to the simple statement with words, chirped in a way that could almost be described as sarcastic. Stingchu rolled his eyes at the quip only he could understand, before turning back to the still stunned house elf.
"Take a load off, little fella" he said, waving a hand in the air before leaning against the dresser in Harry's room. Dobby looked confused a moment before Harry explained.
"Have a seat" Harry translated for the little creature…although when the little house elf's eyes started tearing up, he had to wonder if he'd done something wrong. Stingchu moved before Harry had even realized that Dobby was about to cry. In milliseconds there was a small, rectangular piece of paper on Dobby's forehead. It had strange symbols on it, but overall looked useless…until Harry realized that it was glowing green and that there was no sound coming from Dobby's wailing mouth.
"That would've been bad…" Stingchu muttered tensely, staring at the floorboards as if seeing through them, both his ears looking stiffer than usual. Harry simply nodded, patting Galaxy as the little dragon sighed in relief.
--
"My name is Dobby, sir, just Dobby, Dobby the house-elf."
"Oh, so you're a house-elf?" Stingchu smiled, showing off his fangs "well that tells me only less than nothing…" he deadpanned, speaking through the clenched smile. Hurriedly, Dobby explained what house-elves were, sensing Stingchu's displeasure. Harry listened as well, but kept glancing at Stingchu, still a bit confused by the suddenly moody behavior he'd developed.
Then again, seeing Dobby trying to beat himself up again after something he'd said would get on anyone's nerves. Somehow, within the split second Stingchu had realized what Dobby was about to do, he'd reattached the paper to Dobby's forehead and, at the same time, gotten the little elf into a headlock. Eventually, Dobby slumped against the emanchu's steely hold and Stingchu dropped him on the bed like a sack of potatoes with a vehement huff. "I'm going to say it only once" Stingchu warned, drawing himself together in such a manner that he suddenly looked infinitely more commanding "you are never to hurt yourself in my presence, ever again." Dobby looked about ready to sob again, but nodded sheepishly and the paper was removed with a snappy motion "good." He stated firmly, as if cementing some sort of alliance.
"Er…Dobby?" The little house-elf turned to Harry at the inquiry "you said that your family makes you punish yourself a lot. If it's that bad, then why don't you just run away?" Dobby seemed melancholy by the reminder.
"A house-elf can not have freedom unless he is set free, sir, unless he is given clothes, and the family will never set Dobby free… Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir…"
"I knew it…" Stingchu muttered crossly, his brows drawn together in a stern expression "I knew there was something funny going on here…" He sighed "great, political corruption…probably nobility mixed in too, and where nobility goes, aristocracy follows" he sighed "man, I really need a cigarette…" Galaxy clicked sarcastically, earning an irritated glare from Stingchu which it ignored.
--
Stingchu was pissed, no, very pissed in fact, for three simple, annoying reasons. The first, and most important, was that he had a craving for a death stick. The second was the bright thought of having to deal with a crowd of pompous assholes in order to have any fun at all on this planet… The third, of course, was what had just happened only moments ago to young Harry Potter.
Dobby ('the little shit' Stingchu thought to himself) had tried to convince Harry to stay away from Hogwarts by holding the boy's mail hostage, something no one should to a young boy who had so obviously suffered child abuse. Stingchu knew; he'd seen it before. Next, he had chased the little elf down the stairs and, as far as he'd gathered, something traumatic happened, most likely revolving around the subject of Dobby or Galaxy, to make the two people that Harry's uncle was entertaining leave abruptly.
He left the room, irritated and fidgety and wanting a cigarette, but wanted to make sure that the young boy was alright first. He didn't know why, really. He supposed that, after raising nearly 60 children of all shapes, sizes and genders, he'd developed a certain paternal instinct for these things… Perhaps it was fortunate that he'd reached the kitchen to see what was happening, or perhaps not. The point is that it would change Harry's life forever.
A fully grown man of prodigious girth and no neck, his face all red, smacking a young, pale, very thin boy with all the power in his meaty arm. It was a sight that could make any decent being recoil in horror, but Stingchu had only two reactions when it came to child abuse; homicidal anger, or mindless fury. Unfortunately, or perhaps not depending on how one looked at it, Stingchu was feeling the latter, since his cravings weren't letting him think straight enough for cold-blooded murder at the moment.
Half a second after the back of Uncle Vernon's fist collided with Harry's cheek, Stingchu's yellow fist was deep within the fat of Vernon's belly. Not that long afterward, physics caught up and the fat bastard was sent through the kitchen wall and into the bushes outside, unconscious. Aunt Petunia screamed bloody murder at the sight as Dudley fell back on his ass and backed up into a wall, whimpering. Uncle Vernon had never been stopped before, and both the fact that the emanchu had done just that, and that there was now an alien standing in the kitchen, pretty much shattered their shallow little minds. Stingchu didn't pay attention to them though. Hell, he didn't care about them; he was too busy helping Harry sit up.
Galaxy was still bristling angrily, alternating between sharply chirping or hissing in fury in the general direction where the fat man had flown. He'd been hung up chasing Dobby through a small gap between the dimensions, and had just returned in time to watch his master get hurt. The only consolation he had was that he'd returned his owner's mail, which lay at his feet as he cursed in an alien language that Stingchu didn't seem to be very familiar with…
Harry had hit his head on the way down, and flinched as the emanchu gently prodded the injured part of his head. His cheek was red and swollen, the shape of a fist glowing against his pale skin like a stop sign in daylight. Stingchu cursed quietly, harshly, as he examined the back of Harry's head, gently poking certain places close to it with the same yellow hand that he had used to punch Vernon through the wall with. Harry flinched at times, his vision spotty as certain places touched ignited in pain.
"Ouch!" He exclaimed as Stingchu's hand touched the top of his neck, cringing sharply. Stingchu snorted, shaking his head sharply.
"Fuck, that's bad." He stood up "you might have a concussion, kid, and definitely a sprained neck. I felt a pretty bad knot there…" Harry tried to stand, but his vision swam and he fell back on his ass, stopped from cracking his skull on the linoleum again by Stingchu's quick reflexes. Galaxy whined in concern at the scene. "Scratch that, definitely a concussion. Don't try to stand; it'll hurt like a bi-PUT THAT FUCKIN' PHONE DOWN, YOU BITCH!!!"
In an instant, Stingchu had gone from comforting him to yelling at Aunt Petunia, who'd grabbed the phone in what she had most likely hoped was an inadvertent way. "LIE DOWN!! WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD!!!" She stood there, stunned to pieces for a moment, in a trance, before… "NOW!!" In a flash, she was on the floor, shaking in fear and whimpering. "That's it. That's fucking it." Stingchu breathed, before turning back to Harry "kid, I'm sorry to be a jerk and demand things of you, but you're comin' with me. Is there anything you want to take with you?" Harry, who'd been staring at the surreal situation before him, jerked as he was addressed.
"Um…" Stingchu's eyes, previously mellow in his room, were now intense and focused; he didn't know how to react to that sort of severity, which made McGonagall's glares pale in comparison… "W-Well, there's my trunk, and all my wizarding things, as well as Hedwig's cage…"
"Done" Stingchu said firmly "where is your trunk and magic stuff?"
"The trunk's locked in the cupboard under the stairs. All my things are in it, including my broom…" Stingchu nodded.
"I'll be back before you can even say your full name." He then exited the door.
"Harry Jame-" Before Harry had time to sarcastically utter his own name, the door slammed open again and Stingchu breezed in, carrying his trunk, Hedwig's cage and his own backpack, all in the same hand. Behind him was a scene of destruction where the hallway used to be; it made the stairs seem dangerous to climb, not to mention what the obviously vengeful emanchu had done to the rest of the hall… Setting the things down, Stingchu slung his pack on, fastening Hedwig's cage by its loop onto one of the leather strips behind him. He used the other two strips to tie his trunk on.
"Feng Shedun" He uttered, and the crates and cage levitated, much to everyone's surprise (even Harry's), into the air. "Galaxy, up" he called, patting his left shoulder. To Harry's surprise, the little dragon obeyed. Then, as if it was a habit of his, Stingchu bent down next to Harry, uttered a small apology, and slung the young boy over his other shoulder, fleeing through the hole in the wall, the cage and the trunk following him as he disappeared into the night, swallowed by the shadows.
Author's Notes: There you have it? So, how was it? Good, bad, boring? For anyone noticing non-British language in Harry's speech, now and in the future, don't be afraid to notify me. I don't bite...much... Anyhow, be sure to keep your criticisms honest and supportive, as those kinds make me a better writer!