Since I forgot last chapter, I'll put my disclaimer here:

I, Ryuus2, hereby disclaim ownership of the characters and items unique to the Harry Potter and Kingdom Hears franchises. They are the properties of their creators and are in no way my own. I do, however, claim full rights to the plot of this story and to the items -especially keyblades- that I have invented for it. I make no profit from this writing. This disclaimer applies to the story as a whole and will not appear again later.

This chapter pics up right where the last one left off.

Finding the Path

Harry warily walked out onto the new mosaic. He saw the door disappearing behind him out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it in favor of the four pools of darkness that were slowly rising in front of him. The differences between these four creatures and the three before were readily apparent. Where the ones before had been squat and insect like, these ones were all quite small and conical. The tops of their bodies flared outward and formed jagged collars below their spherical, pitch black heads. They wore yellow or orange pointed hats with jagged brims and tips that curled and bent randomly, except for one whose hat was stuck straight up. They all had seemingly useless feet with three small, thin toes. Where the ones before were all black with yellow eyes, these were each a different color -red, blue, yellow, and emerald- and each had a strange red and black symbol of some kind on their chests. But that isn't what sent a chill down his spine.

They were, to a one, floating. There was no way he'd be able to beat these ones like he beat the ones before. They all noticed him at the same time and started glowing their respective colors, causing a tingle along his arms that Harry vaguely recognized as active magic, a lot of it, before they each released a different elemental burst at Harry.

You could say that this was the straw that broke the camel's back. As the blasts of Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Wind came soaring at him, Harry came to a decision. He had had enough of running away. This time, he would fight...just as soon as he was done running and dodging the attacks headed his way!

He jumped left to dodge the blasts of Lightning and Ice and rolled away from the Fire blast. But he couldn't dodge the Wind burst, so he got in a kneel facing the attack and braced his shield. Unlike his first attempt earlier, this time his stance was firm enough to handle the attack without knocking him over. Before his opponents could react, he stood and charged shield-first at the nearest monster, the red one. His surprise attack worked, and he rammed the little monster so hard it went flying out into the darkness. When the backward momentum died, the monster made an angry jingling noise then sent a blast of Fire right back at Harry, who ducked in time to dodge the attack, but left the blue monster behind him completely open to the attack by its fellow.

Harry was angry, frustrated, and desperate. So Harry did something stupid and desperate: he angrily threw the shield at it like a frisbee. It was something he'd seen in one of Dudley's imported comics, and he immediately realized how dumb an idea it was. With one throw he had removed his only effective defense against the monster, who was probably just going to float over the shield and let it go flying into the dark oblivion.

You can imagine how shocked Harry was when the shield smacked it dead on and ricocheted right back to him. He was so surprised that he nearly dropped the shield as he fumbled to catch it. Remembering the monster he was fighting, he looked up to find it floating dazedly. Before he could think much on it he had to jump away from another burst of Wind and Lightning. Anticipating another attack, he turned and took a much weaker blast of Ice then he expected on his shield. He looked up and was surprised to find the now-charred blue monster floating haggardly in front of him.

"Apparently these things can hurt each other," he thought. That gave him an idea. A very stupid, very dangerous idea that would have had Hermione reaching for the largest book she could find to beat him with until he promised to never do anything like it again if she were there. But she wasn't, so Harry started the most dangerous game of Chicken in his life. He would wait until one of the monsters stopped to charge an attack, then start running at another one only to dodge at the last second, all the while praying that he'd be able to dodge the attack he knew was coming on time, as well as whatever the other three might throw at him.

His plan went about as well as he thought it would -meaning that he was equal parts burnt, chilled, shocked and windswept after only a few attempts- but it was working. After only a few minutes the monsters had already whittled themselves down to one, at which point Harry realized the one glaring flaw with his plan. With all the other monsters destroyed, how was he supposed to get rid of the last one?

He carefully studied his remaining opponent, looking for an opening to do, well, anything. It was the red one with the curly yellow hat he'd attacked at the start. It was bobbing along slowly on the other side of the platform. It seemed to have learned its lesson about letting Harry get in close and had decided to increase its elevation. Not for the first time Harry wished he'd learned a combat spell other than Expelliarmus, which was only really useful against armed, grounded opponents. Being able to shoot fireballs or stun things would be really useful right about now. Something about that thought resonated with him, and as he jumped away from another fireball he remembered: he had stunned this very monster at the start of the fight by throwing his shield at it. With no better options at the moment, Harry decided to try for a repeat performance.

He waited for the monster to stop and charge another spell, then threw his shield at it, deftly catching his improvised weapon on the rebound. The hit stunned the monster enough that it stopped its spell, and even sunk a few feet, just low enough for Harry to reach it by jumping, which he did. He then took his shield in both hands and smashed the monster with all his might into the platform. It crashed with a resounding 'smack' and dissolved in a puff of darkness.

Harry was ready to jump for joy, but his celebration was cut short as another pair of dark portals appeared and a new team of monsters formed.

One looked like a storybook wizard. It was swathed in white-trimmed purple and violet robes from chin to floor, cinched at its waist with a gold belt. A wide brimmed violet witches hat that matched its robes sat on its head and hid its eyes. It had the same emblem on its chest as the monsters he'd just dispatched. It's robed hands gripped a yellow staff with a purple ornament on top.

The other monster looked so much like a belly dancer that he had to shake his head to force down the blush on his cheeks. It had an obviously feminine body with purple skin, glowing yellow eyes, and thin arms with large hands. Its face was almost entirely covered by a large lavender headdress that curled at the top, and the same red-and-black symbol as the others on its forehead. It was wearing a navy blue tank top, baggy purple and lavender pants, a violet cloth around its waist, and violet high-heeled shoes, all with a pale yellow lining. There were yellow wristbands on each of its wrists and a small ring of the same color on each of its index fingers. Most worrying was that it was balancing on a floating crystal ball, which made it just as dangerous as his last opponents.

When they raised their arms and started gathering power for a spell, Harry didn't hesitate. His hand flew up his sleeve and pulled out his wand, which was immediately directed at the wizard monster and followed by a powerful "Expelliarmus!" The spell had absolutely no effect on the monster, and Harry was forced to dodge-roll away from their joint ice spells. He came out of his roll and tried the disarming spell once more, this time striking the belly dancer instead of the wizard. The spell worked this time and the belly dancer was sent flying over the edge while her crystal ball rolled to a stop at Harry's feet.

Harry blocked the next spell from the wizard, this time Fire, and returned with another Expelliarmus. Harry would have screamed his frustration at the lack of results if he hadn't had to move away from a lightning spell. He would have liked to say that he dodged gracefully after all his recent experience, but the truth was he tripped over the crystal ball and the lightning spell barely missed his head. Harry rolled to his feet and decided to change tactics. Since magic wasn't working, he'd just have to try force. So like he had twice before, he flung his shield at the monster and was delighted to watch it stagger back from the hit. Thinking quickly, Harry cast Wingardium Leviosa on the nearby crystal orb and sent it crashing into the stomach of the recovering monster, knocking the staff from its hand and sending the monster over the edge into the darkness.

Again, with the defeat of the monsters a door appeared. It was a silver-trimmed green door this time, directly opposite to where the blue door had been. Before Harry moved on to the next area, he picked up the dropped Wizard's staff. The shaft was a yellow rod that thickened towards the top. At the base of the rod was a light-blue ring followed by a purple spike, with another blue ring at the top followed by a hand length of purple shaft with two protrusions that looked like bat wings framing a tennis ball-sized yellow orb. Harry gave it a few swings to test its heft and decided it would work well enough as a club against whatever he had to fight next.

Now somewhat better armed, he made his way to the new door. On his way he studied he mural beneath him. This time it was of Platform 9 3/4. The outer border was a ring made of red rail-cars. At the top was a large circle filled with the resting faces of all his closest friends: Hagrid, Ron, Hermione, Hedwig, and Neville. He smiled at them, then walked through the door.

Azkaban prison. The very name of the wizard prison was known to set many a soft-hearted magic user to shivering. Looking on the building itself, it was easy to understand why. Azkaban was built on a nameless pile of rocks in the North Sea, far enough from land that no normal creature could reach it by accident, but near enough that a vague smudge of land could be seen from the east shore on a clear day, of which there were few. The prison itself was built like a fortress, impregnable and unyielding, constructed entirely of pitch-black stone and iron. Few could face such a building with confidence in the light, fewer still in the near perpetual gloom that surrounded it.

More daunting than its physical presence was the aura of madness and despair which surrounded it. Years upon years of playing host to the worst dregs of English wizarding society, as well as the dark creatures who stood as its wardens, had stripped the area of any semblance of goodness. This was further accented by the icy, howling wind that perpetually assaulted the isle, and the deranged screeches of the more insane inmates.

This was the first sight of the newborn being who appeared on the shore through a portal of darkness. Tall, thin, pale, bald, sunken faced, red eyed, noseless, and wearing silver robes, the being looked almost like a caricature of a man. It starred up at the imposing fortress of black stone with a blank look before something seemed to click. It remembered this place, it remembered the beings that lived here, and it recognized who the screeching voices belonged to.

The Dark Lord Voldemort remembered. He smiled. It was time to play.

By now, Harry was used to the door disappearing. He ignored it. He was fully prepared for whatever this crazy place threw at him next. When nothing immediately appeared to try and kill him, though, he relaxed. Out of curiosity he glanced down to the mural beneath his feet. He was shocked to find himself staring into the stone face of Salazar Slytherin.

The floor showed the Chamber of secrets in stained glass mosaic.

The tower rumbled and a loud hissing noise filled the air. Harry spun around, looking wildly for the source of the sound. He paled when he found it. The hissing was coming from a giant, black scaled, yellow-eyed snake as it slowly raised its head over the edge of the tower. The good news was that when he stared it dead in its yellow eyes he didn't die, so at least it wasn't a basilisk. The bad news was that it was almost as big, had him cornered on a tiny platform in the middle of an endless dark void, and all he had to defend himself with was a short staff and a small shield that he dearly wished he could trade for Fawkes and the Sorting Hat right about now.

The snake head lunged at Harry. He tried to block, but with his other arm occupied with his new staff, he couldn't brace himself properly. He went flying backwards and just barely managed to grab onto the edge of the platform with one hand before he fell. He watched the wizard's staff bounce off of the snake's coils as it fell before it was lost in the darkness beneath the tower. Not letting it distract him, he pulled himself back up, just in time to dodge another lunge from the snake. When it pulled back to reorient on him, he faced it resolutely, found his footing, and braced his shield with both hands, readying himself to dodge or block the next attack.

Just as the snake lunged again, there was a bright flash, and suddenly Harry wasn't holding a shield. He was holding a keyblade.

The keyblade was much more key than blade. It was all a slate gray color and shaped very much like an old iron key. The handle was made where two rings of metal met and was wrapped in white cloth. The shaft of the weapon began immediately at the top of the handle and consisted of a single cylindrical metal rod with a thicker bulge of metal where the rod met the handle. The teeth of the key were a simple set of three rectangular bars at the far end of the shaft, with the outer teeth bent outward from the central tooth at right angles to form L-shapes. Hanging from the handle was a short length of old chain that ended with an ornate bronze shield with a large H in the center.

The shock of the keyblade appearing only stalled the snake for a moment. It quickly renewed its attack with an open-mouthed lunge that Harry barely rolled away from in time.

The head retreated and sank below the edge of the tower. Harry looked around nervously until it came up again from a different angle. This time he was ready to dodge the attack, and even managed to land a few hits as it passed, but his heart sank when they did almost no damage.

As he positioned himself to dodge the next attack, his mind was racing, desperately trying to think of a way to defeat such a monster. Inevitably, he flashed back to second year and his fight with the basilisk. He remembered clearly how he had landed the killing blow on that monster, and dreaded the fact that he had no better ideas on how to beat this one.

The next time the snake struck, Harry readied his own attack. When its jaws came rushing towards him, he jumped into its mouth and stabbed the keyblade into its palette just like he did to the basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor months before.

The snake thrashed madly for nearly a minute before it was finally able to dislodge the keyblade and spit Harry out. With an eerily human screech it fell off the tower and disappeared into the darkness.

Harry groaned as he got up after being spat out. He momentarily panicked when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, but a quick examination revealed that it was only badly bruised from the fall, not impaled by a fang like the last time he tried that particular stunt.

Remembering how his previous fights had gone, he looked around warily. When no new monsters appeared, he finally allowed himself to relax. Then his scar erupted with a searing pain. His last conscious thought before he blacked out was, "Every bloody time."

As he looked down from a balcony on the army of monsters amassed before him, Voldemort reflected on how easy it had been to conquer the wizarding prison.

The first people he encountered were the Aurors at the gate. Even without his wand, they were no match for his magical might. Then the Dementors came. They didn't recognize him as their old ally and his magic had almost no effect on them. His power reacted to his anger and summoned the darkness itself to envelop them. When the darkness retreated the Dementors had been...changed. They were still black cloaked wraiths, but now they were more cloak than being, as the gaping heart-shaped holes through the middle of their chests made clear.

He then marched through the prison with his mutated minions, recruiting anyone who would join him and feeding everyone else to the mutated Dementors. Most became ant-like creatures like the one he vaguely remembered attacking him. Other, stronger, darker inmates became larger, more humanoid versions of the others, or gaseous floating heads with constant malevolent grins. He mused for a moment on what some of the more vile members of his caucus would become if he were to feed them to the darkness, but dismissed the thought. There was always time for experimentation later, and there were more important matters to deal with at the moment. It was time to reveal himself to the world once more. And he knew just where to do it.

He pondered a moment on how best to motivate his new minions. He decided it would be best to keep it simple for now. With a flash of his dark power, he called the full attention of his new army to himself. "Tonight we march on Hogwarts!"

Yen Cid looked up from the papers he was grading while he awaited Harry's awakening when he felt a powerful dark presence appear in his office. His once-prone student was now writhing in intense agony as a funnel of dark mist sprouted from his forehead. The funnel soon transformed into a small black snake with yellow eyes. Yen Cid immediately rose and prepared a spell to destroy the creature, but before he could the serpent hissed at him and disappeared through a portal of darkness.

Yen Cid pushed the matter of the snake aside when Harry stirred. There would be time to worry about the snake after he checked on the boy. And just maybe his student could shed some light on the matter.

"Ugh, sir?" Harry groaned, sitting up.

"How are you, Mr. Potter?" he asked in his usual, but stressed, monotone.

Harry shook away the throbbing in his forehead with long practice and rubbed at the phantom pains from his dream-like journey before dismissing them as well. He'd had worse. "I think I'm okay," he finally said.

"Good. Now, tell me what happened," Yen Cid said as he returned to his desk.

Harry began his story haltingly, unsure of how to describe what he had seen and felt. When he began describing the monsters he faced, Yen Cid interrupted him.

"Heartless."

"Sir?"

"The monsters you faced were known as Heartless, the manifestation of the darkness within a person's heart, created when one's heart is consumed by that same darkness."

Harry took a moment to process that, but soon continued, more confident now that he knew what to call the monsters he'd faced. He carried on describing the various Heartless and how he handled them, omitting only his collapse after defeating the snake Heartless.

"So you were successful in finding your keyblade." It was a statement not a question, but Harry nodded confirmation anyway. "Then show me."

"Uh, how?" Harry asked, only then realizing that the weapon he had used on his short quest had vanished.

"To summon your Keyblade, you need only seek out its existence within your heart, and wish for it to be in your hand."

"That's it?" Harry asked dubiously.

His response was a single nod.

Harry closed his eyes and focused on his memory of the keyblade; its appearance, its weight in his hands, what it felt like in his grip, and how it made him feel to hold it. Once he had the memory as firmly grasped as he could, he willed the weapon to his hand. With a flash of starlight he could see through his eyelids he felt the now familiar weight of the keyblade appear and snapped his hand closed around the handle. He opened his eyes and stared in amazement at the magical weapon he'd pulled from seemingly nowhere.

His study was cut short by Collin Creevy running in, shouting "The castle is under attack!"

A/N

This chapter was a long time coming. It was very hard to get the fights right with how little Harry knows about fighting in general -and keyblades in particular- at this age, and what I wanted him to do. I'm used to an older, more self assured, more experienced Harry, so writing about one who is so innocent is going to be an experience.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Don't forget to review and tell me what I did right/wrong! How else am I going to learn?