Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Pokémon universe/worlds/characters are the property of The Pokémon Company, Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and GAME FREAK Inc. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, character bashing (all Weasleys & Hermione), alternate universe (i.e. kiss canon goodbye), OCC behaviors and personalities, and who knows what else.
AN1: The credit for the Story Prompt/Challenge used to create this one-shot goes to the Guru of Challenges; Challenge King since he was the one that inspired this plot bunny and helped revive my Pokémon-hybrid muse. See the first author's note at the top of the first chapter (prologue) for details.
AN2: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter One: A Confusing Turn of Events
October 31, 2030
Berry Meadow, Route 01
Kanto Region
Green eyes snapped open and stared at the bent and bruised blades of grass that filled their direct line of sight through the broken lenses of the glasses that were stilled perched upon the face in which said green eyes were set. After a couple of minutes, the owner of said eyes slowly sat up so that he could figure out exactly where he was. He tensed up the moment that he realized he was completely surrounded by an abundance of tall grass that blocked all but the sky and a few tree-tops from his line of sight. The unfamiliarity of his immediate surroundings was put out of his mind just two minutes later when his most recent memories, along with his name, came flooding back to him.
Harry had just five seconds to wonder why the hell he wasn't dead after being shoved through the Veil of Death before he curiously wondered where the others were and raised his voice as he called out, "Luna? Dudley? Is anyone there?"
"I'm here," Luna dreamily called after a moment. "At least I think I am. I seem to have picked up a severe Wrackspurt infection upon waking up since I do not know where here is or how I got here. I am also rather confused as to why your voice sounds so much younger than I remember you sounding like just this morning. At least I think it was just this morning."
"I feel slightly off but I don't think it's anything to worry about," Harry mused as he took stock of his body and absently noted that the injuries he'd sustained during the earlier fight were still sluggishly bleeding.
"You've always been slightly off; so that's nothing new," a voice that he thought belonged to Dudley suggested from somewhere off to the young man's right; though the voice sounded like a much younger Dudley.
"You always say the nicest things, cousin," Harry drawled a touch sarcastically even as he felt comforted by the proof that his cousin had not died after being thrown through the Veil due to a lack of magic. "By the way, how's your noggin feeling? I could have sworn I saw you get dropped on your head.
"Figures you'd take that as a compliment," Dudley retorted in amusement as he began moving through the grass in Harry's direction based on the rustle of grass moving in his direction. "And I'm mostly fine; just feeling as if my head is going to split open and as if I'd been worked over until I was nothing but a walking bruise." He would pop up in front of Harry just a few minutes later and both of them let out a startled yelp the moment they laid eyes on one another. "You look like a little kid!"
"So do you!" Harry blurted out in surprise. "You lost a whole bunch of weight too because the last time you were that small, you were almost as wide as you were tall. I should also point out that you look rather like a walking bruise too; though I think I remember you looking worse before we were tossed into the Veil."
Dudley glanced down at himself and mumbled a confused, "Huh, you're right."
"Luna, did you shrink too?" Harry asked as glanced down at his shrunken hands; shrunken hands that he had not noticed earlier when he'd been checking his injuries.
"I can't tell. I don't feel any different but I might look different."
"Why not just look at your hands and see if they've grown smaller?" Dudley suggested as he began patting himself down in an effort to make sure everything else was where it belonged and to determine how bad his injuries were.
"It is rather difficult to see anything when my eyes refuse to work. I wonder if I ran into an angry Umgubular Slashkilter recently; they have been known to aim for the eyes first when they go on a rampage."
"Are you still wearing the blindfold they put on you after we were captured?" Harry inquired as he easily ignored Luna's reference to one of her non-existent creatures.
"No, it was knocked off when we were pushed through the Veil. I think my eyes are broken. The voice in the void did ask me if I was willing to sacrifice my sight for a chance to stay with my friends. I did not think it meant my eyesight though; I thought I was giving up my ability to see the little glimpses of the possibilities that swirl around me."
"The weird voice asked me to give up half of my life and the extra weight I've been carrying around with me so that I could have a chance to be a better person," Dudley stated in a quiet voice. "It also said something about giving up any chance to go back to where I was born. Did you have to give up something too, cousin?"
"Yeah… I sacrificed half of my life, a chance to go back, and something about my emotions for a chance for you guys to be happy. I guess that means that whatever we agreed to sacrifice was taken from us."
"Half of our lives…? We were all twenty years old… so does that mean we are all ten now?" Luna inquired curiously as the two boys began heading towards her voice.
"I'd have expected the being to take half of the years we had left to live, not half of the years we'd already lived through though," Harry stated as the two boys reached Luna's side to find that she too looked like a kid and that the injuries he'd noticed on her earlier looked as if they'd completely stopped bleeding (unlike his). "And yes, it seems that you were shrunk just like us. At least our clothes shrank with us." He then noticed the milky film over her. His voice grew soft as he added, "You are also blind. I am so, so very sorry that I dragged you into this."
"Don't be; I am not. I gave up my eyes willingly so I could stay with you. I would much rather be blind and with my friends then be able to see but be all alone."
"What happens now? And where are we?" Dudley asked in order to change the topic as the two boys dropped down to sit beside Luna.
"We should probably try to find the nearest town," Harry suggested after a moment. "We need to have our injuries treated or buy the supplies to treat them ourselves and we'll need clean clothes. That's going to be the only way to figure out where we ended up. Once we know where we are, we can decide what we're going to do."
"We need to find our wands first," Luna countered with a slight frown. "Though I'm not sure how much use I will be in searching for them since I can't see any of us actually finding them and therefore can't tell you where to look."
"I should be able to just summon them using the Elder Wand," Harry replied confidently as he reached down to grab the mokeskin pouch that he kept tied to his left ankle. When his hand felt nothing but bare skin beneath his questing fingers, he sucked in a sharp breath and leaned over to stare at his bare ankle in mild surprise. Instead of getting angry or scared though, he just felt rather numb. "Or not, since my mokeskin pouch is missing and with it the Deathly Hallows and my money. Oh well, better to have lost it in the Veil than to have left it in the hands of idiots."
"Or it fell off either when we landed wherever we are or when we were walking through the grass," Dudley pointed out as he climbed to his feet and dug through his pockets for a moment. "My pockets are empty as well; which means I lost my keys, my phone, and the loose change I had on me when we were thrown through that weird curtain thingy."
"Come on then, Dudders; the two of us might as well start searching through the grass for our missing things. Luna, you wait here so we can find our way back to our starting point if we get lost in the grass."
Over the course of the next two hours, Harry and Dudley would find roughly six thousand gold coins that almost looked like galleons but instead had large 'P's inscribed on one side and an assortment of strange looking creatures on the other side. They had also found three solid black balls that were about the size of a golf ball with the symbol of the Deathly Hallows drawn in white around a silver button and another three balls that were white with an electric blue swirl pattern that wrapped around the entire ball and a one inch silver star centered over a black button. There had been no sign of the missing wands, the Deathly Hallows, Harry's mokeskin pouch, or Dudley's things.
Everything they found was hauled back to where Luna was sitting so they could study them.
Their reasoning? The coins were an obvious form of currency and they would need the money to survive when they reached the nearest town. The strange balls gave off magical auras and Harry suspected that the black ones might have something to do with the missing Hallows because of the familiar symbol engraved upon them.
As they worked, the two boys had seen a number of strange creatures (most of them appearing to be cat-sized purple rats or small bird-like creatures) but they had all fled the moment that either boy approached them. Unknown to the two boys, the behavior of the creatures was actually out of character and entirely due to the aura of death that clung to them from their trip through the Veil of Death. That dark aura would slowly fade over the course of the next two days until it vanished entirely.
After two hours of searching, Dudley and Harry returned to Luna's side to inspect their finds and decide whether they would stay where they were for another couple of days in order to search for their missing things or if they should just write them off as permanently lost and head to the nearest town. The first thing they addressed was the money they had found; the three of them dividing the coins up evenly so that if they got separated, they would all have some money on hand to buy themselves food. The money was secured in makeshift pouches they made from the hem of Harry's robes and strung on thin cords made from braided blades of long grass so they could belt them around their waists since their pockets were too small to hold more than a handful of coins total.
That just left the six strange balls left to inspect.
Luna was the first one to figure out that the buttons in the middle of the balls caused them to grow to the size of croquet ball. A second push of the button caused them to split in half and spill out a strange creature in a beam of red light. The one she opened had been one of the white and blue balls that she'd been drawn to from the moment Dudley had set it down in the grass beside her. The creature that had spilled out of the ball looked like a cross between a ball and a pig with a spring like tail that it continuously bounced on. The little creature glanced around at them once before it locked eyes with Luna and simply stared at her for a full minute before it bounced up to her and nudged her knee.
While Luna cooed over the curious little creature (her fingers eagerly tracing the creature's features in order to 'see' what it looked like), Harry studied it in an effort to figure out what it was; aside from the fact that it was magical, since it was obviously not a normal pig. The animal was pink like a normal pig but it had no hind legs, stubby little front legs that were too short to reach the ground, was about the size of a football, and had a large black pearl balanced between its ears. Around its neck, the pig-like animal wore a black collar with a polished wooden tag.
Thinking that the other two blue and white balls also held pig-like creatures, Harry picked up the one that felt almost familiar to him before he passed the last one to Dudley. He then clicked the button on the ball he held and watched as a lion cub appeared in a beam of red light instead.
Its fur was a uniform light tan in color with a white splotch (almost like a face mask) covering its lower face, four white socks on its feet, white tipped ears, white tuft of fur on its tail, and a pink nose. Its eyes were a vibrant emerald green with white pupils that made the color of its irises stand out sharply. It also had a tuft of flames growing on the top of its head like a tuft of fur. And it too wore a black collar with a wooden tag
If there had been any doubt that the two creatures were magical, the living flame on the cub's head would have put them to rest.
The new cub stalked right up to Harry and climbed into his lap without an ounce of fear. Harry wasn't bothered in the least by the creature's boldness or by the flames on its head. After studying the brave creature for a couple of minutes, he began scratching the cub behind the ears and it let out a loud, rumbling purr as it rolled over onto its back. Harry grinned as he rubbed the friendly cub's belly (absently noting the creature was male) before he leaned down to take a closer look at the wooden tag on the cub's collar. He was a bit shocked when he realized that the tag was made from holly wood and that the magic radiating from it felt like the magic of his holly wand.
"Hey, Luna; what do you feel when you touch the wooden tag on the pig-like critter's collar?"
"It reminds me of my wand, why?"
"The tag on the collar that this cub is wearing reminds me of my wand. What do you think that means?"
"I don't know."
"It means you belong to me," the little male cub rumbled as he caught hold of Harry's hand with his paws and licked his fingers.
Harry froze in shock at hearing the cub speak before he let out a snort of amusement and relaxed. It was obviously a magical creature; so, of course it talked. He just didn't realize that it wasn't speaking English since he was too wrapped up in giving the creature the affection it seemed to crave from him.
"What kind of creature are you and where did you come from?" Harry inquired as he playfully tickled the cub's chin.
"I am a Lion Cub Pokémon called a Litleo and you brought me with you."
"Is Litleo your name?"
"No, it is what I am, my species; like you are a human. You have not yet given me a name."
"What exactly is a Pokémon?"
"Pokémon are special creatures that inhabit this world and we are sort of like the magical creatures of our old world but different. The Pokémon with the girl is a Spoink; the Bounce Pokémon."
"Harry, are you alright? You're talking really weird," Dudley interrupted at that point as he stared at Harry and the lion cub on his lap.
"Huh? What do you mean? I was just talking to the Litleo curled up on my lap."
"No, you were saying weird things that sounded like 'lit lit leo litleo leo' or something like that and it was saying the same stuff back to you."
"But… but he was talking to me in English."
"Parseltongue," Luna corrected in a sing-song voice.
"But he's not a snake; he's a Pokémon."
"What's a Pokémon?" Dudley asked as he glanced at Harry in confusion.
"That's what these creatures are; Pokémon. This one with me is a Litleo; the Lion Cub Pokémon and the one with Luna is a Spoink; the Bounce Pokémon. What makes you think that I was speaking parseltongue, Luna?"
"Since I woke up here, I have seen that there are two types of animals that live here; normal earth-like creatures and these Pokémon creatures," Luna stated in a measured tone that lacked the usual dreamy quality. "Pokémon are the magical creatures of this world. Our magic was changed when we fell through the Veil so that it was compatible with this world's magic; meaning that your ability to speak to snakes and serpents was most likely changed into an ability to speak to Pokémon. I suspect that you will no longer be able to speak to or understand normal snakes now; since they will lack the magic necessary to communicate with you."
"Oh, I suppose that actually makes sense. Thank you for explaining, Luna."
"You're welcome, Harry."
"So, Big D; are you ever going to open that ball and see what's inside?"
"I guess… are you sure one of you shouldn't take it though? I mean, you two are the ones with magic."
"You have magic in this world too and the Pokémon inside of that ball was meant for you," Luna countered with her usual dreamy tone as she smiled in Dudley's direction.
"Oh. How do you know that?"
"I can see the magic in your soul now and I see you with a companion."
"That has to be weird," Dudley commented as he clicked the button and released a Pokémon that looked nothing like a lion cub or a pig. Or any other creature that the three of them had ever seen. In fact, the creature looked more like a gold and light blue doorknob with a ring of keys stuck to it than an actual animal. "I think I found my missing keys."
"And a sense of humor," Harry quipped playfully.
"Hardy, har, har; funny, cousin. What exactly is it?"
"That's a Klefki," the Litleo on Harry's lap stated as it rolled over and sat up to study the newly released Pokémon.
"Did it tell you what this one is?" Dudley asked as the odd animal that was currently circling around his head while jangling the keys on its ring. "And what it's supposed to do?"
"He called it a Klefki but I have no clue what it's supposed to do."
"They are troublesome Pokémon that like to steal keys."
"Finders ~ keepers," the Klefki sing-sang as it gave a particularly sharp shake of the handful of keys that were strung on the key ring.
"You know, there's probably a joke or a pun that starts like this. It's a talking knob, for crying out loud. And I'm not even going to touch the fact that it came out of a blue ball," Dudley complained as he eyed the strange looking creature.
Silence fell over the trio of de-aged and displaced Englishmen before all three of them burst out laughing in response to Dudley's somewhat crass observations. If two-thirds of the laughter soon began to sound more like sobs, well, Harry wasn't about to call the others out on it; the three of them had just been torn from their lives, after all. He did wonder why he didn't feel as torn up about their displacement as the others did but didn't dwell on the matter for long. Sometime later, the three of them fell silent as they got lost in their thoughts.
"What do we do with these guys now? And what about the other balls?" Dudley asked after another half hour of silence had passed.
"No clue," Harry replied tiredly as he glanced in Dudley's direction before he eyed the symbol of the Deathly Hallows that he could make out on the closest ball.
"You could return us to our PokéBalls if you do not need our help right now," the Litleo suggested from Harry's lap.
"What's a PokéBall?"
"A PokéBall is a device that is used to store Pokémon. There are different colors and types of PokéBalls that can be used and some have special features that make them desirable to Pokémon Trainers. Because we were not originally of this world, our PokéBalls are different than normal PokéBalls since they carry traces of your magic. My PokéBall is the blue and white ball that you released me from earlier."
"What did he say?" Dudley asked the moment the Litleo fell silent.
"He said we could put them back in funny little balls we released them from; only he called them PokéBalls."
"If the blue and white ones had these guys in them, does that mean the black ones have more creatures too?"
"I suppose it's possible," Harry agreed as he carefully considered the black balls.
"The Pokémon contained in those PokéBalls are far stronger than me," the Litleo stated as he shuddered. "They were born from the remnants of the death magic that clung to the Deathly Hallows."
"How do you know that?"
"I was your loyal companion for nine years and you used the Elder Wand to fix me before we were thrown through the Veil; I know all that you know of magic and the Hallows. I was also given the knowledge to guide you in this world in order to help you adjust to your new life and to protect you from the dangers that are found in this world. Just as the Spoink was meant to help your companion."
"Did you just imply that you used to be my holly wand?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes, all magical objects that pass through the Veil into this world are turned into Pokémon; the magic they once held fueling their new life. There are exceptions; such as the money you were carrying. Some of it became Pokémon, some of it was lost in the Void between Worlds, and the rest was transformed into this world's currency. You also lost some to those wild Pokémon that are attracted to shiny things and overlooked those that had fallen into hard to reach places. The other magical items you brought with you were changed into Pokémon as well and they were scattered about the lands as only those with strong attachments to your and your companions, like me, stayed with you."
"Why did Dudley's keys turn into a Pokémon then? His keys weren't magical."
"There was a cursed key mixed in with the other keys and he was wearing magical ropes when he was pushed through the Veil."
"So, when you said that the Pokémon in the black PokéBalls were created from the Hallows… does that mean that the Hallows were turned into Pokémon like you?"
"Yes."
"What am I supposed to do with them?"
"Whatever you wish so long as you do not attempt to set them free for their power is easily corrupted. Since you were their master and you were the one who brought them to this world, you are ultimately responsible for seeing to it that they are not abused and that their power does not fall into the wrong hands."
"Oh," Harry numbly muttered to himself as he reached out to snag one of the foreboding PokéBalls; a small part of him wondering why he wasn't frightened or at least worried to learn that the Hallows had been turned into powerful sentient creatures.
"What did you learn?" Dudley asked warily as he eyed the two PokéBalls on the ground before he gave the one in Harry's hand the same treatment.
"That all magical items that pass through the Veil are transformed into Pokémon. The cub insists that he used to be my wand and that Luna's wand was the Spoink. And it turns out that your keys were in fact the Klefki you now own; there was a cursed key on your key ring. The Deathly Hallows were also transformed; they're inside of the black PokéBalls."
"Daddy will no doubt regret the loss of the Deathly Hallows once he learns they no longer exist in our old world," Luna lamented sadly. "It is probably for the best though; Daddy wished to claim them for all the wrong reasons and he would have tormented himself needlessly."
"What are you thinking about doing with those?" Dudley inquired a touch nervously; his old fear of magic still present despite the fact that he'd grown comfortable with Harry and Luna after living with them and Neville for quite some time before their refuge had been invaded.
"Well, I was thinking that since there are three of us, it would make far more sense for each of us to take one of them and that way the power of the Hallows wouldn't be sitting in just one person's hands."
"Are you sure that is safe?" Luna asked in a cautious tone.
"I trust both of you."
"How are you going to pick who gets which one?"
"I will keep this one," Harry stated as he noted the way the line bisecting the circle and triangle on the Deathly Hallow symbol seemed to glow gold as he held it in his hand. He suspected that the glowing line meant that the Pokémon contained inside was formed from the Elder Wand due to the fact that the line was meant to represent the wand.
"I will take this one then," Luna announced as she seemingly grabbed one of the remaining two at random and Harry caught a small flash of the circle on the symbol glowing gold; Luna had chosen the Pokémon that had once been the Resurrection Stone.
That left Dudley with the former Invisibility Cloak. And despite the fact that the Cloak had been something of a family heirloom, Harry found that he didn't mind his cousin taking care of that item. It was the least harmful out of the three Hallows and therefore the one that would be least likely to give the (apparently) former muggle a hard time.
This time, Dudley was the first one to release the Pokémon contained inside of the dark PokéBall he'd ended up with and the light beam released the creature into the air above the trio. The once pudgy boy screamed like a little girl two seconds later when the creature swooped at him while letting loose a creepy, crying scream. Dudley then automatically punched the Pokémon out of fear and the creature's cry changed from spooky to pained as it immediately fled from Dudley and ended up plastering itself to Harry's chest as it shook and shivered.
Dudley then tossed the empty PokéBall at Harry as he blurted out, "I don't want that one! I don't want either of the others either if they're going to jump out at me like that every time I let them out! Keep them both! I'm perfectly happy with my Keys."
Harry just nodded absently as he studied the Pokémon glued to his chest. This creature had a distinctly human cast to its features; a round face, long flowing silvery-blue hair streaked with gold, and what looked like a necklace made up of red crystal beads. At the same time, there was an inhuman quality to the creature; the way it lacked visible arms and legs, the silvery-blue color of its formless body (the color reminding him of the ghosts in Hogwarts), and the strange red and yellow eyes. It looked very much like the ghost of a child that had been drawn by a child.
After he finished studying the Pokémon, Harry pushed the button on the empty PokéBall and returned the creature to its PokéBall for the time being. He then tucked both Deathly PokéBalls into his pocket so they wouldn't get lost. The green-eyed man turned boy had no wish to unleash the reincarnation of the Wand if the former Cloak was that scary; not that he had felt the least bit frightened by the creature.
Luna had no such reservations though and she promptly released the former Resurrection Stone. Instead of a flying ghost-like Pokémon, a small round Pokémon that looked more like a ball than an animal appeared in the beam of red light. It wasn't until the thing turned around that Harry could see that it was some kind of bird. Its coloring was mostly pale green with black and light orange accents on its wings. Its tail feathers, the single feather that stuck up straight from the center of its head, and its feet were also pale orange. Its eyes were a bright red with black pupils and white sclera and it had a sharp looking yellow beak.
Overall, it was a rather cute and surprisingly calm when compared to the other Pokémon they'd released. It was also surprisingly tolerant of Luna's gentle probing as she tried to 'see' the bird with her hands. Harry didn't make the mistake of thinking the bird was harmless though. There was an obvious intelligence in its eyes and the aura it gave off was very strong; which wasn't really surprising when one recalled the powerful object that had given birth to it.
"What kind of Pokémon is that?" Harry asked the Litleo still perched in his lap.
"She is a Natu; the Tiny Bird Pokémon. The other one that scared the other boy was a female Misdreavus, the Screech Pokémon."
"Do you know what kind of creature the Elder Wand was turned into?"
"No, I won't know what it has become until I see what it is."
"He turned into the Pokémon that best fit his nature," the Natu calmly stated as she turned to stare right at Harry. "We all became the creature that embodied our natures. As an artifact with the power to draw upon the souls of the dead across time and space, my form was shifted into a psychic creature that had a strong connection to the flow of time. The Cloak was designed to hide the wearer and both you and its previous two masters used it exclusively for mischief and so it became a mischievous ghost that takes great delight in pranking and scaring others."
"And the Wand?" Harry prompted after a brief hesitation.
"The Wand has a long and bloody history as he was passed from one tyrant to the next. Where the Wand went, disaster was sure to follow and so it is not surprising that he became a herald for disaster in this life as well. His species is much feared and like the Wand itself, his new form is tightly wrapped in layers of superstition, fear, and mistrust. He is, to put it bluntly, a newborn Disaster Pokémon."
"Absol; the Pokémon that Natu speaks of is an Absol," the Litleo clarified with a shiver.
"A Dark Pokémon if ever there was one," Dudley's Klefki added as the keys it held jingled together nervously.
"What do you mean by dark?" Harry asked with a touch of mild concern while a part of him wondered why he wasn't panicking at the thought of being connected to a dark creature.
"Just like there are different kinds of magic, there are different types of Pokémon and our type determines what kind of abilities we can learn. I am a dual type Pokémon because I am both a Normal and a Fire type," the Litleo explained as he scratched at his right ear with his right hind leg. "Spoink and Natu are both single type Pokémon; they are both Psychic type. Klefki is a dual type like me; he is a Steel and Fairy type. Absol is a Dark type and Misdreavus is a Ghost type."
"So the Wand is evil?"
"Dark does not mean evil," Natu corrected as she ruffled her feathers impatiently. "Shadows are dark; does that mean that all shadows are evil? And fire can be considered 'light' does that mean that all fire is harmless? No. It does not."
"Then what does 'dark' mean?"
"The dark is just another element like fire, water, electricity, air, earth, or spirits," the Spoink interjected as it spoke up for the first time since Luna released it from its PokéBall.
"How many types of Pokémon are there? And does the species of a Pokémon have anything to do with their type?"
"There are currently eighteen known types of Pokémon in existence and yes, a Pokémon's species has everything to do with their type as all Pokémon of the same species are all of the same exact type. And all Pokémon of the same type carry similar characteristics or abilities. Such as all Flying type Pokémon have wings or wing like appendages or all Water type Pokémon can manipulate water with varying degrees of control and produce large quantities of water at the higher levels."
"This is all so confusing," Harry complained as he reached up to scrub at his face; his hand knocking his cracked glasses askew.
"Hey, cousin; can you stop chatting for a moment?" Dudley asked as soon as there was a short lull in the conversation that Harry was having with the Pokémon. "We need to figure out what we're going to do for food. It's been ages since we last ate and I'm starving."
"I can smell ripe pecha berries somewhere close by," the Litleo stated as he jumped down out of Harry's lap and stuck his nose up in the air and scented the breeze. "This way, master; I will show where to find food!"
Harry scrambled to his feet when the little lion cub took off into the tall grass and hurried to follow after the creature as he called back over his shoulder, "Come on, Dudders; the Litleo said he knew where to find food. We'll be back in a few minutes, Luna."
The two boys were soon all but lost in the tall grass as the followed the line of bent grass the lion cub had left in its wake as it plowed through the grass. When they finally found the wand turned baby lion, it was grinning like a loon as it sat at the base of a large bush laden with strange fruits that looked like a cross between a peach and a strawberry and roughly the size of a racquetball. There were several other similar bushes peeking up over the tall grass on either side of the one the Litleo was seated beside.
"Are those safe to eat?" Dudley asked as he moved up beside the bush and squinted at the sweet smelling fruits.
"Yes, just don't eat the green ones; they are not yet ripe."
"Yes, but don't pick the green ones," Harry repeated in English for Dudley's benefit as he headed towards a different bush to start gathering some of the fruits. As he worked, Harry addressed the Litleo once more to ask, "What about you guys? Do all Pokémon eat fruits like these too or do you eat meat?"
"All Pokémon will eat berries but each species also has a preferred diet. Some Pokémon eat other Pokémon; an example would be most of the bird Pokémon eating the smaller species of bug Pokémon. Others eat grass or other plants almost exclusively. And, of course, there are carnivorous Pokémon that eat the non-Pokémon creatures that inhabit this world. In the wild, my species will eat berries, bugs, and other animals; including some species of smaller Pokémon."
"I am not a wild Pokémon though and will eat whatever food you provide me with unless you allow me to hunt. The same will apply to the other Pokémon in our party. So you need not worry that any of us will seek to eat or kill the others. We will fight though. It is a Pokémon's nature to fight as that is how we grow stronger. We fight best when we are paired with a trainer, a human that is both partner and master to his or her Pokémon, but we will not listen to a weak trainer."
"This world just keeps getting more and more complicated," Harry complained under his breath as he tucked another berry into the makeshift basket he'd made out of his shirt. "Hey, Dudley; make sure you grab enough for us to share the berries with the Pokémon. We can always make a couple of trips if we have to."
The two cousins returned to their little clearing in the grass where Luna was waiting for them a half an hour later; both of them loaded down with berries. They would make two more trips in order to grab enough to appease their own hunger in addition to the hunger of the six Pokémon that were part of their group. Along side of the pecha berries, they also brought back a few round, blue berries that were called oran berries and a bunch of other berries that looked like a blue strawberries that were called rawst berries. Both blue berries were right around the size of a golf ball.
Once they figured they had enough for a meal or two (if they didn't gorge themselves), Harry and Dudley divided them up into nine piles (one for each Pokémon and one for each person). Harry then released the Misdreavus from her PokéBall and once again the Ghost Pokémon swooped down to purposefully scare Dudley. His cousin tried to punch the Pokémon again but this time the strange creature simply phased through Dudley's hand and arm; drawing yet another scream from him. Harry quickly drew Misdreavus's attention away from Dudley by offering her some berries.
As soon as she showed signs of being full, Harry returned her to her PokéBall to keep her from playing tricks on his slightly older cousin. The little Litleo had finished eating at about the same time but Harry allowed him to stay out due to the fact that he had been rather helpful since he'd first been released. Dudley ended up returning his Klefki to its PokéBall as well while Luna left both of hers out since they were not causing any trouble. It was at that point that Harry reluctantly withdrew the PokéBall holding the new incarnation of the Elder Wand and released him.
Unlike the other five Pokémon, which were all no taller than their knees (if that), the new Pokémon stood chest high to the three adults turned children on all fours and currently towered over the seated group. Harry quickly estimated him to be bigger than Fang (Hagrid's old boar hound). His body and face were a blend of feline and canine characteristics. His fur was the same bone-white color of the former Elder Wand while his skin was the color of burnished copper and seemed to glow in the late afternoon light. He had a thick, shaggy neck ruff that extended down his chest (giving him the appearance of wearing a long beard) that was bisected by a black collar with a bone-white wooden disk on it.
All four of his feet were tipped with copper colored claws and his elbows and heels had small, slightly curved spikes of copper that looked just as dangerous. His tail was furless and shaped like a scythe; the copper skin glinting dangerously and giving the appearance that the creature actually had a blade for a tail. Growing out of the right side of his head was a great horn that curved around towards the back of the head and shaped like a sickle. Like the creature's tail, it appeared to be made from metal and sharp enough to cut.
On top of his head, there was a tuft of smooth fur that was shaped like a comma or half of a yin-yang symbol. There was even a burnished copper oval that sat directly over the center of the creature's forehead; which only increased the resemblance to half of the yin-yang symbol. His eyes were sapphire blue with white pupils and sclera and brimming with intelligence and power. All in all, Absol was an intimidating creature whose aura spoke of tightly wound power.
Clearing his throat, Harry bravely held out a pecha berry to the creature (the wizard incapable of feeling any fear) and asked, "Are you hungry? Would you like a berry?"
Instead of answering, the Absol slowly closed the distance between them and got right up in Harry's face as his blue eyes locked onto Harry's green eyes. Harry calmly sat there as the powerful Pokémon weighed and measured his soul for a long minute before he sat down and gently ate the berry from Harry's hand in one bite. Not even the brief glimpse of Absol's sharp teeth could inspire any fear in Harry as he silently picked up several more berries and feed them to the Disaster Pokémon one at a time.
After he had eaten roughly eighteen of the berries, the Absol rose to his feet and stretched languidly before he circled Harry once and dropped down onto his belly right beside Harry and leaned against him as he stated, "I require a name, human."
"Er, can you give me a couple of days to come up with something suitable?"
"I will allow it."
"Thank you."
"I want a name too," the Litleo insisted as he slunk up to Harry and crawled into his lap once more.
"You'll have to wait as well; the last time I named a companion of mine, it took me a week to find one that she liked well enough to accept."
The rest of the afternoon was then spent being educated on the world of Pokémon by Litleo and Natu while Absol occasionally deigned to correct them and Spoink slept in Luna's arms. Harry translated what he learned for his two human companions so that they wouldn't be caught flatfooted. All told, the three of them learned all about the different types of Pokémon (and the known weaknesses of each type), the various moves that each type could be taught, and the importance of battling.
With the setting of the sun, the precariousness of their position made itself known to the three displaced children; the chill of the rapidly approaching winter biting deeply as the temperature dropped rather sharply the moment the last rays of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. Out of the three of them, Harry was the only one who had some idea of how to survive in the wild without a wand or any real supplies. Even so, if not for the presence of the Pokémon, the three of them probably would not have survived the night.
The Litleo that had once been his holly and phoenix feather wand proved to be the most helpful. The little lion cub had dug down into the soft loam beneath the tall grasses to create an underground burrow using a move called Dig. The cub had also helped Harry start a fire after he and Dudley had collected a bunch of dry grass and dead wood using another move it called Ember. Extra grass was then collected to use as mattresses for them to sleep on and the tunnel leading into the burrow blocked off with loose dirt to keep the heat inside (a small hole in the ceiling allowing the smoke to escape).
Once they were comfortable, the last of their berry harvest was eaten for supper before they curled up to sleep while the Absol kept watch over them.
Notes:
Pokémon colors – in case it wasn't obvious, all of the Pokémon born from magical objects are shiny Pokémon (even those that didn't stick around). The colors used can be considered canon as they were pulled from the colored sprites used in the games (source for those I've not personally seen came from Bulbapedia – the Wiki page for Pokémon) except for Misdreavus's coloring because I think they look rather weird in green.
Coins – the gold coins that Harry & Dudley found were based upon the Poké Coins that are used in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Games. I chose to use Poké as this universe's currency since it was easier. The coins that they found were converted over from the wizarding money that Harry had in his mokeskin pouch and the amount they found was what remained after the conversion and what they managed to pick up before the wild Pokémon got a hold of the shiny coins dotting the grass. So yes, Harry lost money. Can't have him stinking rich right off the bat, after all.
Pokémon/berry size references – the football referenced is a soccer ball (not an American football), a racquetball is roughly 2.25 in., and a golf ball is roughly 1.68 in.
Pokémon Moves/Attacks – will all appear in bold type within the story to distinguish them from normal actions.
Luna's visions/Seer Ability – references to Luna's ability to see the future will always be made in italics to distinguish her visions from ordinary sight (which she no longer has in any case).
09-26-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.
09-27-15: Corrected the note regarding Pokemon colors as Misdreavus's description here is NOT the canon shiny color and I'd missed that correction when I first uploaded the revised chapter.