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 Two: Strange Encounters
November 01, 2030
Route 01 near Pallet Town
Kanto Region
Harry slept blissfully through the night for the first time in a long time; his dreams for once not haunted by his memories or the strangeness of being thrust into a whole new world. If he had been capable of expressing any negative emotions, he probably would have been angry and scared over the situation that he and the others had ended up in but because he couldn't feel those emotions, he simply took the entire ordeal in stride. Something that would have been unnerving if he'd had time to sit down and give any serious thought to what had happened to them.
The deluge of information regarding the new world they'd found themselves in prevented him from doing that though.
He would wake up a half an hour before sunrise the next morning feeling refreshed and surprisingly warm despite the fact that he'd loaned his shortened robes to Luna to use as a blanket. That mystery was soon solved the moment he opened his eyes and discovered that he was wedged in between Absol, Litleo, and Misdreavus; all three Pokémon still fast asleep – though he was curious as to how Misdreavus had gotten out of her PokéBall when he was quite certain he'd left her in the ball when he'd gone to sleep.
The de-aged wizard blinked at the former wands and cloak in bemusement before he carefully wriggled out from between them to check on Luna and Dudley to make certain they were okay. He was a bit startled when he found the two of them curled up together sharing his old robe but after a couple of moments he thought they looked rather cute together. After watching them for a while, he decided against waking them up and instead turned his attention to the dying fire in the middle of their underground burrow.
It only took him a few minutes to coax the glowing embers back to life with a couple of handfuls of dried grass, some bark, and a few of the smaller twigs they'd collected. He then stacked a few more of the thicker logs in a rough log cabin frame in the center of the fire. That done, Harry carefully burrowed his way through the loose dirt blocking the tunnel (making certain he shifted the dirt into the hole his body passed through so the warmth in their burrow wouldn't escape). He poked his head up out of the tunnel just two minutes later and shivered as a cold breeze cut through his clothes.
All around him, the thick layer of frost that coated the long grass sparkled in the starlight.
It was beautiful but cold.
Harry ignored the bite of the wind as he hauled himself out of the hole. He then picked his way through the frost covered grass until he reached the berry bushes that Litleo had led him and Dudley to the previous day. Harry spent another hour carefully searching for any ripe fruits that they had missed the previous afternoon. Once he'd gathered what he could find in the dark, he hauled his harvest back to the tunnel for breakfast. After he delivered the meager haul to the tunnel, Harry ventured off in the opposite direction in the hopes of finding more berry bushes.
He found a dirt road instead.
Harry glanced back towards where he'd left his fellow outcasts before he took out a single coin from his makeshift wallet and flipped it. When the odd coin landed with the 'p' side up, Harry tucked the coin in his pocket and turned left to wander along the road to see where it might lead to. After going all of two steps, he turned back around and deliberately knotted several clumps of grass together to mark the spot he'd exited the grass from and used his foot to draw a huge arrow in the frost covered dirt pointing off in the direction he would be traveling in case the others came searching for him before he got back.
The green eyed boy then set off down the road.
As he walked, Harry let his mind wander through everything he had learned about the new world they'd landed in. In some ways, finding himself in a new world was no different than learning he was a wizard. If not for his experiences in the wizarding world, he probably would have been far more weirded out over the concept of being torn from his home world and thrust into a different world. Even then, there was still a small part of him that felt he was taking his recent displacement far too calmly.
This time, Harry actually poked and prodded at that part of him that kept trying to tell him something was wrong instead of ignoring it. After a few minutes, he came to the conclusion that the part of him that was having trouble accepting his calm acceptance of his new circumstances was born from his memories of all of the trouble that had found him from the day he'd joined the wizarding world. He knew he should be angry. He knew he should be afraid. And he knew he should be very worried about the future.
And yet he wasn't.
He couldn't even force himself to feel angry or scared.
Nor could he find a single shred of grief in his heart for everything and everyone he'd lost.
In fact, there was not a single negative emotion that he could name that he could actually bring himself to feel.
If he had been capable of feeling fear, he might have been frightened by that realization.
Harry knew then that there was something wrong with him but it was very hard to drudge up anything more than mild concern and even that was hard to maintain. It just felt odd. He'd always been a very emotional person; feeling each emotion intimately whether it was joy, fear, or grief. And now, he suddenly couldn't even manage to be angry at the Weasleys for betraying him. That didn't mean he was pleased with their actions; just that he could not get angry over them.
He stumbled to a stop as the ramifications of his new lack of negative emotions settled over him like blanket of freshly fallen snow. He was now incapable of feeling any negative emotion. He could not feel anger. He could not feel fear. He could not feel grief. He could not grow jealous. He could not drudge up even an ounce of hate. He could not hold onto a single worry. He could not feel frustrated. He could not even grow impatient. There were probably another dozen or so other emotions he could no longer feel as well.
And while most people would automatically assume that that was a good thing, it actually wasn't.
Negative emotions often balanced out the positive emotions. Fear allowed one to exercise caution. Grief allowed one to express their love for those who have passed on. Anger was one way of expressing one's displeasure and while too much anger is not good, some anger is necessary at times to act as a catalyst for change.
Negative is not synonymous for evil, after all.
Harry sat down in the middle of the road and buried his hands in his face as he struggled to accept the numb emptiness that had taken the place of his negative emotions. And while he was no longer capable of descending into a true panic, that didn't mean that he was incapable of thinking negative thoughts or recalling negative memories; there was just no emotion attached to said thoughts or memories. The problem was that Harry had always been a very emotional person and his emotions had been the driving force behind nearly everything he'd done during his first twenty years.
Lost in his thoughts, Harry never noticed the wild Pokémon that had begun gathering in the long grass that grew on either side of the dirt road he was sitting on; the creatures eying him with curiosity even as the faint traces of death clinging to him made them fearful and uneasy. He also never noticed the passing of time as the sun steadily rose over the horizon and gradually began melting the frost that had formed during the night when its warming rays spilled onto the ground. The twenty turned ten year old would not be drawn from his internal musings until well over two and a half hours later when a man stumbled across him quite unexpectedly.
"Well, this is a sight I never expected to see," the man declared as he stopped right beside Harry and stared down at the wizard with a combination of surprise and curiosity; the sound of his voice chasing off the wild Pokémon that had been watching Harry from the long grass. "Are you hurt? Or lost? Are your parents nearby?"
Harry merely lifted his face out of his hands and tipped his head back to inspect the stranger before he briefly met the man's gaze; taking in the man's white lab coat, brown slacks, a purple shirt, matching purples slippers, mostly gray hair mixed with light brown strands, and dark blue eyes. His eyes then immediately dropped back down to take a second look at the house slippers that the man was wearing (to confirm that, yes, the man was wearing slippers that were lightly caked and splattered with mud) before he returned his gaze back to the man as he calmly answered the man's questions.
"I'm fine. I don't think I'm lost. And my parents are dead, sir."
"Why are you sitting in the middle of the road, young man? Are you traveling alone? Where are you headed? What happened to your jacket? Aren't you cold? And are you certain you're fine? You're covered in blood and bruises."
"I just needed to sit down and think for a moment," Harry replied in a measured tone as he slowly pushed himself to his feet and wiped the mud from his hands so he didn't have to crane his head back quite so far to meet the man's gaze. "No, I'm not alone. I wasn't exactly traveling; I was just looking for the nearest town. I left my cloak back at our camp and it's not really that cold any more."
"That's because you're half frozen," the man stated with some concern as he took hold of Harry's left hand and began briskly rubbing warmth back into Harry's arm and hand with his hands.
Harry tipped his head to the side as a trickle of confusion filled his mind while he stared at the man's efforts to warm him up. Part of him couldn't help but wonder why he was allowing a perfect stranger to touch him with such familiarity. It felt rather weird to numbly accept the man's ministrations when he'd never much cared for physical contact in the past; especially not from a stranger. He was drawn out of his contemplation when the man crouched down in front of him and reached out to lift Harry's chin with one hand so that Harry was looking at him once more.
"Where did your injuries and the blood on your clothes come from? How did your glasses get broken? Were you recently attacked by wild Pokémon? Where is your Pokémon? Was it injured while protecting you?"
"The wild Pokémon haven't bothered me; they ran away from me and my cousin yesterday and I haven't seen any yet this morning. My Pokémon are just fine; I left them back in the burrow we spent the night in."
"And the blood?" the man prompted as he removed his lab coat and wrapped Harry up in the garment before he tried to rub warmth into Harry's right hand and arm.
Harry felt the corners of his mouth tilt down in a near frown as he contemplated whether or not he should tell the man the truth; his memories conflicting with his emotions due to his inability to feel suspicion or mistrust. After a few minutes, he opted to ignore the question and ask one of his own instead.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Professor Samuel Oak."
"You're a teacher?"
"No, I am a researcher. I study Pokémon and their interactions with humans. So, you could say that I am a Professor of Pokémon."
"Does that mean you speak to them too?" Harry asked with eager curiosity as the mere possibility that he wasn't all that special in this world filled him with hope that he may yet be able to live in the background as Just Harry for once.
"Well, anyone can speak to a Pokémon; the creatures do understand the human language easily enough. Sadly, none of my colleagues have been able to crack the code of the Pokémon language yet and we are still dependant upon pantomime and psychic Pokémon to gain insight into their thoughts. There have been individuals in the past that claimed to have learned Pokémon speech but they all turned out to be frauds that only mimicked the sounds from a handful of the more common species of Pokémon makes when they speak in their colorful language."
Harry felt a small flash of disappointment that faded almost as soon as it had appeared over the fact that he was once again in possession of a fairly rare talent. He wanted to be afraid of that revelation but all he felt was numb.
"Did you have any other questions, young man?"
"No, not really. At least not that I can think of right now."
"Then perhaps you'd be willing to answer a couple of my questions in return."
"What did you want to know?"
"Well, your name would be a good place to start."
"Oh, I'm Harry."
"And how old are you, Harry?"
"Twe… er… I uh… just turned ten," Harry stuttered as he almost gave the man his true age.
"What about your injuries and the blood on your clothes; where did those come from?"
"We were in a fight yesterday and I got hit a few times."
"In that case, I'm going to insist that you come with me back to my lab so that I can treat your injuries; we wouldn't want them to get infected, now would we?"
"I'll be fine. They were much worse yesterday. I really should go back to camp anyway; the others will be worried about me if they woke up after I left."
"Then I am going to insist that you allow me to escort you back to your camp," Professor Oak stated in a no-nonsense tone as he stood back up while keeping hold of Harry's hand. "Lead on, young man."
Harry hesitated for a split second as he held the man's gaze (part of him recognizing the concern and curiosity in the man's eyes) before he broke eye contact to stare at the hem of the professor's coat as it brushed the top of his shoes; his mind supplying the memory of how readily the man had shared the coat. He then glanced up and down the dirt road in order to regain his bearings. It only took him a few seconds to find his back trail in the layer of damp dust that covered the hard road (the early morning frost had preserved his footsteps until the frozen layer began to melt).
"This way, sir," Harry murmured as he turned in the opposite direction he'd been facing and began leading the man back towards where he'd left the others behind when he'd gone exploring.
Harry kept his eyes on the road as he led the man along. As they walked, he couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't pulled his hand away from the man; he was far too old to need someone to hold his hand, after all. At the same time, it was kind of nice to know that an adult, perfect stranger though he was, was showing that much concern for him (though a part of him recognized the fact that that concern was only because of Harry's child-like appearance). Still he couldn't actually recall the last time an adult had held his hand. And no, he didn't count the number of times that the other adults he had known growing up had dragged him along for one reason or another.
In the past, the adults in his life and merely clamped onto his shoulder or his elbow and steered him to where they had wanted him to go; whether he wanted to go with them or not.
So, in a sense, it was kind of weird for him to be leading Professor Oak along while the man gently kept hold of his hand so that they didn't get separated. A very small part of the wizard wondered if this was what it felt like to have a parent… or a grandparent as he cast a brief glance up at the man walking beside him and noted the gray in the man's hair once more. Another part of Harry's mind couldn't help but question his sanity as he willingly led a perfect stranger back to his cousin and his only remaining friend.
The adult wizard who had survived both a borderline abusive childhood (the Dursleys had never quite crossed that line, though they had come close on occasion) and Voldemort's second rise would have never allowed the man to get as close as he had in the first place. Harry had always been rather paranoid but like the rest of his negative emotions, his ability to feel paranoia had been stripped from him. In his birth world, that lack of caution would have seen him dead in a heartbeat. In fact, it almost had on a number of occasions when he hadn't been paranoid enough.
Harry shook away the memories of his past life just a couple of minutes later as he reached the arrow he'd etched into the dirt and turned into the tall grass without any hesitation as he identified the knotted clump of blades he'd tied together earlier. He was so caught up in following the path of bent grass he'd created when he'd waded out of the grass earlier that he never noticed the man beside him frowning the moment he turned into the grass. They had only been in the grass for about five minutes when a small golden-yellow form tackled Harry to the ground with a small growl.
It wasn't long before Harry was laughing out loud as the Litleo his holly wand had turned into began attacking his face with his tongue. He was so wrapped up in his reunion with the little lion cub that he completely missed Professor Oak briefly panicking (in the instant the Litleo had tackled Harry) before he connected the dots and came to the realization that the Pokémon attacking the man turned boy was said boy's companion. By the time Harry pushed Litleo off of his face and sat up, the man was smiling fondly at the two of them.
"Why did you leave me behind, master? Were you cub-napped from our burrow? Were you newly injured? Did this human hurt you?" Litleo demanded as he proceeded to sniff every inch of Harry that he could reach in an attempt to find out if he had been hurt further since the last time they'd been together or not.
"I'm fine," Harry automatically replied as he wrapped his arms around the lion cub in order to get him to calm down; his use of the Pokémon language surprising Professor Oak. "I wasn't kidnapped; I went looking for more berries and found a road and he stumbled across me there."
"Why did you not wake us so we could protect you?" Absol inquired as he broke through the grass and pushed his face right up into Harry's face so that the two of them were eye to eye; an action that made Professor Oak tense up once more since the Absol was far larger and looked rather dangerous. "You have been gone for hours and the other male human-child that smells faintly of you was worried; though the female human seemed unconcerned."
"I didn't want to wake anyone when you all looked so peaceful," Harry stated as he shoved the Absol's face away from his and carefully climbed to his feet while holding Litleo in his arms.
"Still as stubborn as ever," Litleo lightly complained as he half wrapped his paws around Harry's neck and peered over the wizard's shoulder at Professor Oak while snuffling at the lab coat that Harry was borrowing. "Who is the man you dragged back with you? He smells very strongly of many Pokémon species."
"He said his name was Professor Oak and he is some kind of Pokémon researcher."
"Why did you bring him here?" Absol asked in a distrustful tone as the Disaster Pokémon stalked forward to warily circle the professor as if to deduce the man's intentions while Professor Oak kept glancing between Harry and the two Pokémon.
"He would not let me return alone. He originally wished to take me to his workplace to tend my half-healed injuries after he found me on the road."
"There you are, Harry! Where have you been? I've been worried sick ever since Luna and I woke up an hour ago and found you gone," Dudley blurted out as he appeared from out of the grass next. "And did you have to leave that other Pokémon out of its ball? It keeps popping up and screaming in my face every few minutes." It was at that point that Dudley finally realized that Harry wasn't alone and he stared at the professor for a moment before he demanded, "And who are you?"
"This is Professor Oak; he found me on the road. Professor, sir, this is my cousin Dudley," Harry answered absently. "I'd gone looking for more berries when I woke up before dawn but found the road instead and went looking for the nearest town but got distracted before I got too far."
"Your mimicry of the Pokémon language is excellent; it almost looked and sounded as if you were actually speaking to your companions in their own language," Professor Oak proclaimed as he completely ignored the introduction and focused entirely on Harry and his Pokémon. "Your ability to switch between the dialects of two different species so seamlessly was rather impressive as well. Can you mimic any Pokémon species you come into contact with or do you have to spend days or weeks listening to them speak before you can accurately vocalize their calls in return?"
Harry felt as if he should be afraid the moment it dawned on him that he'd just spoken to the Pokémon in front of the professor. Intellectually, he knew it would be dangerous if word spread that there was a human capable of speaking the Pokémon language after the man had just told him that that ability was very rare (or non-existent); since the man didn't believe such a person actually existed. The wizard just couldn't find it in him to panic due to his inability to feel any negative emotion.
"He's not just mimicking them," Luna answered airily for Harry as she turned up with her two Pokémon and Misdreavus in tow. "Harry is our guide so it is only natural that he can communicate with the natives. He is rather nearsighted though but that is why he needs me to see which path is safest. Gryffindors, like their cousin the lion, are very brave but they need their pride to be strong."
"Are you sure we should be telling people that Harry can speak to the Pokémon?" Dudley asked Luna in a worried tone as he eyed Professor Oak with suspicion.
"We can not regard everyone with suspicion, Dudley; we would only isolate ourselves further."
"You need not fear this human; the branches of the future that stem from those paths where you chose to trust this man hold no traces of betrayal from him," the Natu in Luna's arms interjected unexpectedly.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry asked in confusion as he whipped his head to the side to meet the strange bird's unblinking gaze.
"It means that you are free to tell him the truth and that there will be no repercussions for doing so. You will also only make your journey all that much harder if you refuse to let yourself trust him."
"I have a headache now," Harry complained in human speech without any real feeling as he turned away from Natu.
"What did the bird tell you?" Dudley inquired as he glanced between the Pokémon in Luna's arms and Harry.
"She just gave me some advice and a warning."
"Can you really understand the Pokémon when they speak to you? Would you be willing to allow me to research your ability to speak to Pokémon? Better yet, would you be willing to use your ability to speak to the Pokémon to help me with my Pokémon Research? And could you teach another how to speak and understand Pokémon?" Professor Oak inquired in rapid succession as he dug through his pockets as if searching for something.
"I did not think it was possible for a human to learn Pokémon speech and while I know some Pokémon (psychic types in particular) can learn human speech through their telepathic abilities, I have not heard of any cases where the opposite was true. Are you a human psychic? Do you have any other special powers? Can you use telekinesis to move objects as well? What kind of warning and advice did the Natu give you? Would you allow me to run a little test just to confirm that you are truly speaking to the Pokémon and not just pulling my leg?"
Harry blinked at the man; he had never seen a grown man get that excited; not even Mr. Weasley's fascination with muggles and muggle technology could compare to Professor Oak's current behavior. And Harry wasn't even certain just how much of Mr. Weasley's behavior had been fabricated to portray the kind man that Harry had once thought him to be; the redhead man had betrayed him right alongside of the rest of his family, after all. He then tipped his head to one side as he tried to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to actually answer the man's questions.
"I have seen no harm in our future if you answer his questions, Harry," Luna stated as she began swaying in place as if dancing with the Pokémon in her arms. "The Nargles in this world can be trusted and my little Nargle would not lead us astray since she does still feel a measure of loyalty to you. You were her first true Master, after all."
"Nargles…? What are nargles?" Professor Oak inquired as Luna's comments pulled him out of his research mode.
"Nargle is my new Pokémon and since she isn't the only Nargle out there, more than one of her would be plural," Luna answered as she lifted the green bird Pokémon. She then crouched down to pat the bouncing Spoink at her feet a few pats on the head. "I haven't come up with a name for my other new friend yet, but I'm working on it."
"Fascinating; did you know that your Natu's coloring is quite unusual?"
"I wouldn't know; I'm blind."
"Is that why you are keeping your eyes closed?" Professor Oak asked with a slight frown. "Are the three of you traveling alone? Or is your guardian waiting for you back at the camp?"
"Oh no, I always see better with my eyes closed and I had to pay careful attention to where I needed to go so I wouldn't bump into anything," Luna blithely replied with a dreamy smile as she opened her eye lids to reveal the milky blue irises beneath them. "We also weren't traveling alone; we will be traveling together once we set out. We will also have plenty of company with all of the Pokémon I have seen traveling with us. And no, we don't have a guardian unless you count Harry. He's the best kind of guardian; he's our Guardian Angel."
"Luna," Harry huffed in mild embarrassment as a light blush colored his chilled cheeks.
"She is right though; you always went out of your way to protect us," Dudley interjected. "You saved me more than once even when I used to be a real berk to you."
"I set a python on you at the zoo once too," Harry muttered under his breath as he recalled that fateful trip to the zoo during the summer prior to his first year at Hogwarts.
"That was annoying but I probably deserved it after I'd knocked you down," Dudley snorted as he lightly socked Harry on the arm.
"Am I to understand that the three of you started your Pokémon Journey a few months early then?" Professor Oak inquired before the two boys could continue their reminiscing. "If I might ask, who gave you your Pokémon Trainer Licenses? They normally aren't handed out until late spring nor are they given to children under the age of ten; unless the three of you fudged your ages at the time you applied for your licenses."
"Licenses? We have to have a license to keep a Pokémon? Does that mean you're going to take ours from us since we don't have one? And what's a Pokémon Journey?" Dudley asked with more than a little concern as he dropped his hand down to the pocket holding the PokéBall containing his Klefki.
"Oh, goodness no; I would never attempt to take your Pokémon from you unless you were mistreating them. However, you are required by law to obtain a license to keep or raise Pokémon in addition to registering each Pokémon you acquire in order to prevent your Pokémon from being mistaken for a wild Pokémon. It also reduces the chances that an unscrupulous individual would try to claim your Pokémon. There are, of course, several different types of licenses available. Although, I find it very strange that the three of you have already acquired Pokémon companions if you don't have a license. Unless your Pokémon used to belong to your parents…?"
"I'm afraid that we can't answer any more questions right now," Luna stated in an uncharacteristically serious voice as she closed her eyes and turned to face Harry.
"Why ever not?" Professor Oak asked incredulously.
"Because if we stand here much longer, the sludgemudge infection that Harry picked up when he was sitting on the frozen road for so long while half dressed this morning is going to kill him."
As soon as Luna finished giving her dire pronouncement, a particularly violent sneeze erupted from Harry's mouth and nose. Immediately after the sneeze, Harry's head felt as if it had been filled with cotton while his nose instantly filled with mucus. He let out a soft groan that lacked any inflection as he immediately realized he was on the verge of coming down with a cold. Harry would have cursed himself for an idiot in frustration if he could have mustered the emotion necessary to feel frustrated in the first place.
Professor Oak had looked rather perplexed by Luna's claim right up until Harry sneezed and then the man jumped in surprise as he glanced between the three adults turned adolescents. It wasn't until that moment that he noticed that both Luna and Dudley were dressed far warmer than Harry; both blondes wearing the worse for wear robes they'd had on when they'd been captured by the Weasleys and Luna also wearing Harry's robes. All Harry had on was a thin pair of slacks, an old worn t-shirt, and the professor's fairly thin lab coat.
It didn't take the man more than two seconds to piece together enough clues (both verbal and visual) to come to the conclusion that the underdressed Harry had been out in the cold long enough to get himself sick. As soon as he did, Professor Oak strode forward and scooped Harry up into his arms and immediately headed back towards the road at a swift jog. Harry yelped in surprise the moment his feet left the ground without warning while the Litleo in his arms let out a single yowl of protest when Harry accidentally dropped the lion cub at the same time.
All three of Harry's Pokémon would then disappear in beams of red light one right after another as Luna recalled the trio using the PokéBalls that had been the pockets of his shortened robes. Harry held himself stiffly and barely dared to breathe as he tried to figure out why Professor Oak had picked him up and why the man was still carrying him. The last time he recalled someone carrying him had been when Hagrid had carried his body out of the Forbidden Forest while Harry was playing dead after being hit with Voldemort's Killing Curse.
That also happened to be the first time he ever recalled an adult carrying him.
He couldn't count how many times he'd been dragged around by both his former friends and the various adults that he'd known in his birth world. He supposed that he might have been carried during one of the many times that he'd ended up unconscious on one of his misadventures through the years but it was hard to count those times since he hadn't been awake in those cases. His thoughts were interrupted by a second sneeze at that point and Harry stopped caring about the fact that he was being carried by a stranger as he curled into the warmth the professor was radiating; his shrunken body shivering as he finally registered just how cold he felt.
Harry would drift in and out of consciousness for the rest of their journey before he passed out just as he felt himself being placed on a cushioned surface and covered up with several blankets.
Translations/Definitions:
Sludgemudge Infection – Luna-speak for catching pneumonia (or other potential chest congestion)
Notes:
Mythical Creatures – Luna's strange creatures will make the occasional rare appearance in future chapters but don't expect her to speak of them every single time she opens her mouth. In this story, I have decided that her made-up creatures and strange illnesses are the product of a lonely childhood, an active imagination, and a method that she and her father used to use to refer to her foresight in order to hide her ability from the world at large. I could also easily see Xeno using the sillier articles in Quibbler as a secret way to entertain and send messages to his daughter when she is not by his side; a secret that the two of them shared.
So, Luna will still use her made-up creatures and words (for things like diseases) in remembrance of her father; hence why she named her Natu Nargle instead of giving it a more normal nickname. Harry and Dudley will accept her silliness and even encourage it because that silliness is part of what makes Luna, Luna. I think her silliness will also draw the younger children they stumble across in the future to her because children, in general, love the idea of make-believe and fantasy.
Emotions – I have, for the purpose of this story, divided the emotions that will be seen/used throughout the story into three basic categories; positive, negative, and neutral. Harry will only be able to feel/express positive and neutral emotions but he can still think negative thoughts and remember negative memories; they just won't bleed over into his emotions like they normally would. So that means that Harry will not angst, rage, or become a new incarnation of Moody in this story.
For the record, those emotions that I will be without a doubt be labeling as neutral are; mild or pleased embarrassment, mild concern (since it will be his positive emotions that lead him to worry a bit when others get into trouble), boredom, disinterest, and mild disappointment. Those that are slightly less neutral than others (like disappointment he felt earlier in this chapter) will be very difficult for Harry to maintain; so the most he'll feel is a brief flash before it is gone.
Others may be added to the list in the future when I dig through synonyms to find usefully mild emotions that can be used in place of the more prominent negative ones. Oh, and I should point out that Harry is capable of missing those who have been lost even if he can't grieve for their deaths or absence.
09-26-15: Minor edits made to chapter to fix spelling/grammar mistakes and removed unnecessary author's notes.
