A/N: definitely my favourite chapter so far. You'll see why when you get to what Tifa has the kids doing.

I thought I'd post this up before finals came so ya'll don't have to wait forever for me to spit something out. My quarter is over the end of next week and then I have two weeks off. You can expect an update in there somewhere. Oh! and if I got the nearsighted/farsighted thing mixed up, sorry. I can't keep them straight. If I have gotten it wrong, tell me in a review and I'll change it.

To You Who Beta My Fic,

for the above reasons, I posted this before sending it to you. I'll still send it to you and repost it during break. :heart:

It had been a week or so, but Harry didn't seem adversely affected by his nightmare that Cloud could see. Then again, Cloud hadn't been home a lot to verify his observations. The saviour of the Planet had had a mass influx of delivery requests. Having no good reason not to take them up, the blond SOLDIER had no choice but to take them. He kept them relatively close by, and delivered them speedily, but one such request was to Icicle Lodge, on the Northern Continent, and the customer didn't trust anyone else with the job. The whole situation seemed off, but he was being paid an exorbitant amount of money to deliver the smallish package no questions asked. Grabbing the package and tucking it safely under his arm, the blond left for the long, cold trip to the Northern Continent. Unbeknownst to Cloud, a visitor that would have liked to exchange choice words with him was about to pay him a visit. The only problem was, he was three days into his deliver, far away from Edge where his caller had just shown up. Life at the bar was going to get very interesting very fast, for Yuffie Kisaragi hated to be bored.

It was just one of those days. Harry could feel it. As soon as his eyes opened, a feeling of impending doom just seemed to settle on him. It wasn't the kind that he felt when he was about to face Voldemort; that was a completely different kind of doom complete with excruciating pain. This…this was different. He couldn't really describe it. It almost felt like he was going to be attacked by Slytherins, but without the malicious intent…if that made any sense. But he wasn't at Hogwarts, and the Great House definitely didn't exist on this world. Cautiously, the dark haired youth put his glasses on and got dressed, batting at his hair in an attempt to tame it before giving up and heading downstairs.

It was quite sudden, and for all the battle skills and awareness that Cloud was instilling in him, Harry was still able to startle easily and leave himself open to attack. So when a loud feminine cry of "CLOUD!" and a body giving him a fierce hug nearly knocked him flat on his back, Harry didn't really respond. The fact that he had just woken up probably played a factor in the entire situation. If he had been slightly more lucid, he would have fired off any number of spells; many of which were particularly nasty and cruel, vindictively evil even.

"Um…" Harry slowly began, still unsure of whom this black haired woman was. "I'm not Cloud."

"—was wondering why your hair was black," Harry heard her prattling. "Here I thought Reno dyed it in your sleep. Nope! Definitely not Cloud! A bit too chatty! So, since you're not Cloud, who are you?"

"I'm Harry Potter," Harry introduced himself.

"I'm Yuffie Kisaragi!" the girl happily replied. "Now, where's Cloud?"

Despite the fact that Yuffie seemed extraordinarily chipper and happy as a golden retriever to be where she was, there was something in the underlying tone of 'now, where's Cloud?' to make Harry wonder if she was going to hurt him or not. Then something rang familiar through his mind. Yuffie: Cloud had mentioned her when he had asked the taller blond about materia when he had healed his wrist. She was the one who knew a lot about materia.

"You're Yuffie?" Harry stated, voice raised near the end so it came out as a question.

"Yeah," the young woman said, tilting her head to one side. "I thought I already said that."

Harry shook his head. "Yes you did, but Cloud mentioned you a while back."

"Speaking of chocobo head," Yuffie said, "where is he?"

Harry, knowing that he should tell her the truth, and curious about the pun, said, "on a delivery."

"Will he be back soon?" Yuffie asked.

"I dunno," Harry replied. "He said something about Icicle Lodge."

Harry was suddenly under a barrage of rapidly spoken words in a different language. He would swear that they sounded similar to Japanese, or maybe Chinese, if he had ever heard the languages. The British youth decided that, if he had ever heard either of the languages, they probably sounded something like that. Either way, with the random words he could understand, the whole situation was rather humorous if it hadn't seemed so dire.

"I can't believe…no good…fucking…shitty, no good…He better…he's a…feathers with…" pretty soon the words she was saying were so slashed and broken up with the other language she was speaking that Harry just assumed Yuffie was swearing enough in several languages to make sailors blush. And he was still flat on his back with her sitting on his stomach.

"Excuse me," Harry broke into her tirade, or attempted to. He caught her saying something that sounded suspiciously like 'chocobo shit' before she continued. Several more polite attempts also met the same end

"HEY!" Harry finally yelled.

"WHAT?" Yuffie yelled right back.

"Do you mind letting me up off the floor?" Harry barked. This definitely wasn't going to be a good day.

Yuffie's face went a bit blank. Harry watched her face as she looked at him, then her pinning him to the floor in a most compromising position. Her face blushed prettily as she stood up and offered him a hand.

"Sorry 'bout that!" she chirped cheerfully.

"So," Harry said, dusting himself off, "that tirade of yours was quite impressive."

Yuffie beamed. "The best Wutai has to offer! The northern and southern dialect with some sprinkling of the common speech everyone knows; there's no better way to swear someone out and have them not realize it!"

"The language sounds pretty," Harry said. Indeed, he found the language melodic and easy on the ears. He vaguely wondered if he could make spells out of it.

"I'd teach you," Yuffie began, "but I have no patience. Cloud had to learn some of it back when he was tryin' for SOLDIER, but he pro'ly doesn't remember it."

In other words, Harry was screwed and if he wanted to learn the language, he'd have to do it on his own.

"You're good with materia, right?" Harry suddenly asked into the slightly uncomfortable silence.

"Yep!" Yuffie beamed. "I know just about anything about all the kinds of materia out there! Vincent's probably the only besides a materia specialist who would know better or different applications of the spells."

Harry became excited. Perhaps this wouldn't be so farfetched after all.

"So then you'd know of a materia or spell that would be able to heal my eyes?" Harry asked.

Harry watched as Yuffie's face took on a serious look, which Harry thought didn't look very becoming on her. Harry could see how serious she was, but there was a spark of something across her vision that had Harry suspecting she'd be equally as inclined to help him as to play a pratical joke on him. He vaguely, in a weird, detached not really kind of way, found himself missing the Slytherins. At least with them Harry could suspect and guess at what they'd do, which he usually got right, and properly retaliate. He watched Yuffie warily through his glasses, his green eyes marking her every move and expression. She must have come to a decision, for her body relaxed and her eyes turned opaque.

"Sure! I think I might have something," Yuffie exclaimed. "You might need some mako to make it really work, but I don't know where to get any other than an old reactor, or that Lifestream pool in Mideel."

"Lifestream?" Harry questioned. "Barret mentioned something about 'mako green' the other day when he was here."

"What?!" Yuffie exclaimed. "You don't know about mako or the Lifesream?"

"Uh—" Harry began but Yuffie never let him finish.

"You come and sit yourself here while I get us stuff to eat!" Yuffie exclaimed. "I have a story to tell you! I must educate you!"

That was how Harry found himself sitting at a table in Tifa's bar, Tifa-less (he vaguely remembered Tifa saying something about taking Denzel and Marlene to a chocobo farm, hence his curiosity about the pun Yuffie had used earlier to refer to Cloud) and kid-less. The bar wasn't overcast (ha ha, Harry thought at his own terrible pun), so he was at the mercy of this deranged female ninja princess, if he remembered what Cloud told him correctly, until the evening when Tifa returned to open the bar. Yuffie returned shortly after this with his breakfast; leftovers from the fridge and some fruit. Yum.

"So, about the Lifestream…" the princess started. She proceeded to tell him a rather fanciful tale about the religion of the planet he was on, the afterlife, a people called the Cetra, or Ancients, how when someone died they turned into pyreflies and joined the Lifestream; a green stream of life that sustained the Planet, a collective consciousness. Life flowed from the Lifestream and it inevitably returned to it. Yuffie then told about a terrible person named Sephiroth that had tried to destroy the Planet. He'd gone mad from too much exposure to Jenovah cells and mako. Mako was a condensed, refined form of Lifestream. Harry wondered how one would go about refining 'life'. She told him of a mad scientist, one Hojo, which had done terrible experiments on people, using Sephiroth, some Vincent person, and surprisingly Cloud, as examples of his twisted game at God.

"So that's what he meant when he had said that he was enhanced," Harry murmured to himself thinking back to the conversation in the sword shop. A light blush dusted his cheeks, unnoticeable to all but those who knew him well, at the undercurrents of the conversation that he had had with Cloud when they had bought his sword.

Yuffie nodded, a somber expression adorning her face. "But what happened to Cloud right now isn't important!" Yuffie exclaimed. "Just don't feed him chocolate!" She shuddered before asking, "You understand about the Lifestream and mako now, right?"

Harry nodded. He thought he did anyway. "So about this materia?" he finally asked.

Yuffie frowned again, anger overtaking her expression. "That's what I wanted to talk to Cloud about!" She rifled around on her person before pulling out a small red gem. Harry knew it was a materia from its size from when Cloud had used materia on him. That materia had been a vibrant green. This one was dull red. Harry somehow knew that it wasn't supposed to be dull, but vibrant with a touch of gold when the light hit it just right.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"A new summons materia I found in the foothills of the Nibelheim Mountains," Yuffie explained. "I wanted Cloud to tell me what it was."

"How come you can't just, I dunno, summon it or something to figure it out," Harry asked.

"What if the creature attatched to this materia is stronger than I can handle?" Yuffie admonished. "I could die."

"Oh," Harry said, slightly taken aback. "But won't Cloud die then, too?"

Yuffie laughed. "Not much can harm Cloud these days."

Harry was slightly confused by that, but filed it away to mull over later. He'd have to glean information from the kids and Tifa. He looked at the small sphere in Yuffie's hands, all dull red in colour. He had never held a materia before, and was curious to know if they were as cool to the touch as they looked. Finally, not able to withhold his curiosity anymore, Harry asked, "Can I hold it?"

"I don't see why not," Yuffie replied handing the small orb over.

Harry was immediately surprised when the dullness of the orb disappeared as soon as Yuffie's fingers left the materia's surface and was wholly in his possession. He heard Yuffie gasp, but it was background noise to the melodious song that consumed his consciousness. The vestiges of cold and damp that had permeated his body from the storm the night before disappeared as a wash of warmth flooded his body. He took his glasses off and held the material up to the bridge of his nose and let the heat waft through his body. The song never let up, but changed to a happier melody as if it recognized him.

"It's a phoenix summons," Harry said as he felt an intense urge to just close his eyes and drift off to sleep. He was so comfortable.

"Harry, don't you dare fall asleep!" Yuffie practically commanded. He opened his eyes and looked at her. Then he realized that he could actually see her.

"Yuffie, I can see," Harry quietly intoned. Indeed he could. The nearsighted youth could barely see a foot in front of himself without his glasses if he was lucky. Now, not wearing his glasses, he could clearly see Yuffie sitting a good three to four feet away. He looked around the bar. He could see the fine splintering of cracks that Tifa had been complaining about when two patrons had gotten a bit too into their drinks and an argument before she could break them apart. He could see the fine wood grain of the tables. They were so pretty; the grain flower-like in appearance with intermittent wavy rings of dark and light wood.

"Harry, I don't think holding that's a good idea for you," Yuffie began, cautiously. "Can I have it back?"

Harry really didn't want to give Yuffie back the materia. Reluctantly, Harry brought the materia away from his face and reluctantly extended his arm to Yuffie. The ninja took the small glass orb and it was like Harry had water dumped on him. Like the affects of dementors, Harry felt cold wash over him and his vision slowly fade and blur to the point where he needed his glasses. He shivered at the lack of warmth. He swore he heard ice forming and crackling. Harry found it hard to summon up a fond or happy memory.

"Harry?" Yuffie queried, concerned, "You alright?"

Harry tried to speak several times before he managed to rasp out, "no, no I'm not." He vaguely saw a shape lunge towards him as the colour drained from the world and everything went black.

Yuffie just managed to catch Harry before he face planted onto the floor. She frowned when ice broke off his clothing and melted onto the floor. Then she realized that he was cold; far too cold for a normal chilled person. Yuffie's swearing tirade bloomed again as she managed to haul herself and Harry to a standing position and up the stairs. She swore blackly again on the stairs when she stumbled and nearly dropped him, only barely managing to rescue him by grabbing the back of his shirt. She hoped his throat wasn't too sore from the pressure of his shirt collar. Wrestling him into bed, Yuffie was at a loss of what to do. It was mid to late afternoon, the Wutaian princess couldn't quite tell from the angle of Harry's window.

Pulling out her phone, Yuffie dialed a familiar number. She waited a few rings before there was some laughter and a familiar voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Thank Bahamut, Tifa!" Yuffie exclaimed in all her dramatics. "I don't know what to do!"

Yuffie could feel Tifa's frown as she spoke. "What's up, Yuffie?"

"It's Harry," Yuffie explained. "I showed him a new material I found that I had wanted to show to Cloud because it looked…I don't know…broken somehow."

"Broken?" Tifa sounded confused.

"Yeah," Yuffie went on to explain, "It didn't have that inner glow materia usually have."

"Mhmm," Tifa sounded. "How does this concern Harry?"

"That's just it!" Yuffie exclaimed, slightly hysterical. "I showed it to him, and the thing lights up! Like it had never been dull to begin with! He looks all awed and stuff and says something about it being a phoenix summons. Then when I ask for it back, as soon as Harry wasn't touching it anymore, he goes all stiff and cold and passes out!"

"Is he dead?" Tifa asked, concerned voice laced with panic.

"No he's not," Yuffie reassured, "but I don't know what to do!"

There was some silence, the background noises would be pleasant to listen to if she wasn't so stressed at the moment. Finally, Tifa spoke again. "I don't know," she said. "I guess just wait for him to wake up and ask what happened. Give him some chocolate or something sweet to cheer him up-" Yuffie frowned at that suggestion. That chocolate was hers, dammit! –" and keep him company. We're just finishing up at the Chocobo Farm. We'll be home soon."

"'Kay," Yuffie replied.

There was silence, as if Tifa was mulling something over. "I know you don't like parting with your materia," Yuffie didn't like where this was going, "but if doesn't wake up in an hour, you should probably give him that materia, just to see if it revives him. Cloud should know about this."

"Vincent, too," Yuffie put in. "He knows about stuff like this."

"Yeah," Tifa said, sounding relieved and happier now that they had plan of action. "I'll call Cloud and you call Vincent."

"Will do!" Yuffie exclaimed and saluted, even though Tifa couldn't see it.

"Bye, Yuffie," the dark haired bar bimbo said.

"Laters!" Yuffie said as she ended the call. Now, to call Vincent…

Hitting button one, the speed dial showed a picture she had taken of the ex-TURK when he had been chastising her. He hadn't known she was taking a picture, hell, he didn't know how to do anything but receive or send calls. Grinning at the familiar number, she waited an inordinate amount of rings before she heard the click of someone answering.

"Stop calling me, Yuffie," came the velvet, dulcet tones that were Vincent Valentine's voice.

"I have a reason this time," Yuffie replied, "a good one, too!"

"Oh?" was the slightly interested reply. Yuffie smiled and giggled slightly.

"Has Cloud told you about Harry Potter?" Yuffie began.

"I might know someone by that name," Vincent replied evenly. Yuffie rolled her eyes. How TURK of him to word it that way. Yuffie smiled.

"How much about materia do you know?" Yuffie questioned.

"Enough," the ex-TURK replied in a blasé manner.

"Then here's something you might be interested in," Yuffie began.

"Oh?" Vincent replied before Yuffie went off on her activities of the afternoon.

At the same time Yuffie was talking with Vincent, Tifa dialed Cloud. His phone rang, and Tifa didn't expect him to answer, so she wasn't surprised when her call was sent to voicemail. After the short beep, she spoke.

"Hey Cloud. Something came up concerning Harry," Tifa began. "Give me a call when you get this. Yuffie sounded really upset by it. Also, she mentioned something about a new materia she wanted you to look at. Be safe." She finished then hung up. Just as she was tucking her phone back in her pocket, Denzel and Marlene came riding up on a blue and a green respectively.

"What's up, Tifa?" Denzel asked as he expertly reigned in his chocobo.

Tifa shook her head, not wanting to worry the kids. They liked Harry, and she wouldn't want them worrying for nothing if he turned out to be fine. "Nothing," she replied. "I was just checking in on Cloud."

They both nodded as they led their mounts in circles near the fence, the large birds wanting to run.

"It's getting late," Tifa told them. "Why don't you head back to the barn and we'll go back to the bar?"

"Race you, Marlene!" Denzel cried as he spurred his chocobo into a run.

"Hey!" was Marlene's indignant reply as she gave chase.

Tifa smiled and laughed as she listened to the bird's "Wark! Wark!" calls as they raced back to the barn. Tifa knew she wouldn't make it to the barn before the kids, even if she ran and cut across the pasture. Not feeling too much like running, or walking there for that matter, the fighter spied an unsuspecting gold grazing near the fence. It looked familiar, but then again, she could just be seeing Cloud's hairdo on the bird.

"Hey there," Tifa said as she slowly approached the bird.

"Wark!" the large chocobo crooned as it came right up to her. It nuzzled her pockets. "Wark! Warkwark!

"I'm sorry I don't have greens for you," she told it conversationally. It crooned unhappily. Tifa looked and saw Denzel and Marlene halfway across the pasture. "I know where we could get some for you, though."

"Wark, warkwark?" it warbled, very interested. Tifa jumped on its back and grabbed a fist full of fine feathers at the base of its powerful neck for balance. Maneuvering it uncertainly with her knees, she pointed it towards the barn.

"Let's mosey!" she cried, using Cloud's favourite catch-phrase before spurring the bird into a flat run.

"Warkwarkwarkwark! Wark!" the gold chocobo cried as it tore across the field. She easily caught up to Denzel and Marlene and heard their indignant cries when she passed them. Laughing, Tifa pulled the bird up to the mounting block and pulled some greens out of a bin Bill kept on the other side of the fence to keep the birds still for people mounting them.

"Here you go," Tifa said.

"Wark! Wark!" the bird happily chirped as it took the greens and ran off.

"I don't think I've seen that bird be nice to anyone but Cloud Strife," a voice suddenly spoke up from behind her. Tifa turned to see Bill walking out of the dimness of the barn.

"That bird seemed so nice if a bit standoffish," Tifa said as she watched the gold run up to Denzel and Marlene, circle them, before running off to some obscure corner of the pasture.

"Strife raced that gold's grand dam at the Golden Saucer, oh, a couple years back," Bill began. "After Strife rode that bird, it was a fight to let it get another jockey on it. She only won her races because she wanted the jockey off her back as fast as possible." He laughed. "As soon as she crossed the finish line, she'd buck her jockey off and then just stand there, nice as could be.

"Cloud happened to stop by when this one was hatching, and he was the first one that chocobo saw when it hatched. You should have seen his face when he left it in the pen. The poor bird keened and cried so pathetically."

"I remember that," Tifa said. "He brought the little chick home and we had it around the bar for a few weeks."

"The chocobo thought Cloud was his mother," Bill said, nodding, laughter in his eyes. "When he brought the bird back, old enough to be by itself, it wanted nothing to do with any of us or the other birds. It only tolerated us caretakers because Cloud told it to be nice and listen to us. It fought viciously when anyone tried to ride it, so we've let it be. It's quite a nice bird when you don't ride it, so I'm surprised it let you mount it."

"I bribed it with greens," Tifa told it. "And it might remember me from the bar."

"Ah," Bill said. Tifa failed to mention that she had saved the poor chick from what would have been a very traumatizing experience with an extremely drunk TURK that shall remain unnamed. It probably remembered her from then. It was then that Denzel and Marlene came up to the fence.

"You two done now?" Bill called as first Denzel the Marlene clambered off the backs of the birds.

"Yeah," Denzel said as he unhitched the gate and led his bird, followed by Marlene, through to the barn.

"Tifa says it's time to go home," Marlene supplied helpfully following Denzel into the dimness of the barn.

"Don't worry about untacking them," Bill called after them. "Just put them in the stalls they came from and I'll do it later." He turned back to Tifa after two young voices called an affirmative.

"Speaking of Cloud Strife," Bill said, returning to their previous subject, "he was here a week or so ago, passing through on a delivery. Rode that bird around a bit before continuing on his way-" he jerked his head in a random direction indicating the gold Tifa had ridden -"mentioned something about a new kid."

"Harry," Tifa said. "A reason we're going back. He wasn't feeling well this morning and asked to stay behind."

"It's not like you to leave a kid behind," Bill said, slightly surprised.

"He's older, sixteen or so," Tifa said. "I don't think he knows what chocobos are, or else he still might have come."

Bill looked very surprised at that.

Tifa patted Bill's arm in a reassuring manner. "Don't worry," she said soothingly. "I'll bring him by when he's better. Denzel and Marlene would love to come back."

"Right," Bill replied, still dazed. "You do that." Who hadn't heard of a chocobo? He thought.

"Ready Tifa," Marlene and Denzel chirped.

"We have to be going, Bill," Tifa said conversationally. The poor man still looked out of it. "We'll be seeing you."

"Yeah," Bill distantly replied. "See you."

"What's wrong with Mr. Bill, Tifa?" Marlene asked.

"I think I told him something that really surprised him," Tifa explained. "He'll be okay, so don't worry."

"Okay!" the girl happily chirped.

They were halfway home when Tifa's phone rang. She looked at the screen and was surprised at the number. He'd never called back this fast before. Flipping her phone open, Tifa accepted the call.

"Hello," she said into the receiver.

"I got your message," Cloud's crackly voice said into the receiver. Tifa frowned at the static.

"Where are you?" Tifa's voice crackled over the phone. Cloud looked out the window of his room at the inn. The wind was howling viciously as the snow came down thick in the gusts. He sighed. He'd probably have to dig his bike out.

"I'm snowed in at Bone Village," Cloud replied. "Snow storm came suddenly off the mountains. Tried to beat it back to Eastern Continent; didn't make it."

They had both grown up in a small town similar to Bone Village where the weather was a major factor of life. It would be constant for days and weeks before changing suddenly and viciously. That was usually how winter had started; a vicious snowstorm from down the mountain.

"When…you be home?" she asked, the storm static breaking up the call.

He paused. He wanted to be home. He wanted to know about this new material Yuffie found and what was going on with Harry.

"I don't know," Cloud replied. He paused, still unsure whether or not he should ask.

"Cloud?" Tifa inquired. Dammit, she must have sensed his hesitation.

"How's Harry?" Cloud finally asked. He could feel Tifa's frown through his disjointed connection.

"Last…knew," Tifa began, "he…still unconscious… Yuffie hasn't called…few hours."

So he's still the same, Cloud thought. No changes. Don't know if that's good or bad. He needed to get home is what he needed.

"The storm should blow over by morning," Cloud said into the phone, even if they both knew there was a good chance of Cloud being in Bone Village for a handful of days at least. "I'll leave then."

"Be sa—" Tifa managed to say before Cloud's phone beeped. He looked to the phone's LCD screen seeing the call was lost. The wind howled outside worse than ever. His enhanced hearing picked up the pattering of the heavy snowflakes hitting the window and wall of the building. Cloud sighed. Just his luck the weather would pick up at the most inopportune moment. Then again, he'd never had good luck. Tossing his phone on his pack, Cloud left his room. Perhaps a hot meal would help ease his nerves.

He was sore, but it was a distant thought, and the sensation didn't affect him wherever he was. A forest of glowing trees; it was fascinating and intimidating all at once. The trees, despite their beauty and magnificence, looked dead; their boney, glowing fingers grasping towards the stars and moon in the sky. But that couldn't be right, because their glow was too bright for something dead. Harry wandered down a dirt path, then another just taking in the beauty of the forest.

You are touched by Destiny, Storm Child, a voice spoke. Startled, Harry turned around, wand out, before he saw that there was no one behind him. Looking around, the only creature he could see was a very large phoenix perched on one of the lower branches of a phosphorescent tree.

"Storm Child?" Harry repeated, confused.

Is there not lightning in storms? Was the bird's melodious reply. Do you not carry a lightning bolt on your forehead?

"That's not to signify a storm," Harry replied, mood darkening.

The bird cocked its head. Not all storms are those of The Planet. War can be considered a storm; something in your youth you seem familiar with.

Harry was pulled from his thoughts and examined the large bird. Its plumage was a familiar red with gold and yellow highlights. The orange undertones made the bird's form seem like it was burning in the poor light.

"You're the phoenix that was in that material," Harry stated.

How astute of you, the bird replied. I find myself, however, in a rather strange world, where people use sticks for magic instead of the materia the Lifestream creates.

"You're in my world?" Harry asked incredulously. "What's going on? How are Hermione and Ron? Has Voldemort attacked?"

The phoenix burst into a song that made Harry want to dance, and he realized that the bird was laughing. Apparently so. I know not of the actions of Voldemort, the phoenix began, I'm staying in the company of one Fawkes who sought me out when I first appeared in your strange world. Who are these two you speak of? Hermione and Ron?

Harry proceeded to describe his red headed best mate and his bushy haired, intelligent friend. "Can you tell them I'm doing all right?"

I'll do what I can, the bird replied. You, Storm Child, have to prepare. When the pressure drops and the air changes, you must be ready.

"I don't understand," Harry replied. "What do I have to be ready for?"

Talk to the Red Lightning whose accompanied by a Shadow, the bird continued singing in riddles. The information he has will make the Overcast Sky seem clear. But what is up is down and left is right, so beware the Hail from the Previous Storm. They know not the harmony of life. Sing the song of fire and ice; opposites attract and work best together. Prepare to do what needs to be done for Harmony and Melody need to be tuned, Storm Child.

Keep me near, he continued singing, for even though we are worlds apart, I am closer than you think.

"I don't understand!" Harry repeated.

Vuurvliegje speaks the truth, a new voice spoke up. Harry felt a presence at his back, and the scent of flowers overpowered the musky dirt smell of the forest. Somehow knew he shouldn't turn around. Take his words to heart. You remember them, right?

"Of course!" Harry replied.

Good. Wake up

"Huh?" Harry said. But the forest was gone, as was the scent of flowers. He ached all over, cold seemed to emanate from his bones. He began shivering. He curled tighter into a ball.

"None of that now," he heard a familiar voice say. He remembered it belonging to Yuffie. She helped into a sitting position and cocooned him in blankets. "Here, eat this," she continued as she grudgingly thrust chocolate in his face.

"Th-tha-th," Harry attempted to thank her, but gave up and just shoved the chocolate in his mouth. The cold receded a bit, and Harry was able to function with only minor shivers, but it was still apparent he was cold.

"Y-yuf-f-fie," Harry began. "Can I h-h-have that mat-teria?"

Yuffie looked decidedly unhappy as she fished about her person before finding the dull glass orb. "Don't you dare loose it!" she commanded as she relinquished it to Harry's outstretched hand.

"Thank you," Harry spoke as he felt the warmth envelope him once more. He sighed, content, before collapsing back on his bed in a comfortable sleep.

Yuffie sighed. This was too much work for her. She thieved and fought; she didn't baby-sit or play nursemaid well. Had to sit still for too long and focus too much either of which she wasn't good at. She supposed she should go downstairs and wait for Tifa and Company. They'd want to know what's been going down. Conveniently forgetting she had a phone, Yuffie skipped downstairs. Checking the time on her way past the office, she noted how far into the evening it truly was. Tifa and the brats would be back soon.

She supposed she should open the bar and help Tifa out. Harry probably wouldn't wake up until tomorrow anyway. This course of action decided, Yuffie opened the bar and began serving drinks waiting for Tifa to return.

A/N: I really love chocobos:3 :D :D :D

posted 5September2007