ARGH. Real life is so busy. And I haven't updating this fic in... *checks date* over two months.

...I'M SORRY! My only excuse is that with the coming of Fall is the coming of an extreme lack of free time. I've had this chapter sitting half-written for weeks, but I've only gotten around to finishing it now. Argh! My complete and utter lack of an updating schedule is ridiculous.

So, um... for those of you still reading, I apologize for taking so long. I re-read the last chapter, and my gosh it was terrible. I'm sorry for that, too, but I have no time to rewrite now. Also, for those of you who reviewed and said that the Pride are feeling a bit 2-D, I agree. So this chapter, along with the next, is going to be pretty much showcasing the Pride's abilities. Well, mostly the next chapter.

HUGE THANKS to Krazyfanfiction1, codybob, DragonClaw827, FANatic Writer, Nightwing 509, Olaf74, ultima-owner, Wishfull-star, Taranodongirl1, Seas and Shadows, RedWolf Lover, Baby Fawn, Butterlover328, Guest, Rescue9911, and ElementalMaster16 for reviewing!

...Holy Fudge. 16 reviews for one chapter. That's, like, more than I've gotten for the last three Honor Among Thieves chapters (hint, hint- yes, shameless self-promotion) combined. Wow. You guys are amazing!

Disclaimer: Don't own either the Harry Potter or Pokémon franchise.


The snow was falling. Thick white flakes drifted down from a soft grey sky, settling and melting on my fur. The forest was silent, a thick carpet of white blanketing the entire floor. In many places it was completely undisturbed, a perfect, untouched surface. A sense of peace and serenity permeated the calm woods.

Then the rampaging momma ursaring appeared, and suddenly the forest wasn't nearly quite so peaceful anymore.

"Run! Run! Run! Run!" Cub shouted gleefully, a wild grin on his face as he pelted through the woods. Hermione and Neville were hot on his heels, eyes wide and panicked.

"That idiot," Glider said as he poked his head down from his spot in the treetops. "One of these days, he's going to get himself killed."

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes as he leaned against a tree trunk, watching as three brown and black blurs rushed past, followed by one significantly larger and heavier light brown blur. "Let me guess. Somebody let him lick the frosting from the bowl while they were baking Christmas Cookies again, didn't they." The lucario's tone was flat, almost bored, as the ground shook and snow rained down from the trees.

"Probably," Devil groaned in exasperation. "Wonderful, just what we need. Cub on sugar high. And he's dragged his poor friends along for the ride, too. Anyone got a titanium cage ready?"

I sighed. "And there go all my hunting prospects," I muttered under my breath. "There isn't going to be a lick of prey around here for miles now."

There was a massive roar before an explosion sounded and a wide beam of pure energy lanced through the trees. Spike ducked as it passed harmlessly over his head, leaving charred wood and melted snow in its wake. "Oh, great," he said dryly. "Now it's mad enough to use Hyper Beam."

More crashes. A loud roar. The crackle of burning flame. A black and green blur was catapulted into the clearing, landing and skidding on the snow until it hit a tree. Cub, in ninetails form, rolled back up to his paws with a groan.

"Ow," he muttered. "D***. Hammer Arm hurts."

"Well, it wouldn't if you hadn't annoyed that ursaring into fighting you in the first place," I told him dryly.

He smirked mischievously. "But what would be the fun in that?"

The ursaring in question burst into the clearing. Cub hit it head-on with a Fire Blast, and it roared in pain before staggering away to nurse its wounds.

Hermione and Neville appeared a few moments later, wide-eyed and fearful. "Is it gone?" Neville asked in a hushed whisper.

Cub yawned, showing off gleaming white fangs. He grinned foxily, green-tipped tails waving in smug satisfaction. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You really are a showoff," she said before stepping fully out onto the melted snow, grimacing slightly as her boots sank into the now-slushy ground. "Let me guess. Fire-type attack?"

"Fire Blast," Spike confirmed. "But the ursaring used Hyper Beam before that."

"See, it's not completely my fault!"

"Mm, no, it completely is."

Amethyst, stepping delicately across the snow, let out a small laugh. "Isn't it always?"

Another roar echoed through the woods. "What was that?" Neville asked.

Cub winced. "Um, I may or may not have transfigured a giant pressure mat-activated catapult about half a mile back?"

A thunderous crash. Flocks of pidgey rose from the trees, chattering loudly as their perches shook and toppled.

If I had hands, I would have facepalmed.


It was cold. Our breath came out in small white clouds, puffing up then dispersing in the chilly air. It was dark, the winter season's sunset coming hours earlier than the summer's. It was windy, with swirling breezes that kicked up little drifts of white and ruffled fur with invisible hands.

"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Spike groused as we trudged through the snow, paws sinking in almost four inches with every step. "And why we couldn't just do one of Cub's insta-transport magic teleportation things instead?"

"It's good exercise," Cub replied cheerfully, emerald eyes sparkling. "And isn't the night sky here beautiful?" He gestured to the wide expanse of stars that twinkled brightly in the darkness of space, glittering like so many diamonds sewn into a cloth of black velvet.

"Frikin' cold is what the night sky here is," Spike grumbled. "Are you sure we're not lost?"

"We'd better not be," Flare hissed. "Because by all rights I should be hibernating right now, not slithering through ice-cold snow when my blood is actually capable of literally freezing if I stay in these temperatures for much longer."

I sighed. "Flare has a point, Cub. Seriously, just do the teleportation thing."

Cub pouted, but was forced to concede. "Fine," he muttered. Everyone grinned with relief and gathered around, close enough to touch as Cub muttered a few words under his breath, gathering magic in his hands- and pulled.


The Winter Tournament, as the event we'd walked over what felt like a small forest and half a mountain to compete in was called, consisted of what was essentially a bunch of knockout battles all in a row. If you won, you continued. If you lost, you were out, simple as that.

"So… you want us to compete in this 'Winter Tournament' competition?" Hermione asked as she looked around, seeing all the Trainers that had gathered for the event. It was very new, having only been introduced this year, and the turnout was pretty good.

"Yup!" Cub replied cheerfully. "I thought it would be good test of your skills. You and Neville have improved a lot as Trainers, but always battling against me or each other doesn't give you a lot of variety. Plus, it'll be a good experience."

A fearow swooped low overhead, and a meowth could be seen napping on the roof of one of the buildings. Neville gulped nervously. "Are you sure?" One hand was resting on Root's pokeball, rubbing it slightly for reassurance.

Cub nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! You guys will be fine, trust me. It's not like I'm expecting you to win, or anything, since I don't know how strong the Trainers competing are going to be, but I think you'd a battle or two."

"One if we're lucky," Hermione muttered under her breath. Louder, she asked, "You said that most Trainers carry a full party of six pokemon, right? Neville and I only have one each, even if they are powerful. And like you said, we've only ever battled each other and you. We don't have that much experience with other battling styles."

Cub nodded. "Exactly. Heck, it doesn't even matter if you lose your first match. It's not like we're competing with huge stake or anything; this is just for fun. Keep that in mind. And," he added with a wicked smirk, "because the Pride need a chance to stretch their legs. We've still been training, but well, no offense," he shot his friends an apologetic look, "we haven't exactly been participating in regular high-level battles lately."

Neville nodded understandingly. "It's okay," he assured Cub with a sheepish smile. "Just make sure that you win at least one more battle than us, 'cause you don't have the excuse of only using one pokemon."

I snorted in from inside my pokeball. "If we lose before at least getting to the semifinals, I'm going to ask Merlin and Morgana to break out their insane training regimen again," I muttered to myself. Even though the two ancient wizard's and witch's training methods were absolute torture, that still had to be better than getting too out of shape.

Cub laughed, and was about to say something when he was cut off by an enthusiastic shout from somewhere to his left.

"Hey! Harry! Harry!"

All three Trainers turned towards the shout, and were met with the sight of a widely grinning blond boy who burst out of the crowd in front of them, almost running smack into Cub before the older boy set out one hand to steady him.

"Hello, Damien," Cub greeted with a smile. "What are you doing here? I thought you were back at Sinnoh."

Damien grinned wider. "Visiting relatives," he answered with a shrug. "Heard about this tournament, and figured it would be fun. Oh, and I almost forgot! Harry, look at what I won!"

Rummaging around in his pocket, he pulled out two shiny badges and proudly presented them to his role model. Cub nodded in approval.

"Congratulations. Two already? Very nice," he said by way of congratulations. Then he seemed to remember that he had other friends, too, and turned to introduce them. "Oh, by the way, these are my friends Hermione and Neville from school. Guys, this is Damien. He's from Sinnoh, another region almost halfway across the world from here."

Damian beamed, all but bouncing up to Cub's friends as he eagerly introduced himself. "Hi! Like Harry said, I'm Damien, from Sinnoh, and I'm going to become the Sinnoh League Champion! I like pokemon, pokemon battling, pokemon training, and ice cream! Harry and I met this summer and traveled together for a little bit. He's really strong, so are you guys really strong too?" He said this all very fast, barely pausing for breath between sentences.

Hermione and Neville blinked, a bit stunned at his… exuberance, let's say. To be honest, it sort of reminded me of Hermione when we had first met her.

"Erm, hello," Neville said awkwardly. "I'm Neville. I like plants and my torterra, Root. Uh, we aren't really good Trainers yet; we just started, really. Focusing more on school at the moment."

Hermione stepped forward. "I'm Hermione, also just a beginning Trainer. I like reading, learning, my espeon, Amethyst, and researching. Like Neville, I only started recently. All three of us- Harry, Neville, and I -go to school together, so that's how we met."

Damien raised one eyebrow in a faintly puzzled expression. "Huh. Interesting. You say that you guys are only beginning Trainers, but you," he turned to Neville, "have a fully-evolved torterra. Heck, my starter's still only a second-stage evolved monferno! And you," he looked at Hermione, "have a rare eeveelution not usually found with rookie Trainers. Not to mention that torterra evolves from a Sinnoh starter, and eevee isn't even a starter at all. The Orre region doesn't count."

Cub laughed sheepishly. "Ah, that would be my fault. Root and Amethyst's pokeballs were actually found in a storage closet at our school, covered in dust and pretty old judging by the thickness. We're not sure whether their Trainers abandoned or lost them, but since they evidently weren't coming back, I dusted them off a bit and gave them to Hermione and Neville as starters."

Damien tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Really? That's weird. But I guess if nobody else ever claimed them it's alright," he shrugged. "Anyway, are you guys competing in the tournament?"

"Yup!" Cub grinned. "All three of us. That means that we may end up battling you in one of the rounds."

The younger Trainer grinned. "Well, then, sorry, but I won't hold back!" he said. "I'll defeat you and win the tournament!"

"Not if I beat you first," Cub shot back good-naturedly.

I sighed. "Oh, great," I muttered. "Now he's making it a competition. Wonderful."

So much for just a casual round of battling. Now Cub was aiming to win, which meant that we were going to have to put more than the minimum amount of effort into this thing.

Ach. Of course. Oh, well. I supposed we needed the exercise anyway.


"Round One: Harry Pride vs Timothy Jenkins!"

The crowd cheered. Cub took up his place at one end of the field, while his opponent walked out to the other. For this first battle, he was fighting a slightly older teen with black hair, freckles, and thickly-rimmed glasses.

The referee raised a flag high in the air, then dropped it. "Begin!" he shouted, blowing a whistle.

The older boy acted first. "Go, Ivysaur!"

Cub smirked. "Go, Devil!" he cried. The houndoom was released with a flash of light, bursting out with an intimidating howl.

His opponents (both human and pokemon) cursed audibly.

"Devil, use Flamethrower," Cub said.

Devil bared his teeth in a dangerous grin and opened his jaws wide. A bright light began to shine from somewhere in the back of his throat before it was suddenly released in a huge stream of orange and red, roaring towards Ivysaur in a wave of heat and burning sparks.

The Grass-type swore, too slow to dodge completely. The edges of several green fronds blackened and curled, numerous burns searing into existence as the pokemon was forced to weather the attack.

Cub grinned, and didn't let up on his aggressive offense. "Keep going! Don't stop!"

The other Trainer gritted his teeth, then shouted, "Ivysaur! Protect!"

A glowing dome snapped into place around Ivysaur, protecting him from Devil's flames. His Trainer shouted again, "Now Vine Whip!"

The dome shimmered and fell as several vines burst from the squat pokemon's body, whipping through the air with a sharp whistling sound like thick cables. Devil was forced to leap away, dodging every strike and repelling some with bursts of flame when they got too close. Wherever the vines hit the ground they left deep gouges in the dirt, providing more motivation to avoid them.

Devil grinned, a slightly unnerving sight as he revealed deadly sharp fangs. "This is kinda fun!" he remarked, before snapping at another green whip with a mouth full of fire as it lashed too close to his face for comfort.

Cub mirrored the expression, and cried out, "Flamethrower again!"

Whoosh.

Green crackled and curled to black as they hastily retracted back into wherever they'd come from, Ivysaur hopping to the side barely in time to avoid the bulk of the flames. Unfortunately for him, all Devil had to do was move his jaws a little to the left.

A roar of pain, then-

Nothing. The fire died away, revealing that Ivysaur had taken one too many heavy hits too early in the battle to recover. Devil howled victoriously.

Cub's opponent frowned as he recalled his starter, no doubt reevaluating Cub's strength. Then he smirked, and pulled out another pokeball.

"Go, Mankey!"

I chuckled to myself. Going for a type advantage, eh? Too bad Glider was part Flying-type.

Settling back to watch the show, I had a feeling that this tournament was going to be fun.