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Chapter 10

For the first time since his arrival Harry felt like he could take a breath. The day had taken a lot out of him but for the moment he was someplace that allowed him a moment to think, and best of all privacy.

He had been told that this was the bathroom for the 'prefects'. He thought they sounded a little like the student council, only with the ability to enforce school rules. 'Now wouldn't that be a nightmare at home!' he thought to himself. 'Maybe the positions aren't a popularity contest like they are there, if those people could run the school...' he shuddered a little.

The bathroom was quite large, with a tub (big enough to almost swim in) that filled from an odd series of taps each with its own form of scent, color, or effect. He had just stuck with warm, very warm, boil your lobster warm. After the crash it felt great.

He lifted his head out of the water, and scrubbed it hard for a final time then as he let the tub refill he settled back to take a serious look around. Once the tub was full he pushed himself out and sat on the edge feet dangling in the water. He relaxed and began to reach outward with his senses till with a little bubbling feeling that started from his toes he felt himself rise from his body. He opened his 'eyes' and looked around.

He could see the shields and protections of the castle glowing all around him. He probed outward, the shields were crude. Much like the first ones he made when he began his studies with Tannim and Shar, this form had two basic flaws. First with enough force they could be overwhelmed, or crushed outright; second if you spent the time and found the right spot it could be… for the lack of a better term, popped. Kind of like a balloon.

The shields he was familiar with were based on geometrics, specifically something called a geo-sphere. A way of stacking triangles to form a sphere, the bonus of this form was that impacts were spread out among the triangles increasing the overall surface area, and then by adding power shunts to the junctions you could siphon off some of the excess energy and recycle it, even feeding it into the shields themselves, in effect tripling their strength. There were ways of dealing with them, but it took time. A lot of time.

"Live from Scotland it's Saturday Night!" screamed a voice. Harry immediately snapped back to his body and spun around to face a 1950s era TV sitting in the corner. "Thank you all for coming tonight! We've -" The man on the screen looked remarkably like James Dean complete with leather coat.

"FX! Thank god!" As soon as it was out of his mouth Harry groaned.

In a blink James Dean was standing there in person where the TV had been, dressed in white robes with a red sash, a glow behind his head and five foxtails spread in a fan behind him. "Fear not my son. Ask and ye shall receive my eternal blessing!"

Harry rolled his eyes, a grin on his face. "Oh, stow it fox!" Despite the fact that he knew it encouraged the kitsune he laughed, and FX gave him a bow then returned to his James Dean outfit. "How long have you been here?"

"Not all that long, it took a while to get here." He shrugged. "About half way through your meal. It took a little time to find a way in, then I had to avoid the ghosts."

"Yeah, I met a couple at dinner." He stood and began to towel off. "Odd lot, seem to know they are dead. They act like they are ok with it."

"Probably are, seems as if they are more like some of the old spirits back home. More guardian than ghost. Lady Ako is on her way here," he said while inspecting the spigots around the tub. "She is not pleased."

Harry grumbled under his breath, "She's not pleased? I'm sure as hell not pleased!"

"I figured as much."

"I never wanted to come back to this god forsaken country!"

"I know Harry and so do they."

"Who's coming?'

"Lady Ako, and Shar." Harry grasped the wall in front of him and banged his head softly on the wall.

"Oh, god! I'm not going to live out the week." He kept his now throbbing head against the cold stone, it was surprisingly nice, very cold. "I'm going to pay for the car aren't I?"

"He's not real happy, that thing was expensive, but I think he understands. Keighvin knows you had no control over the magic. God knows he has dealt with enough of this crap!"

"Yeah, it still doesn't help me feeling bad. It was brand new, the test bed for the next season to boot. It was to be my lead car, and help us set up for the other teams."

FX walked over to him, "Don't let Keighvin know I told you this, but... he kind of expected you to crack one up during the tests this week. That was one of three he had ready," he said with a smile. "I think he was trying to impress on you the necessity to keep from tearing things up unnecessarily."

Harry's jaw dropped and he sat stunned for a moment. "I can still run one with the new setup?" FX nodded. "Oh…HOT DAMN! I am gonna crush 'em!" he said leaning back against the wall a look of relief covering his face.

"I don't doubt it kit! Now tell me, any hot prospects around?" FX asked with a leer.

"Down fox! I've met a total of four people around my own age in this nut house..."

"Were any of them girls?"

He glared at the kitsune, then looked away. "Yes."

"And…."

"Red head, and a blond, nice..." He caught himself. "Damn you fox! I have bigger problems than women." Harry pulled on his driving shoes.

"But they are important!"

"… whatever. When will they be here?"

FX's demeanor changed and all the teasing was gone. "In the morning, it's an early morning arrival. The man that called said that he would have them to you by mid morning."

"Fabulous…" he said quietly. "I'll need to stay up all night. It's a good thing I didn't use much magic with that stunt in the arena."

"What happened?" FX asked concerned.

"I imagine you heard that this is some form of magical tournament?" FX nodded. "Can you believe that the first 'task' of this stupid thing had the competitors retrieve a golden egg from a nesting drake?"

FX looked stunned. "Are they stupid? Those things are as temperamental as they come and then add nesting and that's a death wish!" He looked at Harry with a wry smile. "And you managed to do it?"

Harry smiled a toothy grin, "Of course." FX looked at him expectantly. "Oh come on fox, think about it! I've had Lady Ako, Chinthliss, and even Thomas pulling their hair out for years!"

"You're the one! Every damn year I get in trouble for those!" He sat on the bench and pouted. "Every year I get grilled about the open gifts!"

"You shouldn't have blamed me when I was eight!" Harry said with a smile.

"Come on it was Nintendo! I had to try it!" FX pouted.

"Yeah and I got blamed even though I was snug in my bed."

"So how…"

"I thought like a kitsune! A little misdirection, a little illusion… and I just walked up and took the one that didn't belong. The drake was distracted by the crowd so all I needed was to cover my scent and my movement and voila!" he said pointing at the golden egg.

FX blinked at him, "So... Kitsune 101." Harry nodded. "You fooled them all, with that?"

"K.I.S.S. 'Keep it simple stupid'. Besides I had no idea what else I'd need to do so I had to conserve my energy. That seemed important as both the whiskered moron and the bat attacked me."

FX's eyes grew large. "It was no big deal, they both tried to scan my thoughts. Dumbledore both before and after the task, some guy in black before."

"Your shields held?"

"Yeah, barely noticed. Think they both slid right off."

"Any idea why you're here?"

"Not a clue. Although Dumbledore seems like he was hell bent on finding me. I expect he was involved with my entry." His faced hardened. "He was the one that placed me with… the Dursleys."

FX shook his head. "I guess you showed him how much that displeased you?"

"Think I broke his jaw," he snickered. "Met a guy named Sirius Black, he says he is my godfather. He was in prison when I was younger, he and the head of their law enforcement say he was innocent. They have been looking for me as well."

"Wonder why they couldn't find you?" FX asked. "It's not like you were hiding. You still even use the last name Potter at school."

"I don't think the people here are exactly… current. Hell none of them even have a phone, even the school doesn't have one." He shrugged, "I think there are several agendas going on here, that's why I asked for Lady Ako.

"I looked at the contract, it was vague but with the cup pulling me here it seemed evident I didn't have much of a choice. I have a feeling they will try to keep me here, and I am not missing the final race of the season or the awards banquet. We've worked too hard."

He stood and walked toward the door. "Keep close if you can but don't get caught. See if you can find me when I find a place to crash for the night, if you can it might let me grab a nap. I am not going to trust any of these yahoos." Then he walked into the hall as FX nodded and faded away.