Author's Note(s): Well, here's Chapter 10, all ready for ya! I've included some update on the progress toward the inclusion on the other three characters, and also just general plot movement. I also dropped some interesting hints, so squint close at the important parts!
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"If this isn't a progress report, I'm going to have your blood bottled for Diagon" Spike hissed, keeping a firm grip on the file he had been given. "Now speak!" His sharp voice made the much shorter dragon flinch, even after such a long time working for the 7 foot behemoth.
"We've been able to trace his energy signature through the flux tunnel by following the residual cast-offs of the technique the Lady Eve used." He began "unfortunately, we have been delayed in our search by several parties…" The glare he received was one carrying more than just a threat "most notably the members of the house of Fer-schae, who have been paying our workers handsomely to ensure that he is not found…"
"Oh, is that so?" Spike muttered "so, our workers are being bribed by money, are they?" He grinned wickedly "have they forgotten how dangerous that is when I am involved in an investigation?"
"They were not aware of your status in our search; apparently, most of our field workers on this project are our younger employees, and they are not as familiar with the energy signature as most…" Spike's lips curled away from a double-row of razor-sharp teeth, a twisted grin.
"Well, then" he spoke without moving his jaw "make it known, but not before you bring them to me. I'm hungry" he explained "and my inhibition is not what it used to be." Behind him, Diagon giggled, his manner drunk as he hung from the ceiling by his tail.
--
"Oi, Harry" Stingchu tapped him on the shoulder, and quite effectively scared all the spit from Harry's mouth as McGonagall turned around to glare venomously at the disguised emanchu balancing on the back of Harry's chair. "I need to talk to ya."
"S-Stingchu! Can't this wait?" The young Vizor whispered, paling as the Transfiguration professor's glare grew steadily sharper, her lips in a line thin enough to cut paper.
"How can it wait if it has no thought processes of its own?"
"Stingchu…" Harry whispered through gritted teeth.
"Yes?" The inquiry was surprisingly pleasant.
"You're interrupting the class!" He hissed at him.
"Eh? Really?" Harry nearly died of exasperation then and there, but resolved not to throttle the emanchu…at least, not yet.
"Yes, really, now bugger off. I'm sure that whatever it is can be settled later."
"Well I really don't see why not now. I can teach you anythin' 'bout morphin' later, 'specially after this summer which is what I've been meanin' to discuss right now." A plethora of gasps flooded the room as McGonagall's face went thunderous, the atmosphere in the room heavy with tension. "Eh?" Stingchu looked around, sensing the sudden fear in the room "why'd it suddenly get tighter than a fly's ass in here?"
"Mr. Dragona" McGonagall's voice was deceptively calm and blatantly dangerous "are you implying that teaching my subject is pointless?"
"Eh?" He blinked down at her "pointless? Yeah, the stuff you're teachin' is pretty thin and narrow if ya ask me, but I guess everyone's gotta start from somewhere in the developmental process, even if it's at the crap-bottom U-bend of the toilet." McGonagall's face was reddening "actually, it's not so much a matter of being pointless as being antiquated…"
"How dare you!"
"In a way only I can dare, madame" he said smoothly, straightening from his perch on the back of the chair "though you are, indeed, full of righteous indignation, even you have to recognize that the fact that there has been no major change in knowledge about Transfiguration in a century means that it has become antiquated, especially since the only great wielders of it have ever used the simplest forms of it, which were created thousands of years ago. Its more elaborate forms have become obsolete; its complex spells obsolete on the battlefield."
It was obvious he was grinning at the look on the woman's face; Harry could sense the amusement fluctuating across his aura as if it was a beacon of light. "I've been in the same company as the magical community for less than 5 months, and I had seen all that you'd created by the end of the first month. To say the least, the only useful things I found among the entire compilation were the subjects of wands and the exploration into the affect of magical cores on the psyche of an ethereal psychogenterran as it pertains to time, upbringing and personality disorders." He chuckled "interesting how one is old, general and vague and the other is new, specific and detailed, isn't it?"
He sighed then, as if bored "and in any case, madame, the personal rules that are held by those outside my condition have not applied to me in a very long time. As for any of those other little rules, you know, about common courtesy, humane decency and not pissing into your boss's coffee, they don't apply ta me if I don't think breakin' 'em's wrong anyway. Different strokes for different people, an' all that. Well, let's go then, Harry."
"WHA-!" The next moment, Harry's books, his chair, and he himself had disappeared with Stingchu, leaving behind only an inkwell behind.
--
"-TTT?" Harry blinked, then blinked again as Stingchu flipped off his chair effortlessly "Uh…"
"Yup, we did just 'port out to the trees." Stingchu answered before the question even started to form "and yup, you're technically skippin' class, though you won't get punished for it 'cause it was my fault…unless of course they do it to try to make you hate me."
"Stingchu…what the bloody hell did you do all that for?" Harry snapped finally, clutching his quill so hard it snapped in his fist.
"Eh? Whatcha mean by 'all that'?"
"You interrupt the lesson, insult my teacher, berate a topic that's really hard for most people to do, and then pull me out of class. Have you gone completely – oh, forget it! I keep forgetting that you've already lost your mind!"
"Yup; haven't seen it in eons" Stingchu agreed with a nod "now come on, I need you to work on your tree more today – no wasting time doing that stupid stuff. I can teach you better things and in any case it's a style too restricted to the dry and simple functions."
"Wasting time?" Harry sputtered as Stingchu packed his things, carefully prying the broken quill from his hand "Transfiguration is the hardest subject I have!"
"Maybe, but I know a better version of changing stuff into other stuff" Stingchu replied, gloved hands glowing as he repaired the quill "though you won't have a snowball's chance in hell of learnin' it 'till the summer, and that's only if you're ready for the Rites, and it's 'cause of that matter that we've got a hell of a lot to get to doin'."
"The Rites?" He blinked up at the emanchu as he removed his mask and goggles. "What are you talking about?"
"Ugh" he groaned as he smoothed down the static from his hair "do you remember what I told you about Vizors not being wizards and witches back when we first met?"
"Um…"
--
"W-wizards…snort…fucking hell…" it took him quite some time to calm down. "Kid, you're not a wizard" he said when he could finally speak "you're an ethereal psychogenterran. If there was a wizard on this planet, I'd be with them right now." Harry looked very confused at the information. It was like half the things Stingchu said weren't even English…
"A…what?" He also felt somewhat offended by the snorting chuckles coming from the alien. "Hey, come on, I'm being serious…" Stingchu paused, saw that Harry was upset, and quickly calmed down enough to explain himself.
"Sorry if you're offended Harry, but I know what real wizards are, and although you guys, Vizors, are pretty close; you're still just a subspecies of human if you don't go through the rituals."
"Vizors? What?"
--
"You said something about Vizors going through rituals?" Harry asked, getting up as his anger melted away to curiosity.
"Yeah; I decided not long after that point to see how your schooling would progress in your following years. I've sneaked in on every year and every subject in your school, and it's not gonna work out. The Rites gotta happen before you turn to manhood and you need to train to a certain level for it to happen. By their guidance you'll be at least 40 before you get to that kinda high." He ran a hand over the trunk of his own tree with his uncovered, red hand "so I'm pullin' you outta that shit-for-brains academic shit hole of a curriculum." The tree began to glow a deep green "and I'm takin' your learnin' up to a new level."
--
"Why are you doing this?" Harry finally asked, watching as Stingchu mixed the vials. Stingchu's tree, which had by now become gigantic, had created a strange sort of 'extra-dimensional space' with a small bit of guidance from its 'partner'.
"What d'you mean?"
"Why are you so dead set on me getting stronger and stronger? Why do you look after me like this?"
"Hmph" he put his thumb in the top of the vial, plugging it, and shook vigorously "you're not even an official teenager yet and still you've got Voldemort to deal with" he answered "I feel like you could use a friendly, unmotivated hand. In that case, I can't keep eyes on you the whole time; I ain't got enough nerves to deal with watchin' someone anymore. I lost that kind of focus ages before you were born."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that you're practically a sitting duck at the power level you're at, and will be until you're as strong as the Dumb-bore." Harry had to snort with laughter at Dumbledore's 'nickname'… "The way they're teachin', if I don't interfere, you might lose your life to that fuckin' fungus-ass. Even if you don't, though, there's always the fact that he's gonna go after your friends. He'll try and get to them as fast as he can – maim 'em, torture 'em, kill 'em. He's a sick bastard, and that means he'll do whatever to hurt you, even if it won't be physical. He's gonna want you to bleed inside and out."
"…So…"
"Yeah; basically, if he thinks you ain't enough of a threat, he ain't gonna be shy 'bout nothin' he wants to do."
"He'll go after Ron and Hermione?"
"They'll probably be on the top of a very long list, Harry, and only right under your name. Besides, he'll try to get them alive first, you see – use them as bait, or a bargaining chip – surrender or I'll kill 'em." He frowned as he started measuring out a yellow powder "then, if he sees it don't work, he'll torture 'em, kill 'em, mutilate the corpse, and show it off in the most insulting, horrific way he can think of." He snarled as he spoke, still mixing "and believe me, that shit fucks with a normal person's head as easy as spittin'. Hell, thinkin' of that kinda stuff happenin' to anyone I care 'bout makes me wanna do some torture myself."
"H-How do you know all this?"
"…" Stingchu took a long drag from his cigarette, the look in his eye weary for the very first time since Harry had known him. "I used to be a lot like that kid, only power wasn't my motive. Mine was revenge, and I make sure that the people I was after suffered every second before they died. I also made sure the people loved by those people suffered for caring about them. I hated not just them, but everyone that ever gave a shit 'bout them." He chuckled "all for the only two people I'd ever known to love back in the beginning of my years."
He blinked then, looking confused "wow, I think I rambled again…oh well" he went back to mixing "anyways, don't ever let revenge bite ya too deep kid; unlike me, you'll have a conscience for all your life, and you might not want to have regrets for the things you do." He grinned wickedly "it's like I always say: 'unless you think it's a no-no, do anything that tickles ya'."
--
"I'm not drinking that" Harry replied to the frothy, green solution.
"Why not?" Stingchu's voice and expression were much too innocent…
"Well, judging by the look on your face, it's not going to be pleasant if I do."
"Yeah, but it's a good shortcut, ya know?"
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
"Well, to get you up from the level you are now to the bare minimum would require another 5 years of rigorous training, and I'm not so sure I wanna put you through that shit." He grinned "the contents of this vial, taken once a week, will shorten the process down to two months, even though you're still gonna have to work just as hard as you normally would for those five years. Plus, there are side-effects…" He grinned helplessly down at his young charge's frustrated expression…
"…Fine…" Harry groaned finally, taking the vial "you'd probably force feed me even if I refused." Stingchu grinned.
"You learn fast, Harry" he replied as the young boy downed the contents in a single gulp. "You'll need that kind of mind starting…now."
--
The next few days went by in a blur. Stingchu basically put Harry through the ringer – it was worse than all the conditioning they'd done in the summer, and the potion had nasty side-effects. He felt like his muscles were on fire every time he moved, and yet still Stingchu was relentless in the drills he had to do, not to mention their sparring matches. If it wasn't for the uncharacteristic grimness the emanchu had adopted since they'd started, Harry would have certainly started to loathe him.
In fact, the best part of Harry's day was pouring his energy into his tree; he got the chance to see Ron and Hermione every day. Both his friends made it known, in their own way, how they felt about the emanchu pulling him out of school…and they also had some news for him…
--
"What!"
"Harry, keep your voice down" Hermione whispered as Dean glanced over their way. Harry blushed, ducking his head down, and lowering his voice to a whisper.
"What do you mean 'Stingchu had a row with the entire staff''? For that matter, why didn't Snape get involved?"
"Well, we think Snape stayed out of it partly 'cause of the whole deal with the 'compensation' stuff…" Ron began.
"As for the fight" Hermione remarked grimly "it nearly came to wands."
"What was it about, anyway?" Harry whispered harshly, giving the nearby emanchu nearby a concerned glare.
"What else, mate?" Ron asked, receiving an exasperated snort from Hermione.
"Basically, Harry, no one's too happy about Stingchu pulling you from the school like this, least of all the Headmaster. Dumbledore thinks you should be in Hogwarts and Stingchu thinks he should be teaching you…though if I was Dumbledore, I'd let Stingchu take care of you. He seems to know loads more about stuff I've never even read about."
"I've noticed that about him" Harry remarked with a peculiar expression. "Now tell me more about the fight; how'd it start?"
"Well…" Hermione glanced at Stingchu. "Have you ever noticed how odd Stingchu is sometimes?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well, there are times when he seems to be very gentle and caring, mostly around little Ritten, but other times…"
"Other times, he acts like what my mum calls 'fighting mad'." Ron finished.
"He's also just plain off his nut sometimes, and from what Ron's told me, he can be awfully moody." Harry blinked at all the information bombarding him.
"What does this have to do with the fight?"
"Stingchu called Dumbledore out in the middle of breakfast the day after he pulled you from Transfiguration." Ron said bluntly "it was like he went ballistic again or something; talking about how he hadn't the right to put you through some kind of rotten trouble, and how Dumbledore was keepin' a whole mess of secrets that he wasn't gonna keep from you."
"Did he say what kind of secrets?" Harry asked eagerly.
"No, just told him he was a dirty old codger for doin' things like that."
"Although he wasn't nearly so eloquent in saying it, but Harry, don't you see?" Hermione asked "don't you see what we're talking about?"
"What?"
"Harry, Hermione thinks our friend Stingchu might just be mental." Harry blinked at the two of them, before chuckling lightly.
"It took you this bloody long to figure that out?" Harry asked "I've known that since the day I met him!"
"He does have a point." Stingchu piped up from next to Hermione, effectively giving two of the three heart attacks. "It took you guys a bit too long to figure things out. Oh, and Ron, I'm definitely insane – at least that's what all the psychologists told me…"
"S-Stingchu?" How long have you been there?" Hermione asked nervously, her voice trembling.
"Not very long" he replied "but I heard every word anyway – I've got really good ears." Harry held back another chuckle at the humor of Stingchu 'having good ears'. In truth, it was more like having radio satellites attached to his head…which reminded him.
"Hey, Stingchu" The disguised emanchu turned to his charge in curiosity, as if the two on either side of him were not frozen like statues.
"Eh? What is it?"
"Do you remember what we talked about?"
"Um…what?"
"You know…the…"
"The what?" He cocked his head in confusion "are you talkin' 'bout the school thing, the training thing, the rites thing, the face thing or the other face thing?"
"The face th-wait…" Harry stared at the emotionless disguise in confusion. "What do you mean 'the other face thing'?"
"Well do you remember the time I told you about how food can come from literally any place, especially when pickin's get slim?" Stingchu began, continuing upon noticing Harry's increasingly dumbfounded stare "well, I told you that the giant bug alien thingy grabbed onto my face and wouldn't let go, and was chewing on my face with that toothy sucker-mouth, right? So then I had to throw up in its-"
"OKAY, I REMEMBER NOW!" Harry yelled, cutting off the narrative anxiously, hoping to god that neither Ron nor Hermione knew what came next in the story. Fortunately, they had just barely come out of shock, and had missed the small conversation completely. "In any case" Harry finally continued with a sigh of relief "I meant the 'face thing'…I guess…"
"You mean the face thing where I strip partially, or completely?" Harry glared at the emanchu as the full impact of the question sunk in. "Yeesh, change yer face before it freezes, Harry" Stingchu commented, waving a hand in the air "are you tryin' to kill flowers or somethin'?" The glare only intensified. "Damn, Harry, I didn' know you were that upset. I guess all this trainin's givin' you a pissed off head. You look like an elephant with infected hemorrhoids."
"OI! DON'T CHANGE THE TOPIC, &#(&!"
"Harry!" Hermione gasped as Ron snorted.
"Thanks for the compliment!" Stingchu answered with a wink. "Okay then, kiddies, you two will stay here with Harry at the end of the session while I escort the rest of the class back to school, where I have to take care of a little errand… Oh, and Harry?"
"What is it now?"
"Drop and give me 50 push-ups for interrupting my lecture before I could finish it!" He barked, shaking a fist as he rose to his full (rather pathetic) height.
"WHAT!"
--
"Okay, kiddies" Stingchu waved at the group "if you wanna see a good show, come on down to the Great Hall for lunch. If you don't, stay in your fuckin' rooms. It begins in about 20 minutes, so don't be late." He grinned at them, before leaping off, bounding across the field and up the giant castle to the highest point, the tip of the astronomy tower's very roof. Here, there was a small room, which he entered through the window.
Stingchu looked up at the disguised form crawling through the window, abruptly stopping in the middle of the sentence. A child-sized, human Ritten blinked up at his papa with luminous amethyst eyes, confused at the sudden pause, before turning to the stranger in the room.
"Oh, welcome back papa" he said pleasantly, his voice soft and airy "you were just reading to me a bit about Uncle Yemis." Stingchu removed his mask.
"Ah, I know" he commented as he smoothed down his hair "but it's time for the unveiling, so I need you to go meet up with Harry. Where's Galaxy, by the way?"
"He's been doing a lot of spying" Ritten answered "he's already figured out a lot of the stuff they were hiding. It's gotten easier ever since you called Mr. Dumb-bore out for lying."
"Eh? Is that so?" He grinned wickedly "it sounds like you've been doing a bit of spying of your own." Ritten blushed as he was found out.
"We take turns…" The Stingchu next to him grinned.
"So, tell me how far you've gotten."
--
"Well, Galaxy has been doing most of the work, and he started the first week of Harry's classes. He began by spying on the professors in the school. You may have heard of that Falsy-Man's misfortune when settling into his office?"
"Eh? That was Galaxy! Niiiiceee…" The other Stingchu merely chuckled.
"Yeah, he destroyed the guy's detector stuff; he didn't know if the things would spot him or not, so he thought it better just to get rid of them." Stingchu nodded, gesturing for the small Animalgum to continue "well, after tailing them all for a few weeks, he found this Pensieve thingy in Mr. Dumb-bore's office, which is like a soup for your memories to float in. Galaxy learned lots of stuff that way, though he almost got caught the first time. He didn't learn much for a while 'cause of the tight-ass security, but it was just after Halloween that I got to join in. That's when it got easier."
"Oh? So, what did you guys find that I missed?"
"Well, since I joined in, we split the time for keeping tabs on the professors, so Galaxy spent half his sneaky-time in the Pensieve, and he found out about things faster. After I got a lot better at it, Galaxy split my time up too."
"Why? Something he wanted to find out?"
"Yup, he wanted to investigate the castle more."
"Was it because of the Leier connection to the Gaia Pool?"
"How'd you know?"
"Your papa doesn't miss something so simple, besides" he pointed at his blue eye "did you think this eye looks all freaky just for show?"
"I guess not" Ritten said with a blush "anyway, I found out a lot about this castle, and the way it works under normal times, and also under pressure."
"Really? That didn't take long." Ritten grinned in response.
"Of course not, I'm your son, after all." The three laughed lightly "anyway, the school's not built with material from the earth at all" he grinned "every part of this school was built by pure magic and nothing else – as if it was 'poof'ed out of thin air."
"Oh? Really?" Stingchu seemed thoughtful "that means the founders of this school must've been able to manipulate the flow of the Gaia Pool, which means-…" Stingchu suddenly paused, his expression fierce. "Neh, I've been wondering something lately, about all this wizard/witch crap, and also the difference between the standard Vizor, and these guys."
"Huh?"
"When I first came here," The seated Stingchu began "I found something funny about the energy fields, and about your older brother – something that ain't in style for a typical Vizor – so I looked around some more before makin' some tests up for the younger ones who wouldn't notice how odd it was to test their magical flexibility rather than teach in a normal-type way. I suppose that they've really been fooled into thinkin' I'm pullin' this shit out of my ass, but I woulda at least expected the adults to be more suspicious. Then again, no one's figured out a maniac yet, neh?"
"Papa? What do you mean about all that 'regular Vizor' stuff?"
"A regular Vizor" the standing Stingchu replied "should find Reversing and Advancing damn near impossible. It should also be impossible to Tree-Speak, but these guys are doin' things way too easy…"
"What does that mean?"
"Means somethin' funny's in the blood." The seated Stingchu replied with a grin. "Oh, I do love a good mystery."
--
"So did Galaxy find any secrets about your brother?"
"As a matter of fact" a voice replied from the window "several."
"Eh? Oh, hey, Galaxy" One of the Stingchu's replied "welcome back."
"Yeah" the other spoke up "come one in."
"Oi, stop doing that – one of you is scary enough."
"Like I have the time to redo the technique today" Stingchu commented in a half-whine "I have to get back to Harry and the two other pups soon, and the unveiling is in about 10 minutes. Now" his face was serious again "tell me everything you found."
--
"So…a betrayed Fidelius Charm, a prophecy, an 'Order of the Phoenix', a secret to the immortal enemy, and, my favorite, an old fucking dumbass lacking the balls to tackle a nightmare that could prevent the deaths of hundreds of people." He snorted, jamming a cigarette into his mouth "thanks for the info, Galaxy. It's shed quite a bit of light on what I gotta do here."
"What do you mean?" The little dragon frowned "hey, don't go and do something stupid, you nut." All he got in return was a psychotic grin.
"I never do stupid things, midget" he crouched on the windowsill "only crazy ones." With that he leaped out the window.
"…" Galaxy blinked as he began realizing something "say…didn't he forget his mask?"
--
Author's Note(s): Well, that's all she wrote for this chapter. The next one will be out before the end of April, and that's gonna be a juicy one! To all those still stickin' with this shitty-ass fanfic, I bow to you gratefully.