Chapter 10

Eyes closed, Harry took a breath.

The air smelled fresh...so unlike the air in London. The wind blowing through the trees rattled the leaves slightly.

Taking another breath, deeper this time, Harry opened his eyes.

He moved.

Spells flew from his hands as quickly as he could utter the words of his incantations. All around the clearing, his spells struck, sometimes harmlessly, sometimes leaving behind lasting impressions, on the ground and the trees.

Every spell hit it's target, though none of the targets moved.

Harry knew his spell-casting needed work, especially in light of what people in Remnant were capable of. He couldn't make his spells faster, but he could work on how fast he could cast, potentially filling a battlefield with enough spells that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to dodge.

But that wasn't easy.

While the young wizard excelled at point casting, he struggled to cast spells silently. That meant that, for every spell he cast, Harry had to utter the incantation. That took time.

Using both his hands to cast spells was something he had to adjust to as well. Casting without a wand was relatively easy for him to master, likely due to his skill at point casting. And while he was adapting to use both his arms in combat thanks to Yang, and his own weapons training, he was so used to casting with one arm, it was a difficult habit to break. But the benefits would give him more options in a fight.

As he cast, the wizard practiced ducking, rolling, weaving, and an endless array of dodging tactics. While it had always been his primary means of defense, and was easier to do now with his aura unlocked, dodging could have an even more powerful effect here in Remnant.

Stopping briefly in his movements, Harry uttered a longer spell that he wouldn't dare cast around the Xiao Long home, it was one reason he had looked for this clearing in the forest. Flames erupted from his hand, surrounding him and forming a giant serpent of fire.

It wanted to burn everything, Harry could actually feel it's desire to destroy. Pushing his own will against the fiery serpent's, Harry struggled but forced it to slither around the perimeter of the clearing, leaving a trail of ash in it's wake.

But even that strained him.

Gritting his teeth, Harry had to fight to end the spell, preventing the magical construct from being set loose against the world until it burnt itself out. When he did, he collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath as sweat rolled down his face.

Rolling onto his back, Harry had to acknowledge that it felt good to really let loose with his magic. It was something he hadn't really done since he came to Remnant. For a large variety of reasons, he couldn't, and wouldn't, cast a lot of the spells he had when he sparred with Yang or Taiyang. Between his bond, and the knowledge of just how lethal a lucky spell strike could be, the spells he could use against the two blondes was limited.

Not that he expected the Xiao Long's to have trouble dodging them, but luck could be a fickle mistress, as he was intimately aware of at this point of his life.

Considering he still wasn't casting spells fast enough to make it difficult to dodge, or at least he didn't think he was, he was trying more powerful spells that affected a wider area. He hadn't really known any before being gifted with Voldemort's knowledge, but he was hopeful. The problem with these spells, especially since he had so much trouble silently casting, was that they had rather long incantations, and took a lot of focus, along with raw power and will, to cast and control.

And while he certainly wasn't lacking in the magical power he could pour into his spells, the focus and will, especially when moving, was a bitch to accomplish.

He certainly wasn't able to rival the magnificent feats of magic he'd seen both Dumbledore, and Voldemort perform. At least, not with the same ease that they had. But those two had both had decades more experience than Harry himself.

As he lay there, pondering his performance, he considered his options.

He probably should consider more battlefield transfiguration. He'd always been more direct himself, preferring to cast spells directly at his opponents. This stemmed from his own natural talent in casting charms, hexes, and jinxes. And while he wasn't too bad at transfiguration, it had never been his best subject. But it would probably be more effective a technique here in Remnant, if only because it gave an opponent more enemies to face.

Not to mention he had no idea yet how spellfire affected grimm, and the fact aura apparently lessened the effects of many spells. At least physical attacks from transfigured enemies could do predictable amounts of harm.

He did wish he could apparate around...but considering his situation, that tactic really wasn't appealing. It was easy to splinch yourself if you weren't focused. In the middle of a fight, that could be fatal. But of even bigger worry was surviving the fight. If he splinched himself, the wizard had no access to medical healing. And healing wasn't exactly something Voldemort knew a lot about. Sure, thanks to Voldemort's knowledge, and his own, Harry knew a bit about battlefield healing...but those were mostly meant to be temporary measures until one could get to a qualified healer. Not to mention the fact that one didn't always think clearly, or was coherent or able, enough to heal themselves if they were injured.

And Merlin forbid he splinch his head or worse.

Besides, most of Voldemort's healing knowledge revolved more around body modification like the hand the Dark Lord had given Pettigrew and the arm Harry had given Yang.

So apparateing was something Harry really wasn't in a hurry to practice, or even use at all in Remnant, in battle. Not unless the situation was truly dire.

Especially with his luck when it came to magical methods of rapid travel.

Honestly, Harry was just happy he only had Voldemort's knowledge of magic, and not his memories. Some of the stuff Harry knew now, he had no wish to see how it worked, even in his mind, let alone use himself. Some was no doubt useful, but some of the stuff that was appearing suddenly in his head would be truly gruesome and horrifying to witness.

With a groan, Harry sat up, then climbed back to his feet. He needed to practice transfiguring debris into obstacles and animals.

Taking a deep breath to center himself, he held out his hands.

Moving, he began his incantations.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Yang grinned as she gunned the throttle on Bumbleebee.

For the blonde, there were few things more exhilarating than opening the bike up to full speed. And there were precious few places on Patch she had the room to do that.

Having finally gotten her baby tuned back to perfection, and getting used to riding again with her new arm, Yang had decided to take the bike out.

As she rode, the wind whipping through her hair, Yang let her mind wander.

A lot had happened to her recently. But one thing was becoming abundantly clear to her. And it wasn't a thought that made Yang happy.

She'd failed Ruby.

With the fall of Beacon, her sister had done her best to help Yang with the loss of her arm and the dissolution of Team RWBY. But Yang hadn't responded. And her sister, the bravest, kindest, most unselfish and heroic person she knew, had given up. Believing she couldn't help Yang, Ruby had done exactly the thing the blonde should have expected.

She had left, to try and help others.

Yang's only consolation was that she'd been coherent enough to ask her uncle to watch over Ruby before he left to follow her and the remnants of Team JNPR.

She knew what she should do. She needed to go after her sister, to help Ruby, along with Jaune, Nora and Ren.

But she wasn't ready yet. She needed to finish building her new set of gauntlets before she even considered going after the others. Not to mention Harry. She didn't know if he'd come with her, or if he'd even want to. And as much as Yang wanted to go after her sister, she felt she had a duty towards Harry, to ensure he could survive on his own if he had to. At the same time...she also didn't want to leave Harry. While she was still sorting out her feelings for the boy, she did know that she liked being around him, and that he had quickly become one of the best friends she'd ever had.

Considering how close she felt to the other members of Team RWBY, even with their separation, as well as Team JNPR, that was a pretty big statement of how important the boy had become to her.

The blonde would also need to actually find her sister and friends however. And while Yang knew her sister was heading towards Mistral, Anima was a big continent, and she had no idea what path Ruby would have taken to get to Mistral, or even how far along that path her sister would be.

As she rode and contemplated a solution to her predicament, Yang was coming to a conclusion that she wasn't entirely sure she was pleased with.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Harry was sitting at the desk in his room, going over his notes on weapon crafting. He was confident he knew what he wanted to include in his own weapons, and how to go about it. He just needed to actually sit down and design the thing, then he could build them.

He also needed a name for them, at least according to Yang, but he wasn't really worried about that yet...or at all for that matter. Though he supposed he'd probably come up with something once he was done.

The wizard was pulled from his musing by a knock at the door.

Turning towards the door, he called, "Enter."

The door opened to reveal Yang, a somewhat serious yet nervous look on her face. "Are you busy?" she asked.

"No," he assured her. "I was just going over what I could do to my weapon, and how to do it." Grinning he added, "I think I may actually be ready to begin crafting it."

"That good," Yang said as she walked over and sat down on the edge of his bed. "And it was actually one of the things I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

Yang grinned lightly. "I was hoping you could make some magical modifications to my new pair of gauntlets."

"Sure, you just need to show me the design so I can figure out what I can do to them, then decide from that what you want me to do to them."

"That's good...but we'll come back to that in a minute." Looking down a bit sadly, Yang continued, "But what we really need to talk about is...well," she looked back up at Harry, "I need to go after Ruby."

Harry leaned back in his chair. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he asked, "Why?"

"I messed up Harry," the blonde admitted. "Ruby's out there, doing her best to make the world a better place, in need of all the help she can get...and I didn't go with her."

"You weren't exactly in a condition to leave with her," Harry pointed out gently, and with a subtle glance at her golden arm.

"You're right, I wasn't," Yang agreed. "But I should have been. I had plenty of time to get over my issues, to accept help and get back in shape, before she left...I didn't. After I get my gauntlets built, I'm going after her. What I need to know, is if you will come with me." She paused a moment to let him absorb what she had said. "It'll be dangerous, and we'll have to fight grimm for certain, and probably people as well." She sighed. "I know you're not fully trained, and in some ways it would be more of a liability if you came with me, but I want you to come with me. So I'm asking."

Harry sighed. He really wasn't ready for what Yang was suggesting. But he hadn't really been ready for the horcrux hunt, or any of his adventures at Hogwarts either.

There really was no choice for him. He smiled, and made sure to look Yang in the eye when he answered, "I'm in. What kind of preparations, beyond building my own weapons, do I need to make?"

Yang smiled, and before Harry knew it, he was being engulfed in a hug from the blonde.

"Thank you!" the blonde said softly in his ear It felt nice, but she was holding him tight...a bit too tight actually.

"Yang...," Harry gasped, struggling for his breath, "Can't...Breath."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Please Review, Check Out the Challenges in My Forums (Link on Profile), The Stories I have up for Adoption Under the Title: Please Adopt Me!, and the Stories in my Community.