Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Pokémon universe/worlds/characters are the property of The Pokémon Company, Nintendo, Creatures Inc., and GAME FREAK Inc. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
AN: This story has just been edited and updated and it is now self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter 21: A Tiring End to a Tiring Year
January 06, 1992 to June 12, 1992
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Scotland
The first thing that greeted Harry as he walked into his room in Ravenclaw Tower was a rather funny shaped packaged wrapped in brown butcher's paper and tied with twine. The sight of the rather innocent bundle sitting there so benignly on his bed (when no one but prefects, professors, and himself was supposed to be able to enter his room) had goose bumps forming along the back of his neck and arms as he hovered on the threshold of his room and searched the room with his eyes. He considered the house elves momentarily but as far as he knew they never ventured into his rooms after that one morning that first week of term, when one had popped in to make the bed and came face to face with an angry and startled pair of eevee – the Pokémon scared them far too much for them to dare enter again after that (unless they entered when they knew the Pokémon weren't in the room).
Rather than open the unmarked package (fully aware of how many of his fellow students and more than a few of the staff really didn't like him all that much) he chose to levitate it onto the top of his wardrobe where it wouldn't be opened by curious Pokémon instead. He'd ask his father if he knew anything about it or maybe ask Lucy to scan it later for hexes. He soon forgot about the mysterious gift, after mentioning it briefly to his father in a letter, as he once more turned his attention back to his studies.
Settling back into his class routine was difficult but Harry managed to do so without too much hullabaloo. This was greatly helped by the Living Models created for him by his grandfather. The models gave him a modicum of comfort that hadn't been present during the first term and he spent a good hour or two each night before bed petting and talking to the models of his absent friends. He also had the company of three Pokémon this time which took up a lot of his free time as the still excitable eevee and eevee evolutions required far more attention than his older Pokémon.
His friendship with Lucy was coming along the nicely too, they were spending more time together outside of their after dinner tutoring sessions; a fact that was slowly being noticed by some of the older Ravenclaws who started going out of their way to make Lucy's life more difficult – which she really didn't need due to the heaps of homework being piled on by the professors as the dreaded O.W.L. Exams loomed closer.
Somehow she even managed to keep the growing problem with her peers quiet from Harry, though in the end he stumbled onto the issue all on his own. Instead of confronting the older students and possibly making matters worse (Harry was under strict orders from his father to avoid any more confrontations for the rest of the year); Harry approached Lucy instead and asked her why she put up with their behavior. Lucy then confessed she was more worried they'd start bullying him if she got them in trouble. Harry gave her an exasperated look that clearly said it was a stupid reason for allowing herself to be bullied but didn't actually say anything.
Instead, he calmly led Frost over to Lucy before addressing the attentive ice Pokémon in a serious voice that relayed the importance of his command in the mind of the Pokémon. "Frost, you are to stay with Lucy and look out for her between classes. You will behave for her and not cause any trouble. And most importantly, you are to protect her if the bullies out number her. Remember and obey!"
Frost nodded and gave a sharp bark as she leaned against Lucy's leg and purred while Lucy stared down at her friend in confusion. "Hu-what just happened?"
"Pokémon are not just fancy pets, even if they are cute; they are trained to protect their Trainers and will usually help someone they see in trouble. I don't usually order them about because they are my friends but that doesn't mean I haven't trained them," Harry explained with a sigh as he realized there was so much he'd been meaning to tell Lucy but hadn't found the time or place to bring it up. "The three I have with me are still young enough to be full of excess energy; I've been having trouble finding things to occupy their attention. I basically just asked Frost to watch out for you as if you were me. She'll watch your back but otherwise just be there to offer comfort. It will keep her focused and out of trouble while at the same time offering you a bit of protection from the bullies in case they go from throwing mere taunts to throwing hexes. After all, it's your friendship with me that is making you a target."
"But won't that make it so you are less protected?"
"No, because I still have Dilly and Spy Cat traveling with me everywhere I go. They are the reason I've been nicknamed 'Ghost Boy' after all," Harry pointed out with a slight grin.
Lucy eventually stopped fighting the inevitable and accepted her new body guard and was surprised at how quickly the others bullying her soon went out of their way to avoid her. Each encounter would find the bullies being plunged into frigid air or slipping on patches of ice that suddenly appeared on the floor beneath their feet. If one of the braver bullies persisted, they eventually found themselves buried under a pile of fresh snow that fell out of nowhere. Lucy was never blamed for the strange occurrences because she never pulled her wand out of her bag or pocket during the various encounters.
From that point forward both Lucy and Harry faded into non-existence as far as the rest of the school was concerned and the pair happily studied openly in the library or on warmer days out in the courtyard. As the Easter Holidays grew near, and by extension the end of year exams, their tutoring sessions morphed from Lucy helping Harry catch up and get ahead to Harry helping Lucy revise for her more important tests by quizzing her on the fifth year material (under her guidance) and allowing her to practice the harmless spells on him as she'd done for him in the beginning. This also helped Harry learn the more advanced materials and give him a broader understanding of the way magic worked. This was especially true of the elective classes Arithmancy and Ancient Runes (which Lucy was taking); two classes he fully intended to take when third year rolled around.
For Harry, time spent with Lucy was a double edged sword that he couldn't escape. He enjoyed her company and learned quite a bit about her through their joint studying sessions and theoretical discussions. On the other hand, the more time he spent with her the deeper his crush grew and the more his crush grew the more awkward he felt around her. He also began feeling guiltier about lying to her, even if it was only by omission. He knew there were far too many risks to chance coming clean with her about who he was this early though and often prayed she'd forgive him in time. In the mean time, it took all of his will power not to flirt with her as he continued to grow fonder of the young lady that braved bullies just to be his friend.
Around the end of March, Harry overheard someone saying a familiar name that stopped him in his tracks and made his blood go cold. With Dilly perched on his shoulder, he crept closer to an alcove hidden behind a rusty suit of armor until he could clearly hear the voice of a furious Ron Weasley arguing with the oddly tinny and unemotional voice of the fake Potter. Before he could get much information from them though, the two Gryffindor boys were cut off by the ringing of the bell signaling the end of lunch.
For the rest of that afternoon, Harry couldn't get that half heard conversation out of his mind. The two boys had been discussing the name Flamel and there was only one family in the magical world with the name Flamel. And anything involving his grandparents (whose name it was that was mentioned) automatically involved Harry even if Harry wasn't exactly on the best of terms with the older man and his wife (he was still getting to know them after all). Family was family, even if they had issues with each other.
Harry flipped through the journal Perenelle had written for him but he didn't find any mention of a connection with Hogwarts, Gryffindors, or even the current Headmaster (Dumbledore), not counting the list of crimes they believed him to be responsible for when it came to their family. The Flamels never even attended Hogwarts during their extremely long lifetime as the couple had attended the French magical school, Beauxbatons. Stumped, Harry decided he'd write his first letter to his grandparents which wasn't strictly in response to a letter they themselves had written first.
He didn't just jump in and ask them what was going on though, he knew that would be rude and he hated being rude almost as much as he hated bullies (unless he was responding to another's rudeness first). He started off with the usual comments about classes, inept teachers, and immature children then skipped over to discuss a few of the contradicting theories he'd stumbled across in the books his father had given him at the end of winter holidays before finally asking if they'd decided on their summer plans. After he signed his name, he snuck in his real question as a postscript that hinted there were rumors floating about the school of some artifact or treasure being held somewhere in the school under the protection of a cerberus named Fluffy. He then sent the letter off with Noctowl who'd just delivered a care package with more healthy snacks and food for the Pokémon.
The cryptic letter he received in return to the one he'd sent left Harry feeling vaguely dissatisfied and more than a little off put. It had been extremely short without any fluff or pleasantries at all, just a curt:
Do not speak of what you know and do not put anything down in writing; that means
not even hinting at it in any letter again! And for Merlin's sake, no matter what any
one asks or tells you to do, DO NOT SEEK IT! We will discuss it after term.
There wasn't even a signature on the letter and the only reason Harry knew it was from his grandparents was because he recognized the handwriting and it had been delivered by Mule (who was well known for attacking anyone not family with the exception of Lucy, who had permission to borrow him on occasion). He was more than a little upset about the tone of the letter but tried not to let it bother him as he got the feeling that there was more to it than he knew.
The mystery of his grandfather's connection to whatever was hidden on the third floor faded into the back of Harry's mind though when he happened to once more stumble on one of Weasley's Foot in Mouth moments where the bigoted Gryffindor was once more shooting his mouth off to the Pathetic Potter Play Actor (Harry's latest in a list of inane names for the imposter and his loud mouthed sidekick), this time about a dragon. The boy had no sense of propriety or discretion as he loudly proclaimed said dragon a menace as he waved a bandaged hand around (apparently the fool boy had been bitten by the dragon recently).
The annoying kid admittedly had connections though, because Harry overheard their plans to ship the dragon off with friends of an older brother during the coming weekend. Harry was tempted to rat them out; especially after Weasley had tried to make the year a living hell for Harry (key word tried). Not to mention the fact that the boy loved shoving his supposed friendship with the Boy-Who-Lived in everyone's faces every chance he got. Any time Harry heard or saw those moments he'd snort and roll his eyes knowing the kid was so going to have a conniption fit when the truth finally came out.
In the end, Harry didn't even have to rat the two boys out to get them in trouble. One of the Slytherin first years had done it for him. Draco Malfoy, who the entire school knew had an ongoing feud with the Weasley family (and by association the Potter Fake), had tattled on them and got himself in trouble at the same time. It was the talk of the school for days, because the Wonder-Dunces Potter and Weasley lost their house a hundred and fifty points between the two of them and spent a week's worth of detention with Professor Snape who deducted even more points during said detentions until the total losses were well over two hundred and fifty points.
Harry only took notice of the entire 'scandal' because several of the other older Gryffindors were in a complete snit about the major loss because it effectively took them out of the running for the House Cup. He was actually surprised that Granger wasn't attempting to gain the points back during classes but she'd been noticeably subdued since Halloween though he knew she had no memory of the incident. As it was, by the first day of the exams, Ravenclaw was well in the lead for house points (because they rarely ever lost many), Slytherin in a not so close second, and Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tied for forth due to the Quidditch standings; though Harry only knew that from the rumors he heard as he never actually watched any of the games.
The end of the year exams themselves were fairly easy for Harry because he was so far ahead of his classmates due to the time he spent studying with Lucy and researching on his own. It also helped that he spent more time reviewing the material than playing around like some of the other students. Poor Granger nearly had a mental breakdown over the exams; apparently she didn't handle pressure all that well. Even a few of Harry's fellow Ravenclaws were beyond stressed about the exams, especially the first years. When Harry asked Lucy why so many people seemed so stressed, she said it was because if a student failed more than two exams they could be flunked out of the school and those students usually had their wands snapped instead of just transferring to a new school.
Harry was disgusted by the policy after hearing it because it put undue pressure on the students and created a panic in those that had nothing to go back to. This was especially true of the muggleborns who had given up their mundane education just to attend Hogwarts to learn magic. All in all, the more Harry learned of the wizarding world the more he longed to go home. He regretted not taking the time to draw a door home to see if they could breach the barrier between the two worlds during the Christmas Holidays but Harry had been afraid he'd be left alone since his father would be the only one to test the door until they knew how freely they could travel back and forth. That and Harry had been researching (on the side) any possible leads on what kind of magic was involved in the creation of the doorways to begin with but hadn't had any luck so far.
The last few days before the end of term, right after he finished his last test, only emphasized his desire to leave this world to its fate; if not for the fact that the Pokémon world's fate was directly linked to the continued existence of this world due to Harry breaching the barrier between the worlds in the first place he would have been tempted to do just that. Harry had just finished his written Charms test and wandered through the halls of Hogwarts feeling wrung out as he aimed for the kitchens to get a light snack before supper. The elves cooperated eagerly and he spent a good twenty minutes sharing sugarless banana and bran muffins with Spy Cat and Dilemma under the nervous supervision of the elves. When he finished, he headed back out and made it all the way up to the third floor before he ran into trouble in the form of five first year Gryffindors huddling near the entrance to the forbidden corridor.
Weasley, of course, was trying to talk the others into helping him search for the 'hidden treasure' later that night since Dumbledore had left the castle for the day. Granger was standing off to one side making snide remarks about Weasley's chances of getting through any traps but the red headed idiot swore he knew how to get passed the only real challenge; the cerberus. Disgusted, Harry had made sure Dilly was seated firmly on his shoulder, and therefore making him essentially invisible, before he loudly muttered, "You are all a bunch of idiots; leave this corridor at once or suffer the consequences!" just loud enough for his words and voice to echo eerily up and down the hallway.
Harry then smirked as the other first years screamed and fled without even stopping to look to see who had snuck up on them. Thinking the matter solved, Harry trotted the rest of the way up to Ravenclaw Tower, answered a simple riddle the statue gave him, and then climbed up the seven flights of stairs to his room. He forwent attending supper in the Great Hall as he'd eaten both breakfast and lunch there with Lucy that day and he was far too tired to climb all the way back down to the Great Hall only to come right back up. After making sure his door was shut, he poured the Pokémon some food in case they got hungry, curled up on top of his bed, and soon drifted off to sleep.
Around midnight, while Harry slept, three seventh year boys (including one former prefect by the name of Quimby) slipped into his room after using an advanced unlocking charm to bypass the standard protective wards on the room. Quimby, while cowed at the beginning of the year with the threat of expulsion and whatever had happened during Harry's blackout moment, would be leaving Hogwarts in a few days for good as he was officially done with his final year. He'd waited all year long to get revenge on the little pest that had cost him his badge and respect of his head of house (his courage growing as time passed and nothing more happened to him). That is why he was currently sneaking into the 'little' first year's room with a few of his friends.
Not wasting any time, Quimby hit Harry with the Full Body Bind then grabbed his feet while one of his friends picked him up by the head and shoulders. Then, with the third boy opening doors and playing lookout the three of them carried their burden down seven flights of stairs into the common room where they took a five minute break to catch their breath. Now that they had him downstairs and out of earshot of any nosy brats that happened to wake up or walk by, the group used magic to levitate their prisoner out of the tower and down to the first floor with the intention of taking the whelp out the castle entrance where they'd hex him good before dumping him at the edge of the forest. Quimby even verbally considered roughing up the snot nosed kid's face a second time just for fun.
They were just coming up to the main staircase that led down into the entrance hall when two of the boys suddenly tripped over nothing. Quimby, the only one who hadn't tripped, felt something bite his ankle but when he turned around and searched for his attacker, he couldn't see anything there. Nervously the others scrambled back to their feet and the three of them lit the tips of their wands in an effort to see their opponents. They still appeared to be alone in the hallway though, with only the hexed boy for company.
Backing together, the three seventh years faced outwards as they continued to search the area around them. They were just starting to relax, thinking maybe Peeves had been playing a joke on them when something growled angrily from somewhere near the first year. The three bullies looked down to find the boy had vanished as a shadowy shape of a large black ball with a glowing iris of deep purple hovering just a few feet away from where they had left the boy. A heartbeat later the ball suddenly flew at them and bowled them over; sending all three boys flying down the hallway until their momentum was stopped by a wall. The impact knocked them unconscious and the Shadow Ball Attack left them with their clothes smoking slightly and a good bit of hair singed off their bodies and faces.
The moment Quimby passed out, the spell he cast on Harry ended and Harry was finally able to move once more. As he sat up and wrapped his arms around Dilemma, who'd been sitting on his chest, he fought back the rising anger mixed with a touch of panic that had been growing during the unwanted journey through the castle. He'd heard every word of what the three seventh years had planned to do to him (both magically and physically) as he'd been woken up by the body bind the moment it hit him. He hadn't felt so damned helpless in years. It was even worse than the bullying incident at the beginning of the year and the troll attack on Halloween due to the psychological impact their whispered threats had on him which only served to make him angrier with himself for the perceived weakness.
If he'd actually been an eleven year old he probably would have given into the panic and lost all conscious awareness of his surroundings. As it was his age coupled with his emotional maturity allowed him to push passed the anxiety he felt and helped in no small part by the rising anger he felt over the fact that his sanctuary within Hogwarts had been breached by the three bullies. Climbing stiffly to his feet, his body aching from the two boys dropping him when they had been tripped up by the unseen Dilemma and Spy Cat, Harry growled as he glared in the direction of the three unconscious seventh years. In his arms, Dilemma whimpered nervously as Harry's magic swirled out of his control for several minutes while Spy Cat growled softly as he pawed at his left leg.
Drawn out of his inner turmoil, Harry immediately forced himself to calm down as he comforted the worried Pokémon; kneeling down so he could hold both of them. After a few minutes, he threw a another dark glare towards the three figures slumped against the far end of the hall but soon turned his attention to more pressing matters as an explosion rocked the entire castle. Perched precariously as he was near the top of the staircase, Harry didn't have any time to brace himself as he was knocked off balance and thrown backwards, along with the two Pokémon, down the staircase when the floor shook and trembled beneath him.
The only thing that saved him from tumbling head over heels down the entire length of the stairs and a rather painful landing at the end was the blue shield that sprang up around him the moment his fear spiked in response to his backwards plunge. Bruised and dazed, Harry lay sprawled about a third of the way down the stairs with his two shaken Pokémon huddled tightly against his body as he tried to catch his breath.
Meanwhile, two floors above where Harry lay in a haze of pain, one powerful wizard and one powerful shade possessing the rather weak-willed and former Quirenus Quirrell battled their way out of the destroyed remains of a hidden sub-level chamber below the third floor corridor. The Voldemort possessed Quirrell desperately trying to break free from the fight so he could escape the series of pathetic traps and make his way towards the castle's entrance and ultimately his freedom. The soon to be former Defense Against the Dark Arts and one time Muggle Studies professor was already nothing more than an animated corpse by the time Dumbledore had confronted the possessed wizard after Voldemort had destroyed the Potter Clone and greatly injured the youngest Weasley boy and two other students down where the children had been stumped by Snape's obstacle.
Dumbledore had immediately intervened at that point, furious that he'd lost yet another clone this year (the first one being Fawkes) and began battling Voldemort in the hopes of chasing the former Dark Lord out of the castle. Tom was still powerful enough to match him though, and the shade of the former Dark Lord had managed to get his hands on Dumbledore's Sorcerer's Stone as well, which really upset Albus; he'd blackmailed that stone away from the Flamels fair and square and wasn't really of a mind to let Tom Riddle, a half blooded nobody, steal it from him now.
The one and only glitch in Albus's plans to regain control of the stone came when a stray spell hit the stone where it had been grasped in Quirrell's dead fingers. The stone had exploded with enough force to destroy the transfigured chest set that had been one of the obstacles and partially collapse three of the magically expanded rooms beneath the third floor corridor. Thankfully, the entire corridor hadn't collapsed as the students still trapped below would have been instantly killed; not that Dumbledore cared right that moment (if ever).
Albus then decided that he would curb Tom's freedom once and for all this very night (intending to capture the shade so he could hold him until he needed him once again) and so continued to battle the homeless wizard's soul (because a stolen body that died while you possessed it wasn't really the proper resting place for one's soul) all through the castle as said soul tried to flee in the broken body that was decaying around it. Tom was gradually losing his momentum as they drew closer to the first floor of the castle and Dumbledore felt that the end was near as he danced the dance of battle as strong as when he first started. This particular loose end was about to knot itself with perfect timing; all Albus had to do was contain Tom's soul before it could flee once it was separated from Quirrell's body.
Fate then interfered for a second time that night in Dumbledore's plans as their battle literally stumbled upon Harry Ketchum frozen in place partway down the main staircase as if he'd been placed there by magic in order to thwart Dumbledore instead of by pure happenstance and a trio of bullies. The macabre marionette that was Quirrell-suited Voldemort never even saw his salvation and his curse blocking his way out of the castle and Dumbledore was far too involved in the duel and focused on Tom to see impending disaster.
And happen it did. One minute Voldemort was shuffling the burden of Quirrell's once living body backwards down the main staircase and the next he was being shoved high into the air as the shield shimmering around Harry's body deflected the perceived threat; which in this instant was any person or creature attempting to breach the four foot diameter of the magical shield that held Harry securely in place. Even the two Pokémon wouldn't have been able to break through that shield if they had ended up outside of the blue dome instead of inside of it with Harry.
Dumbledore practically screamed in frustration, if one could call his strangled cry a scream, as he watched Voldemort's borrowed body go sailing up well over ten feet into the air before arching out over the bottom half of the stairs and crashing violently into the stone floor of the entrance hall. In the instant Quirrell's body impacted on the stone floor, Voldemort's shade was forcefully ejected from his former host and torn into five shards as an agonized scream was pulled from what had once been Tom Riddle's soul.
The pieces of the shattered soul that had once been called the most feared Dark Lord of the past century then burst into a thousand pieces as the links to the five anchors that had held Tom Riddle to the mortal plane snapped the instant his soul was torn asunder. At the same time as the shade once known as Lord Voldemort passed on to his eternal rest, the body of the professor it had formerly occupied disintegrated into dust due to the prolonged exposure to Voldemort's dark magic, the brief contact with the incomplete Philosopher's Stone, the brush against the protective nature of Harry's accidental shield, and the force of the impact.
In his anger, Dumbledore sought to punish the one he thought took away his triumph and he fired a blazing purple spell of dark flames followed by a simple stunner at the glowing sphere on the stairs, only to be forced to drop painfully down onto his hands and knees as his spells bounced off the dome and flew back in his direction three times more powerful than they'd originally been. Both spells impacted the wall behind Dumbledore and vaporized the thick castle stones. Dumbledore swallowed thickly over the near death experience and as he turned to survey the damage, he caught sight of the three seventh years lying in an unconscious heap down at the far end of the hallway.
Knowing his moment of triumph was long gone now; Dumbledore growled under his breath and sounded the castle's emergency beacon to alert the other teachers. He'd have to run interference in order to hide the truth of what occurred tonight and to buy time to reconstruct his clone; although he did have that old model up in his office; maybe he could say any oddities were the result of the epic battle Harry Potter had waged against the Dark Lord that changed the boy.
Course of action charted, Dumbledore turned his attention to the student who'd interfered and set about canceling out the shield or overpowering it so it crashed. His efforts were greatly hindered by the protective nature of the magic sustaining the shield as it perceived even the most benign of spells as an attack (doubly so since the shield recognized Dumbledore's magical signature and cataloged him as dangerous due to that first deadly spell he'd fired at the shield).
After the first two hours, Dumbledore had given up trying to break through the shield and claimed important business at the Ministry (due to the 'break in' and subsequent fight) to avoid displaying his growing frustration and temper in front of his staff. Filius, as the Head of House in charge of the three unconscious seventh years that had been found near the shield and the in-house Charms expert, was delegated to continue the attempt to disable the shield. Flitwick, much to his chagrin (and intellectual excitement), wasn't anymore successful than the headmaster at his efforts of dispelling the blue dome that completely blocked the main staircase.
Around the three hour mark, Snape, who was in a foul mood for who knew what reason this time, attempted to overpower the shield from below and got more than a little singed for his efforts when the shield bounced his spells right back at him much as it had Dumbledore's earlier spells. Thankfully (for Snape's reputation), only a few of the most dedicated students were up early enough to witness the spectacle. Most of the rest of the students had been far more interested in getting a few extra hours of sleep to recoup from the exhausting end of term exams.
In the end, it took over five hours for the shield to dissipate and that was only because that was how long it took for Harry to get over the shock that Dumbledore had basically just tried to kill him on top of the pain he felt. Exhausted from the strain of sustaining the sheer volume of magic required for maintaining the protective shield for such an extended period of time, Harry carefully righted himself and leaned against the rails of the staircase as the shield shimmered and shattered before fading away completely now that he was no longer in imminent danger. Glancing wearily around he was surprised to find several staff members both ascending and descending the stairs warily with their wands out.
Not wanting the staff to find out about his Pokémon in the event that they could overpower the wards and charms on the collars, Harry softly asked Spy Cat to use confuse ray to distract the various professors before sending both Pokémon up to the top of the stairs where they'd be out of the way. Ten minutes later, once the confusion cleared from their minds, the professors found Harry sitting propped up against the rails a third of the way down the stairs, the right side of his head and face bruised and covered in blood from where he'd hit one of the stairs when he'd been knocked over earlier. Filius had groaned in dismay the moment he recognized Harry and Harry couldn't help but chuckle softly, and without humor, over the short wizard's reaction.
Near the time Snape had been hit with his rebounding spells, a frantic Frost had finally managed to wake the young lady she'd been watching over. The young glaceon had become worried for her trainer around midnight but hadn't started panicking until she had felt the explosion rock the castle. Unfortunately, Lucy had locked the eevee evolution in the room with her when she went to bed the night before and had been so exhausted from her recent exams that she'd slept through most of the worried Pokémon's antics and attempts to wake her after having taken a mild sleeping potion to make certain she got enough sleep.
It wasn't until just a few minutes before six o'clock that the desperate fox-cat had finally managed to rouse the fifth year from her slumber. The moment the Pokémon had the girl's attention, she'd jumped down off the bed and began pawing and scratching at the door in turns all the while whining and growling as she tried to get out. It took Lucy a few minutes to realize the Pokémon was upset about something and she quickly threw a robe over her nightgown, grabbed her wand off her dresser, and gathered the frantic Pokémon into her arms before opening the door (no easy task considering how large she was).
Hoping that Harry would have some idea what was wrong with the creature, she hurried down the stairs to the common room before rushing up the stairs that led to the first year boys' dorm. Once on the seventh floor, she made a bee-line for Harry's room only to stop without touching the door when she found the protective wards on the door undone and the door itself sitting partially open. Trepidation flooded through her as she pushed the door the rest of the way open with her foot and peered inside to find his belongings scattered all over the room, his bed only slightly rumpled (as if he'd only slept on top of the covers for a short time), and Harry no where in sight. The other two Pokémon were no where to be seen either.
What bothered Lucy the most though, was the fact that she saw Harry's wand sitting on his desk and she knew that Harry never went anywhere without his wand in hand ever since Quimby caught him without it that first day of classes.
Lucy grabbed the wand and shifted the ice blue animal in her arms so she could look her in the eye and carefully ordered; "I have to find Harry and I'm going to need your help. We need to hurry, because I've got a bad feeling about this, but I need you to not run too far ahead of me or I will loose sight of you and won't be able to help him." The creature nodded as if it understood and once down on the floor, she took off at a quick trot down the stairs leading into the common room pausing only long enough to make sure Lucy was still following before continuing on.
In this fashion, Lucy found herself led on the most direct path through the castle down to the first floor where she found a handful of students loitering around the main staircase where several professors were hovering over someone sitting partway down the stairs. She instantly knew Harry was the one the professors were standing over when she saw Frost join the other two Pokémon off to one side of the staircase after Dilemma had called out to the larger glaceon. Knowing there was really nothing she could do right that moment; Lucy joined the three subdued Pokémon and watched as a silver cat streaked off through the halls in the direction of the Infirmary while Flitwick gently transferred Harry onto a conjured stretcher.
When her Head of House climbed up to the top of the stairs with the stretcher floating in his wake, Lucy stepped up to the shorter wizard and handed him Harry's wand as she explained finding the dismantled wards on Harry's room and the state she'd found the room in when she went to invite the younger boy down to breakfast since they hadn't been able to spend much time together once the end of term exams began. It was a slight fib on Lucy's part but their entire house was well aware of Harry's penchant for being an early riser and knew that the younger boy often sat with the fifth year prefect during meals; and she absolutely refused to reveal the presence of the Pokémon.
Harry, unfortunately, was unable to contribute to the conversation or shed light on how he'd come to be sitting in the middle of the stairs as he'd fallen unconscious shortly before Flitwick had placed him on the stretcher; the seventeen year old exhausted from the amount of magic he expended combined with a concussion. It would be well over thirty-six hours before Harry regained consciousness due to the exhaustion. While waiting for the first year to wake, the three seventh years found near stairway confessed to basically kidnapping the first year with the intent to harm.
Even after waking, Harry would remain quiet and withdrawn, the constant headaches and dizziness from the lingering concussion combined with the confusion and pain caused by the constant fluctuating noise levels making it hard to concentrate on anything. His unresponsiveness worried Lucy to no end even though Healer Pye assured her it was a common reaction in people suffering from concussions and that it would pass. Spy Cat tried to heal him on more than one occasion but Harry hadn't been left alone long enough for him to use Moonlight.
AN: I'm not sure I'm happy with how the chapter ended but at least I didn't make Harry a complete wimp after the changes and I fixed the part where Hermione went back to her former snotty self so it is much better than it was before.
Only two more official chapters left to go. There will at least be two more chapters after the official end of the story; an omake covering Spy Cat's naming day and a missing moment to show Hermione's reaction to learning about the memory charm that had been used on her. ~ Jenn
02-12-13: This chapter has just been edited to correct a few minor punctuation errors, a grammatical error or two, clean up of a few sentences in order to smooth out a few awkward areas, break a few paragraphs down so as to improve readability, and had the date and place stamps added to the top of each section to allow for easier tracking of the timeline.