Ch5: Alola to new friends!
A/N: Hey everyone! Its been quite a while hasn't it? I'm so sorry that I haven't updated the story in almost a full year! I promise that I haven't forgotten this story, I've just been having a ridiculous amount of computer trouble, and I've been trying to focus on getting a job and on my studies! Here is the official chapter 5, with the promised update tacked onto the end!
-LS out!
It wasn't even a full two days in Diagon alley before they ended up needing to leave, though they did manage to get quite a bit more shopping done within that short time. Harry now had several sets of first year trainer clothes, as well as a few stitch-on patches for the back of his jacket (Thankfully, it was allowed, and he was able to get the large pokéball emblem on to the back of it, along with a smaller Prémier ball patch on the breast pocket of it, easily stitched on it for him by Anthea). He also was gifted with a pair of extremely high quality running shoes, and a collapsible set of Roller skates (Apparently it was actually against the rules for him to have them, but Concordia insisted on it, and Anthea made him get it. N also got a collapsible bike, while both of his sisters got scooters. Apparently they both planned to try out for their house Gauntlet teams, so they bought them in order to actually stand a better chance… that, and they wanted to be able to practice enough with their Pokémon and learn new moves. Apparently they actually were on the team for Ignis before they moved away from Unova)
The next day, they headed out to the train station, excitement radiating off of their entire group in waves. The Meridian Centre Station, one of the largest train center complex buildings in the world (Aside from Nimbasa station and the Saffron/Goldenrod Metro Stations), and had at least 50 trains going in and out of it daily. Harry and the others were walking around the train station, looking for one of the local families. Apparently it should be relatively easy to spot them due to their almost uniform appearance. The Weasley family was well known for their brilliant red hair, and friendly demeanor. N eventually spotted Mr. Weasley waiting for them at the warp panel to the Hogwart express station. He gave a cheery wave, before introducing them to his family. Mr. weasley was a tall, and very polite man that eagerly asked questions about anything and everything, and was nearly bursting with excitement at meeting Harry. "It's absolutely fantastic to be meeting you harry, I'm Arthur Weasley" he cheered brightly. "I'm here with my family, we're sending our youngest son to hogwarts this year."
Harry turned to N, who was watching the exchange with an amused look on his face. "Pfft, apparently everyone knows you're a celebrity then? I wonder how many times somebody will ask for your autograph?" he snickered, before laughing harder at the betrayed expression on Harry's face. "Hey, I'm just glad it isn't me or my sisters for once! It'll blow over eventually, at least I hope it will… " His expression changed to a deadpan one when he noticed a pair of twins giving them a mischievous look. "... Considering the way those two are staring us all down, I kinda don't think that's likely anymore.." said N weakly, he and Harry both nearly face-faulted at the look the twins were giving them. Mr. weasley then decided to introduce them to ron, who seemed to be right around their own age, and had the same flaming red hair as the rest of his family.
They were finally on the train to Hogwarts, and already there were dozens of pokémon out of their balls and messing around with their trainers. Ron turned out to be a lot less mischievous than his brothers were, and took to showing Harry, N, Anthea, and Concordia around on the train. He showed Anthea and Concordia to the battle train car, where all of the students in their third year or higher could fight through simulated battles. The girls waved them off to one of the other train cars, and encouraged N and Harry to socialize a little bit (The thought of it seemed to make N break out in a cold sweat though, apparently he wasn't too fond of talking to strangers unless prompted by an adult or a friend). The train was decorated with various types of PokéGauntlet photos, from the different school and regional teams. There were teams such as the Viridian Machamps, The Mythoka Bronzongs, the Galuna Lunatones, the Nimbasa Galvantula's, the Tatsuya Tyranitars, The Ignis Heatrans, The Vidar Armaldo's, and the Durmstrang Rhyperiors.
Harry blinked in surprise when he recognized his father as a member of one of the teams, the Gryffindor Incineroars. He was standing with a young man with short black hair and a bright green headband, and a woman with blue hair tied up into a messy bun. their outfit was different than most of the ones that Harry had seen Hogwarts students wearing. It was what looked like the uniform of Unity academy, a school in Almia that trained pokémon rangers. Harry pointed this out to Ron, who commented that the group was only posing for a reunion photo. Apparently the old Gauntlet team for Hogwarts back during the days when his mum and dad attended. "Obviously your father was a part of the team, along with his best mate Sirius Black." said ron, a look of surprise on his face. "But I definitely didn't expect to see her there, she actually decided to transfer schools!" N seemed confused. "But they're only wearing a different uniform..." he murmured, "And From what I remember, neither Fiore nor Almia have a Pokégauntlet team." Ron nodded at this. "Yeah, but that's actually because it's very rare for anyone besides pokémon rangers to work with pokémon there!" he said, "Apparently they actually did get their own team set up eventually, though! The Unity Milotics!"
Harry, Ron, and N eventually found a semi-empty train compartment that only had two people. A bushy-haired girl with a small, fruitish-looking Pokémon perched on her head, and a mousy haired boy with a small, acorn-like pokémon in his hands. The girl decided to approach them a few moments later. "Alola!" she called out, smiling at them "Why don't you three come inside, there isn't really that many compartments left on the train." she said politely, waving for them to go ahead inside. She introduced herself as Hermione Granger, and the mousy haired boy introduced himself as Neville longbottom. Ron seemed to know him already, and began an avid conversation with him, dragging Harry and N into it as well. "Ya see, Neville and I are the children of two of our region's Gym leaders." said ron cheerfully. "My dad runs the Galuna town Gym, while Neville's Gran runs the Substrita Town Gym." Harry and Hermione seemed somewhat confused, prompting N to explain a bit about gyms. "Gyms are where trainers that aim to enter the Pokémon league earn badges, a collection of pins that represent the amount of Gyms that you have conquered." he said carefully, "Gyms tend to have a specific type that each of their trainers specialize in, alongside their leader. Gym leaders, as their name implies, are the strongest of all of the trainers that work in the gym. Typically, they also vary their teams based on how strong the trainer is, which is often determined via badge count." Hermione had a thoughtful expression on her face as she contemplated what N said, tilting her head slightly.
"Back in Alola, we have the island challenges, and we only just recently got our first official Pokémon league." she said, before holding up her arm, and revealing a bracelet with a double diamond pattern. "The island challenges are pretty interesting, and I actually got to participate in one of the four island challenges!" "Woah, those are are bloody difficult to get through!" gasped ron, his eyes wide with shock. "Didya really do that with only a single pokémon?!" Hermione nodded her head, before gently stroking the odd Pokémon's leaves. "Steenee is really strong, and can learn a variety of different moves." she said, giggling when her partner let out an affirmative "Nee!". "We did the water challenge together, and completely aced it! Water types don't fare well against grass types after all! that giant wishiwashi did give us a bit of trouble, though..."
A few moments after hermione finished her story, the door to their compartment was opened by a boy with platinum blonde hair, who immediately proceeded to throw what seemed to be a ball of trash at ron, smirking as he did so. "Look at who the skitty dragged in, it seems this train adopted a garbage compartment." he sneered, "I wasn't aware that you could sink even lower than where you were before, Weasley, sitting with a group of Newblood Trash." There was a protest from hermione's Steenee, and N was forced to try and calm down Shadow, who seemed to be throwing profanities at Draco, who just continued on, oblivious to the murderous thoughts and words coming from the two pokémon and their trainers. "You even dragged longbottom in here, that's a new low for him as well. Bit of a shame that one of the oldest families of this region ended up here." Neville and Ron both reacted negatively to his taunting, their pokémon mimicking their demeanor. 'I didn't even think a seedot could make that face, it doesn't even have a MOUTH!' Harry thought, shuddering at the spiteful look Neville's seedot was giving Draco. Hermione picked up her frightened Steenee, her face twisting into a scowl as she glared at Draco and the two dull-looking trainers that were behind him. Harry was startled when someone with dark green hair appeared behind the three trainers in the doorway.
"Alola, Hermione! I was wondering where you were!" he said cheerfully, before gently moving the other three in the door to the side, and entering the train compartment. Harry noticed with a start that the trainer had a catlike pokémon in his arms, and what seemed to be a pichu sitting on his head, a tiny ukulele on its back. Hermione waved, a happy smile on her face. "Alola! It's been a while, Hau!" she said cheerfully, "How's Kahuna Hala? Is he doing ok?" she asked, "And Professor Kukui? Did he finally marry-" Hau started shaking his head, grinning at Hermione. "Both Tutu and the Prof. are doing great, and no, the Prof. still hasn't proposed to her yet!" he chuckled, "Lilly, Selena, and I all have bets down as to when he's finally gonna do it." Draco scowled at Hau, before shoving past him, and back out the door with his goons in tow. Hau scratched his head in confusion. "... ah… they're kinda rude aren't they?" he said, walking into the compartment and sitting next to Hermione. "Are you gonna introduce me to your friends, Ho'aloha?" Harry and N both looked at each other in confusion while Hermione introduced everyone to Hau.
Hau greeted them all enthusiastically, grinning all the while. "I was supposed to arrive with Gladion, but he decided that he'd stay behind and try to figure out what to do now that he's technically in charge of an entire company now.." Hau muttered, a worried look on his face. "I know that he said Lillie would be attending with us though, so there's that at least!" Harry looked at Hermione a confused look on his face. "Who is Hau talking about?" he asked, bewildered. "Are they friends of yours?" Hermione nodded, a fond smile on her face. "They're all our friends, they explored the different islands with us!" she said happily, "They live with the pokémon professor of our region, professor Kukui." Hau nodded, his expression going back to a smirk. "Selena is a friend of mine from Melemele, she traveled with me on the Island challenge, and she's currently en-route to becoming the first champion of Alola!" ron looked as though he'd been shocked. "But don't you need to complete island challenges and grand challenges in order to get to the Pokémon league there?!" he gasped, "How are they-" hau held up his hand to stop ron mid sentence.
"Unlike most regions, there really isn't any regulations or laws regarding the island challenges due to them being exclusively held by either the island kahuna, or one of the trial captains." he said, shaking his head as he stroked the cat pokémon in his lap. "And besides that, the only people really allowed to partake in the trials are those that have Z-bands, and those people are almost exclusively chosen by the Tapu of the islands, unless you're directly related to one of the Kahuna, like me. Not only that, I'm pretty sure that Alola is the only region that doesn't have an age limit to their 'League', so to speak. The instant we get our Z-bands, we're allowed to go get our first pokémon, befriend them, and then start our challenge." Harry looked startled by this new information, while N, Ron, and Neville were all silent.
"So let me get this straight..." said N, frowning at Hau. "The guardians of your island let anyone do the island challenge, even those that might cause problems..?" Hau considered what N said for a few moments, frowning. "When you put it like that, it sounds alot like the warnings I got from the professor..." he said, looking down at the floor. "Tutu told me once that we compete in these trials in order to please the Tapu, and make them happy. It's how we select Kahuna most of the time. If I ever want to take up the mantle, I need to take part in each of the trials." Everyone fell silent again until the compartment door opened again, this time by a familiar Duo, Anthea and Concordia. Before anyone else could say anything, there was a loud chiming sound, and the train started slowing down. It was time to disembark from the train, and begin the march towards the school. The place that would become their home for the next 8 months