AN: Yo, here's the next chapter.
First off, I just want to say lol, I got a few private messages and the two reviews mentioning the devil fruit. I kinda just threw that in there as an easter egg laugh, I didn't expect people to react that much to it. I could make up some good excuse for why Jake wont use it, but I'll be honest and say I never intended for it so yeah. Yo~ Ho~ Ho~ Ho~.
To Lucario: No worries my man, I'm happy to answer people who ask politely. If you were rude I probably would have said that lol. If I don't have a new chapter and someone has a question, I'm happy to PM them or they can join my discord. I just write stuff that pops up in my head, so while things make perfect sense to me who knows where I want to go, it may look weird as hell to others until I write more.
Shoutout to you awesome readers who left fun reviews, getting those email updates always gives me a small smile.
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Disclaimer: I don't own any source material; I barely own my house.
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Chapter 10:
Jake – Harry Potter – End of Year One – June:
Waking up was never fun for Jake.
Sure, his body had long since been adapted to waking at a 6AM every single day whether he went to sleep eight hours before a single one. And sure, he had a magic alarm that would blare in his ears if he went back to sleep for an extra fifteen minutes.
But even with that…wait…no, precisely because of that, waking up was never fun.
The alarm in his ears had him shooting up and waving his hand unconsciously, making the room sprout eight sharp stone spikes to skewer a missing enemy.
He blinked the sleep out his eyes and looked ahead before sighing. 'Grraahhhh… I got like four hours of sleep.'
He waved his hand again absentmindedly and the spikes receded back into the stone walls as he slipped over the side of bed and wet his mouth with the glass of water on his nightstand.
'Meh.' He grunted and got up, stretching and popping his back in a way few humans who couldn't alter their body on a genetic level could.
His bones grew denser, his joints reinforced, and muscles condensed as his weight increased before he dropped down into pushups.
Technically, with his abilities, he would never have to work out a day in his life to have an Adonis quality body, but old habits die hard, and there is a solid difference between having a strong body and knowing how to use it.
By keeping an active workout schedule in boxing and out of it, he keeps his mind and body fresh and able to move how he wants it to.
He grunted as he finished a set of fifty, switched to twenty five wide pushups, twenty diamond, fifteen archer, and finished with ten clapping pushups.
Flipping up, he altered his bodies composition, transferring qualities of a human body for various felines and stretched with their inherent flexibility.
One thing that he had been working on over the years was to retain a human shape while gaining the qualities of various animals he came to study.
There was still a mana cost with keeping things up long term, and it took fine control to take just what he wanted instead of forming animal features like fur, vocals, facial features and so on.
The more he understands about what he wants to change, the lower the cost and faster the transformation.
However, the mind recognizes the change by the final product in most cases and does more than you wanted.
It was a fine balancing scale, and even after almost 4 years he was still working on it. 'Damn Nym and her stupidly good genius talent for this stuff.'
Jake had to work hard for his progress and while Nym worked hard as well, things came much easier to her with her changes.
Settling back into human form, he focused his mind and changed certain parts of himself.
His ears grew more sensitive, gaining qualities of the wolf ears he usually enjoys wearing. His eyes sharpened gaining qualities of avian's he studied. His sense of smell he left alone since while he could enhance it, there was nothing fun about smelling more inside a dorm house full of teens. Taste and Touch were still works in progress as he focused mainly on the first three senses.
The human body alone has between two and four thousand taste buds and for most of human life, those taste buds are not fully used. between burning them, stunting them with over exposure to spices and condiments, they become dull and inactive.
But take an animal like the Catfish, and you would be shocked to know it has over one hundred and seventy five thousand taste buds, and it's capable of tracking a taste in the water for miles.
It's something Jake wanted to get to at a later time.
He grabbed his towel and change of clothes and made his way out of his room, down the stone corridor with dim lighting, and into the shared bathroom for first years.
With less than five first year boys, it was a very nice convenience. The other few got up closer to seven in the morning so Jake usually had the bathroom to himself at the time of the day.
Jumping into a stall and letting the warm water run down his body was a wonderful way to start the day. His frame had grown naturally with his training over the years to give him a five foot four height and a weight of one hundred and thirty five pounds unchanged.
He stood on the top average of a boy his age.
Weight could be adjusted with his changes but height was very tricky and dangerous. He couldn't do more than a few inches without creating great strain and pain from his skeleton being out of balance. So when it came to height, he let nature take its course.
Once done and dried off, he stood in front of the mirror and looked at his reflection. His black hair had grown longer over the year, but that could be adjusted with a single thought. He just let it be and kept it at neck length. 'I never did have the chance to try it in my first life. Always going with buzz cuts back then.'
His eyes were fully customizable, with him leaving them their natural blue on most days. Some days he went with red for fun and spooked people, others a shining gold like he was possessed.
There was a lot of fun you could have with people in a magical school when they are unprepared. Like the time he gave himself as much of a minotaur head as he could, which cost a high amount of mana for a brief period, and casually walked passed a student coming out of the bathroom.
He nodded his head to the guy who nodded back and kept walking only to trip and fall as what he saw hit him. But when he turned back Jake was back to normal and giving him a curious look.
It was always fun to do that.
He chuckled at the memory and finished washing up, heading back to his room to drop off his stuff, grab his bag, and throw on the outer student robe.
'I'll never get used to these damn robes. To damn breezy.' He grumbled as he adjusted his young goods. If they are determined to make them wear a robe, he will at least wear briefs and a tank top underneath to give himself some comfort.
Making his way down, as first years were only the first floor up with seventh years getting the highest floor with the best views, he walked into the circular cozy hearth room of the Ravenclaw dorm.
A large hearth, the big statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, who he did in fact search when no one was around for secret legacy rooms, a dozen couches and chairs, banners and carpets, and three side paths.
One to the dorm library, the second to Flitwick's office, and the last as the exit.
Jake plopped himself down in a comfy chair and relaxed for a minute as he waited for Penny. The two had an understanding to be down by 6:45AM every day except Saturday and Sunday.
He was a few minutes early and just stared into the burning hearth, enjoying the quiet of the morning interspaced with doors from up in the various floors of the dorm opening, students waking and doing their things.
Soft footsteps hit his sensitive ears and he turned to see his head of house exiting his office. "Good morning professor."
Flitwick turned and smiled brightly at him. "Ah, up early as usual Mr. Walker. Good morning, good morning, waiting for Ms. Clearwater I presume?"
Jake nodded and the man chuckled. "Wonderful. I wish more of the house showed such regiment in their lives, you two do the Ravenclaw name proud."
Jake shrugged with a smile. "It's hard to begin but easier to continue, good habits and everything." The man nodded and walked up beside where Jake sat. "Indeed. A journey of ten thousand miles begins with the first step. Momentum is power, and that power can shape whatever your heart desires."
Jake hummed and the two enjoyed the sight of the hearth and crackling flames in a peaceful silence before Jake broke it. "So, it's finals week."
Flitwick smiled wide. "Indeed it is. Are you prepared?"
Jake chuckled. "If I'm not then who is?" The smaller man laughed at that. "Well said young warrior. I still wonder how you got into this house instead of those lions sometimes."
"It's not like students can't have more than one of the founding qualities." Flitwick chuckled at that and nodded. "Right you are. Well, I must be off, much to do this week. I wish you luck on your tests Mr. Walker, do your best and do our house proud."
Jake gave the man a friendly salute in jest and the smaller man chuckled and walked off. And not a moment too soon as Penny came down the steps on the other side with a yawn. "Mnnn~, morning Jake, was I late?"
He glanced at the clock and shook his head. "Just on time Pen, come on, let's get breakfast before the morning rush comes in." Penny nodded and the two fell into step walking through the castle, talking about their studies and the tests coming up.
As first years, they had seven finals over the course of the week.
Monday – Transfiguration.
Tuesday – Charms.
Wednesday – History and Astronomy.
Thursday – Potions.
Friday – DA and Herbology.
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday required written and practical tests. Wednesday and Friday were pure written tests.
The two made it to the great hall as they were going over their notes on Transfiguration. Or mostly it was just Jake quizzing Penny as he knew the subject as easily as breathing.
"What am I missing from my Avifors process? It feels to clunky for some reason."
"How are you picturing the process?"
"I try to think clearly about the image of a bird."
"No, how are you picturing the process, not the end result."
"Hm… I'm not sure, I just interchange the two images from start to finish."
"Try thinking about the first object turning into the second, not just one becomes another. Focus on the process and it should come out much smoother and easier for you. Here, try it."
Jake pointed at the silverware as they sat down in the mostly empty great hall. A few students from each house were seated and eating or reading peacefully before the morning rush of students came charging in.
The breakfast spread always brought a smile to Jakes face. He was firmly a team breakfast guy for what the best meal of the day was.
The recipe books he gave to the house elves meant he could enjoy a full spread of modern day breakfast. Scrambled eggs with cheese, crispy bacon strips, waffles, bagels and spreads, they had it all. And the elves make everything fresh every day.
'I wonder where they even get all the ingredients for this food from.' Jake idly thought as he piled high his plate of goodies.
Penny ignored his mountain of food as usual and focused on trying to turn her silverware into small birds, the end products coming out half metallic and unable to fly. "The process Pen, metal to flesh, flat surface to feathers." He called out as he likewise added food to her plate.
The poor girl would never remember to eat when she was focused on something else. "I'm trying, why is this so hard."
Jake shrugged and took a bite of waffles. "Your probably thinking about it like a charm. It's not formless, it has substance. Weight, size, form. Treat it like a real animal even if it only breathes through mana rather than real life."
The girl took in his words and redoubled her efforts with halfhearted attempts to spear eggs with her offhand holding a fork.
Jake rolled his eyes and let the girl focus for a bit before he nagged her. A particularly crispy piece of bacon caught his eye and he focused his energy there.
The juicy, crispy, mouthwatering piece of bacon was halfway to his mouth when a monstrous and terrifying sight happened before his very eyes.
Like a fiend from the blackest of hell, from the deepest of the pit, the head of his beloved bestie appeared like a phantom and chomped down on his prize with a satisfying and reality shattering crunch.
"Morning bestie! Morning Pen." A pair of arms wrapped around his back and a warm body squeezed itself against him while Jake sat frozen in shock. It was only the giggle in his ear that woke him up and had a tail sprouting from his back to latch on to the girls waist. "Nym…." He whispered the voice with the dark tone of a man betrayed on the field of battle.
The girl laughed louder and mock kissed his cheek. "Don't be so mad. Whats a little bacon between besties?"
Jake's eye violently twitched. "Come here you!" He grabbed the girl who tried to run and pulled her into his lap before tickling her mercilessly. "How many times do I have to say not to steal my bacon woman!"
Nym laughed happily and halfheartedly fought back. "Haha shouldn't haha let hahaha your haha guard haha down Nyahaha!" Her tone changed at the end as she sprouted feline ears. Jake's hands paused as he got momentarily distracted and Nym took the opportunity to lean down and reposition herself on his lap and dig into his plate of breakfast. "Nom. Good spread, I prefer hash browns though."
Jake growled at the girl like a wolf with its prey taken and got a cat tail wrapping around his neck and brushing his cheek in reply. An internal war went on inside his head between food and fluff before he sighed. "Do we have to do this every morning Nym?" He enjoyed the feel of her tail with one hand and reached around her to grab another fork to keep eating.
Half the reason he piles his plate is because he half expects this to happen. Nym hummed in reply. "It's not every day, I make a habit to eat with my own table once or twice a week."
"That makes me feel so much better, oi, that's my bagel."
"Get your own."
"That was my own!"
"Finders keepers."
"I will bite you."
"I dare you."
"Dare accepted. Nom."
"Ow! Pen, make him stop."
"Shush Nym, I'm trying to focus."
"Oh it's the Avifors spell? That one's easy."
Penny shot the girl a dangerous look. "Then why don't you help me and stop torturing your boy toy."
Jake raised a finger. "I am not her boy toy; she is my toy. Wait…no, that came out weird."
The girls shot him deadpan looks and shook their heads while Nym patted his leg. "We are each other's favorite toy, let's leave it at that." Jakes eye twitched at the double meaning.
He STILL couldn't tell if she really understood and did it on purpose or not. Penny sure did by the quick flush and roll of her eyes but Nym turned her attention to helping her friend.
Cedric showed up then and sat across from them, giving Jake a sympathetic look. "Same old?"
Jake grunted. "Same old. I thought you said you would distract her." Cedric shrugged. "Only so much anyone can do to distract Nym."
Nym pointed her off hand at Cedric. "Damn straight." Before going back to Penny.
The boys chuckled and went back to eating.
The meal passed quickly with them talking their Transfiguration exam. Nym and Jake giving final tips and notes to Penny and Cedric as they made their way to class.
Professor McGonagall stood in all her badass old witch strictness at the head of the class as she looked at all the first year Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's.
"We have all spent the last year going over the course material, I have personally graded your homework and tests, and I have an idea of where most of you will do.
I trust that some of you will prove me wrong." She finished as she looked pointedly at two Hufflepuff girls who looks down shyly. Not every student was as dedicated to their studies.
"You have one hour for the written exam. Then a fifteen minute break. And then we shall begin the practical's. There will be no talking, no looking around, and no bathroom breaks during this period. Don't make me call a house elf to take care of a mess." She said in such a no nonsense tone that Jake was honestly unsure if she was being serious or not.
She looked up at the clock on the wall. "When you are finished, turn over your exam and you are free to look around or go to the restroom. You may begin."
Everyone turned over their exams and the only sound for the next hour was the sound of quills scratching on parchment.
Jake and Nym breezed through it and the professor said nothing when the two turned over their exams after only thirty minutes. She did however send the two a small smile and nod.
McGonagall was not a woman who would ever show favoritism, but that didn't mean she didn't have favorites. And Jake and Nym often stayed behind to ask the woman pointed and more advanced questions on her subject that she was happy to answer or direct them toward a book. She only truly humored them thanks to their rare gifts and she wanted to let them shine in her branch of magic.
The two were sitting next to each other and began playing silent games of changing shapes to make the other laugh. Shifting animal features and making funny expressions. The professor made no comment to stop them and looked on fondly.
Soon the hour was up and the practical's began.
First years had four Transfiguration spells to master.
Match to Needle.
Self-explanatory. The more details you added on the needle the better your score.
The Switching Spell.
Contrary to the name, it wasn't a spell that allowed you to spatially change the position of two objects, but it was a spell cast to change two objects into each other.
So if a match and a needle were side by side, you had to change the match into a needle, and the needle into a match, at the same time. The difficulty was raised as you had to do two things at once.
Mice to Snuffle box.
Turning a live mouse into a Snuffle box. The first transfiguration with turning a living creature into an object.
Avifors Spell.
Turning an object into a living bird.
These four spells were the foundation of many advanced spells and you had to understand the content before you could move on.
Jake mused to himself as he watched his classmates walk up to perform each one in front of the professor.
Transfiguration was his bread and butter. It was the path that held the most opportunity for him. It was how he planned to build himself up for the fights to come, both in this world and the next when he met up with Kyle.
He would learn all he could from various subjects, and even in his weakest area he knew could in fact perform any charm with enough time and mana, but charms would never be combat worthy with his talents.
Transfiguration was different from charms. Charms used mana to create temporary or permanent effects.
For example, you could use the charm for making light, and it would supply light as long as you supplied the mana.
On the other hand, you could use the charm for making water, and the water would become permanent in reality as you converted your mana into water and it could not be converted back.
You could use Transfiguration to alter it or vanish it.
Jake mentally categorized Charms into Active and Permanent charms. Ones you were required to supply mana to, and ones that would have effects long after you cast.
Sustained costs and initial costs.
Curses were a different area as a curse actually used the mana of the caster only to begin and fed off the target to fuel itself further like a parasite.
Which is why most curses needed understanding of to be able to counter directly. You could always overpower them or defend against them before they hit you, but once hit, you had to know how to unknot it from your system.
Like being infected with a poison and needing to know how to make the antidote. Except the poison and antidote is purely mana based and requires control to perform.
Curse-Breakers were a very well paying profession because it required the Breaker to identify the curse, unravel it, and hope to god they got things right before they trigger something and kill themselves or others in very brutal ways.
Anyway, charms and their other side in curses were very different from Transfiguration.
Transfiguration was the art of changing the form and appearance of an object or a person. In the basic levels, this meant changing what exists.
You could change life into object, and objects into life. But unless it had life in the first place, it would only move as you understand the animal to move while it feeds on your mana. If it were living in the first place, it would regain its faculties and be their own being.
You could also change objects into other objects as Jake was fond of doing. He liked altering the environment around him and was actually taking a cringe route of making names for his attacks.
'Project copy other anime and rip shit off is underway.' He snickered at the thought.
Casting magic is about will, mana, and knowledge. Imagination plays a large roll in will and knowledge.
And many wizards and witches cripple their potential by studying the book material word for word, understanding spell words and wand movements to be a key point in the operation of any spell.
Their imaginations are dulled because they are using textbook examples. And only later on in life, when they reach advanced subjects, do they call for you to return to simple imagination, and that is where many, if not most, fail.
They can't expand beyond the source material, stuck in following spell A as the textbook shows to have a predetermined result.
Rather than bending his mind to the textbook, Jake was forming clear images in his minds. Like Runes. Like symbols. Like Macro's.
Jake was creating Macro's.
He could still use the spells the way the textbook shows, but his Macro's were his own.
When he said 'Earth Spike' in his mind as he moved his finger to release the mana inside him, an earth spike would be formed from the earth around him. The more he focused his will, the better the effects. So he thinks 'Earth Spike' while intending it to be 'this' long, and 'that' hard, and pop out at 'that' spot.
The more he refines the 'command' the better the effects and lower the cost of the spell.
But it all comes from the Macro in his mind.
And as a practitioner of Occlumency, Jake was making heavy progress into instilling these Macro's into his brain as command codes.
The faster he can go through the mental commands and processes, the faster he can cast and act. And the Macro was the process, the spell of his own, engrained in his mind.
So far, he had plans for various elemental categories for Macros.
Earth. Metal. Wind. Fire. Water. Lightning. And many derivatives. Each category having their own version of the macro commands.
Earth Spike. Metal Spike. Wind Spike. Water Spike. Fire Spike. Lightning Spike.
At least in theory, it all checks out. Practically, it was still a work in progress.
Transfiguration changed properties, but it was hard to collaborate with it the way Jake wanted to. At least in the basic levels.
In higher levels, you reach Conjuration, which is about creating what your imagining from mana. What you create is solely supplied existence by your mana, and it bends to your will.
Most wizards cast spells made specifically for a conjuration form, rather than using imagination to form the conjuration. They follow only what they know, and rarely ever break their mold.
A conjured fire will only burn what you intend it to burn. It mimics fire but is not fire. But if it sets something alight, it will stay burning when the mana source is cut off.
But nothing stops you from shaping that conjuration of fire into a specific shape like a snake or dragon, or just a spear. They are stuck in their strict mold.
It served Jake much better to use Conjuration for his ideas than basic transfiguration. The cost alone in mana would be a fraction and conjurations are easy to control.
But the basics have their own benefits, such as creating golems out of existing materials and having them act like you imagine they would act, following your mental commands.
It can't be too complex, and the more basic the better the results, but it was a powerful branch of magic.
Still, all of this was talk for the future. At the moment, he was able to only change things that existed in limited amounts. But he was good at what he could use.
And he was also making idea's for how Gamp's Law worked.
Gamp's Elemental Laws of Transfiguration were limits that wizards and witches collectively agreed on.
The first was about not creating gold, silver, or bronze. Everyone will tell you that changing objects into the currency to try and create fake currency will result in dire consequences, and Jake knew it was true from numerous accounts.
But was that the law of the world, or was that some grand curse that someone cast long before he was born? He wasn't arrogant enough to think magicals never reached the powers of gods at some point in history. There were always genius's in every era.
The second law said you can't create food from nothing. You can change one type of food into another from memory, and you can multiply existing food as much as you want, but you can't create it from nothing.
The reasons for that are that food is made up of nutrients and conjured food has no nutrient value to it. You could eat conjured food and enjoy the taste, but it's just mana, it won't supply your body with the vital nutrients it needs.
Jake was wondering if that's just because wizards didn't understand the base properties of food the way muggles do, or if magic truly rejected the creation of food from nothing.
The same way the third law states life cannot be created from nothing. You can create a construct that acts how you wish, but it's not true life and it will fade eventually.
And Jake also confirmed something else. Multiplying or enlarging food does in fact have a cost in the form of nutrients. You can make a normal pumpkin the size of a house, and then eat said pumpkin, but the nutrient value won't change from a normal pumpkin. And if you multiplied one pumpkin into two, each would have half the value of nutrients.
The taste would remain, and it would travel through your body, but it's empty. Great for dieting, bad for staying alive.
It was all rather fascinating to Jake, and he enjoyed the challenge of learning it all.
There was much to question, much to study, much to discover. And he had the time to do it, and friends to make sure he lived a full life along the way.
What more could he ever ask for?
"Jake Walker." He smiled and stood up, approaching the professor to take his first real exam of his efforts.
The first real benchmark on his path.
*Line Break*
Kyle – Pokemon – 7 weeks – October:
Fishing . Was . Fun.
So, so, very, so, very, f-u-n,…..
"Magi."
"You want a piece of me you fucker!? I'll shove my foot so far up your nonexistent ass your grandma fish will feel it kick her in the uterus!"
"Magi!"
*Splash*
"Oh it's on bitch!"
Loki sighed from the side watching his hooman be so silly.
The wild magikarp and Kyle had been going at it for days. Kyle just wanted to get them a new friend, and the Magikarp kept stealing the food from the fishing line.
Loki was already getting tired of the song and dance.
"Ee!" Just kiss.
Kyle and the fish both turned wide eyes on Loki before making gagging noises and turning away from each other.
"Loki, what the hell!?"
"Magikarp!"
Loki snickered and walked off to go train some more. His job was done.
Kyle sighed as he looked at the fish. "Your being a real pain in my ass you know?"
"Magi." The fish just warbled at him and Kyle could tell he wasn't doing it on purpose. The dude was just hungry and every day Kyle was plopping food on a fishing line into the area he lived in.
"Whatever, just ignore my fishing line for one day would you? I'll give you food later." Kyle tried to bargain and the Magikarp considered it before nodding. "Mag." Kyle smiled and tried to pat the fishes head only to get his hand smacked away by on its barbels. "Alright, sheesh, go be an ass somewhere else."
"Magi." It nodded proudly and turned to swim away while Kyle called after it. "Ignore my green fishing lure!" "Magi!"
It called back and Kyle shook his head. 'Bargaining with a damn fish. What has my life come to?'
He swam back to his rock and rung out his clothes before laying in the sun. The days of fishing weren't useless as fighting with a large magikarp in the water using his aura was great training, but it wasn't exactly fun.
Or maybe it was. He was indecisive about it.
The sun's rays fell on his damp body and he took a deep breath, feeling the aura from the sun flow into him, feeling the lake pulsing with emotion and life, feeling the forest swirling and breathing in various patterns that changed by the day.
The lake seemed to change emotions daily, almost like Mesprit was focusing on different things every day, but that seemed normal for a being of emotion.
"Oh cool! The lake!"
"Wow. It's beautiful."
"Who cares? I just want to catch something good."
Kyle's eyes opened and narrowed at his tranquility was broken by three young voices. Sitting up on his rock, he looked down the shore line to see a trio of young looking trainers a ways down. Their voices carrying over the distance.
One of them spotted him and waved so Kyle waved back but otherwise that was the end of their communication. The three set up some chairs and seemed to be having a day by the lake.
It wasn't the first time he saw other trainers or humans come by the area, but no one had tried fishing in his area before. Most people had more common courtesy to enjoy the sounds of nature and keep distance.
"Did you see that elite four match yesterday?"
"It was crazy! That guys Luxray was so strong."
"I know right. I can't wait to stand on that stage one day."
"Who? You? Yeah right! Hahaha."
"I can to! Just watch, I'll catch something strong and be on the road."
"Says the guy with a single gym badge."
"Oh shut up, you don't even have one."
The three seemed to enter their own world and Kyle was finding himself increasingly annoyed. 'Can't they just shut up? They have no appreciation for the world around them.'
To Kyle's eyes, it was like watching a blind man enter a vault of gold. The world was right there and they were just talking and making noise about some nonsense on TV.
'Great, now I sound like my past life's grandfather mixed with a hippie.' He rolled his eyes and did his best to ignore them. Just casting out his line and trying to meditate, drowning out the noise.
He would have to enter cities at some point, so it was best to learn how to deal with it as he went along.
The day passed slowly and calmly, the sun traveling overhead and heating the world in its gentle rays of light.
Kyle's fishing line went untouched for that time. A couple scares with some local fish rather than a Pokemon but they were thrown back in.
It wasn't till around late afternoon that something happened that caught his attention.
"Finally! I caught something!"
"I bet it's just another salmon."
"No way, it's gotta be a Seaking or something, this thing is strong!"
Kyle's brow twitched. 'Why does that sound familiar.'
"Wo! Whatever this is seems to really be kicking up a fight."
"Huh, it really might be something good."
"If it's putting up that much of a fight, maybe it's a Remoraid or a Buizel."
A great spray of water burst from the lake as the Pokemon arrived in all its glory. "Magi!" A sigh left Kyle's lips as he saw the sight. 'You just couldn't help yourself could you?'
He focused aura on his eyes and looked at the kids fishing pole. 'Well, I did tell him to ignore the 'green' lure. That one's orange. I can't really fault the guy.'
What proceeded to happen went more or less how Kyle expected it so just closed his eyes and went back to meditating.
The kids insulted Magikarp, Magikarp tail (bitch) slapped some kid, a bunch of shouting. It was the same gig and dance. At least until one kid made a different choice.
"Wurmple, use string shot!"
Kyle hummed in acknowledgement. 'Big brain move.'
Magikarp got leashed by the sticky thread and the water wasn't helping him get it off, the fish was pulling against it in a big tug of war. But with Magikarp's sheer size and muscle, he wasn't getting pulled in so easily and Wurmple was struggling.
"Tsk, come on, let's get this fish."
"Yeah, who does he think he is. Go Wurmple, string shot that fish."
"No one can know I got slapped by this thing. Burmy, teach him a lesson, string shot."
The other two released their bug types and triple teamed Magikarp in a tug of war. Kyle watched on with half an eye open. 'Serves you right you dick.'
The tug of war battle lasted a few more minutes, honestly impressing Kyle with the will and strength of the fish before it was finally thrown out of the water and flopped onto land. "Magi!"
"Ha! Not so tough now are you, you stupid fish."
"Think you can slap me and just get away with it!"
"Let's cook this bastard."
Kyle had to blink a bit at the response. The three kids were legitimately angry, he could feel the emotions coming off them. 'What the hell? I was angry but I wasn't that malicious about it. Where did the inflated ego come from with these kids?'
He looked on and following a hunch he began recording on his watch. The three kids approached the downed fish only for Magikarp's eyes to sharpen and before many pairs of astonished eyes, the fish glowed…
No, it just reflected the sunlight off its scales to blind everyone before slapping its tail on the ground, flying into the air, doing a three sixty spin, and tail (bitch) slapping all three kids in a line, knocking them on their ass's with red cheeks, and then fell back onto the ground flopping.
"…"
"…"
"…"
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed it.
Kyle honestly felt like applauding that move. 'When it's not happening to me, that shits beautiful. Perfect form and execution.' He rose a 10 in his mind for that performance.
Unfortunately, the kids didn't appreciate it.
"This…"
"He…"
"You bastard! Everyone, string shot!"
It took less than a minute for a web of sticky string to trap the fish in place off the ground.
"What should we do with it?"
"Let's leave it in the trees for bird Pokemon to enjoy an easy meal."
"Or toss it in a cave, let the Zubat suck it dry."
"Yeah, but first, revenge."
Kyle looked on in surprise for the most part as three kids tried punching and kicking Magikarp, only for their limbs to come away bruised and them to tear up.
Then they tried hitting the fish with sticks, and the sticks broke, splintering their hands.
Then they tried throwing stones and did nothing. Not even a rock at the fish's eye did any damage and just bounced off.
Kyle could easily see that the eye aside, the fish wasn't even spending aura to defend. It was just it's natural scales.
It looked down at them with condensation from the web.
The three got angrier and angrier and eventually decided to try catching the fish. Which failed because Magikarp was to healthy for a pokeball to work.
With nothing left to do, and no way to move it to somewhere they could get it killed, they ordered their bug types to tie him up in as much string as possible to suffocate the fish and let it bake in the sun.
Kyle recorded all of it and would be sending it to the police station as proof of Pokemon abuse. The kids let their ego's get too big and took things too far. They walked away satisfied with their work and high fiving each other while a cocoon of string wiggled and thrashed behind them.
Kyle sighed at the sight. 'Me and my stupid conscious.' He whistled and Loki came bounding over from his training and jumped onto his shoulder.
"Oof, your too big for that now buddy." "Ee." Loki denied and dropped over his head while Kyle chuckled. "You see that big ball of white stuff?" "Ee." Loki narrowed his eyes and nodded.
"Our fish friend got himself into trouble. Think you could jump over there and free him with a Swift? Don't touch the white stuff, it's sticky."
"Ee!" Loki nodded seriously and took off in a burst of white light as he used Quick Attack to cross the distance.
The cocoon of string was ripped apart by glowing yellow stars and air flowed in, saving the suffocating fish. Loki started talking to it as he freed it bit by bit and the fish lay limp on the ground trying to catch its breath. Soon enough the fish was free and speaking back to Loki.
Loki happily responded and dragged/pushed the fish back to the water line. Despite Kyle and Magikarp's animosity, Loki and Aurora never attacked as neither of the two were malicious in their arguing and fighting. Besides, as an aura user, Kyle could actually defend himself and make his hits sting when he slapped the fish.
Loki bounded over back to him and jumped into his lap. "Ee!" He proudly stuck out his chest and Kyle wasted no time pampering his partner. "You did great Loki, I'm proud of you." "Ee!" He wiggled under Kyles hands happily and danced around.
"Magi."
Kyle blinked and turned to the side, seeing the Magikarp floating there in the water. It stared at him and nodded its head in thanks. Kyle smiled back. "Maybe stop tail slapping people for a while. That could have been the end for you."
"Magi!" The fish vehemently denied and Kyle chuckled. "You were screwed there buddy." The fish looked away in annoyance but didn't leave.
The two descended into silence as the rays of sunlight warmed the world. Magikarp was obviously annoyed by its defeat and was trying to cool off while Kyle played with Loki for a bit and sent him back, returning to his meditation and fishing project.
Kyle enjoyed the feel of the world, letting its breath enter through him, rejuvenating him, and sending it back out. He could feel Magikarp at his side, just floating and getting pulled into his flow as the two enjoyed the silence in peace.
The sun moved over the horizon, painting the world in its red and orange glows. Dying the sky in its beauty.
The two watched on in harmony, the very water sending out emotions of it. And when the sun almost set, Kyle finally turned to his friend.
'You know, he is a strong Magikarp.' He mused as he looked at it. Magikarp was a tier 3 option for him on his list. The bottom of the list.
If he really wanted to catch one, it had to be unique, strong of mind and will, and be something that could synchronize with him.
"Hey Magikarp." The fish turned to him. "Magi." Kyle held out a hand and coated it in aura. "You mind?" He gestured to his back and Magikarp eyed him up for a second before moving closer. Kyle placed his hand on his back and let his aura connect with Magikarp's.
Kyle was looking for synchronization and to his surprise, it came as easily as breathing. Him and Magikarp easily flowing in tune.
Every intelligent Pokemon had their own aura, their own personality, their own flow. It was all aura, but it was personalized.
Him and Loki were two peas of a pod. Whether that was because of Loki's nature or because he was bathed in Kyles aura before hatching is up to debate.
Him and Aurora got on wonderfully, but that was thanks to their ice natures. Aurora felt he was kin from his ice energy, and she felt safe by his side. They connected through ice.
Now him and Magikarp, they connected in personality. Their aura's flowing smoothly and the fish rejoicing in the cold ice feeling.
His aura actually embraced Kyle's cold and tried absorbing it.
"Huh… look at that." He blinked at the fish. 'Who would have thought?' The two argued from the first moment and fought for days. Kyle never even thought of catching it till that moment, and it turned out they were a perfect match.
"Magi." Magikarp leaned into his hand and Kyle smiled. "Hey buddy." The fish looked at him. "Want to see the world?" Magikarp's eyes widened and it looked into Kyles own as their aura spoke for their emotions. "Magi." It nodded resolutely.
"It's going to be hard, and we train hard. There is going to just as many battles as there will be places to see out there. Think you can handle it?"
"Magikarp!" The fish bellowed in reply, insulted that Kyle had to ask. Kyle laughed and patted his rough and damp scales. "You're going to be a real monster when you evolve aren't you?"
Magikarp somehow managed to puff up proudly with his Barbels flaying to the sides. "Magi." Kyle's laughter continued. "Well, as long as you stand with my family, you will always be considered a part of it." He looked into Magikarp's eyes and shared his emotions over the bond. The fish looked at him hard before nodding, sending a promise over the bond that sealed the deal.
Kyle unhooked one his custom pokeballs with his free hand and looked at him. "Typhon, god of storms and monsters, a monstrous giant serpentine figure whose name rang as the mightiest monster in his myth. That shall be your name."
Magikarp's eyes widened before an incredible amount of joy radiated off him and he nodded hard enough to send out a large rippling wave of water. Kyle's laughter returned as he reached out with the ball. "Grow big and strong Typhon, as the monster of my team and family." "Magi!" Magikarp cheered as the ball touched his scales and opened wide, sucking the fish in a beam of red light.
The ball snapped shut and wiggled once, as if Magikarp was trying to tail slap something before it clicked in capture.
Kyle smiled down at the ball. 'Never really thought I would catch a Magikarp, so many other options out there.' He looked up at the last rays of light over the mountains. 'But who cares, I'm just going with the flow here.'
"Ee!" "Vul!" His partners called from their campsite in hunger and Kyle got up, dusting himself off and putting away his fishing gear. "I'm coming, I'm coming, don't get your fluff in a twist." He chuckled and turned away from the lake with a new partner in his party, looking on at the world from his ball on his side.
Destiny, Fate, and all that nonsense wasn't Kyle's cup of tea. He would just step forward one step at a time and take what came at him.
And as the world darkened and a chill spread in the air, a small campfire crackled merrily with a wonderful smell of stew wafting off, and four figures sitting around it with happy smiles. Typhon having his own little, small ditch with water to join them.
Their family had grown just a step larger, and Kyle was halfway done on growing his family.
'I still want that Horsea…'
*Line Break*
Jake – Harry Potter – End of Year One – June:
[End of year exams:
Monday – Transfiguration
Tuesday - Charms
Wednesday – History and Astronomy
Thursday - Potions
Friday – DA and Herbology]
~Tuesday~
"Diffindo!" A sharp crescent of blue air traveled forward from the tip of Jake's wand to sever a straw post in half.
The post fell on its side with a clean cut right through the middle.
"Wonderful, wonderful! That will be all Mr. Walker, you may go sit down." Professor Flitwick called out excitedly as he wrote down Jake's score on his clipboard.
Jake bowed his head in respect to the professor and walked back to his seat, having finished the practical exam of Charms.
First year Charms exams are about eleven, technically ten, charms learned over the course of the year.
Levitation Charm, Wand-Lighting Charm, Wand-Extinguishing Charm, Fire-Making Spell, Softening Charm, Unlocking Charm, Locking Spell, Mending Charm, Severing Charm, Knockback Jinx, Ice Jinx.
Many of the charms are relearned at higher levels each year, but they are the lowest cornerstone of future spells.
Levitation charm – make things float and direct them around. The heavier and longer the cast, the more mana required. Active Charm.
Wand-Lighting Charm – Create light at the end of your wand tip. Active Charm.
Wand-Extinguishing Charm – A charm that serves no purpose in Jakes mind but seems to make sense to others. It turns off light on the end of your wand. Why they can't just stop supplying mana to the Lighting Charm is a mystery to Jake. He asked the Professor and the man shot him a smirk and told him to think about it himself.
Fire-Making Spell – it is technically a conjuration but falls under charms as it's turning your mana into flames that are cast out at a target. Jake does not see it as a conjuration as it cannot be controlled after being casted out, only aimed and fired.
Softening Charm – created a soft and rubbery texture on the surface of anything hit by said charm for a short duration.
Unlocking Charm – Unlocks locks.
Locking Charm – Locks open locks.
Mending Charm – Mends broken objects if broken recently.
Severing Charm – Creates a cutting edge to cut into things.
Knockback Jinx – Knocks back whatever hit.
Ice Jinx – Creates a single small shard of ice to fling forward.
Not all that special of a lineup, but very versatile in their uses. Throughout the five mandatory and two NEWT level years of Charm classes, when you take away all the redundant teaching aid type charms, you are truly left with forty one charms, with four of them being curses.
Every year goes over the same charms, adds a few more, and expands more on what each charm can do.
Such as the simple first year Levitation charm which after multiple revisions can basically become telekinesis.
Or how the Mending Charm ramps up in power as you go along to be able to fix things who's broken pieces are in the area, no matter how long before it was broken.
Or how the Lighting spell ramps up to become Lumos Maxima and create a blinding flash of light.
Charms were not Jake's specialty, but that didn't mean they didn't have their uses. He likely wouldn't sit for NEWT courses on them, but for the first five years he would give them his all.
~Wednesday~
Wednesday passed peacefully. The written exam for History was fully focused on Goblin Wars, making Jake further convinced someone was sabotaging this class and no one cared.
'Don't Historians among magical kind exist? Wouldn't they be horrified about this?' Jake couldn't help but wonder. He decided to ask his aunt's about it.
The Astronomy exam was simple given the circumstances. Just an exam on what they learned of the placement of the planets and stars, when in the year certain events happened, and how to manage the equipment.
It was a calm day.
~Thursday~
Potions exams were done in silence. Professor Snape left the instructions in front of his classroom door, and no one was to speak once they entered.
Snape looked at the first years, sneering at them in his usual style and putting mental pressure on the students.
Jake wanted to chuckle at he saw Nym's hair turn bright red as she stared back at the man, daring him to keep messing with her.
The professor didn't show any sign of intimidation from the small terror but he did glance at the clock and tap his desk.
"The written exam begins now. Failure to follow the rules written outside the door will result in instant failure. You have one hour, you may begin."
He was to the point and didn't give a shit for anyone's thoughts. Even saying less than McGonagall did for her own exam.
Jake flipped over the exam and got to work.
It was randomized questions on the course work they went over during the year.
Some were for more advanced potions they only went over theoretical knowledge of, and others were for the current years potions.
There were eighteen ingredients for first year potions. The exam called for them to be listed. Then it gave a dozen examples of potion recipes and asked if anything was wrong with them.
Having the students correct the process or ingredient list.
Even for Jake who excelled in potions, it took him forty minutes of the hour to finish the exam. 'Sheesh, talk about being anal about things. Not that I can really blame them considering how easy it is to kill yourself making a potion.'
One wrong ingredient or stir at the wrong time and 'boom' you're dead.
Snape saw him stop and came over to swipe his test, not letting him go back and correct anything in the remaining time. He did give him a small nod of acknowledgement and what Jake could only assume was a gleam of satisfaction that he finished first.
Once the hour passed, he waved his wand and swiped the exams from everyone else, whether they were done or not.
"You have ninety minutes to create a sample of all seven first year potions. You may begin now."
There was no rest in this exam, and Jake felt bad for some of his year mates, but if they were unprepared he couldn't help much.
The classroom was split in two, with the exam desks in the front and the work tables with their cauldrons in the back. Each table had two sets of ingredients for each potion. Even snape gave first years two tries for each potion, knowing things can happen even when you're trying your best.
The seven potions were as follows:
Cure for Boils – Great for teenagers with acne.
Forgetfulness Potion – In weaker doses caused recent memory loss, in larger doses caused long term memory loss.
Herbicide Potion – Kills plant life.
Sleeping Draught – Causes the drinker to fall into a temporary sleep.
Wiggenweld Potion – A general health potion. Also the cure for the Sleeping Draught and Draught of Living Death.
Antidote to Common Poisons – Antidote for common non-magical poisons.
Strength Potion – Increases the drinkers physical strength by a half for thirty minutes.
Hair-Raising Potion – Makes the drinkers hair stand on end like a porcupine.
Not all of them were very useful and were more situation specific, but they did have their uses.
Many potions crossed with spells, and many others had other ways to get things done, but potions were around for a reason.
There were many things potions could do that nothing else could. And potions could be kept long term and used no matter what your condition is. Even non-magicals could drink them.
Jake followed the recipes to the letter, with the only changes coming from the book snape himself wrote. Nothing different enough that Snape would know he is altering the recipes, but just enough to make his potions more potent.
Jake could sense the mana inside the cauldron as the ingredients interacted. He knew exactly when to perform each step of the recipe.
However, he couldn't alter them on his own. He had no idea how to 'understand and listen' to potions like Aunt Andy said or Snape could probably do. He was just very good at using what existed.
He had no talent for customizing potions the way he could customize Transfiguration.
He handed in his potions to a straight faced Snape but by the tiny twitch in the man's lips as he looked at Jake's phials, he knew he did good.
It was a good day.
~Friday~
Defense Against the Dark Arts, also known as DA. The fabled class of the Harry Potter books with shit teachers.
At least, that's how it would have been if Jake and Nym didn't destroy the curse of the DA teaching position.
The current teacher was a retired female Auror and quite decent at her job. Being the more blunt and straightforward type.
First year in DA was about learning how to defend from magical creatures.
Specifically:
Werewolf Bites – there was a method to preventing infection if acting within five minutes of being bitten using silver powder and dittany to sterilize the wound.
Imps – nasty small creatures that love to throw and lob small objects at others. Easily dealt with using first year spells.
Ghosts – An imprint of the soul of a once living wizard or witch. They fear death and remain behind, haunting a location or object. While the ones at Hogwarts were friendly due to the nature of the school, others could be very violent and possibly possess objects or people.
Hags – Native to Russia, a species of magical creatures resembling elderly witches with many warts and four toes on each foot. They have a craving for young flesh and at some point were seen by humans, creating the stereotype of witches among muggles. They are intelligent and can speak and cast magic in limited forms. Very unreasonable creatures and love to get their hands on magical children.
Gytrashes - The Gytrash was a large, dog-like spirit with a forked tail. This fast and dangerous brute ran wild throughout the woodlands of Great Britain. It was very sensitive to light and could be banished with a simple lightening charm.
Vampires – self-explanatory. The first year course only taught how to identify them and common weakness's.
Zombies – Zombies were 'Living Dead' magical creatures that dwelt in the southern part of the United States of America. They were identifiable by their greyish skin and rotten smell. They were different from Inferni in that the first were magical creatures from nature and the second were dead bodies reanimated with a curse.
Apparently in the time of WW2, on the magical side of things, zombies and Inferni were both used and created one hell of a mess for the ICW. There were still cases of buried bunkers being unearthed with Nazi zombies and Inferni till this day.
The ICW declared that every member nation was charged with teaching their youth how to fight the damn things.
In basic terms: USE FIRE.
Moving on.
Gnomes - Gnomes could reach a size of approximately one foot. They were usually brown in color and had disproportionately large heads, making them look like potatoes with legs. Although not dangerous creatures, they possessed razor sharp teeth and tended to bite if provoked. And apparently everyone considered them a massive pest and infestation when they got into gardens.
These eight creatures were covered in various depths of the year, and Jake honestly found the class a lot of fun.
Learning more about magical creatures was always a plus in his book.
The only actual spell they went over and performed was a contained Smokescreen Spell. The teacher explained it was the best defense to cover an escape from sight and smell, as that's how the majority of magical creatures track you.
Future years apparently covered more dark creatures, how to defeat them, and finally how to defend against curses and dark magic.
The magical beasts and dark creatures were apparently the focus of the first few years, which Jake could understand.
'Not exactly a great idea to go in depth on the violent and gruesome effects of curses to a bunch of children…' He paused at that thought. 'Then again, I guess going over vicious magical creatures and how they can hurt you doesn't help as well. Hm… at least it's informative.'
If someone else had nightmares over it, it wasn't really his problem.
If Nym had a nightmare over it however, it was his problem. Jake couldn't count the number of times over the year he had to sit by Nym while she napped during free periods because something they studied kept her up at night.
He wouldn't say he minded all that much, it actually warmed his heart to know he made her feel safe, but it would be nice if she didn't drool on him.
Herbology was the final exam of the week and it was all written exams for first years.
Venomous Tentacula, Spiky Bush, Bouncing Bulb, Puffapods, Moly, Asphodel, Dried Nettles, Dittany, Wormwood, Mandrake Root, Aconite, Devil's Snare.
Twelve magical plants and ingredients were their course material. How to identify them, care for them, deal with them, and harvest them.
Identification was the most important and annoying.
Caring for them was important if you wanted to grow your own.
Dealing with them was for if you found yourself being attacked or annoyed by them.
And harvesting them was for gathering potion ingredients.
It was a lot of things to remember but at least it was better than the dry as chalk history exam.
Once the last exam was done, there was no call for joy or celebration for one simple reason. Everyone was dead tired and brain dead.
Friday night was just a dinner of shoveling food into mouths and imitating zombies before going to bed.
But Saturday was a different story.
"WERE FREE!" Nym yelled loud in the hall with her arms up in the air and was met by a chorus of cheers from various other students between years one and four. "YEAH!"
Jake shook his head with a smile as he watched Nym jump around like a kid on a sugar rush from his spot in one of the school's courtyards. Cedric next to him chuckled. "She was keeping that in for a while now." Jake hummed. "Yeah, I think the threat of her mother seeing a bad grade kept her in check this whole time."
Cedric laughed at that. "Ha, I can understand. If my old man knew I wasn't the perfect student he would fly off the broom. So, we celebrating later?"
"Yeah, just gotta wait for Nym to calm down and Penny to finish checking every textbook to make sure she didn't answer anything wrong."
"Pft, she's a riot sometimes."
Jake side eyed his friend and elbowed him. "Yeah, you love it don't you?" The guy flushed a bit and looked away while scratching his cheek. "Maybe? I don't know. You and Nym are better with that kind of stuff then us."
Jake hummed at that. His bond to Nym made things go a little faster and smoother than normal. "It's just how we are I guess. Just go with the flow and enjoy things for now." Cedric nodded at that and relaxed.
Even without Nym's exposure to her aunts and her soul connection to Jake influencing her, wizards and witches were different from non magicals. They still retained an older era of thinking and were more aware of sexuality from a younger age. You could even find thirteen year old's drinking wine during meals as nonmagical alcohol had negligible effect on magical people.
There were still limits, and things didn't actually happen till at least fourteen, but mentally puberty came earlier for magical people. By third year in school, the young teens were already very aware of the opposite sex and Hogsmeade dates were a common sight. Some started earlier, others later, but by the time of fifth and sixth year, no one except the rare anti-social types or off-putting types experienced romance at least once.
It was slightly weird for the memories of his past life, but in this one he just went with the flow. 'I guess high school back then was also the same. It was less open but some people just started young…' Jake mentally shrugged and glanced at his friend.
Nym's request from last month was still clear in his mind. "Hey man." Cedric turned to him. "Hm?"
"Me and Nym got something to show you and Pen later, meet us in the sixth floor east wing around five, I'll tell Penny about it." Cedric gave him a curious look but didn't ask. "Sure man, I'll be there."
Jake nodded and the two relaxed, enjoying the lovely day in the courtyard. The school's mana ambience seemed to reflect the cheer of the students and was spreading a feeling of positivity through the castle.
'I guess Nym was right.' Cedric's lack of questioning him and trusting his word without any doubt was nice to see and feel. 'Maybe I have been a bit too cautious.' From his entry into the world, Jake's perception had been colored by the hundreds of Harry Potter fanfictions he had read.
There were just so many ways things can go wrong. Saying or doing one wrong thing here or there could have a consequence he should been able to avoid with ease. It should have been obvious. Why couldn't he just avoid an obvious cliché like that?
He remembered those feelings when reading such fanfictions. And in his mind he kept trying to find every angle, eliminate threats in advance and find the best ways forward.
And he still does it.
But perhaps he was becoming paranoid to a negative extent by thinking everything was a threat. He would always be him, and he would view everything with a light of caution, but perhaps it was ok to let the few trusted ones in passed his paranoia.
'Heh, I guess Nym isn't the only one affected by our soul bond. That girls faith in her trust is getting to me as well.'
Nym was the type of girl who didn't trust easy, but when she did trust someone, she trusted them wholeheartedly. If Jake asked her to keep a secret, she wouldn't tell a single other soul, but she would bug him about including others she trusts if she thought it was fun.
She was endearing like that. And Jake found that he really didn't mind if he changed. He was already a new person. Not his first life, not his second, but a combination of the two. A chocolate-vanilla swirl. Sprinkling in some Nym into that didn't seem so bad to him.
"Incoming."
"Jaaaakkkee~!"
Cedric's warning came just a tad too late as a Nym shaped rocket barreled into his chest and knocked him off the bench he was sitting on to land on his back with Nym straddling him. "Nym." His voice was flat as he looked up at her smiling face that he couldn't ever feel annoyed at looking at.
"Hi! Come play with me!" Jake's mouth twitched for the umpteenth time. And for the first time, he caught the tiny twitch of her own mouth as she obviously held back laughter.
His eyes narrowed. "You're doing this on purpose."
She smirked wide. "No idea what you're talking about~."
'Oh, you want to play it that way huh?' His entire year of pain at the double meanings flashed by his eyes. 'Vengeance shall be mine.'
A poke in her side had her squeak and Jake rolled out from under her to crouch low like a wolf. The two matched gazes as Jake smiled wider than humanly possible with shark teeth to emphasize the point. "So you won't mind me sending Aunt Andy a letter huh?"
Nym's eyes widened in fear. "W-wha…l-let's just calm d-down ok?" She sprouted cat ears trying to look cute and Jake laughed. "Not this time you evil minx! Vengeance shall be mine!"
He took off running to the owlery with Nym hot on his heels. "Don't you dare Jake!"
"Mwahaha!" Jake laughed loud and mockingly in response.
The two taking off through the halls and through the crowds of students. Changing their bodies in ways to allow for various movements and leaps as people shouted and yelped with harmless jinxes and spells flying around.
The cheering in the halls suddenly turning into war cries as students celebrated by casting harmless types of spells for fun and laughter.
Jake and Nym only laughed at the sights and sounds as their chase continued. And what started it aside, the two instigators had wide smiles as they played. It was a glorious game of cat and mouse in a minefield of spells.
Who was who in the chase was an eternal debate.
Nym had a larger change on Jake's personality then he might have ever realized. And even if he did, he wouldn't mind.
Later that night.
On the last Saturday night of their time as first years, the four friends stood in a large empty room having a stare off.
"So you mean to tell us…"
"That you two had this whole room…"
"For the entire year…"
"And your only saying something now?"
Jake and Nym blinked sheepishly at Cedric and Penny's tone as the four of them stood in the Room of Requirement.
The two took their friends through the sixth floor secret entrance to the seventh and then to the room, explaining things as they walked.
Jake tried to divert the topic. "You two are oddly in sync."
Nym did not. "It's Jake's fault."
Jake narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Oi."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm not wrong."
Cedric and Penny stared at him silently and Jake sighed, deciding to be honest about things. "Ok look, you should know some things about me by now. If not, well, I'm the super cautious type with my secrets. This room was supposed to be one of my secrets, but then I brought in Nym because I trusted her. And I'll be honest, it took me a year of hanging out with you two to consider you trusted friends."
Nym added in unhelpfully. "And because I pushed him." Jake tsked at her and shifted the ground under her to push her away from him. "Silence child." She laughed and skipped away toward the door to change the rooms layout.
Meanwhile, Cedric looked at him with a complicated look. "You didn't trust us before?" Jake felt a bit bad about the tone but nodded honestly. "I'm not going to lie to you two, I never held anything back if you asked and never tried to be mean or hurt you guys, but I don't trust easy."
The two guys stared at each other for a moment before it was broken by Penny shrugging. "I don't see a real issue with that."
They looked at her questioningly as she elaborated. "It's not like you insulted us. And it's pretty normal for people not to share secrets from the start. In fact, if you just told us from the start I would have been flattered but I would have my doubts about you. Only someone who knows the value of secrets knows they should only share them when needed or their sure."
Jake blinked at that. "That's a very…mature outlook." Penny chuckled and waved a hand. "My parents work for British government; secrets are the bread and butter of all big country type groups."
Cedric got derailed for a second. "Wait, so the muggles know about us?" Penny made a wavy motion with her hand. "Kinda? I'm not sure how it works but the government knows about it. My parents got told when I got the invite from the school and they looked into it with their superiors."
The two boys processed that. "Huh." "Weird."
Penny rolled her eyes. "Yeah I know. Anyway, I consider your choice smart Jake, don't feel bad about it. The only thing that bugs me is that I could have had access to such fast access to books from the entire castle. Then again, I needed this year to actually get a foundation, so perhaps it was for the best that I didn't try to run before learning to crawl.
If anything I'm glad to find out what you and Nym had been sneaking off to do every weekend. The curiosity was driving me crazy."
Jake shook his head at his friend. 'She's a real Ravenclaw, logical to the point of being a scary young girl.' Outwardly he thanked her. "Thanks Pen, I appreciate it, and I brought you here for a reason as well."
She gave him a curious look but before she could ask, Cedric stepped forward. "So you trust us now?" Jake looked at him and noticed he was serious about it. He nodded to the boy firmly. "Once I trust you, you have it until you lose it, and even then I'll think about why you acted like you did and see if you really intended for it or not. I don't give up easily on those I trust, for good or bad."
The two boys had a stare off for another moment before Cedric nodded. "Good. I trust you Jake." Jake chuckled and held out a fist. "I think you trust to easy but I appreciate it man. We good?"
Cedric bumped his fist. "We're good." The two boys smirked and Penny coughed. "*cough* Not to kill your bromance moment but you were getting to why we were here?"
The two boys chuckled and Jake answered. "Just know that I'm trusting you to keep this secret among our group all right?" The two nodded and Jake sent Nym a thumbs up as the girl put her hand against the door and changed the rooms layout.
Before the eyes of the Cedric and Penny, the room expanded rapidly and suddenly filled with mountains of items all the way to the far end of the room with rows and alleys between them.
Jake held out his arms. "Welcome to the Room of Lost Things. The Room of Requirement can conjure any item inside the castle if you specify enough, but the conjuration is limited to the room and can't leave.
But for the last thousand years, the house elves of the castle collected anything lost or forgotten by the castles inhabitants and put it in here. The Room of Lost Things is how they call it.
The room will not do a single thing to organize these items. Conjure a copy? Sure, but the actual item needs real hands, or wands, to move.
Anything in these piles can leave the room, but they are as you can see, mountains of trash. Nym and I spent the year taking apart three piles, searching for anything valuable or useful. We want your help with clearing the rest of the exactly forty nine mountains."
The two stared slack jawed at it all for a moment and Jake didn't blame them, the room was something special to see in actions. Nym bounded over and jumped into Jakes side like a koala. "We want your help so we don't have to spend every single weekend in here for the next six years! I want my school life damn it!"
Nym's tone broke the two from their stupor. And then the questions flooded in.
Jake and Nym answered what they could, going through several topics on the lost things, how they moved them around, how they dealt with the trash, how they stored stuff, how they divided it up in sections, and what they planned to do with it.
"So to summarize, you split everything up that you found, using a combination of the levitation charm and your own Metamorphagus abilities to move and take them apart, used the room to identify what you could, organized it all, and plan to sell it in mass to Gringotts and make a bunch of gold. Following which, any help we give going forward will result in profits being split four ways."
"Not before taking all the unidentifiable stuff home alongside the cursed items to get Lady Black to look at them."
Jake and Nym nodded along and gave thumbs up with shiny teeth, bowl shaped haircuts, and bar shaped eyebrows. ""Youth.""
The two dodged the simultaneous Ice Jinx from their friends while laughing as Cedric and Penny nodded to each other.
"Where do we sign up?"
"I'm getting my research funds."
The scavenger project just gained two new pairs of hands and wands.
*Line Break*
Kyle – Pokemon – 7 weeks – October:
Do you know those moments in life when you see something that forces you to accept reality despite your previous thoughts and expectations telling you it just wasn't possible?
Those moments of earth shattering events that alter your life forever. Those moments that can't be unseen. Those moments that burn themselves into your brain and refuse to leave until you learn to accept them as truth. Because the fact that they happened is a fact.
Well, Kyle was feeling that feeling as he stared on with a deadpan face at the sight of his new partner.
Typhon the Magikarp. Typhon the Magikarp, who might have embraced his new name a little more than Kyle expected.
Why? Well… Typhon was…well… is technically… flying…
'Did Loki pick the wrong herbs and end up drugging me again?'
Kyle turned his head away from the gaze in front of him to look at Loki. The Eevee was likewise staring on with a deadpan face and turned to him as he felt his gaze.
The two held a silent conversation between their eyes and Loki shook his head, then they turned back to the sight before them.
'Nope, he didn't drug me. This is happening.'
"Magi!" Typhon shouted in joy as he fell from the air.
What started all of this? Well, about ten minutes ago, Kyle asked Magikarp to go through all the moves it knew to get an understanding of his partner.
What he learned was that Typhon knew two standard moves, one half move, and a fourth butchered incomplete move.
The first two were the standard Tackle and Flail. Tackle does as stated, although the move is different from a simple physical tackle as it works by reinforcing your body with aura and then hitting your target with yourself. Simple, practical, and a starting move many Pokemon had because it likely taught them how to use their aura better.
At least that's what Kyle assumed.
Flail was a great move all things considered. Every Pokemon when injured, will have their own recovery rate of absorbing aura from the world to heal their wounds and stamina. Flail is a move where a Pokemon flails it's body wildly and the more damaged they are, the higher the damage of the move inflicted. It works, from how Kyle understood by watching, by converting the 'recovery' of aura into 'make me temporarily really strong.' The downside to the move was that it knocked the user out for double the usual time of recovery.
Not a real issue with access to Pokecenter's and potions, but without them it's an issue.
The first surprise, that really wasn't a surprise, came with the third half move. It seemed to be Typhons second favorite thing to do and pretty much mimicked a real Pokemon move even without utilizing the energy factor of the move.
Tail Slap. The fucker loved slapping people with his tail. And Kyle saw the smug satisfaction in his eyes every time his tail connected with something with a nice loud 'Pa!' sound.
It wasn't the full move since he wasn't actually using his aura to activate a move, it was just a classic slap using all the force of his muscle and the physics of bending his body just right for the most emotional damage.
That's what Kyl wanted to name it, since every time something got hit, his brain would yell in a dramatic Asian voice 'EMOTIONAL DAMAGE.'
But that move was expected at the very least. It was scene before and wasn't all that shocking.
It was the fourth move that surprised him so much. Typhon really liked his name. Both for 'Monster' and 'Storm.'
"Magi!" Typhon tensed his whole body, glowed brightly, and slapped the ground with just the right amount of force to turn into a flying Magikarp.
Typhon was already well on the way to mastering the move Bounce. A rare flying type move that Magikarp's line could learn, but not usually by themselves.
So combine that with Typhons sheer size for a Magikarp, being almost three feet in height and close to thirty pounds and the damn Pokemon was a monster. A monster who could fly… sort of.
Kyle sighed and approached the flailing fish Pokemon trying to get higher and higher into the air with each jump.
"Alright buddy, that's enough for now." Magikarp fell back to the ground and called back in annoyance. "Magikarp!" Kyle came over and pat his rough scales. "Easy man, a tower isn't built in a day. Frankly, your progress on your own is already crazy. How did you even learn that move in the first place?"
Magikarp looked at him for a moment and sent an image and intention over the aura bond and physical contact.
Kyle blinked at what he received. It was an image of a large and fearsome Gyarados… and it was flying…
The emotional intention paired with it was one of awe, desire, and determination.
It took him a moment to clear the image from his mind to focus back on his new partner with a weird gaze. "Where in Arceus did you see a flying Gyarados? Can Gyarados legit fly?" Kyle was flabbergasted.
The fish wiggled happily and sent another image. It was one of himself as a small baby, looking out from a crack in a cavern with other Magikarp in it, and outside was a very different sight from Lake Verity. It was like looking at something out of a fantasy world.
'…'
…not the most apt description considering his new life, but the image was one of multicolored clouds, green hills, and blooming lakes of coral. And in the sky was indeed a large flying Gyarados.
The image faded once more and Kyle was even more confused. 'Did this dude hit his head really hard, or was he born somewhere else?'
He looked at his partner for a long moment and shrugged. 'It could go either way.' Typhon seemed to sense his doubtful gaze and slapped the ground, attempting to reach up and tail slap him. "Oi!"
Kyle laughed and dodged while Loki decided to come over and poke his new friend with a paw. Looking to have some fun.
Meanwhile, Kyle looked off at the lake. 'Maybe it has something to do with Mesprit?' He recalled how in the games it didn't exist in this dimension but its own that was connected to the lake itself.
'Maybe Typhon was born in that world? And then got sent into the lake when it was old enough? By what? A caring parent?'
Somehow the image of a female Gyarados guarding her eggs seemed both very appropriate and very weird at the same time.
In the end, Kyle just let it go. 'While interesting to think about, it's not something to be distracted about. Mesprit's dimension isn't something on which I should focus on at the moment. Neither is the question of if a Gyarados can fly.
I'll remember both, but for now, I need to deal with my Magikarp.'
He clapped his hands and got Loki and Typhons attention. "Alright you two, time to get things going. Loki, go back to your Defense training. Keep hitting tree's with your body until it doesn't bother you anymore. Rest when you feel real pain. And if you get bored, go back to the circuit of your physical work out with your move practice. I want to get you going on using the Dark move Bite soon."
"Ee!" Loki saluted him adorably and took off running on his no longer stubby legs to his training area. The guy had been growing like a weed with their training and vitamins. Already proving his Alpha lineage by passing the average height and weight limit for a standard Eevee.
Aurora was already focused on her own training with the Special Attack stat. Kyle had her set up a ways away where no one would be bothered by the copious amounts of ice and snow.
He turned back to Typhon who was curiously looking at him with eager eyes. Kyle smiled at the motivated look. "Alright buddy, time to get you on the same schedule as those two. Let's make you a real monster."
"Magi!"
The team was well underway. It was time for a training montage.
Kyle always liked to be over-leveled before a gym challenge anyway.
Chapter end.
AN: Thoughts? Specifically good ones. Don't criticize me. I'm shameless and I know it. Kek.
Next time on DBZ…. Kyle has a gym battle. Jake does stuff, I don't fully remember. I'm tired and going to bed.
