Harry Potter and the Dragon of Magic
Chapter 4- Karate
(A/N: Hey, this is the 4th chapter, finally! I don't have too much to say except that I tried to make it a little longer than the last ones and I hope you enjoy it! ~Phalanx Dragon)
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Harry was on the grounds of an old mansion. He at first thought he was at the old Riddle Mansion, where Voldemort had hidden out at the beginning of last year. When he looked around, however, it proved stranger still. Though the walls of the mansion were covered in ivy, and the weeds had overgrown the garden, the rest of the mansion was still in perfect state, nevertheless abandoned. This was definitely not the Riddle mansion. Harry frowned and stepped in the direction of the house, ignoring a sharp pain in his scar each time he got closer.
By the time he was a few feet away from the window, the pain was almost unbearable, still Harry forced himself onward. When he reached the window, he staggered with the pain in his head. He reached out and grabbed hold of the windowsill to keep his balance. As soon as his hand touched the wood of the old mansion, the pain in his scar stopped and warmth flowed through him. Harry frowned; glancing up the side of the ivy covered wall. Seeing nothing unusual, he then glanced in the window, hardly noticing the blooming lily in a flowerpot on the edge.
Inside the window, he could see a dark figure walking around. It fingered a scorched scrap of parchment, the wording on it illegible. Harry wasn't looking at the parchment, however, for the hand now visible was a bone white spider-like hand. Harry recognized that hand from the cemetery at the end of his fourth year, when the Triwizard cup had transported Cedric and him there. The hand belonged to the evil wizard known as Lord Voldemort. Harry felt something twinge in his scar, not pain, but more like the tingling feeling of fear. He raised his hand from the windowsill to feel his scar, but as soon as he lost contact with the sill, the pain returned, sharper than ever. He gasped, then, without hesitation, dropped to the ground, hoping Voldemort had not heard him.
Harry heard the crumpling of parchment, then light footsteps that stopped directly behind and above him. He looked up, expecting to be looking directly at the tip of a want in the hand of Voldemort. Instead, he saw only the tips of the bone-white fingers as Voldemort, clutching the sill, looked out the window, luckily not glancing down. Maybe he had been hoping to meet someone, or at least see something, in any case, he swiped the flowerpot out of the window, emitting a low yell frustration, showering Harry with soil. Then the hand disappeared and Harry heard the light footsteps walking away from the window.
Harry let out his breath in a sigh, just now realizing he had been holding it. He looked at the flower, which had fallen out of the pot and was lying on the ground next to him. As he watched, the lily's roots dug into the soil where it lay, pulling the flower upright.
It's probably been enchanted. Harry thought with a small smile. He stood up, keeping to the side of the window where he did not risk being seen, and looked around. Not knowing how long he would be here, he decided to explore the grounds. He walked around the wall. As soon as he turned the corner, he stopped short. A large emerald lawn, seeming to be freshly mowed stretched before him. That however, was not the reason he stopped. Standing directly before him was a man in a long flowing black cloak.
"Who are you?" Harry asked the man, surprised his voice was so steady.
The man behind the cloak chuckled and said in a low voice, "You know my Harry. Think, we just met not too long ago."
Harry paused, the asked eagerly, "Sirius?" After all, he had only met his godfather a year and 2 months ago, not to mention meeting him in the middle of his last year.
Again, the man laughed, he pulled back his cloak to show Sirius with an odd expression on his face. Sirius grinned, for some reason looking very malicious. "Wrong, Harry."
Harry looked puzzled, "what do you mean, wrong?"
Sirius shook his head, "Look past petty disguises, look at me as though you would a stranger, tell me what you see."
Harry frowned, getting suspicious. He squinted at Sirius, then sighed, "I don't see anything differ-" He cut his sentence short, his eyes widening in horror. Before him, he watched Sirius's face pale, his eyes narrow and turn red, his nose shrink to slits, and his mouth became lip-less.
"Now what do you see?" Voldemort said in his high-pitched voice.
Harry staggered backwards, his hand leaving the wall of the house, making his scar explode with pain. Voldemort's cruel laughter overwhelmed him as he fell into darkness.
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Harry sat up with a small yelp, eyes wide with horror of the nightmare, his scar throbbing with pain. He instinctively wanted to get up and check to see if the burning in his scar was visible, he knew however that it would not be, so he fell back to the pillow with a sigh. In the room down he hall, Vernon gave a restless growl and harry could hear the bed creak as he shifted. Harry closed his eyes, but soon opened them again for fear of falling back o sleep, not wanting to risk having another nightmare. By now the pain in his scar had ebbed away so he glanced over at the clock. He realized that it wasn't that long from dawn, so he decided to wait it out.
He still had his potions essay to do. He reached down under his bed and lifted the loose floorboard to get out his Potions book, a flashlight, a large piece of parchment, a bottle of navy blue ink, and a large eagle feather quill.
An hour and a half later, Harry paused to stretch his hand, freeing it from writer's cramp. He glanced out the window; ten minutes ago he had put his flashlight away, it being light enough to write without it. He looked down at his essay, it was several inches short and he had run out of things to say about 5 inches ago. After all, it is very hard to work on an essay for your lease favorite subject after having a terrifying nightmare and waking up to a curse scar throbbing with pain.
He sighed and glanced at the clock, it shone 6:45. Around now Vernon and Petunia usually went downstairs for breakfast, which Harry had incidentally forgotten to make. Sure enough, a couple minutes later he heard a loud grumbling and Petunia's shrill voice, then heavy footsteps down the stairs.
Harry quickly twisted on the top of his inkbottle and stashed it and the other materials back under the loose floorboard. He swung out of bed and got dressed. As soon as he finished, Vernon yelled up at him.
"You get down here boy and make my breakfast!"
Harry winced, but realized that the Dursleys would actually give him a reason to stop thinking about the nightmare, which still confused him, so he opened the door to his room and walked downstairs. He went into the kitchen and went straight to the refrigerator, but his uncle stopped him with a gruff voice.
"Pancakes today, boy!"
"Yes, sir." Harry said almost mockingly, too tired to disagree.
Harry quickly got out the pancake mix and had the pancakes done in record time. Again Dudley came down to eat as soon as the smell of food wafted up to his room. He had started thundering back up the stairs when Petunia stopped him.
"Now honey, not yet. Your father and I have a surprise for you." She explained.
Dudley turned around, eyeing her suspiciously, "Presents?"
"No, something better! We have signed you up for this summer's Martial Arts training! It's only for this month, but you can be in it next summer too! Now isn't that exciting?"
Harry almost burned himself on the stove when he doubled up with laughter at the look on Dudley's face.
"Do I have to?" Dudley whined.
Vernon looked up and, for the first time Harry could remember, scolded Dudley. "Now look here, your mother worked very hard to get you into that class, and you are going to be in it if I have to drag you there! Your mother will go with you the first day to make sure you are treated right, but you will be in that class!"
Harry had to turn away to stifle a small snicker, unfortunately, he didn't keep it quiet enough. Vernon turned toward him, face flushed red, and bellowed.
"YOU GET UPSTAIRS BOY!"
Harry stepped back in surprise at the outburst and quickly dashed up the stairs to his room. Vernon's voice roared after him, "And don't come down until we tell you to!"
In his room, Harry frowned, if Vernon was at work and Petunia and Dudley were at the martial arts class, he would be at home by himself. He grinned; finally he would have some time to relax! He strode across the room, smiling at Hedwig who hooted at him from her cage, and stood by the window, waiting for the Dursleys to leave. Vernon left first and a few minutes later, Petunia and a whining Dudley got into the family car and drove away.
Freedom at last! Harry thought, he walked over to his bed and bent down to the loose floorboard. Pulling it up, he grabbed his new book: Quidditch Seekers and their secret moves. This kept him occupied for several hours until a large crash from downstairs interrupted him. His head snapped up in surprise and he quietly shut the book. There was whispering from down the stairs and he walked silently across his room to the door to hear better.
"-gotta get out of here, if we keep any longer the neighbors will hear us!" a deep voice said in a hushed tone.
"I am not leaving here with nothing!" A second voice growled, slightly louder than the first.
"Frankie, keep it down," There was a tense pause, "I, for one, don't want to get caught."
Harry was sure that the owners of the voices were thieves or burglars. Unfortunately, he had no clue as to what to do about it. He looked around the room for any sort of weapon. The closest thing he found was a Carpenter's Triangle (used to draw right angles) that had been left there since the summer before his second year when Vernon had a carpenter fix bars on his window. He grabbed the metal triangle and crept toward the door, he pressed his ear on the door and heard footsteps in the general direction of the master bedroom.
Harry eased open his door and walked silently down the hall. Luckily, Harry had walked down the hall enough to know where the creaky boards were, the intruders, however, didn't. Behind him in the hall around the corner, he heard the floor creak. Harry leapt into the nearest bedroom, which happened to be Dudley's.
"Yo, Frankie!" The man in the master bedroom, who Harry recognized as the first voice, yelled. "These people got nothin'!"
The man who made the floor creak, called out in reply, so quietly that Harry couldn't tell what he said. Harry saw as Frankie passed by Dudley's room, then reappeared a second later. He walked in, calling to the other man.
"I found another room here!"
Uh-oh! Harry thought. If they combed the room, they would definitely find him. He looked around the room, still clutching the metal triangle in his hand. He wondered if they had any weapons, if they did, he would be dead before he could reach them to use the triangle, and even if he could get back to his room, he didn't dare use his wand to stop them. He couldn't get in any more trouble with the Ministry of Magic, plus all of the business with erasing their memory when the muggle police would definitely want to question them.
Realizing he should take out this one before the other came ('first voice' was still scrounging around in the master bedroom) so, thinking quickly, Harry stood up, took aim and hurled the triangle at the man. He let out a small yell before falling to the floor in a heap. The other man ran in, took one look at Frankie and, not even looking to see what caused Frankie's pain, dashed out of the room, muttering about how he knew it was a bad idea.
So much for partner loyalty. Harry thought as he walked across the room and knelt by Frankie who, luckily, was still breathing. From outside, Harry heard a loud engine start up and roar down the street, away from the house. It was so loud that Harry had to wonder how it had approached the house without his hearing it. He looked around, not knowing what to do now, he supposed he would have to wait until the Dursleys came home, anyway, Petunia would love the chance to get on the news.
Harry ran down to the living room, looking for rope to tie up the man with. In the end, he had to go all the way out to the garage to find some. When he got back, the man was stirring restlessly on the floor, still unconscious. Harry quickly bound the rope around his ankles and wrists.
Soon after, the man woke up, grumbling about a splitting headache, which Harry didn't doubt, the Triangle had hit him squarely behind his temple and had only now stopped bleeding. The man looked up at Harry and frowned.
"Where am I?" he asked, confused, "And who the hell are you?"
Harry glared at him, "You don't need to know my name and this is the house you and your loyal partner broke into." He said the word loyal with a voice dripping with sarcasm.
The man looked surprised, he glanced around the room, "So I'm busted and John just left me here?" He collapsed against the ropes that bound him.
"That pretty much sums it up." Harry replied.
"So. What are you going to do to me?" He asked, obviously nervous.
Harry looked at him, "I'm going to wait until my Uncle gets home, then you're probably going to court."
The man looked extremely grim, he glanced at Harry, "You know, before this, I always looked at kids your age as just that, kids, always getting in the way, never any good. Now I have just been caught by one. How pathetic is that?"
Harry smile and his only reply was, "The Irony Gods strike again!" The two then sat in silence for a long time before Harry heard a slamming from downstairs.
"Stay there," he told the man. As he left he heard the man mutter, "Like I have a choice."
Harry almost ran down the stairs, halfway down, he heard a roar of rage. He must have found the thing they broke.
As soon as he stepped down off the last stair he knew he was right, Vernon was standing in front of an antique vase that was shattered on the floor. Vernon looked up at him, eyes wild.
"Did you do this?" He pointed at the vase.
Harry shook his head, quickly explaining, "A couple of burglars broke in! One got away, but the other is tied up in Dudley's room."
Vernon glared at him, as though he would be able to tell whether Harry was lying from a look. After a few tense moments, Vernon brushed roughly past him and stomped up the stairs. Harry followed quickly. Vernon slammed the door to Dudley's room upen and stopped so short Harry almost walked into him. The man looked up at him not looking very surprised.
"So you're the boy's uncle?" He asked.
Vernon growled first at the man, then at Harry. "You told him about me?"
"Just that you are my uncle." Harry replied.
Vernon jerked his head toward the door then walked out, Harry following. As soon as they were out of the man's hearing, Vernon turned to Harry.
"What did you think you were doing?" He asked angrily.
Harry blinked, "What do you mean? It's not like I let them in!"
Vernon growled, "Why couldn't you use your ma- er. abnormality to stop the other one?"
"I'm not allowed to. remember?"
"Has that ever stopped you before? You can attack family members, terrify your cousin, yet you can not even use. IT to stop people who are trying to rob us of everything we own?!" Vernon's voice had risen in volume until he was practically yelling in Harry's face.
Harry took a step back, resisting the urge to fan the air between them. "Um well, I couldn't get to my wand so-" He was cut off by Vernon flushing red and yelling: "DO NOT SPEAK OF THAT IN MY HOUSE!"
Harry nodded, not bothering to mention that he had brought it up, and was slightly distracted by Petunia entering the room, asking what Harry was doing now.
Vernon turned and began explaining what had happened. Harry, taking the opportunity, slipped out of the room and up to his bedroom. Downstairs, he heard Petunia's shriek of horror and Vernon's loud announcement that he was going to call the police.
The next couple of hours were filled with a lot of police sirens, Vernon's outraged yelling, Dudley's complaining, and Harry sitting up in his room doing nothing but puzzling over the previous night's dream, which had been forgotten in the days events. As soon as everything had calmed down, Vernon called for Harry to come down into the kitchen. He was welcomed into the kitchen with two identical glares.
"Sit."
Harry sat.
The room was filled with a tense silence as the two continued to glare at him.
Harry fidgeted, then finally spoke.
"So. What exactly did you want to talk to me about?" He questioned.
Vernon's eyes narrowed, but he replied, "We don't want you staying at home by yourself anymore, don't think it's safe. For the house mind! So you will be going with your Aunt and Cousin to karate until you go off to-" He glanced around, "St. Brutes's."
Harry tried to hide a grin as he said ok, but Vernon caught on.
"Now don't think you'll get to do anything! I won't be paying for you to take lessons, too! You will sit and do nothing, and if you mess anything up, I will personally." He trailed off, unable to think of a proper threat.
Harry nodded, "Alright then." He paused, "Is that all?"
After a small pause Petunia got up and went into the living room and Vernon just turned back to his newspaper.
Harry took this as a dismissal and went back up to his room.
Fortunately in the day's excitement, Vernon had forgotten to assign Harry extra work as well as failing to notice that Harry hadn't done his daily chores. In this respect, Harry spent the rest of the day finishing reading his new quidditch book and writing letters to Ron and Hermione telling of the day's happenings.
It was evening before he knew it. Glancing up from his book and at the clock, he was surprised to see that it shone 10:12, which meant he had been reading for about 3 hours straight. He sighed, if he was to get up early to go to karate with Dudley, he had better get some sleep. He shut the book, lay back in his bed, and flicked off the lamp. He quickly fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
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Harry woke up to Vernon's pounding on his door.
"You ungrateful wretch! You slept in again! Now get down here and make my breakfast!" A few seconds later Harry could hear Vernon stomping loudly down the stairs.
Harry glanced at the clock, an action he seemed to be performing a lot lately, which showed 7:00. Harry groaned and rolled out of bed, landing with a thud on the ground. Five minutes later, finally able to wake up, Harry walked heavily down the stairs.
"What do you want today?" He asked tiredly as he walked into the kitchen.
"Bacon and eggs. And hurry it up, you leave in 15 minutes." Vernon replied without looking up from his morning paper.
Harry sighed and got out the ingredients. Within 10 minutes the eggs were done and Harry quickly started on the bacon. Petunia came down with Dudley and both started eating. As soon as Harry finished the bacon however, Petunia had gotten ready and Harry was forced to go without any breakfast at all.
Before they left, Vernon pulled Harry off to the side.
"I don't want to hear about any funny business, if you screw up Dudley's chance to be in this class, I will personally see your life become living hell!"
And that would change what? Harry thought sarcastically while nodding to Vernon.
Twenty minutes later Harry walked into a small whitewashed building behind Petunia, who was ushering Dudley in front of her. A tall lanky man met them in the front entrance.
"Ah, Mrs. Dursley!" He looked at Petunia, then at Dudley, smiling, "And young Mr. Dursley. Nice to see you again!" Although he said all this smiling, Harry the notion that he was grimacing on the inside. Harry already liked him. He wondered what had happened on the first day. However, his thoughts were interrupted when the man turned his gaze on Harry.
"Who is this? A new student?" He asked Petunia.
"Oh no! I wasn't able to leave him at home, so if you could find some. secluded room for him, I'm sure he'll stay quiet and out of the way." She said pointedly, staring straight at Harry.
The man looked surprised, "Well, I'm sure he'll be able to sit in on the session," Noticing Petunia's look, he quickly added, "Don't worry now, he won't be in the way and you don't have to pay anything! I can always have some extra help! Now I think we have everything sorted out, and I'm sure you must have so much important things to do so I can take it from here." He smiled charmingly at her, then motioned Harry and Dudley toward a large room.
The man soon entered the room behind them. He smiled at the two of them.
"Now, as you know Dudley, my name is Paul Psidong, but please just call me Paul, I can't stand being called Master Psidong. I am the martial arts teacher here, the main course is karate, then we go on to more advanced forms of martial arts. But for now all you need to know is karate." He glanced at Harry, "I didn't catch your name by the way."
"Oh, I'm Harry." He answered.
Paul clapped his hands together, "Ok Harry, I'm sure the other students are waiting to start so if you'll please enter the room." He gestured towards a door in the far wall. Dudley stomped over to it, a nasty look on his face, and Harry followed, Paul close behind him. The room they entered was larger than the first and had a thick blue mat covering the floor. About 15 students were already in the room. Most scattered around in little groups talking animatedly. Paul clapped sharply twice and the room fell silent as everyone glanced toward the door.
Paul smiled, "Everyone, I'm terribly sorry for being late, I was delayed a bit." He motioned for Dudley to go join his classmates, he then put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "This is Harry, he will be sitting in on our sessions for the rest of the month. Now I've got to go do something quick but it won't take more than ten minutes, so please make Harry will feel welcome and I will be back shortly." He smiled. "And feel free to practice what I taught you yesterday."
He took one quick glance around the room, then walked out the door. Harry noticed that most of the students were merely looking at him, so he nodded to them. They may not be staring at him because of his scar, but he was used to people staring at him all the same. Dudley sauntered over to him (an odd looking feat that made it look like he was waddling) and sneered, reminding Harry horribly like Draco Malfoy.
"Well, Harry it looks like I have the advantage here, I already know a days worth of things and you know nothing!"
Harry looked at him like he was stupid, then whispered, "Actually, I think I have the advantage. You see, last year I learned some wandless ma- well, you-know-what," He lied with a smile, "Vernon and Petunia aren't here to save you."
Dudley became pale, "You wouldn't! Not with so many people around!" He paused, "Right?"
Harry grinned, liking how this was going, "Oh that's not a problem, one of those spells was a memory charm, they wouldn't remember a thing and would think you were a blubbering fool. Anyway, I don't think I would need to," He gave Dudley a disgusted look, "I just can't imagine you doing a high- kick."
Harry heard a snicker from behind him. He whirled around. There stood another boy with red hair and freckles that reminded him of Ron. His eyes, however, were a brilliant blue that sparkled with laughter.
"I couldn't help overhearing that last part, and I must agree with you." The boy said, glancing at Dudley.
Harry almost started panicking, not sure if the boy had heard any mention of charms or spells. He then realized that if the boy heard anything, he would probably think that he had heard Harry wrong and would embarrass himself by mentioning magic.
Harry smiled as Dudley, outmatched, walked (or should I say waddled) across the room to a small group people in the far corner who greeted him, throwing sullen glares over towards Harry.
Harry then turned to the boy, who stuck out his hand.
"I'm Danny Walker."
Harry took the hand, introducing himself, "Harry Potter."
Danny grinned, "C'mon, you can meet some of my friends." He motioned Harry over to a corner where a group of four, all about his age, were watching them. Danny led Harry over to them.
As Danny introduced him, Harry looked around the group of 2 girls and 3 boys (including Danny). As Danny said his full name, he noticed a black girl frown with a confused, thoughtful look on her face. Harry then shifted his attention back to Danny who started introducing the group.
"This is Rhea La Paz," He pointed to the other girl, who had pale blond hair, fair skin and deep brown eyes. She greeted him with a light French accent as Harry shook her hand. Danny then pointed to a boy with sandy brown hair and eyes to match. "That's Simon Calhoun, call him a hound and prepare to suffer the consequences." Although he said it seriously, the effect was ruined by a grin. Simon reached forward and shook his hand.
"Pleased to meet you." He smiled, which Harry returned.
The next person to be presented was a boy with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. "I'm Ryan Shultz." He said, introducing himself before Danny got a chance to. Harry smiled and shook his hand. He was a little unused to all this, in his last muggle school, everyone who had become this nice towards him was chased off by Dudley's gang, and in the magical world, everyone knew him so introductions were not needed.
The last person in the small group was the black girl who had looked confused at his name; she had black hair that rivaled Harry's in darkness and deep, dark brown eyes. "This is Alyssa Thomas." Danny told him.
Harry looked at Danny sharply, then at Alyssa. "Thomas?" he asked suspiciously.
Alyssa answered, "Yes that's my name. Why do you ask?" It was her turn to sound suspicious.
Harry studied her for a minute, then, against his better judgement, asked the next question tentatively, "Do you happen to be related to a Dean Thomas?"
Alyssa looked surprised, "Ah- yes, he's my twin brother. How do you know him?"
Harry hesitated before answering, if he told them, at least Alyssa would know that he was a wizard, but he answered all the same, "I go to the same school as him, he's actually in the same year- well grade as me."
Alyssa looked completely astonished, then a look of total understanding overcame her, "Oh!" she paused, "Oh yeah, now I know why your name sounded familiar! He did mention you a couple of times."
Harry was about to answer when Simon interrupted.
"Yeah, this is all nice and peachy, but Paul's back."
Sure enough, at that moment, two sharp claps came from the doorway and everyone looked up again. "Alright, now that you've gotten all the talking out of your system, it's time to get down to business." He glanced over at Harry, "Harry, if you want to join us feel free to, but for now just sit off to the side as we get started all right?" Harry complied as Paul resumed talking to the rest of the class, "Please take off your shoes before stepping onto the mat." Everyone did, then waited for more instructions.
(A/N author has sudden image of Dudley taking off his shoes. *faints*)
"Now, we will start with a simple block. This is one of the ways to block the punch I taught you yesterday. The first thing you need to focus on is your stance, a block will never work if, as soon as the opponent makes contact, you fall over."
The lesson continued in that manner for about an hour with Harry, as well as the other students listening intently, until Harry finally decided to join them. When the students were practicing, Harry approached Paul.
"Er- Mr.- I mean Paul, would it be okay if I joined?" He asked tentatively.
Paul smiled, "I was wondering how long it would take for you to ask that." He called across the room then.
"Simon, come over here!"
Simon looked up from where he was pretending to do a move where he was standing on one leg, both hands in praying mantis form above his head. He looked surprised and genuinely guilty. He quickly dashed across the matted room.
"I'm sorry for goofing off!" He blurted out, breathless.
Paul chuckled, "Nonsense, I merely want you to show Harry here what you have learned so far."
Simon looked excited and grinned. Putting his hands together, looking like he was about to pray, but bowed instead towards Paul. "As you wish Mesa Psidong." He grinned, then grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him over to where Danny and Ryan were practicing the punch block move with Danny on the defensive.
Danny turned with a grin towards Harry, allowing Ryan to punch him in the shoulder, though not very hard. After a short glare at Ryan, he spoke to Harry.
"So you're an official Falcon now?"
Harry looked extremely confused, "Umm, what do you mean, Falcon?"
"He didn't tell you? Well, the first day, Paul sorted us into groups; it was easy since there were exactly 15 of us. 3 groups of 5. There's us, we're the Falcons. The group over there," He pointed to one of the far corner, "is the Eagles, and the group Dudley is in is the Hawks-" Danny was then interrupted as Simon asked Harry a question.
"Are you really related to Dursley?"
By the way the others looked at him, Harry could tell this had been speculated on several times since he arrived this morning with Dudley.
Harry nodded, "Unfortunately. I'm his cousin."
Rhea looked over at Dudley, then back at Harry and spoke in her French accent, "You look nothing like him." The other nodded in agreement. Rhea smiled shyly, "You are much cuter." This time only Alyssa agreed with her, the other boys looked around the room.
Harry was surprised and blushed furiously, but was saved from further embarrassment when Paul came over.
"Come on now, start practicing, we'll get Harry initiated later." He smiled at them all, then went over to the eagles to stop a verbal fight of wits between a small boy and girl who looked ready to strangle each other.
The rest of the day went by very quickly, too quickly for Harry. He was soon waving goodbye to Danny, Simon, Ryan, Alyssa, and Rhea as they each left in their respected vehicles. On the way home, Dudley began to complain about Harry's new friends and harry participating in class, but when Harry glared at him and waved an imaginary wand in his direction, Dudley fell silent.
"What was that Duddy-kinns?" Petunia said in a sugary voice.
"Uh- I was just saying how much I loved karate," Dudley mumbled.
"Oh! That's wonderful! I'll make sure you get a place in next year's class!" At this Dudley sent a look of pure contempt at Harry.
When they got home, Vernon immediately put Harry to work.
"Slacker," He mumbled while writing a list about a foot long of things for Harry to do. "Didn't do a thing yesterday."
That night Harry exhaustedly climbed into bed. He glanced at his nightstand, where the Luna Opacus was sitting placidly. It still had the red core and the orange tinged ring around that, but when Harry looked closer, he could see the fog was now a faded sky blue. Harry smiled. It looked like he now had true friends in the muggle world as well as in the magical world. Harry drifted off to sleep that night with a smile on his face.
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If a passing observer had looked upon Privet Drive at midnight that night, he would have seen an odd sight indeed of a large black dog, staring straight up at a window of #4 Privet Drive where a light had just been flicked off. Fortunately there was no passerby, the street was as deserted as a cemetery.
After about an hour, sure that no one was up, the dog stood up and looked around. There was no one on the street. With a small nod, the dog disappeared with a pop and in it's place stood a tall, skinny man in worn black robes. With a wave of his wand, a large glowing half-orb appeared with 4 Privet Drive smack in the middle.
The man walked around the perimeter of the base of the circle, every few feet waving his wand and muttering a few well-chosen words, watching as the shield strengthened. Once he had finished the circuit, he walked back to the street in front of that one window and stared up at it. He grinned and gave a mock salute.
"'Till we meet again." And at that, there was a small pop and a large black dog appeared where the man had been standing. The dog gave a short bark, then loped off down the street.
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(A/N: Ok, something I forgot to say in the top a/n is that this chapter is dedicated to my algebra teacher, Mr. Berger. The Carpenter's Triangle is also dedicated to him. He was a little miffed about there not being a plane or space shape in the story when I told him what I was typing in class (god I love my alphasmart) and I told him I would put in a plane shape somewhere, then when I was stuck on that one part I just put it in (. I would like to thank all of my readers and especially to my best friend and beta reader Someone2! Thanks to all those who did review my last chapter even though it took so long to upload. I think I'll do review thanks now:
Snowlily- Thanks for the enthusiastic reviews! And yes I do accept attachments on my emails, just get those pics to me ok? ;) Especially the dragon ones!
Raven of Death- lol, thanks a lot for the review, I'm glad you like Someone2's stories too, they are mostly hers, I post most of mine under Phalanx, but thanks for the input (p.s. I totally love your name!)
Someone2- You were disappointed? I am hurt! Lol, anyway, I hope you still like this story even though you have already read it. *hint hint* lol, I'm just kidding, you had better get working on your stories though! Especially Concealed!
Summersun- Thanks for the review, and I do plan to keep going, as long as I continue getting reviews!
Again, I want to thank all who read my story and reviewed my story. I sincerely hope you like this chapter, and that you didn't think it was too boring. I tried to make it longer! This chapter alone is over 6,000 words. that's definitely the longest chapter I've had yet. ~Phalanx)
Chapter 4- Karate
(A/N: Hey, this is the 4th chapter, finally! I don't have too much to say except that I tried to make it a little longer than the last ones and I hope you enjoy it! ~Phalanx Dragon)
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Harry was on the grounds of an old mansion. He at first thought he was at the old Riddle Mansion, where Voldemort had hidden out at the beginning of last year. When he looked around, however, it proved stranger still. Though the walls of the mansion were covered in ivy, and the weeds had overgrown the garden, the rest of the mansion was still in perfect state, nevertheless abandoned. This was definitely not the Riddle mansion. Harry frowned and stepped in the direction of the house, ignoring a sharp pain in his scar each time he got closer.
By the time he was a few feet away from the window, the pain was almost unbearable, still Harry forced himself onward. When he reached the window, he staggered with the pain in his head. He reached out and grabbed hold of the windowsill to keep his balance. As soon as his hand touched the wood of the old mansion, the pain in his scar stopped and warmth flowed through him. Harry frowned; glancing up the side of the ivy covered wall. Seeing nothing unusual, he then glanced in the window, hardly noticing the blooming lily in a flowerpot on the edge.
Inside the window, he could see a dark figure walking around. It fingered a scorched scrap of parchment, the wording on it illegible. Harry wasn't looking at the parchment, however, for the hand now visible was a bone white spider-like hand. Harry recognized that hand from the cemetery at the end of his fourth year, when the Triwizard cup had transported Cedric and him there. The hand belonged to the evil wizard known as Lord Voldemort. Harry felt something twinge in his scar, not pain, but more like the tingling feeling of fear. He raised his hand from the windowsill to feel his scar, but as soon as he lost contact with the sill, the pain returned, sharper than ever. He gasped, then, without hesitation, dropped to the ground, hoping Voldemort had not heard him.
Harry heard the crumpling of parchment, then light footsteps that stopped directly behind and above him. He looked up, expecting to be looking directly at the tip of a want in the hand of Voldemort. Instead, he saw only the tips of the bone-white fingers as Voldemort, clutching the sill, looked out the window, luckily not glancing down. Maybe he had been hoping to meet someone, or at least see something, in any case, he swiped the flowerpot out of the window, emitting a low yell frustration, showering Harry with soil. Then the hand disappeared and Harry heard the light footsteps walking away from the window.
Harry let out his breath in a sigh, just now realizing he had been holding it. He looked at the flower, which had fallen out of the pot and was lying on the ground next to him. As he watched, the lily's roots dug into the soil where it lay, pulling the flower upright.
It's probably been enchanted. Harry thought with a small smile. He stood up, keeping to the side of the window where he did not risk being seen, and looked around. Not knowing how long he would be here, he decided to explore the grounds. He walked around the wall. As soon as he turned the corner, he stopped short. A large emerald lawn, seeming to be freshly mowed stretched before him. That however, was not the reason he stopped. Standing directly before him was a man in a long flowing black cloak.
"Who are you?" Harry asked the man, surprised his voice was so steady.
The man behind the cloak chuckled and said in a low voice, "You know my Harry. Think, we just met not too long ago."
Harry paused, the asked eagerly, "Sirius?" After all, he had only met his godfather a year and 2 months ago, not to mention meeting him in the middle of his last year.
Again, the man laughed, he pulled back his cloak to show Sirius with an odd expression on his face. Sirius grinned, for some reason looking very malicious. "Wrong, Harry."
Harry looked puzzled, "what do you mean, wrong?"
Sirius shook his head, "Look past petty disguises, look at me as though you would a stranger, tell me what you see."
Harry frowned, getting suspicious. He squinted at Sirius, then sighed, "I don't see anything differ-" He cut his sentence short, his eyes widening in horror. Before him, he watched Sirius's face pale, his eyes narrow and turn red, his nose shrink to slits, and his mouth became lip-less.
"Now what do you see?" Voldemort said in his high-pitched voice.
Harry staggered backwards, his hand leaving the wall of the house, making his scar explode with pain. Voldemort's cruel laughter overwhelmed him as he fell into darkness.
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Harry sat up with a small yelp, eyes wide with horror of the nightmare, his scar throbbing with pain. He instinctively wanted to get up and check to see if the burning in his scar was visible, he knew however that it would not be, so he fell back to the pillow with a sigh. In the room down he hall, Vernon gave a restless growl and harry could hear the bed creak as he shifted. Harry closed his eyes, but soon opened them again for fear of falling back o sleep, not wanting to risk having another nightmare. By now the pain in his scar had ebbed away so he glanced over at the clock. He realized that it wasn't that long from dawn, so he decided to wait it out.
He still had his potions essay to do. He reached down under his bed and lifted the loose floorboard to get out his Potions book, a flashlight, a large piece of parchment, a bottle of navy blue ink, and a large eagle feather quill.
An hour and a half later, Harry paused to stretch his hand, freeing it from writer's cramp. He glanced out the window; ten minutes ago he had put his flashlight away, it being light enough to write without it. He looked down at his essay, it was several inches short and he had run out of things to say about 5 inches ago. After all, it is very hard to work on an essay for your lease favorite subject after having a terrifying nightmare and waking up to a curse scar throbbing with pain.
He sighed and glanced at the clock, it shone 6:45. Around now Vernon and Petunia usually went downstairs for breakfast, which Harry had incidentally forgotten to make. Sure enough, a couple minutes later he heard a loud grumbling and Petunia's shrill voice, then heavy footsteps down the stairs.
Harry quickly twisted on the top of his inkbottle and stashed it and the other materials back under the loose floorboard. He swung out of bed and got dressed. As soon as he finished, Vernon yelled up at him.
"You get down here boy and make my breakfast!"
Harry winced, but realized that the Dursleys would actually give him a reason to stop thinking about the nightmare, which still confused him, so he opened the door to his room and walked downstairs. He went into the kitchen and went straight to the refrigerator, but his uncle stopped him with a gruff voice.
"Pancakes today, boy!"
"Yes, sir." Harry said almost mockingly, too tired to disagree.
Harry quickly got out the pancake mix and had the pancakes done in record time. Again Dudley came down to eat as soon as the smell of food wafted up to his room. He had started thundering back up the stairs when Petunia stopped him.
"Now honey, not yet. Your father and I have a surprise for you." She explained.
Dudley turned around, eyeing her suspiciously, "Presents?"
"No, something better! We have signed you up for this summer's Martial Arts training! It's only for this month, but you can be in it next summer too! Now isn't that exciting?"
Harry almost burned himself on the stove when he doubled up with laughter at the look on Dudley's face.
"Do I have to?" Dudley whined.
Vernon looked up and, for the first time Harry could remember, scolded Dudley. "Now look here, your mother worked very hard to get you into that class, and you are going to be in it if I have to drag you there! Your mother will go with you the first day to make sure you are treated right, but you will be in that class!"
Harry had to turn away to stifle a small snicker, unfortunately, he didn't keep it quiet enough. Vernon turned toward him, face flushed red, and bellowed.
"YOU GET UPSTAIRS BOY!"
Harry stepped back in surprise at the outburst and quickly dashed up the stairs to his room. Vernon's voice roared after him, "And don't come down until we tell you to!"
In his room, Harry frowned, if Vernon was at work and Petunia and Dudley were at the martial arts class, he would be at home by himself. He grinned; finally he would have some time to relax! He strode across the room, smiling at Hedwig who hooted at him from her cage, and stood by the window, waiting for the Dursleys to leave. Vernon left first and a few minutes later, Petunia and a whining Dudley got into the family car and drove away.
Freedom at last! Harry thought, he walked over to his bed and bent down to the loose floorboard. Pulling it up, he grabbed his new book: Quidditch Seekers and their secret moves. This kept him occupied for several hours until a large crash from downstairs interrupted him. His head snapped up in surprise and he quietly shut the book. There was whispering from down the stairs and he walked silently across his room to the door to hear better.
"-gotta get out of here, if we keep any longer the neighbors will hear us!" a deep voice said in a hushed tone.
"I am not leaving here with nothing!" A second voice growled, slightly louder than the first.
"Frankie, keep it down," There was a tense pause, "I, for one, don't want to get caught."
Harry was sure that the owners of the voices were thieves or burglars. Unfortunately, he had no clue as to what to do about it. He looked around the room for any sort of weapon. The closest thing he found was a Carpenter's Triangle (used to draw right angles) that had been left there since the summer before his second year when Vernon had a carpenter fix bars on his window. He grabbed the metal triangle and crept toward the door, he pressed his ear on the door and heard footsteps in the general direction of the master bedroom.
Harry eased open his door and walked silently down the hall. Luckily, Harry had walked down the hall enough to know where the creaky boards were, the intruders, however, didn't. Behind him in the hall around the corner, he heard the floor creak. Harry leapt into the nearest bedroom, which happened to be Dudley's.
"Yo, Frankie!" The man in the master bedroom, who Harry recognized as the first voice, yelled. "These people got nothin'!"
The man who made the floor creak, called out in reply, so quietly that Harry couldn't tell what he said. Harry saw as Frankie passed by Dudley's room, then reappeared a second later. He walked in, calling to the other man.
"I found another room here!"
Uh-oh! Harry thought. If they combed the room, they would definitely find him. He looked around the room, still clutching the metal triangle in his hand. He wondered if they had any weapons, if they did, he would be dead before he could reach them to use the triangle, and even if he could get back to his room, he didn't dare use his wand to stop them. He couldn't get in any more trouble with the Ministry of Magic, plus all of the business with erasing their memory when the muggle police would definitely want to question them.
Realizing he should take out this one before the other came ('first voice' was still scrounging around in the master bedroom) so, thinking quickly, Harry stood up, took aim and hurled the triangle at the man. He let out a small yell before falling to the floor in a heap. The other man ran in, took one look at Frankie and, not even looking to see what caused Frankie's pain, dashed out of the room, muttering about how he knew it was a bad idea.
So much for partner loyalty. Harry thought as he walked across the room and knelt by Frankie who, luckily, was still breathing. From outside, Harry heard a loud engine start up and roar down the street, away from the house. It was so loud that Harry had to wonder how it had approached the house without his hearing it. He looked around, not knowing what to do now, he supposed he would have to wait until the Dursleys came home, anyway, Petunia would love the chance to get on the news.
Harry ran down to the living room, looking for rope to tie up the man with. In the end, he had to go all the way out to the garage to find some. When he got back, the man was stirring restlessly on the floor, still unconscious. Harry quickly bound the rope around his ankles and wrists.
Soon after, the man woke up, grumbling about a splitting headache, which Harry didn't doubt, the Triangle had hit him squarely behind his temple and had only now stopped bleeding. The man looked up at Harry and frowned.
"Where am I?" he asked, confused, "And who the hell are you?"
Harry glared at him, "You don't need to know my name and this is the house you and your loyal partner broke into." He said the word loyal with a voice dripping with sarcasm.
The man looked surprised, he glanced around the room, "So I'm busted and John just left me here?" He collapsed against the ropes that bound him.
"That pretty much sums it up." Harry replied.
"So. What are you going to do to me?" He asked, obviously nervous.
Harry looked at him, "I'm going to wait until my Uncle gets home, then you're probably going to court."
The man looked extremely grim, he glanced at Harry, "You know, before this, I always looked at kids your age as just that, kids, always getting in the way, never any good. Now I have just been caught by one. How pathetic is that?"
Harry smile and his only reply was, "The Irony Gods strike again!" The two then sat in silence for a long time before Harry heard a slamming from downstairs.
"Stay there," he told the man. As he left he heard the man mutter, "Like I have a choice."
Harry almost ran down the stairs, halfway down, he heard a roar of rage. He must have found the thing they broke.
As soon as he stepped down off the last stair he knew he was right, Vernon was standing in front of an antique vase that was shattered on the floor. Vernon looked up at him, eyes wild.
"Did you do this?" He pointed at the vase.
Harry shook his head, quickly explaining, "A couple of burglars broke in! One got away, but the other is tied up in Dudley's room."
Vernon glared at him, as though he would be able to tell whether Harry was lying from a look. After a few tense moments, Vernon brushed roughly past him and stomped up the stairs. Harry followed quickly. Vernon slammed the door to Dudley's room upen and stopped so short Harry almost walked into him. The man looked up at him not looking very surprised.
"So you're the boy's uncle?" He asked.
Vernon growled first at the man, then at Harry. "You told him about me?"
"Just that you are my uncle." Harry replied.
Vernon jerked his head toward the door then walked out, Harry following. As soon as they were out of the man's hearing, Vernon turned to Harry.
"What did you think you were doing?" He asked angrily.
Harry blinked, "What do you mean? It's not like I let them in!"
Vernon growled, "Why couldn't you use your ma- er. abnormality to stop the other one?"
"I'm not allowed to. remember?"
"Has that ever stopped you before? You can attack family members, terrify your cousin, yet you can not even use. IT to stop people who are trying to rob us of everything we own?!" Vernon's voice had risen in volume until he was practically yelling in Harry's face.
Harry took a step back, resisting the urge to fan the air between them. "Um well, I couldn't get to my wand so-" He was cut off by Vernon flushing red and yelling: "DO NOT SPEAK OF THAT IN MY HOUSE!"
Harry nodded, not bothering to mention that he had brought it up, and was slightly distracted by Petunia entering the room, asking what Harry was doing now.
Vernon turned and began explaining what had happened. Harry, taking the opportunity, slipped out of the room and up to his bedroom. Downstairs, he heard Petunia's shriek of horror and Vernon's loud announcement that he was going to call the police.
The next couple of hours were filled with a lot of police sirens, Vernon's outraged yelling, Dudley's complaining, and Harry sitting up in his room doing nothing but puzzling over the previous night's dream, which had been forgotten in the days events. As soon as everything had calmed down, Vernon called for Harry to come down into the kitchen. He was welcomed into the kitchen with two identical glares.
"Sit."
Harry sat.
The room was filled with a tense silence as the two continued to glare at him.
Harry fidgeted, then finally spoke.
"So. What exactly did you want to talk to me about?" He questioned.
Vernon's eyes narrowed, but he replied, "We don't want you staying at home by yourself anymore, don't think it's safe. For the house mind! So you will be going with your Aunt and Cousin to karate until you go off to-" He glanced around, "St. Brutes's."
Harry tried to hide a grin as he said ok, but Vernon caught on.
"Now don't think you'll get to do anything! I won't be paying for you to take lessons, too! You will sit and do nothing, and if you mess anything up, I will personally." He trailed off, unable to think of a proper threat.
Harry nodded, "Alright then." He paused, "Is that all?"
After a small pause Petunia got up and went into the living room and Vernon just turned back to his newspaper.
Harry took this as a dismissal and went back up to his room.
Fortunately in the day's excitement, Vernon had forgotten to assign Harry extra work as well as failing to notice that Harry hadn't done his daily chores. In this respect, Harry spent the rest of the day finishing reading his new quidditch book and writing letters to Ron and Hermione telling of the day's happenings.
It was evening before he knew it. Glancing up from his book and at the clock, he was surprised to see that it shone 10:12, which meant he had been reading for about 3 hours straight. He sighed, if he was to get up early to go to karate with Dudley, he had better get some sleep. He shut the book, lay back in his bed, and flicked off the lamp. He quickly fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
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Harry woke up to Vernon's pounding on his door.
"You ungrateful wretch! You slept in again! Now get down here and make my breakfast!" A few seconds later Harry could hear Vernon stomping loudly down the stairs.
Harry glanced at the clock, an action he seemed to be performing a lot lately, which showed 7:00. Harry groaned and rolled out of bed, landing with a thud on the ground. Five minutes later, finally able to wake up, Harry walked heavily down the stairs.
"What do you want today?" He asked tiredly as he walked into the kitchen.
"Bacon and eggs. And hurry it up, you leave in 15 minutes." Vernon replied without looking up from his morning paper.
Harry sighed and got out the ingredients. Within 10 minutes the eggs were done and Harry quickly started on the bacon. Petunia came down with Dudley and both started eating. As soon as Harry finished the bacon however, Petunia had gotten ready and Harry was forced to go without any breakfast at all.
Before they left, Vernon pulled Harry off to the side.
"I don't want to hear about any funny business, if you screw up Dudley's chance to be in this class, I will personally see your life become living hell!"
And that would change what? Harry thought sarcastically while nodding to Vernon.
Twenty minutes later Harry walked into a small whitewashed building behind Petunia, who was ushering Dudley in front of her. A tall lanky man met them in the front entrance.
"Ah, Mrs. Dursley!" He looked at Petunia, then at Dudley, smiling, "And young Mr. Dursley. Nice to see you again!" Although he said all this smiling, Harry the notion that he was grimacing on the inside. Harry already liked him. He wondered what had happened on the first day. However, his thoughts were interrupted when the man turned his gaze on Harry.
"Who is this? A new student?" He asked Petunia.
"Oh no! I wasn't able to leave him at home, so if you could find some. secluded room for him, I'm sure he'll stay quiet and out of the way." She said pointedly, staring straight at Harry.
The man looked surprised, "Well, I'm sure he'll be able to sit in on the session," Noticing Petunia's look, he quickly added, "Don't worry now, he won't be in the way and you don't have to pay anything! I can always have some extra help! Now I think we have everything sorted out, and I'm sure you must have so much important things to do so I can take it from here." He smiled charmingly at her, then motioned Harry and Dudley toward a large room.
The man soon entered the room behind them. He smiled at the two of them.
"Now, as you know Dudley, my name is Paul Psidong, but please just call me Paul, I can't stand being called Master Psidong. I am the martial arts teacher here, the main course is karate, then we go on to more advanced forms of martial arts. But for now all you need to know is karate." He glanced at Harry, "I didn't catch your name by the way."
"Oh, I'm Harry." He answered.
Paul clapped his hands together, "Ok Harry, I'm sure the other students are waiting to start so if you'll please enter the room." He gestured towards a door in the far wall. Dudley stomped over to it, a nasty look on his face, and Harry followed, Paul close behind him. The room they entered was larger than the first and had a thick blue mat covering the floor. About 15 students were already in the room. Most scattered around in little groups talking animatedly. Paul clapped sharply twice and the room fell silent as everyone glanced toward the door.
Paul smiled, "Everyone, I'm terribly sorry for being late, I was delayed a bit." He motioned for Dudley to go join his classmates, he then put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "This is Harry, he will be sitting in on our sessions for the rest of the month. Now I've got to go do something quick but it won't take more than ten minutes, so please make Harry will feel welcome and I will be back shortly." He smiled. "And feel free to practice what I taught you yesterday."
He took one quick glance around the room, then walked out the door. Harry noticed that most of the students were merely looking at him, so he nodded to them. They may not be staring at him because of his scar, but he was used to people staring at him all the same. Dudley sauntered over to him (an odd looking feat that made it look like he was waddling) and sneered, reminding Harry horribly like Draco Malfoy.
"Well, Harry it looks like I have the advantage here, I already know a days worth of things and you know nothing!"
Harry looked at him like he was stupid, then whispered, "Actually, I think I have the advantage. You see, last year I learned some wandless ma- well, you-know-what," He lied with a smile, "Vernon and Petunia aren't here to save you."
Dudley became pale, "You wouldn't! Not with so many people around!" He paused, "Right?"
Harry grinned, liking how this was going, "Oh that's not a problem, one of those spells was a memory charm, they wouldn't remember a thing and would think you were a blubbering fool. Anyway, I don't think I would need to," He gave Dudley a disgusted look, "I just can't imagine you doing a high- kick."
Harry heard a snicker from behind him. He whirled around. There stood another boy with red hair and freckles that reminded him of Ron. His eyes, however, were a brilliant blue that sparkled with laughter.
"I couldn't help overhearing that last part, and I must agree with you." The boy said, glancing at Dudley.
Harry almost started panicking, not sure if the boy had heard any mention of charms or spells. He then realized that if the boy heard anything, he would probably think that he had heard Harry wrong and would embarrass himself by mentioning magic.
Harry smiled as Dudley, outmatched, walked (or should I say waddled) across the room to a small group people in the far corner who greeted him, throwing sullen glares over towards Harry.
Harry then turned to the boy, who stuck out his hand.
"I'm Danny Walker."
Harry took the hand, introducing himself, "Harry Potter."
Danny grinned, "C'mon, you can meet some of my friends." He motioned Harry over to a corner where a group of four, all about his age, were watching them. Danny led Harry over to them.
As Danny introduced him, Harry looked around the group of 2 girls and 3 boys (including Danny). As Danny said his full name, he noticed a black girl frown with a confused, thoughtful look on her face. Harry then shifted his attention back to Danny who started introducing the group.
"This is Rhea La Paz," He pointed to the other girl, who had pale blond hair, fair skin and deep brown eyes. She greeted him with a light French accent as Harry shook her hand. Danny then pointed to a boy with sandy brown hair and eyes to match. "That's Simon Calhoun, call him a hound and prepare to suffer the consequences." Although he said it seriously, the effect was ruined by a grin. Simon reached forward and shook his hand.
"Pleased to meet you." He smiled, which Harry returned.
The next person to be presented was a boy with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. "I'm Ryan Shultz." He said, introducing himself before Danny got a chance to. Harry smiled and shook his hand. He was a little unused to all this, in his last muggle school, everyone who had become this nice towards him was chased off by Dudley's gang, and in the magical world, everyone knew him so introductions were not needed.
The last person in the small group was the black girl who had looked confused at his name; she had black hair that rivaled Harry's in darkness and deep, dark brown eyes. "This is Alyssa Thomas." Danny told him.
Harry looked at Danny sharply, then at Alyssa. "Thomas?" he asked suspiciously.
Alyssa answered, "Yes that's my name. Why do you ask?" It was her turn to sound suspicious.
Harry studied her for a minute, then, against his better judgement, asked the next question tentatively, "Do you happen to be related to a Dean Thomas?"
Alyssa looked surprised, "Ah- yes, he's my twin brother. How do you know him?"
Harry hesitated before answering, if he told them, at least Alyssa would know that he was a wizard, but he answered all the same, "I go to the same school as him, he's actually in the same year- well grade as me."
Alyssa looked completely astonished, then a look of total understanding overcame her, "Oh!" she paused, "Oh yeah, now I know why your name sounded familiar! He did mention you a couple of times."
Harry was about to answer when Simon interrupted.
"Yeah, this is all nice and peachy, but Paul's back."
Sure enough, at that moment, two sharp claps came from the doorway and everyone looked up again. "Alright, now that you've gotten all the talking out of your system, it's time to get down to business." He glanced over at Harry, "Harry, if you want to join us feel free to, but for now just sit off to the side as we get started all right?" Harry complied as Paul resumed talking to the rest of the class, "Please take off your shoes before stepping onto the mat." Everyone did, then waited for more instructions.
(A/N author has sudden image of Dudley taking off his shoes. *faints*)
"Now, we will start with a simple block. This is one of the ways to block the punch I taught you yesterday. The first thing you need to focus on is your stance, a block will never work if, as soon as the opponent makes contact, you fall over."
The lesson continued in that manner for about an hour with Harry, as well as the other students listening intently, until Harry finally decided to join them. When the students were practicing, Harry approached Paul.
"Er- Mr.- I mean Paul, would it be okay if I joined?" He asked tentatively.
Paul smiled, "I was wondering how long it would take for you to ask that." He called across the room then.
"Simon, come over here!"
Simon looked up from where he was pretending to do a move where he was standing on one leg, both hands in praying mantis form above his head. He looked surprised and genuinely guilty. He quickly dashed across the matted room.
"I'm sorry for goofing off!" He blurted out, breathless.
Paul chuckled, "Nonsense, I merely want you to show Harry here what you have learned so far."
Simon looked excited and grinned. Putting his hands together, looking like he was about to pray, but bowed instead towards Paul. "As you wish Mesa Psidong." He grinned, then grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him over to where Danny and Ryan were practicing the punch block move with Danny on the defensive.
Danny turned with a grin towards Harry, allowing Ryan to punch him in the shoulder, though not very hard. After a short glare at Ryan, he spoke to Harry.
"So you're an official Falcon now?"
Harry looked extremely confused, "Umm, what do you mean, Falcon?"
"He didn't tell you? Well, the first day, Paul sorted us into groups; it was easy since there were exactly 15 of us. 3 groups of 5. There's us, we're the Falcons. The group over there," He pointed to one of the far corner, "is the Eagles, and the group Dudley is in is the Hawks-" Danny was then interrupted as Simon asked Harry a question.
"Are you really related to Dursley?"
By the way the others looked at him, Harry could tell this had been speculated on several times since he arrived this morning with Dudley.
Harry nodded, "Unfortunately. I'm his cousin."
Rhea looked over at Dudley, then back at Harry and spoke in her French accent, "You look nothing like him." The other nodded in agreement. Rhea smiled shyly, "You are much cuter." This time only Alyssa agreed with her, the other boys looked around the room.
Harry was surprised and blushed furiously, but was saved from further embarrassment when Paul came over.
"Come on now, start practicing, we'll get Harry initiated later." He smiled at them all, then went over to the eagles to stop a verbal fight of wits between a small boy and girl who looked ready to strangle each other.
The rest of the day went by very quickly, too quickly for Harry. He was soon waving goodbye to Danny, Simon, Ryan, Alyssa, and Rhea as they each left in their respected vehicles. On the way home, Dudley began to complain about Harry's new friends and harry participating in class, but when Harry glared at him and waved an imaginary wand in his direction, Dudley fell silent.
"What was that Duddy-kinns?" Petunia said in a sugary voice.
"Uh- I was just saying how much I loved karate," Dudley mumbled.
"Oh! That's wonderful! I'll make sure you get a place in next year's class!" At this Dudley sent a look of pure contempt at Harry.
When they got home, Vernon immediately put Harry to work.
"Slacker," He mumbled while writing a list about a foot long of things for Harry to do. "Didn't do a thing yesterday."
That night Harry exhaustedly climbed into bed. He glanced at his nightstand, where the Luna Opacus was sitting placidly. It still had the red core and the orange tinged ring around that, but when Harry looked closer, he could see the fog was now a faded sky blue. Harry smiled. It looked like he now had true friends in the muggle world as well as in the magical world. Harry drifted off to sleep that night with a smile on his face.
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If a passing observer had looked upon Privet Drive at midnight that night, he would have seen an odd sight indeed of a large black dog, staring straight up at a window of #4 Privet Drive where a light had just been flicked off. Fortunately there was no passerby, the street was as deserted as a cemetery.
After about an hour, sure that no one was up, the dog stood up and looked around. There was no one on the street. With a small nod, the dog disappeared with a pop and in it's place stood a tall, skinny man in worn black robes. With a wave of his wand, a large glowing half-orb appeared with 4 Privet Drive smack in the middle.
The man walked around the perimeter of the base of the circle, every few feet waving his wand and muttering a few well-chosen words, watching as the shield strengthened. Once he had finished the circuit, he walked back to the street in front of that one window and stared up at it. He grinned and gave a mock salute.
"'Till we meet again." And at that, there was a small pop and a large black dog appeared where the man had been standing. The dog gave a short bark, then loped off down the street.
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(A/N: Ok, something I forgot to say in the top a/n is that this chapter is dedicated to my algebra teacher, Mr. Berger. The Carpenter's Triangle is also dedicated to him. He was a little miffed about there not being a plane or space shape in the story when I told him what I was typing in class (god I love my alphasmart) and I told him I would put in a plane shape somewhere, then when I was stuck on that one part I just put it in (. I would like to thank all of my readers and especially to my best friend and beta reader Someone2! Thanks to all those who did review my last chapter even though it took so long to upload. I think I'll do review thanks now:
Snowlily- Thanks for the enthusiastic reviews! And yes I do accept attachments on my emails, just get those pics to me ok? ;) Especially the dragon ones!
Raven of Death- lol, thanks a lot for the review, I'm glad you like Someone2's stories too, they are mostly hers, I post most of mine under Phalanx, but thanks for the input (p.s. I totally love your name!)
Someone2- You were disappointed? I am hurt! Lol, anyway, I hope you still like this story even though you have already read it. *hint hint* lol, I'm just kidding, you had better get working on your stories though! Especially Concealed!
Summersun- Thanks for the review, and I do plan to keep going, as long as I continue getting reviews!
Again, I want to thank all who read my story and reviewed my story. I sincerely hope you like this chapter, and that you didn't think it was too boring. I tried to make it longer! This chapter alone is over 6,000 words. that's definitely the longest chapter I've had yet. ~Phalanx)
