Disclaimer: In addition to not owning Harry Potter and its characters, I also do not own Prince of Tennis/Tennis no Ohjisama, or the characters appearing from that universe.
A/N: This part of our saga is a crossover with the Prince of Tennis-verse, and since many of you HP people might not know this series, I figured a short summary might be useful. So basically, Prince of Tennis is a series about a bunch of pretty 14-year-old boys who play tennis that defies the laws of physics. That should be enough information to get you through this.
Also, future!Pansy works for The Quibbler. It's inevitable, isn't it?
Oh, and thank you so much once again to those who have reviewed, it makes my day!
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#16 - invincible; unrivaled
A Lot To Learn
- in which we make a crossover into the realm of crack, and learn that here, gravity is optional -
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Pansy frowned to herself as she and Ron walked down yet another random street. They had been in Tokyo for a couple of weeks now, and she had yet to find something spectacular to write about. When Ron's job as an Auror had sent him here, her editor had been next to ecstatic and all but commanded her to go along, all expanses paid and everything. "There has been a noticeable increase of Snorkack sightings all over Japan recently! Not the Crumple-horned ones, sadly, just common ones, but still..." Mr Lovegood had told her. "I want you to look into that! Oh, and while you're there, do look around for other interesting things going on over there. Perhaps we could make it some kind of series..."
So here she was, the only news she'd managed to come across so far some rather boring stuff on the upcoming election of the new Japanese Minister for Magic, and a couple of interviews with some of the people who had reported the Snorkack-sightings. Oh, and a report on that charity Quidditch match Ron had been invited to play in the previous weekend - he was something of a celebrity even in this part of the world as a result of his involvement in the defeat of one of the most feared Dark Wizards ever, after all.
Not knowing the language was perhaps part of the reason she wasn't able to gather that much interesting news, Pansy had to admit. The lack of anything to write about had led to her dragging Ron along on the walk they were on at the moment. Perhaps, if they just walked around long enough, they'd stumble on something interesting, she had reasoned.
They'd been wandering around for a couple of hours already, though, and something extraordinary had yet to fall into her lap.
At some point they'd wandered out of the wizarding part of the city, and they now found themselves in a part of it they were quite unfamiliar with. Stopping next to a staircase leading up from the street, Pansy decided she needed some rest and sat down on one of the steps. Sighing, she turned to her boyfriend. "This is boring," she said. "I just want something at least mildly interesting to happen. Is that too much to ask, I ask you?"
Ron grinned down at her. "Well-," he began, but was interrupted, as a tennis ball, of all things, came flying from somewhere, hitting him in his forehead and causing him to fall backward onto the pavement.
"Whoa," Pansy said, getting up quickly. "Are you okay?"
Ron looked up at her, looking a bit dazed. "I think so." He sat up, and reached for the tennis ball, which had landed next to him and was now lying there looking quite innocent. "It was just a tennis ball? I thought the sky was falling down or something."
He stood up, and just as he had, a boy appeared at the top of the stairs, a racquet in his hand. The boy walked down towards them, saying something neither Ron nor Pansy could understand.
"Sorry, don't speak Japanese," Ron told him apologetically as he came closer.
"Oh. I asked if you've seen a tennis ball around here," the boy said, in perfect English, although with an American accent.
"Ah, yes. It just made some close contact with my head," Ron said, giving the boy a lopsided grin as he handed the ball back.
"Thanks," the boy said.
"You're playing tennis?" Ron asked, a bit redundantly considering the ball and the racquet the boy was carrying.
"Yeah."
"I used to play tennis you know," Ron continued, looking almost wistful. "Was undefeated at it, too. Won the tournament every year."
Pansy's eyebrows shot up. She hadn't known that.
The boy stared at Ron far a few moments. "Are you any good? Want to play a game?"
Ron's face lit up. "It's been a long time... But sure, why not?"
The boy looked at him impassively for another few moments, and then tugged at the cap he was wearing and turned and headed back up the stairs, Ron and Pansy following.
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The courts on the other side were apparently a gathering place for a lot of young people. The boy in the cap headed first for a bench where a girl and two boys were sitting, and exchanged a few words with one of the boys sitting there - an older boy with unruly hair and glasses. He looked older than the other people around, so Pansy figured he was probably some kind of coach or club leader or something along those lines. The boy next to him, a somewhat frail looking boy with lighter brown hair and a permanently amused look on his face, looked up at them as they came to a halt next to them, and his eyes seemed to widen for a moment when he noticed Ron, but the look was only there for a fraction of a second before his eyes closed and his face settled into a soft smile once again.
There were two boys playing on the court right next to the bench. The two of them seemed more interested in shouting at each other and occasionally turning towards the girl on the bench to see her reaction every now and then than in actually playing. The girl seemed rather amused by this, and was chuckling and shaking her head at them.
When the boy in the cap had finished talking to the leader-type - Pansy was sure he had to be one - he led Ron towards the next court. Another boy had apparently been waiting for him there, but after they had exchanged a few words, he handed his racquet to Ron and left the court, heading for the bench where the other three were sitting. She heard him mumble something as he passed her, and he kept it up as he sat down next to the girl. No one seemed to be paying him any attention, though.
Feeling a little out of place where she was standing, Pansy turned to look at the court where the game was just starting.
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Ron and Pansy walked back down the stairs in silence.
They stopped on the pavement where they had been standing when Ron was hit by the ball.
"Wow," Ron finally said, looking back up the stairs towards the tennis courts. "That was embarrassing."
"That it was," Pansy agreed. "I thought you were supposed to be invincible tennis-star Ron Weasley or something."
"Well... We never played like that, I can tell you."
Pansy looked at him suspiciously. "What were those competitions you won, anyway?"
Ron turned to look at her, grinning. "The Annual Weasley Summer Wizard Tennis Championships. Held every summer in our backyard."
"In your backyard? How would that work? You don't even have courts."
"I did say it was Wizard tennis."
"Who did you play against, anyway?"
"Well... Percy, Fred, George, and Ginny, usually. Dad played one year, too. And my cousin Mafalda one summer."
Pansy shook her head. "You're all nuts," she declared. She then stood on her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek - this was a fact she'd long ago accepted about her boyfriend, after all. "How come I've never been allowed to see you play?"
"Well," Ron explained. "The last time we held those championship I must have been about ten or eleven or so... I don't even think I have a racquet anymore... Do you think I could go back and do a memory charm on those people?" he then added hopefully.
"No."
"Oh, come on, just one little obliviate?" Ron whined, giving her one of the patented pathetic looks he had perfected over the years.
"I would appreciate it if you did not do that," a voice behind them declared softly. Ron and Pansy both swirled around to see one of the boys from before coming down the stairs. "You are Ronald Weasley, aren't you?" he continued, stopping beside them on the pavement as he reached the bottom of the stairs. His English, while not as good as good as that of Ron's opponent, was still very good and only slightly accented.
"Err... yeah...How'd you know that?" Ron asked, confused.
The boy chuckled. "You are quite famous, you know. Helping to defeat that Dark Lord of yours and all."
"Oh, you're a wizard, then?" Pansy asked.
"I knew it!" Ron exclaimed. "You're wizards! That was not normal tennis, it wasn't!"
The boy gave another chuckle. "I am afraid neither I nor my friends are wizards," he said. "My sister, however is a witch, and quite a good one at that. She tells me a lot, and I read your wizarding newspapers when I can. I find them quite interesting."
"Oh. You sure there was nothing magical about that tennis game?"
"Quite sure," the boy said, the smile never leaving his face.
"Really?" Ron eyed him suspiciously. "What do you people do then, call up gravity and ask it to take the day off?"
"Maybe," the boy said. "Fuji Syuusuke," he then said, holding out his hand to do their introductions the Western way.
"Right. Ron Weasley. But you already knew that. Err... This is Pansy Parkinson."
Introductions done, Fuji turned back to Ron. "My sister brought me to see your Quidditch game last week," he said. "It was very interesting."
Ron laughed. "Yeah, well... A bit different from tennis, though."
"Indeed. Though I was thinking of using some of the things I saw in this move I'm working on-" Fuji trailed off, not telling them any more about the planned move. Instead, he asked Ron about Quidditch, and Ron was more than happy to supply some long and enthusiastic answers for all his questions. Apparently, while Fuji's sister may have been an excellent witch in other ways, she was still not very versed in the art of wizarding sports.
Pansy sighed softly to herself, not really listening to what they were saying. Boys would be boys, she figured. Sports nuts, the lot of them, wheteher Muggles or wizards, and whether the sport was tennis or Quidditch.
The conversation was interrupted, though, as once again, a tennis ball came flying from the courts, knocking Ron to the ground once again just like before.
Leaning down, Pansy stared at Ron's forehead. "I think it hit the exact same spot as before," she decided.
Fuji, meanwhile, had picked up the tennis ball, and used his racquet to hit it back when the boy in the cap - Echizen, Pansy seemed to remember he'd been called - appeared on the top of the stairs and caught it easily with his own. .
"Mada mada dane," Echizen said, with a look at Ron's figure on the ground, before disappearing back to the courts.
Pansy gave Fuji a questioning look, but he just rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly.
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As she and Ron walked back towards their hotel, Pansy found herself wondering whether there was a story to be written about the occasional non-magical glitches in gravity and the laws of physics. It might make for an interesting exposé.
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A few weeks later, home in England, Ron came home carrying a new racquet one evening.
He just shrugged as Pansy burst out laughing.
The next summer, he won the newly reinstated Weasley Summer Wizard Tennis Championships.
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In Japan, a month or so later, during a specifically intense game against Rikkaidai's Sanada Genichirou, Fuji Syuusuke introduced a new move that stunned everyone who saw it, and everyone agreed that it was an amazing move well worthy of the tennis prodigy.
Though they all also agreed that "The Bludger" was a rather silly name for it.
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A/N: "Mada mada dane" is practically Echizen's - the Prince of Tennis main character's - catchphrase. It means something along the lines of "you still have a long way to go", or "you still have a lot to learn".