Ch. Well I've lost count.(What food group is Curry?)

The next day most of the other first years were excited. They'd be having their first flying lesson. Harry wasn't sure what was so exciting about flying. After all, he'd done enough training that he could clear ten feet in a bound from standing. He was sure he'd be able to get thirty eventually.

When he saw the Slytherins on the pitch he gave a slight groan. For some reason Draco Malfoy had seen his refusal to acknowledge whatever relationship with the Potters the wizards seemed to think he had as a personal insult to his honor. Now the blond boy was always making snide comments. Harry didn't catch the meaning of all of them, but the way the boy said them it was clear that they were insults.

For the second time this week Harry had to remind himself that a true martial artist does not fight those who are weaker. It just wasn't honorable. His annoyance was interrupted with the entrance of Madam Hooch.

Harry was transfixed. He'd never seen anyone like her, foreign or not. His first reaction was that she had to be part oni or something. Her hawk like eyes peered over the group. Her short hair bordered on silver. The only thing he could liken her to was characters in animations that he'd seen while passing television sets on the road.

"Well, What are you all waiting for?" She barked. The normality of her voice broke Harry out of his trance. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, Hurry up."

Harry glanced down a little confused. He thought they were her to learn to fly, not housekeeping. Never-the-less with a mental shrug he stood by an old warn broom.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'UP'" She called to the group.

"UP!" All of Harry's classmates shouted. He felt stupid doing it, but said it anyway.

The broom jumped into his hand almost immediately. Harry grinned. It was the first time he tried this magic of theirs with success on the first try. His was one of the few brooms that jumped on the first call. Hermione's had rolled over, while Neville's hadn't budged.

It wasn't long until Madam Hooch was showing them how to mount the brooms without slipping off the end. Harry had to grin when she told Draco that he'd been doing it wrong for years. The rest of the Gryffindors broke out into snickers that were quickly silenced with those sharp yellow eyes.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard." Said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, Rise a few feet, and then come strait back down by leaning forward slightly. On my Whistle – Three – Two –"

Apparently Neville was so nervous and jumpy that he launched himself hard before the whistle had sounded. He rocketed up, unheeding, or probably more unable to heed the sharp shout from Madame Hooch.

"Come Back Boy!"

Neville's pale face became whiter and whiter with every foot the broom climbed. Harry watched, preparing himself should the boy loose the death grip he seemed to be trying to maintain. At twenty feet he slipped.

Harry took only a fraction of a second to drop his broom and launch. Luckily for the both of them, Neville's body ended up twisting sideways. Harry caught him at the apex of his jump. Where he was immediately treated to a death grip around his shoulders. Ignoring the grip and the gasps from the first years, Harry did a quick flip to position himself properly and landed with a soft thud.

"Neberu-san," He said softly to the other boy. The grip was really uncomfortable. "You can let go of me now." Harry wasn't sure if the other boy got any translation because he didn't let go.

"Way to go Potter." Harry heard Malfoy's voice drawl sarcastically. "You just had to go prove that your better than us mere mortals." Malfoy's voice was thick with disdain.

"THAT'S ENOUGH" Madame Hooch cut Malfoy off. "As the crisis has been averted we will get back to the lesson." Her countenance was stern as she glared at the first years, Malfoy in particular.

The talk and shout must have gotten through to Neville because he finally let go of Harry. The boy looked around and patted himself down before hugging Harry.

"Erk." Harry tried to get away from the new grip, eyes slightly wide.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," The boy was chanting.

"Let go!" Harry yelped and continued to struggle. Apparently the rest of the class found the situation entertaining because they started laughing. Even Madam Hooch was smirking.

"Neville, you're excused from the rest of the lesson," Harry could hear the smile in her voice, "But Harry still needs to take his lessons." She moved to help Harry extricate himself from the other boy.

Soon Harry and the rest of the class were trailing around the Quiddich field following Madame Hooch's directions. The sensations that the broom gave off made Harry feel odd. He figured later he could try to make his ki copy what he felt the broom doing. Might be worth a shot and would be really interesting to see if he could fly without the broom. Then flying would be worthwhile. He didn't see the point behind depending on an object that you could be knocked off or have taken away.

AN:

Ok, I guess I'll first say that right now my life could be summed up very neatly by the phrase "Somebody please shoot me"

Now after saying that, I hope anyone whom actually likes this odd tale will forgive me but I've been doing the whole working on school and carrier for about 16 hours a day for the past oh. I'd say since October rolled in, I haven't had much time for anything, that includes thinking.

Shameless plug: I made a yahoo group to put all my sections of chapters that I haven't finished yet and to ask for advice when I get stuck, I have this weird sense of rating and put it in the adult section (although the worst I think you'll see from me is gruesome murder scenes in other stories, not this one) so I guess it's in the wrong section, but you can't move it out of that section once you've put it in there . Anyway I've got the link in my bio and as the homepage thingy. Anyone's free to put their own stuff up there too.

Okie, even though Ffnet says not to, I feel like answering the reviews for this chapter, don't bite me head off, because it's likely to fall off all on its own at this point.

Night-Owl123: Sorry it took so long, but see above for my excuse.

Helen27: Hmm, I'm actually going to have to get to Ranma sooner or later. Hopefully I can depict him properly, I've not seen any of the series for about 8 years, and just have the fanfiction I've read to go by.

Gyre: Malfoy won't be careful, but Harry's been raised not to pick on those "weaker" than himself and that's exactly how he views Malfoy, as a weakling.

Sierra-Falls: Harry and Ranma are like brothers, and as such Harry wants to see his brother's ego get hacked down a peg or two. He also has the ulterior motive that if Ryouga finds Ranma, Ryouga can be a companion to his brother whom no doubt misses Harry as much as Harry misses Ranma.

Dogbertcarroll: I've done much thinking to explain away my careless ness, so here goes. Hogwarts has seven years with about forty students a year, making 280 students, add 20 for teachers to make it a round 300, it's before lunch so at least half the populous is in classes. Leaving 150, a good 50 percent of those are going to be studying while I'd say 10 percent are making out in various rooms dispersed through the castle. That leaves 65 people to happen by. We can then also assume that there's going to be another 10 percent sick/ in bed from all those late nights. This leaves 55 people. Hogwarts physically is very large, so then you've probably got around ten or so people to notice. So the crowd would potentially be fairly small, and both Ryouga and Harry are used to fighting, which always seems to draw a crowd, if no one seems like they will attack, then they are pretty much ignored and since I'm using a third person limited (and hopefully staying in perspective) I can ignore those few people -

Penterghast: No, Ranma and Genma will not visit Harry, but he will go home for the summer holidays and get into trouble there :-)

EAV: Well, you might have to wait. It's not like I can go sleepless more often and I'm getting cranky as it is. Although I'm flattered that you left a review and don't intend to be too caustic, I'm just a bit cranky.

C.Rose. Either a new writer or??? You didn't finish your thought, I'd like to know the or, because . . . well I'm curious that's why, Maybe one day I'll be able to go back and revise this story. And I hope I will finish it. I'm slightly honored you reviewed considering for a long time I was addicted to your stories, but now I don't have the time to get three proper meals a day ::sigh:: I do hope to skip all the "you know how this goes" from now on seeing as now the plot between the books and my little tale here are diverging. But lets face it, I really am not all that good as a writer, and probably would be ecstatic if someone else could pick the ideas out of my brain and do justice to them.