Potter – The Stone
Chapter 04
By Cory D. Rose
(c) 2005
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"Ah, Hagrid. How did it go?" Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts asked as the half giant stepped into the office. As usual he was wearing a rainbow stripped robe, a pair of spectacles, and his long white beard was pooled on the desk.
"Good." Hagrid said as he shuffled into the office.
"What was Harry like? He hasn't been with his Aunt and Uncle for the last several years. Was he happy?"
Hagrid grinned. "Aye, 'arry was quite happy. Till I brought up 'is family anyway."
Dumbledore leaned forward. "Oh?"
"Well sir, 'arry yelled at me for bringing them useless muggles up." Hagrid said, looking a little confused. "I mentioned dem in passing, like, and 'e told me to never mention them again. 'arry's guardian told me that the muggles 'ad been abusing the boy."
Sitting back in his chair, Dumbledore sighed. "You recall that we lost track of the boy several years ago, right?"
Hagrid nodded.
"Well his Aunt, Uncle, and their son were admitted to the hospital several years ago. All of them were suffering from multiple problems. The boy couldn't get near water unless it was luke warm and had some bowel problems. The Uncle seemed to be suffering from a full bodyjelly legs curse and couldn't control any of the muscles in his body, quite messy. And Harry's Aunt was the exact opposite, her whole body was stiff as a board, except her head."
"I didna know this." Hagrid said.
"We didn't tell to many people. Plus it seemed to be a muggle problem so we just observed and started to look for Harry, incase he was also affected by the same thing that affected his relatives."
"That was when you couldn't find him?"
Dumbledore nodded and poured them some tea. "Correct. When we couldn't find him at his home, we panicked a little and started searching the town, but he never showed up. Even when we used locator spells. It was as if he fell off the face of the planet."
"But sir, you knew right where to send me."
"We only found him a few months ago Hagrid, when the school started to make his acceptance letter for Hogwarts. Even then his location was a bit hard to figure out. At first it was in Japan, then it was in China, after that we realized that he was slowly moving across the continent. Apparently on foot."
Hagrid gasped and sputtered. "There is no way a kid like 'arry could walk that kind of distance!"
Dumbledore laughed a little. "We thought the same thing I sent Fawks here out to find him."
Fawks, Dumbledore's red and gold Phoenix squawked when his name was mentioned. The Phoenix flew over to Dumbledore's shoulder, crooning a soft song that calmed everyone down. Hagrid always liked to see Fawks in action.
"I had several spells cast on a little object Fawks took with him and it allowed us to get out first look at Harry in nearly four years." Albus took a sip of his tea.
"Why didna we go get 'em then?"
"Because of who he was with Hagrid."
"That muggle?"
"That muggle is one of the most dangerous people on the planet Hagrid." Dumbledore explained, his eyes twinkling. "It took a bit of digging, but his name is Ranma Saotome and he's on the Japanese Ministry watch list. During the course of his life he's been exposed to dozens of old and ancient dark magic areas, all of it completely on accident due to the boy's father."
"If 'arry is in danger from that useless muggle!" Hagrid yelled, looking angry.
"Calm down Hagrid. Ranma Saotome was exposed to a little known area in China that was once the site of a Dark Magic duel. One of the most destructive ones in the last millennia. A place that has since ruined countless lives and the magic there is still quite potent. This has given him a 'may you live in interesting times' curse."
Hagrid paled under his thick beard. "And 'e is still living?"
"Indeed."
"Mr. Saotome has several curses Hagrid, and they are all of a type that can't just be dispelled because of several factors. One of the most interesting is his Jusenkyo Curse, it turns him into a red headed girl. According to the Japanese Ministry of Magic."
"But sir, why does this make 'em good enough to raise 'arry?"
"Because Hagrid, Ranma took Harry on a student. When that happened it gave Harry the protection he needed. Ranma is a hundred times more dangerous than any Death Eater and we've uncovered evidence that at least three DE's have run into Ranma. All three are still in St. Mungos High Security ward."
"And 'arry is learning how to be as dangerous as this muggle?"
"He is. I was worried at first, but I've observed them on a few occasions and found that Harry has grown quite a bit since Ranma removed him from his relatives house. Harry is taller, stronger, more confident, and more grounded than he ever would have turned out under his Aunt's care. His only problem is that temper, but Ranma is slowly dealing with Harry's anger."
Thinking of his day with Harry and Ranma, Hagrid had to agree that Harry was a lot different than he imagined he would be. "Sir, 'arry seems to hate his relatives though."
Dumbledore sighed. "They were abusing Harry, Hagrid. Hitting him, working him until he just collapsed. I had a nice long 'talk' with Mrs. Dursley that only reinforced my belief that Ranma was working in Harry's best interest."
"I think I understand, sir." Hagrid said, looking thoughtful. "Whatever 'appened to 'is relatives?"
Grinning, Dumbledore laughed. "Turns out the Dursley's had to send for a specialist all the way from Japan. A Moxbustion expert."
"What's that?"
"I have no idea." Dumbledore said with a grin and held a bowl out to Hagrid. "Lemon Drop?"
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By the time they got home, after another insane trip on the Knight Bus, Harry was ready to dig into all his new things and find out what all he had gotten. He ran up to his room and enlarged the trunk, sitting it at the end of his bed. The first thing he wanted to do was check out all the rooms in the trunk.
Never had he seen anything like this and it fascinated him. He quickly made his way to the living room again. Now that he had more time to look around he noticed that there were three doors leading off from the living room. Each door had an elaborate symbol on the door that Harry was beginning to recognize as the Potter family crest.
Pulling out his wand he tapped the door, it glowed for a second and returned to normal. This led to the small kitchen that was ready for instant use, even the faucets worked. Giving him hot and cold running water, a fridge, an oven, and even a small cold locker off to the side. All of it was controlled by magic and Harry wondered if wizards even knew what electricity existed.
Moving back out to the living room Harry repeated the same process with the wand and opened up the next door and found himself in a locker room full of equipment for fighting. He spotted padded suits, gloves, boots, pants, and even several pieces of head gear. All of it looked brand new. On the other side of this room was another door, but this one had a window in it. He looked out into what had to be a large dueling floor covered in blue floor mats.
The third door off the living room led out into an atrium of some kind, but all the plants were over grown or half dead. He would have to clean the place out at some point, but he would worry about it later. Maybe he could trick Ranma into doing it for him, he had to study after all.
Nearly hidden within the tall weeds and trees was a small staircase, this went down one level and opened up into three bedrooms. A quick glance showed him that each one was furnished in rich dark woods and elegant fabrics.
He found another door in the second bedroom that led to what looked like lab of some kind and several lockers full of weird looking powders, scales, and even hair. A case set in the corner of the room held bottles of multi colored liquids that smelled funny even from a few feet away.
Several minutes later he was about to give up when he spotted a fourth door nearly hidden under the stairs. Walking over he tapped it with his wand and waited for it to open for him. After several seconds it swung inwards and torches in every corner of the room lit up to reveal the library. The book cases lined the walls, but he was surprised to find that only about a fourth of the room held books. The rest was empty space for other books.
Set in the corner of the room was a small desk and a leather chair. Sitting on the desk was a book. He walked over and picked it up and found that it was a journal by a guy named S. Potterson. Frowning a little, Harry sat down and opened the journal to a random page.
5 April 1328
The dark one approaches and no matter what I throw at him he just keeps coming, I fear for the life of my family and friends. Why, oh why, did I ever come to this monster's attention… if the monster should gain the device of old, we will all be doomed… darkness shall prevail and everyone shall die in a plague of fire
Harry frowned at it. He suspected that this might be of interest, he would need to wait a little while before he could use this place and all these devices properly. Setting the book back down he headed back up to the ladder and exited the trunk.
"Find anything of interest?" Ranma asked as he stood in the doorway.
"Yeah, it really is set up to house several people. It's even got a gym set up for use, padded floors and everything."
Ranma grinned. "Great, maybe we can continue your training after all. I wasn't looking forward to letting you slack off for nine whole months."
"I wouldn't slack off." Harry snapped.
"Right. Well I'll give you tonight off, so you can explore around a little and get things organized. Also, I want you to read through your text books before you head to school, that way you have some clue what you may be getting into. I'm going to read them as well."
"You just want to find a way to get rid of your curse."
"Hell yeah and don't you forget it." Ranma said and ruffled the boy's hair. "You do remember the speed reading techniques I taught you?"
Harry nodded. "You said it was those techniques that allowed you to actually pass high school. Cause you were never able to get more than an hour or so of peace and quiet."
"Exactly, read fast, memorize every thing, and pass the test. It never failed me."
"I should be through all the school books by the end of the week if I have time to actually read them, but on top of training, I may take a little longer."
"No worries, I think this trunk will allow you the time you need to get through everything you need for school. After that, you can start looking some of the other books you got from your vault. There were a lot of those, more than a enough to keep you busy for years." Ranma said.
Harry sighed. "I'm bored already."
Ranma laughed. "I know the feeling, that's why I learned to read fast. Now get to work lugging all those books down the library. Enlarge them before you take them down, this will be tonight's endurance training."
"Hey, you said I could take the night off."
"Yep, from our daily fight. Everything is training, even this, so get to work. I expect you to be done by bed time."
Sighing, again, Harry nodded and started to enlarge the books and pile them up against the wall of his room. Ranma watched him for a while before he stepped out of the room. He headed down to the dinning room and sat down at the table. He crossed his legs and started to meditate, cataloging his day, and making sure he would remember everything that had happened.
Because of Harry's training, Ranma tended to train him year round, and made him go to summer school to make up for things. A years worth of classes in three short months was better idea than anything Genma had ever come up with. What was even better was that Harry only had three weeks worth of summer school left before he graduated.
Ranma quickly revised his plans to take Harry on another six month long training trip around China and adapted to the new situation. It would mean less chances of Harry making some friends on the trip, but would allow him to learn a lot more about the Anything Goes style. Ranma had only been training him for six years now, but the boy was about a year behind where Ranma expected him to be and that had to be changed.
Taking all those books down into the trunk took several hours and Harry did indeed take the time to turn it into training. Instead of holding the books in his arms, he balanced them on his head and dropped into the trunk. From there it was down to the library.
After several loads like that he started piling them in his arms, on his head, and even balancing them on his shoulders. It made the game a lot more challenging. He only fell a couple dozen times, but the books were never damaged. His reflexes allowed him to catch them before they hit the floor. Another exercise that Ranma liked to have him practice all the time.
As predicted, Harry was through all the books for school by the time they reached the end of the week. Ranma read them right after Harry did and started to incorporate wand movements into Harry's training within a few days. Because it was training, Ranma wasn't to gentle about it either.
Then Harry had to learn to fight while holding his wand, a weakness that needed some special moves. Ranma told him that even though the wand gave him power, it was still just a tool. This led Harry to realize that he still needed to defend himself and others without the wand. So the training was added to his already long training schedule.
Using regular sticks Ranma started making Harry fight with one in his hand, teaching him how to move, attack, and defend with the stick while keeping it intact. Ranma could already see Harry using his wand in a similar way that the old pervert did to toss people around, but that was a few years off yet. Harry needed to build up his confidence and Ki reserves first.
Ranma decided that if the wand was going to be a part of Harry's life from now on a slight alteration to the school would have to be made. So that it could be adapted to Harry's magic with easy. Anything Goes at it's most basic. So Ranma started to adapting several of the Dagger Kata styles into the training.
He did all this Harry was at summer school. Ranma also spent a couple of hours every morning trying to emulate the spells in the book without a wand. Using his Ki reserves instead of magic. So far, he was only able to use his Ki to get the same effect and not the spell itself. Ranma wasn't deterred though, he figured it would take him a while to get the first one down and after that every thing would fall into place.
They used Hedwig, Harry's owl, to owl order several items from Diagon Alley as well. They had found several catalogs within all their bags and decided to put them to good use. These included a couple of wand holsters, some combat robes in case Harry had to duel someone, and special glasses for Harry.
Unlike the one's he was wearing, these were supposed to be unbreakable, scratch proof, and were spelled to allow Harry to see perfectly even when there was little or no light in a room. Ranma was a little surprised to find that Harry's normal prescription had changed in the last year, but shrugged it off.
The new glasses were a bit of a crutch device, but Ranma figured they would work for the moment. He was kind of hoping the kid would learn enough magic to fix his eyes on his own, but so far the first year books didn't mention a thing about it so they would deal with that later.
Ranma also got a chance to see the fully stocked library and was amazed at the number of books held in the room now. Over a thousand of them and he had a feeling that this was just a small number. Several of the shelves were still empty, even with all those books. This trunk was truly designed to hold nearly everything.
By the end of the third week of August arrived Ranma was started to get a little frustrated with reading book after book on magic and not getting anywhere. He was memorizing the words and wand movements as fast as Harry was and he still couldn't get the magic to do anything. He also didn't care one wit what this so called ministry would do to him when he learned magic.
Harry just thought it was funny that he was spending so much time trying to learn something that should be impossible for him to learn. Ranma just snorted and continued to try. The impossible didn't apply to Ranma Saotome. Mean while, Harry also graduated from school, beat the living hell out of Stevenson one more time for being a jerk.
This time he wasn't caught so Ranma sent out for pizza to celebration his win and show off the diploma. Packing a years worth of learning in three months solved so much time as far as Ranma was concerned. While there, Ranma noticed that Harry was wearing his wand holder, on his forearm.
"How is the holster working out?" Ranma asked as they ate at the table inside the trunk.
Harry smirked, twisted his hand, and the stick he was using sprang out into his hand. He quickly twirled the stick and did several of the wand movements in quick order. "This thing will come in quite handy."
"Good, are you excited to go?"
"Yeah and it's even better you will be coming with me. I didn't want to slack of in my training, but I'll need more time for the regular classes."
"Yeah, I remember how they used to bog us down with work all the time. What a pain."
Harry laughed. "Well there isn't much we can do about that, but we should still have time in the morning and at night."
"How are you going to get your running done?" Ranma wondered.
"I was thinking we could skip that a bit, maybe once or twice a week and we can increase the hand to hand stuff."
Ranma nodded. "I was thinking doing that or making you run in the morning, practice in the afternoons, and working on new stuff at night when you had time."
"Maybe. I have to see what my schedule will be first."
"True. But you read all those books so you do know what they'll be teaching you."
"Yeah, I'm excited about charms and transfiguration, they sound like they are the most useful of everything taught."
"Defense will be good for you too. I'm not so sure about potions though, it sounds kind of hokey to me."
"The trunk has a potions lab in and I've been down there cataloging and identifying all the ingredients that are available. Comparing to those items mentioned in my book."
"Oh? That lab room?"
"That's the one. I think I'll be putting that place to good use this year."
Ranma nodded.
"Have you managed to get any of those spells to work?"
"Not yet, but I'm close. It's like I'm just missing a step or something. I can feel what I want, but there is a gap there that I have to bridge. Once I do that I know I'll have it down."
"I'm looking forward to doing that. All these wand movements seem to just slow me down."
"The books did say that with several years practice you would be able to do most of these spells with ease, even without the wand movement. We'll just have to practice."
Harry nodded as he put the stick away.
"I'm also going to try and find a way for you to practice magic during the summer months, when we will have the most time available to train and practice. I still can't believe they would expel you for just practicing here at the house. Heck, no one but us would see you anyway."
Harry shrugged. "I'm just glad I found that book, otherwise I would have ignored what Hagrid said about not doing magic."
"There has to be a way around that and we'll find a way." Ranma said. "Now you get some sleep, we are heading out early tomorrow. Remember to put on those special clothes I got for you."
Harry nodded, slowly, already in pain from a practice he hadn't even been through yet. He really wished Ranma's training ideas weren't so odd at times. Who in their right mind would think up something as strange as clothes that weighed more than he did?
Still, it was a good way to train. According to Ranma and better than running through a swamp with a couch strapped to your back and being chased by wolves. Harry still wasn't sure he believed that one, but Ranma had shown him the scars to prove it.
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Notes: As usual, Dumbledore knows more than he's letting on. I know the trunk idea isn't the most original of ideas, but I needed a way for Ranma to go with Harry. Ranma doesn't like to let Harry out of his sight for to long and knows the kids needs someone to watch over him from time to time, plust other reasons.