Now does Harry like Hermione? Well duh, but I won't have them shagging in the bathrooms any time soon, that's for sure. This is just the first book that's being detailed, Cho wasn't even mentioned till the fourth book as a possible girlfriend and even then they never got very far with it in the book. One must remember that they are only eleven after all. Will I hint, yes, but will I turn this into a Harry/Hermione story? Not any time soon.
oooooooooo
Potter – The Stone
Chapter 11
By Cory D. Rose
(c) 2005
oooooooooo
Harry and Ron walked into the great hall the next morning. Out of the corner of his eye Harry could see that Malfoy was looking his way in shock. Harry smirked at the blond haired trouble maker and mouthed 'I win'.
He enjoyed the show as Malfoy spent the next ten minutes cussing his head off, loudly. The rest of the Slytherins tried to calm him down, but he ignored them. Professor McGonagall ended up taking twenty points from them for all the cussing. Harry just grinned at the boy.
At the Ravenclaw table he spotted Hermione, but she gave him one look, huffed, and turned away as she buried her head in a book. Harry was a little disappointed that she would even do that, but she continued to ignore him for the rest of the week as well.
He even tried to talk to her several times, but she would turn a corner and vanish. He even looked at the ceilings, cause she did have some training, but never spotted her. After the first couple of times it became a challenge to him, but he never did find her.
An impressive feat even made Ranma a little thoughtful. Neither of them were sure how she was pulling it off, but Ranma said there were only about ten different ways and most of those could be ruled out because she was so young. Harry was thinking it was a ninja trick of some kind. The same kind Sasuke used to keep him hidden when he was spying on Ranma or the Tendos.
Harry was also searching for a way to pay Malfoy back for his recent actions. The little jerk didn't seem to know when to quit. Even when he lost twenty points, he spent the next several minutes sending a death glare towards Harry. Then the answer literally dropped into his lap by several owls towards the middle of breakfast. They flew in formation as they entered the hall and caught everyone's eyes as they gently glided down and dropped a long package right in his lap and flew off after stealing several pieces of bacon.
Ron glared at them as they flew off, then down at the empty plate of bacon, crumbs, and a few feathers. No one else seemed to say anything, but Harry thought it was funny. Ron was pretty laid back over all and tended to just glide along, but when it came to food, the boy could pack away quite a bit.
Harry examined the package and found a note telling him not to open it at the table. He could tell by the shape of the packaging that it was his broom though. Another note, it bounced off his head and landed on his plate, told him to meet Oliver Wood for his first official practice as the Gryffindor Seeker. Harry shrugged and smiled, for once he wasn't angry with anyone and things were going his way.
He handed the note to Ron, who was eating again, the red head gasped as he read it and looked like he wanted to take the broom, race outside, and ride it right then, and there. Harry got up and head for Gryffindor tower. He wanted to get a good look at the broom before he put it away. Ron quickly finished his breakfast and chased after him so he could see the broom as well. They were intercepted a few minutes later by Malfoy and his two friends.
The blond haired boy grabbed the package out of Harry's hands to see what it was. He sneered at Harry. "You're expelled now Potter. This is a broom and first years aren't allowed to have them. About time too, you've been befouling the air of this castle since you showed up Mudblood."
"You really want me to kick your ass, don't you?" Harry asked mildly.
"You're not wanted here." Malfoy said, reaching for his wand. "I'll make sure you remember this for a long time."
Grabbing the package back, Ron handed it back to Harry and rounded on Mafoy. "Well that is a Nimbus two thousand and it's a thousand timed better than anything you might have Malfoy! Was that a hint of jealously I heard in your voice a second ago? Mr. Comet Two Sixty?"
Harry just shook his head. He just couldn't figure out where Malfoy was coming from. No matter how many times they met, Malfoy seemed to just get worse and worse. Eventually one of them was going to just snap is this kept up. And of course Malfoy couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut.
"Ah, a Weasley, the Poor family that can't even afford the handle of a Comet Two Sixty. How about I give you a galleon, that way you can upgrade to something that really flies. I heard that even your house is such a hovel that its lopsided."
Ron turned red and started to lunge at Malfoy's smirking face, but Harry managed to grab Ron's arm before he got to far. "Not now."
"What?" Ron asked, turning to look at Harry.
"Trust me." Harry told him.
"Professor!" Malfoy yelled, suddenly grinning with glee.
"Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Flitwick said as he walked up.
"Potter has a broom."
The small teacher just grinned and nodded. "Ah, I heard from Minerva that Mr. Potter was getting one. What brand is it?"
"A Nimbus Two Thousand sir." Harry said.
The short professor bounced happily, as he glanced at the package. Malfoy was starting to look a little worried that the professor wasn't yelling at Harry.
"I even have to thank Malfoy here, it's because of him that I was able to get one." Harry said and smiled at him. "Thank you."
Harry would never forget the look of pure rage on the boy's face. The little professor didn't seem to see the look, or ignored it. "Well you better get that back to your dorm Mr. Potter. Mr. Malfoy, shoo, you have class in a few minutes and don't want to be late."
They watched as the three Slytherins were herded down the corridor by Professor Flitwick and around the corner before laughing their heads off. Harry suddenly stopped, turned his head, and spotted Hermione at the other end of the corridor and raised his eyebrows. She turned her away and quickly vanished into a nearby room.
Ron didn't even notice. Not that he ever seemed to notice anything but food and Quiddich, even on his best day. Harry was really starting to wonder what was up with that girl. He just might have to track her down and force her to tell him what was going on. Then he figured she was just being a girl about this whole thing. He still wasn't quite sure why she was avoiding him, but figured she would tell him when she was ready. After all, nothing happened with the giant dog.
With that settled, he put her out of his mind completely, and headed back to the tower. Ron was talking about his favorite quiddich team again, but Harry had heard it before and just let the noise flow around him. He dropped his new broom off inside his trunk, tossing it on his bed. He was glad no one was there to see him shoving it through what appeared to be the headboard to his bed though. It would have been a little hard to explain.
Another thing he noticed as he moved through the trunk was that Ranma wasn't there. Harry knew Ranma liked to explore the castle during the day when there wasn't anything else to do. He also spotted another book set out for him to look at in the mini library, something to do with focusing his magic to get more use out of it. Shrugging, he considered his new broom again and wondered if the technique would improve his flying ability.
He wanted to take the broom out and fly it as soon as possible, even more than Ron, but there were morning classes to attend. Therefore, he spent most of the morning barely able to pay attention to his classes. This wasn't to much of a problem because of the techniques that Ranma taught him. Of course, Ranma tended to kick him in the head and bounce him off walls, but that was just a normal sparing session.
The clock seemed to move at a snail's pace as the day dragged on. By the time classes let out, he was bouncing around from foot to foot looking quite excited. He wanted to fly again and it was only minutes away. He vanished from his desk the instant the bell rang. Even Ron wasn't able to keep up with him as he dashed out of the classroom.
oooooooooo
-Six years ago-
Kneeling beside the fire, Ranma used a stick to stoke the campfire up a bit. He had several things on his mind. For the first time in his life, he was on his own with nothing hanging over his head. Just a few months ago his life was so screwed up that he was thinking of taking his own life to salvage everyone's honor.
Then the old pervert stepped in, and within a few days, his whole life was changed. All the girls had agreed to leave him alone so long as he gave them each a bit of time. At first he hadn't understood what they all wanted, but after spending nearly ten hours in Kodachi's bed, he learned just what they all wanted.
He could remember giving each of the girl's a several hours in his bed. Each time he learned something new and interesting about each of the girls. Things that truly surprised and shocked him. Kodachi liked to be dominated and forced. It drove her wild in bed. Ranma could remember every noise and expression she made as she taught him how to take her.
Talk about eye opening.
The next morning she simply kissed him and left the Tendo's guest room grinning widely, barely able to walk straight. At the time, he thought she would become even more obsessed, but instead she seemed to calm down. She hadn't even shown up for the next few days.
After that was a week of training, real training, with Happosai. The old pervert actually had a set of kata for the next level of the school the expanded on the core moves in extraordinary ways. Since Happosai didn't want either Genma or Soun to know the moves, both men were kept away from the dojo during the day. Usually by handing them a wad of money and telling them to go to one of the local bars.
Ranma marveled at how they would jump at the old man's suggestion and vanish for hours on end. He still didn't quite understand why they would do that either, but shrugged it off. For three hours each day Happosai would drill the new moves into Ranma's brain and body. By the end of the week Ranma was bruised, battered, and bleeding.
He had all the moves down though. Ranma could see why they were considered the master techniques too. According to the old man, this was just the physical side of the training. Over the next couple of months Happosai started to teach him about Ki and its many varied uses. Ranma wouldn't admit it, but he was impressed as hell that the pervert could come up with some of the ideas.
Even stranger, Happosai explained that he thought knowing the new moves would help him on the Mastery Quest. This went on Monday through Friday without fail for two months. Ranma wasn't sure if the weekends were what scared him the most or not, because that was when one of the girl's would show up and demand his attention.
With Kodachi out of the way, the next girl to share his bed was Shampoo. Unlike Kodachi, sleeping with Shampoo was a completely different story. It didn't help that his body was sore after having Happosai beat him up for a week solid. The purple haired girl taught him things in bed that still amazed him.
Being ignorant of sex had robbed him of a lot of experience over the years, but now knew why his mother wanted him to bed every girl came near him. Shampoo was into acrobatic sex, positions that a normal person couldn't maintain for long. Ranma was glad his endurance surpassed hers or he figured he would have ended up in China by the time he woke up fifteen hours and dozens of sessions later.
When she woke up, she pulled a potion out and quickly drank it, and then rubbed her stomach with a little grin on her face. Ranma knew what that meant and tried not to think about it to much as he recovered. She simply dressed, kissed him, and left. He hadn't seen her since.
Ranma didn't even want to think of his weekends with Ukyo and Akane. Those hadn't gone as well. Both of them wanted something more than just sex, no matter what they said to each other. He was just glad it was over with for now. Now, a year later, he was beginning his Mastery Quest and he wondered how long it would take him to complete it.
The old pervert had sat down one day, near the end of the second month. "Enough."
Ranma hadn't been to surprised. "Huh?"
"It's time for you to perform your Quest."
Ranma nodded.
"I've been considering this, and I think you need to do more than just find a new martial arts move. Your mother thinks you need some world experience and I happen to agree."
"World experience?"
Happosai nodded. "Genma was very lax in your upbringing. He raised you to be a tool for his retirement. You do know that?"
Ranma nodded. "He's whined about it a few times when he wasn't aware I was around. I have no intention of supporting his retirement, he can earn that himself."
"Good." Happosai said as he lit up his pipe. "Now, as a martial artist you are one of the best I've ever seen. Even that Ryoga boy can't really stand up to you these days. Yet I've seen you defeated by Nabiki on countless occasions. It's pathetic."
"I have not lost!" Ranma yelled.
"She's smarter than you Ranma." Happosai said, tapping him on forehead with his pipe. "She beats you just by talking to you and tricking you into doing anything she wants. I've seen her do it dozens of times. I will not have a stupid heir. You can act stupid, but you better not be."
Ranma poked the fire again, staring at the red hot coals. No matter how many times he went over it, the old man was correct. Two days later, his pack was by the front door. His mother told him that the quest was to become a strong and independent man. Happosai told him to find his true self and learn how to think as well as react to any situation.
There was no way he could do that in just a few short weeks. That was how he ended up wandering across half the world. Sometime over the last few months he had noticed that his Ki senses could feel a pull coming from some distant source, but he had no clue what it could be. Just that it might help him achieve his goal. He was just glad that he could come back to Nerima whenever he wanted to visit.
He glanced up at a nearby sign that told him that he was just entering England. It was damned cold, foggy, and rainy. That was why he was currently a red headed girl as well.
"This sucks." She grumbled under her breath and stoked the coals again, trying to stay warm. "Really, really sucks."
oooooooooo
The freedom that he felt when he was flying was something that Harry hadn't had chance to really experience for some time. When living with the cursed Dursleys they treated him like a slave, even locking him away for days on end if he couldn't do what he was told. A work load of chores that even an adult would be hard pressed to finish, let along a five year old kid. They rarely fed him, even at the best of times.
With Ranma it was the constant training, something he didn't always like, although Harry had to admit to himself that he preferred the freedom of movement that he had living with Ranma. He would always be grateful to Ranma for taking away from his abusive relatives. So he ran back to the tower, got his broom from a still empty trunk, and headed for the Quiddich pitch.
His broom was resting on his shoulder as he entered the area and glanced around. Stands stood on either side of the pitch, each able to hold a couple hundred people. At both ends of the stadium stood three poles with hoops on top, gleaming as the sun set in the background.
Eager to fly, he didn't wait for anyone to arrive before he launched into the air. For the next several minutes he flew through the hoops at high speed, across the pitch, and performed a number of acrobatic moves high above the stadium. It wasn't long before Oliver Wood was yelling for him to get down though.
He noticed a large wooden crate at Wood's feet as he landed a few yards away, shouldered his broom, and walked over to the grinning team captain. "Wood."
"Now I see what Professor McGonagall meant about your flying abilities. That was amazing."
Harry laughed nervously. "I was just practicing. I didn't want to make a fool out of myself if the broom didn't work."
"Heh, now listen up." For the next half hour Wood went through the rules for Quiddich in meticulous detail. Harry quickly realized that Quiddich was a lot more complicated than he thought. If he wasn't paying attention to the game, he would quickly mess up in one way or another. He was just glad that he was going to be the Seeker, one of the easier positions on the team.
It was also the most important position, but Harry wasn't as worried about that. As Wood wound down, after repeating the same rule for the third time, Harry pointed at the various items inside the wooden crate. "The Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle, the Keeper guards the goalposts, and the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team with those little bats and team work," Harry explained, to show that he had been listening.
He pointed at the Bludger as it quivered in the restraint harness inside the box. "Those things are used to knock players off their brooms. Have they ever killed anyone?"
Wood shook his head. "No, but they do break bones if you aren't fast enough to dodge. It's an accepted danger."
For some reason Harry didn't have a hard time believing that. "Right."
"Well, it has never at Hogwarts, but I've heard of it happening in professional matches."
"Oh fun."
"Not to worry, the Weasley twins are quite good and will keep the bludgers away from you as you look for the snitch."
"That little gold one with wings?"
"Yeah, it's going to be your job to catch it. It gives us one hundred and fifty points. Catching the snitch is the quickest way to wing the game. Unless the opposing team manages to have more points from scoring with the Quaffle."
Harry nodded. "I see."
"Now the Snitch, or Golden Snitch has a second use. Not only does catching it gain your team points, it's also the only way to end the Quiddich match. If it's not caught by either team, the game can drag on for days." Wood explained. "I think the longest ever recorded was just over three months long."
To Harry it sounded like a great way to spend several days. Racing through the air, weaving his way through the other players and searching for a tiny little ball. Maybe he could drag a couple of games out for the hell of it, just to see how people would react.
Of course Wood had training in mind, so a few minutes later Wood was up in the air with a bag of Golf balls, throwing them all over the place every few seconds and forcing Harry to catch them before they hit the ground.
Harry didn't miss even one of them, much to Wood's delight. However, there were several close calls and Harry did scrape the skin off his knuckles at one point. Eventually the sun went down and the lighting from the castle made it next to impossible to see the golf balls and they were forced to land and head inside.
"The cup is in the bag! I think you could beat Charlie Weasley and he could have played professionally!" Wood crowed.
Harry just tried to nod in the appropriate places and pretended to understand what the quiddich fanatic was talking about.
oooooooooo
He moved silently through the room. He could tell that no one had been here for some time now. Over the last couple of months Ranma had found dozens of unused classrooms on his daily explorations of the school. Each of them had its own unique look.
Ranma wasn't sure why any of these rooms weren't used anymore. He could take several guesses though. The odd thing was the complete lack of dust in any of the rooms. Ranma assumed it the rooms were protected by some kind of spell that kept the dust away over time. Those cleaning animals would come through periodically and get rid of the dust as well.
What had Harry called them? Ah, house elves. Apparently, the little things lived to enslave themselves, constantly cleaning, cooking, and doing whatever they were told to do. Ranma didn't really care though. The few times he even talked to the things they would insist that they didn't want to be freed from their bonds of slavery.
After having one nearly knock itself unconscious on the floor, Ranma had apologized and asked the thing to explain why. He had to admit that the little buggers had it made. They were creatures of magic, bred to do just what they were doing. If they weren't bonded to a building or a family they would die within a few short weeks.
Their unused magic would build up and kill them. So long as they were working they could live quite peacefully. They could also be quite loyal, and would burst into tears if you were ever nice to them. Ranma learned quite quickly to be firm and polite to the little buggers, otherwise they would stalk you.
They could be useful, but it was unsettling to wake up in the morning to find one of them standing on your chest staring at your face with their large eyes wide, trying to look adoring. Ranma wandered around the classroom and seriously wondered how he ever managed to get into these odd situations. Cats would converge on him like he was carrying a homing beacon.
Martial Artists from weird schools popped up every other month trying to prove that they were better than him because they managed to something like imbue Ki into Cheese Whiz and could throw potato chips like throwing stars. He was kind of used to it after all this time though, so he just went with the flow and accepted anything that came his way.
"Who are you?"
Ranma spun around and came face to face with one of the Hogwarts resident ghosts. This one didn't seemed to have any kind of shape though. Instead it was a formless mass, similar to a cloud, hovering in the air in front of it. He could just make out a pair of glowing eyes inside the mass.
"Come now, strangers aren't supposed to be in the castle. Who are you?" It said again, looking straight into him.
Ranma let his umisenken go and reappeared. He gave the thing a once over. "How did you know I was there?"
It chuckled. "I could hear your heart beat."
Ranma nodded. "I'm just exploring."
"You aren't dressed normally." It said, seeming to indicate his shirt and pants. "More like a Muggle."
He shrugged. "I don't like robes."
"So why are you in this part of the castle? Even the students don't come here that often. You're the first living soul I've seen in this room for over three hundred years."
Ranma whistled. "I knew this place hadn't been used in some time."
"This is the old Occlumancy classroom. It used to be a required class taught to all second years. It was a sad day when the class was removed from the rolls." The ghost said.
"What is Occlumancy?"
"It's a two fold art. It's main purpose is to guard the mind from intrusion and attack. It's secondary purpose is the main reason why the art was required in the first place. By learning to protect the mind you learn more about yourself, this allows for better focus and stronger spell casting. Kids these days don't have even a tenth of the power their spells should have." The ghost complained.
"That sounds useful." Ranma commented, hoping to distract the ghost a little. "Are there any books on the subject?"
"There should be some in the library somewhere." It said.
Crack!
"Master Ranma!"
Ranma groaned and looked down at the little house elf. "Hello Kamy."
She smiled up at him with those over sized eyes of hers again and her ears fluttered. "It's nearly noon, what would you like for lunch?"
"Ah…" Ranma cursed his stomach as it growled, making the house elf grin wider. "How about a couple of sandwiches? I'll eat here though."
"Yes sir!" Kamy yelled and vanished with another crack.
The ghost laughed. "Be nice to a house elf once and they are yours forever."
Groaning again, Ranma nodded. "So, this Occlumancy stuff, it sounds quite a bit like meditation."
"Close actually, but Occlumancy goes a few steps beyond that. To master the art you have to arrange your memories into categories and maintain those areas. Meditation just clears your mind and helps you to focus. Once that is done you can build defenses inside your mind with Occlumancy."
"This is sounding exactly like what I need for my student." Ranma explained. He started pacing, considering the idea. "Would it be possible for me to learn this art?"
The ghost shrugged, it's mass rising up and down once. "It's been said that a Muggle can learn the art, but I've never seen it done."
"By the way, what's your name?"
The ghost shrugged again. "I've been around for so long that I can't even maintain my shape for long, let along recall my name."
The ghostly mass shifted and swirled as it suddenly started pulling itself into a more humanoid shape. Seconds later a tall ghostly man with a goatee stood before Ranma. He was wearing some ancient looking robes. They were plainly decorated, tied at the waist, and slit up the sides to allow for easy leg movement.
Then the form dissolved back into the mass. The ghost sighed. "Sorry, I can't hold that form for long."
"No problem."
Crack! A small table appeared in the room. Kamy sat enough food for four people on the table, grinned shyly at Ranma, and then vanished. The food was enough to draw Ranma over to the table and seconds later, he was eating in his usual fashion. Once he finished eating, Ranma glanced around the room again. "Are you sure there aren't any books in here on Occlumancy?"
"There are books, but since you're a muggle, you can't get to them."
"Try me."
A tendril rose out of the mass and pointed at the wall. "There is a hidden book case over there. You need to place your hand on the wall and say the password, Book Case."
"Bookcase?"
"Old Professor Lightfoot wasn't into security and the books aren't all that dangerous. This was a second year subject after all."
Moving over to the wall, Ranma placed his hand, said the password, and nothing happened. He did feel something though. "Hmm…"
"See, a muggle can't access the case."
"I felt something."
The ghost blinked.
A bright blue line of energy swirled around Ranma's body as he flared a tiny bit of Ki and tried the password again. This time he felt a tug of some kind in his hand. The ghost floated over and had a fascinated look in his eye. "I was unaware that Muggles could access life energy."
"It's pretty rare." Ranma said as he considered the feeling in his hand.
"Even magic folk don't mess with life energy these days."
Reaching out, Ranma let his Ki coat the wall in front of him and he could sense the bookcase, its shape, several books, and even a few unknown items. The ghost backed off just as Ranma found something and gave it a little tug with his aura. The wall flared, filling the room with white light and when it cleared the bookcase was visible. Magic was sparking off the case, to the wall, and to the floor for several seconds.
Ranma ignored this as he ran his hands over the books. He didn't see the ghost race from the room seconds later, vanishing through the back wall. Grabbing a beginners book, Ranma sat down at the table and started to speed read. Kamy brought him some more food that he absentmindedly ate as he read.
She grinned at him every time he ate something.
oooooooooo
The next few weeks were a blur of activity for Harry as he practiced Quiddich three times a week, took all his classes, trained with Ranma, and was still expected to get his homework done. Then he had to add his practice sessions with Ranma in and Harry was one tired eleven year old boy. Ranma just smirked, called it all endurance training, and called him a wimp.
He hadn't even seen much of Hermione lately either. If she was still following him around she was doing a better job of it. On the other hand, Ron was acting odd as Halloween rolled around. The kid was a good friend, but he could be hot and cold at times. One day they would be best buddies, but then something would happen and he would give Harry the cold shoulder for a few days. It was rather strange really.
At first Harry wasn't sure what he was doing and asked Ranma about it, being that Ranma was the only adult figure he really trusted. Ranma didn't have a clue, but told him to meditate on the problem and take a closer look at his memories. That was how Harry found himself standing on his head, legs crossed as if he was sitting, for four hours reviewing the last few weeks of school.
Ranma took this time to try to distract him, which only worked a few times. Then Harry started to recall certain events that hadn't meant a thing to him at the time. The two of them would be in class and Harry would learn a new spell after a couple of tries. Ron on the other hand would end up spending two or three days to learn the spell.
"Jealously." Harry said and fell over.
"More than likely." Ranma said, as if he suspected it all along. "I used to have the same problem with fighting techniques. It earned me more than one enemy."
"But, why is he mad at me?" Harry asked.
"Because you are, in his mind, showing off." Ranma said with a frown. "Akane used to call me arrogant and a show off because I could show her up all the time. You are simply better at learning than he is. I've noticed that he doesn't apply himself to much either."
"I noticed that too, but didn't think it was that much of a problem. He barely does the required work for any of the classes. He does a little as possible and gets mad when anyone suggests that he do more. I figured it was normal for him."
Climbing to his feet, Harry nodded and headed for his kitchen to make a sandwich. The room was spotless, almost gleaming, and he wondered if the house elves were cleaning in here as well. "So, how do I deal with this?"
"I just ignored Akane and she eventually stopped."
"And you aren't to close to her these days."
Ranma shrugged. "She left, nothing I could do about that."
"You still miss her." Harry said, knowingly.
Now Ranma glared at him for a second, and then laughed. "You're getting better at that."
"Thought I had you there for a second."
"I was trained by Genma Saotome. He could piss off a rock with just a few words." Ranma said as he smirked.
They glared at each other, tensed, and attacked.
As the next few days passed Harry's fighting abilities grew quite a bit, much to the delight of the girls around the tower. Even though he was only eleven Harry's body was quite athletic already and well formed. More than once he would notice that the girls seemed to be paying more attention to him.
He wasn't sure why either. It wasn't as if he was encouraging it or anything and was only eleven years old. Ron on the other hand thought it was hilarious and teased him about it a few times. By the time Halloween rolled around Harry found himself pushing his body beyond its limits. Every minute of the day was taken up with one activity or another. Ranma just said his endurance training was paying off and smirked at him.
Harry spent a lot of time cussing.
He had classes during the day, then the Quiddich practices that could last hours, and after that would be several more hours of homework. Ranma kept him occupied in the mornings, teaching him new moves. If they weren't doing that, then the two of them were reading some of the books they picked up.
Ranma was getting a little frustrated that he couldn't pull off any of the spells too, even the simplest ones. Sure, he could copy some of the effects with his Ki, but he could never get Harry's wand to respond to him. The lack of success made their training quite intense as well.
Even though it was a busy time, Harry weathered it quite well and ended up rereading his books more than once. His potions classes even improved when Harry devised a simple chart for him to reference while working. So long as he had that, and Snape didn't see it, he rarely messed up anymore. However, that didn't keep Snape from dropping his potion attempts on the floor and giving him a failing grade.
A few days after Snape started to pull things like that was just about when the silent wind started to roar through the dungeons whenever he was around. The students didn't know what was causing it, but whenever it started things got weird. Snape was always the target and he was always alone when the wind would rush down the corridor. In one week alone Snape lost four robes and ended up spending the night in the hospital wing more than once.
One second he would be walking along, the next the wind would slam into him with the force of a tornado, lifting him in the air, and throwing him against the nearest wall. More often than not his robes would be ripped to shreds by the time the wind died down and he collapsed to the floor.
Then it happened to Draco Malfoy, Cabble, and Goyle as they picked on some first year Hufflepuffs. Surprisingly the wind never touched the Hufflepuffs, but it did toss the Slytherins down the hall and shred their clothing into confetti. Since Filch was in the area and heard the commotion he took fifty points from Slytherin and gave them all a week's detention.
After that, things were quiet until Halloween, which was when things got weird again. Harry was sure that he would never forget what happened. Of course, one doesn't forget a life or death battle. Ranma had the up earlier than normal on Halloween morning.
The two of them took their early morning showers in the trunk, when Ranma informed Harry of his plans. "Harry, I'm going to be out of the trunk again today." Ranma told him.
"Why?"
"I want to take a look at that library they have here."
"You haven't seen it?"
Ranma shook his head. "No, I've been meaning too, but I keep ending up outside for some reason."
"You're taking a wrong turn?"
"I don't think so, but who knows. Once I was in the dungeon, went through this doorway, and found myself down by the lake. I still can't figure out how that happened. For a minute, I thought Ryoga was pulling something on me. You know his bad sense of direction."
"This castle is full of secret passages and hidden rooms. I bet you found one of those!" Harry said excitedly.
"Maybe. I was going to look into that again and see if I could find anything else."
"You see anything else down there?"
Ranma eyed him for a sec. "A few things here and there, like that Defense teacher of yours. I keep seeing him down in the lowest parts of the castle, wandering around, mumbling to himself."
"Mumbling?"
"Yeah. I don't think he's quite all there."
Laughing, Harry nodded. "Yeah Quirrell is an oddball. His classroom has garlic hanging from the ceiling and he can't say three words together without stuttering. The class has to bite their tongues to keep from laughing at him when he tries to teach us anything."
"One thing I did notice about the man was that when I was near him I could feel something dangerous about him. Like when I fought some of those Musk Dynasty fighters a couple years ago."
oooooooooo
Harry was glad he had couple pair of pants left to wear as he headed for the ladder to leave the trunk. He tumbled out onto the bed and into a pile of school robes. Throwing the curtain to his bed open, after closing the trunk, he crawled off the bed. Only then did he notice the sudden silence.
With a robe and t-shirt in hand he turned around to see two girls gaping at him. He watched their eyes travel down his body, across his bare chest, down his legs, and back to his face. Ron, who the girls appeared to be talking to, seemed to be a bit confused at the girl's response.
"Parvati?" He said. "That's just Harry."
The girls seemed to glide across the room. The one in the lead, with the long dark hair in a braid, licked her lips and appeared to have forgotten how to blink as she gazed at him. "Harry Potter."
Harry smiled at her. "Hello, we haven't had a chance to meet each other yet."
The girls giggled and blushed a little at Harry's forward manner. Harry recognized Parvati's twin Padma in he Ravenclaw robes as well. No matter where they went, Ranma always stressed that he pay attention to the people around him in case of a potential attack. The third girl was another Gryffindor, Lavender Brown. All three of them were rather flushed.
"This is my twin sister Padma, and my friend Lavender." Parvati said.
Ron looked confused and a little irritated that the girls weren't talking to him anymore.
"Well Hello." He said, shaking the girl's hands and smiling at them. Ranma's Anything School of Charming the Ladies, Saotome Style always came in handy. Even if it tended to cause a lot of foot in the mouth problems. Harry was eleven, but he was a muscular eleven year old.
The girl giggled again.
Ron frowned.
Harry quickly donned his dark t-shirt, much to the girl's disappointment. "So what are you planning for Halloween?"
The girls all started to gush about costumes and the upcoming feast. Ron, much to Harry's shock, was starting to look like an angry red headed git again. It took several minutes, but Harry managed to steer the girl back over to Ron without being to obvious about it.
Then the girls groaned as Harry pulled his robes on. He was quite surprised to see them giving him disappointed looks as he adjusted the clothing. Somewhere off to the side he heard Ranma chuckle quietly. He gave the spot a glare and felt a pat on his back.
"Grin and bare it student." Ranma said quietly enough that no one would hear him. "Better the girls like you than hate you."
"Humph."
"Bed them all, mom will drag the details from you anyway."
Harry paled a little as Ranma moved off. He hadn't spoken to Ranma's mom in several months and she was constantly trying to hook him up with girls. The hoard of Amazons that just happened to pass by the house, happened to be her latest scheme. If she found out about these girls he'd be doomed. He was only eleven years old for crying out loud.
Sighing in defeat, Harry holstered his wand, adjusted his glasses, and headed for the door. "Ron, ready to head down the feast?"
The girls squealed and ran for their room to finish getting ready. Ron waved goodbye as they left and smirked, rather angrily, at Harry. "You seem to be quite the ladies man."
"I'm eleven." Harry said flatly.
"Yet that didn't stop you from flirting with them."
Harry grinned and sauntered past Ron. "True."
The red head gaped at him, and then heard snickering from the now empty room. He ran out the door and chased after Harry seconds later. The door, which was closing on its own, suddenly stopped for a second before it shut completely. Ron gaped at it for a second, shook his head, and continued after Harry. He was muttering something about ghosts and something called Peeves.
Ranma was about to head out the portal, still using the Umisenken, when he spotted something different. Everything in the room was glowing faintly. It was so subtle that he it was almost unnoticeable. He glanced at the portrait of the Fat Lady in pink and saw that it was also glowing, though the glow seemed to move around on the canvas itself.
"Weird." He muttered, thinking about it as he moved into the hallway.
oooooooooo
Author Notes: While I didn't 'show' certain scenes in this chapter and just told about them, this is because I condensed them a little to show what was going on. Harry is training harder than ever, Ranma is making sure that Harry is educated properly, and he's pushing Harry to be all he can be.
So to speak. :P
I also didn't mention Hermione in this chapter mostly because she wasn't around. She's mad at Harry as well, which is why she's avoiding him. As a Gryffindor she would have forced a talk, but as a Ravenclaw she's thinking the situation through before she acts. In other words, she's in the library with her nose buried in a large book.
oooooooooo
Omake:
A strange commotion filled the air outside the great hall just a few minutes before dinner was to be served. At first it was muffled by distance, but that soon changed as the students started to hear screams and yelling.
Dumbledore and McGonagall looked at each other in confusion. Just as they stood up to see what all the yelling was about, Fred and George Weasley burst through the giant doors to the great hall. They split up and raced down both sides of the Gryffindor table.
They weren't screaming, they looked like they were having the time of their life. Because not even a second later the true source of the screaming was revealed.
A house elf, a small female house elf holding a full sized broom as if it was a weapon of war.
"Bad, bad weezes!" The elf yelled.
"Now it wasn't that bad!" Fred yelled from behind Professor Dumbledore.
"Yeah!" George agreed. "It was all in fun!"
Twirling the broom around, an amazing feet in itself for such a small creature, she screamed as she spotted the twins and raced after them. The students could hear her cussing as they raced around the room. Down the length of one table, then up the other side, then over the top and underneath as well.
"No jokies in kitchens!" The house elf yelled when she caught them.
Five minutes later the house elf strutted out of the great hall with a broken broom over one shoulder and a smug look on her face. No one would ever know what the twins did, but everyone all knew they deserved it.