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Potter – The Stone
Chapter 13
By Cory D. Rose
© 2005
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After the Halloween incident, Harry didn't do anything for the next few days but keep his head down and go to class. He noticed that most of his teachers would spend more time watching him in class than they did before, as if making sure he wasn't going to do anything else. Ranma just laughed and told him to ignore them.
As they entered November over the next few days, the temperature seemed to plunge over night. A coating of ice covered the lake and Harry even heard someone suggest that the whole thing was one large block of ice. It got so cold that the ground was starting to freeze as well.
They could even see Hagrid running around in a weird cold weather outfit defrosting the school brooms every morning. Ranma even commented that the big guy looked like a walking mound of fur coats. At the same time, Harry seemed to turn a little greener with each passing day. Quidditch season had begun and Harry, who hadn't played in an actual game yet, was a nervous wreck.
Weeks of training with the team three nights a week, early in the morning or after classes, kept his busy. That didn't keep him from worrying about how his first game would go. He didn't want to make a fool out of himself. Wood kept telling him about how they needed to win this game to be in second place for the Quidditch cup. What was even worse was that no one other than the team itself had seen Harry play.
Wood took measures to make sure that the other teams weren't around to see Harry practice. This made Harry the Gryffindor team's secret weapon, even though the knowledge did leak out. Harry figured it was Draco telling stories, but couldn't prove it. Therefore, he just ignored what people were saying about him, again.
At the same time, Ranma was pushing him as well, to keep up with his school work and the daily martial arts practice. Although Ranma did let up a little bit on the days when there was a Quidditch practice. Ranma was fascinated by seeing brooms flying around at high speed without crashing into the ground.
Harry tried not to worry about the hints that Ranma was making about creating a kata for a flying broom. It was just too weird to think about. They also found a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages among the many books they took from Harry's family vault. It was full of information that explained everything that Wood hadn't explained, even after three weeks of practice.
There was the other change that caught Harry by surprise. Hermione wasn't following him around anymore. Instead, she was right there beside him in any of the classes they shared and even liked to eat lunch with him when she could. She was a lot more open now, opinionated, and rather bossy.
However, Harry didn't hold that against her since she liked to help him with his homework and was able to give him a push when he needed it. They were standing out side during one of the breaks between classes going over their homework from the morning classes. Hermione used a warming charm to keep them warm while they sitting there.
"Did anything interesting happen today?" Harry asked because Hermione was looking almost as nervous as he was.
"I'm just worried about your upcoming game. It looks so dangerous." She said, shuddering a little as she saw someone flying in the distance. It didn't help that the cover of Harry's book also showed someone flying a broom around the pitch.
Harry nodded. "I'm not worried about the game, but being in front of all those people. What if I screw up?"
"I hate flying." Hermione shuddered and looked away. "I can't believe you are even going to play this silly game. What if you die?"
Harry just laughed. "Madam Hooch said that our fear will keep us from flying if we let it. You need to relax and just enjoy flying. You're in complete control of the broom and it's nearly impossible to fall off, the charms make sure of that."
Hermione just looked at him and gave him a look that said 'I don't believe a word your saying.'
He held up his book of Quidditch Through the Ages. "It even says so in here and gives several charms that you can use on the basic broom to prevent you from falling, even while upside down."
"I looked through a copy of that in the library. I don't care what you say, this game is way too dangerous. Those Blugeet things are spelled to actually hit you and throw you off your broom, while you're in the air, and then you'll fall the ground. It's too dangerous." She insisted. "You're going to die!"
"It's all part of the game." Harry said, grinning a little. "I won't die either, Wood says no one has ever died in a school match."
"But what if you fall?"
"I won't fall. I've been flying for weeks and you can't even get on the team unless you are a very good flier."
Hermione pushed her lip out and glared at him stubbornly. The look almost made Harry fall over laughing; it just didn't look right on Hermione's face. Her glasses even helped to make her look odder than ever. Harry's shoulders started to shake as he looked away, trying not to laugh.
"Humph!" Hermione grumped as she stood up and stalked back into the castle.
"Hermione!" Harry called.
"Classes start here in a little while. We need to go." She called back.
As Harry got up, he spotted the Weasley twins heading his way. They waved at him as they jogged on over. "Harry!"
"Hey guys, what's going on?"
"We saw…"
"…the whole thing!"
"That girl likes…"
"…you."
Harry shrugged. "She's a friend."
"The boy…"
"…is naïve, Brother."
"Yes, yes he is."
Harry frowned. "One, I'm only eleven and I'm too young to worry about a girlfriend. And two, why would she even like me in that way, she's only eleven herself."
"Girls mature long…"
"…before us boys."
"They Know." The twins said together, ominously.
Harry scoffed. "Yeah right."
The twins just grinned at him and laughed. "Time for…"
"…classes to start."
"You don't want to…'
"…let her beat you…
"To class."
Cursing, he ran into the school as the twins watched and laughed. However, Harry did have problems getting Hermione out of his mind now that the twins had pointed out that she might like him. He still considered himself to be way too young. The pack of giggling girls that followed him around seemed to have other ideas though.
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Once again Ranma found himself in the Occlumancy classroom once more. This was probably his tenth visit to the room since he found it several days ago. He hadn't seen the ghost since then, but he really didn't mind all that much. The ghosts around the school seemed to come and go as they pleased and were rarely seen during the day.
He'd gone through all the books as best he could. Memorizing the information in the books was rather easy, but he found that he still didn't fully understand some of the information in them. All those weird words he'd never seen before took forever to figure out.
That had forced him to start comparing information from the books in Harry's trunk library. It would take him some time to read all the remaining books. He was only about a fourth of the way through them as well. Up till now he figured he knew quite a bit of magical theory, but with the Occlumancy books, a lot of the information made more sense.
He was currently in his short sleeved red shirt, black pants outfit like normal, though the red silk shirt was a deep dark red and edged in black. Even after over a decade, he still preferred the style to normal clothing. He stood in the middle of the room with is hands out in front of him, with the palms facing each other. There was a look of intense concentration on his face as little bursts of static electricity bounced from palm to palm.
He wasn't trying to form a ball of Ki though, instead he was trying to pull raw magic into his hands and form a ball as he would a Ki sphere. He could still see the stuff on the walls all around the room, even on the floor and ceiling. The only problem is that he couldn't seem to get the stuff to cooperate. His Ki seemed to interact with it, but he couldn't seem to get the stuff to do what he wanted.
That's why his hands were arching with static electricity. The energy of the magic seemed to be bleeding off into the air instead of forming between his hands, as he wanted. It didn't help that he had no clue what he was doing wrong. He was very aware of how is body worked and could feel the energy as it flowed through his hands, but it was slippery and refused to do what he wanted.
After several minutes of trying Ranma relaxed and took a deep breath. He'd been trying to pull this off for over three hours now. Each time he relaxed and started up again he tried to pull it off by focusing his aura in a slightly different way.
He had a feeling that he was on the right track through. At first, he hadn't been able to do anything, but then as the hours went by and continued to try, the static electricity started to form around his hands. He could 'see' that it was magic and not Ki. He could feel the energy as it flowed through his body. He was paying a lot of attention to where it went inside his body as well.
This was how he originally managed to access his first Ki blast. So he knew that it would work if he kept at it. Bringing his hands back up, he closed his eyes and focused on the Occlumancy training again. His face went blank as he let his aura reach out from his body and 'touch' the magic all around him. Sweat formed on his forehead as he touched the magic around him.
Instead of pulling it to him, this time he studied it with his aura, finding spots where he could tell it was either weak or strong. With his eyes closed he didn't see his blue aura slowly getting lighter and lighter, slowly turning a bright white.
His patience always paid off when he was learning a new technique. As the magic pulled away from the walls and floor, he let it go where it wanted to instead of trying to force and dominate it. His aura slowly started to turn transparent, concentrating around his chest, glowing as bright as a star.
Then his eyes snapped open and the aura vanished in an instant. Ranma gasped for air as he slowly dropped to one knee, completely exhausted. His head hung down as he tried to overcome a dizzy spell. It took him nearly five minutes before he managed to lurch back to his feet, stagger over to a chair, and collapse into it.
As soon as he could stand again Ranma came to his feet and performed a few stretches. Then sat down on the floor and started to meditate, rolling to the side and standing on his head with his legs crossed. He spent half an hour like that slowly recharging his Ki and examining his body inside and out.
By the time he was done he could tell that his Ki was slightly more fluid than it used to be. Before he started this, he could force it do anything it was trained for. Now it seemed like a thick water flowing through his body pulsing with power. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he would have to spend a few days examining the changes to make sure he didn't just do something stupid.
An hour later he strolled down the corridor, hidden with his Umisenken like usual, and headed back for the tower. Harry would still be in his afternoon classes, which gave Ranma a few more hours to explore and think. He reached an archway and stepped out on one of the landings that overlooked the entrance hall. Several students were running around down below.
Across the way Ranma spotted some movement and turned to see Professor Snape and Filch riding one of the staircases over to the third floor. He remembered the room that was over there and that three headed dog. Using his aura he tried to reach out and sense what the teacher was doing, but his body didn't want to cooperate with him.
Ranma hoped that he wouldn't have to push himself to this level of exhaustion every time he practiced this new technique. He sighed and turned, just as Peeves seemed to fly down from the ceiling and throw a bucket of dirty mop water all at him.
Splash! "Oh $#!"
Peeves cackled as he flew by. "Naughty little muggle! You shouldn't be running around Hogy warts! Peeves'll get you now!"
The water had caused Ranma to lose his concentration on the Umisenken as well as turning him into a red headed girl. She spit out a bit of water and wiped her face off as she glared at the poltergeist. "You will pay for that."
Peeves laughed and started throwing rotten fruit at her. "Take that muggle! BWHAHAHAHAH!"
Stepping out of the way, Ranma saw that several of the students had seen her and were pointing in her direction. She stepped back and fired a Ki blast at Peeves, but it dodged and raced down the hall, laughing. The Ki blast hit the ceiling and exploded, creating a small hole. Gritting her teeth, Ranma saw that a few of the older students were heading her way and pulling wands.
She would have to blast the blasted thing some other time. Cursing, she grabbed the rail and calmly jumped over the side. She fell two stories and landed with ease. She looked up to see the students gaping at her. She grinned and raced down the nearest corridor, vanishing in mid step.
Several girls screamed.
oooooooooo
"Hey kid." Ranma said as Harry entered the kitchen later that night.
"Ranma."
"I saw something today you might want to know about."
"Like what?" Harry asked as he started to make a sandwich.
"That Professor of yours, Snape, was wandering around the third floor corridor along with Filch."
"What were they doing there?"
"I think Snape entered the room with that large dog. I didn't hear anything, I was busy with something else, but Snape came back out limping badly. Filch never went into the room either. Snape also left a trail of blood along the corridor as he headed back for the dungeons." Ranma explained. She had retraced her steps over to the area after dodging the students.
"The dog got him?"
Ranma nodded.
"Good."
"The guy's a jerk, but I've met people a lot worse."
This just made Harry shrug. "Snape has gone out of his way to make me hate him. I'm almost to the point where he'll be on the same list as the Dursleys. I can't even have one class with him without losing the house points, he's insulting, bitter, and a complete jerk. Let him suffer a little."
Ranma shrugged. "Alright, but I think you're wrong about him."
"Why do you say that? You've even attacked him a couple of times for his actions. Don't think I don't know. Those winds of yours are very familiar." Harry snapped.
"Well, he's a jerk. I'll admit that, but so are Mouse, Ryoga, and Kuno. You met them all and know how they are."
Harry nodded. They went to Nerima every Christmas. He knew Ranma's friends and rivals quite well.
"Well I've taken a look at Snape's aura on several occasions and it tells me that he's a good person. He's just a jerk about things, like students, you, the teachers, you, the world, and you of course." Ranma smirked.
"Oh, ha ha." Harry muttered.
"See, so lay off the guy. There's probably a good reason for his actions and we need to find out what they are."
"If he was in the room with that dog, is it possible he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding?"
Ranma shrugged. "Got me, but I doubt it. You'll just have to watch him if you want to know."
"Whatever. He's a git."
"Mom sends her love as well." Ranma said out of the blue. "She wants us to try and make it back for the winter holidays."
"Can we even leave?" Harry wondered.
"I don't see why not, but I'd like to have more time to work on your training over the winter holiday."
"We'll have to come up with a plan."
"Already got something in mind and it's dead simple." Ranma explained.
"Like what?"
"You'll see." Ranma said with a smirk.
"Cut that out!"
More smirking.
"AGHAAAA!"
"Ha! To slow!"
oooooooooo
It was nearly time and Harry felt like he was walking to his doom. He shuddered a bit as he sat down in the Great Hall the next morning, surrounded by the smell of sausage and eggs. There was an energy in the air as all the houses anticipated the upcoming quidditch match.
Harry looked at his food and couldn't eat a bit of it. Even the smell was making him nauseous. His stomach was growling at him though. "Ungh." He muttered, sitting his fork down.
"Come on Harry, you have to eat something." Ron said, placing a mountain of eggs on Harry's plate. "Just eat that and you'll be fine"
Harry looked a little green.
"You do need your strength Harry." Seamus said from his place on the other side of the table.
"I'm not hungry." Harry snapped, he felt horrible.
The game was just an hour away. About the only thing that made Harry eat anything was that Ranma always encouraged him to eat whenever he could. Still, he only managed to choke down a few sausages and a slice of bread. By then it was nearly eleven in the morning and he was forced out to the quidditch pitch.
Unsteadily, he trekked over to his other team mates as they watched the stands fill with students. He shuddered as he realized that all of them were going to be watching him play today. However, he got a laugh a little while later when he spotted a banner hanging off the Gryffindor stands with his name blinking in different colors. He had a feeling that the twins had a hand in creating the thing.
They were all dressed in red robes, wearing some pads, and thick leather gloves to protect the hands. Wood was worried about the extreme cold, so he made sure they were all using warming charms as well. Harry didn't really hear Wood's speech as they mounted their brooms though, he was still worried about playing in front of everyone. They flew out into the main field to the cheers of the crowd, quickly flying around the pitch to warm up before the game.
This was exactly what Harry needed to get over his growing fear. After two laps, they broke off and headed for their positions. He went up a little higher than normal, scanned the area, and entered his center to calm his mind. He noticed that Madam Hooch below him, refereeing the game as well.
A few minutes later the Slytherins took the field and did their turn around the pitch in their green robes, and took up their positions. Hooch released the Quaffle, then the Bludgers, and finally the Snitch that shot off and vanished instantly. With a loud blow of her whistle, he game started.
Centered as he was, Harry watched the game out of the corner of his eye as he slowly moved in a spiral pattern around the pitch. He was looking for the small glint of gold that the Snitch would put off as it moved around erratically. He heard Lee Jordan as he called the game, but only in the back of his mind, even when McGonagall yelled at him for favoring Gryffindor.
Both teams moved across the field, dodging bludgers until Angela snuck a quaffle through one of the Slytherin goal posts. Harry did a mid air twist with his broom to avoid a bludgers heading his way and let the twins take care of it. He could was a lot closer to the ground now and could see that even Hagrid had come to the game.
Then he saw the snitch. Gritting his teeth he plunged through a small formation of Slytherins below him, making them scatter and curse. He didn't take his eye of the snitch though, but the Slytherin seeker had also spotted the little golden prize.
He reached out his hand just as a green blur dived at him and slammed a shoulder into Harry's back, sending him spinning through the air. The crowd yelled in outrage and Lee Jordan insulted the Slytherins. Harry quickly got control, but the snitch wasn't there anymore and the Slytherins were laughing at him. Harry growled and adjusted his glasses.
Hooch called a foul on Slytherin and gave Gryffindor a free shot at the Slytherin goals. Gasping for air, Harry shot across the pitch, once again looking for the snitch. He ignored Jordan calling for the Slytherins to be kicked out of the game for cheating. Harry had expected something like this from a house with their reputation.
Then something weird happened as he slowed to a stop above the game again. His broom, a brand new one, gave a sudden lurch, as if it was trying to buck him off. For a brief second he thought he was going to fall and wondered what he'd done to make it do this. He was just glad he was using his center to keep his emotions under his control and to think straight.
The broom lurched again, this time twisting savagely and nearly throwing him again. He gripped the handle tighter in shock. The broom was completely out of his control now, he couldn't get it to do anything at all as he tried to make it land.
In the stands Hermione gasped as she realized that Harry's face had acquired the same look he had when he fought the troll. Completely determined as if it was made out of stone, even his eyes seemed to shine a little brighter. Everyone else was just starting to realize that something was wrong too.
Staying on the broom was like riding a bull, but then it seemed to settle down a little and Harry was able to get his bearings. He took a deep breath, still fighting the broom, and looked towards the ground. Then he saw Hermione looking not at him, but across the stands, to where Snape was…staring right at him, muttering under his breath.
'Is he Jinxing the broom?' Harry thought to himself.
"Harry, let us help." Fred called as he tried to get close.
"The broom is bucking too much." Harry said. "Look at the stands, at Snape!"
The twins looked down and frowned, looking angry. "Why that little…"
"He might be casting the counter Jinx." George said as he tried to help as well, but couldn't get a hand on Harry's broom.
Harry just started to look angry. He reached into his robe and quickly pulled out a throwing star. He always carried a few on him for emergencies. The twins didn't see what Harry was doing though as they hovered below him in case he fell. They would be able to catch him easily then.
Rolling the star around his fingers, getting the right grip on it, he drew his arm back, and threw it. He heard the twins gasp. The star flew across the field, heading right for Snape. It was also glowing a bright red as it spun right for the center of Snape's chest. The potions master gasped, lost his concentration, and heard a commotion off to the side.
Hermione was also moving and held her wand towards Snape just as the man dove to the side. The throwing star impacted the bench where Snape was sitting without a loud 'thunk'. It echoed loud enough for everyone to hear it and sent several students scrambling away.
Snape's dive sent him careening into Professor Quirrell and sent both men tumbling. The broom suddenly stopped bucking and Harry was able to get it back under his complete control.
"Wicked!" The twins yelled at the growing chaos and panic in the stands below.
Harry just folded his arms and glared around him, twirling a second throwing star in his gloved hand. His broom was under his control again so he didn't think he would need the second star. As things calmed down he could see several students crawling over to where Snape was sitting and touching the star, embedded several inches into the magically hardened wood.
It would spark every time someone poked it with his or her wand. Snape and Quirrell recovered quickly though and started to bring the crowd back under control with help from Madam Hooch. Every now and then one of the men would look up at Harry with an odd look, then turn away and continue working with the crowd. Harry put his star back and moved down the twins. "Thanks for the help guys."
"That was incredible!" Fred yelled.
"Stupendous!" George yelled at the same time. They both grinned.
Harry just shook his head. "I'm not sure what Snape was up to, but he just ticked me off officially."
The twins nodded.
A sudden glint of gold sent Harry into an instant dive. He blew by the Slytherin seeker, missing him by inches and sending the guy spinning away. Harry leveled off and caught the snitch.
Sorta.
It bounced from his gloved hand, to his shoulder, and off his head. He had to spin around and catch it on his second try. This time he caught it correctly. He held it up as quick as he could. Hooch grumbled a bit, but said the catch was legal because no one called a time out during Harry's strange broom ride.
The Slytherin team was pissed. They glared at the Gryffindor team as everyone headed back to the castle, but Harry ignored them. He quickly landed at the edge of the field and dismounted. His hands were starting to shake now that the whole thing was over.
"Ya'alright 'arry?" Hagrid asked, looking slightly pale.
Harry nodded. "Why did Snape try to attack me?"
The large man scoffed as Hermione and Ron ran over to them. "Professor Snape would never do a thing like that."
"I saw him Hagrid. It was Snape." Harry insisted.
"I saw him too." Hermione said. "He was Jinxing Harry's broom."
"He wouldn't do that!" Hagrid said, his voice rising a little louder.
Harry growled. "Yeah right, then tell me what ripped up his leg? He tried to get past that dog in the third floor corridor."
"What!" Hermione and Ron yelled.
"He was bitten by that dog on Halloween. Must have been trying to steal what that giant dog was protecting." Harry muttered to himself.
"Ya know 'bout Fluffy?" He gasped. "Ow could yer possibly know…"
"Snape is trying to steal it." Harry growled. "And he just tried to kill me."
"He is not! Rubbish!" Hagrid thundered, slapping his hand down on one of the seats, rattling the whole structure. "He's a teacher, he wouldn't do such a thing."
"Then why did he try to kill me? I saw him with my own eyes casting that Jinx"
Ron nodded.
Hagrid looked panicky. "You aught not know about this stuff! Snape wouldn't eva do such a thing! Now yer meddlin with somethin that concerns only Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel…I shouldn't 'ave said that."
"So there someone else involved now!" Harry yelled as he jumped up.
Hagrid just groaned as the kids headed towards the school. "I best tell Dumbledore bout this." Hagrid grumbled.
oooooooooo
Up in the stands the throwing star seemed to slowly fade away. A second later the board seamed to buckle and crack. Several students heard the noise and looked up just in time to see the board shatter. Looking fearful, they decided that it might be a good idea to leave the area for a while.
No one really noticed that Professor Snape and Quirrell were nowhere to be seen by then. The two of them had vanished almost as soon as the stands were nearly empty and students were heading back to the school.
Ranma, cloaked by the Umisenken, held the throwing star up and shook his head. He'd come to watch the game and seen the whole thing. He'd have to give the kid some kind of reward for making a throw like that from thirty feet away, on an unsteady broom, and still managed to hit his target.
Even if it moved out of the way.
oooooooooo
Six years ago-
Harry's six year old body was a broken mess. That was about the only way Ranma could describe what he was looking at. The boy's arm was twisted at an odd angle. Red welts covered his back and legs from where the large man was beating him with the switch. That was why Ranma was entering the park a few blocks from the Dursley house after removing the kid from the house.
He had used some of the Umisenken to vanish from sight as he raced across the rooftops. Ranma wasn't sure why the kid was in this kind of situation either. He couldn't understand why anyone would treat a child like this. The kid coughed up a little blood just as Ranma landed in the park and raced over to a small grove of trees. He wanted to be away from the people in this strange town as much as possible.
He lay the boy down on the ground and pulled a first aid from stuff space. One of the few things his Mastery Quest taught him was that he no longer had Genma to depend on anymore. He was making his own decisions now and that meant being prepared for anything that came up.
This meant even a kid beaten to within an inch of his life. Ranma quickly ripped the oversized shirt off the kid and tossed it to the side. He wasn't wearing underwear, just a pair of large shorts that were about to fall apart.
Frowning, he removed these too. Welts and several scars covered the kid's body from head to toe and all of them were a bright red color. He was about to infuse a large amount of Ki into the kid's body to heal the wounds when he noticed that they were healing on their own. Ranma was impressed. Even at six, he hadn't been able to heal wounds like this. He was still recovering from the Neko-ken training and chasing his buddy Ukyo around for dinner.
Ranma focused his Ki and let it flow over the kid's body. He could feel something deep within the kid that was pulsing with life and healing the wounds. It was like Ki, but didn't feel like any kind of Ki he had ever come across before. Intrigued, Ranma used a bit more Ki and started helping the kid heal his larger wounds.
He was amazed as the kid's energy picked up on what he was doing and started speeding up the process. Within an hour, the kid was completely healed except for an odd scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Ranma channeled his Ki directly to the scar.
The kid whimpered and thrashed around, trying to ward something off. Ranma stopped a second later when noticed blood running from the scar on the kid's head. Frowning he took a closer look at the scar and nearly recoiled from the kid as he sensed something incredibly dangerous.
"This isn't right." Ranma muttered to himself.
The kid's eyes fluttered open to reveal a pair of bright green eyes. They were slightly out of focus. "Uncle Vernon, I'm sorry…"
"Kid, you don't have to worry about that fat jerk again."
"Who are you?"
"I saw what your uncle was doing and stopped him. I'm afraid I may have hurt him a bit." Ranma said.
"So I'm not at the house anymore?"
"No." Ranma said. "I took you from the house about an hour ago. Right now we're at the park a few blocks away among a grove of trees. What's your name kid?"
"Harry Potter."
"Call me Ranma Saotome."
"I don't want to go back to that place." Harry said, his voice cracked fearfully.
Ranma nodded. "I won't let you go back. I took you from there to save your life."
The boy nodded, ducking his head down and cringing a little. "W-where are my glasses?"
"Sorry kid, I didn't see any when we were leaving."
"I can survive without them for a little while."
"You seem pretty smart for your age."
Harry laughed bitterly. "I'm six going on fifty."
Nodding, Ranma could sympathize with that. "I know what you mean. I'll have to tell you about my early life some time."
Reaching behind himself, Ranma pulled his travel pack out of stuff space and dropped on the ground beside him. He dug around inside for several seconds and pulled out a small bottle of water. He handed it to the kid. "Here you go, drink that down. It will help you recover from all the Ki you just lost healing yourself."
Harry gave Ranma a weird look. "What's Ki?"
"You don't know? You were using quite a bit of it to heal yourself."
The boy shook his head. "Never even heard the word before."
Ranma looked down at the kid. "I wasn't sure if you were doing it consciously or unconsciously, guess that answers my question."
"I don't understand."
"I'll explain later when you're stronger."
"C-can we get something t-to eat then?"
Shaking his head, Ranma looked down at the kid. "I've been in this town for less than one day and I'm not sure I would even be allowed to enter any of the businesses around here. They seemed to shun anyone that doesn't live here for some reason. The librarian locked me out of the library the second I left the building and looked afraid."
Harry nodded. "Little Whinging is a town that prides itself on being 'normal', to the point of being abnormal." The kid gave a small laugh, then paled and started shaking.
Child abuse caused all sorts of problems. Ranma was familiar with several of those from his own experience and a number of the books he read while on his Quest. He survived his father's abuses and he could tell that this kid had an inner strength that rivaled most adults. He grinned at the kid. "Kid, is there some where save that I can take you to?"
"N-not really." Harry muttered.
"Guess that means we'll have to take things one day at a time. I think I'll give my mother a call and see what she has to say. I won't take you back to those…"
"The Dursleys."
"…abusive idiots. If you stick with me kid I may be accused of kidnapping you once I leave the area."
"I can't go back. I'll stay with you, please!" Harry nearly panicked.
"Calm down." Ranma said as he dug around in his pack again. He pulled out a small electric stove and sat it on the ground. "Let's cook up some dinner."
"I'm naked." Harry suddenly observed in shock.
"Huh?" Ranma muttered, and looked back at the kid. "Oh yeah, I had to get rid of those rags you were wearing."
The kid was starting to look nervous, but Ranma just grinned and dug around in his pack. I may have something here for you to wear. It will be a little big, but we can make some adjustments."
Harry looked shocked as Ranma pulled an expensive looking red shirt out of the pack and tossed it to him. He caught it and didn't know what to do with it. Instead he just held it to his chest and tried to keep from crying. No one had ever given him anything before.
He sniffled.
"Now, pull the shirt on." Ranma said, handing the kid a small black belt.
"Now, some pants…"
As Harry scrambled into the red clothing, Ranma pulled a pair of shorts out of his pack and handed them to the kid. "Use the belt to keep these in place and I'll buy you a couple of outfits tomorrow after I talk to my mother."
"You d-don't have to trouble yourself over me." Harry muttered, looking embarrassed.
Ranma snorted. The kid was a filthy mess, covered in leaves, dirt, and all of it stuck to his skin by dried blood. The kid needed a bath as much as he needed to sleep. Ranma pulled his bed roll out of the pack and sat it down ground. "I know it's still a bit early, but I think you should get to sleep after we finish eating. Tomorrow we can make any decisions that need to be made, but for tonight you're safe."
Harry nodded.
oooooooooo
Author Notes: I am NOT a fan of Quidditch and agree with Hermione, who cares. It's a silly game. Still, this chapter needed to be written. Man I had to struggle though this thing. So once again, it doesn't take much to set Harry's temper off and this time it was Professor Snape. Even though everyone saw Harry throw the star, most of them don't really understand what happened. They just saw the effects.
Snape's reaction will be in the next chapter along with some other changes to the original plot and no he won't be calling for Harry's expulsion. Also, skill wise, Harry is just around Akane's skill level near the end of the anime. Ranma has really been pushing the kid for the last five years so that throw, enhanced by magic, was possible.
Omake:
"Class, this 'ere is a Choku." Hagrid said. He grinned down at the little black and white animal. "They be a might dangerous, but with precautions…"
"It's a penguin." Draco Malfoy snapped. "Everyone knows what they look like, you great big oaf!"
"Wrong Mr. Malfoy, and ten pointes from Slytherin for that remark.
The blonde boy snorted. "Yeah right."
The Choku hissed and waddled around a little, looking irritated. Hagrid backed up a few steps.
"Please, I'm not going to be afraid of a useless bird." Draco snapped. He stalked over to Choku.
"Yer best not be doin that…" Hagrid said.
Draco blew him off and knelt down next to the thing. "It's a bloody penguin I tell you!"
"Hiss!"
Draco's eyes widened as the Choku suddenly towered above him, made a weird squawk, and suddenly bent down to eat him!
"Bloody hell!"
The whole class started laughing as the Choku belched and looked pleased with himself. It waddled back over to Hagrid, now towering over the half giant. Hagrid sighed.
"Hagrid, we have to save him!" Harry said.
"I did try to warn him that Choku are dangerous." Hagrid said, then smirked a little. "Now we just have to wait for the Choku to pass him, since we can't just pull him out."
The whole class looked appalled, well the Slytherins. The Gryffindors were trying not to fall over laughing.
The Choku was looking a little green and started eyeing Crabbe and Goyle.