Note: Been a little longer than normal for this chapter. I've been taking a look at a couple of my other stories and doing a bit of modification on the The Stone here. The next few chapters will most likely take about the same amount of time and I still haven't even started the rough drafts of the final scenesbelow the trap door yet. Ah well, were close to being finished with this story, but 7-8 chapters to go I think and the final chaper will be pure original material.
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Potter – The Stone
Chapter 15
By Cory D. Rose
(c) 2005
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Harry's knees buckled as he saw his parents for the first time in over ten years. He sniffled as he reached out to touch the mirror knowing on some level that these were indeed his parents. He knew next to nothing about them, but even then he could recognize them instantly.
Several visions filled his head as he suddenly remembered things from when he was less than year old. He could recall what his mother smelled like and the sound of her voice. How the light moved through her red hair as she picked him up. Harry could tell why people thought he looked like his father. They were nearly identical except for their eyes.
His mother beside his father and they smiled at each other lovingly. She had long, dark red hair, and bright green eyes that shone with love and happiness. Green eyes, just like his, but without the emotions. His father was on the other side, tall and thin, he had messy black hair, and wore glasses as well.
Tears started to pour out of Harry's eyes as he watched them wave and reach out to him. Then he spotted more people further in the background as the image wavered a little, showing him several more people with bright green eyes or messy black hair, all of them waving.
Family.
His family was all around him. Suddenly visions of the Dursleys started to flash through his mind, assaulting him. His aunt kicking him when he was little and telling him not to ask questions. The consequences of doing just that. His uncle beating him with whatever was handy, drawing blood. Then Ranma breaking into the house and saving his life and sanity.
With a cry he wrenched himself away from the mirror and ran from the room. His heart pounding in his ears and tears streaming down his face as he ran. He couldn't face his parents, not after the Dursleys nearly ruined his life. Thinking that his mother and his aunt were related made him sick. Just seeing his mom and dad hurt him for some reason, as if he could never compare to them.
An arm shot out of nowhere and dragged him into an unused room. Harry nearly cried out in fright, but the arm wrapped around him and covered his mouth. "Hold still kid."
It was Ranma, in his female form. Harry relaxed as Ranma moved her hand.
"Ranma?" He gasped.
"You were just making enough noise to wake up the whole castle and that jerk of a teacher is running around the area." Ranma said.
"What are you doing here?"
"I was wandering around." Ranma said, running a hand through her bright red hair. "That blasted Peeves dropped a bucket of water on me a little while ago. Been chasing him ever since."
Harry snickered a little, but still looked upset. "I just saw my parents."
"Aren't they…gone?"
Harry nodded.
"Then how?"
"A magic mirror."
Ranma frowned. "Magic Mirrors can be dangerous. It showed you your parents? Are you sure?"
Harry just nodded as tears started to dribble out of his eyes again. He sniffled. "I couldn't face them."
"It's alright kid. You'll know when you're ready to face them for real. You've survived some pretty bad times after all."
"I don't want to go back to that room. Not yet."
"Was this mirror anything like the Naban Mirror I told you about?"
Harry shook his head. "No, I just stepped in front of it and there they were. W-waving at me, I saw other members of my family too."
"Not those abusive…"
"Not in the mirror, but I couldn't help remembering a few of the things they did to me." Harry growled, clenching his fists.
"I remember a few years ago when we visited Japan for the first stage of your training."
Harry winced.
"You had a pretty extreme reaction to Ukyo's flower bombs."
Now Harry was blushing a little. That episode had always embarrassed him.
"Well let's forget about the mirror for now. We need to wait for the search to finish up before we head back. I heard that someone tried to get a book out of the restricted section of the library." Ranma explained as she grabbed a nearby chair, spun it around, and sat on it backwards. She rested her arms on the back of the chair as she watched Harry.
"That was me." Harry mumbled, hanging his head.
Shrugging, Ranma looked around the room nervously. "There are several of those house elves around as well. I swear I can feel them watching me all the blasted time. It's been driving me nuts."
Harry didn't know what to say. Ranma had been complaining about the house elves acting oddly lately, but he couldn't recall them acing that oddly. They were just strange creatures. Then Harry realized something. "Hey! How the heck could you see me! I'm wearing an invisibility cloak!"
"What are you talking about? You're glowing a little, and that cloak is a bit gaudy and it makes you stand out like a fire in the middle of the night." Ranma said.
Looking down at himself, Harry could tell that the cloak was working perfectly. "I can't even see myself, yet you can?"
"What are you talking about?" Ranma snapped. "You're lit up like a Christmas bulb, light all over the place. I can see you easily. That's why I pulled you into this room."
Harry gaped at her. "But, but…"
Ranma looked confused. "I'm not supposed to be able to see you?"
Harry shook his head. "I'm wearing an invisibility cloak, you know, invisible?"
"Yeah right." Ranma said, patting him on the head. "The only place you wouldn't stand out is in the middle of the Disney Light Parade. Now let's head back to the trunk. I have a few ideas I want to try out and I need your help to pull them off."
"Like what?"
"I found this unused room with a number of old books available." Ranma explained, leaving out how she got the books. "They were about how to protect and strengthen ones mind."
Ranma described what he'd been doing for the last several days as the headed back to the tower. By the time Harry was over his reaction to the mirror and listening to every word Ranma said. If he could learn even a little bit of this Occlumancy, using his magic would be a lot easier.
oooooooooo
Harry was sitting down to breakfast the next morning thinking about what Ranma had shown him the night before. He'd learned meditation years before and it seemed that was the largest step to overcome when learning Occlumancy. Once that was done he had to tap into his magic core and simply let his magic fill him at all times.
This was simple enough to understand, but practicing it was a lot harder. Harry could keep it up for about twenty minutes before he had to take a break. Even then he was covered in sweat and could feel the magic moving around inside his body.
According to Ranma, once he mastered that, his magical power would radiate from his body. It worked as a kind of low level magical shield that could reduce the damage taken from dangerous spells. He had to have a clear mind for the shield to work, but once it was in place they could move onto the next level, which was organizing one's mind.
Ranma said the books mentioned something called a Pensive that could help them achieve this step in a third the time, but neither of them had a clue what it was. Even his parent's books didn't mention anything about a pensive. So Ranma was poking around the library looking for a book on the device.
Just as he was polishing off the last of his breakfast, a large brown owl flew into the Great Hall. This was odd since the morning mail had already arrived about half an earlier. Most of the teachers looked up as it swooped down and landed in front of Harry. It held its leg out, revealing a little pouch.
"Are you expecting something, Harry?" Dumbledore asked as he got up and walked over.
"No sir."
"This is one of the school's two long distance owls." The Old man explained. "I wasn't aware anyone was using him."
The owl glared at Albus and gave a little hoot. It ignored the Headmaster and turned back to Harry, holding out its leg again. Shrugging, Harry opened the little pouch and out popped a tiny little brown box. The owl launched off the table and left the Great Hall.
Dumbledore tapped the package with his wand and it suddenly unshrunk itself, knocking a couple of plates off the table. "Well my boy, it seems to be a delivery from Japan." He pointed at the Japanese characters on the side of the box.
Smiling, Harry got up and examined the top of the package. "It's from Aunty Nodoka!"
"Who?"
"Ranma's mother! I wasn't able to go and visit her and the family this year. I didn't think I would hear from her till I went home for the summer."
Dumbledore frowned a little as he processed the information, and then focused back on Harry again. "It might be dangerous…"
"Naw, Aunty is a bit weird, but she's not dangerous." Harry explained.
That didn't alleviate any of Dumbledore's thoughts on the box. He watched as Harry pushed several of the plates to the side.
Harry ripped the paper off the box and pulled the lid open. He pulled out several boxes of pencils, paper, binders, and even a small file system. "I don't think she quite understands that this is a magic school."
Dumbledore laughed. "Well most of it is still usable. Just ask Minerva to cast some charms on them so that you can use them in class. Looks like she sent enough for the next couple of years."
"I will sir; I'll take these up to my room." Harry said as he closed up the box and lugged it back to his common room. Along with several doughnuts from a nearby plate. He was just glad that Dumbledore hadn't gotten a look at the other stuff in the box. He'd have to find out how Ranma's mother got the items shrunk, how she sent them, and how she knew where to send them.
A few minutes later he entered the Gryffindor common room and head up the stairs. Ron was sitting on the floor at the end of his bed as Harry entered. "Hi Ron!"
"arry." He said blurrily.
"Enjoy your sleep?"
"Yep. Whas tha?"
"My Aunt Nodoka sent me some things all the way from Japan."
That woke Ron up. "Really?"
"Yep."
"What did she send?"
Harry grinned. "School supplies."
"That doesn't sound so bad."
"Ah, muggle school supplies." Harry clarified.
Ron started laughing. "This I got to see. I've always wondered how muggles go to school."
"It's about the same as here Ron. They just can't use magic to take care of everything."
"Still."
Harry dragged his trunk off the headboard, where it was balanced against the wall, and moved it to the edge of his bed. He opened up one of the smaller sections and started putting all the supplies away. Ron seemed to be fascinated by the colored pencils for some reason. "Why do they need so many pencils for the colors?"
"Cause they can't magically change color Ron." Harry explained.
"Weird."
"I'll say." Harry muttered. He just couldn't figure out why so many wizard borne children were so ignorant about muggles.
Then Harry noticed that there were more items at the bottom of the box, items that weren't noticeable until the other items were removed. He pulled out several Christmas presents and sat them on the bed. Then two scroll cases for Ranma."
Ron instantly noticed those. "I thought muggles didn't bother with scrolls and parchment?"
"These are from my guardian." Harry said, lying a little.
"That Ranma guy?"
"Yep. They're probably martial arts techniques for me to look over." Harry said with a shrug an put them away in the trunk with the other items. Then he turned to the Christmas presents. "Well let's see what everyone sent me."
There were nine presents in all, from Nodoka, Ukyo, Akane, Kasumi, Nabiki, Shampoo, Cologne, Ryoga, and Akari. Ron got a weird look on his face when Harry explained that all but one of the presents was from girls. Of course getting socks from Kasumi and Akari was a bit odd. Nabiki sent him a savings account book. She'd opened a small savings account for him a few months ago so that he could get started early. It seemed to be making quite a bit of interest too.
Ukyo sent him some frozen Okonomiyaki, preserved with a spell of some kind that he didn't know. Shampoo and Cologne had sent him a bottle of herbal pills that would supposedly increase his stamina. Harry wasn't sure what to think of that one. Those two had sex and babies on the brain and weren't afraid to let everyone know it.
Akane sent him a silk fighting uniform. As usual she seemed to have tried to 'enhance' it by sewing a picture into the back. Of what looked like a dead cat, or a walrus. Harry wasn't sure, but it sent Ron to the floor laughing. The next box was from Ryoga and turned out to be a tiger striped bandana, from Chicago.
The final package was from Nodoka, surprisingly the smallest one of the bunch. He eyed it warily.
"Problem?"
"Well Aunty Nodoka can be a bit odd at times."
"So what, just open it." Ron insisted.
Shrugging, Harry grabbed the small package and pulled the wrapper off. Then he paled, dropped it, and jumped about ten feet away, ducking down behind Ron's bed. Ron, clueless as ever, just looked down at the box.
"What are latex Condoms?"
"YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW!" Harry's voice cracked.
oooooooooo
-Five Years Ago-
"So you have these weird things happen to you from time to time?" Ranma asked.
Harry sniffled and nodded. "Uncle Vernon would beat me with a bat or his kick me over and over when it happened."
Ranma's blue eyes turned ice cold as he thought of Harry being beaten for something he couldn't control. "I see. Did he ever do anything else?"
"Just constant beatings, called me names, and told me a few times that I would be better off dead."
Ukyo gasped. "I'm going to kill that man."
"Dursley has been punished." Ranma said with a little smirk. "He's only just started to figure out what I did to him when I took Harry."
"What did you do?"
"Cologne taught me all those pressure points a while back. I just put them all to use."
"I heard from Tofu that he was flown all the way to England recently. To take care of a special case. He charged the people a fortune to even look at the case."
Ranma nodded. "I called the Doc and explained what I did to them. He was mad at first, but when I explained about the child abuse he told me I might have gone too light on them."
"What did you do?" Harry asked.
"Well, most of what I did was to keep them from harming you again. After that I hit several other points on each of them. I'm afraid your uncle can't eat meat anymore. Whenever he tries he gets sick and has the runs. I also made it impossible for him to create anymore children for at least five years."
"You sterilized him!" Ukyo laughed so hard she fell over.
Harry looked shocked.
"As for you Aunt, she wasn't helping you or participating as far as I could see. Therefore, I went a little lighter on her. She won't be able to lie in any way for five years. She will also be forced clean herself compulsively. It's an irritating little pressure point, but one that teaches the best lessons. According to Cologne anyway."
"You didn't hurt them to bad did you?" Harry asked. "I hate them, but I don't want them dead."
"I don't kill unless it's as a last resort." Ranma said.
"Good." Harry said. "They deserve to be punished."
"Just wait till Tofu gets back. He said he was going to add to what I did."
They all grinned. Ranma was good at Pressure Points, but Doctor Tofu was a thousand times better. The Dursley's were in for a world of pain after he got through with them.
"Now, back to what we were talking about earlier." Ranma said, glancing at the kid. "Have you ever been able to do what you did on purpose?"
The boy shook his head.
"I think you might want to try and figure out how it works, because that shield you created was damned cool." Ranma said, patting Harry on the head.
Harry could only gape at Ranma. He had never expected acceptance after Ranma found out about his odd abilities.
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Later that night, Harry dragged Ron out of the tower and they went down to visit the mirror. This time it both frightened and excited Harry to see his parents in the mirror. Ranma wasn't sure what to think of it and said he'd visit the mirror some other time as he took the scrolls his mother sent.
They were still going through the Occlumancy, but it would be a couple of weeks before either of them were ready. So Ranma decided to spend some time going over the scrolls. Every now and then she would find a technique that Ranma didn't know and send it to him.
Even Genma wasn't that lucky. He spent so much time at the Tendo house that Nodoka was lucky to see more than once or twice a year. It saddened her, but she had learned to live on her own. Of course it might have something to do with the threat of death that hung over his head if he tried to touch Nodoka's money. Harry didn't even worry about it.
Getting back to the room was a lot easier than Harry thought it would be. He just followed his tracks in the dust, something he hadn't noticed when he visited the first time. Ron was still amazed by the cloak and kept quiet as they entered the room.
At least this time they didn't have to worry about Filch or Snape stumbling on them. They just shut the door. Harry firmed his jaw, walked over to the mirror, and got to see his parents again. The sight just amazed him and he stood there watching them for several minutes.
"What are you seeing?" Ron asked.
"Can't you see my parents?"
"No, it's not even showing a reflection." Ron grumbled.
Harry grabbed him and planted him right in front of the mirror. "Then look in it properly. You see your family around you?"
At first Ron didn't say anything, and then he grinned. "Nope, but I'd say I'm Headboy, Quidditch Captain, and even receiving an award from Dumbledore."
Harry gaped at him. "Huh?"
"Maybe the mirror shows the future?"
A suddenly noise brought them up short and they threw the cloak over themselves and ran for it. Out in the hall they saw the tail end of Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat as it rounded the corner. Its gray matted fur standing out at all angles. Fearing that she was going after Filch, they headed back to the tower.
"Did you see the lettering around the top of the mirror?" Ron asked quietly.
Harry shook his head.
"I wonder if it has anything to do with the mirror."
"Hard to say."
Ron shrugged. "I've heard of magic mirrors like that. They can be dangerous if you aren't careful."
"How so?"
"Mom didn't go into detail, she just told us to keep an open mind and stay away from if we could. She said they warp a person's perceptions."
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-Five Years Ago-
During the last six months Ranma had happily trained Harry in the basics of Anything Goes. They hadn't left the house other than to train, and the kid was picking things up very quickly. Ranma wasn't sure, but he thought Harry might be a natural athlete and it gave the boy an edge.
Harry still cringed a little whenever something odd happened, but the boy was no longer traumatized by the events at Privet Drive. After only six months of training, Harry could shatter rocks with his fist, kick through five inch boards, and jump six feet into the air. Because of the odd things that happened around Harry, Ranma had started teaching him how to tap into his Ki far earlier than he should have.
Even that took several weeks for Harry to pick up. Once he got it he could move faster, kick harder, and pull off techniques that he hadn't been able to do before. Ranma was quite proud of his first student and would show showed him new moves daily.
The green eyed boy remembered everything Ranma showed him. Teaching him special memorization had taken half an hour, a process that usually took a couple of years to just get proficient. Ranma even thought that Harry might be learning a little too fast. He just couldn't think of any reason why that would be a bad idea.
His mother on the other hand, dotted on Harry constantly and the boy didn't know what to do about it. The Dursleys ignored him and punished him for the littlest thing. Nodoka on the other hand hugged him constantly, ruffled his hair, and tried taught him how to speak Japanese.
Ranma just ignored Harry's pleading looks and let his mother take care of the kid. She even fed him four or five times a day. So, Harry wasn't skin and bones anymore, but a normal looking six year old. Ranma's thoughts were interrupted as he felt an odd presence appear in the front yard.
He got up, pulled on his pants, and moved through the house as silently as a ghost. He spotted Konatsu as he entered the front room. The cross dressing ninja made a hand sign and Ranma nodded. Ninja hand talk was one of the many skills that Ranma had learned over the years, along with a few his old man had created.
They had a pair of intruders. Ranma stepped into a shadow to hide as they saw a pair of men in black robes pass by the windows. One of them was holding up a thin flashlight of some kind, to light their way. Ranma frowned as he sensed their Ki. It was completely black and warped beyond help.
"Filth." Konatsu growled, barely loud enough for Ranma to hear him.
"No playing." Ranma ordered.
Konatsu nodded as he slipped into the shadows and vanished.
Moving silently, they headed for the second floor of the house and looked out the open window. Ranma could make out the two intruders below. He could also hear them. He leaned out the window to listen as they talked.
"The boy is in the house somewhere." An oily voice growled.
"These readings are odd though." The other one said.
"Let's just kill everyone and take the boy. They're only muggles, flesh bags with no purpose."
"Ignore the muggles; killing them will only bring attention to us. Let's just get the boy."
The other man snarled just as two shadows fell upon them like the wrath of god. The beating lasted fifteen minutes and by the time they were done, the two men didn't have a healthy bone in their bodies. Everything was broken, crushed, or bruised.
"What should we do with them?" Konatsu asked quietly.
"They're still alive, but after what I heard I think Harry's uncle hired some assassins to get a bit of revenge."
"I'll talk to my sisters." Konatsu said. "They still have some contacts within the underworld."
"You don't need to do that. Let's just dump the bodies on the other side of the gate and forget about them."
"Strip them. They don't deserve any dignity if they want to kill a child."
Ranma smirked. "Good idea."
It was five hours before the two men were found, and three more hours before anyone bothered to call the police. By that time the two mean were nearly dead, but they started to recover once they reached the hospital. Ten hours after that the Japanese Ministry of Magic stepped in and took over. All records of the two men vanished.
It would be two years before the men were seen again and that was when they appeared in at St. Mungo's Hospital in England.
oooooooooo
The next night Ron tried to keep Harry from going to the mirror again. Harry just wanted to see his parents again and refused to listen. "Don't go mate, there's something wrong with that mirror."
"But, I want to see my family again."
"Mate, that thing is bad news."
Harry ignored him as he slipped out of the common room, invisible to everyone that may have seen him. At the same time Ron's words echoed through Harry's mind as he moved through the castle. Even though the mirror scared him, he couldn't give up seeing his parents. They had filled his dreams for the last ten years, strengthening him, pushing him on.
Just seeing them scared him more than he wanted to admit, but it also filled him with a longing that filled his soul. He could have made his way to the mirror room with a blind fold on now. As soon as he entered he sat down in front of the mirror and watched his parents waving at him. Watched as his family in the background waved as well.
Then he felt something, something dangerous, and it was behind him. He spun around, moving into a defensive stance, still kneeling on the floor. Professor Dumbledore was standing there, a sad expression on his face. "Back again, Harry?"
"I…didn't see you, sir."
"Being invisible can make one quite short sighted." Dumbledore said. "I see you've discovered the Mirror of Erised. You aren't the first, and won't be the last to fall prey to its magic."
"Erised? I didn't realize it even had a name."
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose a little. "You do realize what it does, don't you?"
"Well, it shows me my family." Harry whispered.
"Your friend Ron saw himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain."
Harry didn't get it.
"You see, The Mirror of Erised shows your greatest desire."
Harry sighed. "Erised, Desire spelled backwards."
"Correct Harry. Many a life has been wasted sitting in front of this mirror. They just sit there, watching it as they wither away, and die."
Harry hung his head and suddenly felt rather foolish. Even after everyone warned him about the mirror he had fallen into its trap without a second thought. "I'm sorry…"
"It has a powerful pull." Dumbledore explained. "I'll be moving the mirror Harry; you aren't the only one that has found the mirror. Please do not look for the mirror Harry, you will not find it. Its pull will wear off here in a couple of weeks Harry and if you ever do come across the mirror again, you will be prepared for its tricks."
Harry nodded. "Do you see anything in the mirror?"
"A pile of woolen socks." Dumbledore said, grinning.
"Ah."
"Now you take that wonderful cloak and head back to your common room. I won't take any points, for now. I want you to think about why this mirror had such a strong grasp on you."
"Yes sir." Not wanting to tempt fate, Harry quickly made his way out of the room and vanished.
Dumbledore walked over to the mirror and slowly replaced the sheet over the mirror, securing it with a couple of spells. "You can come out now, Mr. Saotome."
Ranma appeared, sitting on the edge of a desk near the back of the room. He was wearing his trademark clothing, red shirt, black pants, and cloth bracers on his arms. He smirked at the old man.
"Dumbledore."
"I'm surprised to see you here."
"Harry needs to be protected and his training can't be interrupted just because he's at school"
"And how have you managed to stay hidden?"
"It's easy enough to hide in this place." Ranma said, shrugging.
"Not as easy as you think."
Ranma grinned. "I'm the best there is."
Dumbledore laughed. "So I've heard. I take it you are also the one that has been entertaining Severus for the last few months?"
"Severus?"
"Professor Snape."
"Ah, the potions teacher. Tell him if he wants to torment children he's going to pay the price. Especially if he takes his misplaced hatred out on Harry."
"I see, and how about what happened at the Quidditch match?"
Ranma smirked. "Got no clue what you're talking about."
"Ah, then care to explain how a muggle, with no magic, managed to erase the memories of over two hundred people?"
Ranma stood up. "One thing I've learned in the last two months is that you Wizards are very ignorant. Most of you may have hidden yourselves from the world, but there are people out there that did not. I've encountered quite a few people and objects that can only be explained by magic."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"I know, but it's all you'll get. I made a promise not to reveal certain things about my training when I was taught. If you want answers, you'll need to visit the Chinese Amazons and they don't like men much."
"So you used your curse to your advantage?"
Ranma didn't even look surprised that the old man would know about his curse. "I did."
"Interesting."
"Harry needs to be distracted again. Perhaps you and I will talk again." Ranma said as he vanished from sight.
"We will." Dumbledore said.
oooooooooo
A few minutes later Ranma found Harry leaning up against a wall, looking a bit panicky. He made his way over and leaned up against the wall next to him and became visible. "Problem?"
"No." Harry muttered.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine." Harry stammered out.
Ranma folded his arms and nodded. "Good, I won't do anything about you going back to that mirror."
Harry nearly fell over. 'How did Ranma know that?'
"You aren't allowed to use that cloak of yours for the rest of the holidays, clear?"
He nodded.
"If you go out, you will do it using the skills I've taught you. That cloak is making you blind to the world around you."
Harry sighed, and then heard a loud splash. He looked up to see a soaking wet female Ranma chasing Peeves down the corridor.
"Peeves! Come back here and take your punishment!" Ranma yelled.
Peeves just laughed and raced down the hallway and vanished through a solid wall.
oooooooooo
Harry was glad that Ranma left him alone for the rest of the day. It wasn't until the next day that Harry realized that Ranma hadn't been around for their morning practice. So he was forced to spend a couple hours practicing alone for the first time since he came to Hogwarts.
This gave Harry the free time he needed to continue his search for Nicolas Flamel, but he never did find anything. He even checked through some of the books in his trunk library, but the guy didn't seem to exist. The Day before school started again Hermione returned to the school. By that time Harry hadn't seen Ranma in almost four days. Of course Hermione distracted him the instant she spotted him in the Great Hall.
She ran over and hugged him. "Harry!"
"H-hi Hermione."
"So, did you find anything? I asked my parents, but they didn't have a clue." She asked.
He shook his head. "Nope, been looking for the last few days too."
She looked disappointed. "We need to try harder."
"I suppose." Harry muttered, and then Wood came out of nowhere.
"Potter, we need to start practicing for the next match in a couple of weeks."
"Ah, sure?"
Wood nodded. "We need to win the next game. It'll give us a chance to beat the Slytherin's for the first time in the last seven years. We will win the Cup this year!"
"Right!" Harry said.
Wood patted him on the shoulder and went to chase down the Weasley twins, who looked like they wanted to run away the instant they spotted Wood heading their way. Harry turned back to Hermione and shrugged. "Wood loves the game."
"I can tell, some of the girls in Ravenclaw are like that."
Harry nodded.
oooooooooo
Author Notes: There we go, not quite as much of a cliff hanger as ch 14. I'm still a bit bummed about ch 14 flopping like it did, but I figure that the Mirror of Erised scene is a bit over done isn't it?
I will also have all the flash back scenes done by the time I reach ch 19 or 20. That will leave me with two chapters to detail the areas below the trap door. I'm not sure if I'll use what's there, the over used stuff, or just make up some of my own. If I make up my own the release of the last couple of chapters will be delayed by a few weeks as I plan the scenes.
So much to decide.
Omake:
Harry stepped out of the potions classroom, only eighty five points down from when he entered. The lowest point loss yet, although Professor Snape had been distracted by something. Ron came up behind him and was about to say something when they heard a strange commotion down the corridor. Several other students heard it as well and turned to look just as a small brown ball skidded around the corrner, slipped, and careened into the wall.
It squeaked in fear, looked around, and started racing towards the students.
Ron frowned. "Is that Scabbers?"
Harry shrugged. "I think so, what's he doing down here?"
"I don't..."
Suddenly about fifty cats came around the corner in a wave of fur and claws, all of them meowing, hissing, or jumping along madly. The rat squeaked in terror as the wave of cats started to catch up with him, his little claws scrambling on the stone floor.
"Squeak! Squeak!"
"Scabbers!" Ron yelled as it ran by.
"Sq-sq-squeaka!"
Everyone dived out of the way of the swarm of cats as they raced by and vanished down the hall. Ron and Harry sat up and looked around just as Snape stepped out of the classroom and glared at them. Ron gulped.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for disrupting class, causing a scene, and BLOCKING THE DOOR TO THE MY CLASSROOM!" Snape yelled, sneered at them, and moved back into the classroom.
Ron looked angry, then confused, then panicked as he ran down the hall after the cats. "Scabbers! I'll save you!"