Clay Pinions

By Lochar

Disclaimer: Not mine, if I had it, I'd be rich.

A/N: To steal from another writer. Feedback: It's the coin of the realm :D

Chapter 13

He was sitting there, at the edge of the lake. Someone was sitting beside him, but he wasn't quite sure who it was, although he was sure he knew the person.

"You know, you're going to drive all of us nutty if you keep doing this." They said.

"I'm sorry. It wasn't my fault this time though; the broom was going crazy." Harry defended himself.

The person leaned their head up against him. "There was already someone attempting to take care of that for you. But oh well, I guess it all turned out right in the end. Gryffindor did win, right?" The voice asked impishly.

Harry laughed. "Yes, we won."

"Good." A fog seemed to be rolling up over the lake. "Looks like it's about time to go." The person hugged Harry quickly, and got up. Starting to walk off, Harry turned to face them as they left. It was a red-haired girl, about his age.

Startled, Harry shouted out, "Elly!"

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"Elly!"

Harry quickly sat up in the bed. Bleary eyed, he fumbled for his glasses, managing to find them on the bedside stand. Pushing them onto his face, he looked around. "Where'd she go?"

"Where'd who go?" a voice said from the other side of the room.

Harry turned and saw Ron standing in the doorway to the Hospital Wing. "Elly… I don't know. Was it a dream?" Ron gave him a funny look. "Never mind. We did win the match, right?"

Ron's face lit up. "Of course we did! What a way to catch the Snitch too!" Ron bounded over to the chair next to Harry's bed. "170 to 50! And forty of those Slytherin points were while you were falling, and Oliver was watching you!"

Harry grinned. "That's great. Am I going to be allowed out of here?"

Ron shrugged. "I dunno. It's up to Madam Pomfrey."

"Would you go get her?" Harry asked.

"Sure." Ron walked into a different part of the wing, looking for Madam Pomfrey, leaving Harry alone to think. Who in the world… She was familiar, but I can't remember where.

His musings were interrupted by the return of Ron with Madam Pomfrey. Harry looked hopefully at her. "I can leave now, right?"

Pomfrey looked at him. Pulling out her wand and waving it at Harry, she clucked at the response she received. "Very well, Mr. Potter. Do try to not get yourself harmed again; I'd rather not have you visiting me for a third time."

Harry grinned and jumped out of the bed. "Come on Ron, let's get out of here then."

Halfway back to Gryffindor tower, Harry stopped and looked at Ron. "Where's my broom, anyways?"

Ron looked down. "Um, Professor Flitwick has it; they're testing it for what happened. Hagrid said that only Dark Magic could have done that to your broom."

"Do ya think he'll let me get it back?"

"It's worth a shot." Ron replied. "Hermione will want to come as well though, let's grab her real quick."

Quickly, the two boys ran the rest of the way to the tower, collecting Hermione.

"I don't know why you two are so insistent on bringing me with you. It's not like it takes three people to carry a broom back to the dorms." Hermione complained.

Ron grinned at her. "But don't you want to know if it was Dark Magic that messed with Harry's broom? You know what Hagrid said. And you were the one that burned Snape's robes, remember?"

Harry's jaw dropped. "Hermione? You actually burned his robes?" He laughed as she blushed. "Good job!"

"He was muttering and casting something at your broom. He wouldn't break eye contact." Hermione paused for a moment. "Although, he did start speaking faster and your broom starting coming under control."

Harry shook his head. "I was forcing the broom to stop. When you did that to Snape, I didn't have a chance to quit channeling my Chi into the broom. Then I fell."

Hermione paled. "You mean it was my fault you got hurt?"

"No. It wasn't your fault Hermione. You helped me; I just wasn't fast enough to react. Snape's the greasy git that's the problem." Harry said.

Their conversation was stalled by them reaching the Charms classroom, where they could hear Flitwick inside.

"Very interesting, very interesting. I wonder how this happened?" His voice was heard from behind the door.

Knocking, the trio heard Flitwick's voice again. "Oh, come in. Come in. Can't bother with opening the door. Too fascinating."

Grinning, the three opened the door to find the tiny professor pacing around the broom.

"Hi Professor Flitwick. Can I have my broom back, or are you still checking it for Dark Magic?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked at him. "Awfully blunt." She quietly whispered.

Flitwick looked up. "Hmm? No real traces of Dark Magic on it, thank goodness. But I can't figure out what happened to your broom either. Right now, all it's good for is sweeping the floors."

Harry's eyes bulged. "What? What happened to it?" I'm going to hurt Snape if he did something to my broom…

"All of the Charms on the broom: Braking, Flight, Control, Comfort, seem to be hollow, as if they're not quite cast into the broom. And to top it off, I can't remove them and recast them, as there is some odd energy sealing the broom off from being affected by magic." Flitwick seemed puzzled, but happy. "It's quite the challenge to figure this one out."

Harry turned towards his broom. Concentrating, he could sense a layer of Chi wrapped around the broom. It was a familiar energy, and Harry realized it was his own. "Huh? I must have done that right before I fell." Harry said to himself as he kneeled down next to his broom. He looked to his Professor. "Could you fix it if that barrier wasn't there?"

Flitwick nodded. "I could. Do you know what it is?"

Harry sighed. "Yes, it's my Chi. I channeled it into my broom because of what was happening Professor. I guess I messed it up." Ron and Hermione were staring openly at him. Harry paid no attention as he sat cross-legged in front of his broom.

Picking up his broom, Harry entered the Void. He did not see the echo of the broom, or feel his magic reaching out towards it like usual. Frowning, he channeled his magic to where the echo usually appeared. The echo appeared, flashed, and then disappeared again. Harry opened his eyes to find a Professor and his two friends staring at him. Rubbing his eyes from the spots that were now appearing, he stared back.

"Magical backlash… How odd." Flitwick noted.

"Huh?" Both Ron and Harry eloquently asked.

"Honestly, you two," Hermione scolded, "Magical backlash is when a spell doesn't cast correctly; normally it happens when you use someone else's wand that is completely incompatible with you. The magical energy has nowhere to go and whips back into you. If you try to cast too large of a spell, it can seriously harm you."

Ron looked at Harry and grinned. "Harry, don't do whatever you did again. Madam Pomfrey said she didn't want you visiting for a third time, remember?"

Harry grimaced at the reminder. "Got it; no more magical backlashes." He grinned impudently at Hermione. "Alright?"

Hermione huffed. "Harry, it's serious. You could be really hurt."

Harry smiled at her, then closed his eyes again. Before tuning her out, he vaguely heard her warned, "Harry…"

Finding the Void again, Harry mentally peered at where the echo of the broom was supposed to be. Fine, no magic. We know that doesn't work. Channeling the smallest portion of his Chi he was able to, he pushed it at the broom. He was rewarded with a flash, and this time the broom's echo stayed. Alright, now that I can see it… Opening his eyes, he felt the Chi still pooled in the broom handle.

"It's my Chi, I can use it…" Harry whispered to himself. Channeling his Chi through his hand, Harry wiped his hand across the long handle. A little bit of the Chi in the broom came off, and was absorbed back into the Chi that was in his hand. Cool. This time, Harry made a scooping motion over the broom, only channeling a slight bit of his Chi into his hand. He was rewarded with a lot more of the Chi coming off of the broom. Doing this several more times, he managed to remove all of his Chi from the broom.

Looking up, sweating, he saw Ron and Hermione staring at him. Flitwick even looked impressed.

"Thank you Mr. Potter. I'll get this fixed right now." Flitwick took the broom from him and put it on the floor between the two of them. Quickly stripping the broom of the broken Charms, and reapplying them. Finishing, he allowed Harry to pick the broom back up. "Enjoy Mr. Potter, and I hope to see you flying again soon."

Harry nodded. He had felt his magic reach out for the broom again, and the echo had appeared automatically. "Thank you Professor Flitwick."

As they walked out, Ron started talking. "I'm gonna see if Professor Maison will still let me join your sessions Harry. I wanna be able to do that."

"But Ron, Professor Maison said that it would take years to be able to do anything. Harry is only able to because he started before he got his wand." Hermione argued.

"So? It's still cool. And if nothing else, maybe I can learn to keep away from Trolls next time." Harry laughed as Hermione huffed.

The following week was filled with Ron and Hermione fighting over Professor Maison's sessions with Harry. Harry was amazed that Ron was actually the one wanting to learn something extra, with Hermione being the one to not want to do it.

As Hermione had put it, "If it takes fifteen years to learn the basics of it, we'd all die of old age before we learned anything useful from it!"

-

That weekend, Ron approached Maison about joining in on Harry's sessions.

Maison looked him over. "Hmm… I don't know. It's nothing against you Ron, but the training Harry is going through is much more advanced than the basics we'd have to start you out on." Ron slumped. "You'd have to give up your Sundays if you wanted to start training under me."

Ron winced.

Maison looked thoughtful for a moment. "There is another way…" Ron perked up at this. "Harry could always teach you in the evenings."

Harry spun around from where he was doing his warm up. "What! Excuse me?" Ron looked puzzled as well.

"One of the better ways for you to make sure you know and have learned the moves, is to teach them to someone else." Maison explained. "And it would not cut into any more of the weekend for the two of you."

Ron looked to Harry. "I don't mind if you don't Harry."

With a sigh, Harry nodded. "Alright, but would you please make sure that I'm teaching Ron correctly?"

Maison nodded. "I will. But today is your time Harry. It's been almost a month now, and you still haven't managed to extend your Chi into an attack."

They worked on that for the next hour, before Harry threw his hands up, frustrated. "I'm never going to be able to do this." He sighed.

Maison stopped as well. "Let's sit down and work through this then. Every time you execute the kick, what do you do when you push your Chi out?"

Harry sat down. "I go through the kick, and then channel some of the Chi outside of my foot."

Maison nodded. "That sounds about right. Anything else?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I go through with the kick, and then pull the Chi back."

Maison sighed. "All of the Chi Harry?" Harry nodded. "That's the problem Harry. We've spent four weeks going over this, and you have the move down. You have to let go of the Chi, allow it to push out in the attack."

"But that means I won't be able to reuse it." Harry complained.

Shaking his head, Maison laughed. "Harry, you've got plenty of Chi to use. Allowing a little bit out during the attack won't hurt you. It will help make your attack stronger. Push the Chi out beyond where you can pull it back."

Nodding both to himself and Maison, Harry got back in the ready position. He moved deliberately through the form. Moving into the kick, Harry released the control he had on the channeled Chi and pushed it outside his moving foot.

To Maison's eyes, the Chi that Harry had pooled in the kick finally released from Harry and swept through the air, leaving a slight glowing trail of energy that quickly faded. "Excellent." Maison smiled. "Very good Harry."

Harry sat down, panting. "I guess that was fun, at least it didn't take as much out of me as before."

Maison frowned. "As before? What do you mean?"

"I was able to throw Chi at my cousin, before I came here. I only did it once, but it made me tired for days after that. I guess that's why I didn't want to do it again." Harry looked up. "Why didn't this make me as tired?"

Maison thought for a moment, and then looked at Harry again. "Probably because you have learned more control, and you have more Chi to work with now. Your Chi, and your magic for that matter, is like a muscle. Work it, use it, and it will become stronger."

Hermione looked up at this and spoke for the first time since the lesson started. "Magic is like this as well?" she enquired.

"Yes, it is. That is one of the reasons the Headmaster is one of the most powerful wizards in the world. His long life using magic has increased his magical strength." Maison stopped, considering his next words. "That is why some of the older wizards are more powerful. Everyone has a limit though."

Maison abruptly changed the subject. "Alright Harry, let's work through the rest of your form, and use your Chi for each of the moves."

After several hours, Harry was exhausted, and stumbled up the stairs to the Gryffindor Tower. Once they were in, he collapsed into one of the overstuffed chairs near the fireplace.

"Good God," Harry sunk deeper into the cushions of the chair. "I don't think I could have done anymore of that tonight."

Ron laughed, and then pretended to be mad. "Hey… wait a second; you're supposed to start teaching me tonight!" Harry opened his eyes and stared at Ron with something akin to horror. Ron laughed at the look on his friend's face. "Just kidding mate, I wouldn't do that to you. Wanna play some Wizard's Chess instead?"

"What's Wizard's Chess?" Harry warily asked.

"Glad you asked. Hold on a sec." Ron ran up to his dorm, leaving Harry and Hermione sitting in front of the fireplace.

Harry looked over to Hermione. "Have any idea what it is?"

She shrugged. "I know what chess is of course, but the Wizarding version of it is something I haven't read about."

"We'll find out in a moment then, I guess." Harry said, as he heard Ron's footfalls on the stairs coming back down from their dorm.

Pulling another chair in front of Harry along with an end table, he opened up a regular chessboard between them. He then opened the bag he was carrying with him, pulling out two sets of worn chess figures. "Like everything else I get, they're used. But that's actually good; means they're really experienced." Placing them on the board, he poked them with his wand. The pieces seemed to yawn and look up at Ron. They then moved into their respective places.

Ron and Harry started playing, with both Ron and Hermione explaining the rules to him. Harry managed to lose several times in the first fifteen minutes before figuring out what he was doing wrong, coached by the pieces themselves. "Either I'm extremely bad, or you're extremely good Ron." Ron grinned. "And considering how badly I'm losing, I'm going to guess it's both."

"You're probably right Harry." Hermione said. "You've got the rules down, but you have to know the strategy for it." She sat on the arm of Harry's chair, and poked the pieces with her own wand. "Alright, back to your places. I want to try."

The pieces grumbled good-naturedly and returned to their position. Hermione managed to last several minutes more than Harry had, but was still defeated by Ron with relative ease.

"Good game Hermione." He stuck his hand over the board, which Hermione shook. "At least you're a decent challenge. We're going to both have to work on Harry here."

All three smiled and laughed.

-

In the weeks leading up to the Christmas holidays, Harry noticed the weather outside getting cooler -if the frosted windows and midnight Astronomy classes were anything to go by- and inside the school, places like the Great Hall and others started becoming more festive. A few colorful ribbons were strung up, some of the suits of armor were gleaming, and you might think you had heard a Christmas carol or two echoing inside of them.

Unfortunately, not everyone was in the Christmas spirit.

At lunchtime, about a week before Christmas, the trio found Hagrid trying to get a huge tree through the doors into the Great Hall. "Anything we can do to help?" Harry asked.

Hagrid turned slightly. "Hiya Harry! Hullo to you two as well." He grinned at Ron and Hermione. "If ya want ta, ya can. I can't get this durned thing into the Hall without those doors tryin' ta close on me. Hold 'em open, would ya?"

Harry and Ron nodded, leaning up against the doors to keep them from closing on Hagrid as he went through them.

"Ah, Weasel. Trying to earn a few coins by being an assistant Gamekeeper? Maybe so you can buy your Mudblood girlfriend a present?" A haughty voice was heard, as they saw Malfoy walk up. "Oh, and you've even got Potter in the game? As I doubt he needs money after his pathetic parents died, he must be willing to give you his share of the money as well. How charitable Potter."

The comment, whether or not calculated to enrage all three of the Gryffindors, did so regardless. Hermione and Harry glared at him as Ron pulled his wand. Harry grabbed his hand, keeping Ron from hexing him. Hagrid hadn't noticed as he'd been on the other side of the door, and got the tree in as the doors closed behind him.

"Malfoy, what an unpleasant thing to say." Harry's eyes narrowed. "Hagrid was having trouble, so we decided to be nice and help him. Something you could never be." Harry grinned slightly. "And besides, even if Ron was trying to be an assistant Gamekeeper, he'd at least have a job, unlike you ever would."

Malfoy's eyes narrowed to match Harry's, as his hand went into his robes for his wand.

Harry grinned. "Remember the rules I told you way back in the beginning of the year? Rule one."

Malfoy paled slightly, and removed his hand from his wand. He smirked at them.

"What is going on here? Ah… Mr. Potter, threatening another student are we? Fifteen points from Gryffindor. Five from each of you for ganging up on another student." Snape's voice drawled from behind them.

The trio spun around, wincing as two malicious grins surrounded them.

"But- But-" Ron started.

"Do you want me to take another five from you for back talking to a Professor?"

Ron shut his mouth.

"Get to lunch, all of you." Snape stared at them as they turned and nearly ran into the Great Hall to get away from him. Malfoy followed them at a leisurely pace, laughing at them. Harry and Ron glared at him, but couldn't do anything with Snape watching them.

-

That evening in the common room, Harry noticed a piece of paper being passed around. A few people were signing it, but most just passed it to the next person. It was eventually passed to Hermione, who read it quickly, then handed it to Ron. He looked it over for a moment, and then signed his name to it. He then passed it to Harry.

Please sign below if you do not plan on leaving Hogwarts for the Christmas break.

All of the Weasleys had already signed, and Harry turned to Ron. "Why are you guys not going home?"

Ron shrugged. "Mum and Dad are going to visit Charlie out at the dragon reserve in Romania with my sister, so we're all stuck here for the holidays."

Harry nodded. "I'm staying too, so you'll have company at least." He signed his name on the paper, passing it to another person before turning back. "Now, let's see if I can at least last more than three minutes against you in chess Ron."

Ron laughed, and they all continued enjoying the night.

Done. Whee! Please take note, as I'm about to give a few Spoilers for the game Xenogears, in an effort to clear a few things up.

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The gear Xenogears was created when Fei made contact with the Wave Existence. It transformed his gear Weltall into Xenogears, so there's no way I can give Harry Xenogears. Not like I'd want to anyways. Xenogears is way to overpowering. The Wave Existence was technically unlimited power, and I'd rather not put that in the hands of a child.

Although, yes Harry will be getting a staff, it will not be a Horcrux made staff. I wouldn't want to have another Grahf on my hands. The staff isn't going to show up until year 3 or 4 though.

There will be no Id. Id was a product of Fei's hellish childhood, and if you notice, I carefully didn't give Harry one, for that reason. No need for a little boy to crack and get MPD. A form of Id may make an appearance though.

For those of you who enjoyed the Quidditch game last chapter, I'm glad. Neither me nor my beta can write Quidditch worth a darn, so I'm glad you still liked it.

Dr. Gero beta'd as normal. Give him props, since he's the one keeping me straight.