A/N: Last episode had two bed scenes and three reruns. What does a simple train ride to school hold in store for our young hero? Check the title XD
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Card Captor Harry
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Card 4, The Watery: Dementor's Darkness
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Card Captor Sakura. If I did, Sirius wouldn't have died, Voldemort would be easier to kill, Sakura, Tomoyo, Meiling and Syaoran would be a foursome, Touya and Yukito would both have steady girlfriends and I wouldn't have to write on ffnet. Both series are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me. Although if you want to send some anyway, be my guest!
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When Harry found it in him to get up and tell Mirror to get back in the book- she complied, but not before giving him another one of her patented kisses- the sounds of activity could be heard though the door. This was soon followed by a knock.
Opening the door, Harry was greeted by Tom's usual toothless grin. "Your breakfast, mister Potter," he said, holding a tray with some tea and a little toast.
Harry managed a smile. "Thanks Tom," he said, accepting the tray gratefully.
Closing the door, Harry was amused to see that Kero had woken up at the mention of breakfast.
"Ooh, breakfast," the little Guardian said, snagging a slice of toast.
"Stay hidden, Ron or Hermione might come in," Harry said, getting dressed and trying to eat at the same time.
"Why are you trying to stick your leg down that sleeve?" Kero asked.
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Harry was trying to persuade Hedwig to get back in her cage when Ron banged his way into the room, pulling a sweatshirt over his head. Keroberos 'eeped'- quietly- and quickly dove under a pillow.
"The sooner we get to the train, the better," Ron said. "At least I can get away from Percy at Hogwarts. Now he's accused me of dripping tea on his photo of Penelope Clearwater. You know,' he grimaced, "his girlfriend. She's hidden her face under the frame because her nose had gone all blotchy…"
"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said, but was interrupted when Fred and George came in to congratulate Ron on infuriating Percy again.
The three headed down to breakfast. Harry excused himself by saying he had lost something and would be down momentarily.
"You can come out now, Kero," he said, lifting the pillow.
"Man, that was close," the plushy-like creature said.
"You better stay here," Harry said, pushing the breakfast tray towards him. "Here, you can have my share of breakfast, I'll eat downstairs. Keep yourself hidden, okay?"
With that, the last Potter followed after the three Weasleys, leaving Kero and Hedwig alone in the room.
"So," Kero said after a while, "have you known Harry long?"
Hedwig just hooted.
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Harry was barely able to keep Keroberos hidden during the chaos of leaving. They had resorted to their old 'under the jacket' routine, but that was still difficult. Harry and Keroberos had the sneaking suspicion that Crookshanks could smell them, not that that was anything to worry about, but it still made them nervous.
Harry was thankful they managed to get a window seat in the Ministry car, since that meant he had a side were Kero could hide without having to worry about Ron, Hermione and Percy feeling Kero's movements. Although he more than once had to threaten- silently, of course- to squeeze Kero when he wouldn't stop asking "Are we there yet?". It got a bit tense when they arrived at Kings Cross and Harry had to unload his trunk and put it on a trolley, since Kero suddenly became in danger of being squashed by said luggage when Harry was with wrestling it, but it turns out Kero was stronger than he looked. He actually helped Harry get the thing in place!
When they crossed through the barrier in platform nine and three-quarters, Harry and Kero relaxed a bit. The platform was so packed, no one would notice the odd-feeling bump under his jacket. Still, if anybody had bumped into said bump, Kero would have been in for a world of hurt.
After he and Ginny had gotten a good laugh over Percy making a fool of himself because of his girlfriend- Really! Harry thought, she wasn't much to look at. The Mirror impersonating me would be cuter- after which he promptly gagged, realizing what he was thinking- and Hermione and the other Weasleys had shown up, they'd gone to a nearly empty carriage of the train and stowed their stuff.
As the others went back outside to say goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry stayed behind for a moment, hastily letting Kero out from under his jacket.
"Finally! Air!" Kero exclaimed- quietly- fanning himself and wheezing as if he couldn't breath.
Harry rolled his eyes and gently flicked him upside the head.
"OW!" Kero said as Hedwig hooted in amusement. "What was that for?"
"That," Harry said, "was an award for your atrocious acting. Listen, hide here on the way to Hogwarts, okay? When we get to the school, get in my trunk- you can open it, right?- and stay there 'til it gets in my dormitory, got it?"
Without waiting for and answer, Harry headed out after the Weasleys, leaving Kero, Hedwig and Crookshanks very much alone.
"Is he always like that?" he asked Hedwig.
The snow owl hooted, and Kero nodded as if he understood. He gave the cat in the wicker basket a sidelong glance.
"How about we keep me secret, waddaya say?" he asked in his most winning voice.
Crookshanks gave him what could have been a feline dirty look and hissed.
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Harry barely made the goodbyes, getting there when Mrs. Weasley had finished kissing her children goodbye and was working on Hermione. When his turn came, Harry wasn't the least bit embarrassed. The Cards had done worse to him during the past four days- man, had it only been that long?- so he was suitably desensitized. Really, after being gang kissed by three women, one of which had stuck her tongue between his lips and at the same time had stolen his first kiss, been frenched by a way older but still hot woman/Clow Card, had slept with and woken up to a hot female duplicate of himself who had also thoroughly kissed him- twice!- a little peck on the cheek wasn't something to react to. He was, however, quite pleased when Mrs. Weasley gave him an extra hug. That, the Cards had never done, not even Mirror, who had liked to snuggle- Harry grabbed that thought and threw it off the brain- and it gave him a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling inside.
It didn't last that long, the real world- or reality, at least, since we're talking about wizards here- quickly making its presence known.
"Harry," Mr. Weasley said quietly as Mrs. Weasley was distributing out sandwiches, "come over here a moment."
Harry followed him behind a pillar, wondering what this was about, wracking his brain as he went. He was fairly sure he hadn't done anything to need a talking to with the Weasley patriarch, although with Fred and George around, he could have been framed.
"There's something I've got to tell you before you leave-" said Mr. Weasley, just as one of the guys in Harry's archival research staff came running in with a memo from three days ago.
"It's alright, Mr. Weasley," said Harry, quickly recalling what he had been thinking about the first night before someone hit the rewind button. Some part of him found it slightly disturbing he'd forget that someone had broken out of jail to kill him. "I already know."
"You know? How could you know?"
"I- er- I heard you and Mrs. Weasley talking last night," Harry said, stumbling over the time frame, quickly adding, "I couldn't help overhearing. Sorry-"
"That's not the way I'd have chosen for you to find out," Mr. Weasley said, looking anxious.
"No- honestly, it's OK. This way, you haven't broken your word to Fudge and I know what's going on."
"Harry, you must be very scared-"
"I'm not," Harry said sincerely, thinking "I have the Clow Cards on my side! I'd like to see him try something against The Wood, The Earthy, The Windy and The Shot!". "Really. I'm not trying to be a hero," although I always seem to get cast in that role, Harry thought, "but seriously, Sirius Black can't be worse than Voldemort can he?"
Standard V-name flinch.
"Harry, I knew you were, well, made of stronger stuff than Fudge seems to think, and I'm obviously pleased you're not scared, but-"
"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley called out. "Arthur, what are you doing? It's about to go!"
"He's coming, Molly!" Mr. Weasley answered, turning back to Harry. "Listen, I want you to give your word-"
"- that I'll be a good boy and stay in the castle?" Harry guessed, sounding gloomy.
"Not entirely," said Mr. Weasley. "Harry, swear to me you won't go looking for Black."
Oh-kay, that wasn't what he was expecting. "What?"
"Promise me, Harry," Mr. Weasley said, "that whatever happens-"
"Why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?" Harry said, bewildered. Sure looking for someone out to kill students, he could understand, but looking for someone who wanted to kill him, personally? Even with the Clow Cards, he was going to temp fate.
"Swear to me that whatever you might hear-"
"Arthur, quickly!" cried Mrs. Weasley.
Harry broke into a run as the train started to move, aiming for the compartment door Ron had opened. He ran Mr. Weasleys words in his head as he got on. Why the heck would he want to look for someone out to kill him? Brave to the point of stupidity, he might be, but he was in no way suicidal!
"I need to talk to you in private," he muttered to Ron and Hermione. Old habits die hard, and friendships die harder.
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Knowing Kero was hidden somewhere close by, with easy access to his trunk just in case, Harry didn't worry about the little plushy-guardian as he and his friends- other friends, he found himself correcting, thinking of the Cards in his inner jacket pockets- sat down in a compartment with the unconscious Professor Lupin and told them about Mr. And Mrs. Weasleys argument and about Mr. Weasleys warning and strange request.
They took it even worse than he expected, although their angst-ing was interrupted by Harry's Sneakoscope. The dreary momentum broken, they switched to the topic of Hogsmeade. They went slightly dreary again when Harry's lack of a permission slip came out, but that was broken when Crookshanks attacked Scabbers.
After lunch, as the clouds outside the windows thickened and grew darker, Malfoy and his goons came over but, unwilling to pick a fight in front of a professor, soon departed.
Much later, as the rain thickened and the windows got so dark that lamps flickered on, and Harry was thinking of Keroberos, wondering where the little guy was and hoping he wasn't discovered- with a jolt, Harry realized Kero didn't have anything to eat; boy was he gonna get it- when he felt something strange on the fringes of his newly developed magic sense. Frowning, he looked out the window, the feeling coming closer.
"We must be nearly there," said Ron as he too looked out the window past Lupin. Not that there was anything to see. It was completely black.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the train suddenly slowed down and stopped.
Harry had a bad feeling about this. He could feel whatever it was just outside, realizing he wasn't feeling just one, but multiple somethings.
What the heck was going on?
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Somewhere on the train, Keroberos cursed fluently in three different Asian languages, nine different dialects, ancient Greek and perfect Latin in invective mode. It was past noon and he still hadn't eaten anything! Granted, while keeping watch over the Clow Book he hadn't eaten either, but now that he was material, he had a lot of catching up to do! When he found Harry, the kid was going to PAY!
He was still muttering curses- both magical and verbal- under his breath, this time in Mongolian, when he felt their presence. His blood ran cold as fear and hatred gripped his heart. He knew that feeling anywhere!
A growl escaped his lips as he felt them getting closer. If only he could change into his cool form…
With a sickening feeling in his heart- or maybe his stomach; he hadn't eaten yet, after all- the train slowed, then stopped. He could hear the passengers, sounding confused, over the background noise of the wind and rain. More importantly, he could fell them, just outside the train.
Drawing what little magic he had around himself, Keroberos tried to make himself undetectable, even as he shook in barely suppressed rage and fury, wanting nothing more than to take action. Clow had hated these things, one of a very short list of things his late master, may he rest in peace, couldn't or wouldn't abide by or tolerate.
Without warning, all the lamps went out.
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"What's going on?" said Ron from behind Harry, even as Harry felt the things coming closer. Something seemed to grip his heart, and he knew instinctively that what he felt was evil…
"Ouch!" gasped Hermione. "Ron, that was my foot!"
Harry felt his way back to his seat, one hand going to the Key under his shirt, feeling its reassuring weight. He could feel his wand in his pocket, and the Clow Cards under his jacket. With these, he was fairly sure he could handle nearly anything out there, short of Voldemort himself.
The Cards felt warm against him. Funny, how he never noticed that before. It was almost as if they were alive…
"D'you think we've broken down?" he asked.
"Dunno…"
There was a squeaking sound, and Harry saw Ron's outline wiping a patch clean on the window and peering out.
"There's something moving out there," Ron said. "I think people are coming aboard…"
Not people, Harry wanted to say. Monsters! Evil incarnate! Why did it feel so cold…?
The compartment door suddenly opened and someone fell painfully over Harry's legs, breaking his train of thought.
"Sorry! D'you know what's going on? Ouch! Sorry-"
"Hello, Neville," Harry said, feeling in the dark and following his 'sense', pulling Neville up by his cloak.
"Harry! Is that you? What's happening?"
Evil! Something wicked this way comes! He could feel them. They were already on the train! The feeling of cold returned to Harry. So many! So dark…
"No idea! Sit down-"
"I'm going to go and ask the driver what's going on," Hermione's voice said as Neville tried to sit on Crookshanks, with pained results.
No! They're out there! Harry wanted to yell as he felt her pass in more ways then one. As the door slid open, he dimly realized that he seemed to be able to 'feel' the people in the room, feel their magic, close, yet so different from the Clow Cards and the 'feel' of spells cast. Why had he never noticed before…?
There was a thud and two pained squeals.
"Who's that?"
"Who's that?"
"Ginny?"
"Hermione?"
"What are you doing?"
"I was looking for Ron-"
"Come and sit down-"
"Not here!" Harry said hurriedly, having had more than enough female contact that week. "I'm here!"
"Ouch!" said Neville.
"Quiet!" a hoarse voice said suddenly.
Harry vaguely made the connection that Professor Lupin seemed to have woken up at last. His mind wasn't there, however. It was close! It was coming down the corridor, a void of darkness, seeming to suck something out of the air itself, leaving a sense of nothingness in its path. Harry could feel it.
There was a soft, crackling sound, a momentary 'feel' and a shivering light filled the compartment. Professor Lupin seemed to be holding a handful of flames. Dimly, Harry wondered if he could do that.
"Stay where you are," Professor Lupin said, slowly getting to his feet and heading for the door.
NOOO! Harry thought as he felt the nothingness beyond.
The door slid open before Lupin could reach it. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the shivering flames in Lupin's hand, was a cloaked figure that towered to the ceiling. For an instant, Harry was reminded of The Shadow Card.
He tried to focus, but the sense of nothingness grew from the creature. As though through a long, dark tunnel, Harry saw a hand protruding from the cloak, glistening and grayish, slimy and scabbed, like a corpses'…
In slow motion, the hand withdrew into the folds of the cloak.
It was getting darker, Harry noticed. He could barely see at all. Lupin's flames were only a slight flickering amidst a black haze…
Then Harry heard, as if from a great distance, a long, slow, rattling breath being drawn…
And intense cold, colder than what he had felt a while ago, swept through Harry, and he felt his breath catch in his throat. The sense of nothingness surrounded him, worse than the cold. Harry lost sight of Lupin's flames as the darkness stole over his vision completely. There was a rushing in his ears and he felt like he was being dragged down, down into darkness…
Somewhere, far, far away, he heard someone screaming…
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Keroberos kept himself from growling. A hundred years ago, these things were destroyed on sight. Now they seemed to be roaming where they pleased, if this was any indicator. The Ministry had completely lost it! These things couldn't be trusted, they had no respect for life, no concept of decency…
Abruptly, his head jerked up, staring through a wall.
NO! he thought. Harry!
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Harry stood in the midst of a dark void. There was only darkness and nothingness as far as the eye could see. There was nothing to distinguish ground from horizon, or anything else, for that matter.
"Where am I?" Harry said, more to hear himself speak than any hope someone would answer.
The sound seemed muffled, as if it were absorbed by something the minute it left his mouth. It was cold, Harry realized, a chilling cold that had nothing to do with temperature, a cold that made his heart clench. He reached for his wand.
"Lumos!" he said.
Nothing happened.
Harry stared at his wand for a moment before giving it a wave. "Lumos!" he repeated. "LUMOS!"
Still nothing.
Harry stared. This was serious. His wand had never not reacted to him before. It had always worked, ever since he'd properly learned to cast his first spell. Futilely, he tried again and again, but the light spell was useless. So he tried other spells; no go either.
MAN, it was cold!
Desperately, he pulled out the Key.
"Key of power, show me your true form. I, the one to whom you are bound, command it! RELEASE!"
He nearly shouted for joy when the Key changed into the Sealing Wand. Grabbing The Shot Card from under his robes- nothing to shoot, but maybe he could light the way for him- he flicked the Card in the air and raised the Sealing Wand. "Clow Card, show me your true power. Shot Card!"
Nothing happened. The Clow Card drifted down to his feet.
Harry was stunned. That had never happened before. He had seen spells not work- although he'd always wondered that if the spell Fred and George had told Ron would turn Scabbers yellow had been real. But the Clow Cards had always responded to him. Harry became officially scared.
Abruptly, he became aware of screaming. It was faint, barely there, yet it echoed, as his own voice had not. The screaming had a surreal, haunting quality, one his own voice didn't. Out of options, he headed towards it.
The screams echoed through the darkness, low at first, but getting higher and clearer as he moved. With every step, the cold that gripped his chest seemed to grow tighter.
Suddenly, the darkness in front of him seemed to open up. A small hole in mid-air appeared in the black haze, a window to somewhere. The screaming grew louder. The surreal quality to it had increased, and Harry was reminded of the time Dudley had broken his stereo, so that when he played it, the tape became jammed and repeated the same stretch of sound over and over (he blamed Harry, of course).
Having nowhere else to go, Harry strode towards it.
Then the cold came, harder, stronger than before. Its grip on his heart tightened, and spread, moving outward through his chest, seeping out to his limbs. His hands began to shake, followed by his knees. Within seconds, he was shaking all over, completely paralyzed by the cold.
Harry gasped as he fell to his knees in the darkness, the screaming echoing around him as he felt something being drained from him. Futilely, he tried to grab it, but there was nothing o grasp. All that was left was an emptiness in his chest, where the cold began to seep in and make itself at home.
The screaming changed, became less surreal, became louder, closer, more human. Emptily, Harry raised his head. The opening had gotten closer, bigger, had moved right in front of him. Blearily, the Card Captor tried to focus on what he saw.
As that had been some kind of signal, the opening filled his vision...
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Before him, as if through a white fog, Harry saw a room. The wallpaper was light and cheery, the curtains blue and frilly. It was dark outside the window, though infinitely brighter than the void he found himself in, but obviously night. In the room was a cradle. A baby slept there, short black hair a untidy mess on his head.
A feeling other than the cold crept through Harry, a sense of recognition. Somehow, he felt he knew this child...
The door to the room opened, and a woman swept in. She wore a flowered dress, and had thick, dark red hair. Harry gasped at her eyes. His eyes...
"Mom..." he said, but no sound came out of his mouth.
She moved to check on the baby in the cradle, and with a start, Harry realized that baby was him. Ignoring the surreality of the situation- he'd been in worse, the past three days being good examples- Harry focused on his mother. He drank her in, absorbing every detail. The only pictures he had of his mother was an album Hagrid had given him, a few times in the Mirror of Erised. So he looked at her, memorized everything he could see, even through the fog, and the cold in his chest melted slightly.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the door. Harry's mom looked up, startled.
The door opened, slamming into the wall and bouncing slightly. A man rushed in, obviously panicked. He had unruly dark hair, and looked exactly like...
Harry's gaze flickered to the boy in the cradle.
"Dad..." he whispered.
James Potter slammed the door behind him, rushing to his wife. As he did, the white fog grew slightly thicker, so that Harry's view was obscured. Still, he could hear very clearly.
"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! I'll hold him off-"
A man's voice- his father's voice, Harry realized. He was shouting, obviously panicked. Who was it? Harry wondered.
In his mind, he heard Hagrid's voice. "He turned up in the village where you was all living, on Hallowe'en ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an'- an'-"
The baby in the cradle didn't look two.
No... Harry thought, ice gripping his heart anew. No!
James Potter was about to stumble from the room as his wife made to reach down to her child, when the door burst open. There was a cackle of high-pitched laughter as, through the swirling fog, a man entered the room, and Harry saw a face that he had last seen on he back of someone's head. There had been nothing funny about it then, and there was nothing funny about it now.
It was the face of Lord Voldemort.
NO!
The fog grew thicker as Harry saw his father draw his wand, but before a spell could be cast, Voldemort let loose his own.
"Avada Kedavra."
A green bolt of magic struck the elder male Potter in the chest and he fell to the ground, his eyes staring sightlessly up into the ceiling, his wand cradled in his limp hand.
The pure cold held Harry's heart tighter in its grip, choking his breath, like a glacier in his chest. No, no, no... he repeated like a litany, trying to will what he saw to stop happening, yet knowing it was futile.
More fog blew in front of his vision, so he could only see bits and pieces, but he could hear just fine.
"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"
"Stand aside, you silly girl… stand aside, now…"
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead-"
Harry couldn't turn away. His mother was screaming. He caught one last look of her before there was another cry of "Avada Kedavra!"
The last thing he saw, before the fog mercifully closed in, was Voldemort's face, standing over his cradle, before the fog obscured it completely. He turned away, shaking completely, tears stinging in his eyes, the cold completely overwhelming him as his mother's final screams echoed in his ears, echoed in the darkness around him…
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- To be continued...(don't ya just hate me:p)
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A/N: a few minor changes to canon. Harry doesn't bring up Sirius Black to Ron right away because he, chronologically, heard about it three days ago, and has since been preoccupied with The Time Card. So Mr. Weasley had to remind him. Their talk is taken from book three, even though the way it was said in the movie sounds a bit nicer. I didn't feel right about skimping this.
No Malfoy. MAN, I HATE THAT GUY! For those who hate him, he will be bashed. For his fan girls and boys, I suggest you stop reading, as I intend to do horrible things to him.
This is shorter than I like, but necessarily so. Still, it feels too much like filler for my tastes. I promise never to do something this short ever again. At least, I'll try. Wouldn't swear an Unbreakable Vow on it, though.
OUCH! AAAAHHHHH! -more cries of pain as he is Crucioed- I deserved that. Seriously, I don't like hurting Harry either- except when he's being so wussy and clueless about girls, which makes me want to scream- but my muse, and the Grand Scheme Of Things- read, my outline- has decreed otherwise.
In case you haven't read it yet, please read my Card Captor Harry prequel(?)/spun-off-from fic, 'Harry Potter and the Magic Book: Release!'. Please note it was written before I read book six, so it's a bit off. And I know I said this already, but another round of thanks to Ran Hoshino-san for encouraging me it his review to write a complete HP/CCS crossover/fusion/prequel, the result being the fic you are currently reading.
To HarbringerLady: thanks for the review! Always nice to get one from a reader. You put me on your alert? Awww...
To Ran Hoshino: hey Ran-san! Hope you don't mind if I call you that. Makes my day, getting a review from my longest reader. About the Tomoyo replacement, you should have made the suggestion earlier. I already have someone drafted for that role. Still, feel free to send suggestions. Uh, what kind of test did Eriol give Sakura? All I have are rather hazy memories and an episode summary that isn't very useful.
To Dumbledork: thanks for the review and for the info about the currency. A bit late for me, but I'm sure I can use it later. Uh, I really don't know much about classic magical girls, unless you count Sailor Moon. And I really don't have time for new projects. Maybe after Voldemort dies XD.
I hereby dedicate this chapter to you guys!
To Voakands: sorry, you're a bit late to get dedicated. Still, thanks for the review! More weird and demented stuff on the way, although I hope you pardon the occasional seriousness. : )
To Warbl65(did I spell that right?)thanks for the review! Hope you can stay longer next time!
If this chapter feels short, just click that little arrow down there that's pointing to the right.
Please review, C&C welcome. No, not Cards & Capturing, although that would be nice too. Dibs on The Hope Card!
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.
Uh, just to sound off, has anyone done a Harry Potter/Books of Magic crossover? I got to thinking because Harry Potter and Timothy Hunter look a lot alike. Not that I plan to any time soon, I intend to write CCH until the end of Seventh Year, Hogwarts, which will take a while, but if anyone's done it, I want to know so I can read it.