A/N: AH! After the catharsis that were "Harry Potter: Raven" and "Card Captor Sasuke", it's back to this little number. Don't worry, HP: R will be continued, CC Sasuke won't. I also now understand the reason why updates of good fics take so long. Real life and writer's block are such pains.
And now, on with the show!
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Card Captor Harry
by Shadow Crystal Mage
Card 7, The Jump: Fists Of Fury
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well and covet her money. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me. Since she's OC, however, does Fei Lee belong to me?
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"Harry!"
Harry turned, looking around in confusion as he surveyed the empty corridor he was in. His name had to be called a second time before he recognized the voice and where it was coming from. When he did, he headed for the nearest window, glad the hallway was empty. "Kero? What are you doing out of the dorm room? Did anyone see you?"
"We don't have time to worry about that!" Kero said, and Harry's eyebrows decided to try climbing up his scalp. Kero, not obsessed over secrecy? Harry checked the skies. No meteorites seemed on their way to wipe out all life one Earth, although he didn't know if anyone was on their way to Antarctica to start Second Impact, and he had no way of knowing if it was snowing in aitch-ee-double-hockey-sticks, so Harry just hoped it wasn't the End Of The World. Boy, wouldn't that stink.
Kero continued. "There's a Clow Card active in Hogwarts! You have to catch it before it draws any attention!"
That got Harry's attention. Having just gotten out of one encounter of the Clow Card kind, he really didn't think he could handle another. It wasn't even lunch yet! Give a guy a break!
Harry was just about to open his mouth when a thought occurred to him, and he changed what he was about to say. "What Card are we talking about here?"
"It's one of the more excitable ones," Kero said, darting his head from side to side as if looking for it. "With Master Clow, it was always well-behaved, but it tended to be rowdy away from him. And that's not counting its powers! We have to find The Thunder Card before- what the heck are you smiling about?
Resisting the urge to sigh in relief, Harry reached into his robe and pulled out his latest acquisition. He held it in front of Kero.
The Sun Guardian blinked, looking up and down at the Card several times. "Oh," he said. Harry fought the urge to look more smug.
Kero took a deep breath, then stopped, sniffing the air. "Are those blueberry muffins I smell?"
Harry reached into another pocket and pulled out one of said pastries, looking none the worse for wear after his little mad dash. "Here. Knock yourself out."
"YATTA!" Kero exclaimed as he took a big bite that consumed nearly the whole top part of the muffin, before he swallowed it whole. "Got any more?"
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A little while later, in an empty classroom, Kero sat on top of a desk, slowly eating the last of the muffins as Harry stood, looking out the window and absently wiping some crumbs off his front. Harry had relayed to Kero what had happened to him. Kero had been particularly interested about the fact Lee had claimed to be a descendant of Clow, although he hadn't acted very surprised. When asked, Kero had just smiled widely and said Clow had been very well liked by women, his tone implying exactly how he was well liked. Harry had promptly dropped the subject, although he had wondered if that was where the Clow Card girls got their attitude. Needless to say, it was likely this girl was exactly who and what she claimed to be. Although Harry found it slightly disturbing to think that Clow had been Nagi Springfield, Thousand Master-esque.
That didn't mean, Kero had clarified, that Harry had to give her the Cards. In fact, Kero was violently against it. He was the his chosen Card Captor, darn it! No little upstart was going to change that!
Harry had agreed, if for different reasons. Old instincts came to the fore. She was a Slytherin. He was a Gryffindor. That meant war! Simple as that. Plus, her attitude reminded him strongly of Malfoy, and reminding Harry of Malfoy wasn't the way to endear yourself to him. Still, Kero cautioned him, he should be careful, as they had no way of knowing whether she would divulge their secret to anyone.
Harry sighed. "Guess I'd better go to lunch. I've got a ton of homework to do."
"Yeah," Kero said, drifting towards the window. "Better head back to the dorm. I wanna know how the Baka Rangers get out of the library island."
"Be careful!" Harry said, opening the door of the classroom. "Don't fold the pages! And don't get it dog-eared! And hold it right so the spine doesn't get creased-"
"Yeah, yeah!" Kero said before he flew off.
Harry shook his head, completely oblivious to his Hermione-esque reaction.
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Harry headed for the library, knowing Hermione would be just about to wrap up her morning cram session. Indeed, she was there, checking out a bunch of two-inch thick books for 'light reading'. Nearby, Ron was shuffling impatiently, anxious to get to lunch.
"Hey," Harry greeted quietly, not wanting to get kicked out of the library. Idly, he wondered if there was a risk of Hermione developing a hunch from carrying so many books. The one time he'd offered to carry Hermione's books for her, he'd dropped them on his foot and broken two of his toes. Hermione, on the other hand, carried them around like they weighed a fraction of their weight. Although it wasn't obvious, Hermione was freakishly strong. Harry pegged her to be about Akane, or even Tsunade, level. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but still, her right hook was a force to be reckoned with. Ron really had no idea how lucky he was that she wasn't the hitting kind. If she'd hit him during any of their spats, Harry was fairly sure he'd get a concussion.
Ron waved in greeting as Hermione finished checking out her books. Slinging her book bag over her shoulder, she acknowledged Harry as well. Harry had to hand it to her, she barely slumped at all under the weight of what must have amounted to about three feet thick worth of books.
The trio made their way out of the library. "Why weren't you at breakfast?" Hermione asked. "You're usually waiting for us while you try to eat the table."
"I met that Lee girl," Harry said, not mentioning where in an attempt to evade the question.
"You did?" Ron exclaimed right away. "What's she like?"
"She's..." Harry paused, considering. "Slytherin to the bone. "
"She can't be that bad," Ron said, sounding slightly pleading.
Harry looked at him. "Why don't you see for yourself."
Fate, or at least some omnipotent being, seemed willing to let that happen, because Lee was in the Entrance Hall when they entered. Ron made as if to fix his hair but stopped when he saw who she was with. Lee was talking to Malfoy, who was almost preening. With him, as usual, was Crabbe and Goyle.
"I've changed my mind," Ron said, looking disgruntled. "I don't think I want to know anyone who'd talk to Malfoy."
"Smart lad," George said, suddenly popping up to Ron's left.
"Any girl who'd talk to Malfoy isn't worth wasting time over," Fred said from his sudden position to Harry's right.
"You guys got dumped, huh?" Harry said.
Hermione giggled as Ron laughed outright, earning him a look that promised revenge. Gulping, he smiled disarmingly, but that fainted when their evil looks didn't disappear.
Passing Malfoy, Harry wasn't surprised when the- probably inbred- boy suddenly said, "The Dementors will get you, Potter!" accompanied by the laughter of some nearby Slytherin cronies.
"Ignore him," Hermione whispered, as the three Weasleys gave the guy dirty looks.
And he did. What he couldn't ignore was Lee stepping into his path. He fought the urge to raise his arm and wrap his hand protectively around either the Key or the Cards.
"Potter," Lee said, looking down on him somehow, even though they were the same height. And the way she said his name... Once, Harry thought Malfoy had been taught from birth how to say someone's name so it was obvious that he thought he was superior and you were inferior. He was wrong. Malfoy was a rank amateur. This girl had been taught from birth.
"Lee," he said, slightly challenging. He desperately hoped she wasn't going to bring up the Clow Cards here, of all places.
Fortunately, she had something else in mind.
Unfortunately, she had something else in mind.
Looking at him up and down again, her lip twisted. "The Boy-Who-Lived. You seem... shorter, in person. Chibi."
Harry bristled, although nearly everyone but Hermione seemed confused. Chibi? He was average height, not chibi!
"I'm surprised a boy like you would notice things like that," he said, causing Hermione, Ron and the twins to stare at him. Malfoy was one thing, but the new girl?
A nasty smile appeared on Lee's face. "I'm more boy than you are."
"Good for you. Congratulations on getting into Slytherin, by the way. It must remind you of every bar and whorehouse you've ever worked in."
Things quickly took off from there.
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"Really, Harry, you should apologize," Hermione said later.
"She started it, and you heard the things she said about me! Besides, I don't apologize to Slytherins," Harry said, looking serious, but eventually grinning. "It is not my Wizard Way."
Ron looked between the two in confusion, as Hermione rolled her eyes, muttering about crazy anime addicts.
"You and your Naruto," she said under her breath.
"This from the girl who sleeps with Kakashi and Sasuke plushies," Harry retorted.
"What are you two talking about?" Ron finally said.
"Muggle things, Ron," Harry said as he watched Hermione blush. Ah, life was good.
The encounter with Lee, however, had not been good. It had quickly degenerated into an almost-shouting match. The insults flung between the two were soon highly acidic and even poisonous, such that, had they been potions, no cauldron on Earth could have held them. The two had almost literally been almost-shouting in each other's faces. Their housemates had held them back, as if afraid they would start getting physical. This, of course, attracted quite a crowd. They only broke up when someone yelled that a professor was coming. As if on cue, he and Lee had both turned perfect one eighties and walked in opposite directions, him towards the Great Hall, she towards the dungeons. When a professor finally did arrive, both perpetrators were gone and none of the witnesses were willing to talk.
In the days to come, things fell into a sort of routine, much as they do in all schools. Come morning, noon or night, if Harry or Lee came within a hallway of each other, the result was memorable. Malfoy was almost always ignored in favor of Lee. When the blond pureblood tried to insert his own snide remarks, all he got was a stereo "BACK OFF BLONDIE!". When he insisted, both Harry and Lee pointed their wands and blasted him away without even looking at him and not even pausing in their almost-shouting match. After a while, he learned to stay away and just watch the fireworks. He wasn't the only one. Harry and Lee's matches had rather large audiences whenever they broke out, and many carried notebooks to record their insults, which were all very nasty and original, for later use. Because it was very entertaining- if you weren't stupid enough to butt-in- none of the students wanted it stopped, so they all were very willing to give warning if one of the professors or Percy- who broke the record for being Hogwarts' biggest prat of a Head Boy- happened to be approaching. Even the other prefects were in on it. When they were separated, they both acted like nothing had happened, completely ignoring the money being passed around as bets were paid off concerning their bashing-skills.
For Harry and Lee, however, those shouting matches were their only outlets against each other. Both had their own reasons for disliking each other, which had been magnified during their first and second encounters. Lee disliked the fact she had competition for the Clow Cards. Harry disliked the fact she had tried to take his Cards away from him. It didn't help that neither had made a good first- or second-impression on the other. Yet both couldn't help but respect the other as well. Lee, because of the boy's will, and Harry, because of her determination. Granted, it was grudging, nearly non-existent, both-would-rather-die-than-admit-it, but it was there. You just had to dig down to a depth about equal to the distance to the center of the Earth…
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When Harry, Ron and Hermione came down to breakfast one morning a few days after the very memorable public meeting, they found the Great Hall almost literally buzzing with talk.
Ron turned to Harry. "You and Lee didn't by any chance have a 'chat' you didn't tell us about, did you?"
Harry shook his head. "Unless I'm doing it in my sleep."
They made their way to their usual places at the Gryffindor table, Harry very ready to pack in nearly half his body weight.
"Did you hear?" Dean said as they sat down.
"Uh, no?" Ron said as Harry began to pile food on his plate.
"Someone found Blaise Zabini unconscious in a corridor this morning. He was really beat up. They sent him to St. Mungo's for treatment."
"Blaise is that Slytherin kid, right?" Ron said. "Well, no big loss."
"RON!" Hermione said. "How can you be so insensitive?"
"Easy," Ron said. "He's a Slytherin."
All day, all anyone was able to talk about was Blaise. The school made a general proclamation for anyone who had any information to come forward. Most students seem to agree with Ron, however. It was a Slytherin; good riddance.
Then, a Hufflepuff sixth year was found in the same hallway, unconscious and as beat up. That killed the mood. A Slytherin was one thing; any one of them deserved a beating. A Hufflepuff, however... that was like kicking a puppy, no matter what year. One morning, three Ravenclaw second years were found there. They were the house weirdoes who insisted on calling themselves Team Seven, with the girl even dying her hair pink. Their toy kunai and shuriken had been found with them, some broken.
That opened the floodgates. First years were suddenly moving in groups together, reminding Harry of last year, during the Chamber of Secrets incident. Defensive and offensive spells suddenly became very fashionable. People seldom traveled alone, and no one, not even the Weasley twins, would leave their Houses at night.
No one was attacked for three days, and people started breathing easier. Then a burly Gryffindor fifth year was found beaten, in broad daylight. The group of first years who found him said they heard someone running from the scene. That was when things really hit the fan...
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The first thing Harry did when he got to the common room was wait for Ron and Hermione. Like the rest of the school, he didn't go anywhere alone anymore. It was too dangerous. Teachers were supposedly patrolling the hallways at night, and there was talk of them doing it during the day if another attack happened. Heck, there was talk of closing the school, although no one took that seriously.
All in all, it was giving Harry a weird sense of déjà vu, ala 'Chamber of Secrets'.
"Finally," Harry muttered as Ron and Hermione came downstairs. Wordlessly, the three of them headed down for breakfast. Well, wordlessly for the moment.
"I'm surprised whoever's doing this hasn't been caught yet," Hermione said. There was no need to say who. Only one topic of conversation reigned these days.
"I'm not," Harry said. "They didn't exactly catch the basilisk now, did they, and that was a giant snake!"
"I guess," Hermione said glumly. "But who'd do something like this? I mean, beating up students for fun?"
"Makes about as much sense as putting a giant snake-monster in a secret basement just to kill off muggle-borns," Ron said.
Conversation continued in that vein as they walked towards the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione discreetly kept an eye out for Lee, much to Harry's amusement. Although they liked watching bash Lee as much as the next student, they tried to keep it from happening during the mornings because, since they tended to oversleep, if one happened in the morning, they had a choice of watching it but not getting breakfast or eating breakfast but not getting to watch. A very tough choice.
A girl caught his eye, however, and it wasn't the Chinese Slytherin. Breaking into a faster walk, bordering on a run, Harry was able to stop Winter from walking off the stairs into empty air just in time.
Winter blinked and looked down, seeing her foot extended and about to take a very dangerous step. She groaned. "Not again."
"No harm done," Harry said, taking his hand reluctantly off her shoulder as Ron and Hermione caught up, each wearing a mild smirk, which they barely managed to conceal. He knew he was going to get reamed for this later, but what the hey. "Although you really should start watching where you're going."
Winter blushed slightly. "That's what everyone keeps telling me. I just couldn't help it! My neighbor just sent me these new printouts-" she indicated the very thick stack of computer paper she was carrying, each page crammed with very small lettering, "- and I just had to read it. There's this Naruto fic I was following over the summer that just got new updates, and I just couldn't stop myself!"
"Well, that's no reason to walk blind," Harry said, smiling and trying to stop the urge to make the smile goofier. "Especially since no one here knows how to do healing spells, much less healing jutsu."
Winter laughed. "I'll keep that in mind. Well, thanks for stopping me. Be seeing you, Harry!"
Waving, she walked down the stairs, looking where she was going this time. As she disappeared into the crowd, Harry felt his control slip, and his smile promptly went goofy.
"Ah, love is certainly in the air, Hermione," Ron said, his smirk no longer repressed, his tone matching his expression.
"Indeed it is, Ron," Hermione said, her face mirroring his, and they both snickered.
Harry blushed, but managed to growl out, "Buzz off you two!"
They just laughed. No matter how much they sometimes argued and didn't talk to each other, at heart they were still Weasley and Granger, partners in crime. And this crime did pay.
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Harry sighed as they walked towards the Great Hall for lunch. The morning had been murder, and the homework their teachers had assigned to top it all off wasn't going to help. Behind him, he felt a telltale burst of some magic, followed by Hermione disappearing, only to reappear farther away and trying to catch up with them stealthily. He didn't bother turning around. Since that first Divination lesson, he knew that Hermione was using some kind of magic or magical object to get to her classes without telling him or Ron. It had been child's play to detect it with his magic sense, and the first time it had happened, he had turned around and found Hermione back in the bottom of the stairs. In the days that had followed, his sense had become peculiar, 'feeling' Hermione in two places at once, although one usually disappeared. He had no idea what was causing this, but he didn't pry. A little voice in his head said that if he wasn't going to be honest and tell them about the Clow Cards, then he had no right to confront Hermione about whatever it was she was using. It was her business.
Still, the bursts of magic felt vaguely familiar for some reason…
He ignored Ron's exclamation of "Where did you go?" as Hermione rejoined them, along with her lie of "Oh, I left my books". She never left her books, being almost surgically grafted to them.
Joining a group of students walking in the same direction, they neared the hallway where most of the beat- up students had been found. Everyone in the group slowed, crowding closer together. None wanted to be the 'one left behind', the one in movies that gets attacked because they're last in line. As they passed the hallway on their way to the Great Hall, Harry felt something.
"Harry, where are you going?" Ron said as Harry broke off from the group, going towards the hallway.
"I thought I heard something," Harry lied as he broke into a run.
"Harry! Wait!" Hermione cried. From the sound of it, she was trying to bully Ron into coming with her to follow Harry.
Harry ignored them, racing towards the feeling. Suddenly, his foot caught on something and he tripped. Raising his hands to break his fall, he landed on a warm body. Hearing footsteps, he looked up, not seeing anyone. The footsteps gradually faded as he tried to stand up.
Looking down to see what had tripped him, his breath caught. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were all unconscious in the hallway. Malfoy was sporting a black eye, and there was a cut on his face where it had struck the floor. His 'broken' arm was twisted under him, and Harry hoped it was still broken. The other two were in worse shape. Their faces looked like blueberries, and there were cuts on their arms. Blood coated a nearby doorknob, as well as some other sharp-ish edges nearby.
For a moment, Harry really wished he had a camera.
"Ron, Hermione, call the teachers," he yelled. "Malfoy and his goons have been attacked!"
Standing up, he looked over in the direction the footsteps had faded…
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Harry managed to convince the teachers that, as much as he hated, loathed, was disgusted by, reviled, detested (you get the idea) Malfoy, he was not the one who attacked them, despite Snape's accusations. This was helped by the fact that he had a whole bunch of students as witnesses, not all from Gryffindor, including a Slytherin first-year who was still relatively uncorrupted, who could testify to his innocence, so there was no way he could have set it up. Still, Snape tried to pin something on him, although all he managed was to ask why Harry had heard something when no one else in the group had. At this, Harry had replied the noise had been really low, and that he hadn't really been sure he had heard anything, and if he was in league with whoever did this, wouldn't he be the one who would have beat up Malfoy, as he would have enjoyed it more?
Eventually, Dumbledore let him go, and he headed to dinner with McGonagall as his escort. The afternoon classes had been cancelled, and students had been sent to their dormitories to eat. The whole school was abuzz with the news, so it wasn't surprising when he was immediately crowded as he stepped into the common room. Fending them off, he managed to eat before runni- er, retiring to his dormitory, where he found Ron waiting.
"Well?" Ron said. "What really happened?"
Harry shrugged. "Just what I said. I thought I heard a sound, so I went to check it out, in case someone was getting beat up. They were. Good thing it was just Malfoy and his goons."
Ron blinked. "Oh. I thought there was something you weren't telling me."
Harry managed a hurt look. "You were there, Ron. Besides, would I lie to you?"
Ron looked sheepish. "I guess not. Anyway, I'm going down to dinner. You want anything?"
"Dessert. Lots of it," Harry said.
Ron gave him the thumbs up. "You got it," he said, before going down, leaving Harry feeling like crud.
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"It was a Clow Card, Keroberos. I'm sure of it."
The minute Ron had gone downstairs, Harry had dragged out the little Sun Guardian and told him everything, including the real reason he had gone down that hallway. The feel of a Clow Card was hard to mistake when you knew what it was. And that was what it had been. Not a fictional sound that he had heard. He had lied to Ron.
MAN, he felt like crud.
"What kind of Clow Card would do that, Kero?" Harry mused as he lay back against his headboard, the curtains of his four-poster tightly closed. He really didn't want this conversation going public. "I mean, I like that it was nice enough to beat up Malfoy, but the other students…"
"It could be The Fight Card," Kero said, legs crossed and looking deep in thought.
Harry chewed on that. "Why?"
"The Fight Card likes to challenge martial artists, and those students might have known something about fighting," Kero reasoned.
"Not enough," Harry said, remembering what the students were supposed to have looked like when they were found.
"You'd better go after it," Kero said. "Who knows how many more students might get hurt?"
Harry nodded. The same thought had crossed his mind. "Tonight. When everyone's asleep. You'd better come along, so I have back-up."
Kero grimaced. "Good idea. Being locked up here is driving me nuts."
He looked towards the general direction of the door. "Maybe you should check what's taking that Ron kid so long with the dessert's?"
Harry rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at him.
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Harry crept quietly down the corridor, wearing his invisibility cloak. He had to be more careful than usual. The school was crawling with prefects, teachers and ghosts on patrol, just like during the height of the Chamber of Secrets incident. Percy had been on guard at the portrait portal, so Harry had had to use The Jump Card to leap out his window, much to Kero's dismay. Really, Harry wondered, the guy could fly. What had him so scared about someone else's two hundred or so foot drop from a tower? At least the little plushy hadn't cried out.
Landing on a parapet, Harry had entered the school via another open window, and was currently making his way towards the corridor where he had found Malfoy and his goons. Idly, he wished he had that 'Hand of Glory' thing he had seen at Borgin and Burke's last year. He didn't dare light his wand, and using The Light Card was too flashy. Pausing at a corner, he let a ghost pass by. One good thing about his magic sense, he could tell if someone was coming well in advance.
Eventually, he found himself in the hallway from earlier. Someone had cleaned out the blood, although he still recognized the exact spot he had tripped. Harry was about to start looking around when his eyes narrowed as his magical sense started to tingle.
There was someone else here. Only problem was, the hallway was completely empty. Kero began to tug on Harry's shirt. He felt it too.
Silently, Harry walked towards where his sense told him the thing was. It didn't feel like a ghost, but it was vaguely familiar, like a tune he didn't know the words to. He extended his hand, trying to feel the thing. His hand touched on something warm.
The next second, he found himself hard on the floor, his back in extreme pain and his head ringing from where it had struck the stone floor. His glasses were askew, although that probably wasn't why he was having trouble focusing. A hand had an iron grip on his arm, and something had a hold around his neck, yet there was nothing there. Frantically, he lashed out with his other hand, striking something solid. There was an 'oomph' of breath as he felt the hood of his invisibility cloak slipping off his head.
"Potter," a voice hissed. A familiar voice.
Kero suddenly flew out of nowhere, striking at the general area where the voice had come from, and Harry felt the grip on his arm disappear as well as the pressure on his neck. He got up, untangling himself from his now-useless cloak as he alternately massaged his arm and neck. "Lee," he managed to choke out.
Keroberos looked at him, then at the general direction of where Harry could feel Lee was. A moment later, the Slytherin girl appeared out of thin air, rubbing her jaw and glaring in fury at the little Sun Guardian.
"You know this girl?" Kero said.
"She's the one I told you about," Harry said, giving the girl that look he used to reserve only for Malfoy and Snape.
"Hm," Kero said, looking back at Lee, who was getting to her feet. "You didn't tell me she had an invisibility cloak."
"I didn't know," Harry said, not taking his eyes off Lee, who was matching him glare for glare. He had to; the only part of her he could see was her head, since she was still wearing her cloak.
"What the (BLEEP!) are you doing here?" they both said. There was an infinitesimal pause. "I (BLEEP)-ing asked you first!"
"SHHH!" Kero shushed them. "You two want them to hear us!"
Lee gave him a scathing look. "Buzz off, plushy."
Hellfire was suddenly in Kero's eyes. "HEY! Do you have any idea who I am? I am the mighty and powerful Keroberos, Guardian of the Sun, and created by Clow Reed himself!"
Harry felt the urge to sweatdrop at Kero's rather loud declaration. Wasn't he just saying a while ago that they should be quiet?
Lee smirked. "I can't believe my ancestor would make bag of hot air like you."
"WHAT!" Kero screeched, and Harry winced. No way anyone didn't hear that. Then his eyes widened. Something was coming...
"WHY YOU LITTLE-!" Kero was screeching when Harry hiss-shushed him to silence, grabbing for his invisibility cloak. Settling the thing back on his shoulders, he gripped his wand in one hand, the Key around his neck with the other. For a moment, he regretted collapsing it back to its compact form, but it had been a pain to climb into the window with.
"It's here..." he heard Lee murmur, causing him to blink in surprise and turn towards her, just in time to see her pull the hood of her cloak back over her head. She could feel it too...? Harry winced. There went his edge. It was one of the three things he thought he had over Lee.
They didn't have to wait long. Its speed was unbelievable. One moment, it was a long way off, the next, it was standing right in front of them. Its look was what Harry was starting to think of as the 'standard Clow Card-girl look'. Pale white, glowing skin, weird vibe, magic senses tingling, etc.
She was about Harry's height, with pale hair styled into two 'loops' on her head, with a long lock extending from each loop down to the small of her back. The Card wore Umi Ryuzaki-esque long boots and gloves that came to her thighs and mid-upper arms. A tight top with flaring tails, with a very large, diamond-kite shaped red jewel between her breasts. Now that Harry noticed it, the Card's outfit was very reminiscent of Umi Ryuzaki from Magic Knight Rayearth, even down to the bloomers...
Harry promptly went red, and he was glad the invisibility cloak prevented him from being seen. He never thought he'd see anyone wearing an outfit like that outside of an anime or a cosplay. At least the other Cards wore skirts. Well, Windy didn't, but he couldn't see her legs, so it didn't matter.
The Card had a confident look on her face, one that made Harry uneasy. It was the same look he and Malfoy got when they confronted each other during a Quidditch match, the same look Hermione got when Ron said something along the lines of "If it's so simple, you do it". It was the look that said "I'm good, and I know it, so get ready to be humiliated".
Harry was suddenly very conscious of the fact that this was The Fight Card. It was only then he made the mental connection that the Card's abilities had to do with fighting. Something he had very little actual experience in.
Slowly, the Card began to advance. It walked smoothly, gracefully, its bearing one that reminded Harry of Dumbledore, a confident glide towards its destination. And it was heading straight for them.
There was a sound behind Harry, and he turned to look. Lee had shed her invisibility cloak and was rotating one arm by the shoulder, then the other, loosening her neck and spine as she stretched. "Stay out of this, Potter," she said. "You're out of your league."
With that, Lee lunged at The Fight Card.
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Harry stared. He couldn't help it.
As an anime viewer, he'd seen a lot of a lot. Shoujo, shonen, mecha, swords-and-sorcery (one of his absolute faves), slice-of-life, Ken Akamatsu (he felt the man deserved a genre all to himself), heck, one time he even caught about twelve-seconds of some hentai Dudley had been drooling over (at the age of six!), before going into shock, running into his cupboard and not coming out for a week. In all his viewing, he had seen a lot of really great fight scenes, from the likes of Yu Yu Hakusho, Flame of Recca, Hunter X Hunter, the ever-great Naruto, etc. It had taken a few months and lots of failed experiments and bruises at the park to realize that he couldn't do those things in real life.
Yet, like his experiments that led him to conclude that magic wasn't real because he couldn't use a rose to become Tuxedo Kamen, his old conclusions had just been rendered null and void.
Harry watched as Lee and The Fight fought. He'd read a lot about how fighting looked a lot like dancing, and for once he could see what that meant. Lee and The Fight wove against each other, each movement looking perfectly choreographed and planned. But that wasn't why he was staring. He was staring because the two of them were also bouncing off the walls and ceiling, doing back flips and turns that would have had an Olympic gymnast turn into a pretzel, and generally defying the laws of physics.
He stood there, staring with his jaw hanging open, when he became conscious of approaching magical signatures. And one of them was Snape. That knocked his brain back to the problem at hand.
"Kero," he said through gritted teeth, not taking his eyes of the fight between the two girls. Fight had managed to hit Lee on the jaw, only to be grabbed in a throw that got turned into a wrestling hold. "Someone's coming! We've got to do something!"
Kero turned towards where the signatures were coming from, then at the two, where The Fight had just swept Lee's legs out from under her, only to have the Chinese girl turn the fall into a roll that allowed her to kick the Clow Card with both feet. "Use The Time Card!"
"What good will that do?" Harry said as he watched The Fight kick Lee in the head from a handstand position, at the same time the human girl was kneeing her stomach. He winced. That had to hurt.
"Stop time, of course!" Kero said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "For starters, at least."
Harry thought about it. Stop time? What good would that do?
Oh, fuhgetaboutit! Harry could feel Snape practically around the next corner. It was better then nothing.
Quickly, Harry pulled the Key off from around his neck. "Key of Power, show me your true form. I, the one to whom you are bound, command it! RELEASE!"
Quickly, he drew The Time Card from his pocket and held it up, ignoring Lee getting thrown into a wall, hard as that was to do. "Clow Card, show me your true power. TIME CARD!"
Harry brought his wand down, and the whole world turned yellow. The Boy-Who-Lived blinked. Oh-kay…
"Did it work?" he asked Keroberos.
For an answer, the Guardian pointed behind him. He turned. Snape could be seen just about to turn the corner, his leg outstretched as if he were running, an excited look on his face. He was perfectly still, like a bug caught in amber, suspended in a moment. "Whoa," Harry said.
There was a crash behind him, and he turned, his Wand in hand. The Time Card had disappeared, but he could still feel its presence around him. Surprisingly, he could feel a portion of his magic and a little bit of his concentration being directed at something and he knew instinctively that if either failed, time would start moving again.
The crash he had heard was Lee being unceremoniously slammed into a time-frozen door, which had refused to move. He winced, then paused.
"Hey," he said to Keroberos, "how come they can still move?"
Kero growled, looking at the Slytherin girl. "The Fight Card can move because it contains Clow Reeds power. I guess the priss can move because she has some of his power as his descendant. DANG!"
Harry smirked. Looks like Kero didn't like Lee. Good.
For the moment, he ignored the two females trying to bash each other's faces in. "So, what do we do?" asked his current partner-in-crime.
Kero looked in his general direction. "Well, for starters, can you lose the cloak? It's creepy talking to no one."
Harry smirked, but drew back the hood of his cloak. "Well, what now?" he repeated.
Kero thought for a moment. "Um, you could try Sealing the Card."
The two watched as Lee slammed The Fight Card's face into the wall, only to have the Card run up the wall and land behind Lee, who was then flipped to the ground. Harry very much wanted to hold it off, but he could already feel himself getting tired from maintaining The Time Card. The lateness of the hour didn't help. Sighing, he raised the Sealing Wand.
"I am the Card Captor, and I order you to return to your true form," Harry intoned. "FIGHT CARD!"
Harry developed a slight headache as he Sealed the Card and used The Time Card, but he managed to deal with it. He reached for the now-coalesced Fight Card, but it drifted out of his reach...
...and into Lee's waiting hand.
"Hey" Harry yelled as Lee, smirking her face off in a way Malfoy couldn't have matched in his best day, stuck the Card into her pocket. "That's mine!"
Lee laughed, leaning against a wall. "No Potter, it's not. Once, you spoke to me of how you bled for your Cards. Now, I have done the same."
For the first time, Harry noticed how she was leaning her weight against the wall, and became conscious of the many bruises on her face. There was a cut just along her hairline, and she was favoring her right leg.
"I've bled for this Card, Potter," she said. "It's mine."
"She's right, Harry," Kero said, looking mournful. "The Card has chosen her as its owner. There's nothing you can do."
Gritting his teeth, Harry glared at the Slytherin girl. Battered as she was, her bearing of confidence was still better than Malfoy with all of Slytherin House behind him. Grudgingly, he admitted to himself maybe she did deserve this one. He still had more Cards then her, anyway. For a moment, he thought of what she had said. It seemed she had taken his words to heart. In this instance at least. A hair of respect crept into his voice as he pulled his hood back over his head. "Fine. You win this time. But you explain to Snape what you're doing here. Come on, Kero!"
Resisting the urge to evil-laugh, he and the little Sun Guardian ran for it, passing Snape, Filch and McGonagall as they stood frozen. Knowing the potions master, he probably thought Harry had something to do with this, but there would be no way for him to prove it unless Lee blabbed, and somehow, Harry didn't think she would. He figured that she, like him, was planning to keep this between the two of them. And even if she did, Percy had still been awake when he came down, watching the portrait hole like a hawk, so there was no way Harry could have snuck out.
As Harry dropped The Time Card, the world stopped being yellow-chromatic, and the three adults started moving. Harry stuck around long enough to hear Lee being discovered, and McGonagall's exclamations. When he heard Filch going for Dumbledore, Harry took that as his cue to leave. He always suspected Dumbledore could see through his cloak, or at least, detect him.
"So," Kero said., "how do we get back to the room?"
Harry sighed. "I'm too tired to use Jump-"
"Good," Kero muttered.
"-so you'll have to carry me up to the window," he finished innocently.
Kero's eyes bugged out. "Oh no..."
"Oh yes..."
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The next day, the school was abuzz with how Lee had been found out-off-bounds. The fact she had also been beaten kept the rumors from making her into the beater. The fact she had been found conscious, however, fueled rumors about her fighting the beater, which ranged from a troll to a werewolf from the Forbidden Forest. Only she and Harry knew the truth about that rumor.
Lee managed to weasel out of the situation with a slap on the wrist. She was Slytherin, after all, and Snape favored his own house. Rumor had it that she'd gone out to 'avenge' Malfoy (and his goons). Again, only she and Harry knew the truth, but that wasn't it.
The things that dripped down to the rumor mill said that Lee hadn't seen who the beater was because whoever it was managed to put out her wand, so it was too dark. They fought, and the guy had run off when he heard the teachers coming. That was the story Lee fed the school, and, although the rumors said differently, there was no reason to believe it wasn't the truth. Snape supported her, after all.
Of course, if Lee had claimed some reincarnated sorcerer had animated the piano from the Muggle Studies classroom and sic'd it after her, Snape would probably still back her up.
After a few days, since there were no more incidents, the security died down. The reigning theory was that whoever it was- and people assumed it was a guy- had been afraid Lee was just waiting for him to strike again before blabbing. Of course, there were other theories that had to do with her beating him, along with it being a loose boggart, but the first was the universally accepted one- well, accepted except for Luna Lovegood, who believed that the attacker was some kind of magical water dragon knight.
When Lee got out of the hospital wing two days later, her first 'visitor' was Harry Potter, who asked if the rumors that she had a relationship with Malfoy were true. Lee promptly told him to stuff it, and they had a decent fifteen-minute almost-shout-fest. Only decent because they weren't really putting their backs into it. Harry, in his own perverse way, was merely trying to see if she was alright; and Lee, in her own perverse way, was telling him she was and he had better eff off.
Well, maybe not so perverse…
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- To be continued...
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A/N: Hermione's a bookworm, and as a fellow bookworm, I'm familiar with the feeling of reading well into the a.m. and waking up with not enough sleep. It's a logical thing to happen to her. As for Ron, I really don't see him as an early morning person, and the book seems to support this to a degree.
I originally planned someone close to Harry to get beat up, like Hermione or Hagrid, but I decided I wanted Malfart to suffer. XD
I noticed that The Fight Card was a bit short in the anime. She wasn't that much taller than Meilin. Kero didn't detect it right away because it was being subtle, unlike The Thunder Card. In the anime, there were Cards who managed to hide from Keroberos and Sakura. And The Thunder was raging at the time, so it was putting off enough magic o be felt over the ambient background magic.
Lots of anime references, I know. Sorry, but I just couldn't help myself. The impression I got of Nagi Springfield was that of a James Bond-esque womanizer. How else could he have gotten a thousand probationary Pactios?
I noticed that Sakura, unlike Syaoran, doesn't need to have The Time Card under her Wand at all times when she's using it, so neither does Harry. Also, both Sakura and my Harry have Sealed Cards while using other Cards, so there's precedent. The Time Card just takes a lot of much energy.
In the anime, Kero's strength is linked to The Earthy and Firey. When Sakura got Firey, Kero got fire-breath, and after she caught Earthy, he got super strength, besides his 'cool' form. I figure since Harry has Earthy, Kero has super strength. Enough to carry Harry up to the window of his dorm. -snicker-
I know I said Lee would have more airtime, but I just couldn't pull it off. Sorry.
OMG! SO MANY REVIEWS!
Because there's so many, I can't dedicate this fic to just any three. Sorry.
To Ran Hoshino: Winter and Lee will be fleshed out in the next chapter. As to your questions, just keep reading this fic! It's no fun knowing by looking at author's notes. And speaking of which, about Yue, I would like to ask people not to leave their speculations lying around, as some of you are too smart for my fics own good.
To Demented Chook: Oh, YEAH!
To YumiFukushima: Sorry, no weird outfits... yet...
To Warbl65: Thanks for the info. If I can't find out what Syaoran says in the original Japanese, I'll rewrite and use what you sent me.
To Radszilla: Thanks for the review. Nothing I love more like a good crossover.
To AzureSky 123: Yeah, I did burn through the Cards pretty fast, but I wanted to give Harry a decent arsenal. Still undecided about the Card thing, although I plan to use The Mirror Card to fill up a plot detail in book six. XD Which will involve F/F. XD And I'd dearly love torture ole' Dorco, but I'll have to wait 'til six for an excuse.
To eliteshadow: Name-buddy! The chap's out now!
To FF-loverHP1: You mean Yue. And the answer to that is… Sore wa himitsu desu. XD
To damon blade: No Cards as dates. But keep reading and when I get to fourth year, you'll see what I have planned.
To Swordofice1:Sorry, I already have my own ideas, but thanks for the suggestion.
To ragnorak the 1st: Will do! Hope you stay with me!
To michael68: I'll give your suggestions thought. They really haven't occurred to me, especially not The Time Card thing. Although it might be difficult to plot out, since it's easier to just build around canon instead of over it. Regarding your final note, it sounds like a good idea, but I don't think I'm the guy for the job. I'm not sure I'll be able to give it justice, as I might end up turning it into a one-shot humor-fic.
To realdarkangel: 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Cherry Blossom' is nice, but it hasn't been updated in a while.
To Unique Dark Rose: Thank you.
To Voakands: Thanks for your opinion. Don't worry, I only plan to have them in one chap, just a cameo, really, and maybe minor involvement in an arc. I just want to see them get screen time. Don't worry, it might not be for a long way off, although expect subtle and not-so-subtle references. -whistles innocently-
Please send more suggestions for the Card names for when Harry becomes master. If you don't, I'll have to think of one, and that is so troublesome. XD
Please review, C&C welcome. I live on reviews. My muse lives off reviews. If she's well fed, I produce lots of fics. If not...
Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off…
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Well…not yet… heh… XD
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"Active Time Event" or Lee Gaiden 1: Lee's First Clow Card… Experience
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Fei Lee, or Lee Fei depending on convention, carefully folded her school robe and placed it on a handy tree stump. Taking an ofuda, she placed it over the robe to make sure no little critters took off with it while she worked. Dressed in a tank top and bike-shorts, she strangely managed to belong in the Forbidden Forest. Granted, she wasn't that far in, just enough that no one could see her, but still, the Forbidden Forest was the Forbidden Forest.
Taking her sword out of its sheath- she had enlarged it in advance- she took her conquest from out of the rubber band she had used to tuck it on the sheath. Looking at it, she couldn't help breaking into a goofy smile. So what if she'd had to stay two nights in the hospital wing because she'd been so beat up it was a wonder she had still been standing? So what if the school thought she'd done it to avenge the Malfoy brat (she shivered as she thought of the ferrety blond. ICK!)? So what if Potter had left her holding the bag? SHE HAD A CARD, AND THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERED!
She came to her senses as she realized she was doing some kind of happy-dance and stopped, blushing slightly and glad no one had seen her lose it. That was something her sister would have done. Ugh!
Still, a smirk spread over her face as she thought of what the reaction of her 'future-brother-in-law' would be when she wrote to him. Idly, she made a mental note to ask him what was taking so long with that Naruto hitae-ate and metal-plated gloves she had him buy. It should have been in the owl-post days ago!
And she was procrastinating, she realized. Dowsing the goofy grin on her face, she held the Card in one hand and the sword in the other. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on what she had to do. She knew- in theory- that it was no different from how she used her elemental ofuda, but she was still a little nervous. No one in her family had ever done this before. If she messed up…
Shaking her head to banish such thoughts, the descendant of Clow Reed returned to the matter at hand.
Now or never, she thought.
With a flick of her wrist, the Card was airborne. Lee held her sword with both hands, point down. Now or never, she repeated.
"Clow Card, show me your true power. FIGHT CARD!" she said as she stabbed at the Card.
Light exploded as the point made contact with the magical object and the Card dissolved into streams of magic, reforming into a female sprite, the very sprite Lee had fought against a few nights ago. The Card opened it's eyes, before bowing. "Mistress," it said.
Mistress. Lee liked the sound of that. The goofy grin threatened to break out again, but, now that she had an audience, she managed to repress it. Instead, she pointed at a dead tree. "Show me what you can do."
The Fight Card turned its head in the general she was pointing and a small smirk appeared on the Card Sprite's face, before she launched herself at the indicated target, kicking and punching.
Lee leaned back as the Card went to town on the poor piece of wood. It took her all of five seconds to realize how lucky she had been all those nights ago. The Fight Card was way out of her league, and that was just in skill alone. Add that to it's inhuman speed and strength, and she was wondering how she managed to stay alive.
Reluctantly, she supposed it was thanks to Potter. If he hadn't Sealed the Card when he had, it was likely she would have ended up in a coma.
To get rid of that hateful thought, she imagined Potter being fed to the giant squid.
Still, she supposed that Potter had had a point that first time she met. Judging from her own experience, if she really wanted the Cards, she would have to be ready to sacrifice for them.
Frowning, she banished that hateful thought by imagining Potter drowning in his cauldron. Much better.
"That's enough!" Lee said, and The Fight Card stopped. The wind blew, and what was left of the tree fell over into woodchips. The smirk on the sprite's face had gotten bigger. "I'm impressed. It seems I have a use for you after all."
At the Card's questioning looks, Lee settled down into a fighting stance. "Train me."
Next time she saw her 'future-brother-in-law', he wouldn't know what hit him…
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Much later, Lee collapsed, panting, barely managing to stay upright. As it was, she was supporting herself by placing her hands on her knees. Across from her, The Fight Card was also panting, obviously winded, but still looking ready for a couple more rounds. Which were a couple more than Lee herself could take.
"Enough," she said, voice barely trembling from the tiredness she felt, and The Fight Card straightened, bowing formally.
The Card nodded, approaching her. "By your leave then, Mistress...?"
"Yes," Lee said, making a vague wave with her hand. "You have my leave to go."
The predatory gleam in The Fight Card's eye was all the warning Lee had before the sprite literally pounced on her, bearing her to the ground as the sprite held her head in both hands and kissed her, their bodies pressing even as the Card began to dissolve. Their lips only parted when the sprite completely disappeared, and that took a while.
Lee lay on the ground, panting for breath and going completely red...
Oh, (BLEEP)!
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"End ATE" or "Insert Laugh Track Here"
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A/N: heh… bet you thought I had really long notes.
I managed to fit in Lee stuff after all… XD
Now I'm signing off...