Card Captor Harry

by Shadow Crystal Mage

Card 12, The Flower: Low-Quality Time…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. I wish her well, covet her money, and hope she 'updates soon'. Card Captor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me. I covet their drawing skills and wish Tsubasa would start airing where I am. Both are used here without their owners' permission. I'm not doing this for money, so please don't sue me.

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The method was simple really, and came not from some ancient manuscript, but more contemporary media.

The trick to getting out of a maze was simple. It was long, boring and tedious, but simple. One merely kept going in a certain direction, and if one had to make a turn, turn only right (or left, as long as it was only in one direction). One must only turn right (or left) whenever one has to make a turn. If one comes to a dead end, just turn around and turn right (or left) again. Eventually, one would have traversed the whole maze, only backtracking when one comes to a dead end. Using this method, one has to find the exit eventually…

It took them most of the night, and by the end of it, Fight was carrying Lee on her back while Harry could barely put one foot in front of the other in the freezing cold water. Eventually, however, they came to a hallway that wasn't of The Maze Card. At the end of said hallway, Harry was happy to see, were stairs leading upwards.

Behind him, he could feel the magic shifting. Turning, he saw the walls behind him shimmering, before collapsing into an asymmetrical, pinkly-glowing, shifting magical mass.

"Now would be the time to Seal it, Lord Potter," Fight said. On her back, Lee stirred slightly, mumbling something that sounded like 'don't call him Lord', but could have been 'get off the board'. Blearily, the Slytherin girl opened one eye.

Harry nodded tiredly, than yawned. A distant part of him wondered if it was safe to do this while practically dead on his feet. "I am the Card Captor, and I order you to return to your true form! MAZE CARD!"

Apparently, it was, as the pink mass in front of him shuddered, then dissolved into several streaks that drifted towards the end of his Sealing Wand, forming a Card.

Annoyingly, the Card drifted towards Lee, avoiding Harry's hand as it headed towards the semi-conscious girl.

Lee made a sleepy grab at it, and missed. Fight caught the Card for her.

"Heh," Lee said as she held the Card, "looks like it's not your night, Potter."

Harry was too tired to think of a smart comeback. "(BLEEP) off Lee!" he slummed, heading up the stairs and leaving wet footprints behind. He just wanted to get back to bed and go to sleep.

Sleepily, he made his way back to Gryffindor Tower…

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Fei felt Fight laying her down on the floor, and blearily opened her eyes again. When had she closed them? She supposed they were above the dungeons now, probably close to the kitchens.

"Mistress," she heard Fight say, "Wake up."

Fei wanted so much to ignore her, she really did, but she struggled to wake up- when had she fallen almost asleep again?- even though she desperately wanted to just go to sleep.

She heard Fight sigh, and felt herself being propped up. Fight knelt behind her, cradling her head on her shoulder, as she wrapped her arms around her. "Please wake up. Mistress. Mistress?" Another sigh. "I guess I have no choice."

Fei felt one of Fei's hands drifting down her leg, and settling on her knee. Slowly, it started to caress her, moving inward, and up her inner thigh…

With a shake, Fei struggled to stand, moving away from Fight as she did so, who helpfully let her go. Fight wore a satisfied look on her face.

When Fei was standing under her own power, Fight rose, bowing. "By your leave, Mistress?"

Nearly asleep she may be, but Fei had enough working brain cells to remember what happened the last time Fight had said that. She gave a tired sigh. "Fine! Let's get this over with."

Fight grinned and she leaned forward and engulfed Fei's lips in her own. Fei didn't resist, too tired to bother, although a spectacular full-body blush erupted. Fight's kiss seemed different somehow, softer, gentler, but still as 'enthusiastic' as before. When Fight finally drew back, Fei was a bit surprised to see she wasn't dissolving into nothingness yet.

"Get some rest and take care of yourself, Mistress," Fight said as she finally started to dissolve. "I love you…"

Fei's brain locked at those words, and she almost fell asleep again before she remembered where she was. Shaking her head as she reached down to pick up Fight's Card-form, she started to make her way towards the Great Hall, hoping she'd be able to sneak in and get a couple of hours sleep…

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She wasn't that lucky.

Fei and Potter tried not to fall asleep as McGonagall berated them about being out of bounds all night. They both missed the good points of her discussion that way, but thankfully, it didn't seem like she thought the two of them had both been in the dungeons. Wouldn't that be hard to explain!

Finally, after hearing when they'd do their detention- tomorrow morning, Sunday- they were allowed to leave.

Potter was lucky, Fei thought as she watched the Card Captor walking dead on his feet towards his House. At least he'd get to sleep in his bed. Her bed was probably soaked, if not submerged. She was glad she'd been paranoid enough to buy a waterproof trunk.

Dead on her feet herself, she headed for the hospital wing to sleep, since the Great Hall was going to be filled up with breakfast goers in a few minutes.

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Harry was thankful that Ron and Hermione were still asleep when he got back to Gryffindor Tower. He thanked his lucky stars that he remembered Cadogan's stupid password. In his condition, he couldn't be sure of his own name.

Putting the Clow Cards back in the book, he slipped under the covers of his four-poster, and let oblivion take him. His dreams were full of mazes and cold, and beautiful women in white coming to take him away…

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Harry and Fei both slept the day away, waking up in time for dinner. Although none of the Slytherins were particularly curious what Fei had done to receive detention, Ron and Hermione weren't as apathetic. He managed to throw them off with some fabrication that they bought, but that only left him feeling like crud. There was something bitter about having to lie to your best friends, but having someone you disliked know the truth.

Come Sunday, Harry and Fei were back in the submerged dungeon. Because the rain had stopped, the dungeon was being readied for human habitation again. Their detention, ironically, was to draw the water, by bucket, lug it up to the kitchen and dump the water down the drain. By hand. Without magic.

Harry was vaguely thankful for all those sadistic chores the Dursleys had put him through, as he was prepared for what this detention would require. Lee didn't look so bad either. She was carrying as much water as he was, so that they were practically in step as the lugged the water buckets to the kitchen, dumped them down the drain, and turned around to do it again. He supposed her pride wouldn't let him beat her, even at this.

For a long while, they worked in silence, the only sounds the water sloshing in their buckets and going down the drain.

Finally, Harry took a deep breath and said, barely audibly, "Thanks."

Lee looked at him, and for once it wasn't her usual glare. It was more of a 'what the heck is this guy talking about?' glare than an 'I hate your guts!' glare. "What?"

"For getting us out of The Maze Card," Harry said, not looking at her. "I never would have gotten out on my own. I was lucky you were there."

Lee sniffed. "Whatever. I was just looking after my own interests, leading us out of that maze. Without you, I wouldn't be able to Seal the Card."

Harry glared at her, but his heart wasn't really in it. Silence descended once more as they drained a couple more bucket loads. A few down, a couple of thousand to go.

"Thanks," Lee said suddenly, and now it was Harry's turn to look at her questioningly. "For freeing me from the Sword Card. As much as I dislike you, I don't want you dead. Yet. I still need all the Cards Sealed."

"You're welcome," Harry said dryly. "So I guess we're even?"

"I guess so," Lee replied in the same tone.

"Good," Harry said.

"Good," Lee agreed.

Another silence. More buckets drained.

"Can I ask you something?" Lee said.

Harry raised an eyebrow at that. That was almost… civil. "Go ahead."

"Why'd you get mad about Fight? She's my Card and I'll treat her the way I want to!"

"That doesn't make her your slave, you little (bleep)! She's a person too!"

"She's a Clow Card!"

"She has feelings! And if you're so convinced Fight's just a Card, why do you call her 'she' instead of 'it'?"

"Damn you, Potter!"

"Hey, you're the one who started talking to me!"

And they bickered.

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Hours later, they were still at it.

"…you just got lucky with those Cards!" Potter said.

"Did not!" Fei protested.

"Did too! If I hadn't been there, you'd never have gotten them in the first place! You'd still be trapped by The Loop, getting your face beat in by Fight, and you'd only be able to get out of Maze. You need ME to Seal, remember!"

"Damn you Potter!"

More bickering.

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Later…

"Hey, if I hadn't distracted The Thunder Card, you'd have been toast!"

"Well, if I hadn't Sealed Fight, you'd just be a smear on the wall!"

"You'd still be trapped down here if it weren't for me!"

"You're the one who can't do anything without me!"

"Hey, who got who out of the maze?"

"Oh, you know you need me!"

"Hah! You're the one who needs me!"

"Who Seals the Cards?"

"Who tells who how to get out of jams?"

"Kero helps me!"

"And where the heck was he?"

Silence descended as they glared at each other while they dumped the water down the drain. The House Elves had long ago decided to work in a different part of the kitchen.

Finally, Harry sighed. "Truce?"

"What?" Lee said, obviously thrown for a loop.

"We obviously need each other, or at least, you need me. But neither of us will ever be able to stop the Cards properly if the two of us keep competing like this. What if we'd kept on arguing with each other when a Card like Thunder suddenly appeared and people got hurt? Would you be able to live with that?" Harry challenged.

Lee glared at him. "Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I'm heartless! But why bother? No one's been hurt."

"How about those students Fight beat up?" Harry said, and Lee winced. "At least if we work together, we'll be able to deal with Cards faster, and maybe minimize the damage they cause."

"You want to work together?" Lee said, sounding astounded.

"You're the second to last person in this school I'd want to work with, but you're the only one who knows about the Clow Cards, and because you seem like you want them kept secret, I guess that means in some bizarre way I can trust you, so yes, as much as I don't want to, I think we should work together," Harry said through gritted teeth.

Lee looked thoughtful, or as thoughtful as someone could be while glaring at you.

Finally, she said. "What are the terms?"

Harry didn't know whether to be glad or not.

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Finally, after reducing the water in the dungeon to nearly half, Filch said they could go, although he didn't sound happy about it. Dripping from the thighs down, the two made their way out of the lower levels, grabbing a bite to eat from the kitchens since they were too tired to deal with the supper crowd in the Great Hall.

The moment they came up the stairs, the first person they met was Winter.

"Hey," she said. "I heard you two got detention together. What happened."

"Caught out of bounds," the two chorused, them looked at each other.

"Jinx!" Winter said, and the two sighed as she giggled. "What were the two of you doing out of bounds? Don't tell me" Winter's voice changed tone "that the two of you were having a secret rendezvous!"

"NO!" the two protested.

Winter giggled again. "Jinx!"

The two looked at each other, and Harry made a hand gesture, an 'after you' wave. Lee sighed. When she was done, Harry sighed.

Winter sniffed. "No fair! You're cooperating!"

"We'd rather not rack up more jinxes, Moon," Lee said dryly.

"Well, you haven't paid me yet for the other ones," Winter conceded. "So, wanna go with me to dinner?"

Harry wanted nothing but. Sadly, his body wouldn't let him. "Uh, not right now, Winter. I am so tired from detention. Maybe some other time?"

"Alright," Winter said easily. "Lee?"

Lee shook her head. "Can't. I'm tired too."

"Aw" Winter pouted, looking put off. But the next second, she was her usual cheerful self again. "Oh well, wouldn't do run you two ragged."

Shrugging, she gave them both a kiss on the cheek and headed towards the Great Hall, humming to herself.

Harry stood frozen, before his face split into a wide grin. Humming to himself, he practically skipped to Gryffindor Tower.

He didn't notice Lee had gone completely red behind him, nor that her face also split into the same wide grin.

Humming to herself, Fei went to the library to read.

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- To be continued...

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A/N: And Fei now has Fight, Loop, and Maze, or as I like to think of it, one taijutsu and two genjutsu.

Like I said before, there are many different kinds of love…

Please review, C&C welcome. Flames will be used to make toast.

Until next time, this is Shadow, signing off.

….

….

….

Raven Harry glares at Shadow

Raven Harry: "Okay, you've worked on this one, now get back to my fic."

Uzumaki Harry: "NO WAY! He's working on me and my brothers!"

Dark Keeper Harry: "Oh NO! He's working on me!"

Card Captor Harry: "KEEP AWAY FROM HIM, YOU VULTURES! HE'S MINE!"

Shadow sweatdrops as the four start fighting. Someone taps on his shoulder.

Sakura/Kurt: "What about us? We don't want to be like this forever just because you can't get back to our fic!"

Shadow: "Which of you is talking?"

Sakura/Kurt: "Does it matter?"

Shadow: "Guess not…"