"Leon, use Vine Whip!" Harry called out and his Starter allowed the two flexible vines to sprout from the buds on his neck. Leon was odd in that unlike a lot of Grass types he didn't like using Vine Whip unless he had to. It didn't hurt or anything like that… he'd once described it to Harry as just being a sensation of wrongness to suddenly have another set of limbs.

Harry had pointed out that when he merged with Hedwig he suddenly gained wings… and he still wasn't quite sure if he remained a male or became female. He'd never checked and didn't want to. Leon had scoffed and said that was different (the wing thing, not the genital thing).

Of course Leon could have gotten used to it if he just allowed his vines to remain out more. Most grass types did that. Flora had kept her vines short and tucked in her bulb and now wrapped them around her flower, making sure they were out though so that she could feel the world about her. It was natural for her to send them out, much like a human stretching to grasp something from a high shelf. But Leon didn't like having his vines out simply because, as he'd told Harry with a scoff, "The name is LEAFeon, not VINEON. Vineon… that sounds like a social media platform."

Still, the vines did serve a purpose from time to time, like at the moment as it allowed him to yank himself away from the battlefield he was standing on… and also out of the way of the Thundebolt Ron's Gyarados had just fired in his direction.

Harry watched as Leon leapt onto the stone ruins in the practice arena, the Pokemon taking a breath before leaping away again just as Gyarados lashed out with his tail, taking out the rocky surface. Normally one would have been horrified at such reckless destruction of ancient stone work but all of this had been created by the practice arena and could easily be created again. Harry was more disturbed by the nanobots that he knew would come out repair things; the first task of the Grand Trainer Tournament still remained with him, as did the few scars the bots had left on him, so he tended to turn away when the stupid little robobugs scuffled out. Ron and him had chosen the desert ruins arena because they offered plenty of cover for Leon without making it utterly impossible for Gyarados to get off a clean shot.

"It's rather interesting watching that fish stick fly," Hedwig said, perched next to Harry.

It truly was. Though he didn't know if one could call it truly 'flying'. "More like a blimp," Harry finally said and that was the best way to describe it. Ron had tried to explain just how a giant sea dragon could float through the air but he'd mucked it up so bad that by the end of it Harry wasn't for sure if Gyarados was a WATER type, let alone a flying type. Hermione had then given her take… it involved something with air bladders and being able to use the heat of its fire and thunder sacks to warm the air up enough to allow the beast to rise off the ground but that was dumbing it down and he knew the whole process was far more complicated than that.

"Giving the peons a show," Hedwig stated, turning her head back towards the castle. Harry didn't look back though. He knew what he'd see if he did, of course: everyone watching him. Or at least enough people watching him. Some out of awe, some terror, and some just taking notes.

It had been like that ever since he'd come back to Hogwarts. Oh, he'd been under the microscope before that but this was different. More intense. In the past it was because he was a novelty. 'Look at the freak' as Dudley would have said ('He's dead,' Harry thought to himself, oddly detached from that thought; 'He's dead and I'll never see him again. Dudley's dead. And Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and all of them. All dead'). But 6th year was different. Sixth year had seen him go from something of interest, a person to gossip about or to just observe because one was bored, to a beast prowling about a camp site. Friend or foe? Hero or villain?

'Some days I'm all that and nothing,' he thought with a touch of bitterness.

There were still people that saw him as some legendary savior that was going to march into the heart of Voldemort's stronghold and defeat him in epic battle. In their minds there was nothing he couldn't do and the question merely was when he would do it. Was he waiting because he wanted to get stronger? Or was he taking his time, milking their praise like the greedy bastard they secretly knew him to be? Then there were the ones that feared him. They too could be divided even further. The ones that kissed the hem of Voldemort's robe and longed for him to bring them into a new Golden Era (the only thing 'golden' about any era Voldemort would bring about would be the piss that leaked from his quivering victims after he got his jollies off torturing them). They saw Harry as a threat to all that and this little display of force was him taunting them, telling them exactly what was going to happen to their Master. For others it was far more disgusting; they had it in their twisted little brains that he wanted to defeat Voldemort purely so he could usurp him and become the new Dark Lord. In their minds Voldemort wanting to take over his body somehow meant that Harry in turn wanted to BE Voldemort.

As for the ones taking notes? They just wanted to please whatever master they served. And there were so very many of them that wanted to know all about Harry and all he could do.

"Are you sure I can't just Skull Bash?" Ron called out to Hermione, who was sitting in the referee's chair. The rest of their friends were positioned all around the arena, watching with interest the battle.

"No and you know why," Hermione said sternly. "It's the same reason Harry can't have Leon attack Gyarados."

"He used Vine Whip," Ron complained even as his serpent fired a Dragon Rage at Leon, forcing the grass type to use Bounce in order to leap high enough to actually land on the opposite side of the arena.

"He used it to evade, not attack. I gave you that one slip up using Aqua Tail but no more physical attacks! The whole purpose of this exercise is to help Gyarados with targeting and long range attacks. Leon is just to dodge and evade, that's it. You can't just blinding go around smashing things!"

"That said," Ginny called out, looking up from her dex (Harry honestly didn't want to know what she was working on… most likely something that would result in lawsuits and time in Azkaban if she were caught), "you should be next and have to do the reverse."

"Say what now?" Hermione said rather dumbly… and that was a rarity for her.

Ginny smirked. "Your Pokemon all focus on mental and elemental attacks. That is fine unless you have a Pokemon that can get in close and then they are in trouble. A Gengar could wreck you easily-"

"Type advantage."

"-as could a normal type with horns and any kind of heavy blows. You need to teach your Pokemon how to fight."

"Rope a dope," Neville stated.

Luna popped up next to Hermione, dressed in a gray hoodie with a stocking cap on her head. "Ya gotta punch, Mione! Punch up! And when ya do tell'em Mickie loves ya!"

"…Luna, fetch," Hermione said, grabbing a stick and tossing it away.

"I don't fall for that anymore," Luna said simply, reaching up and tearing her clothing away like they were tissue paper, revealing her normal school uniform and jacket.

"Crap," Harry muttered, realizing with growing horror that Luna's elevation to Mistress of Veela meant all their Luna Distracters might now be worthless.

Hermione folded her arms over her chest. "My Pokemon do just fine with their attacks."

"No, they really don't," Ginny argued. "Not close range physical ones. We need to get you trained up."

Hermione sputtered. "But… but…"

"Only fair," Neville stated and the bushy-haired girl pouted.

"Leon," he called out, getting his head back in the game and focusing on the battle, "Razor Leaf."

"Hey!" Ron complained. "That's an attack on Gyarados!"

"Nope, it's a smoke screen," Harry told him. "Solar Ray!"

"Solar what?" Neville said only to blink and slowly nod in approval as he saw what Harry was doing. "Low grade version of Solar Beam."

"Exactly!" Harry called out as Leon began to fire off small bursts of light energy. "About a fourth as powerful as a Solar Beam… there is a variant I also created, Solar Burst, that takes only a small amount of charge and does half damage but this one takes no charge so long as it isn't completely dark out. And I'm not looking to create damage… just to make things interesting."

"Oh, this is what you did in Le Fay's Landing, isn't it?" Ginny said with a grin as the Solar Rays caught the Razor Leafs on fire, creating a literal smoke screen to form around his Pokemon and Gyarados. "Nice."

"I thought so."

"I need to learn that," Neville said. "Would be real helpful to have something other than Energy Ball to fall back on when it came to energy attacks for my Pokemon."

"All about getting your Pokemon used to firing off attacks before it feels natural to do so," Harry said.

Ron looked over the field before snapping his fingers. "Rain Dance!"

"Is this going to go well… or poorly?" Ginny asked.

"Well, depends on the fire," Neville said. "And I know that smoke can end up absorbed into rain drops and get carted back into clouds which can cause problems but-" the fires Harry had started tapered off and the smoke began to clear. "Go well."

"Oh yeah!" Ron said, pumping his first. "And now you can't use Solar Ray effectively!"

"Ronald!" Hermione snapped. "This is about you attacking with energy beams, not countering Harry!"

"Give him this one," Luna said gently.

"…fine. But stick to the gameplan!"

"Oh, I plan to," Ron said with a wicked grin.

Leon looked to Harry. "I'm not going to like this, am I?"

"Nope."

"Gyarados… thunderbolt blitz!"

Leon let out a cry of panic and began to dash about the field as lightning bolts rained down from the cloud Gyarados had created over the arena. The bolts lashed out violently, striking the ground all around him.

"What if he rooted himself to the ground?" Hedwig said. "Trees can be hit by lightning, right?"

Harry's eyes flicked across the optical glasses he was wearing, looking up the information on the web. "Let's see… when a tree is hit by lightning all the liquid in it becomes a gas and that can cause it to… explode."

Leon's eyes went wide. "NOT HELPING! NOT HELPING! NOT HELPING!"

Thinking quickly Harry began to scroll through all the attacks he'd cataloged Leon able to perform and able to learn. "Okay… Dig!"

"Can he do that?" Hedwig asked.

"Everything Pokemon should be able to Dig. It's not… it's not hard of a move." Harry shook his head. "It would be like asking can he learn Walk."

"Yeah but I don't think he can Dig down deep enough to completely bury himself," Hedwig pointed out as Leon began to desperately burrow into the now wet ground.

"Doesn't have to," harry told the avian. "Just needs to get low enough that he isn't the tallest thing around."

"…okay, yeah, that makes sense." Hedwig shuddered as a bolt got rather close to them. "As a flier thunder and mud and rain are all not nice things and they've somehow been combined into my worst nightmare at the moment. Ugh. Can I return to my Pokeball?"

"You don't have a Pokeball. We blew it up when we merged, remember?"

"Damn, that's right." The Noctowl sighed. "And to think I'd ever miss that stupid thing…"

Harry chuckled at that; no matter his bad mood, no matter how much he hated the world and so many people in it… his family and his friends were always close to his heart. And his Pokemon were both of those things at once.

"Well, I'm glad its gone as I have no desire to feel what its like being recalled into one of those things."

"Its not bad," Hedwig admitted. "I'm just… I'm a flyer. I like to be free. I know Leon can go either way when ti comes to Pokeballs and some Pokemon switch preferences when they eveolve but I like being able to stretch my wings."

"Heh," Vegeta said, making his presence known. "You just want to keep an eye on Harry."

"And you don't?" Hedwig charged.

"Of course I do!" Vegeta said, not ashamed at all to admit it. "He's the best trainer in the world. If I hope to keep my title of the Prince of All Dragons then I need him to help me get stronger!"

"That's… oddly touching, guys," Harry admitted.

Vegeta scoffed. "I don't do touching. I do the truth." He sniffed dismissively. "Are you about done? I've finished my workout for the day and I'm starving. And Bulma won't let me hear the end of it if we miss supper and have to raid the kitchens."

"Yeah, I think we are," Harry said before calling out, "Hey guys, mind packing it in? We're getting close to supper!"

"Good thinking, mate!" Ron said, recalling Gyarados and promising to get him some food later on. "How'd we do, Hermione?"

"Much better than last time," she told them, climbing down from the ref's tall chair. "You are getting good at quickly switching attacks when one doesn't work. And the Rain Dance was a really good idea… even if-" She waved at the puddles all over.

"On it!" Neville called out, sending out Flora who stretched her legs. "Hey girl, mind helping out? A nice Sunny Day."

The Venasaur nodded and unleashed a blast of solar energy that quickly had the rain clouds gone and steam rising from the arena floor. Harry made sure he was well away before Ginny turned on the nanobots, both him and Hedwig shuddering as they looked away so they didn't have to see the swarm doing its work.

"You know, it's a marvel that the world hasn't been utterly destroyed thanks to children having the power of Gods in the palm of their hands," Harry muttered as everyone began to walk back to the castle.

"Oh, the world can't end," Luna stated. "Adam Young refused to allow it to end because he loves the planet."

Neville grabbed Luna's arm. "Who told you about Adam Young?"

While the couple bickered about… whatever that was… Harry glanced over at his friends. "So, plans for the rest of the day?"

"Battle Club," Ron said. "My turn to instruct. I'm thinking about covering opening attacks… you know, having your Pokemon already know what move to perform right as you toss out their ball, so you can get the drop on your opponent?"

"That sounds like a good one."

"You want to help?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm good."

"You sure mate?" Ron pressed. "You haven't been to a meeting since last school year."

It was true. After Ginger Harry had given up on pretty much… everything. And this year was little better, with the only real difference between it and fifth year being that Harry actually slept in the Gryffindor Tower rather than in the Chamber with the Unown. But he usually found an excuse to get out of Battle Club, had no desire to join up with any other group, and preferred to stay in and read or go off on his own to practice the aura summoning exercises Dumbledore was teaching him.

"You are going to be doing Gauntlet this year, right?" Ginny asked. "We had a lot of trouble last year when you couldn't play the last game."

"You still won," Harry pointed out. "And you did great in my position." He'd watched the entire game in secret by merging with Hedwig and flying high about the stadium. Ginny had taken over Harry's position and done a stellar job. "And Ron is a natural defending and blocking."

His friend puffed up at that praise before coming back down to Earth. "Yeah but you make us into superstars, mate."

Ginny nodded. "I have no problem letting you take lead. I can play all the different positions."

"I just don't know guys… I'm rather busy-"

"Yeah, we know," Hermione said, finally butting in to make her thoughts known, "but it doesn't do you any good to work on saving the world if you aren't willing to be a part of it."

Harry tried to smile at her, to make her feel better, but he knew it was forced and she wasn't believing him for a second. That's why he didn't try and shrug her off as she shifted so she was walking right next to him, her arm wrapping around him and giving him a comforting squeeze.

"I'm not a fan of the world," Harry admitted. "But you love it so that's why I'm working so hard to protect it."

"But I want you to be happy," Hermione said.

"I'll be happy for you guys, in your happy moments. Cheering you on, celebrating, just…" he gestured at the four of them walking, Neville and Luna having fallen behind as they bickered about… a Houndoom named Dog?... "this. But I honestly don't know if I know how to create happiness for myself." He shrugged. "I don't know if I want to."

"…mate, have you told Dr. Linda about this?" Ron asked quietly. "Because she'd want to know. She told me-"

Harry blinked at that. "You've talked to Dr. Linda… beyond that one session?"

Ron nodded quickly. "Yeah! Turns out someone paid for all of us to see her, if we wanted." His smile fell a bit and he shrugged weakly. "The thing is… my folks and I have issues right now with what they did with the Aurors. Bill and I talked about it and he said I should talk to Dr. Linda about it. And I did and its helping and that led to other things." He scuffed his shoe against the ground and the group stopped walking. "You know I'm not the… most ambitious person. I get by on what I need to do. Dr. Linda said that because Bill and Charlie were so dedicated towards being the best in school and in their fields it created pressure on the rest of us. Percy, well, he decided to top them. Fred and George just act out. I decided I must be dumb so why try?"

"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione exclaimed in shock. "You are not dumb!" She reached over and took his hand while still holding onto Harry. "Don't ever thing that. You just don't work as hard as you could sometimes but that doesn't make you dumb." She suddenly leaned back, a look of horror flashing in her eyes. "Did… did i-?"

"Bloody hell, no 'Mione!" Ron said quickly. "It wasn't you. You're smarter than me but that didn't make me feel like I was an idiot. I've felt like this… like this for a long time."

Ginny quietly spoke up. "I act out too. Shocker, I know." She scoffed, rolling her eyes. "But Dr. Linda said its because everyone put pressure on me because I'm the first girl the Weasley family has had in generations. I didn't want to be a pretty little princess so I went the other way, acting out so no one would think of me like that. And hacking… it gives me something I can control. That I'm the master of."

Hermione suddenly spoke up and Harry realized that somehow their walk had become a chance for all of them to confess their issues. "I just have to be the best because if I'm not then everything Draco and his ilk think about me is true. And I like the rules and all that because my parents are busy and can't be around so rules… they give me structure… I was left at home far younger than I should have been so the rules… they made me not scared at night or when I was all alone and afraid."

"Oh, are we doing this?" Luna said, popping up between them with a smile. "Neat, I've been waiting for us to all get these icky emotions off our chests!" Her eyes suddenly flashed and her smile fell and with utter seriousness she said in a solemn sad voice, "You know my problem. I felt my mum die. I… I felt it. I didn't just watch her die but I felt her fade away. You have no idea what it is like to feel emotions just disappear and someone to become… empty." She swallowed and Harry used his free hand to pull her in for a hug, Hermione still holding onto him. "I have to be silly and I have to make people feel something because I… I can't feel that again. When Heads of House died last spring I felt it again and I can't sleep now half the night without remembering that I'm going to have to watch everyone I know and love disappear-"

Neville leaned over and pressed a kiss to Luna's brow. "Sometimes I feel guilty because I wish my parents were dead," he finally said, swallowing and looking down. "That it would be better than they are now. It just feels cruel to everyone, them and me, that they are alive but utterly mad. They're trapped in their own minds and sometimes I have dreams where I just go and…" He couldn't finish, there was no need too.

Leon let out a shaking breath. "The fact that my egg game from Voldemort's Espeon… I hate it. Its why I refused to become an Espeon even though I could have evolved back at the beginning of second year. I fought evolving for two years because of that bastard… bitch… whatever the fuck their gender is, I don't know."

"I was abandoned," Hedwig said. "Because of my coloring. The moment I hatched my mum shoved me out of the nest because she didn't want anything to do with me."

"I don't know where I come from," Vegeta said. "I just ended up on that island. I never met another of my kind… but don't fucking hug me."

"…fuck now I really am depressed," Harry muttered.

And that somehow caused Ginny to begin laughing which lead to Hermione snickering and soon all of them were laughing through their tears.

"Arceus are we fucked up," Ron said with a hiccup.

"I guess heroes have to be," Neville said with a shake of his head. "Look at the Pack… you know what happened to them." The others looked at him and his eyes went wide. "Uh… forget I said-"

"Nope, can't take that one back Nev," Harry said. "What were you going to say?"

Neville swallowed before growing deadly serious. "You can't say a word. Barty doesn't even know I looked at the file he keeps on them. This is… this is seriously secret stuff, okay?" Everyone quietly nodded in agreement. "I'm not going to tell you all because it isn't my story to tell and frankly I felt dirty and sick reading about it but when they were around our age they went out on a trip to Hoenn, like they did every summer. Only they ran into this group of… they weren't even a Team like Nocturne."

"What were they?" Ginny pressed.

"Slavers," Neville said in the softest of voices. "For the sex trade."

"…oh fuck." Normally Harry would have been shocked that it was HERMIONE who swore but the horror of what Neville was telling them didn't allow him to comment or register really what she'd said. "Did they…?"

"One horrible night. I saw the police reports… they don't know it was Jack and Cynthia and the rest. Barty pieced it together. A burned down cabin, mutilated bodies with the damage focused mostly on… never mind, that doesn't matter… and a report of 6 teens showing signs of sexual assault wandering into a Pokemon Center covered in blood and fleeing before the cops could arrive to question them."

"…no wonder they're screwed up," Ron whispered.

"What is it with Fate decided to brutalize good people?" Hermione murmured in frustration. "Why is it that the villains are never the ones to suffer?"

"Because good is dumb," Harry grumbled.

"Heh," Luna said though her smile was as weak as water with just a splash of juice. "A reference. Thanks but… not really feeling it, Harry."

"So… what's the point then?" Neville said. "If good people suffer and evil ones just… keep getting away with things… why bother?"

It was, surprisingly, Harry himself who spoke. "Because if Fate won't do its damn job then its up to us." He sneered. "Waiting for someone to come in and make things right? That's WHY good people suffer. We need people to stand up and say no more, to make people see that the only way to balance the scales is to do it yourself." He rolled his neck back and forth, bones cracking as he did so. "I'm not a fan of Avalon at the moment. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to fucking protect it. And I think its time we got back to doing what we do best." He smirked, all sorrow pushed away. "I think its time we planned out some… balance."

His friends looked at him before nodding and smiling.

And all those watching from the castle shuddered as The Pride marched back towards the Gryffindor Tower with their heads held high.