(A/N) Okay this chapter is long overdue considering that I have been procrastinating with is, but can you blame me? So as punishment to myself I give you this chapter early even though chapter11 isn't finished. Sadly not a whole lot happens in PS for me to work with, anyway there will be one more AU chapter that I throw in but that won't be till later. Also like I said before I made a yahoogroup for the series (although it is a bit early to call it that). Link is in my profile page.
(Disclaimer: Don't own anything)
Time stopped for Harry. Could it really be true? Was Kyuubi really dead? No, impossible! Kyuubi, his familiar, his responsibility, his friend! It was a lie! It had to be! Nothing could be more impossible than Kyuubi dieing.
"YOU'RE…YOU'RE LYING!" Harry shouted at madam Pomfrey. Madam Pomfrey a sad, understanding look.
"I'm sorry Harry, but it is the tru-"
"SHUT UP! I DON'T CARE IF YOU SAY IT'S TRUE OR NOT! I KNOW YOUR LYING!" Harry said starting to sit up.
Madam Pomfrey grabbed his shoulders trying to push him down. "Mr. Potter you must lay down! You're exhausted!"
"LET GO OF ME! YOU HEAR ME? LET. ME. GO!" Harry yelled. The second he finished the sentence Madam Pomfrey let go, feeling a large electric shock course through her arms.
Seizing his chance to escape, Harry jumped of the bed and ran through the hospital wing, looking for any sign of Kyuubi. Then, in one of the beds he saw something catch his eye. It looked like someone was lying in a bed, but the sheet completely covered them. Walking up to the bed he raised his arm, hesitating for a second, he gripped the sheet and pulled it back. Eyes widening in shock, Harry took a step back. There in the bed laid Kyuubi, only…he wasn't moving…or breathing.
Madam Pomfrey, recovering from the shocking that Harry and given her, found him staring at the nontile's body, "I was hoping you wouldn't have had to seen this, especially since you just woke up."
"How…how did he die?" Harry whispered, barley being heard.
"From what I could tell, the troll hit him on the right side of the body with a blunt object, probably the club; the force of the impact shattered Kyuubi's ribcage, and the shards punctured the right lung. Normally this is only a slight problem to fix. However, when he was hit, his entire body was thrown into the wall and that cause the left ribcage to shatter and for his left lung to collapse." Pomfrey explained.
"But, I saw him! He was alive!"
"You probably saw him in his last few moments of life."
"What about the troll? You said I killed it? How I don't remember anything after seeing Kyuubi on the floor."
"That is a mystery that even we seem to a trouble understanding." A new voice said. Turning around they saw the old, wrinkly face of Albus Dumbledore. He looked Harry in the eye before continuing. "You see Harry, when we arrived at the scene we were greeted by a most gruesome scene."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's just say that there were enough pieces of the troll, that it took a few trips to remove them all. You see Harry, it will be days before the bathroom is fixed of all damages, but it will be weeks before all the bloodstains are cleaned." Albus said with a serious voice, his eyes void of the twinkling.
"I'm sorry professor, but as I said to Madam Pomfrey, I don't remember anything after seeing Kyuubi on the floor in pain."
"I see…very well, I have excused you from classes for a few days to give you time to mourn. Now if you'll excuse me I have some important matters I need to take care of." Dumbledore said before leaving for his office.
Walking into his office, Dumbledore walked up to his desk, pulled out a penseive in hopes of organizing his thoughts. Starting to pace, he would absently touching his temple with the tip of his wand, he would pull out a silver strand and place it in the penseive. Contemplating the recent events he walked up to the fireplace and grabbed some floo powder and called out, "Sol'Lez, Castle of Elements."
Castle of Elements
Sol'Lez was sitting had been sitting at the desk in her study awaiting a call from Dumbledore. She had known from the night before that one of the junior elementals power and gone awry, she even knew that it was Harry's power that was the one to be unleashed. But, rather than charging in "guns, blazing" as muggles would say, she sat back and awaited Dumbledore's call. Finally her fireplace erupted in green flames and the head of Dumbledore could be seen.
"Congratulations Dumbledore, it only took you only fourteen hours to contact me, next time you better call me the second one of my children are in danger, or so help me God you will learn what "The Wrath of Mother Nature" truly is." Sol'Lez said glaring at the image of Dumbledore. Dumbledore only winced lightly before smiling at her again.
"Well since you were expecting my call, I suppose it is safe to assume that you know why I'm calling?" He asked
"You assume correctly, however I don't have any of the details. I take it you will be filling me in?"
"Yes, it seems that last night a mountain troll entered the castle. From what I can gather from two students, one a Ms. Hermione Granger went to go fight the troll, and Harry, Kyuubi, and another student a Mr. Ronald Weasley went to go a try and save her. According to them, Kyuubi distracted the troll and Harry and Ron caught Hermione away." Dumbledore was about to continue before Sol'Lez was finished the story.
"Let me guess, Kyuubi got hurt, Harry went back to help Kyuubi, and the troll is no more?"
"No, yes, and yes. Kyuubi is not hurt; it seems that the troll managed to kill Kyuubi."
Sol'Lez stood silently for a few moments before speaking, "Alright, I'll be over in a few days, I will need to call a meeting with the senior elementals, and their out of the castle at the moment. Give me two days from now and then I'll be over."
Dumbledore nodded before his head disappeared from the fireplace. Sitting back in her chair Sol'Lez contemplated over the information. 'Killing a nontile is no easy feat…regardless of how old or how young the nontile is. I highly doubt a mere troll could achieve such a feat.
Hogwarts, Hospital Wing
Harry had been in the Hospital the whole day, doing his best not to cry for Kyuubi. He knew Kyuubi wouldn't want him to mourn. Every chance that was available, Harry's friends would stop by trying to comfort him. Harry was glad they were cared, and was shocked to see people who he was only acquaintances with come and try to comfort him; and for this he respected them. Quidditch members, house mates, even a few people from other houses stopped by.
Guys would give him a pat on the back, and girls would give him a hug, hoping to comfort him, but only the pats and hugs from his friends mattered most to him. Meals were brought to Harry, but rarely did he eat. Only allowing him enough to get by and just pushing the rest away. Night came and Madam Pomfrey would try to get him to return to his dorm, but he wouldn't even acknowledge her existence. He knew it was rude but didn't care. The next day went by in the same manner, but at the dawn of the third day Harry had an unexpected guest.
The clicking of high heels echoed in the hospital wing, as Sol'Lez walked up to the bed that Harry was at. Not approaching the bed she called out softly, "Harry?"
Harry looked up and saw his teacher/motherly figure, and finally his mask cracked and he ran to her, tears falling freely fro the first time in days. Engulfing Harry in a hug, Sol'Lez let him cry on her shoulder, whispering comforting word to him. For nearly twenty minutes Harry cried on her shoulder. Finally, calming down she pushed him away so she could look in his eyes.
"Now, why the long face?" she asked.
"I'm so sorry Sol'Lez, it's my fault, if I didn't try to save Hermione, Kyuubi wouldn't have died."
"First off it is not your fault, secondly if you didn't save Hermione she would be dead, and lastly Kyuubi isn't dead."
"You're wrong Sol'Lez! I've been here for two days straight, he hasn't breathed and he hasn't moved."
"Really?" Sol'Lez asked casting a look over at the hospital bed. "Then why is it that I see Kyuubi stretching behind you?"
Turning around Harry saw Kyuubi standing on the bed and moving his body around, working out the stiff muscles. Faster than humanly possible Harry ran to Kyuubi around the neck and gave him a tight hug. Sol'Lez smiled and walked up to Harry.
"Let go Harry, you're choking him."
Harry quickly let go and Kyuubi took in a few deep breaths before saying, "Thanks Sol'Lez that would have been twice that I would have died from suffocating, and I'll tell you right now once is plenty for me."
Harry looked confused and turned to Sol'Lez for answer.
"How is it that Kyuubi is alive? I know for sure he was dead, and Kyuubi even said he died."
"Let me answer your question with another question. What trait does Kyuubi give you through your familiar bond?"
"Increase rate of healing." Harry stated calmly.
"Wrong!"
"But, that's what you told me it was."
"Harry, if I told you the earth was going to be destroyed would you believe me?"
"Well, since you are Mother Nature…yes."
Sol'Lez let out a light chuckle before saying, "Ok I guess that was a bad example. Anyway the point is that you don't have increased healing, instead you can regenerate."
"Umm, what's the difference?" Harry asked, this time Kyuubi answered.
"Healing is the replacement of damaged tissue, with new tissue. Regenerating is when your body makes a perfect copy of the damaged tissue. Perfect meaning that it is free from all abnormalities so tears, burns, or disease."
"Ok…what happens to the damaged tissue?"
"The damaged tissue is broken down by your magic and any nutrients from it are taken to the right areas of the body, the rest pretty much dissolves." Sol'Lez answered.
"Ok, I understand the difference between regeneration and healing, but that doesn't explain how Kyuubi is alive."
"Well, regeneration isn't a normal function of the body and is magically induced, when a person dies, it takes the body sometime, usually a month or two before it fully leaves the body. That being said, when Kyuubi "died" his magic continued to regenerate that damaged parts of his body. Thus, causing Kyuubi to come back from the dead." Sol'Lez explained.
"So Kyuubi can die?" Harry asked.
"Not unless you continued to damage his body until his magic disappeared."
"What about me? Does that me I can't die?"
"That is a tricky question there. See your regeneration is no where near Kyuubi's level and probably won't be until Kyuubi gains his fifth tail. So theoretically yes, but I'm not to sure."
"What if my body is killed magically?" Harry asked wanting to know just how beneficial his regeneration was.
"Hmm…first the magic would have to expel the foreign magic, and then it would get to work on our bodies. But, I would rather not test that theory…in fact I would rather not die at all if possible." Kyuubi answered.
"Yes, well I have a meeting to go to, now that I know your ok I will leave you to get ready, if you hurry you can make it to breakfast. I'll see be back to pick you up for the Christmas break." Sol'Lez said before disappearing.
Faculty Room
The Hogwarts staff was gathered in the faculty room after having an early breakfast, it was Saturday and so no classes were scheduled, making it a prime time for the staff to have a meeting over the incident with the mountain troll. All the staff was there with varying decrees of interest over what the topic of the meeting was. Even Snape showed signs of interest, especially after seeing what was left after the troll. The staff had been waiting for ten minutes before Sol'Lez entered the room.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, had to explain to Harry how Kyuubi wasn't dead." She said earning a gasp from a number of staff, only Madam Pomfrey said anything.
"My dear, I examined the creature myself I can assure you that the nontile is quite dead."
"And I can assure you that he is not. Now rather than argue over the condition of Kyuubi let us focus on what you really want to know. Like how Harry was able to rip a fully grown troll into a bloody mess." As she said this the staff nodded in agreement, looking at Albus he nodded his head as a sign to continue.
"Now before I say anything I should let you know that Haku, Gaara, and Sasuke can do the very same thing Harry did. I should also tell you that they can only do damage on this level when their emotions take over, strong emotions like hate, rage, sorrow, pain. If they are overwhelmed by such feelings they can lose control. Rest assured that I have been training them in order to control such emotions."
"Obviously you're doing a lousy job." Snape muttered just loud enough to be heard, Sol'Lez just brush off his comment.
"The state that Harry entered is called Elemental Breaker. In this state the elemental loses control of their element and no longer control their body. Instead the element itself controls the body and acts on the last coherent thought of the host. In this case, Harry saw Kyuubi about to be killed by the troll, the coherent thought; stop the troll. It is usually quite easy to spot when an elemental goes into Elemental Breaker mode; first they won't think rationally and won't respond to any form of outside influence, also they will have the appearance of a master elemental, an appearance that they have never seen before, not even with there mentors."
"So how exactly do we stop an Elemental Breaker?" Asked Professor McGonagall.
"The only way to stop an Elemental Breaker is with a stronger elemental or myself." Sol'Lez answered.
"What is a stronger element? Do you mean the children's mentors?" One of the professors asked.
"Yes and no, while one of the mentors would be able to stop an elemental breaker, I was referring to their weakness."
"Care to explain? Or do you enjoy being as vague as possible?" Snape asked.
"If you must know, the children hold the essence of a certain element. Fire, water, earth, and lightning. When I said weakness I meant fire beats earth, earth beats lightning, lightning beats water, and water beats fire."
"What about air? Shouldn't that be an element as well?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Yes, there was at one time an air elemental, but a certain event, which is none of your concern, happened and now there are only the four other elementals." Sol'Lez answered with a sad look. "Anyway, that is not the topic. The topic is about the children and the state Elemental Breaker. Now normally Elemental Breaker doesn't happen until the children have a rather high level of control, but since they are just learning to control their element, they have practically no idea how to manipulate the world around them unless they are acting on instinct."
"So pretty much you're saying we can't rely on the children to look after one another." Snape said, more as a statement than a question.
"Correct." Sol'Lez said as the staff started to panic.
"Albus we can't keep them here it is a danger to the other students." Professor McGonagall whispered to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore stood up and quieted the staff before talking to Sol'Lez, "Are the children able to control their feelings?"
"Yes, this was an accident, one that wouldn't have happened had you done a better job keeping your castle secure." She answered.
Albus silently thought for a moment then asked, "You said you were expecting me to call you a few days ago, how were you able to tell that Harry had gone into Elemental Breaker mode and why didn't you stop him?"
"To answer your first question I have a link with all the elementals that allows me to know when they are using more power than they should. As to why I didn't stop him, you wanted him here, so I believe it is only fair that you reap what you sow." Sol'Lez said smirking
"Please I beg of that if the children ever go into Elemental Breaker mode again, that you stop them so that they don't kill any students. I don't want any student to be ripped apart like that troll." McGonagall begged in a grave voice.
"I promise I will keep them from killing any students," Sol'Lez said. "Well I do believe that takes care of the meeting?"
"Yes, of course. Thank you for coming Sol'Lez." Albus said as Sol'Lez disappeared.
"Well this meeting is adjourned." Slowly the staff ambled their way out of the staff room, each going their separate ways, all with the same thought.
Pray those children don't lose control.
(A/N) Alright another chapter done, next chapter will be a tad bit shorter. Also I believe this chapter does a bit of explaining, Don't worry about the element air, it has a MAJOR purpose the likes of which wont be seen for some time. Till next time, please review.