Woah, 13 reviews in less than 12 hours after I uploaded the latest chapter. I'm beyond surprised, right now.
Ddragon21: No one's perfect. Like I said in my first chapter, he's a good guy who made mistakes. What's that old phrase? "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
Remzal Von Enili: Probably not. If Harry learned another element, he'd be overpowered.
xp3r1a: Decent point on the attack announcing. It is quite a mouthful. I had actually thought about cutting the "lightning dragon" part out. Or even say "Rairyu no Hoken" instead of "Lightning Dragon's Breakdown Fist". Saying only "Breakdown Fist" works fine, though.
Ceti H. Black: Astoria's twelve. Harry's fifteen.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
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Lightning Dragon's Roar
A Harry Potter Fanfiction
By Zero Rewind
© 2014
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Chapter 7: All Aboard The Fun Train!
September 1st, 7 AM.
I sped around my practice room— formerly an unused room— lightning covering every inch of my body. I punched and kicked, as if fighting an enemy only I could see. I quickly jumped to the left, before deciding to run laps around the room. I pushed myself to my very limits, zooming from corner to corner with incredible speed. Granted, it didn't hold a candle to my Firebolt's speed, but what could compare to that? I jumped, and practiced propelling myself in to the right; and then to the left; I'd learned that little trick a week ago, and have been practicing it almost nonstop. The idea behind it was that the expelled energy functioned like a rocket. If I blasted the lightning to the left, I would be propelled to the right, and vice versa. With enough power, I could probably fly under my own power! How cool was that?
I landed steadily in front of the wall.
"Breakdown Fist!" Lightning danced along the length of my arm, quickly coalescing into my closed fist. I looked at my fist briefly, scrutinizing it, before smashing it into the wall, easily causing a small crater to form. Cracks began spreading over the entire wall as it slightly shook from the sudden pressure.
"Reparo." I quickly repaired the wall, before frowning in thought. I thought I could break right through the wall with that kind of energy. Stone is definitely stronger than wood, that's for sure! Still, the amount of strength needed to actually dent a solid stone wall had to be quite staggering. I even greatly shortened the time required to charge up the attack. Progress was definitely being made, even though it wasn't going as fast I would've liked.
I extended my fingers, and channeled the lightning once more. I hesitated to try this again. A few days ago, I attempted to pierce through the wall by extending my fingers, and thrusting towards the wall, as if I was thrusting a knife to pierce it. It actually did slightly pierce the wall, but hurt like hell. I supposed, that punching the wall hurt less because the damage— which was considerably dampened to the energy surrounding my fist— was distributed evenly along the frontal area of my fist. With the tip of my fingers being a much smaller area to cover, I supposed it made sense that it hurt that much more.
I took a deep breath, and thrust my fingers into the wall again, this time refining the energy so that it imitated a piercing blade. The attacked buried my hand, up to its knuckles into the wall. A sharp stab of pain shot through my hand. I'd pierced the wall, but it still managed to hurt me.
Wall: 2, Harry Potter: 0.
"SHIT! FUCK!" I grit my teeth, pulling my hand out of the wall. I tried to move my fingers, only to wince as that little attempt failed. The bruises hurt quite a bit. I quickly made my way to my room, and grabbed an ice pack out of my fridge— quite a necessary addition, if I do say so myself— applying it to my bruised fingers. The pain receded, thankfully. That was the end of this practice session, it seemed. Perhaps next time, I should try on weaker materials. I would work on piercing wooden objects, and slowly move up. Actually, from that point of view, I'd actually done pretty well for my second try.
When it's complete. I'll call it Edge, after an attack used by a character in the Naruto manga.
I grabbed a coke from of the fridge, and sat in front of the computer. I opened up my browser, and found the bookmark I was looking for. Salty Bet; a website that streamed unlikely fights between characters from different games/books/comics/anime, and made people bet on who was going to win. It wasn't actual money being exchanged here, but it was still a very fun activity.
"Come on, get those bets in!" I heard the stream prompt, as inappropriate music played in the background of the fighting simulator I was watching. Why would anyone put Beethoven in the background of a fight between Son Goku and Super Mario? That was beyond surreal. I sat there for half an hour, watching the ridiculous fights, and reading the hilarious comments that the twitch community posted every other second. Wait a minute.. Did I just see what I think I saw?
In bold letters, "Ronald McDonald vs Colonel Sanders" was on the screen. The epic fight of the day, most likely. The stream chat erupted in celebration, everyone claiming to bet all their in game money on either Ronald or Sanders. The fight that ensued was one of the most devastating, ridiculous fights I'd ever watched in my time on this site. Ronald's main weapon of choice was a tsunami of cheeseburgers, while Colonel Sanders seemed to throw cardboard boxes of chicken nuggets all over the place. In a matter of seconds, the area was flooded with burgers and nuggets, in one of the most epic struggles witnessed by basement-dweller-kind. The fact that the background music was "I'm a Barbie Girl, In a Barbie world" did not detract from the sheer epic-ness of it. Not one bit.
Well, okay. Maybe a little. I ended up losing all the money I had. Ronald had won the battle, putting me into back what was affectionately referred to as "The Salt Mines". I sighed, and got off the computer. My hand was beginning to feel better. The swelling was considerably reduced, which was a good thing. I could actually move my fingers now!
I went to the kitchen, intent on getting some breakfast. I saw everyone hustling and bustling, all stressed out over the trip we were going to make to the Hogwarts Express. I slipped into the kitchen, unnoticed by all except Sirius, who seemed to be starving. I gave him a pitying look.
"There's some leftover pizza in the fridge in my room." I revealed, and he bolted. Half a minute later, he came back with a box of a half eaten pizza. He cast a warming charm on it, and we began to eat in a companionable silence, enjoying the last few moments we were going to have together.
"Harry, dear?" Molly Weasley's voice came from the door.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley." I politely answered. Ever since I barged into that meeting, the older woman was cross with me, until the moment I witnessed her face a boggart. It showed everyone she knew and loved dead— including me. I told her that wouldn't happen, that I would destroy an entire army with my bare hands before ever letting something like that happen. She seemed to warm up to me after that. I gestured at the pizza in front of me. "Want some pizza?"
"No, thank you, dear." She refused, before getting to the point. "I was just seeing if you were all packed for school. Everyone else seems completely lost."
"Oh, yes. I preemptively did all my packing last night to avoid all the confusion!" I grinned, motioning to the totally lost Ron, who was looking for his toothbrush— which the twins had hid away for shits and giggles.
"Oh, all right, then. Best get back to preparing!" And with that, Molly went to make sure her children were all set. Sirius snorted, and we shared an amused grin.
"Sure going to miss having you around, kid." Sirius said sadly.
"Yeah, I'm going to miss you too, old man." I answered back cheekily, making him frown.
"I'm not that old."
"True." I smiled. "Don't forget, if you ever start feeling all cooped up, just take a walk outside."
Sirius smiled back. "Yeah. Honestly, I still can't believe how no one recognized me." He mused.
"And if you get bored, well... I've shown you how to use my computer." I continued. "Plenty of games on there, and then there's the internet itself. Feel free to experiment. I've left a couple of notes that give you a basic list of websites to visit. And if you see some advertisements promising to make your life easier by finding you a russian/black/chinese/whatever wife, try not to click it, will you? The same goes for promises of penis enlargement, fake girls trying to communicate with you, etc." I waved dismissively, not wanting to go too much into detail. "You'll figure out what's good or bad. If you need any advice, just call me in that mirror you gave me. All right? Though, above all—"
"Yes, mom. Never use any kind of magic near your machines." Sirius rolled his eyes at me. "Lighten up, will you?"
"Fine." I huffed, before grinning. "I guess I was starting to sound like Mrs. Weasley, with all the rules and stuff."
"Yes." Sirius answered, with a— dare I say— serious look on his face. "Try not to do that again. It was creepy."
"Yes, well..." I sighed. "Ah, fuck it. Go nuts. Have fun."
"I could say the same to you, Harry!" Sirius retorted. "You better hook up with a girl this year, all right?"
"I'll do my best, sir!" I gave a mock salute, before giving him a long manly hug and leaving for Hogwarts.
Hours after I left, when Sirius made his way to my computer, he saw the a message that made him roar in laughter:
"Thought that this would loosen you up a little bit.
You seem really stressed out all the time, so I compiled
an extensive amount of pictures and movies of the, ahem,
adult kind. Essentially, PORNOGRAPHY. Enjoy! Also, you never
read this particular message, okay?
-Your evil Godson, Harry."
ooooooooooooooo
The trip to the train station was not really noteworthy. We made the trip in semi-uncomfortable silence. The adults seemed to think that Death Eaters were going to pop right out of the woodwork to kill us. Considering that Voldemort wanted to keep his anonymity intact, the appearance of Death Eaters was highly unlikely. It seemed, however, that logical thinking was out of our guards' capabilities. Either that, or Moody forced them to be on guard for this. That guy really needed to lighten up. He took things way too seriously, in my opinion. Oh, he was definitely a very powerful wizard, to be sure, but still a total loon.
After bidding goodbye to the Weasley family, and our guard— Tonks had insisted on an inordinately long hug, followed by inappropriate suggestive lewd comments— we boarded the train. I didn't bother waiting for Ron and Hermione, already knowing that they had to go to meet with the other prefects and the Head Boy/Girl. I remember Percy yammering about it in Third Year. Ginny, it seemed, was off doing her own thing.
At least she's no longer trying to follow me around. I walked through the carriages, uncaring of the suspicious looks I seemed to be getting. Trash, the lot of them. I saw Neville, trying to lug his trunk around, while holding his frog Trevor at the same time. He looked like he was going through a marathon.
"Yo, Neville." I said from right behind him. The boy jumped, almost dropping the frog.
"Hi, Harry." Neville panted, giving me a disapproving look. "Don't scare me like that."
"Sorry." I said with a smile, taking the trunk from his hands. "Let me help you with that. Trevor looks like he's putting up a pretty decent fight."
"You don't have to..." Neville began weakly.
"True. But I want to." And like that, we began a great search for an empty compartment.
"...Where's your trunk, anyway?" Neville asked, as we passed by some students.
"In my pocket." I grinned widely. "It's nice, being able to use magic outside of school."
"I read about that in the paper." Neville hedged carefully, as we stopped a half empty compartment. "I didn't know whether it was a lie or not, since the Prophet's been posting tons of lies about you all summer long. So it's true?"
"Which part? Hold that thought, Neville." I said, as I entered the compartment, seeing a girl. She had waist length, dirty blond hair. She looked very weird, what with her necklace made out of butterbeer caps, the wand tucked behind her ear, and the upside down magazine she was currently reading.
"Mind if we sit with you? Everywhere else is full." I started amiably. The girl nodded, watching me stow Neville's trunk away. Nevile and I sat next to each other, facing the other two girls.
"Thank you." I smiled at the blonde, before turning to Neville once more.
"You're Harry Potter." The dirty-blond haired girl said in a dreamy voice.
"Sure am! What's your name, blonde stranger who's currently reading a magazine upside down?" I answered back without missing a beat. Neville gave me an almost amused look.
"Oh, thank you for noticing that! I'm Luna." She said with a smile. "Luna Lovegood. I'm a year behind you, in Ravenclaw." She turned to Neville. "I don't know who you are, though. Sorry."
"Don't be. I'm just a nobody." Neville said quickly.
"Yeah, right!" I retorted, before looking at Luna. "This guy here is the smartest Herbology student I've ever met in my life, and had the guts to stand up to me, Ron and Hermione combined. Neville Longbottom, don't you ever forget that name."
Neville blushed at the reference, but did not make an attempt to refute whatever I said. Good! I turned back to Neville.
"So, which part?" I asked again.
"Well, did you really attend a trial for using the Patronus charm on dementors?" Neville asked.
I nodded.
"And can you really use magic outside of school now?"
"Yep."
"What about—"
"Yeah. I owned those decrepit old fucks, using basic logic, and their own laws against them." I nodded, and Neville visibly restrained himself from gaping, as I explained how it was possible for me to become emancipated. Since three different ministries acknowledged the fact I was competing in a tournament strictly for adults, I was automatically an adult.
"I goes both ways, you know?" I finished with a smirk.
"I can't believe you were tried for defending yourself." Neville shook his head. "Gran was saying it was a complete travesty of justice, and a grave insult to the Potter Family."
"I suppose." I gave a noncommittal answer. "I guess they did go overboard when they tried me as an adult."
Neville just shook his head in response.
"Harry, the Potters have always been a family with a lot of political clout." Neville informed me, as if he was talking about the weather. "The fact that the Prophet has been having a go at you would've been met with an excessively harsh response twenty years ago."
"Yeah, well." I drawled lazily. "I dealt with it. If people don't want to believe me, they can go fuck themselves, for all I care."
I got up at the sound of the food trolley.
"You guys want snacks? I think I hear the trolley lady passing by."
"I'll pass."
"Perhaps some liquorice wands?" Luna asked eagerly. I gave a nod, and left the compartment. A few students were gathered around the old trolley lady, picking out various candies. I got in line, and waited for my turn, ignoring the stares I always seemed to get for merely existing. I peeked into different compartments, as I waited for the few blokes in front of me to finish their business. One compartment was filled with first years, judging by the lack of color on their robes. The other one...
I saw the girl I'd been thinking about for a while, thanks to Sirius' constant reminders of me needing a girlfriend. She had golden, shoulder length hair, and blue eyes. She'd been looking at me, before I glanced in her direction. She was in her Hogwarts' uniform, the insignia and colors of Slytherin House proudly displayed for the world to see. Her tie was quite loosened up, and my eyes darted momentarily to her lips and chest, my mind going a mile a minute. She seemed to be scrutinizing me, as well. I felt distinctly self conscious, all of a sudden.
"Anything off the trolley, dear?" The old lady got my attention, a shadow of a smirk on her face. She'd noticed my staring, huh.
I grabbed a liquorice wand, and a few chocolate frogs, before paying the old woman. I turned to face the compartment that the girl— Daphne Greengrass— was in, and hesitated. Was this really a good choice? Malfoy had colored my perceptions of the Slytherin House. But that was it, right? It was Malfoy that was a complete douche bag, not Slytherin itself. I shouldn't judge an entire house because of one person. Besides, Slytherin wasn't the only House that produced evil wizards; Pettigrew came to mind. Percy was turning out to be a pretty shitty person, as well.
My mind made up, I walked to the compartment entrance. There were only two girls. One was Daphne, and the other was a girl with auburn hair that reached the middle of her back. I seemed to have interrupted their conversation.
"To what do we owe the honor, Potter?" The auburn haired girl said guardedly, though she glanced at Daphne for a moment. What was that about?
"Sorry for interrupting." I said politely, feeling incredibly nervous. My palms were sweating, and my heart was beating like there was no tomorrow. What the hell was wrong with me? "I just wanted to say— er— hello." I ran my hand through my hair. "I'll just go, then. Bye.."
And I practically bolted out of there. I just booked it. Fuck!
Nice one, Potter! You totally showed them your overflowing confidence! The trip back to my compartment felt more like a walk of shame, really. I entered my compartment, closing the door behind me, gave Luna the candy she'd requested, and sat down next to Neville, munching on my chocolate frog, trying to forget about that event ever taking place. What if the two girls talked about it? I could become the laughing stock of the school in no ti— wait, wasn't I already the laughing stock of the school?
Damn it all to hell. My once chance to make a good first impression, down the drain...
I did not even notice the extra person in the compartment. When I finally came to my senses, I saw that it was Ginny who was sitting in front of me; and looking at me, too.
"Something on my face?" I asked self consciously, rubbing my cheeks. "Maybe some chocolate?"
"N-No..." Ginny answered with a blush. "It's nothing."
Before I could say anything, the compartment door slid open, revealing...
"Well, well, well, Potter. I see you haven't made prefect." The drawling voice of Draco Malfoy made itself known to us. As usual, his two bodyguards stood behind him threateningly. "How does it feel to know you're second best to Weasley?" The blonde ponce asked tauntingly.
Ah, a little distraction from the royal screw-up with Daphne. Now, this I could work with.
"Shows how much you know, genius." I retorted, a smirk automatically on my face. "I gave my prefect badge to Ron, when McGonagall herself delivered it to me. Who in their right mind would want to spend their time taking care of some fucking snot nosed brats? I guess you are more foolish than I originally thought."
Malfoy sputtered, not having expected that quick retort. As if any of these kids could trash talk me! I'm a denizen of the motherfucking internet, bitch! No one can out-trash talk me, except perhaps another fellow basement dweller. Even then, I could just default to rule number 27: "Always question a person's sexual preferences without any real reason."
"You better watch yourself, Potter. Or I'll put you in detention." Did he really just say that? That was so ridiculous, I had to laugh. Quite uproariously, in fact. Watching his face go red with impotent anger made me laugh even harder.
"Think that's funny, do you?" Draco was seething. "You'll get yours, soon enough. You, the weasel and that filthy mudblood!"
I abruptly stopped laughing, giving the self proclaimed prince of Slytherin a stone cold look. The sudden change seemed to unnerve those around me.
"You know, Draco." I started conversationally, as I stood up calmly. "We both know about your new house guest for this summer." I referenced to Voldemort without a single care in the world, taking his silence as a clear sign for me to continue. "Let me tell you a little secret. Just between us."
I approached the boy, who forced himself to stay put. Refusing to show weakness, perhaps? I couldn't care less, right now.
"Earlier this summer, I told Dumbledore that I was going to cripple and maim every single Death Eater that got in the way between Voldemort and I." I said with a smile, as if I was talking about the weather. Everyone flinched at the mention of Voldemort's name, and looked slightly green at my admission.
Draco didn't answer, but his gradually paling skin seemed to be answer enough.
"So I'll give you this one warning." He began to back off as I advanced further and further. "Mess with me, and I'll destroy you, and your pureblood pride. I'll make you beg for death, and then I would leave you alive, to prolong whatever suffering I choose to inflict upon your pathetic self. You think your father can stop me? He's a joke compared to me! You think Voldemort will save you from me? He cares for nothing but his own life. You have no true allies, no notable power to speak of, and not a sliver of a chance against me. Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth, you snot nosed wimp?" I whispered threateningly in his ears.
No answer. He was completely frozen in fear.
"I said..." I roughly grabbed him by the neck, making him jump. "Do. You. Understand. Me?"
Draco nodded quickly. I looked into his frightened eyes for a few moments.
"Good!" I let go, and sat back down. I began to munch on my chocolate frogs, as if I didn't threaten him just now. My fingers were stinging in pain again, not having fully healed from my attempt at using Edge. I silently promised myself I'd get better.
"You may go." I waved dismissively at his form. He bolted out of the room like hell itself was on his heels. A really small part of me felt bad about doing that to him, but he needed a wake up call. He needed to realize his side of the war was the wrong one. Hugs, and flowery words of love weren't going to get to him. Overwhelming force, however...
"Harry..." Neville said after a while. I realized the compartment had been silent for a minute.
"Wicked!" Ginny said with a grin. I shook my head.
"It needed to be done." I said simply, feeling drained. "There was no other way to make him understand that I'm not dicking around any more. War is coming."
And with that last, cryptic statement, I stared out of the window, tuning everything out. Could do with some nice music right about now... Maybe fifty minutes of Fairy Tail battle music. Erza's theme! Perhaps some good old Dragon Force...
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"The fuck is this thing?" I blurted out, as Ginny, Neville, Luna and I were boarding the carriage. Ron and Hermione had taken another carriage ahead of us. "Looks like an Abraxan.. but almost starved to death. An undead Abraxan, maybe? Is that even a thing?"
"There's nothing there, Harry."
"What the hell do you mean 'there's nothing there'? Use your eyes!" I pointed right at the beast, which gave me a curious gaze.
"Um.. Harry, I don't see anything there." Ginny was looking a little worried now.
"Don't worry, Harry." Luna said dreamily. "I see them too."
I didn't really feel reassured by that.
"Me too, Harry." Neville added in. "That's a thestral. You can only see them if you've seen death."
"I... see." I said slowly, giving the weird horse thing— thestral, I reminded myself— a final glance, before boarding the carriage as well. The thestral began taking us to the castle, as I settled in. So watching Cedric die gave me the power to see these things?
"Wait..." I started, Neville's last statement not really computing. "They're only visible if you've seen death?"
"Yes." Neville confirmed in a grave tone of voice.
"I've killed plenty of ants before. And I watched my cousin flush his still living fish down a toilet, too." I said, remembering the good old childhood days of killing ants for kicks; you know, before running away from Dudley who wanted to beat me up. And poor Bob the Fish, too. "Why couldn't I see them before now?"
"...I don't really know." Neville answered in confusion.
"I mean." I continued, undaunted. "A death is a death, right?"
"That's true, I guess." Neville said unsure. "It has to be the death of a person, though."
The death of a person made a little more sense... Wait, no. I shook my head.
"But Quirrell died in front of me at the end of First Year." I refuted that theory using delicious logic.
Neville paled a little at that. "You've seen Quirrell die?"
I gave him a look. "I thought everyone knew about that. He had Voldemort sticking out the back of his head. Plus, apparently, he was highly allergic to my touch, seeing as it, you know, burnt him to ashes."
"Right..."
"It could be because the loss of Cedric was much more important to you than Quirrell?" Ginny asked, before grimacing at her lack of tact. "I'm sorry. I should just shut up, huh?"
"Nah, it's all right." I waved it off. "You don't have to walk on eggshells around me, Ginny." She smiled at that. "You might actually be right, though. It might be related to a sense of loss, more than simply witnessing death."
So it had to be the death of someone you had attachments to. Made sense. Still, that was some strange way to be invisible. Then again, this could be some form of micro-evolution. Invisibility was most certainly a good trait to propagate among the species. Prey won't notice something invisible, would it? The demiguises did something pretty similar, with their own brand of invisibility, didn't they?
The topic changed, when Neville decided to talk about his new plant that his uncle got him. Mimbulus something. Sounded pretty fascinating, really. I'd been watching documentaries here and there, curious about the creatures that live on our planet. The plant that Neville was describing reminded me of skunks. They stinked up whatever was attacking them, too.
Hogwarts was getting bigger and bigger as we approached the castle even further.
I briefly wondered what kind of life-threatening experience I was going to go through this time, and suddenly grinned, to the confusion of the three around me.
"Voldemort riding a Nundu, for sure." I thought out loud, nodding confidently. They gaped at me.
"Where did that come from?" Ginny blurted out.
ooooooooooooooo
Well, that's that. I'm going to sleep, now.