Author's Notes –
Yes, I get that having the kids swim with weights is physically impossible, but in the magical world of Harry Potter and Ranma ½ it is possible. Witches/wizards have an innate magical ability that protects them, i.e. Neville bouncing after being dropped from a window by his uncle, Harry suddenly teleporting to the top of the school, etc. Ranma was training his apprentices' innate magic to adjust for the weights by making them more buoyant while they swam.
On a side note – prayers to all those who are affected by the weather, natural disasters, and acts of human cruelty and ignorance. We are all part of this world and while most do not agree on how it should be managed/handled, we should all respect each other's rights.
The chilly winter air seemed a fitting analogy for the relations between the Order of The Phoenix and the foreign coalition. While Ranma himself was rather trusting, he was glad that the old ghoul was well versed in the political double-speak and dealings. She was certain that Dumbledore wasn't sharing vital information, and the bit about the prophecy had been useful but there was more to it than the old wizard was letting on. That Harry was now one of his apprentices and part of his pack gave the cursed martial artist more leeway into the daily life of the youth.
But Harry was one of six, though only the three oldest seemed to need him act as a legal guardian. Neville still had his grandmother, though she was currently incapacitated and recovering from the injuries she'd sustained when the Death Eaters had attacked months ago; Theodore Nott Sr. was still missing; and Harry's closest relatives were No-Mag and thus had no voice in the magical world.
Normally the gender cursed mage got along well with the other members of the Order, but today was anything but normal. St. Mungo's had increased their security following the murder of the Longbottoms by the Death Eaters and the fact that Sirius Black was still a wanted wizard forced him to remain hidden in the Order's secret headquarters. While his apprentices were all bound to him, he did not have to share with them all his secrets. Still, it made planning for the holidays difficult as he could not bring Neville and Theodore to the Order's headquarters and he would not have any of the Order see or know his secrets.
Ranma Saotome was no stranger to the chill of winter, even a winter in England, as he had traveled through much of the world while learning the Art as instructed by his father. Now it was his turn to instruct his apprentices and take them out into the world, though currently he only had the three oldest with him.
He stood before them with a mixture of pride and anxiety, watching as Happosai inspected the trio. The diminutive Grandmaster had a critical eye that leaned heavily on his centuries of experience. This was but the second time that Ranma had ever seen the old man take his role as Grandmaster seriously.
"There's something off about the dark one," Happosai stated as he watched the trio of older students spar with Genma.
"His father is a Death Eater," Ranma replied.
"Not the tall one, the one with the scar," the grand master corrected. "It's more than just being marked by something evil. It could corrupt him."
The young master nodded, "He does perform the Misogi more often than the others and he has mentioned that he sometimes feels as though he has a connection to what's-his-name…. the old geezer that gave him the scar – Voldemort – yeah, that guy."
More wrinkles appeared on the ancient mage's head as he considered the facts. "It does not help that the boy has dangerous enemies."
"I came here knowing that people would think I was on Dumbledore's side," Ranma stated. "Having enemies is nothing new to me."
Happosai shook his head, "I suppose so, but none of them were ever as evil and malicious as this one. Plus, he maybe your enemy but he must be defeated and killed by Harry.
"I know that you frown upon the notion of taking a life needlessly, but the prophecy clearly states that one cannot live while the other survives. If he is to emerge victorious he'll need to kill Voldemort."
Ranma felt himself clinching his jaw as he bit back a retort.
"Let me take the boy for the rest of the holiday," Happosai suggested. "I'll take the Nott boy over the Easter holiday and Longbottom sometime over the summer, not that he seems to need it right now."
The Dark Lord did not sleep. That was a known fact. He was above sleeping. There were more important things for him to do than sleep. First and foremost was acquiring the cursed prophecy and not just the fragments that his agent had uncovered. No, there had to be something about the prophecy that explained why Harry Potter had managed to managed to avoid being killed all those years ago and why he had managed to escape earlier in the year.
His faithful were useful but unfortunately none of them had access to the Department of Mysteries and the Hall of Prophecies in particular. According to Rookwood, only those named on the prophecy could retrieve it. There was no way that he could access the Ministry, not until his forces had actually succeeded in wrestling control of it from the fool of a minister. Though Fudge was a fool, he was a paranoid one who had placed many precautions to prevent those loyal or even favorable of Dumbledore from gaining any foothold within the Ministry. The security check points inspected each wand for any detection of the Unforgivable Curses, limiting where the Death Eaters would be able to use the Imperious Curse on the other officials and administrators.
His other option was to find a capable seerer or oracle who could divine some insight on the prophecy. Unfortunately there were few who practiced divination in all of Europe - the most notable of which were currently teaching – one at Hogwarts and the other at Beauxbatons. Snape could not access Trelawny as Dumbledore had gone to great lengths to defend her, and he had no agents in the French school.
The thought of Beauxbatons suddenly filled his mind with alluring young maidens in silky, form fitting robes. He could feel his heart pacing even as the image of the maidens became more vivid in his mind. Breath caught in his throat as the maidens' robes were discarded, revealing their lustrous, untouched skin and the lacy undergarments that protected their modesty.
He felt an urge growing within him as he tried to clear his mind. The past months had been peaceful, but in the past week he could not look at his hostess Narcissa without mentally stripping them. The feelings were not alien to him, even in this new body, but the source was. He'd never been attracted to women, and only a few of his Death Eaters knew of his orientation. In the past he had favored Rodolphus and his wife Bellatrix, but their time in Azkaban had aged them considerably. Now he favored Lucius and his wife Narcissa.
"Find Potter," he ordered his faithful, interrupting Lucius' report on the missing Nott. "Find his new teacher, or make sure that I can access the Department of Ministries so that I may retrieve the prophecy! I do not want reports of your progress only reports of your success!"
The Death Eaters cowered in their seats.
"Go!" he hissed.
All of the masked figures quickly pulled away from the table before shuffling out of the room. Only one remained. "Lucius."
"My lord," the man returned meekly.
This was the only way for him to rid himself of those strange urges. "I have need of your services."
Never in his short life had he realized how grueling his training could truly be. He'd thought it difficult under his sensei, but as he'd learned over the course of the past few years was that with magic much was possible. In the past few days though he'd quickly learned that even without magic much was possible. His master's training had taught him to push past his preconceived notions of the limitations of his body, his grandmaster's training taught him to exploit the limitations of other people's narrow minds. It was no wonder that wizards could evade Muggles as they tended to overlook much, but even witches and wizards could be narrow minded and were prone to overlook things.
He himself added another item to his list of things that his future house would need so as to prevent someone from sneaking into it. Chimneys were a necessity in the magical community as they not only allowed the smoke out of the fireplace but they could be used to communicate and travel once they were connected to the Floo network. Unfortunately they allowed a skilled climber to access the house as well. It was easy for the grandmaster as he was smaller than a goblin but for Harry the chimneys were a tighter fit.
"Don't get any soot on the darlings," the grandmaster chided.
Exhaling, he pulled himself out of the window before extracting the bag of women's underwear he'd procured and then closing the window silently. His victim, a pretty witch only a few years out of Hogwarts, had been busy in the bath, leaving her bedroom unguarded. She would likely return to her bedroom to find that her underwear had mysteriously vanished.
"Seventeen seconds," Happosai sighed, "you're taking far too long. We need to move."
Harry nodded as he handed over the package.
Happosai snatched it up even as he bounded off the wall and propelled himself up to the roof, "I've already cleared out the rest of the block in the same amount of time that you took on one house."
Few would report the theft of their undergarments, at least lately. There had been nothing in the Prophet about his activities over the past week and he was grateful for that.
"You've made some progress," the ancient grandmaster stated. "Still, I think that you develop best under pressure, not through simple training."
Harry didn't like the sound of that. The last time the grandmaster had said something like that was when he'd left Harry a locker of the bathhouse.
The empty storage locker that the grandmaster had chosen as their lair for the night was along the edge of a residential area, far enough for privacy but close enough for the old master to find more prey for his lecherous and perverted activities. The locker was completely bare with cold steel walls and equally cold cement.
The appropriation of women's undergarments was, well, nothing he'd ever want to admit to. Nor was the fact that he was reduced to using some, well, more than some really, to cover enough of the floor and some to blanket him so as to keep out the cold.
Visions of the nubile young witches – the true owners of his loot – filled his impressionable mind as he closed his eyes. It was far worse without the daily purification and rinses that he'd grown accustomed to while at Hogwarts, then again, he'd seen more in the past few days than he'd ever seen while at school though he did not have Seamus or Dean talking up the various girls. He missed the company, but was also glad that they were not here as he polished his wand.
The soaring ceiling of Malfoy Manor's great hall was meant to give the impression of wide, vast space despite the crowd of nearly a hundred that were present. In truth only a three dozen could comfortably dine in the hall and the rest of the guests were forced to snack in the attached rooms as they mingled. It was subtle attempt to mark the status of the guests as only the heads of the Sacred Twenty-eight houses were invited to dine while the rest were simply left to wander through the attached rooms. It was also expected that all attendees were to arrive at least half an hour before dinner was served least one want to offend the representatives of the Sacred Twenty-eight.
Nott had been the one to explain the significance of the Malfoy's annual New Year's party as he had attended it three of the past four years. Both Neville and Theodore were expected to attend the dinner as the heads of their respective houses. Despite the expectations the reality was that Neville and his grandmother had not attended the Malfoy party. As the legal guardian for both Neville and Theodore, Ranma was expected to take either seat, should he attend the party.
While he did not like to follow rules, Ranma knew that there were times when he needed to at least display some social etiquette.
He was glad for his shorter stature for once as it allowed him to be lost in the sea of people while also allowing him to keep an eye on the towering Neville and Theodore. He could tell that there were many looks directed at him as he was new to these events and because of his position as the guardian of the two youths that had accompanied him.
Some approached Theodore, offering words of encouragement or even telling stories of their time with his missing father. They too let their eyes drift over him as they took his measure.
The gentle ringing of a small but enchanted bell announced that the special guests could begin taking their seats at the table and for everyone else to move out of the great hall. Ranma accompanied Neville and Theodore to their seats even as he noted that one other youth was making his way to the table. Draco Malfoy stood by one of the twenty eight chairs even as his father stood behind another.
"He sits at the chair for House Black," Theodore whispered.
Ranma nodded, then strode towards the Malfoy heir.
"Pardon me," a man with stringy brown hair said as he noticed Ranma's advance, "these seats are reserved for the representatives of the Sacred Twenty-eight."
"He probably thinks that he's entitled to a seat," a witch remarked drawing several snickers.
"I am a representative," Ranma interjected, "for House Black." All eyes suddenly turned to focus on him. "I am the guardian for Harry Potter, the heir to Siruis Black, the last male of House Black." He was used to the death stares and glares from his time as an upstart challenger during his dojo challenging days when he'd distract the dojo master so that his father could steal their secret scrolls. Of course he didn't find out until later that his challenges were meant to be a distraction and he always took the challenges seriously, just as seriously as he was challenging the Malfoys in their own manor before all their guests.
"Sirius Black is a convicted Death Eater," someone muttered.
"So Death Eaters aren't allowed here?" he asked for clarification. He knew his choice of words had caught more than a few unprepared. Lucius Malfoy was the esteemed host after all, who would dare challenge him?
"Sirius Black is on the run from the Ministry," Lucius stated finally.
"So you seat his nephew in his spot?" Ranma remarked. "Do you perhaps speak for your uncle?"
Draco opened his mouth but suddenly shut it as he glanced at his father. "Please," the youth said as he offered a polite bow, "have a seat."
"In my defense," Harry said as he eyed his friends, "I couldn't ignore my grandmaster's request, and neither could Master Saotome."
He'd anticipated facing a semi-hostile Weasley line-up upon his eventual return to Hogwarts, and though he did not look forward to it he knew what he was in store for. What he had not expected was facing them and several members of the Order after having failed to obtain Ginny's undergarments.
"That doesn't explain why you're here," Mrs. Weasley said as she restrained her husband.
"Yeah," George (or was it Fred) chimed in.
"Why do you have Ginny's knickers?" the other twin finished.
"This isn't part of the advanced training, is it?" Ginny asked as realization began to sink in.
Harry could feel his face flush as the Grandmaster's enchantment prevented him from divulging too much. "Sort of" he started unsure how to explain himself "the Grandmaster is instructing me how to Apparate the way elves do."
"And how did you end up in Ginny's room?" one of the twins asked.
"I'm not sure exactly," he replied honestly. "I actually did not expect you lot to be here. The Grandmaster said that I had to apparate here but somehow I found myself expelled from the drawer."
"So you'll spend the rest of the holiday with us," Ron concluded as he returned his wand to his pocket and moved to guide his best mate out of his sister's guest room.
"I'm going to have to look into the protections on this house," Sirius added as he considered the displaced drawer. "Clearly witches and wizards can't get in, but Harry's been given the secret, still, he shouldn't be able to apparate directly into this house"
"Unless he is learning how to use elvish magic," Mr. Weasley interjected. "How is that possible?"
"I'm still trying to figure that out myself sir," Harry answered.
"We were afraid that your Sensei had you locked in a cage or sold you off to the Death Eaters," Sirius joked. "And when he made an appearance at the Malfoy's New Year's party… well…."
"They actually went?" Harry exclaimed. "What happened?"
"Your Sensei claimed to chair to House Black," his god-father answered with a smirk. "Said that as you are my legal heir, and he is your guardian, he has the cleanest claim to the chair. The Malfoy's weren't happy with that, and a duel was issued." He paused, letting his words "Let's just say that Lucius is trying to grow a spine."
Harry's eyes boggled, "Sensei turned him into a human pretzel!"
"I wish I could have seen it," Ron exclaimed.
"Needless to say," Sirius cut back in "the party didn't make it past the duel."
A/N
Sorry, I'm going to have to end it here for now.
Tax season has begun.
Dreamingfox