"I'm your... I must be your what?" Harry asked, completely bewildered.
"You're my Chosen! You were chosen by fate itself to become the wielder of the Miraculous to which I am bound!" Trixx gestured to the necklace that Harry had just dropped.
"This thing?" Harry glanced from the necklace on the floor to the fox-like creature floating in the middle of his room and back again.
"Yes, that thing." Trixx sounded annoyed. "And I would thank you to get it off the floor."
Muttering his apologies, Harry grabbed up the necklace and wiped it off with his sleeve, drawing a disapproving look from Trixx.
"I must say, however..." Trixx continued once Harry had put the necklace on the bed next to him as he sat down. "...you reacted to my appearance remarkably well compared to others in the past."
"Yeah, well, when you're a wizard and especially when you're me, you get used to weird things happening around and to you." Harry shrugged, indifferent.
"A wizard, you say?" Trixx raised an eyebrow, tail twitching, clearly more interested. "I have not encountered one for hundreds of years and I have never been wielded by one either. This could have an interesting effect on my usual powers... Why don't you tell me about yourself and your magic first? Then I can tell you all about what I can do and what I know of the history of the Miraculous. It wouldn't do for you to go transforming and facing off against some foe without knowing how my... our powers work, now would it?"
"Transforming? Wait, never mind..." Harry shook his head, clearly still in disbelief. "My name... I'm Harry Potter. You said that your name is Trixx, right?"
"That I did." Trixx nodded encouragingly, seemingly rather pleased that he wasn't freaking out.
"Are you... don't take this the wrong way or anything, but are you male or female? I cannot quite tell by your voice..."
Trixx chuckled. "Technically, I am neither male nor female, but I have always been referred to in the masculine sense, so I consider myself as male. Now, onto more important matters..."
"So... let me get this straight," Harry said, pacing up and down the room. "Years and years ago, these... these Miraculous were created to help humankind maintain the balance."
"Correct," Trixx nodded.
"Including you, there are nineteen... Kwami... bound to nineteen Miraculous- at least, that you know of."
"Indeed."
"And I can use this necklace as a way of channelling your powers by merging with you, transforming me into a superhero, basically?"
"That is the idea."
"Wow. And to think that I've never even heard of anything like it before and I'm a wizard..." Harry fiddled with the necklace.
"I would not expect you to have heard of them, even with your prior knowledge of magic's existence. The Order of the Miraculous did a good job in keeping their existence hidden. Before this 'International Statute of Secrecy' that you told me about, a Miraculous owner was often thought of as some kind of god," Trixx explained.
"I see," Harry nodded.
"Well, wouldn't you like to try out your new powers?" Trixx asked.
Harry looked at the necklace, hesitating to put it on.
"I would like to try, but I'm rather afraid of destroying the room by accident and alerting the neighbours..." he admitted.
Trixx sighed.
"You wouldn't destroy anything by merely transforming," Trixx sounded annoyed, his tail twitching. "and as for actually using your powers, you could sneak out at night, couldn't you?"
"I'll try. There's no harm in it, I suppose..." Harry reluctantly fastened the necklace around his neck which, he noted, had turned a dull bronze as he did so.
"Why the colour change?" Harry gestured to it.
"However reluctantly you did so, you just accepted my power. It will continue to look like that as long as you aren't transformed." Trixx explained. "When I merge with it, it will regain the colour you first saw. When my power is running low, one fifth of the necklace will go back to bronze, ending with the white tip. It will beep to warn you when it does, just in case you're caught up with something."
Harry nodded.
Glancing at the curtains, he made sure that they and the windows they covered were tightly closed, as well as double checking the bedroom door, ensuring that it was locked.
"Alright then. Let's do this." Harry nodded.
"You know the words." Trixx smiled.
Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Trixx, transform me!"
The transformation was brief; lasting around ten seconds or so, in Harry's estimation.
It was also less painful than the Polyjuice Potion transformation he had undergone almost four years ago as he only felt the feeling of magic with a sort of heat to it pulsing through his system as he changed.
He felt his ears changing, his hair growing longer and wilder; his clothes changing completely as Trixx merged with him...
He opened his eyes once he felt the transformation stop.
The first thing he noticed was the sheer power he felt running through him, in addition to his own magic.
"Do you feel it?" Trixx's voice echoed in his head.
"I do." Harry thought. "It feels like... like such an adrenaline rush..."
He then realised that even without his glasses, Harry could see much clearer and sharper than he ever did before.
That wasn't the only thing that had changed about him however, Harry noticed as he turned to inspect himself in the mirror.
Except for his pupils, which had become narrow slits, his eyes were now entirely green.
His mask, which covered his scar and faded from reddish brown to white, with black over the nose area, made his eyes look even more intense.
His hair, which had grown to a length just past his shoulders and was even wilder than before, gained white tips, which contrasted brilliantly against the black.
His costume...
Harry took a few steps back from the mirror to take a proper look at it.
He was now wearing a high-necked, full-body suit with robe-like sleeves.
Most of it was orange... or rather, the same shade as the fur of a red fox, but the neck portion of it was black and down the middle of the suit was white, just as the stomach of the fox was.
Black gloves covered his hands and arms, going far up under the robe-like sleeves and stopping at his elbows while a pair of black, flat-heeled boots that went up to his knees adorned his feet.
The necklace sat firmly around his neck, with the pendant contrasting brilliantly against the white of his chest and a black sash belt went around his waist, a long flute holstered at his hip.
"Not bad," Harry mused, looking approving as he appraised his new outfit. "not bad at all..."
"Check out your tail..." Trixx told him.
Harry glanced behind himself, to see the bushy fox tail there.
Experimentally, he tried moving it.
It moved.
"This is just strange." Harry thought. "The tail and..."
Harry reached up and tugged his new ears lightly, wincing slightly as he realised that they weren't there for cosmetic purposes and were his actual ears now.
"...this is just odd."
"Get used to it, Harry. It's all a part of the package."
Harry rolled his eyes as he detected an amused tone in the Kwami's... voice.
"This mental thing is just too weird..." he thought.
"As opposed to other things you've experienced, even as a wizard?" Trixx pointed out.
Harry sighed.
Taking the flute from its holster, he began to examine it closely.
"That's your weapon. It may look a bit unusual compared to its mundane equivalent, but it's so much more than that. Try playing a soft note on it, fingers on the first two holes and swing it." Trixx instructed him.
"What? No!" Harry objected. "I haven't told you this, but the Ministry of Magic can tell when I'm doing magic outside of school or if magic is being done here- even if they mix it up and it wasn't actually me who did it!"
"But this isn't any kind of magic that the Ministry would know about, would it?" Trixx's tone was suddenly persuasive.
"I'd rather not push my luck. Transforming was already cutting it close. With the amount of magic I felt just doing that, alarm bells must be ringing at the Ministry and I'm surprised that they haven't come calling yet!"
"Look, Harry. It's literally been hundreds of years since I last had a human to work with. You seem like a nice enough one and I'm sure we'll get to see lots of action together, with the situation in your world and all. Try what I told you! You're not going to make the place explode!"
"Fine. But if I get in trouble for all of this, I'm blaming you."
"Can't let anybody else know about me, remember?" Trixx's tone was smug.
Harry rolled his eyes as he put the flute closer to his lips.
"Well, I've never been musically inclined, so here's hoping this doesn't turn out to be a disaster."
He blew the note as instructed.
The flute illuminated as a rush of energy went down it and coalesced at the other end, forming a sphere of light.
Harry swiped the flute and the sphere of light flew off it, floating in the centre of the room.
"Well, that's certainly brighter than a Lumos..." Harry noted aloud.
"Illusions are your domain now, Harry. With your innate magic mixing with the Miraculous magic, I suspect that yours will be much stronger than before. Perhaps... maybe even not only optical illusions, but illusions of a more physical kind as well..."
"What do you mean by that?" Harry asked.
"You could, for instance... make someone feel pain, even though they have no physical injuries..."
"That sounds far too much like the Cruciatus Curse for my liking..." Harry shuddered.
"...or you could have the inverse, where you can nullify the pain someone has from a physical injury. It wouldn't be healed, mind, but at least they wouldn't feel a thing..."
Harry was about to say something again, when he heard a car approaching, even through the closed window.
More importantly, in tandem with the sound of that car, he heard Petunia's voice speaking.
His ears twitched as he heard her say. "Just a few more houses down. It'll be on your left."
"Aunt Petunia's coming. Trixx, detransform me!" Harry exclaimed.
As he de-transformed and Trixx popped back into being, the sphere of light Harry had conjured disappeared.
Trixx sat on Harry's pillow, his tail tucked in as he looked up at him.
"Well, what do you think?" he asked him.
"I'd know what to think a bit better if I could have experimented with your powers a bit more..."
"Nothing stopping you from sneaking out tonight, is there? Your window isn't that far above the ground..."
"Yes, but once I jump out, how do I get back in? I can't use magic here and the Dursleys would never give me a key to the front door..." Harry pointed out. "Or any door here, for that matter..."
Trixx face-palmed. "You weren't really listening to me when I was explaining your powers, were you?"
"Why?" Harry asked. "What did I miss?"
Trixx rolled his eyes. "Besides the flashy powers, you also get enhanced physical abilities as part of the package. Higher pain tolerance, agility, speed, strength, senses... it's all there. You'd easily be able to hop in and out of that window with no problem whatsoever."
"Oh." Harry blinked.
"So... do you want to try it out tonight or not?" Trixx pressed.
"Anything's better than staying cooped up here for most of the summer. I'll do it!" Harry exclaimed.
A tap-tap sound came at the window just then and opening the curtains, he saw Hedwig hovering there, waiting to be let inside.
"Is that..." Trixx raised an eyebrow. "...is that an owl?"
"Yes, she is." Harry smiled as Hedwig flew inside and perched herself on Harry's outstretched arm. "Trixx, meet Hedwig, my pet owl. Hedwig, this is Trixx. He's a Fox Kwami and she's going to be spending a lot of time with us from now on. It's a long story..."
Hedwig regarded Trixx for a few moments, as if trying to figure out exactly what this strange creature was with her master.
After a little while, she gave an approving hoot and went over to her perch, where Harry took the letter from her leg, fed her and let her settle in for some sleep.
"Well, she doesn't seem to have a problem with you..." he spoke finally.
"That's good, because she's the only living... or should I say, considering your circumstances... the only being you're allowed to talk to about me." Trixx flew over to him, looking Harry directly in the eyes.
"I wasn't planning on telling anyone about you." Harry admitted. "If nobody else besides you... and I guess, Master Fu, I suppose... knows about Kwami and the Miraculous, then this is a complete game changer that I have against Voldemort. I can't take the chance that he finds out from somebody that I've told, whether they tell him on purpose, or he gets it out of them somehow..."
"Great!" Trixx exclaimed. "You are smarter than you look! Picked up on the potential danger much quicker than my last Chosen and he had family that put their lives on the line for a living!"
"What, were they police officers- like law enforcement people?" Harry asked, pointedly choosing to ignore the insult that the Kwami had implied.
"Something like it, I suppose." Trixx shrugged.
At that time, a taxi pulled up in front of the house and as Harry glanced put the window, he saw that it was Petunia finally arriving.
"Oh... by the way, you don't happen to have any spicy food on you, do you?" Trixx asked.
"I have some leftovers from Master Fu stashed away in here somewhere. Why? Are you hungry?" Harry asked. "What do Kwami eat anyway?"
"We all have our preferences. I prefer to eat peppers, but anything spicy for now will suffice." Trixx shrugged.
"We can go to the neighbourhood grocery store later and grab some then. Plus I'm sure I'll be able to ask the house elves at Hogwarts for some occasionally, though I won't want to depend on them for that... I suppose I'll stock up as much as I can before I get there..." Harry mused.
"Yeah, yeah, that's great and all, but I'm hungry. I literally haven't eaten for hundreds of years!" Trixx exclaimed, sounding impatient.
" Okay, okay. Hold your tail. I'm coming..." Harry chuckled as he reached into his trunk to retrieve the containers of leftover food, hidden under a few textbooks.
Using the lid of one container as a makeshift plate, he set it down on the desk for the Kwami and she immediately rushed over to it, eating with great gusto.
Harry waited until he saw all the neighbours' lights go off, well after midnight.
Hedwig was on her perch, watching her master and the Fox Kwami as Harry opened the windows and issued the call for Trixx to transform him.
"Well then, see you, Hedwig!" Harry waved happily to Hedwig as he hopped out the window and landed gracefully on his feet in the front garden.
"Wow. That jump didn't even rattle me at all..." Harry noted.
"Where to now?" Trixx asked him.
"There's a small forest somewhere along the way from King's Cross to here. I wouldn't be able to get there quickly on my own, but with you helping me..." Harry replied.
Taking in the Kwami's words of encouragement, Harry leapt over the hedge and sped off down the road at a speed he didn't know was possible, even with magic.
"It almost feels like when I'm on my broom!" he thought happily.
When he arrived at the forest, he darted in and out between trees, climbed some and moved through the treetops and didn't stop until he was at the top of the tallest one.
"Trixx wasn't lying about the agility and speed at all." Harry grinned. "And the senses!"
He took in his view of the night time sights around him, as if they were in high definition.
Buildings that he would have been barely able to see in the distance, with or without his glasses, became magnified to the point that if he wanted to, he could examine some of the finer details even in the darkness.
He could see cars passing and people roaming the streets, even at that time of the night, as if it was bright day.
He could also hear them, as if he were right next to them.
People's conversations, arguments, jokes and...
Harry felt himself going red as he heard some... suggestive sounds.
"All right, that's enough of that!" Harry exclaimed, darting down from the tree on all fours and doing a back flip to land.
He ignored Trixx's snickering in his mind and grabbed his flute.
"Just think of the kind of illusion you want to create. Intuition will help you with the rest."
Harry nodded, putting the flute to his lips.
He felt the magic running through him, passing through his fingers as it spread through the flute when he played its notes.
A beam of light shot out from the end of the flute, taking the shape of...
"Dad..." Harry whispered reverently, moving forward and putting his hand out to touch the illusion.
It felt real. Warm.
The illusion-James brushed his hand gently.
Harry played two other brief tunes and another two more shapes formed at the edge of his flute, separating into two distinct figures.
"Mum, Sirius..." Harry smiled weakly as the three of them formed a circle around him, smiling.
Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed their company for a few moments.
"This power that I was granted... it is amazing." he spoke softly. "I haven't gotten to put it to use in a fight yet, but I already feel sure that it will help me. If I practice regularly, keep both myself and Trixx in good shape... I really do have a special power that he knows not... I really have a chance now..."
The illusions nodded in agreement.
"This power didn't come to me by stupid dumb luck either. I was meant to have it. I promise Trixx... I promise you and anyone else harmed by Voldemort's actions... I won't abuse it. I won't let you down..."
The three illusions smiled at him.
Harry smiled as he glanced down at the flute in his hands.
"It's time for you to go," he raised the flute. "I have to practice."
The illusions dissolved at his command.
"Now, what else can I do with this?"
Harry raised the flute and played another tune.
Several hours later, Harry hopped through his open bedroom window, landing on all fours as he de-transformed.
"That was such a rush!" Harry exclaimed. "Can't wait to do it again!"
"You'll have more time to practice and eventually fight. For now, I need food and a bit of rest!" Trixx exclaimed.
Harry chuckled as he retrieved what was left of the food and gave her some.
Seeing Hedwig eyeing it, he gave her some as well, before taking a bit for himself.
"With that kind of power... and if I work it right... I really hope I do. It's going to take more than a bunch of pretty pictures, sounds and fake sensations to bring him down. Voldemort, as terrible as he is, is very powerful and knows quite a lot..."
Harry suddenly lost his enthusiasm, flopping into his bed.
"Don't get too cocky about your new abilities, don't be stupid generally, keep training with both those and your regular wizard powers, let people help you where they can, and you will survive it." Trixx flew over to him and settled on the pillow next to him. "You seem promising. It has always worked out in the end for each of my Chosen."
He put his paws on Harry's forehead, lightly running them over his scar.
"The monster that did this to you will be defeated by your hand. I know it."
"I sure hope so. It's a lot to live up to..." Harry smiled weakly.
Trixx smiled back at him. "You will be fine. Now, try to get some sleep. There will be more opportunities where you can show me how the world has changed since I was last in it. I especially look forward to seeing this Wizarding World. I can also tell you some observations I've made about your powers with me. They aren't ordinary at all. You are rather unusual for a Miraculous holder. In a good way, though."
He patted him on the head one last time and flew through the doors of the closed wardrobe, likely to rest in the makeshift bed that Harry had made for him in there.
Harry looked at Hedwig, who simply stared back at him, before hooting softly.
"You're right. I really should try to get some sleep."
With that, Harry tucked himself into bed and tried to relax, thinking of the illusions of his parents and Sirius that he had conjured.
A small smile formed on his face as he finally fell asleep.