Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

Chapter 7, In Which Time Skips Ahead a Little Bit and Trouble Grows on the Horizon

"No."

"But Harry…"

"No."

"Come on man, just…"

"No."

"But I thought we agreed…"

"There was no agreement involved on my part. We were discussing martial arts experience and I told you all I never had the opportunity to learn anything growing up. Then you decided that I was going to learn and the topic moved on before I got any more say in it. I really don't want to learn karate. I'm sorry, but I just don't have the interest or drive to make it a worthwhile effort on my part."

It had been three weeks since the Terror Toad was dispatched and Harry first ventured into the more public areas of Angel Grove. It was a time of general normalcy for Harry, but that wasn't because Rita has been idle, oh no.

It was because Harry had, for various reasons, been largely unable to help the Rangers in their battles.

The first instance had been four days after the toad, on Saturday. The Youth Center was gearing up for a dance that evening and the Rangers, plus Harry, were helping decorate. The two guys who had accosted Kimberly and Trini, who Harry had found out were the Bulk and Skull that Zack had mentioned, caused a disturbance when Bulk decided to try and ride a skateboard through the Youth Center. This proved to be a bad idea when he crashed into Ernie and the oversized cake he was carrying at the time.

During the craziness as Ernie kicked the two out of the Youth Center, Billy literally bumped into a girl named Marge. As it turned out, Marge was another brainy type like Billy. Zack described it as a match made in heaven and Harry couldn't help but agree. Especially as the two had a similar level of vocabulary so they could understand each other without having to have someone like Trini there to translate which would have killed the entire potential romance from the get go.

The two had agreed to go to the dance that evening together and decided to rendezvous a few hours beforehand. The problem was Marge didn't show, and when Billy did he was attacked by putties.

After Harry and the other Rangers helped Billy, Zordon revealed that Rita's latest servant, a sorceress named Madame Woe, had captured Marge and was holding her in another dimension. The Rangers immediately went to rescue her, but Harry couldn't come along because he didn't have a fool proof way to protect his identity like the Rangers did. Apparently, apart from hiding their physical features, the Rangers' suits were empowered by the morphing grid with a kind of misdirecting magic. This aura prevented anyone from drawing a connection between the Rangers and their teenage secret identities unless they were to openly tell them or morph in front of someone in plain sight.

So Harry had to sit out the battle because of Marge's presence.

Despite things being rather tense as the Rangers were almost immediately captured in Madame Woe's pocket dimension, everything worked out in the end. Madame Woe was defeated, Marge was freed, and Billy got to take the girl to the dance that evening. Billy had even managed to salvage some of the sapphire dust that had once been the source of Madame Woe's power before he had crushed the stone to free the others. He passed this highly magical substance on to Harry for use in his new wand.

Harry had given the dance a miss, preferring to stay at the Command Center and work on his magical projects, though from the stories he was told by the Rangers the next day, mostly involving Bulk and Skull making fools of themselves again, he almost wished he had gone.

The following Wednesday, Kimberly had made plans to go flying with her pilot uncle, Steve. Of course Rita capitalized on this by slipping the man a sleeping potion that caused him to pass out mid-flight. This required Kimberly to fly the plane herself under Alpha's guidance via communicator, a task she was eventually able to do successfully.

Harry had initially offered to try and guide the plane down with magic, but apparently Bulk and Skull were also onboard, having talked their way into joining the flight before Kimberly could convince her uncle otherwise. Since those two were not guaranteed to stay unconscious by a sleeping potion (they had apparently fainted shortly after Steve lost consciousness) Zordon didn't want Harry to risk revealing his abilities near them.

While Kimberly was having her troubles in the sky, Zack was apparently having troubles of his own. The Black Ranger had later regaled Harry with the tale of the love of his life, a girl named Angela, whom he had finally spoken to at the Youth Center that day.

Jason had then told everyone about how Angela had shut him down rather abruptly from the get go, much to Zack's chagrin.

Taking advantage of Kimberly's plight, Rita sent a monster known as the Snizard, some kind of strange snake/lizard hybrid, to attack the city. It was overwhelming the Rangers with several smaller snakes that were wrapped around them, restraining them while draining their energy until Harry convinced Zordon to let him help. Wearing a full body cloak and hood he had transfigured to at least partially hide his identity from bystanders, Harry apparated in and used his Parseltongue talents and a few compulsion charms to free the Rangers and gain control of the monster.

The Snizard had then given him the "Zapple Apple" which was a metal sculpture shaped like an apple that rested on top of its head and was the source of much of its power. Without the Apple, the other Rangers were able to destroy the monster with little difficulty once it broke free from Harry's control and long before Kimberly landed her uncle's plane at Angel Grove Airport.

It was actually this battle that had led to Billy, with a vote of support from the other Rangers, crafting Harry his own communicator. Even Jason, despite his general distrust of Harry, had agreed that his abilities could be helpful and being able to get ahold of him immediately would be a good idea, just in case.

The first one Billy made didn't last beyond the first spell Harry cast. The magical energy channeled through his arm for wandless casting easily shorted out the sensitive electronics in the watch. In fact, it took three more designs before Billy (with some help from Alpha) managed to make a properly shielded one so that Harry could still use his magic while wearing it, having taken cues from similar protections on the equipment in the Command Center.

On the next Saturday, Trini had brought the five others to the Youth Center to meet her Uncle Howard. The man was apparently a genius chemist as well as a world renowned martial artist. Trini had hoped that her uncle could help Billy, especially since he had been assaulted by Bulk and Skull that very day when they were trying to get more money for arcade games and his self-confidence was flagging.

Uncle Howard had recently made a strange and powerful chemical that gave the means for anyone or anything that came into contact with it to become invisible. Desiring the formula for herself, Rita decided to take it. She sent a monster known as the Dark Warrior, a kind of knock off ninja, to kidnap Trini's uncle and obtain the formula.

The "karate scientist," as Billy called him, was kidnapped by putties while he was helping Billy train to "focus his martial arts skills to sharpen his mental energies." The Blue Ranger reported the kidnapping to the others as soon as he could.

Harry had to stay at the command center during the rescue mission because of Uncle Howard this time. The man was forgetful, but Harry's magic would certainly stand out enough for him to remember it. Then, once the Rangers freed Howard, Rita grew the Dark Warrior and forced the Rangers to call their robots (Zords, Zordon explained) to battle him before Harry could act, meaning he was once again out of the loop.

After the monster was defeated, Billy, having rejoined Jason's karate class just before meeting Trini's uncle, earned his Yellow Belt and was immediately set upon by Bulk and Skull. Howard used some of his invisibility formula to scare them away from Billy by making them think that the brainy teen was beating them down with just his mind.

All in all it was rather amusing. Harry could easily see why people found the random and varied misfortunes that befell Bulk and Skull so funny. Their reactions were simply priceless.

Howard had taken Harry aside after Bulk and Skull left. The two had spoken for some time, just general conversation as far as he could tell, and afterward Howard had gone back over to Trini. Whatever he said to her had made her blush rather spectacularly before she hugged the man and he left.

The final instance was on the next Thursday. Billy had devised and constructed some kind of mind reading device. The entire thing was rather unimpressive to Harry, but then again he had been exposed to Legilimency years before so mind reading was rather old for him.

The experiment was doomed to failure however as Rita apparently had Squat, the fat blue creature Harry had noticed during the Pincotopus attack, sabotage the device and when Billy and Kimberly attempted to use it they switched bodies instead of being able to read each other's minds. Billy and Kimberly spent the next 24 hours or so in an incredibly awkward attempt to get through a day in the other's life with minimal success. Luckily for them, the problem with the machine was easily fixed in the end, despite Rita sending a magical Genie to make another attempt to destroy them.

The battle had been rather difficult. The Genie initially wiped the floor with the Rangers, entrapping them in a web like substance and almost annihilating them within a few seconds of their first encounter. They were saved at the last second, however, when Alpha teleported them back to the command center. After some advice and direction from Zordon, and after Harry collected some of the excess webbing stuck to their suits, the rangers headed back out to fight once more only for Rita to grow the Genie as soon as they reached it.

The monster was too powerful for the Rangers to defeat with the Megazord (the humanoid robot that their dinosaur robots combined to make) and they were nearly beaten before Zordon, Alpha, and Harry (mostly Zordon and Alpha) managed to destroy the magic lamp that provided the Genie with his power. With his lamp gone, the Genie vanished just before making the finishing blow on the Megazord, signifying another victory for the Power Rangers. Even if this one was closer than any of them liked.

And so it came to the current day. It was the Saturday after the Genie / body swapping incident and the Youth Center was hosting the Angel Grove Martial Arts Expo, which the group was heading toward so Jason could compete in a tournament. The Rangers had decided to use this opportunity to segue into Harry needing to take some kind of martial arts lessons, specifically Jason's karate class. They were citing the conversation, such as it was, that Harry had had with Jason, Zack, and Trini while Billy and Kimberly were punked.

Harry failed to see the relevance and made sure they knew that.

"Hey, leave Harry alone guys," Jason spoke up, surprising Harry with his support.

Then the Red Ranger continued talking. "He probably just doesn't want to have to learn from someone younger than him. And if he doubts he can do it, then he won't be able to succeed anyway."

Jason had been saying passively aggressive things like this almost since the moment they had met and it had only gotten worse after the Rangers handled a few monsters without his help. Harry knew exactly what was going on: Jason was intimidated by Harry. They were both natural born leaders, but Harry had already been through his crucible in the form of the war against Voldemort. Jason was a boy scout and his idealism and enthusiasm over his chance at being a "super hero" were not enough to stand before Harry's cold cynicism and experience forged in the fires of his own war. So Jason lashed out to try and maintain his position as leader of the team, a position that Harry in no way coveted, and Harry was forced to deal with it more than half the time the two spoke.

This time, Harry decided to try and explain. It might at least get the rest of the group to lay off for a while. "You're not that much younger than I am, Jason. Not even a full year truthfully. And I more than recognize that you are a capable teacher. The fact that you have as many successful students as you do makes that very clear. I also recognize that you can quite easily kick my sorry ass from one side of Angel Grove to the other and back so it isn't a question of your personal karate skills either. The thing is, the way I fight doesn't need martial arts to work. If I tried to learn anything like that, it could throw off everything I already know and that could cost me in a battle. It could cost all of us if I hesitate or try to do too many things at once. With everything on my plate right now I just don't have the time or desire to dedicate myself to learning karate."

Kimberly and Trini exchanged a slightly distressed look before the Pink Ranger turned back to him with a pleading expression. "At least think about it, won't you Harry? Just as a potential option?"

"Yes," Billy added, "Remember that I was hesitant to reenroll myself in Jason's Karate class, but I'm having a great deal more success than I had thought possible and it has greatly aided me in our battles against Rita."

Seeing him start to waver, Trini put a hand on his shoulder, bringing the entire group to a stop as Harry and Trini did. "Please, Harry. We just don't want you to need to know how to defend yourself without magic and not have it."

Harry ran his eyes over the other rangers, seeing Zack nod to him, Billy's supportive glance, Jason's carefully neutral mask, and Kimberly and Trini showing concern in their eyes finally broke him. "Alright, alright," he sighed. "If it makes you feel better I'll consider it. Maybe once I finish my focus project I'll be able to join Jason's class."

The girl's smiles and Jason's careful eye roll showed that the discussion was tabled for now as the Rangers and Harry once more started toward the Youth Center. Conversation changed to other, more mundane things as they walked. Zack and Jason were discussing potential competition for the Red Ranger at the martial arts tournament while Billy listened intently and the girls stayed at the back of the group, whispering between themselves.

It wasn't much longer after that before the group arrived at the Youth Center, unusually crowded due to the events of the day. Once they got inside, the group split up, Harry heading to the juice bar while the Rangers went with Jason so he could register to compete.

Once at the bar, Harry was immediately spotted by Ernie. "Harry!" The friendly man shouted, getting his attention. Once he got closer, Ernie continued. "You're sure you don't mind watching the counter for me during the tournament?"

Harry smiled. "It's fine Ernie. I know how excited you are seeing as you took particular care to arrange it. Go get yourself a good seat."

"Great," Ernie smiled back, nearly dancing in excitement. "Everything should be stocked and ready and if someone asks for something that isn't, you can get it from the back room. I'm going to go see if I can still find a ringside seat." With that, the man rushed off, nearly bowling over several teens in his excitement.

Harry shook his head good-naturedly at Ernie's over enthusiastic departure. The man had helped Harry a great deal these past weeks, but he was still quite the character. In fact, less than two weeks after first meeting him, the day after the Snizard had attacked, Ernie had given Harry a job.

It wasn't much really, just having Harry around to help run the juice bar when it got exceptionally busy, but it was almost exactly what Harry needed. For Harry, having a job, even one as relatively simple as this, gave him an eventual excuse for the money he would have once he got his Galleons de-charmed and started selling them. For now though, the limited income kept him from having to summon loose change all the time.

Ernie trained him to use the register and keep the different products stocked and was in the process of teaching Harry how to prepare the various items on the menu along with the other tasks that came along with maintaining the Youth Center. The only strange part in Harry's mind was in how flexible Ernie was on his hours. Harry had never had a regular job in his original world, but he was still familiar enough with the concept to know that Ernie was being incredibly lenient when he told him to "just come in whenever you want to work." He then gave Harry a long, measuring look and told him "if anything ever comes up while you're working, you can leave on a moment's notice. I always plan on being here too, so you just let me know and you can take off." He had then looked him in the eyes and repeated "anything" with extra emphasis.

Slight strangeness aside, the lack of mandated work hours and leniency of his boss would certainly come in helpful whenever a monster attacked and he was needed to help the Rangers fight it off.

Harry had been coming in to work whenever he could, usually arriving just before school let out and the initial crowd showed up on weekdays or a bit before noon on weekends. He was very much looking forward to his first paycheck which was due on the upcoming Friday. It might not have much on it since it would only be for the single day he'd worked the previous week, but it was money that he earned himself as opposed to having summoned it with magic.

Snapping out of his thoughts as a customer approached the bar, Harry filled a few orders as the sounds of the tournament beginning hit his ears. His time cooking the Dursleys' food had made him rather uniquely suited for working at a place like the Youth Center Juice Bar, not that he would ever thank his relatives for it even if the opportunity did somehow present itself. The mindless motions of food preparation that had once been so familiar to a younger Harry Potter allowed his mind to drift once more as his body ran on autopilot, this time to his wand crafting experiments.

He had discovered rather quickly that he was correct in assuming the dark taint to the magical signatures of the items he had collected for his wand. With the exception of the Singing Squash, each of the items he had collected were at least somewhat more aligned to darker magics than he would like. Ironically enough the most powerful such item, the dust from Madame Woe's sapphire focus, was the least dark while the Genie's web-like substance was the most.

This left him with the task of finding something more to balance out the energies in his future wand. After a week of pondering the topic, Harry had decided that instead of trying to make it more neutrally aligned, he would try and make it more specifically aligned to him. In theory, if the wand was linked more closely to him, the magical alignment of the focus wouldn't matter quite as much.

This led to Harry adopting a nightly ritual of gathering a sample of his blood and placing it under stasis charm before bed. He was unable to gather too much at once as he couldn't use wandless magic to heal any substantial wounds that would be needed for a sufficient bloodletting and the nature of blood magics required a certain level of risk and sacrifice that made using medical equipment to easily gain a sufficient amount a non-option, but he was making progress nonetheless. Combined with Alpha having gathered a selection of holly branches from various sources, Harry was hopeful he would be able to start on the actual crafting of his wand soon.

It would be good for him to feel closer to his full ability again.

Harry spent the next thirty minutes or so listening to the progressing martial arts tournament, catching occasional glimpses when he was able to look up from his work as the ring for the matches was easily visible from where he was. Even if Harry wasn't personally interested in learning any martial arts at the present time that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy watching others practice it.

From what he had been able to gather, there were sixteen competitors in the tournament. This meant that there would be four rounds of elimination competition. Each fighter was awarded a point by the judge whenever they landed a solid hit on their opponent or when their opponent stepped out of bounds. Whichever fighter had the most points at the end of each two minute round would move on to the next fight.

Most of the fights had been rather evenly matched, the only exceptions being in the case of two particular individuals. One of these two was Jason, who had been in one of the first fights and was steadily working his way up the left side of the bracket. This was rather unsurprising since the teen was considered good enough to teach karate. It only made sense that he would be a top contender in such a tournament. The other was, according to a few of the High School students gossiping near the bar, a new student who had just moved to the area named Tommy Oliver. He was clearly a fantastic martial artist as his fast and powerful strikes quickly overwhelmed most of his opposition fairly easily. He was working his way up the right side of the bracket and seemed a shoo-in for the finals as well.

-MR-

Around an hour after the tournament began, a short intermission was called before the finals featuring, as expected, Jason Scott and Tommy Oliver.

Harry was moving quickly to help the sudden influx of customers during the lull in the excitement when Zack and Kimberly appeared at the counter. "Hey Harry," Zack called. "How about a bottle of water for our soon to be tournament champion friend."

Harry turned briefly from where he was mixing a smoothie for another customer. "You know I love you guys Zack, but you're gonna have to wait your turn too." With a roll of his eyes, Harry turned his focus back to the mixer, but Zack was not to be denied.

"Come on man, help us out here. Kimberly, back me up here… Kimberly?"

The Pink Ranger was apparently not paying the slightest bit of attention to Zack and Harry's conversation, such as it was. Instead, she had turned her back to the counter, leaning against it almost casually, and was staring with a slightly blank look on her face back toward the tournament ring.

"Yo! Earth to Kimberly!" Zack said, waving his hand in front of Kimberly's dazed face. Harry just snorted in amusement and continued preparing orders.

Kimberly let out a soft squeak before turning toward Zack. "Sorry about that. What were you saying?"

Zack merely shook his head slowly. "Are you alright Kim? You seemed a little zoned out there for a minute."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kimberly waved one hand airily as she spoke. "I was just… I'm fine."

Zack raised an eyebrow. "Right… Anyway, I was telling Harry that he should help us out here. Support the team and all that."

"Alright, is that all for you guys?" Harry smoothly slid over to Zack and Kimberly and put a chilled bottle of water on the counter, having dealt with the rest of the customers waiting while the two Rangers had their short discussion.

Kimberly blinked at Harry before turning to Zack. "He seems rather eager to help to me."

Zack let out an overly dramatic groan before shooting a smirk at her. "Well if you hadn't been so busy eyeballing the competition then you might've known what I meant."

Harry fought down a smile as Kimberly's face turned bright red. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She said after a moment before grabbing the bottle and starting back toward the ring. "Come on, Zack. Pay the man and let's go."

Zack just chuckled and smiled at Harry as he dug out his wallet. "Women, man. Am I right?"

Harry rolled his eyes as he took Zack's money and handed back his change. "She's got it bad, doesn't she?"

Zack put his money away and called back over his shoulder as he started after the retreating Pink Ranger. "You have no idea, Harry."

Laughing a bit, Harry finished up his last few orders as the rush died off and everyone headed toward the ring again, eager for the final match of the tournament. Harry had just finished cleaning up the last of the mess when the tournament announcer/judge spoke up again. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time now for the final round of our Martial Arts Tournament. Competitors Jason Scott and Tommy Oliver, please enter the ring!"

Finding his interest had finally been peaked, Harry shifted around until he found a spot along the counter where he could observe the upcoming match through the crowd. In all honesty and as petty as it was, Harry would not have been upset to see Jason lose the match, what with the teen's general hostility toward him since he had first arrived in the dimension. He knew, however, that it would take quite the fighter to be able to match Jason's skills, sharpened as they were in combat against Rita's forces.

"Fighters ready?" The judge called out as he looked first to Jason and then to Tommy, receiving a nod from each in turn. "Fighting Stance!" The two teens took their preferred stances, both looking rather similar to Harry's untrained eye, though Tommy looked to be standing a bit lower than Jason. Seeing the two teens were ready, the judge brought his hand down between them. "Hajime!"

The two teens immediately began moving, attacking and counterattacking in a rather easygoing manner. It took the first thirty seconds of the match before Harry realized they were testing each other, feeling out what the other fighter was capable of. Shortly after he came to that realization, Tommy struck out with a lightning fast kick, knocking Jason to the mat. Moving quickly, Tommy crouched down by him and delivered a punch to his torso.

"Alright, back to center!" The judge quickly intervened and the two teens moved back to their sides of the mat. "Judge's call, one point!" The judge motioned toward Tommy and a scoreboard on the wall behind them changed to reflect the score. "Fighting Stance! Hajime!"

This time Jason was clearly being the more aggressive of the two. Tommy seemed rather caught off guard as he was quickly forced out of bounds, resulting in the judge calling them back to center and awarding Jason a point.

When the fighting resumed again, the match was half over and it was clear that both fighters were now ready to step up their games.

Initially, Jason pressed his attack again with a quick step forward and a spin kick that Tommy easily ducked under. Trying to take advantage of this, the green clad fighter tried to kick Jason's legs out from under him. Luckily, Jason had recovered from his kick enough to backflip over the attack and away from his opponent. Standing once more, Tommy quickly advanced on Jason, launching into his own tornado kick and continuing into another when Jason ducked under it. After the third such kick, Jason launched a side kick, landing a solid blow to Tommy's stomach and bringing the judge in to award Jason a point as Tommy fell to the mat.

The next exchange started with Jason launching a flying kick that Tommy sidestepped as he moved forward, essentially switching their places on the mat. Jason moved in quickly, trying to use his foot to hook Tommy's legs out from under him, but Tommy merely mimicked Jason's own move from earlier and backflipped over the attack. Jason then tried to follow up with a tornado kick, but Tommy ducked the attack before catching Jason's uplifted leg with his own and taking them both to the mat with Tommy in a superior position, ending in him getting another point.

Harry caught sight of the other Rangers standing in Jason's corner as the Judge reset the two fighters. They were looking rather uneasy all things considered. Apparently they had hoped Jason would have an easier time of the match and Tommy's skill was catching them off guard. Though based on her earlier behavior, Kimberly could be worried on Tommy's behalf instead of Jason's. The thought made Harry chuckle to himself as he shook his head slowly. Ah, young love.

The third exchange of the second half of the match started with an almost expected tornado kick from Tommy that Jason ducked before shifting around behind him, once more switching their positions. Before Jason could react further, Tommy moved in again with a flurry of blows that clearly caught the Red Ranger off guard as he was almost easily taken down to the mat and received a blow to the chest for his efforts. It took Jason a moment longer to rise again after this blow but he still dutifully made his way back to his side of the mat for the judge to restart the fight as the clock continued to wind down.

This time, Tommy easily ducked under Jason's kick before pressing his advantage yet again. He launched another series of kicks followed by another flurry of punches that served to force Jason out of bounds as he tried to avoid them, earning Tommy another point.

By this time the other Rangers were clearly distressed as Jason was down by two points now. They began shouting what Harry assumed were calls of encouragement to their friend and team leader, though Harry couldn't hear exactly what they were saying from the juice bar.

Jason started the next exchange with another pair of tornado kicks. Tommy almost seemed resigned to it at this point as he ducked under the first two but was caught off guard when Jason switched tactics. Instead of a third spinning kick, Tommy ended up ducking right into a strong side kick that caught him in the chest and knocked him to the mat. The judge quickly moved in again, resetting the fighters and awarding the point to Jason.

With only five seconds left, Harry could tell that Jason was feeling the pressure. Tommy moved in first in what would be the final exchange of the fight, leading with a straight kick that Jason deflected followed by a hooking punch that he ducked. Jason then stood quickly, bringing his foot up to land in Tommy's stomach followed by another quick kick to his chest.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he felt the slightest pulse of power coming from the second hit that lifted Tommy into the air a few feet. Tommy flipped over in the air before crashing back down to the mat where Jason landed a solid punch to his stomach just as time ran out and a bell rang signifying the end of the round.

The wizard crossed his arms and sighed as the judge awarded Jason another point and declared the final match a draw. He seriously doubted that Jason had intentionally channeled any Ranger Power into his attack, but the fact remained that it had happened. That it could happen at all was rather troubling in the first place though. He resolved to keep an eye on things and perhaps have a word with Zordon about it.

He was broken out of his thoughts when Billy, Kimberly, Zack, and Trini came up to the counter with rather glum looks on their faces.

Zack was first to speak up. "Man, did you see that? Jason almost had it!"

"Are you sure you were watching the same fight?" Harry responded with a teasing smile as he walked closer to them. "From my point of view it looked like Jason made an incredible comeback in the last ten seconds of the match just to pull off that tie. That Tommy guy was really good."

Billy nodded but said nothing as Zack leapt to his friend's defense. "And if it had gone on another ten seconds Jason would have won!"

Harry raised his arms in a placating gesture. "I'm just saying, Zack, Tommy put up more of a fight than Jason was expecting. They both put on a good showing either way."

Ever the peacemaker, Trini spoke next. "Yeah, and now maybe Jason can work out a way to have a sparring partner more on his level. I know that none of us have ever been able to stand on even ground with him like that."

Zack seemed to consider that for a moment before his smile returned. "Hey, you're right! Maybe now we won't end up bruised as much when Jason needs his practice."

"Is it that bad?" Harry asked with concern in his voice.

"No, no," Zack quickly said, realizing how it had sounded. "Jason is just way more skilled than the rest of us. Some of what you learn in any martial art becomes a reflex and you act before you think. That has happened to each of us a few times when we spar with Jason. He acts before he thinks when he gets in the zone."

"Ah," Harry nodded. "I can kinda see where that could be a problem. It was that way for me when I was being taught back… er… back home. One of my teachers in particular, a guy named Moody, was of a school of thought that suggested holding back only taught bad habits. I can't tell you how many injuries I got out of… ah… sparring with him."

Harry's brow creased as he glanced around for listeners while the Rangers chuckled at him. It wasn't easy keeping things secret while talking in public and still getting the message across.

"Don't worry Harry," Trini assured him in a whisper. "You get used to the doubletalk and such after a while. It gets easier with practice."

Harry shot her a small smile. "You would think that I'd be used to this kind of thing, but since my war was almost completely in secret… Well, I didn't really spend time around many people who weren't in on the whole thing anyway."

Conversation drifted from that point. There was a bit more speculation on whether or not Tommy might be willing to be Jason's sparring partner if asked, but soon the Rangers began discussing school and projects while Harry had to help an occasional customer until Ernie returned. By the time Jason joined the group, freshly showered and back in his everyday clothes, Zack was back to less-than-subtly teasing Kimberly about her apparent attraction to Tommy while Billy remained oblivious and Trini frowned slightly.

Declining an invitation to join the Rangers in the park, Harry resumed working. He put his thoughts about Jason's fight on a back burner for the time being. It was no use worrying about it until he had a chance to talk to Zordon.

-MR-

As it turned out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. According to Zordon, random bursts of morphing energy were somewhat common with teams of Rangers in the past. Whenever a Ranger was distressed or being pushed to or beyond their limits, they might call upon the power subconsciously. It had happened before and never in an obvious way. In fact, if it weren't for Harry's own sensitivity to magical energies he may not have even noticed it. The point though was that Jason likely didn't even realize what had happened and both Zordon and Harry agreed that informing him, or any of the Rangers for that matter, would serve no constructive purpose.

The last thing Harry needed or wanted was to give Jason another reason to dislike him and accusing him of cheating may turn the entire team against the dimensionally displaced wizard.

So, with his thoughts put to rest, Harry headed back to his room and continued work on his new wand. Thus far he had reduced the Pinoctopus Vine and the Singing Squash down to a few long threads of plant matter with as much of their inherent magics concentrated into them as possible. The Genie's webbing was already rather magically charged and Madame Woe's power crystal was nicely crushed into a find powder so those two components were as prepared as they could be. That left the Terror Toad's horn and the Zapple Apple to deal with.

Harry already had something of an idea for how to construct this wand. First he would have to find which of the holly branches resonated with him the best. Then, he would carve out the body of the wand and hollow out the center, most likely by splitting it vertically in half and trusting in his magic to fuse it together again after the fact. The plant fibers and webbing would then be bundled with several lengths of his own hair tying them together and then coated in a paste-like mixture of his blood, the crushed sapphire and some of the toad's horn, ground to a similar consistency. The metal of the Zapple Apple was highly conductive for magical energies, so he was planning on melting it down and lining the hollow of his future wand with this metal before placing the core bundle and sealing it together.

It would end up being a rather rough job once he finished and would likely give a real wandcrafter a heart attack if one were to see it, but in theory it would result in a working magical focus.

Shaking his head, Harry put his thoughts aside and, sitting at his desk, pulled the horn closer. He would have to cut or break several sections off of it before grinding it with a transfigured mortar and pestle to get the proper consistency to use it.

With a sigh, Harry got to work.

-MR-

Harry worked on a small piece of the Terror Toad's horn for the rest of the evening, finding the substance surprisingly resilient to his efforts. He had managed to grind it down enough to make use of it, but the amount yielded was far less than he would have liked for the time and effort put into it. This task would continue all throughout the following day, leaving Harry to collapse Sunday night with the majority of his work on the horn done, but with his body expressing its disapproval quite acutely.

Waking somewhat later than usual on Monday morning, Harry broke his fast before deciding to jump right back into it, working on what should be the final necessary section of horn despite his arms and shoulders still screaming from the exertion. It was the biggest downside of wandcrafting like this, you couldn't use magic to directly create or prepare any part of it or run the risk of ruining that particular component. It was actually the main reason that more people didn't make their own wands from what Moody had told him. They instead relied on pre-made wands like Ollivander's even though personally designed ones had a good chance of being better matched to each witch or wizard.

Harry had nearly finished his work at four in the afternoon when Zordon contacted him on his communicator and asked him to come out to the main room.

Eager for a break despite how close he was to being done, Harry quickly made his way out. "What's going on, Zordon?"

"Thank you for coming, Harry. I fear there may be a problem in Angel Grove and none of the Rangers are available to investigate it." Zordon's reply was somewhat grim and it set Harry on edge, his finely honed sense of danger telling him things were about to get bad.

"Sure," he nodded. "I can check it out for you. Where do you need me to go?"

"Our sensors indicated the presence of a group of putty patrollers appeared in an alleyway near Angel Grove High School a short time ago. Before we could take any action, the signal vanished. Then, moments after, a very powerful magical signature indicated that a spell was cast, most likely by Rita herself. I would ask that you investigate this alleyway for any clues as to what may have happened."

Harry nodded, "Alright, I can do that. But how do we know that she wasn't setting some kind of a magical trap for one of us to set off?"

Zordon's face only seemed to grow more troubled. "Because, Harry, the magical signature was that of a very powerful teleportation spell, but one to take something away from Earth, not bring something here."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "You think she kidnapped someone? One of the Rangers maybe?"

Zordon shook his head. "No. All of the Rangers are accounted for. They are merely tied up with their family and after-school obligations. If you are still willing, Alpha will teleport you to the alleyway so you can search for clues."

At Harry's answering nod, Zordon once more thanked him and gave Alpha the go-ahead.

"Ai yai yai! Please be careful, Harry." Alpha said in his chronically distressed sounding voice as he activated the teleporter and Harry was surrounded by a white glow before flying up and out of the command center.

-MR-

The first thing Harry did upon his arrival was cast a Notice-Me-Not charm on himself to prevent any pedestrians from interfering. The first thing he noticed was that the alley looked like someone had been trashing it rather thoroughly. There were several trash bags that had been split open as well as large cardboard boxes that were smashed. A lone trashcan lid lay rather conspicuously in the middle of the alley, bent all out of shape.

The now familiar six tone beep of his communicator brought Harry out of his musings. "Harry, have you discovered anything?" Zordon's deep voice came from his watch and Harry rolled his eyes. He must be worried if he's already calling when Harry had barely been there for ten seconds.

Harry brought the watch up near his face and pushed a small button on the side, answering the call. "Yeah, Zordon. Someone trashed this place pretty good. Smashed boxes and trash bags are split open all over the place… Hang on…" Harry's eyes caught on a bright green shoulder bag with a black strap that was partially hidden under some loose newspaper.

"What is it Harry? What do you see?" Zordon's voice grew in urgency, his worry even more apparent.

"It looks like someone's school bag…" Harry said slowly as he opened the bag, seeing a few text books and other school supplies. He pulled out a math book and opened the cover, seeing a list of previous owners written on the inside, running his finger down the list until he got to the newest. "And according to this, they belong to Tommy Oliver…"

Zordon was silent for a moment, almost making Harry think he had broken off the communication. Finally, he responded. "You should bring the bag back to the Command Center, Harry. I fear I might know what has happened, though I need to meditate on it before informing anyone."

"Keeping secrets doesn't help anyone, Zordon. Especially not in potentially tense and dangerous situations…"

"I will inform everyone of my suspicions once I am certain that I am right, Harry. I ask that you trust me for now."

"If you say so," Harry reluctantly replied as he repacked and closed the bag before picking it up. "I guess I'm ready for teleportation back whenever you guys are."

"Alright, Harry," Alpha's voice responded. "Teleporting now."

Deep in his gut, Harry knew that this had been important. He just hoped that Zordon got the chance to share his theory before the shit hit the fan.

-MR-

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