Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

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

Chapter 13, In Which Complications Arise

"He was just toying with me the entire time," Jason said with a sigh. He was leaning up against one of the consoles in the Command Center as he told the tale of his capture while Harry waved his wand idly over the various cuts and bruises the Red Ranger was littered with. "Goldar would show up, taunt me for a while, throw me around, and then leave. I fought back as best I could, but without my morpher…"

"He was engaging in psychological warfare, Jason," Harry commented idly. "He was making you feel helpless in an attempt to break your spirit. Based on Rita's intention to kill you in the end and his own comments when I was following him, he was probably doing it for his own sick pleasure." Harry hummed thoughtfully before nodding. "Alright, hold still, this will probably sting a bit."

Jason gave a wary nod as Harry stepped back. With a dramatic wave and a few mumbled words, a bright flash of light emanated from Harry's wand. The wizard seemed to slump slightly even as Jason gave a short cry of shock as he jumped from his spot. "What the hell was that!?" he demanded.

Harry gave him an even look. "That was healing magic. If you'll notice, all your cuts are healed and the bruises and such are greatly faded."

Jason quickly glanced over his arms and through a few tears in his shirt before looking back up. "But why did it hurt so much?"

Harry rolled his eyes with a shrug while a few of the other Rangers snickered. "Healing magic probably isn't this wand's forte. Its unstable nature would actually do quite a bit to ensure that. Anyway, quit being such a baby."

Jason shot Harry a quick glare before turning away, prompting yet another eye roll from Harry followed by a yawn. "Well," he started, "unless anyone else needs me for something, I think I need to get some sleep. It's been a long, long day.

Trini blinked at Harry for a moment before turning to Alpha. "What time is it anyway?" She had a note of unease in her voice.

The robot glanced up from the console he was working on, making the final repairs needed to get the Command Center back in working order. "The current time is 9:46 PM."

Harry could almost see the color drain from Trini's face. "Oh man," she said with a hint of panic in her voice. "My parents are gonna kill me!"

Kimberly was equally pale. "Yeah, you're not kidding!"

Zack, looking equally uncomfortable, glanced between the two girls before meeting Jason's gaze. "I guess we're going back to Angel Grove then?"

Billy and Jason nodded before the Blue Ranger spoke. "That would seem to be the situation."

Zack nodded before turning to Harry. "Do you need a lift too Harry? We're gonna have to take the Rad Bug back to Billy's place and I get the feeling the girls will be teleporting back so there'll be room for you."

"No thanks, Zack. I'll just apparate myself back. Thanks for the offer though. I'll see you all tomorrow, I'm sure." With a nod to the others and various goodnights, Harry twisted in place and apparated the short distance into his room, keeping the pop as quiet as possible to avoid detection when he appeared behind his closed door. Without another thought, he turned and collapsed onto his cot in the corner without even removing the spells keeping the cot hidden. He had drastically underestimated how tired he was as sleep took him almost immediately.

-MR-

Harry awoke somewhat late on Wednesday morning feeling quite refreshed despite sleeping in his day clothes and with the Cloak of Invisibility apparently having been used as a blanket during the night.

With a stretch and a yawn, he ate a quick breakfast, idly noticing that he needed to go shopping at some point as his personal supply of largely non-perishable breakfast type foods was dwindling, before heading out to the main room of the Command Center.

Harry quickly found himself the center of attention as the five Power Rangers all turned toward him in their suits with their helmets held under an arm. The few slight scorch marks on a few of them led Harry to believe that they had just returned from a battle. "Err…" Harry started. "So… what did I miss?"

"Where were you?" Jason demanded, his eyes narrowing slightly. "We got called to a battle earlier and we couldn't get ahold of you. We even looked in your little workshop there, but you weren't here. How did you get in there without us noticing you anyway?"

Harry raised an eyebrow as he thought quickly. They probably hadn't seen him because of the Notice-Me-Not charms on the cot he was sleeping on and he wouldn't have woken up from the communicator if he was sleeping deeply enough. With a shrug, Harry spoke. "My guess is that I was sleeping when you tried to call me and the communicator didn't wake me up. I used a lot of magic in a relatively short amount of time yesterday between battling the Green Ranger, rescuing you and escaping Rita's Palace with all that entailed, and then healing you back here. My body had to make up for it. As for how I got in there, it's a familiar place that shouldn't have anyone else in there, so I used it as a safe apparition point. Believe me, you don't want to know what could happen if I popped into a space someone else was standing in. It's not really a pretty picture…"

Harry noticed with a certain amount of satisfaction that the heat in Jason's eyes had died down with his explanation and slight deflection so he turned his attention to the rest of the group. Billy, Trini, and Zack looked rather tired, but Kimberly looked angry. With her hair looking mussed up from sleep Harry's best guess was that she had been pulled out of bed herself to fight against whatever creature Rita sent against them. "So, can I assume things went well?"

Jason nodded solemnly. "Well enough, yeah. It was some chick named Scorpina. Alpha said she is another of Rita's old generals, like Goldar. When we got there, she called in some Putties but teleported out before we really got into the fight. It was weird…"

Zack picked up as soon as Jason trailed off. "Yeah, I mean, why would Rita send her down if she was just gonna leave right away? It doesn't make any sense at all."

Trini suddenly got a thoughtful look on her face. "What if this is all part of Rita's plan? The last few battles have been rather short, almost abortive. The Green Ranger left after Harry showed up, though that could have been because he was getting beaten so handily." She shot Harry a quick smile before continuing. "Then when she had Jason captured and he attacked it happened again. They didn't really push too much even after Goldar arrived."

Billy stepped up. "And now we have Scorpina who really didn't even try to fight us for long. It's almost as if she's trying to get us paranoid or something…"

Kimberly, who had been running her free hand through her hair with a frown on her face looked up. "You think she could be holding back. Trying to wear us out with all the running around because she's got something bigger planned?"

Jason nodded slowly as his mind caught up with the others. "It's definitely possible…"

Harry just watched, satisfied to let the Rangers' harmless paranoia run its course. He knew that sometimes there was no conspiracy and things just happened the way they happened just because that's how the cards fell. Trini's thought on Harry's first battle with his wand were probably right. He had had Green on the ropes and Rita barely pulled him out before he got blasted. Then, in their next encounter, Zack's timely calling of his Dinozord was probably what drove Goldar and Tommy away, though it was likely based on what he had overheard in Rita's palace that Goldar was only there to save Tommy from Harry in the first place. And to address the most recent battle, it was entirely possible that there was something else behind Scorpina's sudden retreat that they weren't privy to.

Harry's was snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed Trini looking toward him oddly, her eyes trailing over his figure with a concerned look. It only took him a moment to realize that he was still wearing his sleep ruffled clothes so he waved his hand over his front, magically cleaning himself and straightening his clothes. He almost chuckled at the slight ruffle he felt when the spell tried and failed to straighten his hair. Some things were beyond even the ability of magic to fix.

Harry shot a shy smile at Trini who blushed when she realized he had noticed her staring before he walked over to Alpha. "Good morning, Alpha. How are things going on the repair front?"

The robot turned to regard Harry for a moment before responding. "Good morning to you as well, Harry. Though I feel good afternoon is more appropriate as it is currently 12:34 PM. The repairs on the control consoles were largely finished yesterday by Billy and Trini and I completed the last of it during the night. I am just finishing up some final diagnostics now."

Harry glanced over his shoulder at a bright flash of light as the Rangers demorphed back to their civilian clothes before turning back to the robot. "So once these diagnostics are done, are you going to start searching for Zordon again?"

Harry noticed footsteps as the Rangers moved closer to better overhead their conversation as Alpha continued. "Yes. With the primary generator back online and full functionality restored to the controls, I calculate a much higher chance of success at locating Zordon once more."

"Well, that's good news at least," Zack said with a frown, apparently still worried by their collective conspiracy theory.

Kimberly shifted back and forth on her feet, clearly uncomfortable as she ran one hand through her tangled hair again while using her other to maneuver a compact mirror to try and see if she was making any progress on it.. "So, is there really any reason for us to stick around here still? I mean, if there's not an attack or anything…"

Jason paused in thought for a bit before grunting. "We should probably stay here for now. With Scorpina in the picture now on top of Goldar and the Green Ranger and with how busy Rita has been lately we can't let our guard down."

"Besides," Billy piped up, "it would be rather erroneous for you to arrive at home or elsewhere when we're all supposed to be in class right now."

Kimberly seemed to slump for a moment. "Right… I forgot about that…"

Seeing the normally perky girl bummed out as she continued to try and fix her hair with the tiny mirror, Harry took a step toward her and held out his hand. "May I see your mirror, Kimberly?"

The Pink Ranger shot Harry a strange look. "Uh… Sure… I guess…"

Harry took the small mirror and glanced over it for a second before casting a quick enlargement charm before levitating the now two-foot mirror to float in front of Kimberly. With another thoughtful hum, Harry whipped out his wand and conjured a simple hairbrush before handing it to her. "The brush and the charms on the mirror will only last for around an hour, so try and be done before then, yeah?"

Kimberly stared at him with wide eyed amazement before her face lit up with a bright smile. "And because you're a life saver, I won't even hold that dig against you. Thanks so much, Harry."

"Cheers." Harry responded with a wave before turning back to watch Alpha work. The still seemingly randomly pressed buttons may have been boring, but Harry would have felt like too much of a creep if he had watched Kimberly fix her appearance and there was really nothing else to do in the Command Center at present.

-MR-

Kimberly managed to fix her hair in half her available time, leaving Trini to take over the floating mirror to do some maintenance of her own. Then Zack took a quick peak at his appearance, but all he ended up doing was winking at his own reflection, drawing a quiet chuckle from those who saw, before returning to a quiet conversation with Jason and Billy.

Other than that, nothing really happened for an hour after Harry woke.

Alpha was largely silent unless asked a question, though he got rather irritated at constant requests for updates on his progress after the first few times. The diagnostics were finished rather quickly and everyone was eager to re-establish contact with Zordon.

Harry was idly reflecting on how much waiting in the Command Center he had done of late when the alarms started going off.

"Ai yai yai!" Alpha immediately started panicking. "Rangers, look at the Viewing Globe!"

Harry and the others turned almost as one as the Globe lit up showing the tall buildings of downtown Angel Grove. It was a rather unremarkable picture until the giant form of Goldar stomped into view and started firing off blasts of energy from his eyes into the structures and streets around him.

"Well," Harry commented. "That's certainly not good."

"It's Goldar!" Jason near shouted, his anger from his treatment during captivity showing as he glared at the image.

"Man, he's going off the deep end." Zack's voice was thick with apprehension as they watched Goldar making his assault on the city, gouts of fire now sprouting from the highest windows of several buildings.

"We have to stop him." Trini spoke next, saying what they were all thinking.

All except Billy. "It could be a trap though." The Blue Ranger was looking thoughtful as he watched the image. Harry rolled his eyes at the paranoia Billy was showing. He was about to comment when Jason beat him to it.

Jason nodded with a sigh. "It could be, but do we really have a choice? He's wrecking the city and it's our job to stop him." Harry relaxed again as the teens firmed their resolve. Once more, Jason had proven why he had been made the leader of their team.

With a glance at the others, Jason shifted to a wider stance and reached for his morpher. "You ready guys? It's Morphin' Time!"

As one, the teen lifted their morphers and prepared to call on their powers but were completely unprepared for the shower of sparks that emitted from each of the devices. The lights in the Command Center flickered briefly as the teens each let out cries of shock, Kimberly even dropping her morpher in the process.

Harry jerked in surprise. He had been ready for a blinding flash of light followed by spandex body suits, but this was unexpected.

"What's going on?" Kimberly asked, nervous now.

"Alpha," Billy was the first to turn to the robot for an explanation. "What happened? Why couldn't we morph?"

Harry and the others watched as Alpha started pressing the buttons before him even more frantically than before. "I'm getting a reading…" he started before trailing off and pressing more buttons.

After several more seconds with no further comments, Jason spoke up. "Well? What is it?"

Alpha didn't respond for another few seconds before he jerked upright and away from the console. "Ai yai yai! This doesn't make any sense! There's some kind of energy anomaly interfering with the Command Center's connection to the Morphing Grid! As long as it's there, you can't morph!"

There was a collective cry of "WHAT!" from the assembled teens. Even Harry got in on it. Harry knew that he was the only one who wasn't currently dependent on the Morphing Grid for power, but even he wouldn't jump at facing off against a giant monster, much less Goldar, on his own. Without being able to morph, there was nothing any of them could do.

Billy moved on first, his scientific mind working frantically. "But what could have caused the anomaly?"

"Could it be Rita?" Trini asked, making everyone go wide eyed. If the Sorceress had found a way to block their morphing on top of everything else going on the war was all but lost.

Alpha quickly put those thoughts to rest though. "No, it's not Rita. Her powers are based in the Morphing Grid as well and… well, suffice to say that she couldn't cut us off without doing the same to herself, which would mean a normal sized Goldar… It… It is possible that it was caused by the energy beam I'm using to try and locate Zordon. I had to channel it through the periphery of the Morphing Grid to gain access to the dimensional gap where he should be and that could theoretically create such an anomaly."

"So there's nothing you can do?" Jason nearly demanded, desperation in his voice. "We can't morph or… anything?"

"No, I'm sorry," Alpha responded, still frantically working the controls. "I am cutting power to the energy beam now, but all we can do is wait for the anomaly to fade. It could be even more hazardous if I try to do anything to speed up the process."

"How hazardous are we talking here?" Zack asked. "Because we have a rather hazardous situation going on in Angel Grove right now as it is."

Alpha paused in his frantic work and turned to Zack. "If we were to accidentally destabilize the energy anomaly it could cause a massive energy surge that would bleed over through the Morphing Grid and into this dimension. The resulting pulse could quite easily wipe out all life in this quadrant of the galaxy!"

The silence that followed was absolute as the Rangers exchanged panicked glances. Zack squeaked his response several seconds later. "Right…" he cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing. "So how long will we have to wait?"

Alpha turned back to the computer. "I really can't say for sure. It is possible that it could break down in a few minutes, but it could take longer. Maybe even several days longer."

"DAYS!" Jason shouted in horror!"

"But," Alpha continued on as if he hadn't even registered Jason's interruption. "Based on the readings from this particular anomaly I would estimate that it should be gone in slightly less than one hour."

"So I guess we have to wait then?" Trini said, idly hugging herself as she did.

Jason just stomped back over to the viewing globe and stared at the image playing there. With a sigh, Harry exchanged glances with the others before joining him. Before long, the six teens were watching with morbid attentiveness as Goldar continued blasting the various buildings in downtown Angel Grove, helpless to intervene.

-MR-

Forty-five minutes later, Harry was getting confused. The Rangers had stopped watching the Viewing Globe rather quickly, probably finding themselves unwilling or unable to keep watching their home town being destroyed as it was. They had all wandered off: Billy watching Alpha work, Kimberly and Trini talking quietly off to one side, and Jason and Zack behind one of the console sections doing some slow sparring to pass the time.

Harry was still watching the Viewing Globe. Something about what he was seeing wasn't meshing well for him. Finally, it hit him. "Guys!" he shouted, immediately drawing the Rangers' attention. "Come check this out!"

The teens moved quickly to gather around him as he gestured to the Globe. "Are you all seeing what I'm seeing here?"

There was silence for a few seconds before Kimberly answered him. "All I'm seeing is Goldar still destroying Angel Grove…"

"Exactly!" Harry said, snapping his fingers as he did. "He's still destroying Angel Grove. I'm assuming that this is a live view of everything, right?" At Billy's nod he continued. "So how is it that he hasn't leveled the whole city by now? In fact, I don't think I've seen him knock down more than one building so far. He keeps using those eye lasers of his and the worst those have done is set a few fires that burned themselves out pretty quickly."

"Hey…" Zack seemed to be catching on. "You're right, that is all he's doing! We all know that Goldar is more than powerful enough to have trashed everything and left by now."

"And look at that building he just blasted," Trini piped up. "All it did was leave a few scorch marks and let off a bunch of sparks. It's kinda hard to tell with the distant view we have, but it doesn't look like more than superficial damage."

"Do you think he could be exhausting himself?" Billy asked, once more in a thinking pose as he watched.

Jason shook his head. "No, Harry has a point. If he had worn himself out by now he still would have destroyed a few more buildings at the start of his attack."

"You know, I have to admit that I had my doubts when you guys suggested the idea earlier, but I get the feeling that this attack is the beginning of a set up." Harry said with a grim smile.

"You mean it's a trap?" Kimberly asked, looking confused before nodding as she watched Goldar almost carefully step around a building before launching another laser attack that didn't do much. "I get it! They were hoping that we would rush out there right away so they could ambush us or something."

Harry's smile turned to an equally grim chuckle. "I bet Rita's pretty steamed right now since none of us took the time to attend her party."

Jason, it seemed, failed to find any humor in the situation. "The only thing this means is that Goldar didn't destroy Angel Grove even while we were unable to stop him. As soon as we can morph again, we're still going to have to go out there and put a stop to this."

Harry's smile faltered for a moment, but he soldiered on. "I agree completely, Jason. But at least this way we will have a bit of surprise on our side instead of the other way around."

"So we could ambush the ambushers you think?" Kimberly asked, hope creeping back into her voice.

Trini was the first to answer. "Probably not, Kim. We don't necessarily know that there is an ambush in the first place. And even if there is one, we don't really know where it would be coming from. Jason is right, this just means that Goldar has been holding back."

"But it does suggest that Rita is pushing for a specific reaction from us." Billy said thoughtfully. "It's clear that she is trying to draw us out if nothing else."

Their discussion was interrupted by a series of beeps from the computer followed by Alpha's voice. "Rangers! The anomaly has vanished. You should be able to morph now! Hurry!"

"You heard him Rangers, let's do this!" Jason shifted his stance again as Harry stepped away. "It's Morphin' Time!"

"Again…" Harry mumbled with a small smile as the Rangers lifted their morphers once more.

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!"

When the light appeared as expected, Harry whipped out his wand and conjured a plain black cloak and hood before summoning the Cloak of Invisibility from his room. He slipped the Cloak over his shoulders before covering it and himself in the plain one. The end result was rather warm, but Harry didn't feel that invisibility would work very well for him from the start this time. Fighting invisible was an issue if your allies didn't know where you were so it was better to save it for times when you were on your own so as to avoid friendly fire. All the same, the familiar silky presence of the Cloak brought him a measure of peace even as he prepared to once more charge into battle.

Turning back to the Rangers, Harry gave them a small smile and a nod. "Ready when you are, guys."

Jason nodded. "Alright, Rangers, let's do this. Alpha, you keep looking for Zordon while we take care of Goldar."

Zack jumped in with a comment of his own. "And please try to avoid creating any more energy whatsits while you do."

"I will. Good luck, Rangers. Teleporting now!"

The other four gave various affirmatives as Alpha teleported the six out of the Command Center and into the heart of Downtown Angel Grove.

-MR-

The first thing Harry noticed when the light of teleportation faded to reveal a harbor was the lack of people. This was, of course, expected since there had been a giant armored monkey monster terrorizing the city for nearly an hour now.

The second thing he noticed was the apparent lack of the aforementioned giant armored monkey monster. There weren't even any telltale sounds of explosions or shaking of the ground as he moved.

"OK, where the heck is Goldar?" Kimberly asked.

"I don't know," Jason responded, turning this way and that as he searched. "He's gotta be around here somewhere…"

Jason led the group as the six jogged down the pier they had teleported onto and toward the city proper. Their current location was on the bay Angel Grove had been built around. It was a mere two or three blocks from the outermost edge of what one could call "downtown Angel Grove" and probably near the minimum safe distance Alpha could have teleported them to. But even from this distance, none of them could catch sight of Goldar. There was, however, a moderate haze of smoke coming from amongst the buildings that told them they were at least in the right area.

Their search was cut of rather quickly as they rounded the corner of a warehouse only to skid to a stop when they caught sight of a large group of putties, accompanied by Squat and Baboo, standing near a slender woman who was glaring at the newly arrived Rangers and Harry. She was wearing a skin tight outfit that left her right arm bare while her left arm, left leg, and both feet were covered in heavy golden armor along with what looked like an armored bikini top. She was wearing a golden helmet with a spike coming down the right side of her face, framing her surprisingly attractive visage.

Harry couldn't help but voice this last thought. "Damn… She's actually kinda hot… You know, for one of Rita's servants…"

Harry could almost feel the looks he was getting from the Rangers. He could especially recognize those coming from Kimberly and Trini as their glares raked across his skin, somehow feeling hotter than the others.

Harry just shifted uneasily before brandishing his wand. "Alright, shutting up now…"

The woman just laughed as the Rangers drew their blade blasters. "Greetings, Power Geeks!"

"You're not going to get away from us this time, Scorpina!" Jason shouted, giving Harry the Asian looking woman's name. And also, Power Geeks? Harry shook his head ruefully. If there was one thing to be said about this dimension over his original it was that the banter and insults were probably a bit less pathetic back home.

The pre-battle banter, such as it was, continued on despite Harry's lack of attention. "Oh, I think you'll find this encounter to be much different than our last, Red Ranger. You may have kept us waiting longer than we thought, but the result will be the same nonetheless." With a wicked screech of laughter, Scorpina reached behind her back and pulled out a long, curved, boomerang-like blade before pointing it toward Harry and the Rangers. "Putty Patrollers, ATTACK!"

And so the battle was joined.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12