In his third year at Hogwarts Harry noticed Hermione breaking the laws of time. He kicked himself that it wasn't something he'd even considered could be challenged. He clearly wasn't thinking big enough. What with Time-Turners, Apparition and Portkeys, the so-called "laws" of time and space were obviously just guidelines too. He mastered Apparition and Portkey creation, before experimenting with sending himself back in time. Knowing that wizards didn't even think it did break any laws gave him a massive confidence boost in mastering it himself. Without the silly necklace needed as a confidence prop like Dumbo's feather in the old Disney movie.
His conversations with Luna got a lot more confusing for others to listen to once he started referring to talks he'd had with her "two Mondays ago", discussing homework for classes he hadn't had yet, and calling his dinner "tomorrow's breakfast".
People were starting to look at him funny. Well, funnier than they did already. There weren't many people who thought he was completely sane. He seemed to be graduating extremely early to "powerful and crazy, just like Dumbledore". Usually it took wizards a lot longer to earn such a reputation.
*pokemonpokemonpokemon*
Professor McGonagall was thrilled to bits with his increasingly advanced Transfiguration skills, and Hermione had long since resignedly conceded the top spot in the class to him in all practical exercises. Though McGonagall didn't like it when he tried to smuggle out the animals they were supposed to be transforming out of class for his own private Transfiguration experiments.
"Mr. Potter," she said crisply, "the goal of this class is to transform your hedgehog into a pincushion, not to try and smuggle it into your bag while transforming a quill into a decoy pincushion. That is hardly the standard of behaviour I expect of my Gryffindors." She didn't take points off him though – she never did. He was usually quite the teacher's pet in class.
"But I still ended up with a perfectly fine pincushion, and I think it's kind of cruel to the hedgehog, so-"
"-No, Mr. Potter," she said with unrelenting sternness. "It is an excellent pincushion indeed, but that is not the focus of the lesson today. Transfiguring animals into inanimate objects is a harder level of difficulty than merely transforming one inanimate object into another."
Hermione, who sat with Neville these days, glanced over at his table smugly, and earned herself 5 points and her teacher's praise for her slightly spiky pincushion.
Harry tapped his poor little hedgehog with his wand, and changed it to a perfect red and gold velvet pincushion, complete with pins in it, earning 10 points for Gryffindor, and a proud smile from Professor McGonagall. Hermione looked at him jealously.
"That didn't even look like the right wand motion," she complained.
Harry just shrugged dismissively. "I don't need to worry about that. No-one does."
She frowned. "Professor McGonagall explained to me how you've just got more innate magical power than most wizards. But you know the rest of us still need to follow procedure to get results. And you're still not going to get an O if you don't understand the theory. My essays are four times as long as yours."
Harry rolled his eyes at her. "We're here to learn magic, not essay writing. And I'm doing just fine at learning the actual magic."
"You are so rude sometimes, Harry!"
"Sorry. What I said is still true, though." Harry's casual dismissal of centuries of magical theory clashed badly with Hermione's love of the laws and principles that made magic into a pseudo-science. They still liked each other as individuals, but clashed too often to be good friends anymore.
Professor McGonagall definitely had a soft spot for her protégé, but it didn't lead to her unbending enough to let him go to Hogsmeade on weekends, what with Sirius Black on the loose. Harry was grumpy about it, but he still had Luna to keep him company while Ron was off having fun and buying sweets for all of them.
"Never mind, Harry," she said consolingly one weekend when he was feeling a bit dispirited, "you still have me, and Pikachu. Since she's almost perfect now, why don't you spend your weekend working on a new Pokémon instead? How about that little brown lizard with the orange belly that you're planning to turn into a Charmander?"
He sighed. "I'm worried I'll get in trouble for having too many pets. Percy's already complained about it, but luckily Professor McGonagall is so impressed with how Pikachu is going that she just classed her as a 'project' rather than a pet."
"Perhaps Hagrid could help?"
He beamed gratefully at her. "That's brilliant! I know he still misses his dragon Norbert, he'd be happy to help. And you're right Luna. I don't need to waste my time at Hogsmeade, do I? And Ron promised to bring me back some sweets anyway."
Hagrid was thrilled to have the opportunity to hide away Harry's experimental "Muggle baby dragon" project. When Harry finally got the Charmander advanced enough to start breathing fire and it accidentally set Hagrid's chair alight one weekend, Hagrid just patted the flames out with his hands, and said, "Did yeh see the size of tha' flame? Awww, bless 'im. Yer little Charmander's growin' up." He sniffled and blew his nose noisily in a hanky the size of a tea towel, while Luna patted his elbow comfortingly, being unable to reach his shoulder even while he was sitting down.
*pokemonpokemonpokemon*
When Harry faced the Boggart, almost none of the other students understood why Harry was scared of seeing a copy of himself in a white uniform with a red letter "R" on the front of the shirt. Dean Thomas snorted and giggled about it though. Harry was surprised himself, but then realized what it represented for him – he never wanted to go dark, or become a failure as a trainer. Team Rocket never won.
It did remind him that unscrupulous people might try and steal his Pokémon, and use them for evil. Pokéballs were high on his list of things to create this year, and he added "anti-theft wards" to the list of features in his planned design he was working on. He wanted to be able to give them voluntarily to people to hold if he chose to, but craft them so that anyone trying to steal his Pokémon was going to get a nasty shock. Literally.
*pokemonpokemonpokemon*
Halfway through his third year, which was more like one full year thanks to overdoing it with his own double-the-day time management, he had finished turning his mouse into a flawless and friendly Pikachu that could shoot electrical (but non-fatal) Thundershock attacks, his little brown lizard had been turned into a perfect Charmander, and a wild toad became a grumpy but loveable Bulbasaur. All with the appropriate attack abilities. Well, what he'd managed to gather from the cartoons he'd managed to see, anyway. Most students tended to hurriedly scatter away any time they saw Harry headed down to the shore of the Black Lake for a training session, given how frequently lightning bolts and flame blasts would sometimes go further than his creatures intended.
Harry had really wanted a Squirtle too so he'd have all the starter Pokémon, but couldn't find any turtles out by the Black Lake. Apparently they weren't native to Scotland lakes or rivers, so he supposed he might have to buy a pet one once he was back in Surrey. That wasn't his only idea, though. He was also wondering if the teapot to tortoise spell that Professor McGonagall promised that they would learn at the end of the year might supply a good base animal to work with. Harry had found that some of his own spells worked better in the presence of others who also believed that they would work. It was fascinating. On his own, he had difficulty believing that you could turn an inanimate object into a fully functioning living creature – but other students (especially those raised by wizarding families) had no such mental stumbling block, and did a better than him at such tasks. While in their company, his own spells worked better too. Were powerful wizards more powerful because others believed in them? Voldemort convincing others that it was dangerous even to say his name might've been the smartest thing he ever did. Harry wondered if that was why Dumbledore tried to talk people into ignoring that linguistic taboo. Harry decided to take a leaf from the old wizard's book, and tried to convince his classmates that Voldemort was "nothing special" and "a very average wizard" whose name you shouldn't fear saying. But while they weren't swayed by his arguments in that respect, it did start earning him even more awe from others. He tried pointing out that he couldn't be much of a wizard to be defeated by a baby, exorcised by an 11 year old, and to have his diary-trapped spirit destroyed by a 12 year old. It didn't reduce Voldemort's reputation, but it did enhance Harry's. Well, that was something at least. Harry subsequently found his spellcasting experiments were coming along more easily than ever.
"It's no wonder he's not scared of Sirius Black, hey?" said Ron admiringly, very proud to be his friend. "He's defeated You-Know-Who three times already!"
People started murmuring again about his exploits, and Ron basked in the glory of re-telling the stories about their adventures.
It was time to create some working Pokéballs. Harry nipped back in time and hid out in an unused classroom for a day, making his first Pokéballs out of thin air and sheer stubbornness. He even made them enchanted so that they would fly back to his hand after he'd released the Pokémon from inside one, because you never saw Ash or Misty having to scrabble on the ground picking up Pokéballs after a battle. He wanted to be able to catch things in them and have them float to him. Or, throw them to release the Pokémon, but not lose the Pokéball in the process. And why not? With magic, anything was possible. It just took practice and determination.
Hagrid was very sorry to see Charmander and Bulbasaur leave his hut. He'd really bonded with Charmander in particular, but while Charmander considered Hagrid a good friend, he was happiest with Harry. Harry promised to make him his own Pokémon as thanks for all his help, right after he'd made Luna's Crumple-Horned Snorkacks (which she was still researching the details of). He got an almost literally bone-crushing hug for his offer.
*pokemonpokemonpokemon*
After several conversations, and seeing the proof of his skills now demonstrated with Pikachu, Charmander, and Bulbasaur, Hedwig finally agreed to let Harry enhance her. On the condition that she didn't lose her enhanced intelligence and the ability to talk with him in "Hoot-tongue" like she could now. Harry was glad he'd been able to exchange some of his galleons into Muggle money at the bank with the Lovegoods and had gotten the chance to see some Pokémon movies over the summer. Because Hedwig eventually conceded she'd be willing to be turned into one of the more impressive flying options he presented her with for consideration: the legendary Articuno.
"It is the most majestic and special of the bird and flying Pokémon you have told me about," Hedwig explained, in hoots only comprehensible to Harry (and occasionally, Luna). "The blue and white colours are most pleasant, and won't lead me to being mistaken for a Phoenix. I also like the sound of the Ice Beam attack. An Articuno sounds like an excellent choice, for I am a snowy owl, and your first companion."
Harry planned to stockpile more money and a box of chocolate bars so he could bribe his cousin into watching more Pokémon videos with him over the next summer if he got stuck at the Dursleys' again.
*pokemonpokemonpokemon*
Later in the year Harry had a particularly busy and confusing night, with a dramatic confrontation in the Shrieking Shack where Sirius explained the whole sorry business of the Potters' betrayal to Ron and Harry. It turned out the Sirius Black was innocent, and Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew. When Scabbers made a run for it, Harry and Sirius took off after him, leaving Ron behind on his own – he was safe enough there and he couldn't do much with a broken leg.
But while Ron was safe inside a building, outside in the woods as they chased after the rat Sirius and Harry were in a spot of trouble, for they had forgotten about the Dementors all around the school. Sirius was weakened easily by their mere presence, but on the whole they weren't quite up to the standards of guarding and apprehending the wanted escapee that the Ministry had probably hoped for. Not with Harry there to protect Sirius.
The Dementors were wary of Harry after attacked them with all his Pokémon (including the formidable Hedwig). And doubly cautious after he summoned his Pikachu Patronus to attack and weaken them, as Sirius slumped unconscious to the ground in the face of the dark swarm draining away all hope and joy. But then they became positively terrified of Harry after he then threw a Pokéball at the nearest weakened Dementor that hovered threateningly over the unconscious form of Sirius Black. The Pokéball wobbled for a little while, but then it flashed and lay still.
"Yes!" Harry said, triumphantly holding up the Pokéball after it flew to his hand. "I caught a Dementor!" He posed, and his Pokémon all cheered with him, but there were no other people left there who were conscious and able to appreciate the moment.
The remaining Dementors promptly fled from him, unused to suffering terror and despair instead of inducing it in others.
"I think you'll make a nice Haunter," Harry mused thoughtfully, looking at the Pokéball in his hand.
Sirius woke up at the lakeshore not too much later, surprised but relieved to still be in possession of his soul. "There will be a home for you with me as soon as I can manage it, Harry," he promised. "And if there's anything I can ever do for you, just name it," offered the grateful escaped convict.
"That sounds great!" Harry said happily. "And if you're thinking about presents, the broomstick was nice, but I don't fly a lot. I'd love a little pet turtle," he added thoughtfully. "I've got a great idea for a turtle. Or a goldfish!"
"Sure, I can manage that. You really love your pets!" laughed Sirius weakly. "Are you sure that's enough? I owe you my life."
"I've got to catch them all," grinned Harry. He was going to be a Pokémon Master. It was way more interesting than being an ordinary wizard. "Oh, and don't forget your rat," he added, tossing a Pokéball to Sirius.
"What?"
"Pettigrew, he's trapped inside that ball, in rat form. I spotted him hanging around while you were unconscious with the Dementors closing in. I think maybe he was trying to see if they were going to finish the two of us off. Once the Dementors fled, he tried to scurry off, but Hedwig spotted him and helped me catch him," he explained proudly.
Pikachu waved its arms excitedly. "Pikachu! Pika pi!"
Harry nodded. "Absolutely. Your Thundershock was great for stunning him when Hedwig dropped him in front of us. I couldn't have done it without you!"
"Won't he suffocate in there?" asked Sirius. "It's very small. Not that I mind on the whole if he dies, but I wanted him dead as a man. It's hard to feel triumphantly revenged on a dead rat."
"No, it's very comfy in there. He's sleeping, probably. It's like a kind of hibernation. He'll wake if you say his name, and listen to what you're saying, but he can't get out."
"Really? How do I get him out when I'm ready to… deal with him?"
"Don't say it right now, but the magic words are, 'Pettigrew, I choose you!' Then you throw the ball, and he'll pop out. If he tries to get away again, say 'Pettigrew, return!' and he'll be caught in the ball again. You don't even need to throw it at him, just hold it. It'll suck him back up into the ball in a beam of light."
Sirius laughed rather maniacally, and tossed the ball up and down. "Oh this is the best magic ball ever. Peter, we're going to have so much fun before I turn your body over to the Aurors." He cackled for a while longer. "Peeeter, Peeter, we're going to have some fun." He shook the ball in his hand, but seemed disappointed when Harry said it wouldn't do anything to the rat inside.
"I still don't really understand how it works, or how you made this enchanted ball," he said wonderingly to Harry, "but I'm so glad you did."
Hedwig helped the very grateful Sirius Black fly to safety. She was much stronger than she looked, now.
A/N: Thanks to all of my readers who left a review (so very appreciated!), and/or added this fic to their favourites!
