Next chapter. I'm making up for lost time. Another slow one, but bear with me. Beginning chapters are almost always slow.

I'm introducing another character for the plot whether you like him or not. Just let me say that the characters that I'm going to use will be… different. Not too different , don't want to change their overall characteristics too much. Anyway, another world! A whole new problem! Enjoy!

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Chapter 5

File # 5 – Language barrier

"You can die at anytime, but living takes courage."

Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin)

Somewhere in Scotland

In another world similar to the one just witnessed, there were three fifteen year old wizards roaming the grounds of their school, out of sheer boredom. They walked in silence for a while, until the tall freckled red haired boy decided to whine incoherently. Shortly after this the only girl of the trio started to get irritated at the red head's antics and tossed her bushy brown hair irritably back away from her face trying desperately to ignore him. Of course ignoring him never seemed to work.

"Would you shut up Ron!" she finally said angrily.

"I would if only we were doing something fun, Hermione! But we're just walking like idiots!" Ron said.

"It's kind of hard to do that now!" Hermione told him. "Didn't you pay attention in breakfast? Some Deatheaters escaped from Azkaban! Lord knows what will happen now!"

"Does that stop us from enjoying ourselves?" Ron said angrily.

"Ugh, you're so immature! We don't have time to have fun!"

"Well, since you think that the world is going to end soon, then the more reason to enjoy what time we do have. Besides, what can we do about it?"

"Lots of things!"

"Like what?!"

As the not unusual bickering between Ron and Hermione continued, the other member of the group walked in front of them lost in his own thoughts having mastered ignoring Ron and Hermione when they were at it long ago. Harry Potter, wondered what was happening rather than what would happen. It seemed everything was going to get worse from now on and he wanting to know what was happening now could help him stop whatever was coming. So far his mortal enemy was letting him see through his and his dear snake's eyes, why couldn't he just find out what he was up to and find a way to counter it? Yeah, like he could make Voldemort show him that. Ugh, so frustrating! He thought to himself. So far trying to do the opposite thing was giving him nasty headaches thus putting him in a bad mood. He had almost snapped at Professor Flitwick for telling him that he needed to move his wrist a little more so the spell could work. Of course that having those useless classes with that wannabe-frog-look-alike Umbridge woman was adding fuel to the fire. Amazing to think he was a better teacher at Defense Against the Dark Arts at the age of fifteen than a supposed to be professional Ministry official, if he should say so himself, though his 'students' at the DA would probably say so too, much to his embarrassment.

He felt the need for something more. He felt the need for more power, some strength, he needed to beat this guy senseless, and staying at school being a good boy was not going to give that to him. He didn't want to be well known from his heroics, he just wanted to get this asshole off his back and protect those he cared for. God knew he wasn't able to do that last year with Cedric. They might not have been very close, but he did like the guy, he was a good person and in the end they managed to help each other out on the last part of the Triwizard Tournament. But Voldemort had to screw up their victory and went ahead and killed him.

"Damn it!" he said frustrated. "Great I'm feeling guilty again."

"You okay mate?" Ron asked him, having been interrupted by Harry.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked him worried.

"I'm fine. It's just…" he hesitated "It's just that I feel so useless right now."

"You aren't useless." Hermione assured him.

"Hell, you're much more useful than I can ever be." Ron said earnestly.

"Don't say that Ron." Hermione said un-amused.

They walked a little further away from the castle and reached a tree which gave nice shade and sat under it. Both Ron and Hermione looked at Harry in concern as he went into silence again.

"Have you ever thought of becoming stronger?" Harry asked them suddenly.

"Stronger?"

"Physically I mean. Do we have to beat Voldemort with magic? Couldn't we just kick him or… or machine gun his ass?"

"Harry!" Hermione said indignantly.

"Ma-what?" Ron asked bewildered.

"Machine gun." Harry told him. "It's a muggle weapon that shoots some peaces of metal at a high speed and kills people."

"Cool!" Ron said excitedly

"It's not cool Ron!" Hermione said reproachfully. "It's a horrible thing!"

"But if we could use it on You-Know-Who…" Ron said.

"Oh, please! If Voldemort was so easy to kill, then someone would have done it already!" Hermione told the boys.

"You sure?" they said at the same time.

"Of course I'm sure!"

"No you're not" they said at the same time again.

"Ugh! Boys!" Hermione said exasperated.

"What does that have to do with us being boys?" Ron asked her.

Hermione was about to answer when something big fell on Ron. Ron yelled out in surprise and pain as Harry and Hermione jumped and yelled in fright, the other students resting around the grounds turned to look at the source of the commotion and stared. What fell on Ron was a person, what they could make out of said person was the long black hair tied back in a pigtail, a red shirt and black pants. Ron was struggling to get the person off just as the body started to move on its own. It was a guy not much older than them. He looked dazed and he rubbed his head while groaning something out in obvious pain. He said something like "Shimata", whatever that meant. He finally got off of Ron and opened his eyes which had been closed in pain. He found himself staring at an angry Ron. He blinked in confusion and looked around slowly at the gathering crowd his eyes finally resting on Harry and Hermione. For some reason Harry saw Hermione blush faintly when the stranger looked at her. When he looked at Harry, his eyes studied him for a moment and went up to look at the scar on Harry's forehead. He then looked back at Ron who was still looking angry.

"Dare…? Doko……?...Nani?!" he said to him.

"I'm not your nanny!" Ron said angry and confused.

"Eh?" the other one said also confused.

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RANMA'S P.O.V (it was obviously him)

Ranma felt pain shoot through his head and abdomen. He closed his eyes trying to will it out as he got up from where he had fallen on something rather soft. At the same time whatever he had fallen on was moving around and he felt hands trying to push him off. When he did, he kneeled where he was and kept trying to will the pain away.

"Shimata" he groaned.

When the pain subsided a little he opened his eyes to see where he was and found himself staring into the blue eyes of an angry freckled red head. He glared at Ranma fiercely and Ranma realized what he had fallen on. He blinked at him in confusion and looked around slowly. He saw, much to his annoyance, that he once again attracted a crowd. They all looked at him like he was some kind of creature they had never seen before. But to him they were the weird ones. They wore robes like those he would expect wizards and witches to use in movies or in story books, except that under those, they wore some kind of school uniform. Some had weird sticks sticking out of pockets for some reason and a few of the older looking ones where clutching theirs nervously. It made him think of wands, which, to Ranma, wouldn't be farfetched since he had seen stranger things already. But still. Where the hell was he? Behind them he saw a castle and by the castle a lake and it looked that the place was surrounded by a forest.

His eyes finally rested on the other two who were closest to him. One of them was a girl with bushy brown hair and brown eyes. She looked at him with wide eyes, her hand was halfway off her mouth where h guessed she had covered it in surprise and blushed slightly when Ranma looked at her. The other person was a boy seemingly one or two years younger than him. His hair was a mess sticking up here and there. It didn't look bad in Ranma's opinion, but people didn't usually have hair like that. He wore round glasses that covered really cool green colored eyes. Ranma's eyes were attracted to a scar on the boy's forehead shaped like a lightning bolt. The guy definitely looked interesting. He looked at Ranma with wary and intrigued eyes, he looked ready to move into action if Ranma did anything funny. Ranma looked back at the one he had landed on whom was still sitting on the ground glaring at Ranma who was also still kneeling in the same place. Finally, Ranma voiced his confusion.

"Dare…? Doko…?...Nani?!" he said, which obviously he knew to mean as 'Who' 'Where' and 'What '.

"I'm not your nanny!" the red head said obviously not in Japanese.

"Eh?" Ranma said even more confused. What the…? Did this guy just say something in English? Ranma knew a bit of English. After all, Ranma had traveled around with his father, he was bound to know something. Besides, they taught English back in Furinkan High, though Ranma didn't pay much attention in class, preferring to stare out the window and day dream. But he understood stuff here and there and could speak it to some extent if a bit badly. But at the moment Ranma was too confused and alarmed to remember.

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HARRY'S P.O.V

"Who are you?" Harry asked

"Boku….." Ranma began still too confused to attempt to speak in English. (A/N: 'Boku' means 'I' term used by men.)

"What's boku?" Ron asked bewildered standing up.

"I think he's speaking in another language!" Hermione answered him.

"Obviously!" Ron said crossly.

"Well you kept asking!" Hermione said angrily.

"Who. Are. You." Harry said loud enough to shut the other two. The rest of the crowd just stood there watching.

"Hani hani daioh." The guy sighed. (A/N: It means 'This really sucks')

"Whatever that means." Harry said confused. The guy looked at Harry and started to speak in English rather haltingly.

"Name. Is. Ranma desu." He said (A/N: 'desu' is a term used at the end of an introduction.)

"Ranmades?" Harry asked.

"I-iie." Ranma said shaking his head. "Just. Ranma."

"Oh." Harry said frowning. "Where you up the tree?" Harry said slowly pointing up to indicate. Ranma looked up confused at the tree. He seemed to be wondering the same thing. He looked back at Harry and shook his head. Harry frowned again.

"Do you know much English?" Harry asked him. Ranma made a movement with his hand indicating that he knew a little. Harry nodded. Ranma didn't seem to be a threat, in fact he looked extremely confused and a bit scared. Then again, Harry had been wrong about others in the past. He looked athletic and in shape, he also seemed like a guy that could spring into action for any reason, he just hoped he didn't. Ranma looked at Harry much the same that Harry was looking at him, calculating and curious. Behind Ranma he could see the entrance to the castle where he saw Professor Dumbledore coming in a fast pace. Apparently, someone had run up to tell him of Ranma. Sure enough he saw a student come out after him. Ranma noticing that Harry was looking at something behind him, turned around to look.

He reached the assembled students and Ranma. The students pushed each other out of the way to let Dumbledore pass. He paused in front of Ranma and looked at him curiously. In fact, Harry saw Dumbledore's eyes shine with some sort of recognition. He studied him a little longer then,

"Konnichiwa." Dumbledore said to Ranma.

"Uh, ko..konnichiwa." Ranma said apparently relieved that someone understood him and surprised that Dumbledore knew what language he spoke without asking someone about it. In fact, everyone was surprised that Dumbledore just knew, because they started murmuring among themselves.

"Watashi no namae wa Dumbledore Albus-sensei. Anata-no namae wa?" Dumbledore said. No one besides Ranma understood a thing.

"Watashi wa Saotome Ranma desu. Gomenasai" Ranma said nervously scratching the back of his head.

"Irrashaimase, Ranma! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Hajimeshite?"

"Hai, genkidesu."

"Anata wa eigo o hanashimasu ka?"

"Sukoshi."

"As, soo desu ka." Dumbledore said nodding. "Then do you mind if I switch to English? My Japanese is a little rusty." He chuckled. (A/N: And I simply don't know that much)

The spectators started to mutter again when they heard that Ranma had been speaking in Japanese. They had all gone silent when the conversation between the two had started, wanting to catch what they were saying. Not that any of them had understood. Harry exchanged looks with Ron and Hermione noticing that they must be wondering the same thing, Why was there a Japanese guy here?

"Hai." Ranma answered Dumbledore.

"Then tell me where do you come from and why and how are you here?" Dumbledore asked Ranma slowly. Ranma answered in Japanese, so no one understood his answer, except, of course, Professor Dumbledore.

"Sou desu ka?" Dumbledore asked thoughtfully. He stood there for a while brushing his long silver beard with his fingers thinking. "Hmmm." He said after a while. He looked at Ranma and gave him a kind smile. "Would you follow me please?" he turned to look at the trio standing behind Ranma. "You too?" They nodded in agreement but confused as to why he needed them. Dumbledore looked at Ranma again and said "Ikamasho!" happily, then turned around and started walking merrily back to the castle.

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RANMA'S P.O.V

Ranma's conversation with the bespectacled boy was a bit uncomfortable, since both of them didn't know what to do or say. When the boy asked him if he had been up the tree, Ranma had looked up wondering. The last thing he remembered before coming there was, well, of him… dying. He remembered vaguely that Ryouga had been holding him while Akane and his mom were crying next to him. He also remembered the others standing back with grief on their faces. Strangely enough, at that moment he felt… loved and from people whom he had doubted. Maybe 'love' was a strong word to describe it, but it was the only thing he could think of. While he finally lost consciousness, the last thing he heard was a strange voice telling him, 'It's not your time. Not yet. You must live.'

He looked back down at the boy and shook his head. The boy frowned. He seemed wary, and, Ranma reminded himself, he must be, after all how many times a day do you see someone fall on top of a friend, which that redhead obviously seemed to be.

"Do you know much English?" the boy asked him. Ranma answered by moving his hand indicating a little. He understood. God bless international signs. The boy wasn't so much a boy, compared to Ranma, maybe one or two years younger than he. He didn't seem like a guy who would fight physically –he did look like he would if he had to though- yet there was something about him that made him look like he was ready for anything. His eyes also indicated that he had seen too much for a person his age. Being an experienced fighter and having gone through a lot himself, Ranma believed this to be true. Those green eyes looked haunted somehow. Ranma couldn't help feel a sense of familiarity from him, like he had seen him before long ago. Maybe he just looked like someone he had met before, but it wasn't likely, his looks weren't ordinary. Ranma had scrutinized him as much as he could, judging his physique, his posture, his hair, his eyes, tried to understand him without talking to him. Ranma wasn't sure why he felt he needed to do this, but there was something that told him that the person standing in front of him was very important.

All of these things had gone through his head in the space of a minute until Ranma realized that he had yet to know the boy's name. He was about to ask him when the object of his curiosity shifted his eyes to something behind Ranma. Distracted Ranma turned to look towards the castle and saw what had drawn the other teenager's attention away from him. He certainly understood why any ones attention would be shifted from a situation that was obviously very strange. The man coming towards them looked so mysterious, so magical with his long silver beard, silvery blue eyes, his robes where a midnight blue and were every bit what Ranma would associate with a wizard's complete with a pointed hat. He radiated an aura of knowledge and power that it was striking. As the man approached him everything was tuned out of his mind. He was so… awesome. Ranma was sure that he was in the presence of a very important and powerful man. He definitely was a wizard.

The old wizard looked at Ranma with those calculating and wise blue orbs. It made Ranma feel self-conscious like his mind was being read. Ranma reminded himself that he probably was. He saw the old man's eyes widen ever so slightly and he probably would have missed it if he hadn't been looking into them so intently in the first place. It was almost as if the stranger recognized him. But that couldn't be, Ranma would had definitely remembered this man if he had met him before.

"Good afternoon." The old sage said suddenly, in what was un-mistakenly Japanese.

Ranma's eyes widened as he realized that there was no way that this man could have known he was Japanese, especially since he had given' no indication that he was. People from the west, besides, always called Asians, Chinese, since the great majority was to ignorant to think other wise, so how did he know that he spoke Japanese instead of Mandarin Chinese? Also, Ranma's clothes had to be considered, since they were of a Chinese style. Then again, Ranma had just seen the wisdom in this man, and he did look very old. Maybe he did know the slight physical differences the Asian people possessed. Again all this flashed into his head in the seconds it took him to respond.

"Uh, g-good afternoon." Ranma finally said a bit uneasily, still confused, but relieved that at least someone would be able to understand him.

"My name is Professor Albus Dumbledore. What is your name?" the man said kindly.

"I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry 'bout this." Ranma responded, a bit nervous at giving him his name.

"Welcome Ranma! I'm pleased to meet you. Are you well?" the man, who Ranma now knew as Professor Albus Dumbledore, said happily.

"Yeah, I'm okay." Ranma said. As okay as someone can be, after landing on a complete stranger in another country, where he doesn't remember on planning on going to and after he apparently died no less. Ranma thought to himself.

"Do you speak English?" Dumbledore asked.

"A little."

"Oh, I see." Dumbledore said nodding. He considered Ranma for second, and then he suddenly reverted to English. "Then do you mind if I switch to English? My Japanese is a little rusty." He chuckled to himself. A rich sound.

Ranma heard the once silent yard, rumble with the voices of the crowd's muttering as they realized Ranma's origins.

"Sure." Ranma consented. He needed to practice his English anyway since he was apparently going to be here a while.

"Then tell me where do you come from and why and how are you here?" Dumbledore asked him.

Ranma hesitated for a moment, not sure what to say and if he should say anything. But he decided to throw caution to the winds and answer him. Ranma spoke to him in nihongo not knowing enough English to form a complete and understandable paragraph.

"I come from Japan, and last time I checked, I was still there. But now I'm suddenly here. I wasn't planning to be here. Wherever here is. I don't know how. The thing is, I was fightin' this big ugly thing that came out of no where to kill me. Some friends were there helpin' me out I guess, it was chaos back there. Suddenly, I notice the thing attack some friends of mine and it was a choice between savin' myself and let them die or savin' them and hope I didn't die. But I did! Die I mean. Well I think I did. Last thing I remember was of me lying down dying and people crying and stuff. I don't really understand this. Oh! I forgot, there was this guy that appeared shortly before the thing and said that it was coming for me without giving any specifics. He also sort of said that he wasn't really there or somethin'. Jeez, this is so freakin' weird, I'm freaked out." Ranma finished his explanation – more like a rant actually – and rubbed his neck in confusion.

"Is that so?" Dumbledore said pensively. He stroked his beard in thought as Ranma stood there a bit restless.

He wanted to be doing something, anything. He felt hopeless all of a sudden. He didn't understand what was going on. He needed to know if his friends were alright. He needed to tell them he was okay, especially to his mother. It was so confusing and frustrating he was about to grab on to his long braid and rip it out.

After a brief moment Dumbledore made a sound interrupting Ranma's mental rant. "Would you follow me please?" he said to him with a kind smile, he then turned to the green eyed youth and his friends. "You too?" Ranma saw then turn confused faces at the old man and nod, he could see their confusion and share it with them. What did Dumbledore need them for? He turned to look at Ranma again. "Let's go!" he said happily in Japanese and led them off towards the castle scattering people as they made room for him and the others.

Ranma followed in respectable distance behind Dumbledore. The green eyed youth, who Ranma had yet to know the name of, was beside him. Ranma could feel him study him from the corner of his eye as he did the same, both trying their best not to make it obvious. The curiosity from him was obvious but still a tad disturbing, the guy had a really intense stare. He also had an ominous presence about him, some undiscovered or purposefully hidden power that Ranma wasn't sure if anyone else was aware of. Maybe Dumbledore knew. But how Ranma knew it was there was beyond him. It could be chi he was sensing, he was good at that. Yet it didn't feel exactly right to be chi. It must be something else. He was eager to find out. The boy was certainly interesting.

Entering the castle Ranma's curiosity was instantly side tracked and he stopped. Ranma's mouth started to open slowly as he looked around. It was like nothing he had ever seen. Granted, he had never really been inside a castle before. There were tapestries hanging on tall walls, the ceiling was high above them. There were doors on either side of them, one looked to lead into the dungeons, the other into a hall with chatting kids and teenagers. Some of them came out of there to look at the new arrival, having heard from others who had seen what had transpired outside and had rushed past them to tell others. There was a magnificent staircase right across him with other pair of steps on either side connecting to doors that would definitely lead him deeper and higher into the castle. On the right side close to the entrance, were four hour-glasses each with their own color stones, one had rubies, another had emeralds, the next one had sapphires and the last one had quartz. As he looked at them, five quartz fell to join the ones at the bottom and some numbers at the hour-glass' base changed from 205 to 210. Ranma's gaze went back to the curious people and nearly jumped out of his skin. Next to them were two pearly white and see through beings. Ranma was very sure those were ghosts and he realized from the unaffected crowd, that they were an everyday thing, unless Ranma was the only one who could see them.

"Are you alright Ranma-kun?" Dumbledore asked him in English.

"H-hai." He kept staring at the ghosts and they waved at him, he jumped a little at this. "Those ghosts?" Ranma asked in English. This time the green eyed youth answered.

"Don't be afraid, they're completely harmless. That's Nearly Headless Nick and the Grey Lady." He pointed at each in turn.

"Nice to meet you young man." The male ghost said, the other, a woman, made a small curtsy.

"You too." Ranma answered inclining his head slightly albeit nervously.

"Well then Ranma-kun, shall we continue?" Dumbledore asked him smiling and with a twinkle in his eye.

"Hai."

They continued up the steps and to the right. They went into a hall full of paintings hanging on the walls. At first Ranma didn't think them so strange, until one of the paintings moved startling Ranma and he stumbled. Steadying himself, Ranma looked back at the painting. It had the image of a young girl and her mother. The girl waved at him and giggled when Ranma's eyes widened even further and his mouth started to open. He looked at the other paintings just to see them also moving about, some of the occupants of the painting disappeared for a moment just to reappear in the painting beside it, they whispered to each other and pointed in his direction. This was a bit too much.

"They're moving! The damn things are moving!" Ranma said in Japanese. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Indeed." He just said and continued walking.

Ranma was rooted to the spot staring at the paintings, until a sharp poke on the back of his head brought him back to his senses. Rubbing his head, Ranma looked behind him to see who had poked him and found himself face to face for the second time that day with the angry red head. The red head glared at him and nodded his head telling him to move. Ranma glared at him for a brief second then turned around and continued walking. He didn't hate the guy - Ranma didn't hate easily – but he felt annoyed by him. He didn't have to poke me that hard!

They went further up and into other corridors twisting this way and that, until Ranma was absolutely lost. It didn't help that Ranma kept looking all over the place looking at all the strange things. He caught glimpses here and there of kids moving those sticks of theirs and transforming stuff or making things appear out of thin air confirming Ranma's suspicions that these were witches and wizards he was with. The place looked like some sort of school. It was fascinating. And creepy.

Finally they stopped in front of a statue of a gargoyle. Ranma looked at it, trying to figure out what could possibly be so important, when he heard Dumbledore say 'Sugar Quills' and the gargoyle sprang to life, it moved to one side and revealed a stair case that spiraled up. Dumbledore went to stand on it and the rest followed. They reached a door and went inside. For like the twentieth time that day, Ranma stopped and stared. The round shaped room was filled with silvery gadgets, in the center rested a big desk. Leaning against the walls, there were book cases fool of, well, books and some more silver things. On the walls themselves, there were even more portraits also moving, but the occupants of these were asleep. Ranma could hear them snore. Everything about the room amazed him but what really made him stare was a bird perched on it's stand by the desk. It's colors were red and gold and it's tail had strange shaped feathers. Ranma knew that he was looking at a phoenix. He looked at it wearily not really sure what to make of it, he had fought a semi-god that so happened to be a phoenix and he hadn't been very trusting of anything related since. After all, said semi-god had almost killed Akane and himself for that matter. He had been one hell of a difficult son of a bitch to beat. The phoenix looked at him calmly with one black and intense eye.

Dumbledore went to his desk and took a seat, he indicated to the others to do the same and they each took a chair all facing Dumbledore. Ranma, still nervous, looked at the others while he waited for Dumbledore to speak. What was going to happen to him? Was there going to be a catastrophic problem like usual or would everything turn out alright for once? He really hoped it would be the later, he had enough of trouble for the moment.

"You three are wondering what you are doing here, I don't doubt." Dumbledore said. "But before I say anything I must first fix a problem of communication. Ranma I believe you understand a little of what I'm saying?" he asked looking at Ranma from over his half moon spectacles. Ranma moved his hand telling him that he understood a little. Dumbledore nodded. "And you can speak to a certain extent as well." Dumbledore didn't ask he merely stated but Ranma nodded anyway, catching the basic of what the old man was saying. "What I'm going to do," he said to the other three, "is a spell that is not often used but very useful and relatively easy to do. All you have to do is watch, learn and remember." He then took out his own wand, - Ranma had long convinced himself that they were wands – and changed to Japanese as he spoke to Ranma. "I won't hurt you, this is only so you can understand us better and for us to understand you in kind." He pointed his wand at Ranma and said clearly "Entendo".

Ranma felt an odd sensation come over him making his mind clouded for a few seconds making him feel numb, then he slowly came back to normal. He shivered and he shook his head trying to clear out the remaining numbness. He blinked a few times and looked around to make sure he was still there and not somewhere else or turned into something. He was okay, no extra limbs or anything, he looked at the others and saw them looking at him. The girl was murmuring the incantation, obviously trying to memorize it.

"Ranma, can you understand me clearly?" Dumbledore asked him.

Ranma looked at him and answered, "Yeah, I can." He said clearly and with no hesitation. The others eyes widened when he spoke. His voice no longer halted and his accent, though it was still present, wasn't so pronounced. It was as if he had practiced English for years. Ranma was also amazed, he had intended on answering in his native language but changed to English right before he said the first word. He looked at Dumbledore wide eyed and with a small amazed smile. That was awesome! He thought to himself. Dumbledore nodded.

"How does it work Professor?" the girl said excitedly looking at Dumbledore, then Ranma, then back again.

"It is a spell that consists in making the person that speaks another language to understand and speak, let's say English, as if he or she had practiced it for years. It is used on a person whose language is in the minority. For example, Ranma is a Japanese boy who is surrounded by English people. There for, Ranma's language is in the minority reason why we don't speak Japanese but he does speak English. Did you understand?"

"That was cool sir!" the red head said.

"Thank you Mr. Weasley." Dumbledore said. "Now, I believe you've already acquainted yourselves?"

"Not really." green eyes said.

"Oh?" Dumbledore said raising his eyebrows. "I thought you had. Well, it doesn't matter, I'll introduce you. Everyone this is Ranma Saotome. Ranma, this is Hermione Granger," the girl waved at him from the second seat to his left, "Ron Weasley" the red head glared at him from his left, "and Harry Potter." Green eyes nodded his head on Ranma's right. "And they are my students here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

I knew it, it's a school! "Um, nice to meat ya." Ranma said.

"Right. Now that we know each other and made friends," Dumbledore said looking pointedly at Ron, "I must explain why you three are here. Since you three have a habit of wanting to know everything strange that is going on," the trio looked at each other and grinned, "and in all likelihood you were the ones who found Ranma…"

"We didn't find him," Harry interrupted, "he found us."

"Or rather, he fell on us." Ron said rubbing his stomach.

"Sorry, I wasn't plannin' on fallin' on anybody." Ranma said to Ron. "Heck, I don' even know why I fell on anybody in the first place."

"Indeed." Dumbledore said nodding his head gravely. "We will find the answer to that, but first we must get you accommodated. I was thinking in putting you into one of the houses and for you to also attend classes, in order to evade any trouble from… certain authorities." He said this a little tensely. The trio shifted in their seats understanding what Dumbledore meant to say. Harry was glaring at a peace of furniture as if it had offended him. "I will convince everyone that you are an exchange student of sorts and that you will be staying for a short while, until I am able to send you back to where you come from."

"You make it sound like I'm some sorta alien or somethin'." Ranma said looking at Dumbledore questioning.

"I won't lie to you Ranma. There could be more to this than simple transportation from one place to another. From what you told me, I can only discern that you aren't even supposed to be among the living." Dumbledore said gravely.

"Among the living?!" the trio exclaimed at the same time.

"However," he continued ignoring the others, "you seem very much alive to me. We will find out what this is about, meanwhile you must pretend that you are a student."

"But I don't know anything about magic!" Ranma said freakin' out. "How am I supposed to pretend that I'm a student here? They'll know! Besides how am I supposed to explain why I was up that tree?! And there were some kids there who heard you ask me where I came from."

"That is easily fixed. We can pretend that you came to the school by yourself to talk to me about the exchange personally and hadn't announced yourself before hand. I can see that you are an impatient kind of person, so you came early and went up the tree to wait. Of course it sounds far fetched and some what stupid, but stranger things have happened at Hogwarts. As for you not knowing magic I will give you a special wand. This wand can perform the magic that you need with you merely uttering the word or thinking it and making the right movements, its magic is temporary, lasting only a month, but I don't think you will be here that long. But if given chance that you are still here after the month, you must come to me so I can replace it. This wand is not sold nor is it legal, due to the dangers of it falling in the hands of someone who can cause great harm, but I trust that you won't do harm, specially since I'm going to be watching you. If you need quick information about your classes, I trust that these three will help you with it as it's important that you take the same classes as they."

"So I guess you will be putting him in Gryffindor with us?" Hermione asked Dumbledore. Ranma was confused, not understanding what Gryffindor was.

"Yes Miss Granger." He answered. "I'll make the arrangements so that Ranma has everything he needs."

"But Professor is Ranma even fifteen?" Harry asked Dumbledore but looked at Ranma.

"I'm seventeen." Ranma told Harry. They both looked at Dumbledore.

"No matter. He can pretend that he is fifteen. I have seen many cases in which a person looks older than he really is." Dumbledore said.

"Alright, I'll try." Ranma said.

"Good." Dumbledore said. "If you need to know anything, please ask these three. It's almost dinner and I believe that hunger is knocking?" Dumbledore said with an amused smile. As if on cue, four stomachs started to growl in protest, they all smiled sheepishly. "Ah, see? Now you may go. And Ranma, don't speak to anyone about this nor you three."

"Yes sir." They all said as they stood up.

"Enjoy dinner!" he called out to them as they reached the door.

"We will."

"Thank you sir."

As the door closed behind the teenagers, the portraits on the walls woke up from their 'sleep' and started murmuring.

"What do you think Albus?" asked a portrait of a witch in bright red robes on Dumbledore's right. "Is it happening again?"

"Yes, I believe it is Loretta." He said. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He then stood up and set out to make arrangements for Ranma. He made sure that the staff was notified. He asked Minerva to get the things that Ranma would need and to place them in the fifth year Gryffindor dormitory with an extra bed. Minerva was confused but she did so anyway. Dumbledore made a note to tell Minerva when she was done, about the events that had transpired. He knew he could trust her after all. Besides, she knew of the certain events in the past that were most certainly connected to what was going on. He needed to make sure that Dolores Umbridge would not cause any trouble since she would definitely see an inexistent plot in Ranma's appearance. After which he thought of contacting those two. He needed to make sure, and they needed to know, that it was starting again.

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Well, there you have it. Harry Potter. Had to see it coming. Like him? Hate him? I don't care, he is an important part of the story and that's how he'll stay. He won't be like you expect him to be. Just you wait……… definitely need to get better at writing. I'm getting there…………… I hope. Well, anyway, as I do, mind giving me an opinion about now? Yes? Please?