Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Seriously.
AN: Once again, I'm sorry for how long it took to get this chapter out, life went crazy. Also sorry for lying in my last update of More Than Bargained for when I said this chapter would be out two days ago. I had to cover shifts at work because another girl was hungover after Australia day. Fun times, not.
So, I've decided I love all my reviewers more than normal, because I was considering a certain Pokémon, and so many people voted for him that I decided it was destiny. Enjoy.
Also, he'll seem like more of a dick than he actually is, go easy on the lad.
DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK
The figure took a deep breath and smoothed back it's hair, a single lock flopping back down between it's eyes. In a bizarre contrast to the panicked figure from before, they now seemed to be quite calm and in control.
Thanks to them fixing up their hair, the black haired wizard saw that the figure possessed an attractive face, with somewhat sharp features. Then his eyes drifted downwards, and with a positively incandescent blush, Harry confirmed that the newcomer was indeed male. He tore his eyes away and wondered with a hint of despair, how had his life come to this? Take him back to the days where he and Cho Chang hesitantly danced around small talk, possible attraction and Cedric.
It was far less awkward than what he was going through now!
Seeing the others still tense and ready to attack, Harry cleared his throat loudly, catching their attention, "It's ok guys, he's one of you."
This announcement didn't cause them to relax like he might have hoped. Instead, the stranger was met with a series of suspicious looks, along with a glare from Lucario. Harry just sighed and waved his hand, muttering the incantation to clothe the latest transformed Pokémon, already feeling a headache coming on.
The blond man jolted as black shorts and a shirt appeared on him, billowing for a moment before falling loosely about his body. Now that the man was clothed, Harry took a closer look at his face, feeling the blood begin to leave his own cheeks.
The man's hair was pushed back, falling to the base of his neck, except for a thick lock that draped down to the left of his nose. It was a glossy white-blonde, only a few shade darker than Malfoy's platinum blonde. The man matched Lucario for height, an inch more than Dragonair, and several more than either of the others. Par for the course, he was more than a head taller than the wizard himself.
Clearly, the universe itself was plotting against him.
He sighed heavily, "Well, what's your name?"
The blonde gave him a sly smirk, "You, my dear, may call me Ninetails." He gave the others a bland look, "The rest of you will be addressing me as 'Your Eminence'." Only the young wizard was able to see the small wink Ninetails gave him, amusement dancing in his eyes.
There was a moment of stunned silence, before the soft thwack of Harry's face meeting his palm set them all off. The last thing he needed was someone stirring the pot, no, with this group, it was more like someone tipping lit fireworks into the damn thing!
By the time he looked back up, the ground was flooded, and a bush was merrily burning behind Ninetails. There probably would have been more destruction, but Espeon was doing something to hold Lucario, Ninetails and Dragonair apart. The purple haired man had his hands pointing at both groups, hands spread flat as he grinned fiercely at them all. Umbreon was by his side, rippling shadows spreading across the ground to lap at the feet of the formerly fighting trio.
Harry could only sigh, "Can someone please put that fire out? I don't want to be responsible for burning down the forest." He supposed that he'd gotten used to the near constant bickering from years of exposure to Ron and Hermione, but since when had he been the voice of reason?
A splash of water from Dragonair and they were once again wandering down the road, each of the males keeping a wary eye on the others, whilst Harry walked ahead and tried to ignore the lot of them.
The teenage wizard tried to plan out what his goals were in this world. Long term was definitely finding a way home, but given how very little he knew about how he'd reached this world in the first place, that was going on the back burner. He determinedly didn't think about how long that would take, and how much time would pass back in his home world.
Short term, they needed real clothes for the others, food, water, and a map of this world. He didn't just want to wander around blind, so the more information they could gather, the better. On another note, maybe this world knew of magic already? It wasn't out of the question, he'd already seen the former Pokémon do some incredible feats that could only be explained by magic. Conjuring fire and water, moving objects with one's mind and controlling shadows?
Gotta be magic. Maybe they just had a different explanation for what they did?
An arm slumped over his shoulders, causing him to flinch a little out of surprise. Ninetail's face loomed into his vision, and he tried to lean back, only to be trapped by the man's arm.
"So, where are we off to?"
Harry spluttered out an incomprehensible answer before he found himself with yet another arm looped over his shoulders, forcing him to bend his knees or risk bowing under the pressure.
Umbreon leered across at the suddenly frowning blond, "We're going to Pewter City."
Harry blinked up at him, "We are?"
The black haired Pokémon faltered and looked down at him, "I forget you aren't from around here." Behind them, Lucario was looking as confused as the young wizard, himself a stranger to these lands.
Harry shrugged, "How far away is it then?"
Umbreon froze, and Ninetails used this opportunity to shove his arm off the wizards shoulders.
Espeon reached out to settle the suddenly off-balance man, an amused smile decorating his features, "It's about two days walk from here, Harry."
Umbreon laughed nervously, "I knew that!"
The rest of them just ignored him, except for Espeon, who patted his back comfortingly. Harry glanced back to check on the two quieter men taking up the rear of the group and found them marching along, pointedly not looking at each other.
"Lucario, Dragonair, you two alright back there?" He called out, pointedly ignoring Ninetails muttering besides him.
It was a little difficult to do so when the man murmured something about 'the four peasants' behind them. Umbreon had better hearing that he'd thought, because he immediately snarked something back at the blond man, but Harry drowned that out too.
Noticing that the two were getting drawn into their argument, Harry took the chance to slip out from under Ninetails' arm and dropped back, falling into step with the two older men of the group.
The two bickering at the front didn't notice his departure, although Espeon sent him an amused smile over his shoulder before turning back to watch the growing argument.
There was a moment of awkward silence as the two men looked at each other and tried to stare the other down. On his part, Harry was just moping as he once again cursed his lack of any real growth spurt. Both men were at least a few inches taller than his meagre height. He still had time, he was only fifteen, but still, even Hermione was taller than him now!
Unaware of Harry's minor angst, the two of them opened their mouths and spoke simultaneously, "Harry." They glared at the other for cutting them off. Dragonair was the faster of the two in getting his question out.
"Harry, what are we going to the town for? We've managed food and water on our own so far."
Lucario grimaced a little, but held his tongue, acknowledging that it was a good question. Harry turned to look at the blue haired man, "Well, for one, you guys need real clothes. I can't keep conjuring them up for you." He could, but Harry definitely did not want to keep having to make new clothes for the former Pokémon whenever the magic ran collapsed. "And another, what happens when we go somewhere with no fresh water, and no berries or fish or whatever? I can't make food with magic, and we need something to store our water with."
Harry drifted into thought as Dragonair started explaining why they had to go into town to get these things, and how they'd go about doing so. Unfortunately, this just brought up the main problem.
They had no money.
Heck, Harry didn't even know what they used for money here! For all he knew, they had a bartering system in place, or maybe they used human ears for cash.
These people might, they forced animals into dangerous fights for whatever crazy reason.
Harry grimaced, he couldn't really take the high ground here, just look how the Wizarding World treated other species, let alone animals.
Although . . . . .
He glanced at each of the men of their group in turn. Transfiguration was a complicated and powerful branch of magic, but it had a few basic limitations. One, you couldn't conjure food, well, you could, but the magic sustaining the conjuration would fall apart and cause the object to vanish. Same thing would happen if the object sustained damage, such as being chewed, or digested. Two, you couldn't make something from nothing. Conjuring was actually just taking air, magic and forming them into the desired shape.
And three, you can change the form, but not the mind of an animal. For example, if you changed a teacup into a hedgehog, it could breathe, maybe even move about in response to being touched and poked, but it had none of the instincts of a real animal. It wouldn't eat, wouldn't mate and wouldn't move to defend itself.
Likewise, if you transfigured a fish into a person, the body might pass muster, but the mind would still be that of a fish.
Accordingly, these men were transfigured into humans, yet they were easily as intelligent, if not as educated, as Harry himself.
Following that logic, Pokémon were more than just animals, they were intelligent beings, who could apparently understand human speech.
On the bright side, that meant the people here at least spoke English.
On the downside, the people that lived in this world apparently forced intelligent beings to battle for their own amusement.
Suddenly, Harry wasn't so excited to be heading to civilisation.
DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK
"What's the matter Harry, you seem a little distracted."
Harry blinked and looked up from his feet, noticing that the sun had begun to dip towards the horizon. The young wizard couldn't even say how long they'd been travelling, he'd been too focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
He could honestly say he'd never walked so far before. Chores at the Dursley's were hard work, but usually spread out across an entire month. He didn't have to mow the lawns or clear the gutters every day for example.
Dragonair gave him a small smile, before tugging him over to the side, where Umbreon and Espeon were already sitting, arranged back to back under the shade of a tree. Ninetails was talking with Lucario, a smirk plastered across his face as he murmured something to the darker haired man. On his part, Lucario looked a little suspicious, as if expecting some more of the 'teasing' from before, but so far it looked like the conversation was remaining civil.
Miracle of miracles.
"Harry." Dragonair's voice was gentle but insistent.
The teenager blushed a little, "Sorry, I'm a bit tired from all the walking. What were you saying?"
The blue haired man frowned a little and pulled Harry down to sit with him, arranging him so that the shorter teen was facing him. "Maybe we should stop here for the night then? We don't want you getting all worn out too early."
Harry opened his mouth to protest, but all that emerged was a soft groan as Dragonair's fingers dug into his calves, gently massaging his ankles and the lower halves of his calves. He could see why people would actually pay to see a masseuse if this is what it felt like. The man's hands were warm and firm as they moved along his legs, combining pressure from his fingers, palms and knuckles.
The wizard hadn't noticed the other conversations around them fading away, and all eyes being turned on him. If he had, he might have been a little quieter, but instead the wizard lay back and relished in the feeling of his sore muscles being forcibly relaxed.
Usually such an act would inspire one of the other's to act out to gain Harry's attention for themselves, like children fighting over the shiniest toy in the room.
However, none of them wanted to interrupt the sight of Harry, leaning back and moaning quietly, although not one of them could have explained why the scene was so appealing to them.
Harry was going to be in a lot of trouble over the next few days.
DON'T MIND ME I'M A LINE BREAK
Alrighty, I hope everyone enjoyed it. Small chapter, I know, and not a lot got done, but I finally got the boys moving, and thus the storyline is picking up. Ninetails is definitely the last member of the harem, I don't think I could do any more until I get more settled into the story. Sorry that he didn't get more characterisation, but that will definitely happen next chapter. I promise.
I was going to stop at the first line break, but I felt the chapter was a bit stilted and ended weird, with not enough character interaction. So enjoy the little extra tidbit at the end. Also, Dragonair has no idea what he's doing, he's just reacting based on how Harry reacts. Like what me and my friends used to do in little massage trains when we were in primary school.
Alright, pray for me and my inspiration, that I may get another chapter out within a few weeks.
As always, review and let me know what you think, criticism, new ideas, what I can improve, what I'm doing well, the works.