It wasn't until later that Harry remembered the book. He was putting away his purchases from earlier having washed the gunk out of his hair, when he came across the book in the bottom of a bag. Pulling it out, Harry examined the cover. The book was obviously old, but well cared for, the gold shining in the light. The lion on the front appeared to be sleeping which struck Harry as strange. Why go to all the trouble of locking the book then having the Guardian asleep?

He traced his finger over the title. The Clow. Again that strange feeling of recognition occurred. He wondered if maybe Hermione had mentioned something about it that he hadn't paid any attention to. It wouldn't have been the first time. He fiddled with the lock and was just about to try his new confundo wand when the lock sprang open in his hand. 'Odd,' he thought but that didn't stop him from opening the cover.

Instead of written pages he found someone had cut a hole in the book about four inches long and two inches wide and nestled securely in the hole were a bunch of cards. They all had the same image on the back, a picture of a circle with a moon and sun in it but as he turned them over he realised they weren't any ordinary pack of playing cards. The first one had the picture of a large white wolf with the words 'The Thunder' underneath. Another had the picture of a large bird with the legend 'The Fly'. Next was 'The Windy', which had the picture of a woman with white long hair and wings wrapped around her.

Without even trying he could feel the magic in these cards. 'The Thunder' fizzed in his hand as if it truly was its namesake, 'The Fly' seemed almost to jump out of his hand and The Windy…

"The Windy." At his murmur, the magic that was lying dormant in the card came alive. The same circle on the back of the cards appeared beneath his feet. A wind appeared that tried to rip the cards from his fingers but he held on, lifting his other arm to cover his eyes to guard against the rush of air and squinting his eyes, he watched as the racing air picked up the cards out of the book, each card turning into a little spark of light before racing off out the window, or through the walls and disappearing.

When the wind finally died down, Harry cautiously lowered his arm and looked around in shock. His purchases from earlier in the day were strewn around the room and even the bed and furniture had been moved. Harry was torn between tidying the mess up and running for Sirius when the book started to glow. The cover flipped closed and a beam of light rose from it and coalesced into the form of a… Teddy?! It was a small winged teddy with a too large head and a tuft of white fur on the end of its tail. Floating in front of Harry, the thing stretched out its arms and gave a huge yawn.

The teddy opened its eye's and glared at Harry. "Hey kid what do you think you're doing? Letting the cards out like that? Don't you know how much trouble they can cause?"

Harry spluttered. "Me?! How was I supposed to know? All I did was read a name on the card!"

"A likely story; I can tell by the state of this room you are not the most responsible person. Oh well there's no help for it, you'll just have to get them all back." It peered at Harrys shocked face, "You seem to be in shock. It's all right; I know this might seem a bit much." Now it sounded conciliatory. "I am Keroberos, Guardian of the Clow Cards. You can call me Kero." He looked at Harry expectantly. "This is the part where you tell me your name."

Just then from somewhere downstairs Sirius called out. "Harry James Potter! What did you do?!"

At the sound of his godfather voice Harry jumped up and raced from the room, ignoring Kero's cry of, "Wait a minute kid, I haven't finished explaining."

Downstairs in the front hall, the chaos was continuing. High winds raged around the entrance way and rain pounded everything in sight. Every now and then lightning would flash. Sirius was hanging on to the balustrade for dear life. "Harry what's going on?!"

"It's 'The Storm' card." Kero said, coming up behind him. "See?"

And Harry did see. Sitting on one of the clouds, watching the destruction and giggling was a small elf-like being, with curly shoulder length hair, which seemed to be wearing some kind of armour.

"Kero, what do I do?" Harry yelled over the sounds of the storm.

"You need to capture it. Seal it back into its card form."

"How?! I can't even get near it without getting fried!"

"Use the Clow key!"

"The what?!"

"This!" Kero tossed a small ball of glowing light at Harry who caught it on reflex. Once in his hand the light coalesced into the form of a small red, copper and white key. The key had a small bird's head on one end with a red beak and rubies for eyes. Shooting from the back of its head were white wings. Still reacting solely on instinct Harry cupped the key in his hands and pushed with his magic. The Clow circle appeared beneath him as he channelled his magic into the key and chanted, "Power of Darkness, power of Light, surrender the wand, the force ignite. Release!"

At his words magic leaped up from the Clow circle at his feet and spun around the key, lengthening and expanding it. Now instead of a small key he held a wand about three feet in length. The staff of the wand had changed to a dark red colour, the birds' head was larger and the other end had a ruby on the pommel.

"Harry!"

Harry was brought out of his contemplation by Sirius' worried yell. He looked up to see the Storm had noticed the magic of the Clow wand and turned its attention to him.

"Now what?" He yelled at Kero

"Use one of your cards. The only way to return it to its card form is to beat it. Aim for the eye of the storm."

Harry spared a thought to wonder how the hell he knew what he was doing before he pulled out one of his cards and threw it in the air. The card was held there by the power of the circle and spun until he tapped it with the beak of the wand. "Thunder, aim your power directly at the eye of the storm!"

At his commend the card transformed itself into the fierce lightning wolf from the front of the card and charged at the Storm. With a roar it launched itself at the eye of the storm, changing into a singular bolt of lightening on the way. The elf-like being, the Storms' avatar yelped as it tumbled off the cloud it was perched on. Harry leapt forward, splashing through the water on the hall floor and swung his wand shouting, "Return to your power confined; Storm Card!"

Again the circle appeared this time drawing the magic of the Storm towards it and gathered it into the form of a card. When the circle faded the card hung in the air before him. It hovered momentarily before sinking, almost gratefully into Harry's hand. The Thunder, now that its task was complete, bounded over to join him.

"Um, thank you for your help." Harry said at a loss. The animal gave a wolfish grin, pushing its glowing head into Harrys hand for a scratch, before dissolving in to light to become a Clow card again.

"Hey, that was really well done." Kero enthused as he hovered beside Harry. "I can see we're not going to have any problems with you. Well, now that's over with, what have you got to eat in this place?" Kero started to back out of the room.

Sirius let go of the balustrade and pulled out his wand and growled, "Oh no you don't. Accio plushie!"

"Eep!" Kero yelped as the power of the spell dragged him back and into the arms of the thoroughly drenched wizard.

"What's going on here, why is the stuffed animal talking and what the hell was that storm?!"

Kero struggled in Sirius' hands. "Let me go, you mangy mutt. You can't treat me this way! I am the great and powerful Guardian of the Cards! Put me down, put me down, put me down, put me down!" Harry giggled at the picture he made, a tiny plushie struggling against Sirius' much larger hands.

Sirius shook Kero, leaving him swirly eyed and dazed. "Explain. Now!" he growled.

Kero shook himself. "Alright, alright. I was actually going to anyway before Hero Boy ran off." Harry glared at the nickname. "It all started a long time ago with a powerful magician named Clow Reed. The cards are the result of a combination of Eastern and Western magics that formed the basis of an entirely new type of wizardry unlike anything else seen at the time. This is the same magic that house elves were fashioned from though without the card form, obviously.

But the cards were powerful and other people tried to steal them and use their power for evil. To protect them after his passing, Clow Reed locked them into the Clow Book and he assigned two magical beings to guard the cards. Myself," he puffed up proudly and struck a pose, though the effect was somewhat ruined by Sirius's hand still holding him. "And Yue; who you'll meet later. We are to watch for anyone who would be capable of becoming the new master of the Clow Cards. And you, my young friend, have been judged worthy."

Harry and Sirius just stood there, both thinking over what they had just heard, when something occurred to Harry and he glared at the 'Guardian.'

"If you were supposed to be guarding the cards, then how was I able to release them?"

Kero squirmed and looked sheepish. "Well…"

"You were asleep!" Harry accused. "That's why you had your eyes closed on the front!"

"You try standing guard over a bunch of cards for a few centuries! They're not exactly great conversationalists!"

Sirius growled. "Oh I get it. You were slacking off and now you need my godson to clean up your mess. Sounds familiar."

"NO!" Kero yelled. He finally managed to wriggle his way out of Sirius's hand and flew up to yell at his face. "Harry was meant to be the Card Captor. That was how he found the book in the first place, and how he knew what to do. You think the power of the Clow would answer to just anyone?"

"So what now?" Harry asked before Sirius could interrupt.

"The Cards are mischievous spirits and they haven't been free for a long time. They'll scatter, before using their powers to create all kinds of chaos. You'll have to capture them as soon as possible, before they unleash their power. Without control they could easily destroy everything that came into contact with them."

"How am I supposed to do that, they're gone!"

"You'll learn to sense them. They are a type of magic different to anything you have encountered before. Not to mention some of their effects are going to be pretty attention grabbing."

"Right," Harry said, a little breathless. "Find a bunch of super powerful cards, that don't want to be found, capture them when they don't want to be caught, do it before they can destroy anything, and try to avoid getting caught by Dumbledore while I'm at it. Great."

"And the Ministry, if those clowns are still around." Kero told them. "You don't want the Ministry to find out you have the cards."

Harry sighed, thinking of the impossible task ahead.

"Harry are you sure you want to so this?" Sirius asked.

"What do you mean, does he want to? He doesn't have a choice. Did I not make it clear about the chaos and destruction? Chaos and destruction is bad!"

Sirius grabbed Kero again. "You listen to me you pompous little plushie. If you think I am going to let my godson go out to capture a bunch of powerful and dangerous cards to clean up your mess, then let me make something clear for you. The rest of the world can go to hell for all I care. It is my job to protect Harry and if that means sacrificing the rest of the world, then that's what I'll do." Harry beamed at the protectiveness in Sirius's voice.

"He won't be in danger. I'll be there to protect him." Kero assured him.

"R-R-Right." Sirius drawled, looking at Kero's form.

The little yellow guardian glared. "I don't like your tone."

Sirius turned to his godson. "Harry…"

"Sirius it's alright. I want to do this. I think Kero is right, I was meant to do this."

"Harry?"

"I can feel it Sirius. The cards are mine, this is mine." Harry looked at the wand still cradled in his hands. He lifted it and said, "Dispel." The wand glowed for a second before fading and leaving behind only the original key. "I will capture the cards, before they destroy anything. Just look at what one of them did to our hall."

Now that he looked the place was pretty trashed. Water covered the tiled floor; tables had been knocked over, paintings pulled from the walls. The portraits were all hiding behind their frames to avoid the water that had gotten everywhere. It looked, in short, like a storm had hit.

"That's pretty strange actually," Kero noted. Harry and Sirius turned to look at the guardian, eyebrows raised in identical expressions of scepticism. "I meant that the Storm stuck around. Why would it choose to destroy this place and risk capture when it could have escaped to whip up a bigger storm else where?" He peered at Harry. "Might be it had something to do with you and that scar."

Harry didn't get a chance to ask what Kero meant however because at that moment there was a 'Pop' and Dobby appeared in a puddle of water.

"Harry Potter sir! Dobby is so happy to be seeing yous! Harry Potter sirs Dogfather had asked Dobby to be coming to work for yous and take care of yous houses." He looked around. "Dobby did not think it would be so wet though."

Sirius sniggered, ignoring the Dogfather comment. "That's what happens when Harry Potter is around."

Dobby looked outraged. "Harry Potter sir's Dogfather should not accuse Harry Potter sir of making a mess." He narrowed his eyes at Sirius. "Dobby knows what Harry Potter sir's Dogfather gets up to."

Sirius spluttered and Kero laughed attracting the attention of the excitable house elf. Dobby gasped in wonder. "Keroberos!" he whispered in awe.

Kero turned to Sirius and smirked. "See, I am famous."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Ask him what he thinks of Harry."

Dobby was happy to answer the not-asked question. "Harry Potter sir is the bestest, kindest, most powerful wizard in the whole world. Harry Potter sir saved everyone when he destroyed the most evilest wizard ever. And still he is kind to poor Dobby even when Dobby was working for evil bad masters. Harry Potter sir freed Dobby and Dobby is so honoured to be working for him. Dobby is the luckiest house elf ever." Dobby was bouncing up and down, so excited to be telling someone how wonderful Harry Potter sir was.

Kero, on the other hand, was sceptical. "You defeated a dark wizard? No offence but you're kinda young. How could you defeat anyone?"

Dobby was outraged that anyone would question Harry's capability. "Harry Potter sir was only a baby when he destroyed the bad wizard. Turned his evil death curse against him and lived. Harry Potter sir is a great wizard."

"You survived the Killing Curse?" Kero asked, looking at Harry with new wonder. "You mean you survived being hit by the Killing Curse?"

Harry nodded. "Dumbledore thinks that when my mother… my mother sacrificed herself to save me, her love was enough to save deflect the curse."

Kero shook his head. "I don't know. A mother's love is capable of a great many things but your mother wouldn't be the first to give her life for her child. She must have cast some sort of shield charm that required sacrifice. Or maybe," he smirked. "You're just more special then you thought."

Dobby bounced again nodding eagerly. "Yes, yes, Harry Potter sir is very special. And now he has Keroberos with him, he…"

"Dobby." Harry interrupted, hoping to distract him before he could go off on another rant about how wonderful he was and all the great things he was going to do. "I know this place is pretty wet, but do you think you could tidy up a bit for us."

Sirius nodded. "Then you could see about getting us some dinner."

Kero agreed. "Yes! Food. And pudding! No dinner is complete without pudding."

Dobby nodded, and disappeared with a pop eager to get started.

"You know Harry," Sirius said as he left the room to get cleaned up. "When Moony and I planned this, we were expecting a nice quiet summer, with fun things, like flying and holidays abroad and animagus training, you know. Harmless things. Not capturing a bunch of super powered cards that want to destroy everything."

"I'm sorry Sirius, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"I know Kitten," he huffed in disgust. "This is just what you get when you mess around with books."

Later that night after the hall had been cleaned up and Dobby had prepared a fabulous dinner Harry and Sirius found themselves in the parlour. Kero was bloated out on the table waxing rhetoric over how good the first meal he had had in what was apparently several centuries was. Harry had no idea how such a small plushie could eat at least as much as he or Sirius had. Where did he put it all?

Harry was seated curled up against Sirius who was sprawled out on the couch. "Sirius did you really mean it when you said I could be an animagus?"

Sirius grinned. "Yep! It might have taken us ages to learn but you have the benefit of our experience. Well," he amended, "my experience and Moony's notes. The hardest part for us was finding our animal. But we already know what you are."

"You do?"

"Yep. It was the cutest thing Harry. When you were about a year old, I used to play with you as Padfoot. I'd give you doggy back rides. Anyway one day me and Prongs were watching you outside and were playing in our forms when you decided you wanted to play too. The next thing we know is this little ball of fluff comes charging in and runs straight into our legs. I thought you were a Puffskein at first because all we could see was fluff. It wasn't until we changed back that we saw you were actually an adorable little black kitten." Harry was enchanted by the story. Sirius laughed. "Apparently you decided that if Dad and Uncle Padfoot could change than you should too. Lily freaked though."

"Why?" Harry asked, upset at the thought of his mother mad at him.

"Your Mum was a bit like Hermione in that regard. If something was imposable then it should damn well stay imposable." He smiled at the memory of Lily's rant, before his smile faded. "And also by this time we had heard that Voldemort was after them. If you were already powerful enough to be an animagi as a baby, there was no way he was going to let that go. Lily swore us to secrecy. We didn't even tell Moony. In fact he still doesn't know. Boy is he in for a shock."

Harry was silent, thinking over what he had been told. "Sirius, why did Voldemort want to kill me?"

Sirius jumped, surprised at the question. "What? Harry, why would you…"

"I know he was there that night to kill me. He told me so in first year. But when I asked Dumbledore, he wouldn't tell me."

Sirius looked uncomfortable. "Harry, I don't agree with a lot of Dumbledore's decisions, especially the ones concerning you, but I am glad he didn't tell you as a first year. And more than a little horrified that you spoke to Voldemort about it but I'll get that story out of you later. You weren't ready then. I do think he should have told you at the end of the Tournament though, now that he's back not knowing can only hurt you. But now? Harry you have all those cards to capture and…"

"Sirius," Harry insisted. "Tell me."

Sirius sighed. "There was a prophesy. It said, if you want to take the obvious interpretation, that you would have the power to destroy the Dark Lord and that you would kill him or he would kill you."

Harry was horrified. "I have to…?"

Sirius hastened to explain. "We don't know that Harry. The prophesy was spoken by Trelawney and you know what an old bat she it. The point was Voldemort believed it. He still does, but that doesn't make it true."

Harry looked at Sirius, eyes wide. "How am I supposed to fight Voldemort?" He whispered. "I'm just a kid."

"No you're not." Kero had gotten up from the table and was now listening to Sirius's story. He looked at Harry seriously. "You are a kid that commands the power of the Clow Cards. I guarantee you, no matter how powerful your Dark Lord is, there's no way he can stand against the combined might of the Cards. Capture them all and they will protect you."

Sirius wrapped his arms around Harry. "I will protect you."

Kero floated over to land on his shoulder. "I'll protect you too." He said proudly.

"Right, I'm sure that makes him feel so much better." Sirius drawled.

"Just what are you implying?"

Well here's another chapter. No Eriol sorry. He's actually not going to be a large part of this part. He'll make a couple of appearences before they return to Hogwarts, and show up a few times after that, but we weren't going to have him be a majour part of the story until Harry starts changing the cards to his own form.

For the record though Eriol does know who was under the desguise. He is a very powerful and cunning wizard and in the anime he always knew what was going on with Sakura.

We weren't going to have any of the other characters show up at all. This story is more about Harry then the cards.

We hope everyone likes the relationship between Kero and Sirius. We loved the sniping between Kero and Li in the anime so this is our homeage to them.

Our thanks go out to everyone who reviewed. Bec, my co-writer, and I love hearing your thoughts. On that note please tell us what you think about telling Ron and Hermione about the cards. We have already written Hermione into the story at a later date, but should she be told about the cards? For the record they are friends, we don't like Dumbledore and Ron is not a idiot. Your thoughts would be a big help. Cheers.