AN: If it's not obvious, I don't own Harry Potter or Pokemon, that's why I post on a fanfiction website

Chapter Four

A Brief Respite

Late Night

Viridian Forest

It was nearly three o'clock in the morning when Harry led Leaf into the clearing where his family had set up a simple three-floor cottage. For the past several hours, the boy wizard had answered question after question about everything from the extent of his powers to how and why his family changed dimensions and about the Pokemon on his world. It had taken the dimensional hopper thirty tedious minutes to make Leaf believe that there were no Pokemon on his first Earth.

"So let me get this straight," said Leaf. "Your magic using mom invents a way to travel to a different dimension because some old woman said something in a raspy voice!"

"Hey, don't look at me! I think prophecy's a bunch of hogwash but the Dark Lord she mentioned apparently did believe in it. The psychopath had already murdered hundreds of people and ordered the deaths of thousands more. He didn't really care if he had to kill one or two families to assure his bloody immortality!"

Leaf shivered at the thought of all the death one man (monster, really) can cause.

They walked in silence for a while, Leaf thinking about all she had learned and Harry reveling in the solitude.

"Harry?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever think about what it would be like had you stayed in this 'England' place?"

"I used to," sighed Harry. "I would think and worry over my role in the prophecy. I mean, what if it was meant to be me! What if I was supposed to kill the madman and by my family's flight, we doomed an entire world of people! It got so bad that my dad pulled me aside and wheedled what I was bothered over out of me. And ya know what he did?"

Leaf shook her head, curious.

"He laughed. And I had a burst of accidental magic that turned his hair into snakes that would nip at his nose and ears. It stayed like that for nearly a month and mum made him sleep on the couch because she didn't want to get bit."

Leaf giggled.

"He and mum had thought long and hard on that very same subject while they were planning our escape. The answer they came up with was that, if I was the boy of prophecy, someone fated to fight the darkness, then something unexplained would have to happen to keep me there. Since it worked and I am here, then I can't be the Chosen One."

Harry shrugged while Leaf nodded thoughtfully.

"Anyway," said Harry, reaching out to grasp the screen door handle. "Don't let on to the fact that you know what you do. I don't think they'll mind, but I would like them to think that I kept our most important secret longer than two days."

The brunette nodded with a smile and Harry opened the door once it registered his magical signature.

000 0000 000

Harry was packing what he needed for a long journey, He and Leaf had stayed at his family cottage for two days. Long enough for the two to subtly rest after fighting Team Rocket in Viridian City. Somehow, his parents still didn't know anything about that, and Harry was determined to keep it that way. He suffered no delusions as to what his mother would do should she become aware that he fought a wanted terrorist, lost control of Alpha, and had to Obliviate someone during the first two days of his journey.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a peal of laughter from both his mum and Leaf. His parents, having had little contact with the outsiders, had taken to Leaf almost immediately. He had originally been worried that they would be upset at his late arrival, but if anything, his mother was overjoyed, if not a little bleary-eyed.

The young wizard shook his head; according to his dad, mum had gotten more affectionate and protective after hearing about the Prophecy. Add in pregnancy hormones and Lily Potter was a magical mother bear that could make the toughest Trainers stand down in fear. His father had been happy to see him but he was even more curious about Harry and Leaf's Pokemon but he tried to restrain himself so as not to raise the girl from Pallet's suspicion.

The dimension hopper snorted; Leaf was a masterful actress. His parents didn't have a clue that Leaf's knowledge about Magic had grown in leaps and bounds over the last few days. She had made it a habit to ask him questions about his abilities at every opportunity. He had eventually grown tired of her nagging and promised that he would loan her his theory of magic textbooks when they set out for their next destination, Pewter City, with the promise that she'd only read them when she was completely alone.

The boy wizard had asked her about her interest in magic, sparking an hour long discussion.

"Why am I so interested in magic?"

Harry nodded, they had left the house soon after lunch using the excuse that they wanted to train alone with their Pokemon, so as to build trust with them. Harry got the feeling that his father didn't believe him judging by the leer in his eyes and the waggling eyebrows.

"Yeah, I mean, not to be rude or anything, but you'll never be able to do magic. You would've showed the signs growing up, accidental magic, and all that."

Leaf sighed.

"Harry, when we visited my mom before we left Pallet, weren't you wondering where my father was?"

Harry was thrown off balance by the abrupt change in conversation but nodded after a moment's hesitation.

"I figured that he was either working, or a Trainer on his own journey, or..." he hesitated, "something bad happened to him."

"It was the last one," Leaf sniffled, "My dad was Professor Oak's top aide. He was next in line to succeed him as the Premier Pokemon Professor when it happened. He was on an expedition in the north when he went missing."

Harry gulped and settled against a thick tree.

"Harry, both my mother and father were very powerful, very talented Trainers. They had traveled together and fell in love. When they were in their twenty's, they gave up the adventuring lifestyle and settled in Pallet Town because mom fell pregnant with me."

Leaf sank to the ground and leaned against the tree infront of Harry.

"Dad got a job at Professor Oak's laboratory, and was sent on many field assignments. Soon, he was a published scientist. Three years after I was born, he was on an expedition to a frozen tundra up north. We received an encrypted video e-mail a month before he was set to return. The experiments they had been working on had... destroyed the lab and escaped, the video was of my father's 'last moments.'"

"So everyone considers him dead, but mom and I think differently. You see, he had the team of Pokemon with him that he used when he fought in the Indigo league-"

"-Your dad fought in the Pokemon League?"

Leaf smiled.

"Mom too. It was how they met. They battled against each other in the finals twenty years ago and tied. That was when they started traveling together. A lot of people thought they were unbeatable when they fought side by side."

Leaf lost herself remembering the stories her mother had told her.

Shaking her head, she continued with her story.

"When the lab was searched, they found only the damage caused by the experiment escaping. If dad had died then he wouldn't have gone quietly, he'd have fought with everything he had, and there wouldn't have been a lab to search."

There was another moment of silence.

"That's why Gary is the way he is; his parents were both working under dad but they weren't Trainers, didn't have a Pokemon between them, so everyone counts them just as dead as my father. He used to be a nice boy. We were all great friends, Ash, Gary, and I. The three colors, Red, Blue, and Green."

She smiled at the memories but it soon slipped off her face.

"When his parents were reported dead, he changed. He started lashing out at us. He became a bully."

"That's your goal, isn't it?" Asked Harry after a moment of respectful silence. "To find your dad?"

Leaf nodded and suddenly grinned.

"I also want to become a Pokemon Master, beat the League, you know? Then I'll become a scientist like dad. Mom says I got his curiosity."

Harry returned her grin.

"So you're studying me?"

Leaf laughed.

"I wouldn't put it so bluntly, but..."

Harry smiled and shook his head. He grabbed his belt; a special present enchanted by his father. It used selective Sticking Charms to hold up to six Pokeballs. On it he had three occupied, ping-pong sized balls; the morning after he and Leaf arrived, he had ventured into the forest to find himself a Grass type that could help against the Pewter Gym Leader's specialty, Rock types. Harry grinned as he thought back on his second successful capture.

Harry ventured into the tall grass. Sure, Metal Claw and Nightshade were good attacks that would either cut through a Rock Type's defense or bypass it completely, but he would feel better with a Grass or Water type on his team.

So here he was, slowly shuffling on his knees in the dewy foliage trying to keep as quiet as possible while the pre-dawn chill cut through his clothes, numbing him to the bone.

He had been searching for a while, using Warming Charms to keep his unresponsive fingers moving. Deciding to head back to the cottage before someone woke to find him missing, he set off at a trot, only to trip on a green vine. Jumping up, he brandished Cendio's Pokeball and his wand.

"La-la-la!"

Harry heard a shuffling laugh to his right and spun in his heels only to see a green ball of moving vines with red feet. Harry could see large, circular eyes in a parting of the vines.

Harry stuffed his wand away and pulled his Pokedex.

Tangela (M- Shiny):
The Vine Pokremon. Tangela's vines snap off very easily when happens without pain, allowing it to make a quick getaway. New vines grow back over a twenty-four hour time period.

Harry grinned; it looks like he found his Grass type!

"Go, Cendio! Use Metal Claw!"

Charmander burst forth from his Pokeball with his claws already glowing. He swiped at Tangela's midsection but only ripped a few vines from it's body.

Tangela used his red feet as a spring board and launched itself a few feet backwards. Extending two vines from it's back, it whipped them one after the other.

"Dodge them, Cen!"

The Lizard Pokemon failed to dodge the whips and was knocked to the ground on the first strike and then lashed across the back with the second.

Gasping for breath, Charmander was dimly aware of his Trainer encouraging him to move. Shaking his head slowly, he slowly stood and took a balanced stance that would allow him to move quickly in any direction.

"Use Ember, Cen!"

Charmander twirled and snapped his blazing tail in Tangela's direction.

The Vine Pokemon had probably expected the fight to end when Charmander went down because it had used a few vines to fashion a swing, on which it was playing. At the apex of it's ascent, it was smacked in the everything with a ball of flame, knocking it to the ground where it rolled around trying to stifle it's burn.

Harry threw his empty Pokeball and waited.

The boy wizard grinned and detached Tangela's Pokeball. Tapping the release button, he summoned the Vine Pokemon which appeared with an exclamation of it's species. Tangela, it appeared, had a happy-go-lucky personality that had reminded Harry of his mum's stories of the Rastafarians on the old world, adding in it's vines which looked like green dreadlocks, and Harry's nickname for the Vine Pokemon made a lot of sense. He was Rasta, the shiny Tangela.

Harry chuckled as he rubbed a purring Rasta's head, Leaf had not been pleased when Harry had returned during breakfast covered in mud and with a third Pokemon and had seen fit to give him angry glares for the rest of the meal. When Harry had approached his father to ask him why, James had laughed and simply said that he had a lot to learn about the female species.

Thoroughly confused, he cautiously asked his mother the same question and received a different but similarly troublesome answer.

"Mum?"

Harry entered his mother's study after knocking softly on the frame of the open door. The room looked like a modern muggle office but Harry knew that it was just an illusion to keep Leaf from asking questions as to why her private space looked like a Halloween shop had exploded inside it.

"Yes, Harrybear?"

Harry cringed at the childish nickname but allowed his mother her moment of fancy; she was pregnant, after all.

"Do you know why Leaf keeps giving me the stink eye? It started during breakfast."

"Oh, Harry..." sighed his mother. "You have so much to learn. If you were going out to look for Pokemon then you should've asked her to come with you."

Seeing Harry's confused look, she sighed for a second time and continued.

"You both agreed to do this journey together and then you go off on your own to improve, leaving her behind. She probably feels a little betrayed and more than a little lonely, being away from her home for the first time. Harry, you have to understand that your new friend is a little girl. She's mature, to be sure, but she still has very sensitive feelings and if you're going to be traveling together, then you need to be more thoughtful."

Harry nodded slowly and left the illusioned study after giving a distracted thank you.

It had taken a hour for Harry to find and convince Leaf that he both knew what he did wrong, that he was a prat, and that he was sorry. Of course, it hadn't helped that she didn't know what a prat was, considering it was slang from his old dimension.

Harry smiled and recalled his now sleeping Vine Pokemon. Slinging his rucksack over his shoulders, he left his room, flicking the light to the 'off' position. The boy wizard walked down the second floor hallway and knocked on the door to the previously unused guest room.

"Leaf!" called Harry. "you ready to go?"

"Just a minute!" came a muffled voice from beyond the wooden barrier.

Harry leaned against the wall opposite her door and waited. He was wearing a pair of black jeans tucked into dark brown boots, and a bottle green button up shirt. He wore his Pokeball belt draped on his hips, over his shirt so he could access them easily.

Harry was using his foot to tap out a vaguely familiar tune when Leaf exited her temporary room adjusting the strap on her pack. She was wearing a white sundress that ended at her knees and hugged her developing curves. Leaf wore matching sandals and a sunhat topped her head. Her dark brown hair was in a low ponytail except for a few loose strands that framed her face. A few days in the sun had given her a fine layer of freckles on her shoulders. She looked up at him and grinned.

"let's get going, Harry!"

Harry smiled in response and offered his arm with an exaggerated flourish, making Leaf giggle and curtsy.

The two descended the stairs, laughing all the way.

Unknown to Harry and Leaf, Lily Potter canceled a Dissilusionment Charm and a Scent-Masking Charm. She smiled softly and at the scene of her son and his little friend joking, a tear leaked out of her left eye. A second later, she wiped it away and silently cursed her pregnancy hormones for making her a weepy mess.

000 0000 000

Harry and Leaf waved good bye as they crossed the invisible barrier that kept wild Pokemon at bay. Harry was surprised when he again escaped with very little fussing.

"So," said Harry, turning to Leaf with a smile, "to Pewter?"

Leaf nodded happily.

Harry grinned.

'I guess this is the end of our brief respite... Gym Leader, I hope you're ready!'

000 Chapter End 000

Author's Note: Lots of character development in this chapter. How did you like Leaf's backstory? Too sappy? Has it been done before? Leave your thoughts in a review please!

New Pokemon:

Name: Tangela
Species: Vine Pokemon
Gender: Male
Type: Grass
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Regenerator- Allows user to restore vitality upon switching out of battle.
Original Trainer: Harry
Caught in Viridian Forest.
Nickname: Rasta
Moves Known: Absorb, Vine Whip, Stun Spore, Confusion