Summary: Dumbledore crosses the line, friends aren't really friends and Harry's just found (and accidentally set free) a bunch of super powerful cards, can anyone say oops. CCS/HP EH/HP Slash.
*****
(^ - Have borrowed directly or partially from Pan06)
(* - Have borrowed directly or partially from Shadow Crystal Mage)
*****
"Okay, what just happened here?" Harry asked shaken, looking at the chaos that used to be his library, then down at the book which had started this mess. Which was now glowing. Again.
They both just sat there watching it. Until-
Pop.
Harry blinked. Somehow, a 'pop' wasn't exactly what he was expecting.*
From the pop, or more specifically, the book, came a little orange-yellow... something. This something looked rather like a teddy bear with its over-large head and round ears – it also had little white wings on its back, which explained why it was floating mid-air. The something seemed to be sleeping; yes, its chest was rising and falling, whatever this something was, it was alive, Harry waited for the little thing for a little while before getting impatient, André, who's bewildered state had worn off by now, was rather amused at the whole mess.
Harry didn't really like waiting around for small orange-yellow floating somethings to wake up.
So he poked it.
Nothing happened. The small orange-yellow something was still sleep.
Except now that he was snoring too. He scowled getting rather annoyed with it.
And poked it again.
Nothing happened. However André thought it was all a brilliant show, sitting across from him chuckling to himself, so Harry glared at him.
Then continued poking the small creature.
Until finally...
"Wha..? What's goin' on?" The thing yawned out, until it realised... "STOP POKING ME DAMMIT!!" that Harry was still poking him.
"Oh, awake are you?" he asked blandly.
"Who are you?" It asked, Harry's eye twitched.
"I've been trying to wake for half an hour and all you can say is that?"
"Err... yeah" Then it noticed something else. "The cards! Where are the cards!"
"You mean these things, oh – I've only been trying to bring them to your attention since YOU POPPED OUT OF THAT DAMNED BOOK!!"
"Forget that! What about the cards! THE CARDS!" the little thing was panicking now, ignoring Harry's infamous temper – who then proceeded to grind his teeth to prevent himself from doing something he'd regret and answered the thing.
"I said the word Windy, a golden circle appeared and a tornado then proceeded to destroy my library, taking those cards with it to who knows where."
"THEY'RE GONE!?"
"Well yeah, this is what happens when their guardian is sleeping on the job." He said pointedly. "Which I presume is you, considering the lion on the cover is gone."
"You try watching over a bunch of cards for good thousand years – they're not exactly great conversationalist; and was only the past thirty years."
"Only thirty years," Yep, incredulous Harry is back "and did you even try to converse with them?"
"Ah, no."
"The cards are obviously magical and you neglected to think they could."
"Ah Kid, Don't know if you've realised this, but cards can't talk."
"Perhaps not, but magic can – even if it isn't in words." The thing was looking thoughtful, as well as a tad sceptical.
"What's your name kid?" Harry blinked at the rather unexpected question.
"I'm Harry, Harry Potter – you?"
The thing puffed out its chest – rather like Percy did when he was Head Boy "I am the great and powerful Keroberos, the guardian of the cards."
"You're a great and powerful guardian?" he stated doubtfully
"What does that mean?" The thing, Keroberos said "Anyway, call me Kero – It suits my false form better. And who're you?"
"André De Lune, a pleasure to make your acquaintance Keroberos. I'm Harry's guardian." Satisfied with the answer, he went back to what he believed to be a much more important topic of conversation than introductions.
"We need to get those cards back – and soon, the damage they cause could be catastrophic."
"What do you mean by we?" Harry deadpanned.
"Look kid, Harry – You wouldn't have been able to open the book if you weren't meant too; even if I had been awake, the same thing would have happened and while I was named as the chooser – It's really Clow that has chosen even now – you don't really have a choice in the matter."
"Chooser?"
"I was the one selected to choose a candidate to become the Cardcaptor; Yue, my brother and fellow guardian was selected as the judge, he alone can decide whether the candidate I've chosen is worthy of becoming our Master."
"Yue? That's Chinese for moon right?"
"Yes, Just as I rule over the sun – he rules over the moon and our magics come from these sources."
"That makes sense; and you've chosen me."
"You open the book, it's your destiny."
Harry grimaced "I'm beginning to hate the word destiny."
Kero looked nonplussed " Er – do I want to know why?"
"Prophecy – hate that word too – either I kill this dark lord or he kills me, that's the gist of it all anyway."
"Prophecies are rather tricky things – depending on the wording of it, it could very well already be fulfilled with what happened when you where a baby." André told him.
"The only information on the prophecy I have is from Dumbledore and I wouldn't put it past him to tweak the wording to keep me in his control and the physical record was destroyed in the DOM disaster."
"Fill me in on some history here, I'm a bit lost." Kero told them so Harry gave him his basic life history – but even that took a fair bit of time.
So after an hour, several refills in the snack department and plenty of questions Kero asked and Harry said he'd answer after he'd told the whole story...
"You survived the Killing Curse – like actually lived after being hit by it."^ Kero was still stuck on that little detail.
"I'm here aren't I?"
"A mother's love is capable of a great many things, but I don't know – a lot of mother's have sacrificed their own life for their child."^
"I know – I've thought of that, again it's something Dumbledore told me so I don't know how much I can trust it."
"Maybe you're just more special than you think Hero Boy."^ Harry glared at him for the unappreciated nickname.
*****
It took Kero a good few minutes to convince Harry to become the Cardcaptor; in the end Harry's hero-complex won out.
"Fine, how do we do this then?"
"Stand over there a bit. Good -" Both Harry and André were startled when the library faded away as Kero chanted "Key of the Seal. There is someone wishing to enter a contract with you. A boy. His name is Harry." At his words, a key fashioned to look like a birds head materialised over the open clasp of the book, which Kero was now standing on now by the way, and floated towards the somewhat bewildered boy "Key, grant him the power! RELEASE!" And with that the key became short red staff, that same birds head at one end. "Take the staff, Harry." Kero commanded, he complied – setting off a bright flash of light before the library came back into focus.
"I doubt today could get any stranger." Harry stated, more to himself than anything else.
"Now you've said that – fate will go out of its way to spite you, you know." André stated smirking
Harry glared "So glad you're enjoying yourself."
"Thanks kiddo." Harry glared at him again for that... and continued glaring at him... until – CRASH! "Told you so." Harry glared once more to tell him just how unappreciated that was before all of them raced out of the library (which the house elves had long cleaned).
Especially when they heard another crash.
Once reaching the living room all they could see was a lot of mess – well that and a pink blur that was whizzing all over the room at great speeds, quite literally jumping off the wall and ceilings.
"Now that's what I call a sugar-high." Both André and Kero looked at him strangely "What! It makes the muggle saying of 'jumping of the walls' more than just a figure of speech" They both chuckled at that – imagining muggle children doing what the pink blur was.
"That's the JUMP card." Kero said after calming down "Not exceptionally bright – but he's a flighty bugger, it's extremely difficult to get him to stand still long enough to seal him."
"So, how do I seal him?" Harry asked suddenly unsure that getting himself in this mess was worth it.
"Use the staff – let your instincts guide you, they won't lead you wrong; another useful feature of the sealing staff is that underage wizardry can't be detected through it." Kero told him
"Can't be detected – for real? Hell yeah!"
"More important things to be focusing on right now Hero Boy."
After a quick glare at the small guardian he set about his first mission as Cardcaptor – getting the pink thing on a sugar-high to stand still long enough to seal it.
As a Gryffindor (wrongly placed; but a Gryffindor all the same) he was more than used to rushing head long into situations that should of required more thinking through; however he was essentially a Slytherin and would have preferred being able to plan things thoroughly, unfortunately he didn't have the time to plan – fortunately, he'd had a lot of experience with being the foolishly-brave Gryffindor – so he did what a Gryffindor did best; he made it up as he went along.
Whilst running into the room to confront his first Clow Card he pulled out one of the three Cards that had stayed with him; coming to a stop in the centre of the room, holding The WINDY much like the sprite was some sort of weapon, level with his face he flicked the Card so she was facing him; he closed his eyes and focused on the power coming off of her, his eyes snapped open as he commanded "WINDY – surround The JUMP with a raging sphere of air and bind him!" The golden circle had appeared beneath his feet once again as he cast the Card out in front of him – twirling the rather-odd staff and then slamming it down on the surface of The WINDY Card she materialised into her physical form before dissolving into a torrent of pastel-yellow magic moving to intercept the hyper-active JUMP Card.
"Good strategy Kid! JUMP is one of the Cards that falls under WINDY's element – she shouldn't have a lot of trouble getting him to comply with her wishes." Kero called
The WINDY intercepted the card just as he landed and before he managed to jump away again and set about fulfilling her orders – WINDY's magic surrounded The JUMP from all directions before she started swirling like a vicious whirlwind, trapping the pink rabbit-like creature within it.
Following his instinct once again – Harry twirled the staff whilst commanding "Return to the guise you were meant to be in – JUMP CARD!!" Slamming the staff down directly in front of him, the golden circle appeared for what Harry hoped was the last time today – pulling The JUMP Card back into his card form in a mass of pink magic, despite how the small sprite fought – then, finally successfully captured, the card flew into Harry hand.
"That wasn't so bad – but I'm guessing The JUMP's one of the easier ones to handle." He said relieved.
"That's right – but you did real good, it was your first capture and you still handled it really well." Kero praised
"I'm more than used to adrenaline." Harry answered, as if it explained everything – and it did really.
"My. Not even three days I've known you and your already in a new adventure. I knew life would be exciting around you, I just didn't expect it to start quite this soon." André joked with him.
"You two are ganging up on me, aren't you?"
"What makes you say that Hero Boy?" Harry just glared at them both, it seemed it was becoming a frequent expression for him over the last few hours.
*****
In number 12 Grimwald Place however, the chaos was just starting.
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, among many other titles was contemplating just where he went wrong with the Potter brat, the boy should still be firmly under his thumb, sitting lonely and depressed at his relatives home, waiting for him to come and rescue the child from his oppressive Aunt, Uncle and Cousin.
The noise in the kitchen was deafening as he tried to plan a way to get back into the boys good books.
"Enough!" He shouted over the din, finally losing his patience with the lot of them. "Much better, now – does anyone have any idea as to where young Harry is? It's imperative that we get the poor boy back to his Aunt and Uncle as soon as possible."
Moody spoke up "I've ready talked to his relatives – they went on about some nonsense of having the boy threaten them to take him to London and how they haven't seen him since; a basic mind scan produced a somewhat different story, I'll show you the memory – it'll do it a hell of a lot more justice." He finished snickering.
The memory started as the brat walked into his families living room.
"Uncle Vernon?" More to get their attention than anything else
"What is it boy. Can't you see we're busy?" Harry glanced at the box with moving pictured discreetly, then arched his eyebrow in a way reminiscent of a certain Potions Master.
"I need help getting into London tomorrow, and thought, since you're already going to London – that you could drop me off on Charring Cross Rd" His Uncle face was turning red.
"No." Dumbledore was rather glad for that, they had to keep the boy isolated after all; but it seemed Harry had other ideas.
"But if you don't drop me off, I'll have to summon the Knight Bus – and I didn't think you wanted to see a triple-decker violently purple bus turn up on your sidewalk with a nice loud bang – I'm being respectful to your wishes to have nothing that could possibly associated with" he dropped his voice down to a whisper "You-Know-What." Raising his voice back to its proper volume once again "It's the only other way I can get to London, either you take me or I'll have to summon the Knight Bus – and really, anything that loud is bound to attract a lot of attention, what would the neighbours think." The child told the older man slyly.
The meeting degenerated from there.