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)
*****
"Alright, so now I have four of them... Just how many cards are there anyway?" Harry stated later that night while watching the stove – he had somehow convinced the house elves to let him cook by telling them that he loved cooking and would prefer to do dinner and desert himself.
"There are fifty-two in tota-" Kero started from his place on the counter where he was watching him cook.
"FIFTY-TWO!!"
"Yes, fifty-two; now, if you'd let me continue." The small guardian said pointedly, going into what Harry was starting to refer to as his Teaching Voice. "There are fifty-two cards, split into four categories under the stronger elemental cards which are FIREY, WINDY, EARTHY and WATERY; you already have WINDY which will help a great deal, especially with the card under her like JUMP." Harry looked at the four cards lined up on the counter, more specifically at JUMP. "Now like the four element cards; the guardians also have cards that fall directly under their jurisdiction, under me; Keroberos of the Sun, fall FIREY and EARTHY as well as the cards that fall under their element; under Yue of the Moon there's WINDY and WATERY and the card under those elements, do you understand so far?"
"Yeah, sound like it's broken up much the same as a standard deck of playing cards at this stage."
"For me to be able to transform into my true form, you need to capture both FIREY and EARTHY; EARTHY however, is one of the more difficult cards to deal with. FIREY's temperamental, but he's got nothin' on EARTHY."
"What about this Yue character, if pattern follows, gaining WINDY and WATERY will restore his powers?" André inquired
"Incorrect. Yue and I, despite being brothers, are very different, because he is the judge, I'm not actually allowed to say all that much about him; however I can say this, I am of the sun – a power that burns brightly without outside influence; the moon shines by reflecting light, his magic comes from reflecting our Master's magic; because of that Clow set up the need for FIREY and EARTHY as a limitation."
"So, until I get those two cards, you've only got part of your actual power."
"That's right. It means I can help you, but I can't interfere with my magic too much – that way Yue can judge on your efforts accurately."
"Okay, do you think Yue will be difficult to convince?" Harry asked Kero whilst putting the dishes on the table.
"Knowing him, yeah – he made it pretty clear he didn't want another Master, he's going to make this as difficult as he possibly can."
"Yay. What about the cards I have? LIBRA, THUNDER, WINDY and JUMP; what can they do?"
"Well, THUNDER, WINDY and JUMP are all pretty obvious; LIBRA however is a little more subtle, she can tell truth from lies, when the balance of her scales tips, a lie is being told; which way the scale tips is also significant, if it tips to the right it's what can be called a good-natured lie – if anything can be called as such; it basically means that whatever they are withholding not harmful or perhaps of a personal nature; when the scale tips left however, there are malicious intentions behind it and it's probably best for you to stay away from the person telling it."
"Interesting, that sounds really useful; she'll have to be in material form to work though right?"
"Well, to get that specific – yes, she can sort of prod you when she senses a lie but nothing else while in her card form."
"That's still really useful."
"Oh?" Kero inquired before stuffing a huge portion of chicken into his tiny mouth.
"Let's just say a lot of people lie to me quite regularly, I'd just like to find out if others are in on it."
"That Dumbledore fellow, right?"
"Weasley and Granger also, if I recall correctly." André added.
"That's right."
*****
The next day André brought up the topic of the potions needed to make Harry healthy probably for the first time in his life since his parents were murdered.
"I'm not a Potions Master, in fact – potions was my worst subject, I do, however, have training in Medi-wizardry."
Harry blinked at him "Then why aren't you a Medi-wizard instead of a reporter?"
"You have to be a very special sort of person to work in the Medical industry, it turns out the reason I actually wanted to become a Medi-wizard in the first place was the very same reason I quit; I can't stand to see any one in pain." André smiled at him self-depreciatingly.
"It does however allow us to diagnose the potions you need without going to St Mungo's or other places of its ilk, I doubt very much you'd like having some random Medi-person examine you."
"No. I have a few trust issues on a normal basis, when it comes to people actually casting spells at me, those issues are amplified."
"We'll do that examination now. So we know what potions we'll need; which brings us to another subject, I know you don't much like him – but he's the very best when it comes to potions."
"Professor Snape, right?" He replied straight-faced.
"That's right."
"He probably tell Dumbledore where I am and use the opportunity to jibe at me and tell me how much like my father I am, but he's probably the only one among those people I do trust." Another useful feature of his home, it doesn't allow uninvited guests on the grounds, so even if he did tell Dumbledore, the old man wouldn't be able to do anything.
"Wonderful!" And André proceeded to examine him cheerfully.
"He's already here, isn't he?" He deadpanned, which caused André to sweat-drop.
"Has any one told you that you're entirely too perceptive for one your age?"
"Nope, can't say they have, but then most people my age don't have insane megalomaniacs who want to take over the world trying to kill them either."
"Very eloquent Mr. Potter, perhaps you're redeemable after all." And there was said Potions Master making himself known.
"You were there the whole time, weren't you?"
"Indeed."
"I should really pay more attention to what's around me." He sighed, André continuing to examine him around the conversation.
"Probably." Snape smirked "Now, what was that nonsense André was telling me about – not even two weeks into summer and on another grand adventure."
Harry turned to the man in question. "You told him about the Cards?"
"No, but you just did; I simply told him you were rather lively to be around, what with your inability to stay out of trouble and all."
"Are you sure you weren't a Slytherin?"
"No, definitely a Ravenclaw; though the hat did consider it."
"I'm not surprised at all - you and Lily always acted very Slytherin." Snape told him "Unfortunately, none of her sense got passed on."
"Hey, I can be Slytherin, in fact it was The Sorting Hat's first choice for me, however - Dumbledore's manipulations got to me first."
Snape looked at him in shock "You couldn't be Slytherin even if your life depended on it."
"In many cases, my life has depended on it." Harry dead-panned and André had decided to just let them work this out themselves.
"Then I demand proof you're not just as much of an idiot as your father was."
"That defeats the purpose of being sly and cunning I would think."
"True enough but I'm not convinced."
"That's because I always stay at Weasley's level academically so he doesn't turn into a jealous prat, it can't be helped that you think I'm an idiot in the mean time."
"You are an idiot."
"Guilty until proven innocent; a classic Slytherin mindset."
"One that keeps most of us alive."
"Perhaps not in this case, if it's true that I'm as Slytherin as I say – then you are grossly underestimating me."
"A Slytherin underestimates no one." Snape sneered
"And does their very best to be underestimated in return." Replied Harry smirking
"Alright, all done." André informed them, their attention leaving each other and settling on him instead "It's not good, there's more damage than I originally thought, your bones are very brittle –probably from the numerous breaks throughout the years; it seems your magic has being speeding up your healing rate in such situations, doing what a standard bone healing spell would, taking a part of the bone from elsewhere and then using it to fuse the break, much better to take the potion in the case of broken bones."
"Those idiots are too used to seeing instant results, they don't care if weakens the bone so long as the healing happens quickly, never mind the fact that the potion does a better job of things." Sneered the Potions Master
"Indeed." André smiled "So we need some high-strength Bone-Correcting and Bone-Strengthening potions to start with, we'll also need high-strength Nutrient potions – to take three times a day until I say stop – also; this is a matter I don't quite know how to approach, it seems there's a block on both your magic and hereditary abilities, there also seems to be several memory charms."
"What!? At the risk of sounding paranoid here, I'm sure most of that can be blamed on Dumbledore."
"No silly, it's only paranoia if there's no one out to get you – and I think we can agree that that's not the case." No guesses who said that.
"Agreed, in any case – a healthy sense in paranoia never hurt anyone, unless you take it as far as Mad Eye, that is. Which brings me to another subject entirely – Mad Eye was the one who questioned your relatives when the Order - that is to say Dumbledore – discovered you were missing."
"How long did actually take them to realize that was gone?" Harry asked smirking.
"Three days." The professor replied with identical, abet more practiced, smirk.
"Oh, poor me – I could have captured by Death Eaters, huddling in small cell waiting for them to rescue me before dying a horrible bloody death at Voldemort's hand." He pretended to break down and cry dramatically "And these are the people the Wizarding World is relying on to save them, pathetic. So, what about Moody, now?"
"Yes, apparently your relatives tried to convince him that you'd threatened them to take you to London."
"Oh please, let's just ignore the fact that they're all much bigger than I am."
"That's why he used Legilimancy, the true version of events was much more interesting – he used a pensieve to show everyone at the Order, it was rather entertaining. In any case, these blocks could be responsible for somewhat dismal ability at Occlumancy, one needs to be in tune with their magic to be able to use it to keep others out of their mind. The book you read on the subject would have told you that."
"What book now?"
"The one Dum- he didn't actually give you that book he told me you'd read, did he?"
"No, while I did find all the books on the subject I could after Sirius died, he didn't give me any of them."
"Manipulative bastard." He swore.
"Why'd you think I didn't stay in England after trying and falling in every way possible to get custody of Harry?" Harry's heart warmed at this news, the fact that André actually tried everything in his power to adopt him; he allowed himself a small smile at the thought.
*****
In the long run, it took about an hour for everything to be squared away.
"That took longer than I expected, I'm going to make lunch – wonder where Kero is?" Harry finished off-handedly.
"Then I will be off, it seems you're going to be keeping me busy all summer Mr. Potter."
"Nonsense, you're having lunch with us." Surprisingly, this came from Harry. "We have a fully stocked potions lab in basement anyway; you're welcome to it – it will give you a break from both manipulative old fools, you can just say to one that the other has you doing a lot of brewing and you'll be unavailable for the rest of the summer – you deserve a vacation to, you work too hard. You'll probably be stuck inside of the wards but you're welcome to anywhere in the house and on the grounds."
The some-what dour man seemed to have trouble coming to terms with what was just said "Thank you Mr. Potter, I believe I'll take you up on that offer, it seems you're at least half-way Slytherin – Now, you can tell me what trouble you've gotten yourself into this time and whether or not you can even cook."
"Of course, I can cook – I would let the house-elves do it if I couldn't; you wouldn't believe how long I had to argue with them to let me do the cooking. As for the trouble-" Harry sighed. "Have you ever heard the legend about a sorcerer of both Chinese and English descent?"
"Vaguely, the ministry doesn't like that story after all – I never did know why, I'm presuming it's more than just a story if it's somehow connected to the mess you're in."
"That's right, Clow Reed lived in the same time as the Founders, whether he actually met them or not I don't know, why is everything from that time connected to the Founders anyway?
"They're just lucky I guess." André replied, smirking.
"Right, well anyway – Clow Reed created an entirely different branch of magic, using both side of his heritage, Eastern Magic from his Mother's side and Western from his Father's. The magic he created was sentient and rather mischievous, in a way to better control their chaos, these Magical – well I suppose you'd call them sprites – these magical sprites were created to become Cards when not in use."
Snape rose one of his eyebrows. "While all very interesting, it doesn't tell me much – only that you're presence has yet to make its way into this story."
"Well," Harry started self-deprecatingly "When Clow Reed died all those years ago, he set up a system to find his successor – even if he wasn't alive to do it. The Cards had an additional protection, not for the rest of the world against the Cards but for the Cards against the rest of the world – Clow Reed knew greed and lust for power was human nature, and to protect those he saw as his children more than just his life's work, he set up some security." Just as Kero came speeding through with the Clow Book.
"What on earth is that?"
"The Clow Book."
"Not that – that." He said pointing to Kero.
"Sorry, I've gotten so used to him, I guess I forgot that he's a relatively uncommon occurrence, even in the Magical World – Professor Snape this is Keroberos, Guardian Beast of the Seal and what Clow called the Chooser, even though he didn't actually choose – you know that Clow guy sounds sort-of manipulative."
"He was in a sort-of I know something you don't know sort of way – but I suppose when you're consistently seeing flashes of the future, you do know something others don't so it's entirely justified."
"Rather small for a Guardian Beast." Snape said off-handedly – in the way that he was famous for and as predicted, Kero attempted to bite him for it and if it weren't for Harry grabbing his tale as his Professor started that sentence, he would have succeeded.
"This is just his False Form," He said, both placate Kero and to satisfy his teacher curiosity. "Once I collect both the FIREY Card and the EARTHY Card, he can return to his True Form."
"But why limit the Guardian like that?"
"Kero hold the power of the Sun – as such he can burn brightly on his own, without needing his Masters magic to sustain him; His brother Yue on the hand, hold the power of the Moon – and the Moon shine by reflecting light and needs his Masters magic to sustain him. The need for the FIREY and EARTHY Cards was set up as a limitation, so the brothers were more equal. Here Kero, lunch is ready."
Once they had finished lunch the whole story had been explained very thoroughly – several times.
"Not even a week since you left your family and already in trouble."
"Yeah, I've just learned that trying to dodge it makes it worse though."
And what kind of author would I be if something didn't go "BOOM!"
"What on earth was that?!"André asked.
Harry just looked at him "Do you really need to ask?" They raced to the foyer and found...
...A group of six people laying in a tangled mess.
"Why do I get the feeling our Port Key took us to the wrong place." The one with Chocolate brown hair and eyes told the one with dark blue hair and eyes – clearly accusing him of being responsible for what had happened.
The blue haired teenager just smiled serenely saying "Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere." As if the brown haired one wasn't trying to glare holes through him.
Harry decided to insert his two cents saying "Do Port Key take wrong turns?" All six looked up at him. The Blue haired one stood from where he had landed and smiled his charming smile once again – Harry off handedly noticed he was rather tall, handsome too; wait just a god damned minute – where did that come from.
"I apologise, we honestly didn't expect to appear here, we were on our way to go shopping."
"You do know Diagon Alley's is over two hundred kilometres away, right?" he replied.
"I'm afraid I didn't make the Port Key, my cousin made it since I had been in Japan for quite a few years and have forgotten the co-ordinates, it was just easier to have Nakaru make it."
"Were you trying to get us blown up?!" The brown haired on shouted, the tall black haired one with dark grey eyes nodded his head in agreement, the sliver haired one with tawny eyes sweat-droped, the auburn haired girl with eyes as green as his tilted her head to the left slightly looking confused and the dark haired girl had stars in her purple eyes while going on about "How cute her Sakura-Chan was" and how she'd "Capture her delicate beauty on film throughout this adventure."
Harry decided it was just easier to focus on the task at hand, that is the handsome blue haired boy "It doesn't worry me so much that the Port Key 'took a wrong turn', what worries me is that you got past the wards while doing so – only someone with my permission – or the permission of someone I've personally appointed, can get into this house."
"Oh, that's why my magic is telling me not to cross the foyer." Said the brown haired one.
"Perhaps introductions are the best place to start – My names Harry Potter, to my left is André De Lune, who is my parental guardian and Uncle figure, to my right, Severus Snape – my Potions teacher and Potions Master."
"Pleased to meet you Harry Potter, my name is Eriol Hiirazagawa, the one with brown hair and eyes is my distant cousin Syaoran Li, the dark haired girl is Tomoyo Daidouji, the green eyed girl is Sakura Kinomoto – she's Syaoran's girlfriend, the one now glaring at Syaoran is Sakura's elder brother Toya Kinomoto and the last one is Yukito Tsukishiro."
"Welcome to Lune le Sol, lets discuss this in a more comfortable setting – the library perhaps, Tricksy."
"Yous be calling Master Harry Potter Sirs!"
André chuckled to himself and informed the guest as to why he winced "He hates being called Master – however, when he asked the elves to just call him Harry, it caused a huge commotion – so he compromised with them and told them to call him Master Harry instead; they've been calling him 'Master Harry Potter Sir' ever since." Eriol started chuckling along with André at this information.
"This is all well and good Mr. Potter but you seem to be forgetting that these people are complete strangers and we are in the middle of a war." Snarky bastard making a return.
"You're forgetting something also Professor," pulling out one of his cards "I have LIBRA on my side."
"You have the Clow Cards!?" Syaoran yelled.
"We will discuss this in the library, Tricksy – tea and snacks to the Library please and since I think this will take awhile could you and the others prepare dinner tonight."
"Yes Master Harry Potter Sir, Wes be doing that."
A few minutes later, everyone was settled in the Library.
"You have an amazing home harry." Eriol complemented
"Thank you, I've only recently moved in – not even a week ago to be exact."
"Why do you have the Clow Cards!" Syaoran shouted.
"I apologise for my cousin, you see the Clow Card are of a direct interest to the Li family, as you could probably tell by his name – they're Chinese, and direct decendence from Clow Reed's Mothers family..."
"Ah, I see the problem now – Asian cultures have a lot of pride in family, anything created by a member of blood should stay with those of that blood."
"Exactly! Hand them over!"
"No."
"What!?"
"If Clow Reed had desired for his card to be a family legacy, he wouldn't have the system he now has in place, he made Keroberos the chooser and Yue the judge for a reason – we may not know what that reason is for the moment, but you can be guaranteed it's most probably a good one – I've been collecting the card for an even shorter time than I've lived in this house, I have four of them and even I can tell the potentially limitless power would be catastrophic in the wrong hands."
"Are you saying the Li Clan would abuse them!"
"No, I'm saying 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'; there was a reason I was chosen – I don't know what it is yet but I know there's a reason, and that's good enough for me."
"Not good enough!"
"May I remind you that you are a guest in my home and I can remove you from when-so-ever I please; stop acting like a spoilt brat and act your age." Harry said icily, glaring at the impudent Chinese boy.
André deciding to lighten the atmosphere said "Have you been taking lessons from Severus Harry, that glare was almost as scary as his." Both Harry and Snape glared at him for his efforts, while he just sat drinking his tea happily.
And just to reiterate, 3... 2... 1... "CRASH!"
"Not again." Harry moaned, banging his head on the table.
"Yo! Hero Boy! We've got a Card down here!"
"You don't say." He commented sarcastically "I'm starting to think they're going out of their way to destroy my home. Oh well back to business – something tells me this one's going to be a lot harder than JUMP." Getting a feeling of Déjà vu, Harry made his out into the hall, forgoing the stairs all together by jumping over the banister.
"When he's finished catching that Card I'm going to give him one hell of a tongue lashing – no regard for his own safety, I swear." André cursed, the eight followed in a more conservative manner by actually using the stair.
As Harry ran into the drawing room he had to quickly dive to the floor to dodge something that looked like a blue chameleon, he didn't know what this card did yet and that was a way he most certainly didn't want to find out, speaking of – what did this one do?
"Kero! What am I facing?!" He called out.
"That's CHANGE! CHANGE works by... Look out!"
The door to the drawing room opened again as André, Snape and his six unexpected guests entered – and CHANGE bolted towards it new escape route, right towards Eriol.
"Look out!" He shouted, racing to intercept the fleeing Card; Eriol grabbed hold of the sprites tail as Harry tried to skid to a stop, but instead crashed headlong into Eriol and CHANGE (come on, who didn't see that coming?).