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)
André looked upset with him – damn.
Professor Snape just stood there arms crossed with a smirk on his face that was quiet clearly saying 'I'm looking forward to you trying to talk your way out of this.'
Kero was salivating over the completed Banoffee Pie, the Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondant, the Strawberry Shortcake and the Triple Berry Mousse Cake – yeah, he'd been busy.
Syaoran was, as usual, glaring at him; Harry was getting really sick of his attitude.
Judging by the fact that Tomoyo had her camera in his face going on about his 'adorability' she was becoming just of obsessed with him as she was with her cousin – he repressed a shudder at the thought.
Sakura looked relieved the camera wasn't pointed at her for a change.
Touya was actually looking rather impressed, but with his incredible magical senses, he probably had a better idea of what was going on.
He still couldn't get a solid read on Yukito Tsukishiro, he seemed rather surprised by what had just happened, but really, he was always so calm and easy going – he had a smile on his face most of the time – but there was something he wasn't showing; Harry very much doubted it was something he was even conscious of.
The perpetual enigma.
And speaking of enigmas.
"Bravo! Very well done!" complimented the blue haired, blue eyed enigma, wearing his closed eye smile that just screamed 'up to something!' whilst still clapping.
"So…" he fished "How'd you know I was down here?"
"We didn't." André stated unimpressed "Looks like you've been busy."
Touya spared him from answering by saying "Everything went silent; we sensed its source down here."
"You sensed its source down here Onii-chan." Sakura stated smiling, but then she was usually smiling.
"How is it he gets SILENT! He didn't do anything!" No guesses who was throwing the hissy fit, Eriol just continued smiling and informed his cousin of what he was missing.
"The SILENT values, well… silence – if he had spoken he would have failed her test and he would have had to capture her the hard way –Many of Clow's transcripts mention the cards in passing, shortly, the SILENT can't stand noise of any kind – he created her when Yue and Keroberos wouldn't stop arguing,"
"Hey!" Kero protested
"I apologise, I am just mentioning what I've read."
"That would explain some things." Harry mused under his breath; luckily Kero didn't hear this, though Eriol's smile got wider
"I'd imagine the fights created between the SILENT and the VOICE and SONG would be rather extraordinary" Eriol continued, musing out loud.
"Oh yeah!" Kero stated around a mouthful of fondant "I remember those fights! VOICE and SONG hate SILENT and vice versa – it was scary!"
"Hey! That's for dessert, you glutton!" Harry exclaimed "I start making dinner in half an hour, couldn't you have waited!"
"But it was calling out to me! Begging me! Eat me! Eat me please!" He looked up to Harry to see if he had convinced him of just how helpless he was against the evil Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondant.
Not even for a moment.
"You have to finish your dinner" though with Kero he didn't think that'd be a problem "and you don't get dessert afterwards." Kero pouted, but didn't protest, until Harry finished with "and no more sweets for 48 hour – starting after you finish that."
"Oh! But…"
"Stern but fair." Eriol nodded solemnly, interrupting Kero's protests, before breaking his poker face and chuckling.
"So… VOICE and SONG?" Harry asked
"Yes, the VOICE steals the voice it likes and the SONG – sings basically, the trascripts don't go fully into the powers the cards have – so many of the abilities the cards have are as much a mystery to those that have read them to those that haven't."
In the end, André was still unhappy, Syaoran was still scowling and Kero was still lamenting the end of his existence.
So, not much was achieved.
In Grimmald Place however, the fun was just getting started.
And by fun, yeah, we mean total unmitigated chaos.
Every floor, even the stairs were drowning a foot deep in water.
Dumbledore had been sure the twin had been to blame (and if you needed to know which twins, you obviously lived in a cave)
How was there a foot deep of water all over headquarters?
That could probably be blamed on the rain.
Yes rain, indoors.
But after an extensive interrogation and the Weasley twins actually coming up innocent (for once), Dumbledore had immediately jumped to the conclusion that this was (somehow) Harry Potter's fault.
Which it was.
However inadvertently, and he proceeded to convince Molly Weasley of that fact. He was very good at knowing how people would react when news was delivered a certain way. Molly would fly off into a righteous rage and proceed to create a howler.
Which went completely to plan, it was just as well Fawkes consented to deliver it, the blasted bird refused to take him to the boy when he'd realised he was behind wards owls couldn't get through.
The Phoenix had also refused to take his mail, so all the port keys and tracking charm where useless.
Yes, he'd tried that too.
He didn't see the adorable little blue jester sitting on the clouds above his head as the rain proceeded to become heavier.
It was probably just as well.
Rita really was fantastic company when you weren't afraid she was going to shred your reputation into ribbons. When she first saw him after walking into the library she stopped dead, did a sudden double take and her jaw dropped.
"What ha…?"
"Long story," He told her sheepishly "One probably easier to tell when we actually get to summer after fifth year – It'll be easier with all the background information already dealt with."
"This is why you missed our appointment isn't it?"
"Yeah, tea?"
"Thank you Mr. Potter; and with that, shall we begin?"
Their interview session was a very productive one, filled with many cups of tea, the strawberry shortcake and a temporary library ban for the other occupants of the house, they managed to complete both his second and third year – though Rita looked ready to kill on several occasions, she was of the opinion that no preteen boy should have to go through what he did and whilst he had attempted to remain objective, she had clearly seen what had taken him a while, Dumbledore was a manipulative, conniving old coot that was practically writing Harry's life story to suit his own needs.
They would have gone further, however Kero had flown in screaming about the end of the world.
Again.
"No. I am not going to shorten your sweet ban." He deadpanned, crossing his arms and standing the majority of his weight on his left leg – a stance that Weasley had told him to stop doing "'Cause it's girly and make you look like a fag".
Charming, right?
It was a good way of telling someone that he was distinctly unimpressed.
"This isn't about that!" Kero continued hysterically.
Meanwhile Rita was just sitting there, looking rather shell shocked.
He was confused up until he realised they hadn't gotten that far yet.
Yay.
And Kero was still screaming.
In something other than English.
An Asian Language, he was pretty sure anyway.
Until Kero flew into his face and finished with, "Well! Why aren't you doing anything!?"
Harry proceeded to grab him by the tail and pull him out of his personal space before saying "Because the only languages I speak are English and Parseltounge and you were speaking neither – now, as I doubt you speak Parseltounge, English please, and speak slowly this time."
"There's no time for slowly!" He screamed, before much of it became incomprehensible.
Harry promptly lost his temper and started shouting himself, "Kero! Talking quickly means nothing if the person on the other side can't understand what you're saying! Slowly! Now!" He demanded.
They'd gained something of an audience, it wasn't until Syaoran himself smashed through the doors that Harry himself noticed this however.
The fact that he was swinging a highly stylised sword at Sakura with suspiciously blank eyes as she executed complex gymnastics he frankly thought the somewhat clumsy girl would be incapable of alerted him of exactly what the problem was.
He turned to Kero, "Syaoran is possessed by a Clow Card," He stated "Really, how hard was that? Excuse me." He then proceeded to make his Gryffindor side proud. Again.
He released the sealing staff before doing what he could to gain Syaoran's (ie the Cards) attention.
How did he do this?
Easy.
He jumped in between him and Sakura, behind him he heard yelling – yeah, they were probably calling him an idiot every way they knew how.
He, however, had better things to concentrate on right now.
Like avoiding getting his head cut off.
Judging by the fact that it had cut through his love seat and left it cleanly in two pieces, the sword was very, very, very sharp.
"Kero, everything you know! Now please!"
"That's the SWORD Card!" He replied
Harry rolled his eyes, "I gathered that part." Well, sort of, but he really needed more than that.
"The SWORD Card will make the one wielding it a master – it's ability to cut depends on the will of the wielder – you think 'don't cut' and it won't – in this case the cards in control and by the state of your couch you may want to avoid getting hit." Kero yelled back, unable to resist a wise crack of his own.
"Meaning I'm not going to win this by playing fair." He said to himself
"You need to make Syaoran let go of the sword!" Kero called "It can't do anything without a wielder!"
'Easier said than done' he thought, as he narrowly avoided having his nose cut off for at least the third time.
"Think! What do you have!" he told himself sternly as he parried a rather life threatening strike with the sealing staff.
The Cards and standard wizarding magic – wizarding magic wouldn't work, incantations would give the Card too much warning – the Cards then, and doing so without harming Syaoran, which narrowed his options.
A lot.
If you think don't cut, it won't – that seemed obvious to him, all magic was intent, if you didn't want it, you couldn't cast it.
It was why a lot of students overpowered their spells, they were trying too hard – putting more intent in than necessary.
But what if you wanted something to be less powerful?
That seemed to be what Kero was saying about SWORD, if you were wielding the SWORD and you didn't want it to cut.
That was basic magical theory.
In reverse.
Most people wanted their spells more powerful after all.
It was all about intent.
And it was then it hit him.
It worked for muggle police officers, and women being stalked by unsavoury men.
It was the return of the look of unholy glee – he could have sworn he heard someone say "Ah oh" behind him.
As for his Master Plan™
He pulled out THUNDER.
"You can't!" Sakura yelled "You'll hurt him!"
"Not Badly." He replied.
"That's the THUNDER kid, how do you plan on not hurting him with that!?" Kero yelled back.
"I'm lost too." Yukito pipped in
"Relax." He drawled, grin still in place "I'm just going to Taser him." Saying it as if he were just talking about the weather.
"What's a Taser?" he heard from Kero, Eriol was in hysterics (the good kind – at least until you needed to breathe), André was attempting not to laugh – and failing.
As for the others, he wasn't going to risk decapitation to find out.
"You can't! You'll really hurt him!" Sakura yelled
"I'm only going to use 50 000 volts – the equivalent of a standard police issue Taser. It won't cause any lasting damage – unless he has heart problems – does he have heart problems?" He asked Eriol
"Why ask me?"
"You're his cousin, figured you know. That, and I didn't trust Sakura not to lie to me." He stated, jumping over the coffee table before dropping to the floor and rolling under the remaining love seat, and proceeded to kick it over (with a magical boost, he will admit) and whilst Syaoran (or the card really) cut through the coffee table, the falling couch slowed him down for the few precious seconds needed to activate the THUNDER.
"THUNDER! 50 000 volts and try to avoid his vitals!" THUNDER's power entered his staff allowing him to direct the Taser like bursts of electricity; the first missed as the SWORD quickly recovered Syaoran's stance and leapt away.
"And no he doesn't have heart problems." Eriol smirked
"Opps. You try having it chase you and see if you remember to wait for an answer!" The second and third shots were wide as well, "Damn it! Stand still would you!" he swore furiously, he didn't expect to be listened to obviously, sort of like the way you shouted at a TV, it made him feel better anyway.
It became obvious that the only way he was going to land a hit would be to get in close.
That was going to be a problem, he'd learned early in this fight that if he wanted to keep his limbs were they were he needed to keep his distance.
And now, that wasn't going to work.
He was beginning to wonder whether he had suicidal tendencies.
Actually, now that he thought about it, everyone else was probably thinking that too.
His best bet would be to flank him on his right hand side – the SWORD would have the most trouble getting into that position as Syaoran was right handed.
If he did this fast enough that is.
He knew nothing about sword play, he was adapting a chaser strategy to suit his situation – if a chaser had the quaffle in his right hand, the hardest place for them to defend was their right hand flank, and he was hoping it was the same for sword play.
It was getting into that position that was going to be the problem.
The SWORD was smart; it wasn't just going to let him into a position in which it was vulnerable.
What advantages did he have?
He was at least a foot shorter than Syaoran and while that normally annoyed the hell out of him, the fact that he was so much smaller was actually an advantage if he was going to go in, his best bet was to go in fast and low – it'd also be a lot harder to hit him once in Syaoran's personal space.
Once he started, everything happened very quickly – within a few seconds, though when he looked back on it later he'd say it had been a lot longer.
Faster than he thought he could even move, he was rushing to Syaoran's front, all he could here was white noise, adrenaline pumping through his body in place of blood, he saw the SWORD move, the somewhat delicate, fragile looking blade appearing menacing from the corner of his eye – dropping quickly, he rolled left under the blade.
He'd managed it.
The optimum position.
The right flank.
The problem.
The SWORD recovered its stance quicker than he thought possible.
What happened next was almost simultaneous, he felt the blade pierce his shoulder, he blamed the adrenaline later when he got incredulous looks for saying it didn't hurt when it happened.
The sealing staff connected with Syaoran's side in the same instant, the resulting spasms did the job, with the SWORD rendered immobile – in his shoulder, wonderful.
He gripped the blade solidly, before pulling hard, he released grip as the SWORD's magic hummed at him.
It raised itself to eye level, well, if he'd been standing anyway, and floated stationary.
He realised then the SWORD had a warrior's spirit, it wouldn't allow itself to be sealed without a battle.
And somehow, with no fighting abilities whatsoever, he managed to impress him.
He stood, swaying slightly – he was losing blood quickly, and issued his command. "SWORD card, return to the guise you were meant to be in! SWORD!"
He proceeded to catch the card floating towards him, after that, everything got fuzzy.
He was later told he'd passed out.