Huh...

Harry: What is it?

I can't decide which language to do the disclaimer in.

Sirius: Why not say it in Greek or Japanese?

Because I can't get the disclaimer translated into those languages using the Roman alphabet - which comprises most Western languages, including English, Spanish, French, Latin, Portuguese, German, Russian, and Dutch.

Sirius: Oh.

Yeah. Oh.

Harry: Fine, I'll do it. CorstrikeFX does not own Harry Potter or Final Fantasy. If, for some asinine reason you believe he does, look up the copyrights. You'll see 'J.K. Rowling' for Harry Potter and 'Square-Enix' for Final Fantasy.

Wow. Gee, thanks, Harry.

Harry: No prob.

Sirius: Harry, I'm starting to think you're hanging around Cor too much.

Hey, I don't say 'No prob.' I'm more likely to say 'Sure' or 'You're welcome,' or even 'Pas difficule.' Which is French.

Sirius: For 'No problem.' Or, literally, 'No difficulty.'

Oh, go sniff a dog's butt, Padfoot!

Sirius: I resent that remark.


Harry awoke to the soft padding of Cloud's boots. "Leaving without me, are you?"

"Hadn't planned on it. You are a part of AVALANCHE," Cloud explained. "Might as well bring you back with me." He looked at Harry carefully. "Light sleeper? I was pretty quiet."

Harry shrugged. "I figured you might try to leave early, so I didn't sleep too deeply."

"That can be done?" Cloud asked, surprised.

"With enough practice," Harry replied, getting up and slipping into his trainers. He pulled Gryffindor's Sword out from under the couch and slid it back into his robes before following Cloud out the door.

"Sector 7's past Sector 6," Cloud declared. "We should be all right."

They were in the slum proper when Harry remembered his resolution. "Cloud, the first two slots on my gauntlet have lines connecting each other. Does that mean something?"

"It does," Cloud replied. "The lines indicate that those slots are linked. With two compatible Materia, you can create secondary effects. This can only be done with blue Support Materia, as far as I know. The most basic combination is a Magic Materia with an 'All' Materia, which lets you cast the magic from your Materia on all available targets. Another kind of Support Materia is 'Added Effect,' which can add status effects to your offense or defense. Using a 'Poison' Materia, for example, with 'Added Effect' on your weapon, you have a chance to inflict Poison on your enemy when you attack with your sword." Cloud turned and looked at Harry. "You can't do that, because your sword doesn't have Materia slots. Some weapons don't have any, but they usually come with some enchantment or special ability to make up for that." They resumed walking toward the path to Sector 6. "Alternatively, if you inserted 'Poison' with 'Added Effect' on your gauntlet, you'll be immune to Poison status."

"Okay, I understand," Harry nodded. "But what's a status effect?"

"You really don't know anything about how things work around here, do you?" Cloud snapped.

"Nup. I'm not from around here, remember?" Harry reminded him.

"How do your people fight off monsters in your homeland?" Cloud asked.

Harry was only slightly caught off-guard by that question. "Well...there aren't any creatures that you would really call monsters where I'm from. But we do have numerous creatures that are very dangerous, too. Like dragons."

"We encounter dragons here, though I'll bet they're a different kind of dragon...like your basilisk is different from ours," Cloud reasoned.

"Probably. Our dragons can get huge," Harry agreed. "I had to take an artificial egg from the nest of a clutching mother dragon, once. I only got a cut on the shoulder where its spiked tail caught me."

"That's pretty - Aeris!?"

Lo and behold, there stood Aeris before the door that guarded access to Sector 6. Her hands were on her hips and she looked distinctly cross. "You're up bright and early."

"How could I ask you to go along when I knew it would be dangerous?" Cloud asked her.

"Are you done?" Aeris snapped. Cloud nervously smoothed his hair. "You have to go through the slum in Sector 6 to get to Tifa's 7th Heaven. I'll take you there. Come on!" The flower girl turned, opened the door with surprising ease, then ran through. Harry and Cloud quickly followed her.

The path before them was, pretty much, a demolished highway. The road was cracked and uneven, and littered with holes. A rusting, broken crane served as a ramp to higher ground where, Harry could see, stood the entrance to Sector 6 at the other end of the road.

They didn't get very far before what looked like a house accosted them. "We're being attacked...by a house!?" Harry stood, gaping. Cloud pulled his broadsword from his back; Aeris gripped a small stick that, with the click of a small button, lengthened into a sturdy staff.

"That's no house, kid," Cloud warned. "It's a monster house. I forget the name of the demon that possesses it, though."

"Demon...right..." Harry confirmed, pulling out Gryffindor's Sword.

The house sat there, innocent looking, until a rocket flew out from behind it and launched toward the trio. Harry and Aeris dived one way; Cloud dove the other. The missile flew by harmlessly, crashing into the wall behind them with a small explosion that merely left a scorch mark on the already charred concrete. Cloud dashed in and hacked at the wooden paneling with his sword, creating a gaping hole in its side. A roar of pain rose from within as the spiky blonde mercenary danced back, avoiding a counter swipe.

Aeris focused, causing her staff to float perfectly horizontal at her waist, as she was surrounded with green energy. Then, pushing her hands out, a burst of fire erupted around the house, causing further damage. "Fire Materia?" Harry asked.

"Don't leave home without it!" Aeris grinned. Harry dashed in to attack, but the house recovered quickly enough and, with a big explosion that caught them by surprise, suddenly sprouted arms, legs, and a head.

"That's one way to get a-head," Harry muttered. He didn't laugh, though, for the explosion had thrown him back into the wall, and he was sure he was going to be sporting a nice big bruise in a couple of hours.

"You alright, kid?" Cloud called from the other side of the house-monster.

"I'm not happy, but I'll live," Harry called back.

"Here..." Aeris handed him a small vial of Potion, which Harry quickly swallowed. His back immediately felt better, not sore at all.

"Thanks, Aeris!"

"Anytime!"

Wary of another explosion, Harry came in slowly, sword held out in front. As Cloud stabbed the house demon from the front, Harry dove forward and struck, slicing through the demon's back two legs. There was a hiss of steam as the blade cut clean through the thighs just above the kneecaps (or the demon's equivalent thereof) and the monster shrieked like a banshee. Harry stepped back, gazing at his sword.

"It must be extra effective against demons and undead monsters, Harry," Aeris told him, "to have done that."

"I guess. Maybe that's a special ability that Cloud mentioned, since it doesn't have any Materia slots," Harry concluded. The aforementioned merc took advantage of the house's misery and split the demon's head in two. The monster flashed red and faded from view, leaving behind a few Potions, quite a bit of gil, and what looked like Muggle grenades.

"Not bad, kid," Cloud remarked, replacing his huge sword to his back.

"Thanks, Cloud. I just got lucky," Harry replied. He scowled. "I'm always lucky."

"Luck isn't a bad thing to have, kid," the merc responded as Harry tucked Gryffindor's Sword into his robes. "Don't be afraid to rely on luck when you don't have anything else."

Harry recalled using Felix Felicis in his sixth year at Hogwarts, and remembered how good a feeling being lucky was. "Maybe..."

"Let's keep going. We don't need to be attacked by anything else," Cloud nodded. "Let's mosey."

Harry blinked, and Aeris started giggling. "What?" Cloud asked.

"'Let's mosey?' C'mon, Cloud, a toddler can come up with a cooler way to say 'let's go' than that!" Harry mocked, laughing.

"Let's see you come up with one, then!" Cloud huffed.

"Alright." Harry turned to them, nodded, and then pointed at the far door. "Move out!"

"Hmph. Cliche, that one," Cloud muttered. Nonetheless, the three of them started walking again, only having to stop twice to fight off a swarm of silver insects that looked like vastly overgrown lice to Harry. They eventually made it to through the passage without harm.

"The gate to Sector 7's in there," Aeris declared as they stood before the gate to a small, broken down playground.

"Thanks," Cloud nodded to her. "I guess this is goodbye. You gonna be all right going home?"

"'Oh no! Whatever will I do!?'...isn't that what you want me to say?" Aeris teased him.

"We can take you back, Aeris," Harry offered.

"Isn't that a little out of the way?" she grinned.

"I guess so..."

"Or we could take you to Sector 7 with us," Cloud mused.

"I could do that...but won't I be in your way?" Aeris turned back to tease the mercenary some more.

"What do you mean 'in the way'?"

"Nothing!" Aeris grinned, turning around. "Can we take a break, Cloud?"

The question came so suddenly that Cloud and Harry stopped short. The flower girl walked up to a large children's slide that resembled some sort of mouse-cat combination. "I can't believe it's still here," Aeris breathed. She quickly ran around back and reappeared a second later on top of the slide. "Cloud! Get over here!"

"I guess she really likes you, Cloud," Harry grinned.

"Shut it, kid." Nevertheless, Cloud joined Aeris atop the slide. When the spiky blonde could see Harry again, Harry made a 'whipped' motion with his hands, smirking, and sat down on the single remaining swing on a nearby swing set. Cloud gave him the finger behind Aeris' back.

"What rank were you?" Aeris asked Cloud.

"Rank?"

"You know, in SOLDIER."

"Oh, I was...First Class."

"Just the same as him."

"Same as who?" Harry asked.

"My first boyfriend," the flower girl answered.

"You were...serious?" Cloud asked casually.

Aeris shook her head. "No. But I liked him for a while."

"I probably knew him," Cloud remarked. "What was his name?"

"It doesn't really matter," Aeris answered, shaking her head again.

The sound of a massive gate opening sprang up behind them. They looked, and found the gates to Sector 7 (Harry hadn't noticed before, but they really were huge!) pulled themselves apart to admit passage to a cart drawn by a big yellow bird. As the cart turned to go into Sector 6, Harry saw a familiar-looking woman in a sparkling blue dress in the back of the carriage.

"Huh? Back there...?" Cloud stood up and jumped down to the ground. Harry stood beside him. "Tifa!?" The gate closes.

"Tifa!?" Harry repeated.

"The girl in the cart was Tifa?" Aeris asked. "Where was she going? She looked kind of odd..." She hopped down beside them and gave chase.

"Wait! We'll go on!" Cloud called to her. "You go home!" But too late, Aeris had already disappeared down the path after the carriage.

As Harry and Cloud ran after her, Harry couldn't help cracking, "Women: Can't live with them, can't live without 'em. Right, Cloud?"

"Unfortunately," Cloud agreed, smirking.


Perhaps it was a good thing that only Remus, Ron, and Shacklebolt were watching the television when Harry and the character named 'Cloud' chased after the little girl in the pink dress. If any of the girls had seen Harry's comment, there would likely have been holy hell raised in Number Twelve Grimmauld Place that afternoon.

"You know, I couldn't help but notice that the graphics on the television are much better than these pictures on the case, Tonks," Hermione remarked.

"Yeah, I noticed it, too," Ginny agreed.

"I don't know much about Muggle technology," Tonks replied, "but perhaps Ron's spell casting had something to do with it?"

"Probably," Hermione agreed.

"Frankly, I'm still surprised he managed it without someone coaching him in person," Ginny giggled.


Phew. That's ten chapters down, and I-don't-know-how-many-more to go.

Sirius: What do you mean, you don't know how many more? You're the author of this story!

True, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can give an estimate on the number of chapters this will take. Besides, I've got four more arcs after this one, remember? I'm going to be busy typing for months!

Harry: But you like typing.

Yeah. But I still have to go to work, and class. And pay off my car. And hang out with my friends.

Harry: And play your video games?

And play my video games.