I planned on releasing this chapter Saturday, but my schedule for the weekend is really jammed up. So you all get a treat.

Chapter 2

Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get out of

The surprises kept coming for Harry. He and Hermione had followed the Horcrux stealing bird through the strange ring, ended up in a faraway place and found Ron accompanied by a girl and more unusual animals.

Most importantly, though, Ron had recovered the Horcrux.

"You got it back," Harry said. "How?"

"Lynx here stole the locket from the Murkrow," the girl answered while pointing to the gray catlike animal.

"It attacked me and tried to get it back, but Ron came to my rescue."

She gestured behind her. The bird was on the ground unconscious, and there was a rock floating in the air. Ron must have used the Levitation Spell to knock the bird out.

"I really can't thank you enough," she said to Ron. "If you hadn't been around, well, I don't know what would've happened, but it wasn't going to be good."

She turned her attention back to Harry and Hermione.

"I'm Stephanie Glass, by the way," she said. "I read Ron's mind right before you showed up, so I know about your deal, and – is something wrong?"

Harry was initially confused, but a glance over at Hermione cleared it up. She was glaring daggers at Stephanie. Hermione and Ron had just had an explosive fight, and found him with another girl on their next meeting. That could definitely cause a misunderstanding.

"Hermione, I think you've got the wrong idea," Harry said. He wanted to defuse this as quickly as possible.

"Oh!" Stephanie seemed to have caught on. "You think – don't worry, we're not…"

Hermione's expression didn't change. She was not convinced.

"Look," Harry said. "We've got what we need. Let's get back now."

"Yes," Stephanie said with obvious relief. "Good idea!"

"Hermione, you remember the way?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded, not saying anything. She turned to lead the way. Harry started to follow her.

"I have to get going myself," Stephanie said. "It was, uh, nice meeting you, even if it was just for a moment. Thanks again for helping me out, Ron."

"Hey," Ron started. Harry was afraid of what was coming next.

"Maybe you should come with us?"

Hermione stopped in her tracks.

Why, Ron? Harry thought. Why?

"I don't think," Harry began, but Ron cut him off and pointed back at the bird.

"What if we run into something else on the way back," he said. "Stephanie knows this place. She could probably help us out if that happens."

Ron had a point. If they ran into any more magically immune creatures, it would be nice to have a helping hand.

"Fine," Hermione said. She was probably thinking the same thing. "Let's get going."

The next few minutes passed in uncomfortable silence. Hermione was too angry to say anything, and Harry guessed Ron and Stephanie were too frightened.

Finally, Harry got sick of it.

"Hey, Stephanie," he said. "What did you say that bird was called?"

"Oh!" She perked up.

"It's a Murkrow, a species of Pokemon," she said. "I guess you could say they're to me what magical creatures are in your world."

"Our world?" Harry asked. "You mean, this is…"

"An alternate dimension, probably," Stephanie answered. "It's a theory that gets thrown around a lot in my home region, so it's not too much of a shock for me."

"Right, okay," Harry said. He did not want to put too much effort into making sense of that, so he pressed on with his original question.

"Why do you think it stole the locket?"

"Murkrow love shiny objects," Stephanie answered. "So much that they'll fight people and other Pokemon for possession of them. Now I have a question for you."

"What's that?"

"When the Murkrow attacked me, I tried to throw the locket away. But it wouldn't let me."

"What do you mean?"

"The chain wrapped around my wrist. I couldn't pull it off."

"Horcruxes have defensive mechanisms," Hermione spoke up, to Harry's surprise. The conversation seemed to have snapped her out of her anger. For the moment at least.

"But," she continued thoughtfully. "For its defenses to activate, that would probably mean it was near something that could destroy it. And that might mean…"

Hermione didn't finish, and Harry saw why.

They had returned to the area they had first arrived through the ring. There was one problem.

"It's gone."

"Are you sure?" Stephanie asked. "Maybe this is just the wrong spot."

She heard a shuttering noise and looked around.

"This is definitely it," Hermione said, pointing at something on a nearby tree branch. "I remember seeing that when we first got here."

Stephanie got a closer look. It was a camera trap, probably for research purposes. The odds of one being in an identical position in another identical place seemed slim.

"So, what do we do?" she heard Ron ask.

Stephanie then realized everyone was looking at her.

Oh no.

"I…don't know," was all she could manage to say at first. "We're in Hoenn, and I'm from Unova. That's far, far away from here. I'm not in a much different boat than you are."

Then something clicked.

"Hold on," she said. "This has happened before."

"Happened before?" Hermione asked.

"Years ago, there were stories of rings like the one you saw popping up all over the region," Stephanie said. "So there may be more of them scattered around."

"That's a little encouraging," Harry said. "But how do we find them?"

That was a good question. What could Stephanie do to help them? Was she just going to drag them around Hoenn and hope they ran into another ring?

Well, there was one other option. It was a long shot, but it was worth a try. She activated the call feature on her Xtransceiver.

There was no answer, but she could leave a message.

"Hey, Marcus, it's me," she said. "I'm almost to Rustboro. Could you meet up with me at the Pokemon Center? I'm going to need your help with something."

She hung up and turned her attention back to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"One of my friends is also in the region," Stephanie said. "He might be able to help you out."

"No, I mean the watch."

"Watch? You mean my Xtransceiver?"

"X-what?"

Hermione laughed.

"Sorry," she said. "The magic community is behind on technology. Ron's always fascinated by these things."

"I see. Well, get used to it, because there's a lot more where this came from."

"Anyway," Hermione said. "Back to what you were saying."

"Oh, right. My friend Marcus is also traveling the Hoenn region. He's in Rustboro right now. We were already planning to meet up once I got there. His older sister is a prodigy in the International Police, and they might be interested in your situation. They should be able to give you all the resources you need. "

Stephanie paused briefly before continuing.

"That is, if Marcus and I can get through to her."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "If you're friends, that shouldn't be a problem, right?"

"I'm friends with her brother," Stephanie answered. "She doesn't like me very much. Please don't ask. I really don't want to talk about it."

No one said anything for a few seconds until…

"Vee!"

"Purr!"

Stephanie groaned and turned around. Sure enough, Kuro and Lynx were going at each other again. Kuro looked to have the upper hand. She had Lynx pinned face down on the ground while the Espurr struggled in vain to break free.

"Hey!" Stephanie shouted. "Knock it off!"

No response. She unhooked a Poke Ball from her backpack.

"Kuro," She said sternly. "Get off of her, or you're going in here!"

That got Kuro's attention. The Eevee sprang off of Lynx and looked back at Stephanie with a crestfallen expression.

Stephanie could only give an exasperated sigh.

"What's it going to take?"

"Does that happen a lot?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Usually when they don't get attention for a while."

"When you said Kuro would go in the ball, how were you going to fit her in there?"

"Uh."

Stephanie did not know how to explain that to them, but she realized she didn't need to.

"Hermione, right?"

"Yes?"

"There's no telling how long you might be stuck here, so I'll make things a little easier on you."

She put her hand on Hermione's forehead and closed her eyes.

"This may seem a little weird, but don't worry."

Rather than read Hermione's thoughts like she did with Ron earlier, Stephanie transferred the knowledge of her world to Hermione: the geography, Pokemon and their type matchups, anything she felt was important.

"There we go," Stephanie said when she was done. "You should be all set. Now for the other two."

"I found it this morning," Draco said, pointing to the ring in Malfoy Manor's drawing room. "I don't know exactly when it showed up."

"And you were inclined to contact me first and not the Dark Lord?" Snape asked.

"We…didn't think it was worth disturbing him," Draco replied nervously. The less we see of him, the better, he thought to himself.

Of course, he would never say that out loud, especially not with his fanatically loyal aunt standing next to him.

"Did anything else happen before I arrived?"

"A small black dog came through it," Draco replied. "It tried to bite everything around it."

"Where is it now?"

"It found Nagini." Draco didn't need to elaborate further. The dog had tried to attack Voldemort's serpentine companion, with predictable results.

"We must inform the Dark Lord of this," Snape said. "We'll need the others to convene here as well. We might have to relocate if this thing remains here."

He pressed the Dark Mark on his arm.

"Did you hear that?"

Harry broke away from the group to investigate the noise. They were near the place where he and Hermione had first met Ron and Stephanie, so he had an idea of what it might be.

Sure enough, the Murkrow had regained consciousness. It was still reeling from its injuries, though. Try as it might, it could not stay on its feet for more than a few seconds before going down again.

The others caught up to him.

"Looks like you really did a number on it, Ron," said Stephanie. Her voice was shaky.

Despite all the problems the black bird had caused them, Harry could not help feeling sorry for it.

"It's painful to watch, isn't it?" Hermione said, as if sensing his thoughts. "Hey, Stephanie, why don't we take it to the Pokemon Center in the city?"

No answer.

"Stephanie?" Hermione tried again. "Where'd…"

They all turned around to see Stephanie – and her Pokemon - backing away from the scene.

"S-sorry, what was that?" She seemed nervous about something.

"We were thinking about taking the Murkrow with us," Harry said. "And let it recover at the Pokemon Center. Why don't you capture it?"

"I'd rather not," she answered.

"Why?" Harry was perplexed. "You saw what it's going through."

"What's your point?"

"We can't just leave it like this!" Harry was getting annoyed.

"Sure we can, and that's what we're going to do."

Annoyance was quickly turning into anger. Ron noticed and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Just do it," he said to Stephanie. "You don't want to make him angry. Trust me."

"I'll take my chances."

"Harry," Hermione whispered to him. "Don't turn this into a fight. Remember, she's all we have right now."

Hermione was right. Harry did not want to give Stephanie any reason not to help them, but he still did not want to leave the Murkrow either.

Then he thought of a solution.

"Fine, you don't have to capture it," he said. Stephanie sighed in relief. He waited a few seconds.

"I'll just pick it up and carry it myself."

Stephanie became unnerved again.

"Alright! Alright!" she nearly shouted. "You win!"

She slowly walked over to them. When she got there, Harry noticed her breathing was short and heavy.

"Okay," she whispered to herself. "I can do this. I can do this."

She unhooked a Poke Ball from her backpack and tossed it at the injured Murkrow. It hit, and a stream of red light engulfed the Murkrow and pulled it into the ball.

The Poke Ball fell to the ground and shook for a few seconds before coming to a still. Stephanie picked it up and hooked it onto her belt.

"We'll take it to the Pokemon Center to heal," she said. "Then I'll release it back into the wild."

Harry found it strange that she did not want to keep it, but decided not to press her about it. She was already bothered enough. Plus, she seemed exhausted. Stephanie had mentioned earlier that dumping all of that information into their minds was draining on her mentally.

"Are you afraid of birds?" Hermione asked. Her curiosity never seemed to rest.

"No, that's not it." Stephanie answered. "Come on, we need to get to Rustboro soon or I'm going to collapse."

"My Lord," Lucious Malfoy said nervously. "What do you suggest we do about this?"

"Annoyed" best described Voldemort's mood. He was displeased Snape had called him away from his search for the Elder Wand, but this mysterious ring in Malfoy Manor intrigued him enough that he wasn't angry. That would have been a relief to the Death Eaters who had gathered there if they had known that.

Draco's story about the dog particularly interested him. He had seen its ill-fated encounter with Nagini through the snake's eyes, but wasn't aware of the camera until Draco informed him. The thought of Muggles sending strange creatures through the ring was only a minor concern, but it still needed to be dealt with.

Voldemort thought over the possibilities. He did not want to relocate their base of operations; this certainly was not worth such inconvenience.

"It would be best to send a group to the other side and eliminate any potential threats," he finally said. "Does anyone wish to volunteer?"

No one answered. It was hardly a surprise. Failure of any sort meant facing severe consequences. Fortunately, he already had someone in mind.

"Draco," he said. "Since this is your home, and you've already proven yourself capable, I believe you're fit to carry out this task."

The boy looked stricken, much to Voldemort's amusement. "Assemble your team as you see fit."

He turned and walked out of the Manor without waiting for a response. He was about to depart when he heard someone running behind him. He already knew who it was and what he wanted.

"My Lord!" said an out of breath voice.

"Lucius, "Voldemort replied without turning around. "If you are so concerned for your son's safety, go with him."

He flew off without another word.

And that's the end of chapter 2. I'm going to try to stick to a schedule of a new chapter every 2 or 3 weeks.