Please refer to Chapter 2 for Disclaimer.
Summary: In the final battle with Voldemort, things took for the worst. In a last act of desperation, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, and Nymphadora Tonks sent the Boy-who-lived to the Dimension witch, hoping for more time for Harry to train. A team is formed and a journey is beginning. Sakura/Syaoran. No other pairings.
Warnings: Mild language.
Chapter 3 – Kudan, my companion
"They're the same, and yet not the same. The two from Syaoran's world lived a completely different life than these two," Harry dimly heard Fai explain. "But their nature, their soul, they would still be the same, would they not?"
Syaoran looked rather shaken by the strange encounter, and attempted to hide it by staring at his okonomiyaki. Harry understood how he felt. He couldn't imagine meeting someone from Hogwarts in these worlds. Seamus, Dean, Luna, all of his friends, and oh gods, Ron and Hermione, Sirius and Remus, all the people he lost in the war. What he would give to see them living carefree, without Voldemort being a constant looming shadow.
Hermione would be a straight A student, and probably becoming a person of great influence. Perhaps a teacher, Harry thought, remembering Hermione revealing that being her dream when she hadn't known she was magical. Ron, Ron would be a Quidditch player, perhaps with Dean even, both of them being avid fans of Quidditch, or just sports in general.
Harry's lips curved into a small bitter smile subconsciously. Sirius and Remus, and maybe even his father, would be working in a joke shop, perhaps named 'The Marauders' as they were so fond of naming themselves, together with that traitorous rat Peter. Luna, she would-
"Harry?" Masayoshi prodded nervously, bringing the attention of Syaoran, Fai, Kurogane and Mokona onto Harry at the same time.
-be working in a research team, for the strange and mysterious creatures which she was so fond of in her Hogwarts days...
"Harry!" Syaoran repeated, louder and firmer this time.
Harry snapped out of his brief daydream, only to find the occupants of the entire table looking at him, even the naive Mokona had stopped stuffing his face to look at him concernedly.
"I'm fine," Harry responded automatically. "Sorry, just got caught in some thoughts." He steadfastly ignored the concerned and scrutinizing glances and went back to his food.
"Well, uh..." Masayoshi stammered, clearly trying to dispel the sudden tension but not having the courage to do so. Fai gave him an encouraging nod, and he continued, "Well, I was saying that kudan have ranks too! The fourth level is the lowest, and moving up is the third, second and first. Then there's a special level, which is the strongest."
"How do they decide which level the kudan belongs to?" Kurogane spoke up, clearly interested in the conversation. Harry brought his eyes up to Masayoshi's face as well, wanting to know more.
Masayoshi looked a little flustered at the sudden attention but bravely continued. "To get a strong kudan, you need to be a strong person yourself. It's a person's heart that controls the kudan. So if a person can command a strong kudan, that's proof that person is strong!"
They left the restaurant, Masayoshi leaving to make some phone call. Harry didn't particularly care why he wanted to make a phone call, too busy trying to remember if he had any strange dreams last night, like Syaoran had mentioned earlier.
"You were talking about your dream last night?" Fai's voice jostled Harry back to reality, and he leaned in to hear Syaoran's reply.
"Some creature appeared in my dream. It was a beast of fire," was Syaoran's reply.
"If you are talking about weird dreams of animals, I had one too," Kurogane muttered, crossing his arms. Fai agreed and they turned to stare at Harry, waiting for his response. He gave a casual shrug, which wasn't much of an answer, but they did avert their eyes away from him after that, so he guessed it was adequate enough. He did wonder why they were dreaming about creatures though, since he hadn't had such a thing happen to him.
Suddenly a whole group of people swaggered towards their direction, and they became tense at the sudden action.
"I want to know who this 'Syaoran' is!" A booming voice announced. Harry hid his irritation at the guy who stood in front of them, demanding answers.
"Are you the one who Shougo is interested in?" He continued to demand, his eyes fixated on Fai, who he clearly thought was Syaoran. Harry resisted a derogatory snort at the guy's expense; he was reminding him unpleasantly of the bully Dudley was when he was younger.
"I'm Syaoran," Syaoran stepped forward.
The man continued to go on about some team of Shougo's and how his team was so strong, and so on and so forth. Harry sighed. He wasn't in a very pleasant mood after the incident at the restaurant and this was making things worse. He did snap back to attention when a monstrous thing appeared in front of them, though.
"What in the world-" He breathed, staring at the humongous creature which he assumed was the man's kudan.
"Not a good listener, is he?" Fai grinned, and made to step forward, before he was restrained by Kurogane's hand.
"I've been pretty bored around here," Kurogane started. "I'll take you on!" Harry felt strangely relieved yet unhappy by this arrangement.
"Kurogane's been looking forward to this!" teased Mokona. Fai grinned, "Just so his style, right?"
"You gave your sword to the Dimension Witch, Kurogane," Syaoran voiced out worriedly amidst all the noise.
"That sword was used to kill monsters. But kudan aren't monsters, so that's alright." Kurogane glanced towards Harry, who hadn't said a single word about his decision. Harry flashed a thumbs-up and a small grin, and Kurogane turned back to the battle, apparently satisfied that no one had objections to the decision.
"Eat this! Kaninabe Senkai!" The kudan charged forward, slicing through an entire pillar, Kurogane just managing to dodge the attacks. Harry narrowed his eyes at the quick reflexes, and focused his full attention on the battle.
"That kudan can sharpen parts of its body to an edge as sharp as a knife!" Masayoshi exclaimed, apparently having returned from his phone call. Harry absorbed the small titbit of information and peered closely at the kudan, taking note of the kudan's body. He could feel Fai and Syaoran beside him doing the exact same thing.
"Kani Doraku!" Chaos. Harry narrowed his eyes to get a better view of the battle, just in time to catch Kurogane being flung against the wall with a painful crack.
"Kurogane!" Syaoran shouted in worry, taking a step forward as if ready to intervene. Harry clenched his fists in anxiousness.
"Where's your kudan?" The guy taunted. "You're probably so weak that you're ashamed to bring it out!" He let out a derisive laugh, his gang doing the same behind him. Harry gritted his teeth, disgusted with what was happening. He took a step forward, green eyes glowing eerily.
"Don't." Fai held out a hand to stop his progress. "He will never forgive you if you interfere." Fai gave a grin, seemingly unaffected by what seemed to be Kurogane's loss in the battle. He did frown at the eerie glow of Harry's eyes, however, which still remained unknown to the green-eyed wizard.
Harry forced himself to calm down. Kurogane could handle this one alone. He smirked when Kurogane spoke up, putting a stop to the laughter.
"My kudan has an even tougher shell than most first-class kudan!" The guy boasted, his face a picture of superiority.
Kurogane shook his head. "It has a weakness. Now, if I had a sword, it'll be in pieces already." As he said this, a huge entity rose behind him. He turned around in shock.
"You appeared in my dream!"
The magnificent water dragon flickered before forming a sword, a beautiful sword. Harry could see it was as brilliant as the sword of Gryffindor, which was high praise indeed.
From then on, the tides changed. Kurogane, sword in hand, finished the battle quickly. With a powerful shout, he brought the sword down on the kudan with surprising accuracy, creating a shockwave of power as it impacted.
Harry was impressed. Beyond impressed, actually. His sword-wielding in the Chamber of Secrets now seemed so clumsy, so amateur, that he was rather embarrassed. This is it, Harry decided, nodding to himself. This was exactly what he came here to learn, to help him defeat Voldemort. Perhaps help was closer than he thought.
"Y-You are part of Syaoran's team, aren't you!" Kurogane's opponent said accusingly, writhing in pain as his gang helped him up.
Syaoran's team? Well, that was new. He certainly hadn't heard about such a ridiculous thing.
"I serve no one," Kurogane replied quietly, though his voice echoed in the silence. "The only person I've ever served..." He trailed off, and only Harry's sharp hearing heard the soft mutter of 'Princess Tomoyo'.
Harry remembered a phrase he once heard from Hagrid. The half-giant had participated in the fight of Hogwarts, their last stand, and he had roared it loud and clear, when Voldemort attempted to sway the students and staff of Hogwarts to his side. "Dumbledore's man through and through," he smiled softly, not realizing he had muttered it aloud.
"But if it is something that can disappear and appear like that, it must be a kudan. A kudan is holding the feather."
So they had reached that conclusion. Harry was glad. He wanted to get out of this dimension as soon as possible, and quickly finish this journey, learn more skills, and then jump back to defeating Voldemort. He sort of regretted agreeing to help Syaoran. Otherwise, he could have asked Yuuko to give him another travelling device and be on his merry way.
Unfortunately, Harry thought, eyes travelling to the quiet Syaoran, who was picking at his food, it doesn't work that way now, since I've promised.
Promises were important to Harry. He'd never broken a promise before, and he certainly planned on keeping it that way. He was a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors valued honour.
Harry was broken out of his reverie by Fai giving him a nudge. He looked at Fai questioningly, and was replied with a subtle flick of the blue eyes towards Arashi.
"Uh, sorry, can you repeat that please?" Harry asked her, taking the hint for what it was.
Arashi smiled, though her eyes shined with worry. "I was saying, would you like the bottle of ointment again for your injuries?"
Harry inclined his head gratefully and everyone went back to their meal as before. Harry gave a grateful smile towards Fai. The magician had helped him many times, and for that Harry was grateful. Fai grinned back in response, picking up a plate of vegetables and offering it to him.
Harry was briefly reminded of the Burrow by the simple action, one which Molly Weasley had executed frequently, but he clamped the thought down and spooned some vegetables on his plate.
Strangely, he felt as if he was sitting beside one who understood what he was going through.
Harry opened his bandages carefully, careful not to jostle any injuries. He hadn't felt any pain the whole day, despite moving around so much, and thought that it may not be a very good sign. Injuries didn't heal in a single day.
He peeled the bandage off slowly, bracing himself to see what state his injuries was in. He closed his eyes as he peeled it off fully, and opened them to see...
Nothing.
No injuries, no scar, nothing to even show that a wound had been there. He frowned, a little flabbergasted. Poking the unblemished skin tentatively, he winced at the unexpected spike of pain. Apparently it was still rather raw.
Fai entered the room, holding the bottle of ointment.
"Arashi told me to give it to you, so here you go," he announced cheerfully, crossing to where Harry was sitting.
Harry looked up at the smiling wizard. "I don't think I need it anymore," He replied, a little dazed.
Fai looked at the healed skin, not looking at all surprised. "Magicians tend to heal much faster than normal people," He commented casually, causing Harry to focus on him sharply.
"How do you know?" Harry asked warily.
Fai sat down opposite Harry, crossing his legs together. "Well, it wasn't all that hard, you know," he grinned, "When you first arrived at the Dimension Witch's place, I already felt something different about you. I couldn't identify it at first, but when you woke up in that room and I moved closer to you, I finally understood. You have magic as well, strong magic, but a magic so different from mine that it took me a while to identify it."
Harry went silent after Fai's explanation, trying to process what he had just been told. With a jolt, he remembered the strange expression Fai had before Syaoran woke up, just as Fai had moved closer to him.
Fai smiled, and Harry thought he saw a bit of sympathy in his eyes. "You need to rest," he said simply, starting to get up from his sitting position. "I'll just return this to Arashi and tell Kuro-pipi, Syaoran and Mokona to go to bed as well. It's getting pretty late."
"But..." Harry protested, though he was unsure why he felt so bothered by the explanation.
Fai stopped at the door, turning around to smile at him. "Why so bothered?" he teased lightly. "You sensed that I was a magician long before I did that spell."
"At the Dimension Witch's," Harry spoke up, hearing the undertones.
Fai grinned, a look of satisfaction on his face, as if he had just gotten a theory correct, before leaving the room.
Where am I? Harry wondered, staring around at the darkness around him. Shoulders tensed, he tried to conjure something, anything, that would tell him what in the name of Merlin was going on, and hopefully get him out of here.
In his experience, weird dreams like this spelled bad news.
His hands remained empty despite his attempts to summon a light. He frowned lightly. He had always been able to do quite a bit of wandless magic, taught to him by Albus Dumbledore and Alastor Moody, so the failure was bothering him a little.
Did I get weaker or something? Damn! I really need to get back to some training as soon as possible.
Wandless magic was reputed to be impossible in the Wizarding World, but that was not true. It did require more magic to get the same results compared to as with a wand, but it was perfectly doable. Well, obviously you couldn't do strong magic like the Patronus charm wandlessly without collapsing, but summoning light, levitating things, basic things like those was definitely possible to do wandlessly.
Harry abandoned his attempts, and called out softly, "Anyone there?"
A bright light appeared suddenly, and Harry covered his eyes on reflex. Slowly he opened them, squinting to get a better look.
A majestic stag stood, bearing an uncanny resemblance to his Patronus, except that it had more colour.
"Harry Potter." The stag spoke.
Harry found himself unsurprised at the turn of events; he did grow up in the Wizarding World since he was eleven, after all, and after seeing a bunch of speaking spiders (Acromantula) it was hard to be surprised by something like this.
"Are you my kudan?" He remembered Kurogane, Syaoran and Fai talking about their kudan appearing in their dreams.
The stag seemed to smile. "Yes, young wizard. I have waited long for a worthy one to be my companion. You, young one, you have something in you, a pureness that I have not seen in many centuries."
Harry shook his head vigorously. "I'm not pure. You have no idea, no idea how much I've killed. I've injured, murdered, cheated, did so many things I'm not proud of. Do you know how many people I've led to their death, naively thinking that we could beat him?" Without realising it, tears pooled in his eyes, threatening to fall.
"Do you know that I took away the lives of parents, took away the parents of Teddy, so that I could come here? I was not supposed to fail, but I did, and all of them paid the price for my mistakes. The people I've shared a dorm with, the people I lived with, the Weasleys, everyone I knew, they're either dead or missing! Britain is dying; no scratch that, it is dead because of me!" Tears fell, but Harry made no attempt to wipe them away.
"I feel like joining them, you know, but I... my responsibility has not ended. There are still people alive, hoping for me to somehow create a miracle. I couldn't do anything at all; do you know how helpless I felt? How many times I have wished for a miracle, to take me back to relive everything again, to maybe train more this time, to protect all of them better, so that all of them could live?
Harry took a deep breath, trying to contain himself. The stag remained silent.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you," Harry muttered after a while, tears wiped away, the only evidence of the incident was his red-rimmed eyes.
"No, you needed to let that out," The stag replied, still staring at Harry calmly.
Harry kept quiet.
"You are pure, no matter what you think," the stag said serenely, "I've never met someone, someone as self-sacrificing, who would do anything to save a world who turned on him so many times, someone who keeps on going despite the odds."
"Pureness," The stag continued, "Pureness is not innocence. I don't think you understand that. Pureness is someone like you, so selfless, so brave. Harry Potter, did you think pureness equals someone who has never killed, someone who was always sheltered, cheerful, who can brighten up anyone's day? That's innocence. A mere stereotype of pureness, in fact."
Harry nodded his head just a fraction; he didn't think he was as great as the stag made him out to be, but he understood what the stag was saying.
The stag smiled. "You passed my test. You, Harry James Potter, are worthy of being my companion. I will aid you in your journey as much as I can." The stag made to disappear, only to be stopped by Harry.
"Yes?"
"What is your name?" Harry asked breathlessly.
"You can call me Prongs," The stag replied, ignoring the way Harry tensed up at the name. "Defender of innocence and life. Or, you can also say I'm the icon of Light."
"Are you my father?" Harry asked pleadingly.
Prongs' eyes were sad. "No, I am not. Do you have any more questions?"
Harry was about to reply in the negative, before he was struck by a question. "Isn't the icon of Light the phoenix? Why you?"
Prongs smiled. "Because I'm your inner animal." With that, he faded away, leaving Harry behind, in where instead of darkness, was light.
"I guess that nobody has their kudan out while walking," Fai observed. "Then we can't see who has the stronger ones."
"Even if they did, I doubt they'll be willing to give the feather up like that," Kurogane added, pessimistic.
"Well, I'm sure we can do it," Harry said cheerfully. Everyone turned to stare at him, wondering why the usually quiet and gloomy Harry was being so cheerful today.
"What the hell happened to y-MMPH!" Kurogane started, only to be interrupted by Fai's hand covering his mouth.
"I'm sure we would," Fai agreed, grinning as he removed his hand from Kurogane's mouth. Kurogane glared at Fai threateningly, but decided to ignore Harry's sudden cheerfulness, for now.
"Thank you," Syaoran said gratefully. Kurogane grunted a reply, while Mokona, Fai and Harry grinned in return.
"Mokona will do her best!" Mokona exclaimed, thumping his chest confidently. Kurogane snorted, and Mokona whacked him on the head.
"OW! What the hell was that for, white bun?" Kurogane growled, bringing up a hand to swat Mokona off.
The playful banter was interrupted by a huge bird-like kudan swooping down on them, causing dust to fly everywhere. It was so sudden that none of them had sensed it, nor had the time to react, before the kudan was gone, as if it had never been there.
"What was that?" Syaoran asked. Picking up an envelope on the ground, he ripped it open and read the short note within.
I'll be waiting at Hanshin Castle ~
The note consisted of this one sentence. Alarmed, Syaoran looked up to see Harry and Mokona missing.
"Fai, Kurogane! Look at this!" Syaoran exclaimed urgently.
Unfortunately, neither of them understood him, nor each other.
"What in the name of Merlin's saggy Y-fronts do you think you are doing, you idiots?" Harry exploded, looking down at the balcony where a girl and several of her men were standing. The crowd below the building roared in disapproval of his rude words towards their idol.
"Merlin's saggy Y-fronts?" the girl echoed, confused. Harry felt an odd sense of satisfaction, using Ron's favourite curse words against them.
It could have been his imagination, but his body slipped down a little, as the rope moved a little up his torso. "You better have tied this properly," Harry threatened, ignoring Mokona singing next to him. "If I drop from this because of your lousy tying skills, rest assured that I will haunt you and make you kill Voldemort in my place!"
"This boy is weird. Voldemort?" the girl, whom he knew to be called Primera from the screaming crowd, asked the men. "Are you sure he is Syaoran?"
"My name is Harry, not Syaoran," Harry noted dully, enjoying the breeze. It felt like being on a broom and flying again.
"You idiots," Primera screamed at the men, who cowered a little. "You got the wrong person!"
Harry grinned a little as the men tried to explain. He wasn't really angry, in fact he felt lighter than he had in ages after the previous night, and now, seeing the cheering crowd, he felt relieved. Everything seemed so innocent, so happy, that it served to bring his mood up a little, even if he had been kidnapped and tied up on the top of the building with some very low quality rope.
He could cut the rope himself using magic, but his magic levels were still not up to his normal levels, and he didn't want to use magic for now, lest he became like how he was last night when his levels were low, unable to cast the simplest of spells wandlessly.
Lost in his thoughts, Harry didn't notice when Fai, Syaoran, Kurogane arrived.
Harry suddenly felt like he was slipping through the rope again, but this time, instead of simply slipping a little, the rope hanging him actually broke.
He fell down, pulled by gravity. It reminded him of the time when he, Ron and Hermione were running from the Death Eaters on broom, and they were shot down, falling many metres on the ground. It had undermined his confidence on a broom, along with Ron's and Hermione's, considerably. Remembering the memory, he fought down the urge to scream as he recalled the tortures that followed afterwards in Voldemort's dungeons.
"Arresto Momentum!" He shouted, holding his hand out. To hell with saving his magic, if he didn't use it now he'll be dead in a matter of seconds.
The spell slowed his descent and he landed on his feet, not noticing the gobsmacked expressions of Syaoran and Kurogane.
"Avis! Oppugno!" Harry cast, commanding the conjured birds to attack the ropes surrounding Mokona and break them, thereafter bringing him down.
He breathed a sigh of relief when Mokona was brought down safely and ignored the trembling of his hands and legs, which threatened to give way soon.
Looks like I'll have to wait longer to get my magic levels back to normal, now that I've used up what little I recovered. Harry grumbled inwardly, before turning around sharply at the sound of clapping.
"Good job, Harry!" Fai grinned. Harry looked at the surprised faces of Syaoran and Kurogane and groaned; it seemed more people knew his secret now. Indeed, the crowd was now silent and staring at him in disbelief.
"Damnit." Harry muttered, running a hand through his messy hair.
"I issue a challenge to Syaoran!" Primera shouted, apparently having gotten back her bearings.
"How am I supposed to get up there?" Syaoran frowned, looking up at the tall building.
Fai grinned, winking at Syaoran. "I may be able to help."
A great wind surrounded him, and the image of a great eagle appeared for a moment before Fai started to float in the air. Without hesitation, he flew towards where Primera was.
Primera summoned a microphone as she saw Fai.
"What the hell is she going to do with that?" Kurogane muttered warily.
"NOW, ARE WE ALL HAVING FUN?" Primera shouted in the microphone, and to Harry's great surprise, solid words formed in midair, towards where Fai was floating.
Fai seemed to not have expected that either; Harry saw his eyes widen minutely before there was an explosion where he was.
"Fai!" Syaoran called out in worry. Harry and Kurogane frowned and peered closer, not believing that he would be defeated just by that.
"Well, I've fought with kudan countless times," Primera said, between her repeated tries to hit Fai, "Even if your kudan is able to fly, your body muscles remain your own." She smirked, thinking that she was going to win.
"You mean his ability to dodge and float like that is his own ability?" Syaoran said incredulously. Harry had came to a similar conclusion and simply wondered if Fai was using magic.
"Look at his damn grin," Kurogane muttered. "He's a combat veteran."
Syaoran nodded. "It wouldn't be too surprising."
Kurogane looked at him in surprise. "You noticed?"
"He carries himself differently. The look in his eyes gives you that impression. It was quite obvious when you know what to find." Syaoran glanced sideways at Harry.
"Er yeah, it was." Harry tried to shrug casually, ignoring the piercing glances of the two. He quickly focused back on the battle, not wanting a conversation about fighting experience to start. Honestly, he hadn't expected them to be so observant.
Primera was just introducing her kudan. "And when my kudan changes form, nothing can beat me!" Indeed, her kudan was now a microphone stand instead of simply a microphone. Harry wondered how such a superficial change can help her.
With kudan, it can. A voice echoed in his mind. Harry forced himself to not turn around and start blasting everyone, though he started rather harshly at the unexpected occurrence.
Prongs? What are you doing in my head?
I am your companion, was the simple reply.
"Sure you are," Harry muttered out loud, ignoring the raised eyebrows of Kurogane at that.
He quickly looked back at the battle, where Primera was now producing double the attacks from before.
"Wow, I guess that change was helpful after all."
There was no cause for worry, however, as Fai had figured out a strategy to get closer. With his usual grin on his face, he jumped onto the solid words and sped towards where Primera was.
He landed on top of her, and Harry saw them exchanging a few words before Primera surrendered.
"Done," Fai said cheerfully as he floated back to where they were standing. "Her kudan is feather-free too. I guess we'll have to search somewhere else."
"You are a flirt," Harry grinned, "I think you embarrassed her."
They looked up, where Primera still had a furious blush on her face. Fai laughed and jumped on Kurogane's back. "Kuro-tan, where is my reward?"
Kurogane swatted Fai off with a huge scowl.
"Well, we just got our next target," Harry said, ignoring the banter between Fai and Kurogane. "Here comes Shougo."
"It should be inside a kudan of one of the people here." Harry said hopefully.
"And we don't know who it is, and kudan only come out when they are protecting their masters," Kurogane continued.
"Companions," Harry corrected. He wasn't going to be Prongs' slave.
Kurogane glanced at him and carried on, ignoring him. "So we'll have to start a big battle, endanger everyone, and get their kudan out." He concluded, a bloodthirsty grin on his face.
Syaoran nodded. Stepping forward, he raised his hand, and his kudan appeared by his side. "Rayearth," Syaoran acknowledged, and turned his glance to Shougo. "I challenge you to a fight, Shougo."
"Accepted."
Fire against Water, I wonder how they will fight, especially when Syaoran has such a huge disadvantage, Harry thought, staring at the two kudan.
"He's pretty strong, Syaoran, isn't he?" Fai said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them.
Kurogane snorted. "He is more than just a kid, I suppose. You two have that face that says 'Ignore me, I'm harmless!' but fact is, you are not."
"Ah," Fai grinned, "So observant huh, Kuro-tan?"
Kurogane ignored the teasing and turned to Harry, who tensed up. "And you," He said, "You constantly drift off, ignoring everything around you, yet you are paranoid and tense."
Harry shrugged. "I am harmless, then."
A fierce glare was directed his way. "No, you are not."
"Kudan are controlled by the heart," Shougo said, leaning against his kudan for support. "What is it that makes yours so strong?"
"I have something that I seek."
Shougo nodded. "That makes sense." Without warning, he sent a blast of water at Syaoran, who managed to dodge it. He never expected another blast of water to hit him in the back though.
Syaoran crumbled to the ground.
"Gets them every time," Shougo commented casually.
"Syaoran!" Masayoshi screamed, having just arrived. Syaoran pushed himself up with a grunt and gave a smile to Masayoshi.
"I'm alright." As if to emphasize his point, he raised a fist and sent several fireballs towards Shougo, who doused it with water.
The battle continued.
Harry was watching the fight interestedly, taking note of Syaoran's great endurance and determination. "He's like Neville, a true Gryffindor," He smiled, remembering Neville's courage at the battle of Hogwarts.
"What is a Gryffindor?" Mokona asked curiously, hopping up onto his shoulder.
Harry froze, not realising he had spoken out loud. "Well-" He was saved from explaining when a sudden explosion sounded.
Isn't that Masayoshi's kudan? Harry had noticed Masayoshi coming, but why would his kudan come out for no reason? It seems bigger than usual.
A sound came from his right shoulder, but he ignored it as a burning sensation started pooling in his chest.
That kudan is not natural. It is tainted with something.
Before Harry could reply, Prongs materialized at his side.
"Let's go, then." Harry muttered, shoving Mokona into Fai's arms and running after Prongs, who had taken off towards Masayoshi's giant kudan.
"Prongs," Harry said, stopping the stag. "I don't know how to fight with a kudan." He tried to fight off the feelings of shame at the admission, feeling rather inadequate.
Prongs gave a smile and disappeared, leaving a wand in its place. Then you know how to fight with a wand, right?
Harry picked the wand up. It was glowing, and as he touched it he felt his magic sing. His magic levels were replenished in an instant, leaving him stronger than he'd ever been for a long time.
A grin broke on his face. "Let's do this, then," Harry smirked. "Diffindo!"
A fierce cut appeared on the kudan, who screamed in rage, turning his attention toward Harry.
"Gemino!" Many copies of Harry appeared, hiding the real him and confusing the kudan, who started scrambling towards the whole lot of them.
Screaming broke out as many people tried not to be stomped on by the kudan.
Thinking quickly, Harry cast the next spell. "Excelsiosempra!" The kudan was sent high in the air, away from the innocents.
"Everyone get out of here!" Harry shouted, enhancing his voice with the Sonorus charm. When he was satisfied that everyone heard him, he cast the counter-spell and turned back to the kudan.
Unfortunately, the kudan had taken advantage of his lapse in attention to fire a huge blast of power at him.
"Protego!" Harry cast in desperation. A shield materialized in front of him. It absorbed some of the impact, but the blast was too strong, it ate through the shield in a matter of seconds and flung Harry back against a wall.
"Merlin," Harry groaned as he felt his bones breaking. Struggling to stand up, he took a look at the area around him. Everyone was either gone or in the air (Shougo and Primera) except for Kurogane, Mokona, Fai, Masayoshi, and Syaoran, who looked to be ready to intervene even though he was still weak from the battle with Shougo.
Making a sweeping motion with his wand, he moved all of them a safe distance away.
He quickly turned back to the kudan, who seemed to be readying another attack.
"Now we can't have that," he smirked. "Accio!"
Having cast the counter-spell to the excelsiosempra spell, the kudan fell to the ground hard, the huge impact leaving a crater on the ground.
Seeing the kudan writhe in pain, Harry felt a brief flash of pity. "Stupefy," he uttered. Hopefully he could get the feather out without causing much pain to the kudan.
The spell bounced off.
In a surprising show of agility, the kudan pushed himself up and lunged towards Harry, gripping him tightly in his huge fist.
Harry narrowed his eyes. "Sectumsempra," He cast instinctively. Fierce slashes appeared all over the kudan. Masayoshi screamed from the ground, and he looked down, only to see the boy writhing in pain as well.
I have to end this quickly.
Just then, the kudan glowed, and Harry's sharp eyes cause a glimpse of the feather before it disappeared into the kudan. Before he could do anything, the fist surrounding him loosened and he dropped, hurtling towards the ground at an alarming speed.
"Deprimo," He shouted, pointing his wand towards the kudan's chest and ignoring the fact that he was about to hit the ground. It was now or never. Harry didn't know if the feather was going to appear again if he waited, and he wanted to avoid causing unnecessary pain to Masayoshi.
A strong wind started up, and as it swept across the kudan, the feather appeared again, lying innocently on the kudan.
"Arresto Momentum," Harry slowed down his descent, but it was too late to cast the spell, now that he was so close to the ground. He hit the ground hard and felt his left shoulder dislodge.
He couldn't give up now. "Accio feather," He shouted, ignoring the pain coursing through him.
The feather remained still.
Acting on instinct, Harry threw the wand towards the ground, and it changed back to Prongs. Without thinking, he lunged himself, Prongs beside him, towards where the feather was. Summoning a glowing ball in his hand, he threw it at the feather.
The ball enveloped the feather after a brief power struggle, and brought it back to Harry, who clenched it in his fist tightly.
The kudan, without the feather, shrunk back to its normal size.
Harry, holding the feather tightly, was subjected to gravity's hold again. Before he could hit the ground however, Prongs released another glowing ball and threw it towards him, enveloping him and floating him lightly to the ground.
"Harry!" Syaoran called urgently.
Blinking his eyes open, he saw his companions surrounding him, all looking very worried. His eyes found Prongs'.
"Thanks," He said to the stag, which inclined his head towards him and disappeared. Turning his head back to his companions, he smiled and opened his fist, where the glowing feather laid, not at all crumpled by his harsh grip earlier.
"Here you go," he tried to push his hand towards Syaoran, urging him to take it, but the hand merely twitched.
Syaoran took the feather from his hand. "Thank you, Harry." He said gratefully.
Harry gave a weak grin in reply. He was suddenly very tired, and the pain of his injuries hit him all at once. He lost consciousness.
End Chapter.
A/N: I am sorry for the wait! Hopefully the longer chapter makes up for it. I think I've outdone myself this time. 14 pages! Well, I hope the quality lives up to the quantity. Thank you for all the kind words and for taking the time to read. If you have any constructive criticism, I would be very glad to hear them.
I hope the 'battle scene' has improved from the previous chapter. Also, all spells are taken from Wiki and can be found either in the movies or the books. I have added some extra 'functions' for some spells, but I try to keep them as realistic as possible.
I am sorry about the scene of Harry's kudan dream, I do hope it wasn't too cheesy.
-Short Chapter Analysis-
Right now, Harry's relationship with Fai has become closer, and relationships with Syaoran, Kurogane and Mokona is going to improve soon as well. Through the chapter, Harry is learning to slowly let go and cope with the effects of the war, as you can see (if you are observant) the difference in how he handles those memories that come out unexpectedly, as the chapter moves on.
Icylone