"Greetings and a warm welcome to coordinators and contest fans of all ages. We've all come together for one very special reason, and that's to find out who will take home the coveted and Fabulous Enlightenment contest ribbon. Now I know you've all been waiting patiently, now it's time for you to be rewarded."

The lights on the stage lit up, showing a brown haird woman with a microphone speaking.

"We're coming at you live on stage in the stadium located inside Enlightenment Town. So let's get down to business and see who gets the Enlightenment ribbon and a real beauty it is, add to this four additional contest wins and you'll be eligible to compete in the prestigious grand festival." She said holding up a magenta ribbon with a crescent-shaped buckle.

Time for me to introduce our judges and here they are,

She gestured to the curtain as it lifted up revealing three people, two men and a woman.

First, the Chief of the Pokémon Activities Committee and Head Judge, Mr. Contesta"

"Thank you I look forward to all of the participants performance along with their Pokemon" An older gentleman with gray streaked hair said stepping forward, and was rewarded with cheers and applause.

"And now the President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr. Sukizo".

"Remarkable is the word, thanks." said the short round faced man with a buzz cut.

"And finally Enlightenment towns very own Nurse Joy!"

"When it comes to seeing all the splendid Pokemon, I just can't wait" Came the kind voice of the towns Nurse Joy, looking like an exact replica of every other Nurse Joy, except for the color of the cross on her hat.

"Oh I forgot about me, I'm Marian and I'm thrilled to be your Master of ceremonies and thanks so much! Now it's time for our first round!

Harry stood by himself in a corner of the waiting room, watching the TV as Marian explained the purpose of the first round, feeling a rumbling sensation in the pit of his stomach. He was wildly reminded of how he felt right before his first Quidditch game when he was 11, at least this time he had the reassurance that there weren't any expectations of him comeing to any bodily harm.

Looking around himself he seen other coordinators of varying ages and different Pokemon.

He took a deep breath and adjusted the cuffs of the outfit he was wearing, Olympia had packed it with his traveling outfit, whether it was only meant to be formal wear or she had actually foreseen this, Harry had no idea. His coordinator outfit comprised of a black sherwani that came to the middles of his thighs with a silver buttons and a red pocket square, a pair of white dress pants, and a pair of shiny black dress shoes. He also had a white blue and pink square scarf on and had switched out his normal glasses for a pink tinted triangular pair as accessories.

He was standing in the back corner and watched as each coordinator, one by one, was introduced and then proceeded to perform with their Pokemon. It wasn't the first time Harry had scene a contest appeal round on TV but there was a surreal feeling about watching it live and knowing that he would be in their place being watched by people all over Sinnoh.

One thing Harry loved about contest, was that you never knew what you were going to see, it was expected for something new and original or completely enthralling to be showcased in contest and that's exactly what was happening now.

A Ninetales had jumped around using fire and its tails to create a dazeling ribbon dance.

One coordinator had her Rattata running around on a large ball while using Double Team to make a type of, one Pokemon circus illusion.

Another coordinator had his Chinchou use Spark and Bubble Beam imperfect conjunction to fill the stadium with glowing electrified bubble lanterns.

Harry was so entranced, and to a lesser extent intimidated, bye the performances happening on screen he didn't notice somebody walking up to him.

"Hey, you doing alright?" A voice asked

Harry turned to see it was a girl that had spoken to him, she had short vermillion hair and dark red eyes, she was wearing a stylized violet suit so Harry assumed she was also a coordinator.

"Yha, I'm fine, I'm just.." Harry started hesitantly, ignoring the slight croak in his voice in the middle of the statement.

"Nervous?" The girl offered, an understanding smile on her face at the awkward smile and nod Harry gave.

"This your first time competing?"

"Yes, its exciting but nerve-wracking. How about you, is this your first time or have you done this before?"

"This will be my second contest."

"Really? So is it always this nerve-wracking or am I just being overly anxious?"

She gave a slight chuckle at that. "Its understandable to be nervous your first time but don't worry, you'll be fine once you get out there." She reassured

"I'm Zoey by the way." She introduced

"Harry, nice to meet you."

She turned to the screen where a coordinator was wrapping up their routine with her Venonat.

One of the contest officials walked closer to them catching there attention.

"Ready Zoey, your up next." He informed shortly before walking away.

"I'm up , break a leg out there." She through over her shoulder as she turned and walked away towards the stage.

Once Zoey was out of sight Harry once again found himself feeling nervous anticipation, though to a lesser degree than before his talk with the red head.

Harry took out two Pokeballs and press the buttons letting Ralts and Sylveon out.

"Ral?" The only female among Harry's Pokemon looked up at him, concern written on it's mostly covered face. The psychic ability of its species allowing it to pick up on it's trainers unnies and excited anticipation.

Harry got down on his knee and looked a his two chosen pokemon but directed his attention on Ralts, feeling a bit of worry and nervousness coming from her.

"Okay Ralts we're up in a bit, and it's going to be our first time competing. I know we haven't been together that long, and I'm still new to, well all of this," here he made a flipped gester around him "but I believe in you, for now we only need to try and get through the appeal round okay?"

"Ral!" At the happy noise Harry smiled, then felt some of the nervousness coming from his Pokemon ease up, not knowing that it was actually his own nervousness he was sensing through his Pokemon dwindling down.

"Then it'll be your turn in the battle round, Sylveon." He said looking to the fairy-type.

"Syle"

Harry picked up Ralts and turned back to the TV just in time for Marion to announce the next coordinator.

"All right next up it's Zoey!" The MC announced as the curtain lifted.

Harry was now paying closer attention seeing the girl he had been talking to come on stage.

She took out her capsule covered pokeball throwing it out and announcing, "Alright Glameow, curtain!"

Out of a special effect of confetti a Glameow appeared, spinning elegantly in the air before landing with poise.

"Meowerr~" it meowled/purred

"And Glameow makes a graceful entrance."

"A Glameow, let's see." Harry said taking out his pokedex.

Glameow, the Catty Pokémon. When angry, it flashes its claws, but it also can purr quite affectionately. With its sharp glare, it puts foes in a mild hypnotic state. It is a very fickle Pokémon

"Glameow, jump with Iron Tail."

Glameows tail started to glow white, it jumped back on it like a spring before extending it and launching itself into the air.

"Fury Swipes."

Just after it launched from the ground Glameow extended its claws and started scratching erratically as it spun, head over heels, in the air. The sudden swipes of its claws causing white flashes to appear all around its body as it continued going up.

"Let's finish with Shadow Claw!"

Glameow stopped its erratic movement at the pinnacle of it's jump as its paw was surrounded by a black aura with a purple outline in the shape of a claw. As it came back down it started to spin, this time like a drill, causing the dark aura of the Shadow Claw to swirl around its body as it descended.

When Glameow finally impacted on the ground the Shadow Claw erupted in a shock wave of darck energy pulsing across the floor of the stage.

Finished Zoey and Glameow gave a slight bow.

With the routine finished the crowd gave the pair a massive applause with accompanying cheers.

Harry was thoroughly impressed by Zoey, so much so he didn't even pay attention to what the judges had said, it was clear they had gotten high marks and we're definitely going to the second round. Slowly a smile started to spread across his face as an idea for later hit him.

"Sylveon did you see how Glameow launched itself into the air?"

'Don't panic and remember the routine we've been doing for three days' Harry mentally told himself.

He was standing behind the curtain, seconds away from his turn in the first round.

"Now we have a debut, a young coordinator who hails from the foreign, Anistar City in the far far away Kalos region, now let's give him a warm welcome, Harry!" Marion introduced as the curtain came up.

Harry was met with enthusiastic cheers from the audience. This was so different than his firstquidditch match now, instead of being him along with a whole team, it was all eyes on him alone. He closed his eyes the brightness of the lights, the cheers of the audience and his own nerves starting to become a bit much.

As he clutched the ball capsule in his hand he then remembered something.

'I'm not alone.' he thought 'It's like Professor Rowan said; in all aspects of being a trainer, you always have to work alongside your Pokemon'.

Taking a deep breath through his nose and exhaling, Harry opened his eyes and shot forward throwing his pokeball into the air.

"Ralts, your on!"

Ralts appeared from a flora seal in a shower of flower petals.

"Dubel Team!"

"Ral!" Soon there were copies of Ralts in different locations floating above the original.

"Now get ready to use Shock Wave." Ralts, and it's copies, all started to glow, giving off sparks of blue electricity.

"And just look at that, Ralts' body is glowing beautiful from the power its storing from that Shock Wave."

"Aim up and then let it rip" Harry called, after a few long moments.

Together, Ralts and the copies released the Shock Wave sending out rippling pulses of blue electricity going toward the ceiling. The different heights and locations of the copies caused the pulse waves created by the Double Team to overlapped with each other.

"Confusion"

"Ralll" Ralts lifted its head revealing its orange eyes as they glowed with an outline of purple along with its horns, as it and the lowest wave of electricity was outlined in purple before it was sent upwards mutch faster, hitting the other waves. One by one in rapid succession, the other Shock Waves were dispersed in large flashes of light, once the wave that had been hit by Confusion hit the last of electric current it burst in a shower of sparkles.

"Brilliant" Harry gushed, a wide smile on his lips. Ralts and he hadn't missed a step in the routine and he was thrilled. They had managed to pull it off on stage like they had done in practice. His heart was absolutely racing and he could feel his body humming with excitement.

The loud cheers and applause of the audience had him remembering where he was. His smile faltered for a second as he gave a hesitant and unsure half bow, half curtsy movement. His hands were shaking and jittery like he had too much energy from the rush he felt.

"And Harry finishes his debut with an electrifying display," Marion announced, somewhere in Harry's mind he wondered if she had been running commentary the whole time and he just hadn't been paying attention. "Now let's hear from the judges."

"A splendid way of displaying the variety of moves Ralts is able to use"

"And remarkable."

"An amazing show of his Ralts moves, both individually and in conjunction with one another."

He walked off the stage after returning Ralts to its Pokeball, the smile still firmly in place. This was a whole new experience, he wasn't even sure if he'd made it past the first stage at this point and yet he was pretty sure he hadn't felt nearly this happy even after winning his first quidditch match.

Harry exhaled loudly as he sat down back in the waiting room.

"That was incredible." He said to himself.

"See, I told you it would be fine once you got on stage." Looking up he seen Zoey walking over.

"You and your Ralts were great out there, it looks like you've trained it well." She said as she came to stand infront of him.

Harry gave her a smile.

"Thanks, you were great out there too, you're Glameow is something else. Although truth be told I haven't really trained Ralts that much, in fact I only caught it a few days ago we haven't even been together a week."

"Really, only a few days?" She asked.

"Mmhmm"

" Wow using a Pokemon you just caught in the first round of your first contest. You sure are intrepid." Said the redhead, a look between amusement and incredulity on her face.

Harry just gave her a smile before putting his hand over his still racing heart and closing his eyes, thinking about how he felt during his performance.

"I still can't believe I actually did that, I can't believe how amazing it felt to be on stage in front of all those people." Harry had never thought he would enjoy something that involve performing or being in the proverbial, and in this case literal, spotlight like he had. True in The Wizarding World he had always been looked to and stared at for one thing or another but he had never actually gone out of his way to get noticed, he was always being thrust into the spotlight and hated it, but here he had willingly stepped into it and the experience had been like nothing he'd ever felt before.

He open his eyes and look down at his shiny black shoes, trying to dispel any thoughts of his former world.

"I wonder if it'll feel like this at the Oreburgh Gym?" He mused to himself softly, wondering about his next challenge.

"Hold on, are you saying your going to compete in the Sinnoh League?" The angry and affronted tone of voice surprised Harry.

Looking up he seen that Zoey was now slightly glaring down at him.

"I was, well I guess I still am, planning on challenging the Oreburgh gym," he told her, now on edge at not knowing why she was suddenly upset."But I thought that contest seemed cool and when I was on my way to Jubilife City I seen that there was one going on so I decided to enter."

His explanation didn't seem to please her.

"There's a difference between contest and gyms. You should be able to tell the difference between them first, before you just puerilely decid to do what's closest." She said crossley.

"I know the difference between them," Harry said back, slightly insulted, as he stood up. "That's why I wanted to actually try them first before deciding if I wanted to do one or the other or both."

He had been struggling over his decision to go out on a journey and what he would do on it, for weeks before heading out. He had heard stories about Zach's gym battles and Albert's contest, and knew that they were completely different. But the way both of them had described the passion and joy they felt when competing was something that they both shared and what Harry wanted to experience. He decided to go to Jubilife City as his first stop so that he could get to Oreburgh City from there because gyms where habitually in the same place where as contest where held in multiple areas. He hadn't made the decision to enter the Enlightenment Town contest on some silly whim, he knew that he would enter a contest eventually, he just decided to go to the gym first. But when he seen that there was a contest happening near him he had decided to go for it. So to hear that his personal decision, that he had been worryingly debating with himself over for so long, be so carelessly dismissed by somebody had him feeling attacked and defensive.

"Both?" Zoey repeated, sounding agitated.

"Yes, both." Harry said, now glaring slightly back at her.

"There's no rules or laws that say once you've become a coordinator or started challenging gyms that that's the only thing you're allowed to do or that you can't do both. I checked." He explained.

Even after being assured by Professor Rowan he also spoke to Nurse Joy as well as the registration woman at the Contest Hall, all of them had assured him that if he were to become a coordinator it wouldn't prohibit him from anything else, and the same being so if he decided to go with gym battles.

"I think that's because most people know what they want to do." She said, before adding, sharply "You should make up your mind."

"Well, I think I'm going to try what I want. And that maybe you should mind your own business, " Harry retorted in the same tone of voice.

The two continued to glare at each other, dazzling emerald meeting dark red, until Marion's voice on the TV caught their attention.

"Now it's time for the judges results. So here are the coordinators who will be moving on down the line to the next round!"

Zoey and Harry, along with every other coordinator in the room, looked intently at the TV where eight squares where being displayed. Then one by one they started flipping over showing the coordinators picture. Zoey's picture was shown as the third square flipped over, causing the girl to smile. When the fifth square flipped over Harry was shocked and excited to see his smiling picture revealed, he had been silently trying not to get excited or to expect to automatically make it to the second round but he had and he felt like he was about to burst from trying not to cheer out in joy.

15 minutes later, the coordinators that hadn't made it past the first round having changed back into their street clothes and vacated the waiting room, Marian came back on to the stage.

"Okay ladies and gentlemen time for our second round and here's the Battle Board!"

Above her, on stage was a screen with the pictures of the eight coordinators who had made it through the first round. The pictures all turned over and consolidated under one point.

"So let's give the board a random shuffle and see our matchups."

The squares came back out in groups of 2 and flipped over, showing which coordinator would be paired up with who and in what order.

"And there they are!"

Harry looked at the board and seen that he and Zoey had been matched up for the third battle. Turning to look at each other they both once again started glaring, neither one of them saying anything. They'd get their chance at each other after the first two matchups had their battles. One good thing that could be noted was that Harry was so focused on his battle opponent that he had completely forgotten to be nervous about having to continue competing in the contest.

A/N: Well the sparks are flying now, Harry has gotten through the first round of his very first contest and has now met another one of the reoccurring but not maine characters of the series. Also it is so easy to imagine how I want these contest an appeal round moves to turn out but describing them is a Pain. In. The. Butt!

I still have no idea who I'm going to pair Harry up with, I'm still open to suggestions, as well as reasons why, please leave them in a review.

As always thank you so much for the follows and favorites and reviews I love you all!