AN: Sorry it took so long to update, this chapter is mostly fluff but hay in these times we could all use a little fluff in our lives.
-If it doesn't like something, it responds with a wild tantrum. It lived 100 million years ago.
"-If it doesn't like something, it responds with a wild tantrum. It lived 100 million years ago." Harry finished saying, in unison with his pokedex, the analysis he had heard for the umpteenth time. Anytime he would use Tyrunt in a battle when on the road, the other trainer would always ask what pokemon it was after their own pokedex failed to scan it.
"Whoa, so Tyrunt lived that long ago! How did you get one then?" Dawn asked. Clear amazement and curiosity in her words as she looked up from Harry's pokédex.
Harry, Dawn, Ash and Brock were sitting in one of the sitting areas on the second floor of the pokemon center. Piplup, Pikachu, and Sylveon where out and playing with each other on the floor with Staravia and Murkrow perched up in the rafters. While Ralts was happily watching the other pokemon comfortably from Harry's lap.
Frowning, Harry looked at the prehistoric rock/dragon-type. " I don't actually know where it came from. When I woke up in Sinnoh, it was apparently alredy with me."
At hearing that Brock turned to Harry with a vaguely concerned and speculative look on his face. He opened his mouth but was interrupted by Dawn.
"Hey why don't you meet my other pokemon now!"
"Yeah, mine to!" Ash, added enthusiastically.
"Sure, I'd love to."
Harry had alredy introduced his new associates to Ralts, whom had gotten a few looks of curiosity and amazement at her odd colouring, Ash had even gotten a bit nostalgic because apparently he had a shiney colored Noctowl. They had also met Murkrow and Tyrunt, whom the others were gushing over, and had already had a long discussion about Sylveon before being interrupted by Team Rocket.
"Alright, come on out Buneary." Dawn said, releasing her second pokemon.
"Buneary!" The rabbit pokemon cried out in delight at being let out.
Harry couldn't hold back his "Aww" at the sight of the brown and yellow fluffy creature, as he knelt down to get a closer look. He had seen plenty of Buneary before out on the road and around the research lab but this was his first time being this close and personal with one. He took out his pokedex as he scanned the adorable fluff ball in front of him.
Buneary, the Rabbit Pokémon. When sensing danger, it extends both ears as an alert. It slams foes by sharply uncoiling its rolled ears. It stings enough to make a grown-up cry in pain. On cold nights, it sleeps with its head tucked into its fur.
"Bun?" Buneary tilted her head andlooked up at Harry with the same curious feeling that all pokemon had around him.
"Well aren't you a cutie." Harry cooed, reaching out a tentative hand to carefully rub her head. "BunBuneary!" Buneary cried out cheerfully as she leaned into the touch.
"Looks like Harry has Buneary's approval." Brock chuckled, as he watched Buneary soaking up the praise and attention Harry was giving her.
Soon the other pokemon on the floor came over to make introductions to the now released normal-type.
"Pika Pi" "PiPiplup". Pikachu and Piplup started chatting as they approached Buneary, whom immediately made a be line to Pikachus side upon seeing the electric-type and pressing against it.
"PikaPikaPikachu." Pikachu said pointing to each of Harry's pokemon and introducing them, looking a bit embarrassed at having Buneary plastered to its side. Buneary seemed happy to meet the other new pokemon, however when she got to Sylveon Harry felt a strange sense of what he could identify as caution and jealousy(?), coming from her as she seemed to pull Pikachu closer to her.
Harry's eyes widened a second later, realizing what was going on, and smiled slightly. Buneary apparently liked Pikachu, and was worried that Harry's, supremely cute, Sylveon was going to be competition for her crushes heart. Before Harry could ask or reassure the rabbit like pokemon, Ash was calling to move things along.
"Alright now meet my pokemon!" Ash then released his other two pokemon; an Aipom and a Turtwig.
"Alright Turtwing, Aipom this is Harry and his pokemon."
"TurTwig"
"AiaiaiAipom"
Each pokemon chirped out in delight.
"Hel-" "TurTwig!" Before Harry could finish his sentence, or register the flash of excitement and joy, pure instinct from dodging bludgers in quidditch had him clumsily diving to the side and on to the floor as a green blur suddenly lunged for him.
"Harry, are you okay?" Dawn asked, she and Brock had jumped at the sudden movement and came to stand near Harry on the floor. Aipom jumped up and away from the commotion and swung by her tail over to where the other pokemon were running around playing.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just didn't expect that is all."
"Turtwig, what'd you do that for!?" Ash scolded in shock, looking sternly down at the grass-type.
"TurTurtwigTur!" Turtwig just cried out happily as it ran over to Harry smiling.
It had happened so fast and his body had basically moved on it's own, that it took a moment for Harry to realise that Turtwig had just tried to bite him. Though right now, as he looked down at the tiny leaf pokemon, all he could feel was joy and excitement. There were no hostile or aggressive emotions, he couldn't even feel the normal curiosity that he would usually feel from meeting a new pokemon. The only negative emotions he could feel were comeing from the corner where Tyrunt had been laying down away from everyone and was now on its feet watching Turtwig and himself with both anger and concern.
"Turtwig" It called, now bumping its blunt beak against Harry's clothed thigh, still feeling happy. Harry looked at the familiar pokemon for a moment, being one of the starters of the Sinnoh region, Harry had seen many Turtwig when he was with Professor Rowan. "Should we try that again? Hello." He reached out a hand and began to gently rub its head infront of its seedling. As he did that, Harry was suddenly hit with a strange memory; he could see himself, he was kneeling down on the forest floor, though not the forest that surrounded the research lab, and he was petting a Turtwig as it ate a pokepuff from his hand.
Suddenly, he remembered where he'd seen it this particular Turtwig before, he also recalled that it had a habit of trying to bite another person that it liked. Harry pushed himself off the ground and picked the grass-type up into his arms as a smile spread over his face.
"Ash, this Turtwig it used to live in the forest on route 202, near the herbalist, Clara's house right?" Harry asked turning toward the other dark haired boy.
"Yeah, that's right." Ash said happily.
"So I take it you've met already." Brock said with a chuckle in his voice.
"Yes, we met a few times when Professor Rowan took me with him to get ingredients from Clara." Harry explained. "I should have recognized it sooner, Clara told me that this little guy has a habit of taking a chomp out of peopel it likes." He said jostling Turtwig a bit. He had seen one time when Turtwig had tried doing it to Clara but the elder women had had a stick ready for it to bite onto instead of her head.
"Wait, Professor Rowan took you, how come? Did you use to work for him?" Dawn asked.
"Sort of. He was nice enough to take me in after he found me."
At that Brock's expression once again changed to that of concern as he looked at Harry.
"Harry, you said that Tyrunt was with you when you, woke up in Sinnoh and that Professor Rowan had found you. Sorry to pry but did something happen?"
Harry stiffened a bit at the older boys question. Honestly Harry didn't like talking about, what he was calling in his head, 'Before', with anybody. Even if he now had a created backstory and past here in this world he still didn't like talking about or even thinking of what his life was like 'Before'. The only people that knew about more than the water down version he had given to the other professors and government officials, where Olympia and Professor Rowan. But even the substantial amount that they knew still wasn't everything.
"Well, you see I don't know how I ended up in Sinnoh, or well, I don't remember how it happened." Harry said tentatively, looking down at the top of Turtwigs head.
Harry knew that the subject of his past would come up eventually at some point, that's why he had had to make the fake background, but he would have rather just never spoken about it again. It wasn't that the fake story about himself was hard to talk about, or overly complicated. It was just that when he thought of his fake past he would start thinking of his real one and that was something he would rather not do.
"You don't remember?" Ash reiterated, looking confused.
Harry shook his head. "Nope, I can't remember a lot of things," He took a breath in through his nose and tried to focus on his prescripted backstory, and tried not to think about his actual history. "When I woke up here in Sinnoh I didn't have any memories of coming from the Kalos region or even any memories of growing up there. I could tell you my birthday my, favorite food and things like that about myself but I couldn't tell you where in Anistar City I grew up." Harry said, trying to remain as close to the truth as possible, and so far not saying anything that was untrue. He really didn't have any memories of growing up in Kalos or of coming from over there to Sinnoh. " Professor Rowan found me in the forest and took me back to his lab. We were able to get my background information after a little digging around with the help of one of his colleagues but there are still alot of big gapes in my memory."
"So you know things about yourself but you don't remember alot of it, wow, that must be rough." Ash said sympathetically
"That must have been something, waking up alone in a new place and not knowing how you got there." Brock said. The older boy didn't know how true that statement was
"Well I wasn't completely alone, like I said Tyrunt was there to. It scared the living hell out of me though." Harry said letting out a nervous chuckle trying to lighten the mood, the light laughs he got from the other three showed that it worked a bit.
"I'll bet, I don't think I'd be comforted to waking up to see a Tyrunt next to me." Brock agreed jesting.
"I didn't even know what a pokemon was, so you can imagine how I felt." Harry added on with a laugh, only to be met with three shocked faces.
"What?" "You didn't know what pokemon were?" Dawn and Ash asked at once. Ash had a disbelieving lilt in his voice, like he couldn't comprehend the idea of being ignorant of pokemon.
"Was that a result of your amnesia to?" Brock asked in a much calmer tone than his two friends.
Harry, a bit taken aback by there reactions slowly nodded his head. In hindsight he probably shouldn't have been so surprised, pokemon were everywhere; in the wild, in citys, in homes, for someone to not know what a pokemon was they would have to be completely and utterly isolated from the entire world.
"Yeah, I told you there are some very big gaps in my memory, I had no memory what so ever about pokemon. That's also why Professor Rowan took me in, so I could learne-er, re-learn the basic facts about pokemon. It's also why I thought it would be a good idea to head out on a journey of my own, instead of staying back at the lab." Here Harry's smile became more genuine. "I can travel were I want while I'm learning about different places and pokemon all while figuring out what I want to do."
The three infront of him were looking at him like they didn't believe what he was saying. For people who grew up with pokemon being a constant part of their lives, the thought of suddenly having no recollection of them seemed unfeasible.
"Honestly it really isn't to big of a deal," Harry said in way of reassuring them. "Look, chances are I'm never going to get any memories back, but since waking up here I've gotten to learn all of these amazing and fantastic things about pokemon and the things I have the opportunity to do. Every little thing is a brand new and exciting experience. I'm free to do what ever I want, and that's incredible to me." Harry finished almost breathlessly, it still astounded him that that was true, he had completel control over his life. He could do or be whatever he liked.
"That's a good way to go about it." Brock said, trying not to be discouraging.
"But still, you cant remember your family or friends? That must be sad." Dawn added softly, a thoughtfully sad frown on her face.
"I don't have any family, my parents died when I was a baby, I still knew that." Harry told them somewhat blandly, getting a flinch from all three. He had gotten use to the fact that he didn't have parents a long time ago, especially when everyone in the wizarding world constantly brought it up with the Boy-Who-Lived thing , so mutch so that he felt almost numb when he thought about it, so he didn't feel to uncomfortable telling people. Friends on the other hand, that was a topic with a few complicated feelings for him.
"And I haven't got any friends," he said in a to leveled tone. "Not anymore" he muttered to low for the other three to make out the words, but loud enough to hear the tone, his voice was thick with something that seemed halfway between anger and pain.
The four trainers sat around in an uncomfortable silence, the only noise in the room was coming from the pokemon who were playing on the floor completely oblivious to their trainers discomfort . Harry was inwardly cursing , he had been trying so hard not to let his past feelings up during this conversation, he need it to learn how to talk about his false past without letting his emotions from his real past come up. His fake background wasn't nearly as tragic as his real one and it would look strange if he suddenly got so upset anytime it was brought up.
Ash, Dawn and Brock, sensing that Harry didn't appreciate the current topic of conversation all seemed to opt to not talk at all , none of them knowing how to break the sudden tension in the room.
Suddenly Ash's eyes lit up as he got an idea, turning to Brock.
"Hey Brock, you still haven't shown Harry your pokemon!" He exclaimed, like the previous tension in the room hadn't even been there. The other occupints of the room turned to him, surprised at the sudden outburst.
"Huh? Oh yeah you're right!" Brock asked caught a bit off guard at the sudden statement, before realizing what was going on and immediately brightening.
" All right come on out." The breeder called,tossing out two pokeballs releasing a Croagunk and a Sudowoodo.
Alright these are my pokemon, okay you two meet Harry." Brock introduced.
"Suu~Dowoodo." The rock-type enthused, going into its signature salute pose.
"Croa~Gunk Croa~Gunk" The toxic mouth pokemon continued to belt out the same rhythmic croaks in sync with its cheek sacs.
"Woah, I've never seen a real Sudowoodo or Croagunk before!" Harry said earnestly, almost forgetting the awkward situation moments before. Almost.
Walking closer to the Sudowoodo first Harry took out his pokedex. He had read about them, and basically every other pokemon in recorded history, but stil, wanted to hear what the device had to say. As he got closer he felt once again the feeling of a new Pokemon meeting him. The Sudowoodo looked at him speculatively before a wide smile bloomed across its face as it gave a happy cry "SudoSudowoodo" and once again struck a saluting pose.
Harry smiled back before raising his pokedex and scanning it.
Sudowoodo the imitation pokemon. Although it camouflages itself as a tree in order to avoid being attacked, its body is actually more like a rock than like a plant. It hates water and disappears whenever it rains.
The information wasn't anything he didn't alredy know but there was just something about scanning a pokemon in person that made him feel like he was actually here and on his journey. Like a reminder that this was really happening.
Turning toward the last of the pokemon Harry was faced with the slightly unsettling face of Croagunk before scanning it as well.
Croagunk, the Toxic Mouth Pokémon. Croagunk has poison in its cheeks and can spray poison from its fingertips. It also makes noise by expanding its poison sacs. It lives in swamps and forests where there is very little light. It prefers moist places.
Harry laughed nervously as he looked at the poison type pokemon for a moment feeling the curiosity coming from off of it despite the fact that its face had not changed a bit. After the Vileplume incident Professor Rowan and the other lab assistant were a bit hesitant to have Harry around any type of poison-type pokemon in general, so Harry was a bit wary at being around a pokemon type he had a lot less hands-on training with. The fact that Croagunks face was almost always set in some sort of unhappy grimace didn't help, physically in giving off any sort of friendly energy. After a minute, a substantially longer time then it normally took, the curiosity turned into happiness, setting Harry more at ease.
Harry could feel Croagunks emotions coming through a lot more clearly then he could with most pokemon he met, the exceptions being Sylveon, Tyrunt and Ralts however he had been with them much longer than any other Pokemon so it was no surprise that he could feel them a lot easier than others. He had read in one of the books Olympia had sent him that pokemon that were more affectionate personality-wise we're a lot easier for empaths to feel then your average pokemon. Pokemon that were a lot more affectionate or caring of their trainer were normally very very loyal and were theorized by psychics to make incredible partners in whatever type of field of work their trainer preceded in.
At feeling Croagunks mood change Harry smiled, putting his Pokedex away, and reached out with both hands and rubbing the top of Croagunks head. Harry could feel the frog shaped Pokemons mood getting lighter as he continued to rub its head. Croagunk closed it's eyes and its mouth curved up into what looked like an actual smile when Harry's Hands moved down to the back of its head right behind it's poison sacs, it opened its mouth and made a very pleased sounding croak at the sensation obviously liking it. "Gunk~"
Ash Brock and Dawn all watched on in slight amazement. To them they had just seen Harry staring at Croagunk for almost a minute straight before suddenly smiling and rubbing Croagunk's head all of a sudden and Croagunk enjoying it.
"Wow, he even got Croagunk to crack a smile." Ash said impressed. In the short time since Brock had caught Croagunk the poison/fighting-type had been for the most part fairly distant, and uninterested, preferring to keep to itself more than anything. Though after, what to Ash looked like, a staring contest with Harry, and a few head rubs Croagunk was actually smiling. Not just showing its teeth.
"Well, aren't you popular." Brock commented walking up to Harry as he continued showering his pokemon with affection.
"Not really" Harry said, feeling as Croagunk brightened at Brocks approach. It seemed that Croagunk really felt attached to the tall pokemon breeder." You're Croagunk here is pretty open,"
"Huh, what do you mean open?" Dawn asked, looking at Harry confused.
"I mean that just because it isn't as energetic as Sudowoodo, Croagunk very clearly and openly cares for Brock and I gather the rest of you too." Harry explained as Croagunk walked off into a corner and stared out the window, still feeling happy. Despite the fact that it was just sitting there Harry could easily feel that it was just as happy as the otherokemon who are running around and playing. "Real sweetie that one."
"How can you tell?" Ash asked puzzled.
Harry suddenly clammed up at that. It has been so long since he had actually had a conversation last this long with someone who wasn't already in the know about his psychic empathy that he wasn't used to having to sensor himself.
"It's not important." He said trying to brush off his slip up.
Even though Professor Rowan in Olympia and all the other professors had reassured him that psychic abilities weren't exactly uncommon and that he wouldn't be attacked or shunned because of them, old habits die hard. He didn't want anyone to find out that he had special an uncommon abilities that no one or very few others had. Being able to do something that nobody else around him could do had only ever caused him trouble his entire life, having magic had lead to abuse and neglect in the muggle world, being parseltongue had lead to him being ostracized and thought of evil in the magical world. And then there was the debacle with the goblet of fire. So for the time being Harry was going to keep that little tidbit secret from anybody who didn't already know.
Ash was about to press but was stopped when he seen Brock over Harry's head shaking his head no. Growing up raising 9 younger brothers and sisters, Brock could recognize when someone didn't want to talk about something and knew there were times you had to let things go and not push. Harry clearly had a few things that he didn't want to talk about and as well meaning and kindhearted as his friend was, Ash could sometimes be just as blunt and oblivious. And by the looks of it whatever Harry had going on probably wouldn't benefit from Ash's bold and energetic form of helping, if he thought Harry needed it.
Luckily, for all involved Ash did what Brock signalled for him to do and dropped the subject.
"So Ash you said you were competing in the Sinnoh League but you're from the Kanto region right? Did you decide to start your journey here or have you already been through the Kanto regions gyms?" Harry asked randomly without thinking, just wanting desperately to move the focus off of himself.
Ash took the bait willingly, and started talking about the start of his first journey and the pokemon he had seen and caught. Harry was only half paying attention at first more focused on calming himself down over his little slip up. However once Ash had gotten to talking about a girl following him around over wanting a new bike Harry was fully paying attention and laughing at some of the things that had happened to Ash when he was still just starting out. Especially when Brock joined in and corrected some of Ash's exaggerated victories and miniaturized failures.
This is what Harry loved about this new world, it was easy for him to talk about Pokemon or training methods or other people's adventures, it was something to do to pass the time in Pokemon centers or when he met somebody on the road at campsites or things like that. He could keep all of the attention on other things and off of himself, he could have nice conversations with human interactions like this in a relaxed setting and then keep on going on his journey all on his own without fear of eventually being discovered or people growing sick of him. He could be left alone without feeling lonely and he found that that put him greatly at ease.
A/N Well there yah go another chapter Thank you to everybody who has favorites, follows reviewing this story I really really love hearing what you have to say especially those of you that constantly comment on every new chapter it really feels good that people actually like what I have to write. I love you all.