Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Harry Potter and the Tamer's Challenge
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Harry Potter and the Tamer's Challenge 3
by Big D
Disclaimer: Not Mine. No Profit. No Shit.
(Several weeks after the end of Chapter Two)
Hermione glared at me from under a squawking pile of feathers. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she growled.
I flashed her a cheeky grin and shrugged. "I can't deny that it's mildly entertaining."
"You do know that you're supposed to be giving me orders, right? That's what a Tamer does in a pokebattle."
Frowning at her, I folded my arms across my chest. "Well that hardly seems sporting, does it, the two of us against that one little thing. Besides, I thought that A-Bra's were supposed to be smart, surely you can figure your own way out from under there?"
"Stop playing around, Harry!" she snapped, "If I can't get her off of me, it goes down as a loss, and I'm not losing to some bird brained egg-layer!"
I pretended to mull over the problem for a few seconds before responding in a slow, casual tone. "You know... you could just Teleport out from under her."
Hermione blinked up at me in surprise a couple of times, then was suddenly standing just to my right. Her golden yellow cheeks had gone a fetching shade of orange and she angrily held up a finger to forestall any comment from me.
I glanced over at my pokegirl's worthy opponent, the one who had given her so much trouble. The ChickenLittle had thumped to the ground once Hermione had vanished out from under her and still lay there on her back, softly clucking and making no effort whatsoever to right herself. My embarrassed little A-Bra marched over and simply sat down on top of the other girl, putting her chin in her hands and staring up at me with a look that told me she'd run away and let herself go Feral if I so much as snickered. After sixty seconds, the automatic referee sounded a horn and the match was over, with Hermione declared the victor.
She popped up and tried to stalk away, but I caught her by the arm before she got very far. She made a half-hearted attempt to shake free, but soon turned and leaned her head against my chest. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her for a quiet moment, trying to think soothing thoughts for her to absorb.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, and sniffled lightly.
"For what?"
She sighed and looked up at me, wiping away tears of frustration with the back of her hand. "For being useless," she said bitterly. "For not even being able to beat a stupid, worthless ChickenLittle without help."
"That's not true and you know it," I tried to console her. "What was that, number twenty? And you've never needed any help before now."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah, I can see them writing the stories now. Hermione Bang'er, the ChickenLittle-Slayer. Except that I can't slay them. Sometimes I can't even trip them properly."
"Don't you think that you're being a little hard on yourself?" I asked. "So she fell over on top of you. It's not the end of the world."
She made a disgusted sound. "Come on, Harry! I almost lost a pokebattle to a ChickenLittle! Do you realize just how pathetic you have to be for something like that to happen? It's like losing a spelling bee to a Bimbo, only worse!"
"You should listen to it, Potter," a new voice interjected itself. "At least it's smart enough to realize just how feeble it is, even if you don't. Or perhaps you do realize, and you simply enjoy taming something that's built like a malnourished schoolboy."
Fighting down a gag reflex at the sound of that drawling, arrogant voice, I turned to confront the newcomer. Draco Malsauter, which according to my admittedly poor French, roughly translated as "bad lover", was the spitting image of my own dear "friend", Draco Malfoy. But, whereas the cold aura of the Draco that I knew was a figurative thing, this Draco's coldness was quite literal, thanks to his powerful Ice-Elemental Blood Gifts.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't laughing boy," I said brightly to the stone-faced young man. As far as I knew, he had never cracked a smile in all his time at Hogtits. "Go on, then, tell us a joke."
The ambient temperature dropped several degrees as Draco stepped closer, the sneer splitting his lips so much a part of his normal expression that it seemed like he'd been born with it. "The only joke here is you," he scowled. "You and that flat-chested little mind-reader over there. If you had any decency at all, you'd go into the Forbidden Forrest right now and get yourself raped and eaten, so that the real Tamers wouldn't have to put up with the sight of you."
I cocked my head at him. "You know, Draco, if you keep saying things like that, then I'm going to get the idea that you don't like me very much."
He snorted. "Like has nothing to do with it, Potter. I'm more or less indifferent to your very existence. It's just when I have to see things like that charade between your... creature, and that other thing that I feel the need to intercede for the public good."
I rolled my eyes and got ready to leave. There was no point in standing here wasting perfectly good oxygen bickering with Draco the living popsicle. But when I looked over at Hermione, I could see tears streaming down her cheeks. Not a few little sniffles brought on by anger and frustration like before, but real sobs born out of shame at her own weakness.
It hadn't occurred to me how much Draco's words might affect Hermione. In my own world, I had learned a long time ago that she was more than capable of sticking up for herself, and often resented it if Ron or I tried to play the hero when Draco was picking on her. If she felt the need to punch him in the snoot or hex him into next week, then she would do it, thank you very much.
But the circumstances were quite different here. The punishment for a pokegirl attacking a human was death, so in the most literal terms, she couldn't fight back. And the fact that she was already down in the dumps over her last battle gave the little snot's words even greater force.
Unthinkingly, I reached for my wand, fully intending to teach Draco a lesson about running his mouth in my presence, but stopped myself just in time. As far as I knew, no one on this world was aware of my magical abilities. Not that it would have occasioned much comment. Likely as not, most people would have taken me for just another young Tamer with strong Blood Gifts, like Draco himself. But all the same, it was something that I preferred to keep a secret.
But that wasn't the only reason I forced myself to calm down and let go of my wand. No, it had just occurred to me that there was a far better way to both convince Hermione that she wasn't nearly as helpless as she felt and put Chilly Willy in his place at the same time. I fixed a shit-eating grin on my face and turned back to look the other Tamer in the eye.
"Draco Malsauter, I challenge you to a one-on-one pokebattle."
"WHAT!!!"
I couldn't be certain who's shocked exclamation was louder, Draco or Hermione's. It was almost worth it just to see the little fink's expression change for once. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped down to his chest for just a split second before he was able to regain his composure. Then he did something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
He smiled at me.
"I accept your challenge," he recited. "But not here. In the Center Arena, in half an hour. When I defeat you, I want the whole school to see it." Then he turned on his heel and sauntered away.
"What the hell was that?!" Hermione demanded, marching up and thumping me in the chest with a balled-up fist. The blow was distressingly soft, something that most fighting-type pokegirls would hardly notice, but I doubted that she was holding much back.
"Proving a point," I explained, turning and walking slowly towards the Center Arena, which was unsurprisingly located on the same spot where the Quidditch Pitch had stood on in my world. It was where the official school pokebattle tournaments were held, as well as where wandering Tamers came to test their skills against the local Harem Master, Professor Fondlemore. If they were able to beat the old man, they would receive a Hogtits badge and a generous cash reward, but it had been nearly six months since anyone had bothered to challenge him, and according to school legend, several years since anyone had actually defeated him.
Hermione and I had been training on a side arena near the far edge of school grounds, one that was there for the express purpose of allowing the weaker pokegirls to gain victories in battle by going up against the school's flock of ChickenLittles, who's only other reason for existing was to provide food for the school with their eggs. The arena was referred to by the Instructors as the Remedial Training Arena, but most of the students just called it "Loser's Corner".
Coming here every day was part of Hermione's plan to evolve herself as quickly as possible. Pokegirls evolved normally by amassing victories in battle and through regular taming sessions, which meant that most of Hermione's active time over the last few weeks had been spent either wrestling ChickenLittles to the ground, or wrestling me into bed. The second part had surprised me a little, as A-Bra's were reported to have low libidos, but as she had explained to me once between yanking my trousers off and shoving me inside of her, that simply referred to how often a pokegirl needed to be tamed to prevent her from going Feral.
As problems go, I've had worse.
Hermione caught up to me after I'd gone a few steps. "And exactly what point are you trying to prove?" she demanded. "He was probably hoping you would challenge him! Why else would someone like him be all the way out here?"
"I'm not proving a point to Draco," I told her. "I'm proving it to you."
"Oh yeah, you're going to show me once and for all how weak I am."
I rounded on her in anger, and she took a couple of surprised steps back when she saw the look on my face. "You are not weak!" I snapped at her. "And you're miles better than ten Malfoys, or Malsauters, or whatever the hell the pompous, pretentious little prat calls himself here! That's what I'm going to prove!"
She glanced down at the ground, refusing to meet my eye. "But Harry... don't you realize that I can't possibly win?" she whispered.
Taking her head in my hands, I lifted her face up to mine and placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. "You can only lose if you don't try," I said softly. "Will you at least try?"
A slow smile slid across her face, and she slipped her arms around me in a warm embrace. "I'll try,"she mumbled into my chest, sounding determined, if not convinced.
"Then this is what we're going to do."
As I explained my idea, Hermione's little smile began to grow, until by the time we'd reached the Center Arena she was laughing out loud. She knew as well as I did that she would probably still lose this fight, but if she followed the plan, she would at least have a fighting chance.
Her laughter stopped cold when we reached the Center Arena and saw it half full. There must have been a few hundred Tamers, Instructors, Researchers, and pokegirls in the stands, all waiting for the battle to start, with more streaming in by the second. And in the center box sat Albus Fondlemore himself, Headmaster of Hogtits, and in most people's opinion, the greatest Harem Master in the world. If he was here, it meant that he intended to serve as judge.
I grabbed the arm of a passing Tamer. "Why are there so many people here?" I asked him.
"Didn't you hear? Some ruddy idiot thinks that he can beat Malsauter with an A-Bra! Everybody's come to watch the massacre." He glanced over my shoulder and saw Hermione standing behind me. "Oh! Sorry, mate. Didn't mean anything by it." His eyes narrowed. "Wait, it's you, isn't it? You're the one that laid down the challenge?" He shook his head. "Shame, that. She's a pretty little thing, at least from the neck up. Won't be so pretty once Millicent's done with her."
I ignored him and grabbed Hermione by the hand, pulling her towards the Dueling Circle. Draco hadn't been kidding when he said that he wanted to beat me in front of the entire school! He must have broken into a sprint as soon as I'd turned my back, to gather a crowd like this so fast.
"Stupid bloody git!" I groused. "It's long past time someone took you down a peg."
"Let me know when you figure out who that someone is." Hermione said, but flashed me a smile and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. She wasn't going to back down now, no matter who was watching.
I took her by the shoulders and whispered a few last second instructions before taking my place at the edge of the Dueling Circle. Hermione settled down on her knees just inside of the Circle, per the ritual, and I bowed my head, first towards Fondlemore, and then a much smaller nod across the Circle at Draco, indicating that I was ready to begin.
Malsauter stood with his hands on his hips on the other side of the Circle, the picture of practiced arrogance. "You can still tuck your tail between your legs and scurry away," he said in a conversational tone. The Arena was designed to amplify the sound of anything that happened in the Circle, so not only could I hear him like he was standing right next to me, but everyone in the stands could as well.
"Have a care for your own lower appendage, Frosty." I shot back. "Before I do everyone a favor and remove it. Now if you're done wasting my time, maybe we can get started."
The other boy's sneer deepened until it became more of a snarl. He thrust his arm behind his back and produced a pokeball. "Very well, fool," he hissed. "MILLICENT!!! COME FORTH!!!
There was a bright flash of light and something huge swooped into the air, the wind of its passing blowing my hair back and giving birth to little dust devils that played along the edges of the Dueling Circle. It made a loop around the Arena, letting loose a howl that sounded like a cat in a blender before coming in for a landing just in front of Draco, squatting down on its haunches and glaring at Hermione with barely restrained rage.
Millicent was a Harpy, and a rather nasty representative of the breed at that, which was saying something. As a general rule, Harpies were loud, violent, ugly, violent, smelly, and did I mention violent? And from what I'd heard, Millicent was the loudest, ugliest, smelliest, and most violent Harpy that anyone had ever heard of that wasn't Feral. I had seen a couple of her battles, but hadn't had the stomach to stay until the end of either. Her fighting style was basically a matter of overwhelming her opponent with aerial and wind attacks, then brutally disfiguring them as much as possible with her claws until the horn sounded. After that, it was fifty-fifty whether or not she'd let up. Draco had been forced to forfeit a few wins in which Millicent had refused to stop attacking after the battle was over, but he had also won several times when other Tamers had declined to send their girls into the Circle to face her.
Despite all that, she did have two important weakness. One was that she tended to grow frustrated if she wasn't able to finish off an opponent quickly, and the other was Draco himself. Draco's Blood Gifts were related to the Ice Element, and gave him powers that made him more than a match for most normal pokegirls in single combat. But it came with a price. Like many Ice Elemental pokegirls, his natural cold temperature lessened his libido, making him less interested in taming, which in turn left Millicent an a constant Half-Feral state.
If my guess was right, then he probably spent much more time training her with pain than pleasure. It served to make her more fierce, but also made her virtually uncontrollable once her bloodlust kicked in.
And that was how we would beat her, by turning her ferocity against her.
Draco inclined his head towards Fondlemore slightly, but if he nodded at me I couldn't tell. A second or two later the starting bell sounded and the battle had begun.
Hermione reacted just as I had instructed her, by doing the last thing anyone would ever suspect. She bounded to her feet and, letting out as much of a roar as her lungs could produce, charged at the much larger, far more powerful Harpy. For the second time in the space of an hour, I saw Draco's jaw drop in amazement.
Then he smiled that creepy smile of his and began his own attack.
"Millicent, up!" he commanded.
But Millicent did no such thing. As I'd surmised, she wasn't about to fly away in the face of an attack from the pokegirl equivalent of a ninety-five pound weakling. Instead, she ignored Draco and thundered out her own challenge, charging at Hermione.
I felt my lips turn up in a grin. Perfect.
A split second before the two pokegirls were set to crash into each other, Millicent leapt from her feet and hurled herself at Hermione, talons first. Her claws bit nothing but air as she went sprawling ass over elbows in the dirt at the center of the Circle. She shook her head in confusion, then squawked in pure fury when one of Hermione's hard-soled black shoes connected with the side of her skull. The kick probably wasn't even hard enough to affect a normal human, but it more than served the purpose of pissing Millicent off, which was all it was meant to do.
Hermione had struggled against the ChickenLittle because the onus had been on her to attack, something that she was uniquely unsuited for. In a battle of wits and guile, where she could fight defensively rather than offensively, she had a vast advantage over someone like Millicent.
Millicent swiped at her from the ground, and she danced away laughing, then stopped to flip her hair disdainfully at the Harpy over her shoulder. Millicent howled and leapt again, clearly trying to gut her opponent with a single powerful slash of her talons, but Hermione Teleported away the split-second before she could make contact, then delivered another kick, this one to Millicent's backside, sending her face first into the dirt before the other girl could right herself. The scene repeated itself several times, Millicent mindlessly lunging at Hermione, and Hermione neatly avoiding each one, then counterattacking and taunting her when the other girl's back was turned.
Vaguely, I was aware of the stunned reaction of the crowd, and the building roar as they realized that Draco was actually losing. All Hermione had to do was continue using her Foresight ability to anticipate Millicent's clumsy attacks, then Teleport to dodge them, and she could simply run out the time limit and would win the battle based on the judge's decision. And since Millicent was far too furious to listen to her Tamer, there wasn't a thing that Draco could do about it.
I chuckled as I watched Hermione ham it up for the crowd. She had completely turned her back on her opponent and was waving and blowing kisses to the stands, then Teleported from one side of the Circle to the other as she sensed yet another attack. She bowed to the screaming fans, then turned back to the other girl and assumed the classic "COME AND GET IT, BITCH!!!" beckoning pose.
But Millicent was through playing around. She might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she had been through enough fights to know when something wasn't working, and when it was time to try a different tactic. She dug her talons into the packed earth of the Dueling Circle and began to flap her wings in great sweeps, summoning her Gust attack.
Hermione raised a hand to shield her eyes against the blowing debris, and stumbled back a few steps in the face of the building wind. She was teetering dangerously close to the out-of-bounds line and I shouted a warning at her that was swallowed up by the gale. Luckily, she didn't need to hear me to understand me. Her telepathy wasn't yet fully developed, but between it and the desperate hand signals I was using, she got the message of what I wanted her to do next.
Once again she Teleported away, but this time she reappeared just above Millicent's head, dropping down to land on her back. Normally, I never would have allowed her to get that close, but one of the weaknesses of the Gust attack was that it occupied all four limbs and pretty much every muscle in the pokegirl's body. It was also not an attack that could be stopped easily. It had to be ramped down the same way it had been ramped up.
Which meant that Millicent was all but helpless when Hermione slipped one finger inside her cheek and fishhooked the hell out of her, as hard as she could. Dirty fighting, true, but perfectly legal in a pokebattle. Besides, I doubted that Hermione had the strength to do much real damage.
Millicent's panicked scream told me differently.
The furious Harpy finally managed to get her air currents back under control and shook like a sopping wet dog, trying to dislodge the clinging A-Bra, but Hermione had already Teleported clear and was calmly wiping the blood off her hand with a little white handkerchief that she had produced from Merlin only knew where. A small, but ugly wound had split the side of Millicent's mouth open and more blood dribbled down her chin onto her chest. She set herself for another attack, but seemed to hesitate, unsure of what she should try now after everything else had already blown up in her face.
I glanced over at the clock and saw that there was only about half a minute left until the time limit expired. The fight was all but over. Not only had Hermione outmaneuvered her opponent at every turn, she had even drawn first blood. The only thing that Millicent could do to save herself at this point would to be to score a knockout.
Apparently, Draco was thinking the same thing. He had used Millicent's momentary hesitation to regain her attention and get her to take to the skies. I frowned as I watched her circle the Arena, building up speed. What in the name of Slytherin's slimy testicles could the little prat be up to? She couldn't possibly win the battle up there... unless.
"DIVE!!!"
Draco and I both shouted the word at the same time, him as an order to Millicent and me as a warning to Hermione. Millicent let out a blood-curdling screech and came hurtling down from the sky like a thunderbolt, intent on crushing the smaller pokegirl where she stood.
But I had already told Hermione exactly what I wanted her to do in case they tried this. An A-Bra's Confusion technique was considered a status attack rather than an offensive one, but it could be devastating if used properly. Basically, what it did was to make the victim believe that up was down, left was right, and so forth. Reasonably disorienting in the best of times, but downright deadly when that victim was engaged in a full-speed Dive from a half mile up.
Millicent's battle cry abruptly became one of shrill fear as, from her perspective, the world did a backflip. Her smooth Dive quickly changed into odd, wobbly barrel-roll as she fought to right herself, pushing against gravity and her own momentum until she plowed into the ground with bone-crunching force in a heap on the far side of the Dueling Circle.
The finishing horn sounded, and the crowd jumped to their feet in elation. It had hardly been the most action-packed fight that any of them had ever seen, but as everyone loved an underdog and most of those in attendance couldn't stand Draco, it was about as enthusiastic an ovation as I'd heard for a pokebattle since I got here. The building practically shook with the sound of Tamers stomping and pokegirls screaming, and over the din I could just barely make out the sound of someone yelling into the loudspeaker.
"YOUR WINNER... BY KNOCKOUT... HARRY POTTER!!!"
The fans in the first few rows vaulted the barriers, storming the pitch, and I quickly found myself nearly being crushed by a throng of shouting young men and pokegirls who vied for a chance to pound on my back, shake my hand, or in the case of a few of the pokegirls, pinch my bottom while their Tamer's weren't looking.
I pushed through the mob, looking for Hermione, and was met halfway by a brown and gold blur that leapt on top of me, knocking me onto my back, and proceeded to crush my lips with a fierce, hungry kiss. I laughed and took her by the shoulders.
"Feeling a little more confident, are we?" I teased.
Hermione's face was lit up with a glorious smile, looking happier than she had maybe in all the time I'd known her, in either world. "If there weren't so many people around, I'd show you just how confident I am," she purred, leaning back down to kiss me again. Gooseflesh rose up along my arms as I felt her peck and nibble her way down my neck.
Abruptly, I realized that the crowd had gone silent and opened up on one side. I spit a few strands of hair out of my mouth and looked up to see Draco staring down at me, an expression of pure venom on his face. His fists were clenched at his side and a thin film of ice coated them, steam drifting off his skin like an open freezer on a warm day.
I used Hermione's body to surreptitiously take hold of my wand and prepared myself for an attack, but all he did was ask me a question.
"How much?"
I frowned at him. "How much what?"
"For her," he said, nodding at Hermione, "How much do you want for her?"
I eased Hermione off of me and sat up. "She's not for sale."
He showed me his teeth. It wasn't a smile this time. "Everything is for sale... for the right price." He regarded her for a moment, a butcher sizing up a piece of meat. "A thousand."
"Sod off, snowman."
His eyes glittered. I could feel the cold radiating off of him from here, but refused to break eye contact. "Ten thousand," he said.
There were mutters from the crowd around us and I pushed myself to my feet. Hermione clutched at my arm and I patted her hand reassuringly.
"Are you deaf as well as stupid? The answer is no."
His eyes shifted back to Hermione. If looks could kill, there wouldn't even be enough of her left to bury. She held onto me like I was the only thing keeping her upright, and I could feel her pulse racing against my skin. She couldn't possibly think that I was about to sell her, but she was definitely terrified of something.
"One hundred thousand."
The crowd gasped and began to chatter excitedly around us, but I could care less what they thought. "For the last time, ice cube. Over my dead body," I growled. "Now piss off, before I skip the proxies this time and slap you down myself."
A look of utter contempt crossed his face and opened his mouth to speak again, but his reply was cut off by a broad hand settling firmly on his shoulder.
"Come to congratulate the winner, Mister Malsauter?" the newcomer said jovially. "How very sporting of you. I'm sure your father would be delighted." Draco rolled his eyes, but the other man appeared not to notice. He also didn't give any indication that he could feel the intense cold poring off the young Tamer, never mind that the skin under his hand must be well below the freezing point by now.
I was fighting the urge to shiver and I was standing a good ten feet away.
The man's eyes twinkled as he peered at the crowd surrounding us. "I do hate to interrupt your celebration, but if there are no objections, I would like to speak with Mister Potter in private for a moment."
Draco sneered up at the man, then walked out from under his hand, shooting me a glare as he passed. The gathered Tamers and pokegirls also began to disperse. Many of them directed respectful nods in my direction as they left, but a few ignored me completely in favor of giving Hermione long, contemplative looks. My eyes narrowed and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck begin to rise. There was nothing suspicious in the slightest about a Tamer admiring another Tamer's pokegirl, but some of those looks were a bit too... predatory for my tastes.
"A very impressive performance," Professor Fondlemore mused once everyone else was out of earshot. "Perhaps a little too impressive."
I glanced over at him. The contrast was striking. Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, was a stooped-shouldered, weatherbeaten old man, with gnarled fingers like old tree roots and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times and never set properly. His hair and beard had gone pure white years ago, and both of them flowed down well past his waist. He moved with a spryness that, combined with his somewhat mischievous manner, often made him appear younger than he was, but he'd still never pass for anything less than his late sixties, never mind that he was really about twice that.
His analog in this world didn't look a day over forty, but was in actually more than a century older than the man I knew. He was imbued with a single, subtly powerful Blood Gift: Longevity. It didn't make him any stronger or faster, or give him flashy elemental powers like Draco's, but it did give him a life span that dwarfed that of a normal human, or a wizard for that matter. He did age, but only at about a tenth the speed of a regular person. According to the history books that Hermione had recommended to me, he had been born after the end of the Revenge War, but not very long after. Records of that time were still rather dodgy, so there was no way to verify just how old he really was, and he himself had never divulged the truth, but he was known for a fact to be at least two hundred and fifty years old.
He was by far the most famous Tamer alive, having spent his first century or so crisscrossing the world, exploring and having adventures that were still the stuff of legends. About a hundred and fifty years ago he had discovered Hogtits Castle, one of the very few structures in Great Britain that had survived the war intact, and had settled down here, founding Hogtits School, and by all accounts, rarely leaving for any reason.
He cut an imposing figure, nearly six and a half feet tall and built like an athlete, with a neatly trimmed beard that was only lightly touched with grey, and shoulder-length auburn hair that was currently tied back in a loose tail. His style of dress was a little more subdued than I was used to, at least when it came to color, but the billowy, open-necked white blouse and matching loose trousers he had on were still rather eye catching.
It was the eyes that were most familiar to me. The amused twinkle that had graced them a few moments before had faded, and those bright blue orbs were focused on me with a casual intensity that was unnerving. However youthful the rest of him appeared, nothing could hide the age in those eyes. They seemed to look through me, inside me, to peer into the deepest corners of my soul, measuring me against several lifetimes worth of experience. There was nothing magical in that gaze, but there was a big difference between magic and power, and those eyes brimmed with power.
I refused to be intimidated. "What do you mean, too impressive?" I asked sharply. "We didn't cheat, if that's what you're thinking." Hermione gripped my arm in a silent warning, but I wasn't about to stand there and be accused of anything.
He smiled at me as the twinkle returned. "I did not charge you with such, nor did the thought cross my mind," he said kindly. "I was referring more to Mister Malsauter's offer to purchase your young lady here."
I frowned at him. "I don't see the problem. He offered to buy her, I told him to go bugger himself. End of story." I glanced at Hermione. She still had that worried look on her face, and I got the feeling that there was something I was missing here. "I don't even know why he asked. There's not a chance in hell that I'm going to sell my best friend to him, just so he can make her life miserable for beating him in a fair fight." I wasn't even comfortable with the idea of me owning Hermione, the thought of Draco possessing her, and now having a grudge against her to boot, was enough to make me nauseous. I didn't even what to think about what he would put her through if he got the chance.
Fondlemore eyes had flashed with surprise and approval when I referred to Hermione as my best friend. "You may indeed have told him to..." He smiled and chuckled. "Well, never mind what you told him. The important fact is that he has just informed half the school that he is willing to pay one hundred times the going rate for... if you will forgive the expression, my dear... a common A-Bra. Greed is a powerful motivator, Mister Potter, and I dare say that some in attendance could very well succumb to it, resorting to drastic measures."
Hermione's unease, as well as the predatory looks from a few minutes ago suddenly made a lot more sense. "You mean they would try to steal her?"
"Unfortunately, the practice has become all to common of late," Fondlemore replied grimly. "Over the past year, pokegirl thefts have become something of an epidemic throughout the Blue League. The police and League officials are already stretched to the limit, and as a result, only those thefts involving potentially dangerous pokegirls are currently being investigated. As much as it grieves me to admit it, if someone did manage to steal your Hermione, any complaint would quite likely be placed at the bottom of a very large stack of case files and possibly never see the light of day again."
He turned and began to walk slowly towards the exit of the Arena. Harry matched his pace and Hermione fell in a respectful step or two behind them. "No doubt Mister Malsauter is aware of this situation, given his family's connections within the League, and intends to exploit it if he can."
I could feel my temper rising. So Draco's daddy was a big shot on this world too, huh? And the local government was dangerously inept. This place was starting to feel more like home already.
Fondlemore's voice distracted me from my dark thoughts. "Your appearance here has occasioned some comment amongst the staff," he mused quietly. "It is not very often that a student arrives at the school without so much as a pair of pants to his name. It is even more unusual for that student to display such a remarkable lack of knowledge concerning the craft he has chosen to devote himself to."
I got the feeling that lying to this man would be a very bad idea, so I opted for as much honesty as I dared. "I didn't really have anywhere else to go," I told him truthfully.
"You have no family?"
"My mother and father passed away." If he took that to mean it happened recently, then it was no fault of mine.
Sharp blue eyes flicked towards me, and I realized that I wasn't fooling him in the slightest. He might not know exactly what it was, but he surely knew that I was hiding something. "Unfortunately, I do not always have the time to welcome each new Tamer as they arrive," he continued, politely ignoring my half-truths. "But I do try to keep an eye on those whom I feel show an aptitude beyond that of their peers. I have heard some very encouraging things about your training, Mister Potter, particularly in light of how far behind you were when you arrived here. That is why I wanted to judge your match. As I said... very impressive. It is quite refreshing in this day and age to encounter a young Tamer who understands that ingenuity can be just as powerful a weapon as brute force. It is my hope that some of the students who witnessed your duel today will take that lesson to heart, but I fear that they may simply chalk it up to beginner's luck."
"Thank you, sir."
He stopped and turned to look at me. His face was pensive, and I got the strong impression that I was being measured again. I was struck by how very old he appeared in that moment, despite the lack of lines on his face. "I was wondering if you would be willing to consider an offer from me, Mister Potter," he said after a moment.
"What kind of offer?"
"A job offer."
I blinked in confusion. "What... you mean work here at the school? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do that." Not if I was ever going to track down the stranger who sent me here. I needed to be out in the world hunting down clues, not puttering around the castle.
He shook his head. "No, I wasn't referring to a position here. After all, you still have your term of service as a Tamer to complete, and that cannot begin until after you have passed your final test and left Hogtits. What I meant was a kind of... supplemental employment, to occur alongside your work in the field."
I began to get a glimmer of understanding. "You want me to be a spy?" I felt an amused grin tug at my lips. The more things change, the more they stay the same. After all, meddlesome is as meddlesome does.
"I have cultivated a reputation for reclusiveness, Mister Potter, but I do find it very useful to stay abreast of events beyond the walls of this school, particularly in these troubled times," he said, turning and resuming his pace towards the castle. "What I ask of you is not onerous. You would simply need to make regular reports of things you have seen during your journey, and inform me immediately should you encounter anything you feel would be of importance, such as a new pokegirl species or an attack by Team Viper."
"Team Viper?"
"A well-organized band of brigands and pokegirl thieves whom I believe is behind most of the League's current troubles. They are ruthless, cunning, and completely without morals. They have always wielded great influence within the League through fear and bribery, but have never before been this blatant in their activities. I also suspect that the increase in Feralborn attacks on populated areas that have been reported recently can be laid at their feet, but as of yet I have been unable to obtain proof of this."
Team Viper, huh? Sounded familiar. I couldn't help but wonder if they all had little tattoos on their arms as well. "Not to put too fine of a point on this, but what's in it for me?"
"You would be compensated, or course. Noble though the life and work of a Tamer may be, oftentimes credits can be difficult to come by. And I may also be able to provide you with an anti- theft collar and ident-chip that will help prevent your Hermione from being stolen. Such things can be quite expensive, but I make it a point to insure that my agents are properly equipped before I allow them to work on my behalf."
I bit back an annoyed curse. He had baited me in. The whole discussion about how the League would do nothing if Hermione were taken from me had been intended to lead here. Still, I found it difficult to summon up much anger over it. It was Malfoy, or at least his little clone, who had created this problem, and he's the one who's hide I intended to take it out on.
"Alright, I'm in."
Fondlemore smiled and nodded. "Excellent! Then allow me to be the first to welcome you into the Order of Macavity."
AN: I've had this damn thing sitting on my hard drive, 95% done, for months now. I was so close, but I just couldn't get Fondlemore's offer to sound right. And Harry was being a miserable twat there as well. The last couple hundred words just feel flat and stupid to me. I kept setting it aside and coming back to it later in hopes that inspiration would eventually strike, but it never did. It's still wrong, but I'm sick of looking at it, so here you go.
Big D
POKEDEX ENTRIES
Courtesy of A-Kun's "Pokegirl World Project"
www.angelfire.com/mn3/pokegirls/main.html
CHICKENLITTLE, the Egg-Layer Pokegirl
Type: Near Human
Element: Normal
Frequency: Common
Diet: simple grains
Role: egg producer
Libido: Low
Strong Vs: Ghost
Weak Vs: Fighting
Attacks: Scratch, Kick, Preen
Enhancements: None
Evolves: Hot Chick (normal)
Evolves From: None
When Sukebe unleashed the pokegirls upon the world to have his revenge, he made all sorts of them. Some were made to unleash a rain of fire, others took the humans by surprise by swimming through the oceans, but some had more mundane roles, such as the Chickenlittle. Chickenlittles were created to make sure Sukebe's armies would have plenty to eat.
Chickenlittles are short things, usually just under five feet tall. Their bodies are covered with short white feathers, but they completely lack the ability to fly, even for short distances. Their feet have short claws that give them a mild ability to defend themselves if attacked, but they almost always just run if there's danger. Their breasts are small, usually not even a B-cup, and their cunt is too loose for most Tamers' liking.
Chickenlittles have one useful function: to lay eggs. Every four days or so, a Chickenlittle will lay a clutch of eggs of about a half-dozen. The eggs are the size of an orange, and are very delicious and healthy however they're prepared. These eggs are never able to be fertilized; pregnant Chickenlittles oddly bear their young live. Chickenlittles are usually kept by farmers in large groups, harvesting their eggs to sell. They're easy to keep Tamed, since they don't need sex very often. Being a farmer of Chickenlittles requires a league license.
Chickenlittle eggs are laid out of her cunt, not her ass. Because she so regularly lays so many large eggs from there, a Chickenlittle's pussy is rather loose and baggy, and anyone who has regular access to another pokegirl for Taming will find the feel of a Chickenlittle's cunt is rather lacking.
Chickenlittles themselves don't have much of a Libido, only needing it every few weeks or so. Most people who are in charge of Taming a Chickenlittle prefer to take them anally, since it's tighter and more pleasurable there.
Chickenlittles are not very smart at all. Most make Bimbos and Bunnygirls look intelligent by comparison. Not only do they not know much, they are completely lacking in anything even remotely resembling ambition. They have no desire to learn, or even to go anywhere or do anything. They sometimes become aware that they want sex, but even then a Chickenlittle will just stand there and let herself go Feral before she goes off and tries to find someone to have sex with. Left alone, a Chickenlittle will sit in one place all day and cluck to herself. Chickenlittle farmers will put food and water and facilities virtually right next to them to make sure they stay relatively healthy, usually bringing them out to exercise them every two or three days. Tamers virtually never have a Chickenlittle in their Harem, unless they're going to be out in the deep wilderness for a long time and want a steady food source.
A Chickenlittle who goes Feral is, intelligence-wise, probably smarter than her domesticated counterpart, but only by a slim margin. Feral Chickenlittles will actually do things like get up to go look for food, although they still will run in fright if attacked. A Threshold girl who becomes a Chickenlittle will lack the intelligence to be upset by the transformation, and is usually sold to the nearest Chickenlittle farm for a decent price.
HARPY, the Savage Sky Fighter PokéGirl
Type: Near Human (avian)
Element: Flying
Frequency: Uncommon
Diet: Fish, eggs, small insects, milk
Role: Combat
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Bug, Fighting, Ground, Plant
Weak Vs: Electric, Ice, Rock
Attacks: Dive, Mach Breaker, Tackle, Scratch, Fury Swipes, Gust, Tempest, Feather Blizzard, Feather Shuriken, Speed Storm
Enhancements: Claws, wings, Enhanced Endurance (x3), Enhanced Strength (x3)
Evolves: Unknown
Evolves From: None
Description: A relatively well-known breed. They are human-looking for the most part, save for their lightly-feathered legs, clawlike hands and feet with sharp talons, and the thickly-feathered wings on their arms. They also have much sharper than normal incizors, allowing them to cut through even the thickest-scaled fish. They are a decent, tough breed, but are relatively unpopular.
Harpies are tempermental PokéGirls, that fight viciously and savagely. Feral flocks, the most commonly seen type of Harpy, also tend to be relatively ugly looking, with twisted, haglike faces that make them look older than they usually are, Harpies having little concept of personal hygene save to keep their teeth clean and occasional washing when their odor gets too much even for them. Their hair is almost always unkempt and tangled. It takes a patient Tamer to deal with a Harpy, in keeping them clean and dealing with their short tempers.
As stated earlier, Harpies tend to be ugly, being some of the least beautiful PokéGirl breeds. However, there are some exceptions. The most basic one is a Domestic or Threshold Harpy. Obviously, human-raised PokéGirls have a better concept of taking care of themselves, although they retain the same short tempers.
The most drastic exception to the rule of Harpies being ugly are the Harpies produced at the Kujaku Ranch and Breeding Center on the edge of the Indigo/Johto/Capital continents. The Kujaku family are famous world-wide for producing beautiful PokéGirls, having the policy that 'Inside everyone is a beautiful person waiting to emerge.' More liberal Leagues, such as the Crimson League or the WAPL, favor them due to their compassion towards PokéGirls. And the PokéGirls they produce there are nothing short of breath-taking, in many cases their beauty being surpassed only by the Legendaries themselves. Their Harpies, in particular, are stunning, some going so far as to call them 'Harpy Ladies.' Raising beautiful Harpies has been a personal project of the Kujaku Ranch ever since their opening, and the breed has become something of a flagship species for their Ranches, their 'Harpy Ladies' having the added benefit of being more in control of their violent tempers than their Feralborn sisters. Some members of the Kujaku Ranch brag that they could make even a Widow look beautiful if they could get away with it. PokéSalons all over the world use Kujaku Ranch techniques.
MACAVITY, the Legendary Chaos Kitty pokegirl
Type: Near Human (Feline)
Element: Dark/Psychic
Frequency: Extremely Rare (Unique)
Diet: unknown (speculated human style foods and feelings of confusion) Role: espionage, spying, courier, mischief-maker, thief, assassin
Libido: High
Strong Vs: Poison, Psychic
Weak Vs: None (Bug)
Attacks: Tail Slap, Scratch, Kitty Litter, Rollout, Fury Swipes, Lick, Nightshade, Agility, Quick, Backstab, Armor, Fade, Shadow Walk, Aura Barrier, Confusion, Double Team, Psybeam, Psi-Blade, Dark Attack, Illusion,
Enhancements: Legendary Qualities, Legendary Salient Qualities, Superior Intelligence
Evolves: N/A
Evolves From: N/A
Macavity is one of the very rare Legendary pokegirls. Made by Sukebe to be far beyond normal Pokegirls, Macavity is one that is indeed made for underhanded deeds. She did anything from thievery to killing people. She was Sukebe's right-hand assassin, and she was the 'trainer' of all of Sukebe's Cheshire. To Macavity, the Cheshires were her 'understudies'.
Macavity is one of the more famous and actually 'well-loved' of Legendaries. Her style of actions, her flair for the dramatic, and her looks are something of fame today; She is definitely known by many a cat-type fanciers and/or fans of the Bellerophon Jones series of movies and novels. Her 'character' has been recorded in many formats, the first being in a poem. A poem that is still used and sung today. In fact it can be heard in pre-school play-yards as it is usually being used in children's games.
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She defies every human law
She breaks the law of gravity
Macavity's a ginger cat
She's very tall and lean
You'd know her if you saw her
She wears pieces of leather
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She's a fiend in feline-shape
A monster of suavity
Her brow is deeply in thought
Her head is highly domed
Her figure's busty, don't forget
Her whiskers are uncombed
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She's a villainess of all time
She's one of style and sensuality
She sways her head from side-to-side
With movements like a Naga
And when you think you've cornered her
Well, she's really got cha?!
This poem, though childish as it may seem; it is actually a VERY accurate portrayal of the Legendary pokegirl known as Macavity.
Macavity was a feline-type pokegirl, covered in a coat of fur that was a mixture of different shades or orange and red. She was tall, standing at 7'6" in height. As for wearing pieces of leather, Macavity was a skin-tight outfit that was a patchwork of different pieces of black leather. The only parts visible of her fur were her head, hands, feet, and tail. And she was quite busty, with a generous DDD cup.
As for defying human laws, Macavity was known to do that. She was Sukebe's greatest assassin; performing many underhanded deeds without batting an eye. And she was known to break the law of gravity. She could walk up the side of a wall the way as if she was walking on the ground.
Macavity's personality is one of contrasts. She is a cold-blooded killer at times, a pox upon humanity. She was Sukebe's favored assassin, and she was basically one that did anything necessary. However, she's also the first Legendary to openly help the human race during Sukebe's War of Revenge; actually attacking fellow pokegirls that were trying to destroy human armies. It could easily be said that Macavity actually liked people. To her, humans were quite an interesting species, and were far more than Sukebe lead them to believe.
However, she did not leave Sukebe hanging when she left. This is the time when she was known as the "Mother of the Shadowcats". Those Cheshires that she was proud of, that she felt were ready to carry on her tradition, she went and evolved them into Shadowcats.
After that, Macavity just went around. She'd help people and cause mischief wherever she went. But to some, she was actually a welcome sight, while others, she brought terror. For Macavity's sighting could spell either good fortune, or an oncoming disaster, for Macavity is a pokegirl that is all about chaos. She is one that likes to shake up the way things are by any way necessary; be those ways good or bad. After the War of Sukebe's Revenge ended, Macavity was rarely seen. She began to fade into memory. She was rarely sighted for over 200 years, and even then, it was mostly in the Blue Continent. She always was territorial, and the Blue Continent was one of her favorite hangouts. She was known to bother the original law enforcement agency that was in place during the time of Sukebe, a group known as 'Scotland Yard'.
It wasn't until the year 262 AS that Macavity was seen again. And in effect, brought her to a true level of 'fame'.
During that time was an event that would later become known as ?Bellerophon Jones and the Evolution Stone Scam"; which was the first major adventure of THE Bellerophon Jones. What started out as an adventure in Stone City, took Bellerophon and his Titmouse Karen into the heart of the Blue Continent. It was there that his Titmouse had accidentally angered Macavity by landing atop the Legendary when a few thugs that were part of the scam were chasing her. To say Macavity was upset was a bit of an understatement.
It was thanks to Bellerophon's wisecracking, disrespectful, and bluntly honest ways, he was able to placate the angered Legendary and save himself and his Titmouse. This led to a short-lived alliance with the young Bellerophon who was just starting-out and the experienced Legendary pokegirl Macavity. With Macavity's help Bellerophon was able to put an end to Team Scorcher and their fake Evolution Stones. Afterwards, Macavity just faded from view again, but her deeds would now be well known to the public, and actually give her a fan following.
Macavity is rarely sighted nowadays. She mostly spends her time in the Blue Continent, with a few sightings outside of it; in other parts of the world. After all, there is so much to the world, and cats are known to be roamers. Macavity also seems to be drawn to people who have either of the Blood Curses "May you live in interesting times" and "Jokers Wild". Those that have either Blood Curse are almost guaranteed to see Macavity at least once in their life. She seems to be attracted to the chaos that seems to surround their lives.
Overall, Macavity is quite a pokegirl to behold. She's neither good, nor bad. She's more of a chaotic neutral when it comes to personality. And if you have either Blood Curse "May you live in interesting times" or "Jokers Wild", you might just end up being chosen by Macavity to participate in a session of Taming with her.
LEGENDARY QUALITIES: All Legendary pokegirls have these special attributes, making them above and beyond other pokegirls:
Truly Unique: All Legendary pokegirls cannot be copied. Attempts to clone them always fail, and morphing other beings into copies of them always produces sub-standard versions. Titto, for example, can take Macavity's shape and even copy her powers to some degree, but not any of her Legendary Qualities or Legendary Salient Qualities (see below).
Deathlessness: Despite having been around since Sukebe's Revenge, all the Legendary pokegirls are still around and going strong. This superior version of longevity makes them immune to death from natural causes. They will never die unless they are killed. However, poison, disease, or any unnatural cause still has a normal chance to kill them, barring their special immunities and strengths.
No Weakness (Level X): All of the Legendary pokegirls can ignore their type's normal weaknesses, to a point. When facing a pokegirl at or below a certain level, if that pokegirl is a type the Legendary would normally be weak against, she instead treats it as though it were of a type she had no specific advantage or disadvantage against. For example, Macavity has No Weakness (Level 65). If she were to face a Bug-type pokegirl or anything else that was considered Strong Vs Dark or Psychic, at or below level 65, she wouldn't be considered weak against it, nor would it be considered strong against her. pokegirl at a level above the Legendary's No Weakness level treat things normally.
LEGENDARY SALIENT QUALITIES: Some Legendary pokegirls have special qualities others don't have. Here is Macavity's lexicon of special attributes:
Defies the Law of Gravity: It's unknown exactly how it works, but it seems that Macavity seems to have her own specific gravitational pull with the planet. Meaning she can do feats such as "walking on air" without even trying. Catgirl Evolve: It's known that Macavity has the ability to induce the evolution of a Catgirl into a Cheshire, and a Cheshire into a Shadowcat.
Aura Shift: Macavity has this special ability which allows her to 'set the mood'. She can make her aura take on numerous properties for combat and other uses. She can give herself an 'Aura of Cute' when she's trying to act Innocent, a 'Fear Aura' when she wants to scare someone, or an Aura of any elemental to make a person or pokegirl feel they are in a certain area.
Harry Potter and the Tamer's Challenge 3
by Big D
Disclaimer: Not Mine. No Profit. No Shit.
(Several weeks after the end of Chapter Two)
Hermione glared at me from under a squawking pile of feathers. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" she growled.
I flashed her a cheeky grin and shrugged. "I can't deny that it's mildly entertaining."
"You do know that you're supposed to be giving me orders, right? That's what a Tamer does in a pokebattle."
Frowning at her, I folded my arms across my chest. "Well that hardly seems sporting, does it, the two of us against that one little thing. Besides, I thought that A-Bra's were supposed to be smart, surely you can figure your own way out from under there?"
"Stop playing around, Harry!" she snapped, "If I can't get her off of me, it goes down as a loss, and I'm not losing to some bird brained egg-layer!"
I pretended to mull over the problem for a few seconds before responding in a slow, casual tone. "You know... you could just Teleport out from under her."
Hermione blinked up at me in surprise a couple of times, then was suddenly standing just to my right. Her golden yellow cheeks had gone a fetching shade of orange and she angrily held up a finger to forestall any comment from me.
I glanced over at my pokegirl's worthy opponent, the one who had given her so much trouble. The ChickenLittle had thumped to the ground once Hermione had vanished out from under her and still lay there on her back, softly clucking and making no effort whatsoever to right herself. My embarrassed little A-Bra marched over and simply sat down on top of the other girl, putting her chin in her hands and staring up at me with a look that told me she'd run away and let herself go Feral if I so much as snickered. After sixty seconds, the automatic referee sounded a horn and the match was over, with Hermione declared the victor.
She popped up and tried to stalk away, but I caught her by the arm before she got very far. She made a half-hearted attempt to shake free, but soon turned and leaned her head against my chest. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her for a quiet moment, trying to think soothing thoughts for her to absorb.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, and sniffled lightly.
"For what?"
She sighed and looked up at me, wiping away tears of frustration with the back of her hand. "For being useless," she said bitterly. "For not even being able to beat a stupid, worthless ChickenLittle without help."
"That's not true and you know it," I tried to console her. "What was that, number twenty? And you've never needed any help before now."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, yeah, I can see them writing the stories now. Hermione Bang'er, the ChickenLittle-Slayer. Except that I can't slay them. Sometimes I can't even trip them properly."
"Don't you think that you're being a little hard on yourself?" I asked. "So she fell over on top of you. It's not the end of the world."
She made a disgusted sound. "Come on, Harry! I almost lost a pokebattle to a ChickenLittle! Do you realize just how pathetic you have to be for something like that to happen? It's like losing a spelling bee to a Bimbo, only worse!"
"You should listen to it, Potter," a new voice interjected itself. "At least it's smart enough to realize just how feeble it is, even if you don't. Or perhaps you do realize, and you simply enjoy taming something that's built like a malnourished schoolboy."
Fighting down a gag reflex at the sound of that drawling, arrogant voice, I turned to confront the newcomer. Draco Malsauter, which according to my admittedly poor French, roughly translated as "bad lover", was the spitting image of my own dear "friend", Draco Malfoy. But, whereas the cold aura of the Draco that I knew was a figurative thing, this Draco's coldness was quite literal, thanks to his powerful Ice-Elemental Blood Gifts.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't laughing boy," I said brightly to the stone-faced young man. As far as I knew, he had never cracked a smile in all his time at Hogtits. "Go on, then, tell us a joke."
The ambient temperature dropped several degrees as Draco stepped closer, the sneer splitting his lips so much a part of his normal expression that it seemed like he'd been born with it. "The only joke here is you," he scowled. "You and that flat-chested little mind-reader over there. If you had any decency at all, you'd go into the Forbidden Forrest right now and get yourself raped and eaten, so that the real Tamers wouldn't have to put up with the sight of you."
I cocked my head at him. "You know, Draco, if you keep saying things like that, then I'm going to get the idea that you don't like me very much."
He snorted. "Like has nothing to do with it, Potter. I'm more or less indifferent to your very existence. It's just when I have to see things like that charade between your... creature, and that other thing that I feel the need to intercede for the public good."
I rolled my eyes and got ready to leave. There was no point in standing here wasting perfectly good oxygen bickering with Draco the living popsicle. But when I looked over at Hermione, I could see tears streaming down her cheeks. Not a few little sniffles brought on by anger and frustration like before, but real sobs born out of shame at her own weakness.
It hadn't occurred to me how much Draco's words might affect Hermione. In my own world, I had learned a long time ago that she was more than capable of sticking up for herself, and often resented it if Ron or I tried to play the hero when Draco was picking on her. If she felt the need to punch him in the snoot or hex him into next week, then she would do it, thank you very much.
But the circumstances were quite different here. The punishment for a pokegirl attacking a human was death, so in the most literal terms, she couldn't fight back. And the fact that she was already down in the dumps over her last battle gave the little snot's words even greater force.
Unthinkingly, I reached for my wand, fully intending to teach Draco a lesson about running his mouth in my presence, but stopped myself just in time. As far as I knew, no one on this world was aware of my magical abilities. Not that it would have occasioned much comment. Likely as not, most people would have taken me for just another young Tamer with strong Blood Gifts, like Draco himself. But all the same, it was something that I preferred to keep a secret.
But that wasn't the only reason I forced myself to calm down and let go of my wand. No, it had just occurred to me that there was a far better way to both convince Hermione that she wasn't nearly as helpless as she felt and put Chilly Willy in his place at the same time. I fixed a shit-eating grin on my face and turned back to look the other Tamer in the eye.
"Draco Malsauter, I challenge you to a one-on-one pokebattle."
"WHAT!!!"
I couldn't be certain who's shocked exclamation was louder, Draco or Hermione's. It was almost worth it just to see the little fink's expression change for once. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped down to his chest for just a split second before he was able to regain his composure. Then he did something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
He smiled at me.
"I accept your challenge," he recited. "But not here. In the Center Arena, in half an hour. When I defeat you, I want the whole school to see it." Then he turned on his heel and sauntered away.
"What the hell was that?!" Hermione demanded, marching up and thumping me in the chest with a balled-up fist. The blow was distressingly soft, something that most fighting-type pokegirls would hardly notice, but I doubted that she was holding much back.
"Proving a point," I explained, turning and walking slowly towards the Center Arena, which was unsurprisingly located on the same spot where the Quidditch Pitch had stood on in my world. It was where the official school pokebattle tournaments were held, as well as where wandering Tamers came to test their skills against the local Harem Master, Professor Fondlemore. If they were able to beat the old man, they would receive a Hogtits badge and a generous cash reward, but it had been nearly six months since anyone had bothered to challenge him, and according to school legend, several years since anyone had actually defeated him.
Hermione and I had been training on a side arena near the far edge of school grounds, one that was there for the express purpose of allowing the weaker pokegirls to gain victories in battle by going up against the school's flock of ChickenLittles, who's only other reason for existing was to provide food for the school with their eggs. The arena was referred to by the Instructors as the Remedial Training Arena, but most of the students just called it "Loser's Corner".
Coming here every day was part of Hermione's plan to evolve herself as quickly as possible. Pokegirls evolved normally by amassing victories in battle and through regular taming sessions, which meant that most of Hermione's active time over the last few weeks had been spent either wrestling ChickenLittles to the ground, or wrestling me into bed. The second part had surprised me a little, as A-Bra's were reported to have low libidos, but as she had explained to me once between yanking my trousers off and shoving me inside of her, that simply referred to how often a pokegirl needed to be tamed to prevent her from going Feral.
As problems go, I've had worse.
Hermione caught up to me after I'd gone a few steps. "And exactly what point are you trying to prove?" she demanded. "He was probably hoping you would challenge him! Why else would someone like him be all the way out here?"
"I'm not proving a point to Draco," I told her. "I'm proving it to you."
"Oh yeah, you're going to show me once and for all how weak I am."
I rounded on her in anger, and she took a couple of surprised steps back when she saw the look on my face. "You are not weak!" I snapped at her. "And you're miles better than ten Malfoys, or Malsauters, or whatever the hell the pompous, pretentious little prat calls himself here! That's what I'm going to prove!"
She glanced down at the ground, refusing to meet my eye. "But Harry... don't you realize that I can't possibly win?" she whispered.
Taking her head in my hands, I lifted her face up to mine and placed a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. "You can only lose if you don't try," I said softly. "Will you at least try?"
A slow smile slid across her face, and she slipped her arms around me in a warm embrace. "I'll try,"she mumbled into my chest, sounding determined, if not convinced.
"Then this is what we're going to do."
As I explained my idea, Hermione's little smile began to grow, until by the time we'd reached the Center Arena she was laughing out loud. She knew as well as I did that she would probably still lose this fight, but if she followed the plan, she would at least have a fighting chance.
Her laughter stopped cold when we reached the Center Arena and saw it half full. There must have been a few hundred Tamers, Instructors, Researchers, and pokegirls in the stands, all waiting for the battle to start, with more streaming in by the second. And in the center box sat Albus Fondlemore himself, Headmaster of Hogtits, and in most people's opinion, the greatest Harem Master in the world. If he was here, it meant that he intended to serve as judge.
I grabbed the arm of a passing Tamer. "Why are there so many people here?" I asked him.
"Didn't you hear? Some ruddy idiot thinks that he can beat Malsauter with an A-Bra! Everybody's come to watch the massacre." He glanced over my shoulder and saw Hermione standing behind me. "Oh! Sorry, mate. Didn't mean anything by it." His eyes narrowed. "Wait, it's you, isn't it? You're the one that laid down the challenge?" He shook his head. "Shame, that. She's a pretty little thing, at least from the neck up. Won't be so pretty once Millicent's done with her."
I ignored him and grabbed Hermione by the hand, pulling her towards the Dueling Circle. Draco hadn't been kidding when he said that he wanted to beat me in front of the entire school! He must have broken into a sprint as soon as I'd turned my back, to gather a crowd like this so fast.
"Stupid bloody git!" I groused. "It's long past time someone took you down a peg."
"Let me know when you figure out who that someone is." Hermione said, but flashed me a smile and gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. She wasn't going to back down now, no matter who was watching.
I took her by the shoulders and whispered a few last second instructions before taking my place at the edge of the Dueling Circle. Hermione settled down on her knees just inside of the Circle, per the ritual, and I bowed my head, first towards Fondlemore, and then a much smaller nod across the Circle at Draco, indicating that I was ready to begin.
Malsauter stood with his hands on his hips on the other side of the Circle, the picture of practiced arrogance. "You can still tuck your tail between your legs and scurry away," he said in a conversational tone. The Arena was designed to amplify the sound of anything that happened in the Circle, so not only could I hear him like he was standing right next to me, but everyone in the stands could as well.
"Have a care for your own lower appendage, Frosty." I shot back. "Before I do everyone a favor and remove it. Now if you're done wasting my time, maybe we can get started."
The other boy's sneer deepened until it became more of a snarl. He thrust his arm behind his back and produced a pokeball. "Very well, fool," he hissed. "MILLICENT!!! COME FORTH!!!
There was a bright flash of light and something huge swooped into the air, the wind of its passing blowing my hair back and giving birth to little dust devils that played along the edges of the Dueling Circle. It made a loop around the Arena, letting loose a howl that sounded like a cat in a blender before coming in for a landing just in front of Draco, squatting down on its haunches and glaring at Hermione with barely restrained rage.
Millicent was a Harpy, and a rather nasty representative of the breed at that, which was saying something. As a general rule, Harpies were loud, violent, ugly, violent, smelly, and did I mention violent? And from what I'd heard, Millicent was the loudest, ugliest, smelliest, and most violent Harpy that anyone had ever heard of that wasn't Feral. I had seen a couple of her battles, but hadn't had the stomach to stay until the end of either. Her fighting style was basically a matter of overwhelming her opponent with aerial and wind attacks, then brutally disfiguring them as much as possible with her claws until the horn sounded. After that, it was fifty-fifty whether or not she'd let up. Draco had been forced to forfeit a few wins in which Millicent had refused to stop attacking after the battle was over, but he had also won several times when other Tamers had declined to send their girls into the Circle to face her.
Despite all that, she did have two important weakness. One was that she tended to grow frustrated if she wasn't able to finish off an opponent quickly, and the other was Draco himself. Draco's Blood Gifts were related to the Ice Element, and gave him powers that made him more than a match for most normal pokegirls in single combat. But it came with a price. Like many Ice Elemental pokegirls, his natural cold temperature lessened his libido, making him less interested in taming, which in turn left Millicent an a constant Half-Feral state.
If my guess was right, then he probably spent much more time training her with pain than pleasure. It served to make her more fierce, but also made her virtually uncontrollable once her bloodlust kicked in.
And that was how we would beat her, by turning her ferocity against her.
Draco inclined his head towards Fondlemore slightly, but if he nodded at me I couldn't tell. A second or two later the starting bell sounded and the battle had begun.
Hermione reacted just as I had instructed her, by doing the last thing anyone would ever suspect. She bounded to her feet and, letting out as much of a roar as her lungs could produce, charged at the much larger, far more powerful Harpy. For the second time in the space of an hour, I saw Draco's jaw drop in amazement.
Then he smiled that creepy smile of his and began his own attack.
"Millicent, up!" he commanded.
But Millicent did no such thing. As I'd surmised, she wasn't about to fly away in the face of an attack from the pokegirl equivalent of a ninety-five pound weakling. Instead, she ignored Draco and thundered out her own challenge, charging at Hermione.
I felt my lips turn up in a grin. Perfect.
A split second before the two pokegirls were set to crash into each other, Millicent leapt from her feet and hurled herself at Hermione, talons first. Her claws bit nothing but air as she went sprawling ass over elbows in the dirt at the center of the Circle. She shook her head in confusion, then squawked in pure fury when one of Hermione's hard-soled black shoes connected with the side of her skull. The kick probably wasn't even hard enough to affect a normal human, but it more than served the purpose of pissing Millicent off, which was all it was meant to do.
Hermione had struggled against the ChickenLittle because the onus had been on her to attack, something that she was uniquely unsuited for. In a battle of wits and guile, where she could fight defensively rather than offensively, she had a vast advantage over someone like Millicent.
Millicent swiped at her from the ground, and she danced away laughing, then stopped to flip her hair disdainfully at the Harpy over her shoulder. Millicent howled and leapt again, clearly trying to gut her opponent with a single powerful slash of her talons, but Hermione Teleported away the split-second before she could make contact, then delivered another kick, this one to Millicent's backside, sending her face first into the dirt before the other girl could right herself. The scene repeated itself several times, Millicent mindlessly lunging at Hermione, and Hermione neatly avoiding each one, then counterattacking and taunting her when the other girl's back was turned.
Vaguely, I was aware of the stunned reaction of the crowd, and the building roar as they realized that Draco was actually losing. All Hermione had to do was continue using her Foresight ability to anticipate Millicent's clumsy attacks, then Teleport to dodge them, and she could simply run out the time limit and would win the battle based on the judge's decision. And since Millicent was far too furious to listen to her Tamer, there wasn't a thing that Draco could do about it.
I chuckled as I watched Hermione ham it up for the crowd. She had completely turned her back on her opponent and was waving and blowing kisses to the stands, then Teleported from one side of the Circle to the other as she sensed yet another attack. She bowed to the screaming fans, then turned back to the other girl and assumed the classic "COME AND GET IT, BITCH!!!" beckoning pose.
But Millicent was through playing around. She might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she had been through enough fights to know when something wasn't working, and when it was time to try a different tactic. She dug her talons into the packed earth of the Dueling Circle and began to flap her wings in great sweeps, summoning her Gust attack.
Hermione raised a hand to shield her eyes against the blowing debris, and stumbled back a few steps in the face of the building wind. She was teetering dangerously close to the out-of-bounds line and I shouted a warning at her that was swallowed up by the gale. Luckily, she didn't need to hear me to understand me. Her telepathy wasn't yet fully developed, but between it and the desperate hand signals I was using, she got the message of what I wanted her to do next.
Once again she Teleported away, but this time she reappeared just above Millicent's head, dropping down to land on her back. Normally, I never would have allowed her to get that close, but one of the weaknesses of the Gust attack was that it occupied all four limbs and pretty much every muscle in the pokegirl's body. It was also not an attack that could be stopped easily. It had to be ramped down the same way it had been ramped up.
Which meant that Millicent was all but helpless when Hermione slipped one finger inside her cheek and fishhooked the hell out of her, as hard as she could. Dirty fighting, true, but perfectly legal in a pokebattle. Besides, I doubted that Hermione had the strength to do much real damage.
Millicent's panicked scream told me differently.
The furious Harpy finally managed to get her air currents back under control and shook like a sopping wet dog, trying to dislodge the clinging A-Bra, but Hermione had already Teleported clear and was calmly wiping the blood off her hand with a little white handkerchief that she had produced from Merlin only knew where. A small, but ugly wound had split the side of Millicent's mouth open and more blood dribbled down her chin onto her chest. She set herself for another attack, but seemed to hesitate, unsure of what she should try now after everything else had already blown up in her face.
I glanced over at the clock and saw that there was only about half a minute left until the time limit expired. The fight was all but over. Not only had Hermione outmaneuvered her opponent at every turn, she had even drawn first blood. The only thing that Millicent could do to save herself at this point would to be to score a knockout.
Apparently, Draco was thinking the same thing. He had used Millicent's momentary hesitation to regain her attention and get her to take to the skies. I frowned as I watched her circle the Arena, building up speed. What in the name of Slytherin's slimy testicles could the little prat be up to? She couldn't possibly win the battle up there... unless.
"DIVE!!!"
Draco and I both shouted the word at the same time, him as an order to Millicent and me as a warning to Hermione. Millicent let out a blood-curdling screech and came hurtling down from the sky like a thunderbolt, intent on crushing the smaller pokegirl where she stood.
But I had already told Hermione exactly what I wanted her to do in case they tried this. An A-Bra's Confusion technique was considered a status attack rather than an offensive one, but it could be devastating if used properly. Basically, what it did was to make the victim believe that up was down, left was right, and so forth. Reasonably disorienting in the best of times, but downright deadly when that victim was engaged in a full-speed Dive from a half mile up.
Millicent's battle cry abruptly became one of shrill fear as, from her perspective, the world did a backflip. Her smooth Dive quickly changed into odd, wobbly barrel-roll as she fought to right herself, pushing against gravity and her own momentum until she plowed into the ground with bone-crunching force in a heap on the far side of the Dueling Circle.
The finishing horn sounded, and the crowd jumped to their feet in elation. It had hardly been the most action-packed fight that any of them had ever seen, but as everyone loved an underdog and most of those in attendance couldn't stand Draco, it was about as enthusiastic an ovation as I'd heard for a pokebattle since I got here. The building practically shook with the sound of Tamers stomping and pokegirls screaming, and over the din I could just barely make out the sound of someone yelling into the loudspeaker.
"YOUR WINNER... BY KNOCKOUT... HARRY POTTER!!!"
The fans in the first few rows vaulted the barriers, storming the pitch, and I quickly found myself nearly being crushed by a throng of shouting young men and pokegirls who vied for a chance to pound on my back, shake my hand, or in the case of a few of the pokegirls, pinch my bottom while their Tamer's weren't looking.
I pushed through the mob, looking for Hermione, and was met halfway by a brown and gold blur that leapt on top of me, knocking me onto my back, and proceeded to crush my lips with a fierce, hungry kiss. I laughed and took her by the shoulders.
"Feeling a little more confident, are we?" I teased.
Hermione's face was lit up with a glorious smile, looking happier than she had maybe in all the time I'd known her, in either world. "If there weren't so many people around, I'd show you just how confident I am," she purred, leaning back down to kiss me again. Gooseflesh rose up along my arms as I felt her peck and nibble her way down my neck.
Abruptly, I realized that the crowd had gone silent and opened up on one side. I spit a few strands of hair out of my mouth and looked up to see Draco staring down at me, an expression of pure venom on his face. His fists were clenched at his side and a thin film of ice coated them, steam drifting off his skin like an open freezer on a warm day.
I used Hermione's body to surreptitiously take hold of my wand and prepared myself for an attack, but all he did was ask me a question.
"How much?"
I frowned at him. "How much what?"
"For her," he said, nodding at Hermione, "How much do you want for her?"
I eased Hermione off of me and sat up. "She's not for sale."
He showed me his teeth. It wasn't a smile this time. "Everything is for sale... for the right price." He regarded her for a moment, a butcher sizing up a piece of meat. "A thousand."
"Sod off, snowman."
His eyes glittered. I could feel the cold radiating off of him from here, but refused to break eye contact. "Ten thousand," he said.
There were mutters from the crowd around us and I pushed myself to my feet. Hermione clutched at my arm and I patted her hand reassuringly.
"Are you deaf as well as stupid? The answer is no."
His eyes shifted back to Hermione. If looks could kill, there wouldn't even be enough of her left to bury. She held onto me like I was the only thing keeping her upright, and I could feel her pulse racing against my skin. She couldn't possibly think that I was about to sell her, but she was definitely terrified of something.
"One hundred thousand."
The crowd gasped and began to chatter excitedly around us, but I could care less what they thought. "For the last time, ice cube. Over my dead body," I growled. "Now piss off, before I skip the proxies this time and slap you down myself."
A look of utter contempt crossed his face and opened his mouth to speak again, but his reply was cut off by a broad hand settling firmly on his shoulder.
"Come to congratulate the winner, Mister Malsauter?" the newcomer said jovially. "How very sporting of you. I'm sure your father would be delighted." Draco rolled his eyes, but the other man appeared not to notice. He also didn't give any indication that he could feel the intense cold poring off the young Tamer, never mind that the skin under his hand must be well below the freezing point by now.
I was fighting the urge to shiver and I was standing a good ten feet away.
The man's eyes twinkled as he peered at the crowd surrounding us. "I do hate to interrupt your celebration, but if there are no objections, I would like to speak with Mister Potter in private for a moment."
Draco sneered up at the man, then walked out from under his hand, shooting me a glare as he passed. The gathered Tamers and pokegirls also began to disperse. Many of them directed respectful nods in my direction as they left, but a few ignored me completely in favor of giving Hermione long, contemplative looks. My eyes narrowed and I could feel the hair on the back of my neck begin to rise. There was nothing suspicious in the slightest about a Tamer admiring another Tamer's pokegirl, but some of those looks were a bit too... predatory for my tastes.
"A very impressive performance," Professor Fondlemore mused once everyone else was out of earshot. "Perhaps a little too impressive."
I glanced over at him. The contrast was striking. Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, was a stooped-shouldered, weatherbeaten old man, with gnarled fingers like old tree roots and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times and never set properly. His hair and beard had gone pure white years ago, and both of them flowed down well past his waist. He moved with a spryness that, combined with his somewhat mischievous manner, often made him appear younger than he was, but he'd still never pass for anything less than his late sixties, never mind that he was really about twice that.
His analog in this world didn't look a day over forty, but was in actually more than a century older than the man I knew. He was imbued with a single, subtly powerful Blood Gift: Longevity. It didn't make him any stronger or faster, or give him flashy elemental powers like Draco's, but it did give him a life span that dwarfed that of a normal human, or a wizard for that matter. He did age, but only at about a tenth the speed of a regular person. According to the history books that Hermione had recommended to me, he had been born after the end of the Revenge War, but not very long after. Records of that time were still rather dodgy, so there was no way to verify just how old he really was, and he himself had never divulged the truth, but he was known for a fact to be at least two hundred and fifty years old.
He was by far the most famous Tamer alive, having spent his first century or so crisscrossing the world, exploring and having adventures that were still the stuff of legends. About a hundred and fifty years ago he had discovered Hogtits Castle, one of the very few structures in Great Britain that had survived the war intact, and had settled down here, founding Hogtits School, and by all accounts, rarely leaving for any reason.
He cut an imposing figure, nearly six and a half feet tall and built like an athlete, with a neatly trimmed beard that was only lightly touched with grey, and shoulder-length auburn hair that was currently tied back in a loose tail. His style of dress was a little more subdued than I was used to, at least when it came to color, but the billowy, open-necked white blouse and matching loose trousers he had on were still rather eye catching.
It was the eyes that were most familiar to me. The amused twinkle that had graced them a few moments before had faded, and those bright blue orbs were focused on me with a casual intensity that was unnerving. However youthful the rest of him appeared, nothing could hide the age in those eyes. They seemed to look through me, inside me, to peer into the deepest corners of my soul, measuring me against several lifetimes worth of experience. There was nothing magical in that gaze, but there was a big difference between magic and power, and those eyes brimmed with power.
I refused to be intimidated. "What do you mean, too impressive?" I asked sharply. "We didn't cheat, if that's what you're thinking." Hermione gripped my arm in a silent warning, but I wasn't about to stand there and be accused of anything.
He smiled at me as the twinkle returned. "I did not charge you with such, nor did the thought cross my mind," he said kindly. "I was referring more to Mister Malsauter's offer to purchase your young lady here."
I frowned at him. "I don't see the problem. He offered to buy her, I told him to go bugger himself. End of story." I glanced at Hermione. She still had that worried look on her face, and I got the feeling that there was something I was missing here. "I don't even know why he asked. There's not a chance in hell that I'm going to sell my best friend to him, just so he can make her life miserable for beating him in a fair fight." I wasn't even comfortable with the idea of me owning Hermione, the thought of Draco possessing her, and now having a grudge against her to boot, was enough to make me nauseous. I didn't even what to think about what he would put her through if he got the chance.
Fondlemore eyes had flashed with surprise and approval when I referred to Hermione as my best friend. "You may indeed have told him to..." He smiled and chuckled. "Well, never mind what you told him. The important fact is that he has just informed half the school that he is willing to pay one hundred times the going rate for... if you will forgive the expression, my dear... a common A-Bra. Greed is a powerful motivator, Mister Potter, and I dare say that some in attendance could very well succumb to it, resorting to drastic measures."
Hermione's unease, as well as the predatory looks from a few minutes ago suddenly made a lot more sense. "You mean they would try to steal her?"
"Unfortunately, the practice has become all to common of late," Fondlemore replied grimly. "Over the past year, pokegirl thefts have become something of an epidemic throughout the Blue League. The police and League officials are already stretched to the limit, and as a result, only those thefts involving potentially dangerous pokegirls are currently being investigated. As much as it grieves me to admit it, if someone did manage to steal your Hermione, any complaint would quite likely be placed at the bottom of a very large stack of case files and possibly never see the light of day again."
He turned and began to walk slowly towards the exit of the Arena. Harry matched his pace and Hermione fell in a respectful step or two behind them. "No doubt Mister Malsauter is aware of this situation, given his family's connections within the League, and intends to exploit it if he can."
I could feel my temper rising. So Draco's daddy was a big shot on this world too, huh? And the local government was dangerously inept. This place was starting to feel more like home already.
Fondlemore's voice distracted me from my dark thoughts. "Your appearance here has occasioned some comment amongst the staff," he mused quietly. "It is not very often that a student arrives at the school without so much as a pair of pants to his name. It is even more unusual for that student to display such a remarkable lack of knowledge concerning the craft he has chosen to devote himself to."
I got the feeling that lying to this man would be a very bad idea, so I opted for as much honesty as I dared. "I didn't really have anywhere else to go," I told him truthfully.
"You have no family?"
"My mother and father passed away." If he took that to mean it happened recently, then it was no fault of mine.
Sharp blue eyes flicked towards me, and I realized that I wasn't fooling him in the slightest. He might not know exactly what it was, but he surely knew that I was hiding something. "Unfortunately, I do not always have the time to welcome each new Tamer as they arrive," he continued, politely ignoring my half-truths. "But I do try to keep an eye on those whom I feel show an aptitude beyond that of their peers. I have heard some very encouraging things about your training, Mister Potter, particularly in light of how far behind you were when you arrived here. That is why I wanted to judge your match. As I said... very impressive. It is quite refreshing in this day and age to encounter a young Tamer who understands that ingenuity can be just as powerful a weapon as brute force. It is my hope that some of the students who witnessed your duel today will take that lesson to heart, but I fear that they may simply chalk it up to beginner's luck."
"Thank you, sir."
He stopped and turned to look at me. His face was pensive, and I got the strong impression that I was being measured again. I was struck by how very old he appeared in that moment, despite the lack of lines on his face. "I was wondering if you would be willing to consider an offer from me, Mister Potter," he said after a moment.
"What kind of offer?"
"A job offer."
I blinked in confusion. "What... you mean work here at the school? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do that." Not if I was ever going to track down the stranger who sent me here. I needed to be out in the world hunting down clues, not puttering around the castle.
He shook his head. "No, I wasn't referring to a position here. After all, you still have your term of service as a Tamer to complete, and that cannot begin until after you have passed your final test and left Hogtits. What I meant was a kind of... supplemental employment, to occur alongside your work in the field."
I began to get a glimmer of understanding. "You want me to be a spy?" I felt an amused grin tug at my lips. The more things change, the more they stay the same. After all, meddlesome is as meddlesome does.
"I have cultivated a reputation for reclusiveness, Mister Potter, but I do find it very useful to stay abreast of events beyond the walls of this school, particularly in these troubled times," he said, turning and resuming his pace towards the castle. "What I ask of you is not onerous. You would simply need to make regular reports of things you have seen during your journey, and inform me immediately should you encounter anything you feel would be of importance, such as a new pokegirl species or an attack by Team Viper."
"Team Viper?"
"A well-organized band of brigands and pokegirl thieves whom I believe is behind most of the League's current troubles. They are ruthless, cunning, and completely without morals. They have always wielded great influence within the League through fear and bribery, but have never before been this blatant in their activities. I also suspect that the increase in Feralborn attacks on populated areas that have been reported recently can be laid at their feet, but as of yet I have been unable to obtain proof of this."
Team Viper, huh? Sounded familiar. I couldn't help but wonder if they all had little tattoos on their arms as well. "Not to put too fine of a point on this, but what's in it for me?"
"You would be compensated, or course. Noble though the life and work of a Tamer may be, oftentimes credits can be difficult to come by. And I may also be able to provide you with an anti- theft collar and ident-chip that will help prevent your Hermione from being stolen. Such things can be quite expensive, but I make it a point to insure that my agents are properly equipped before I allow them to work on my behalf."
I bit back an annoyed curse. He had baited me in. The whole discussion about how the League would do nothing if Hermione were taken from me had been intended to lead here. Still, I found it difficult to summon up much anger over it. It was Malfoy, or at least his little clone, who had created this problem, and he's the one who's hide I intended to take it out on.
"Alright, I'm in."
Fondlemore smiled and nodded. "Excellent! Then allow me to be the first to welcome you into the Order of Macavity."
AN: I've had this damn thing sitting on my hard drive, 95% done, for months now. I was so close, but I just couldn't get Fondlemore's offer to sound right. And Harry was being a miserable twat there as well. The last couple hundred words just feel flat and stupid to me. I kept setting it aside and coming back to it later in hopes that inspiration would eventually strike, but it never did. It's still wrong, but I'm sick of looking at it, so here you go.
Big D
POKEDEX ENTRIES
Courtesy of A-Kun's "Pokegirl World Project"
www.angelfire.com/mn3/pokegirls/main.html
CHICKENLITTLE, the Egg-Layer Pokegirl
Type: Near Human
Element: Normal
Frequency: Common
Diet: simple grains
Role: egg producer
Libido: Low
Strong Vs: Ghost
Weak Vs: Fighting
Attacks: Scratch, Kick, Preen
Enhancements: None
Evolves: Hot Chick (normal)
Evolves From: None
When Sukebe unleashed the pokegirls upon the world to have his revenge, he made all sorts of them. Some were made to unleash a rain of fire, others took the humans by surprise by swimming through the oceans, but some had more mundane roles, such as the Chickenlittle. Chickenlittles were created to make sure Sukebe's armies would have plenty to eat.
Chickenlittles are short things, usually just under five feet tall. Their bodies are covered with short white feathers, but they completely lack the ability to fly, even for short distances. Their feet have short claws that give them a mild ability to defend themselves if attacked, but they almost always just run if there's danger. Their breasts are small, usually not even a B-cup, and their cunt is too loose for most Tamers' liking.
Chickenlittles have one useful function: to lay eggs. Every four days or so, a Chickenlittle will lay a clutch of eggs of about a half-dozen. The eggs are the size of an orange, and are very delicious and healthy however they're prepared. These eggs are never able to be fertilized; pregnant Chickenlittles oddly bear their young live. Chickenlittles are usually kept by farmers in large groups, harvesting their eggs to sell. They're easy to keep Tamed, since they don't need sex very often. Being a farmer of Chickenlittles requires a league license.
Chickenlittle eggs are laid out of her cunt, not her ass. Because she so regularly lays so many large eggs from there, a Chickenlittle's pussy is rather loose and baggy, and anyone who has regular access to another pokegirl for Taming will find the feel of a Chickenlittle's cunt is rather lacking.
Chickenlittles themselves don't have much of a Libido, only needing it every few weeks or so. Most people who are in charge of Taming a Chickenlittle prefer to take them anally, since it's tighter and more pleasurable there.
Chickenlittles are not very smart at all. Most make Bimbos and Bunnygirls look intelligent by comparison. Not only do they not know much, they are completely lacking in anything even remotely resembling ambition. They have no desire to learn, or even to go anywhere or do anything. They sometimes become aware that they want sex, but even then a Chickenlittle will just stand there and let herself go Feral before she goes off and tries to find someone to have sex with. Left alone, a Chickenlittle will sit in one place all day and cluck to herself. Chickenlittle farmers will put food and water and facilities virtually right next to them to make sure they stay relatively healthy, usually bringing them out to exercise them every two or three days. Tamers virtually never have a Chickenlittle in their Harem, unless they're going to be out in the deep wilderness for a long time and want a steady food source.
A Chickenlittle who goes Feral is, intelligence-wise, probably smarter than her domesticated counterpart, but only by a slim margin. Feral Chickenlittles will actually do things like get up to go look for food, although they still will run in fright if attacked. A Threshold girl who becomes a Chickenlittle will lack the intelligence to be upset by the transformation, and is usually sold to the nearest Chickenlittle farm for a decent price.
HARPY, the Savage Sky Fighter PokéGirl
Type: Near Human (avian)
Element: Flying
Frequency: Uncommon
Diet: Fish, eggs, small insects, milk
Role: Combat
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Bug, Fighting, Ground, Plant
Weak Vs: Electric, Ice, Rock
Attacks: Dive, Mach Breaker, Tackle, Scratch, Fury Swipes, Gust, Tempest, Feather Blizzard, Feather Shuriken, Speed Storm
Enhancements: Claws, wings, Enhanced Endurance (x3), Enhanced Strength (x3)
Evolves: Unknown
Evolves From: None
Description: A relatively well-known breed. They are human-looking for the most part, save for their lightly-feathered legs, clawlike hands and feet with sharp talons, and the thickly-feathered wings on their arms. They also have much sharper than normal incizors, allowing them to cut through even the thickest-scaled fish. They are a decent, tough breed, but are relatively unpopular.
Harpies are tempermental PokéGirls, that fight viciously and savagely. Feral flocks, the most commonly seen type of Harpy, also tend to be relatively ugly looking, with twisted, haglike faces that make them look older than they usually are, Harpies having little concept of personal hygene save to keep their teeth clean and occasional washing when their odor gets too much even for them. Their hair is almost always unkempt and tangled. It takes a patient Tamer to deal with a Harpy, in keeping them clean and dealing with their short tempers.
As stated earlier, Harpies tend to be ugly, being some of the least beautiful PokéGirl breeds. However, there are some exceptions. The most basic one is a Domestic or Threshold Harpy. Obviously, human-raised PokéGirls have a better concept of taking care of themselves, although they retain the same short tempers.
The most drastic exception to the rule of Harpies being ugly are the Harpies produced at the Kujaku Ranch and Breeding Center on the edge of the Indigo/Johto/Capital continents. The Kujaku family are famous world-wide for producing beautiful PokéGirls, having the policy that 'Inside everyone is a beautiful person waiting to emerge.' More liberal Leagues, such as the Crimson League or the WAPL, favor them due to their compassion towards PokéGirls. And the PokéGirls they produce there are nothing short of breath-taking, in many cases their beauty being surpassed only by the Legendaries themselves. Their Harpies, in particular, are stunning, some going so far as to call them 'Harpy Ladies.' Raising beautiful Harpies has been a personal project of the Kujaku Ranch ever since their opening, and the breed has become something of a flagship species for their Ranches, their 'Harpy Ladies' having the added benefit of being more in control of their violent tempers than their Feralborn sisters. Some members of the Kujaku Ranch brag that they could make even a Widow look beautiful if they could get away with it. PokéSalons all over the world use Kujaku Ranch techniques.
MACAVITY, the Legendary Chaos Kitty pokegirl
Type: Near Human (Feline)
Element: Dark/Psychic
Frequency: Extremely Rare (Unique)
Diet: unknown (speculated human style foods and feelings of confusion) Role: espionage, spying, courier, mischief-maker, thief, assassin
Libido: High
Strong Vs: Poison, Psychic
Weak Vs: None (Bug)
Attacks: Tail Slap, Scratch, Kitty Litter, Rollout, Fury Swipes, Lick, Nightshade, Agility, Quick, Backstab, Armor, Fade, Shadow Walk, Aura Barrier, Confusion, Double Team, Psybeam, Psi-Blade, Dark Attack, Illusion,
Enhancements: Legendary Qualities, Legendary Salient Qualities, Superior Intelligence
Evolves: N/A
Evolves From: N/A
Macavity is one of the very rare Legendary pokegirls. Made by Sukebe to be far beyond normal Pokegirls, Macavity is one that is indeed made for underhanded deeds. She did anything from thievery to killing people. She was Sukebe's right-hand assassin, and she was the 'trainer' of all of Sukebe's Cheshire. To Macavity, the Cheshires were her 'understudies'.
Macavity is one of the more famous and actually 'well-loved' of Legendaries. Her style of actions, her flair for the dramatic, and her looks are something of fame today; She is definitely known by many a cat-type fanciers and/or fans of the Bellerophon Jones series of movies and novels. Her 'character' has been recorded in many formats, the first being in a poem. A poem that is still used and sung today. In fact it can be heard in pre-school play-yards as it is usually being used in children's games.
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She defies every human law
She breaks the law of gravity
Macavity's a ginger cat
She's very tall and lean
You'd know her if you saw her
She wears pieces of leather
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She's a fiend in feline-shape
A monster of suavity
Her brow is deeply in thought
Her head is highly domed
Her figure's busty, don't forget
Her whiskers are uncombed
Macavity, Macavity
There's no pokegirl like Macavity
She's a villainess of all time
She's one of style and sensuality
She sways her head from side-to-side
With movements like a Naga
And when you think you've cornered her
Well, she's really got cha?!
This poem, though childish as it may seem; it is actually a VERY accurate portrayal of the Legendary pokegirl known as Macavity.
Macavity was a feline-type pokegirl, covered in a coat of fur that was a mixture of different shades or orange and red. She was tall, standing at 7'6" in height. As for wearing pieces of leather, Macavity was a skin-tight outfit that was a patchwork of different pieces of black leather. The only parts visible of her fur were her head, hands, feet, and tail. And she was quite busty, with a generous DDD cup.
As for defying human laws, Macavity was known to do that. She was Sukebe's greatest assassin; performing many underhanded deeds without batting an eye. And she was known to break the law of gravity. She could walk up the side of a wall the way as if she was walking on the ground.
Macavity's personality is one of contrasts. She is a cold-blooded killer at times, a pox upon humanity. She was Sukebe's favored assassin, and she was basically one that did anything necessary. However, she's also the first Legendary to openly help the human race during Sukebe's War of Revenge; actually attacking fellow pokegirls that were trying to destroy human armies. It could easily be said that Macavity actually liked people. To her, humans were quite an interesting species, and were far more than Sukebe lead them to believe.
However, she did not leave Sukebe hanging when she left. This is the time when she was known as the "Mother of the Shadowcats". Those Cheshires that she was proud of, that she felt were ready to carry on her tradition, she went and evolved them into Shadowcats.
After that, Macavity just went around. She'd help people and cause mischief wherever she went. But to some, she was actually a welcome sight, while others, she brought terror. For Macavity's sighting could spell either good fortune, or an oncoming disaster, for Macavity is a pokegirl that is all about chaos. She is one that likes to shake up the way things are by any way necessary; be those ways good or bad. After the War of Sukebe's Revenge ended, Macavity was rarely seen. She began to fade into memory. She was rarely sighted for over 200 years, and even then, it was mostly in the Blue Continent. She always was territorial, and the Blue Continent was one of her favorite hangouts. She was known to bother the original law enforcement agency that was in place during the time of Sukebe, a group known as 'Scotland Yard'.
It wasn't until the year 262 AS that Macavity was seen again. And in effect, brought her to a true level of 'fame'.
During that time was an event that would later become known as ?Bellerophon Jones and the Evolution Stone Scam"; which was the first major adventure of THE Bellerophon Jones. What started out as an adventure in Stone City, took Bellerophon and his Titmouse Karen into the heart of the Blue Continent. It was there that his Titmouse had accidentally angered Macavity by landing atop the Legendary when a few thugs that were part of the scam were chasing her. To say Macavity was upset was a bit of an understatement.
It was thanks to Bellerophon's wisecracking, disrespectful, and bluntly honest ways, he was able to placate the angered Legendary and save himself and his Titmouse. This led to a short-lived alliance with the young Bellerophon who was just starting-out and the experienced Legendary pokegirl Macavity. With Macavity's help Bellerophon was able to put an end to Team Scorcher and their fake Evolution Stones. Afterwards, Macavity just faded from view again, but her deeds would now be well known to the public, and actually give her a fan following.
Macavity is rarely sighted nowadays. She mostly spends her time in the Blue Continent, with a few sightings outside of it; in other parts of the world. After all, there is so much to the world, and cats are known to be roamers. Macavity also seems to be drawn to people who have either of the Blood Curses "May you live in interesting times" and "Jokers Wild". Those that have either Blood Curse are almost guaranteed to see Macavity at least once in their life. She seems to be attracted to the chaos that seems to surround their lives.
Overall, Macavity is quite a pokegirl to behold. She's neither good, nor bad. She's more of a chaotic neutral when it comes to personality. And if you have either Blood Curse "May you live in interesting times" or "Jokers Wild", you might just end up being chosen by Macavity to participate in a session of Taming with her.
LEGENDARY QUALITIES: All Legendary pokegirls have these special attributes, making them above and beyond other pokegirls:
Truly Unique: All Legendary pokegirls cannot be copied. Attempts to clone them always fail, and morphing other beings into copies of them always produces sub-standard versions. Titto, for example, can take Macavity's shape and even copy her powers to some degree, but not any of her Legendary Qualities or Legendary Salient Qualities (see below).
Deathlessness: Despite having been around since Sukebe's Revenge, all the Legendary pokegirls are still around and going strong. This superior version of longevity makes them immune to death from natural causes. They will never die unless they are killed. However, poison, disease, or any unnatural cause still has a normal chance to kill them, barring their special immunities and strengths.
No Weakness (Level X): All of the Legendary pokegirls can ignore their type's normal weaknesses, to a point. When facing a pokegirl at or below a certain level, if that pokegirl is a type the Legendary would normally be weak against, she instead treats it as though it were of a type she had no specific advantage or disadvantage against. For example, Macavity has No Weakness (Level 65). If she were to face a Bug-type pokegirl or anything else that was considered Strong Vs Dark or Psychic, at or below level 65, she wouldn't be considered weak against it, nor would it be considered strong against her. pokegirl at a level above the Legendary's No Weakness level treat things normally.
LEGENDARY SALIENT QUALITIES: Some Legendary pokegirls have special qualities others don't have. Here is Macavity's lexicon of special attributes:
Defies the Law of Gravity: It's unknown exactly how it works, but it seems that Macavity seems to have her own specific gravitational pull with the planet. Meaning she can do feats such as "walking on air" without even trying. Catgirl Evolve: It's known that Macavity has the ability to induce the evolution of a Catgirl into a Cheshire, and a Cheshire into a Shadowcat.
Aura Shift: Macavity has this special ability which allows her to 'set the mood'. She can make her aura take on numerous properties for combat and other uses. She can give herself an 'Aura of Cute' when she's trying to act Innocent, a 'Fear Aura' when she wants to scare someone, or an Aura of any elemental to make a person or pokegirl feel they are in a certain area.
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