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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, Pokémon to WB and Nintendo, and Ranma 1/2 to Rumiko Takahashi.

A Lost Friend

By: USA Tiger

Author note: Give thanks to my beta Tsuyu-the-Hanyou for going over this story.

Chapter 13

Shirokuro panted happily, his curled up tail wagging, as he slowly crawled up from the foot of the bed. When he was close enough, the ninja dog pounced and started to do his special attack!

"ACK!" Ryoga yelped as he was woken up by Shirokuro's doggy kisses, laughing as he pushed the dog away. ~I'm up! I'm up!~ He said with a laugh as he wiped his face. ~Kami, your breath stinks Shirokuro!~

"Ruff ruff," Shirokuro barked happily, his tail wagging.

"Blimey, what a wake up alarm," Seamus said as he pushed his curtains open and peered out.

"I'm surprised it woke you up mate," Dean said as he climbed off his bed. "You and Ron sleep like the dead."

"Ha ha," Seamus said.

"Gomen," Ryoga said as he pushed open his curtains as well.

"Better than rushing around late," Harry said as he pushed on his glasses with a yawn and slipped off his bed. "How do we wake him up?" He asked, pointing at Ranma who was still sleeping. Ryoga got off of his bed and walked over to his rival’s, he knew from experience trying to attack Ranma while the pig-tailed boy was sleeping was useless, the teen's life-long training in the martial arts had honed Ranma's skills to the point that he could dodge in his sleep.

"SAOTOME! WAKE UP!" Ryoga yelled in Ranma's ear, waking up both Ranma who jumped up and Ron who fell off his bed in shock.

"BLOODY HELL!" Ron said as he sat up.

"What the hell, Ryoga!?" Ranma said while Ryoga walked away smug. Harry snickered and hurried after Ryoga when the older teen got a lost confused look on his face.

"Well, now you won't be late for breakfast," Harry said to Ron over his shoulder as his friend pulled himself off the floor while leading Ryoga to the bathroom. "Ryoga, I went exploring last night and found a new form to change into."

"What made you go exploring?" Ryoga asked.

"Riddle was in a right mood for some reason," Harry said with a scowl. "Made my scar hurt. But I didn't see anything thanks to you," He added with a smile as he touched the snitch charm on his neck, making Ryoga beam happily.

"So what did you change into?" The other teen asked as he started to undress. Harry blushed and averted his eyes while he started to undress as well.

"Something really big. After classes, we'll go to the Room of Requirement with the others and I'll show it off," Harry offered while he stepped into one of the shower stalls.

"You are an ass Ryoga," Ranma said as he stepped into the bathroom.

"Well I could have thrown you out the window like your father does but I don't think that would have worked out too well," Ryoga mused with a chuckle and a smirk in Ranma's direction before stepping into another stall.

"Why the hell don't any of these places have a furo?" Ranma muttered to himself. (1)

**

"Headmaster, young Mister Potter is coming up the stairs," A small portrait of a muggle version of a fairy said from behind Albus on the wall. The portrait was his secret behind knowing who came up to his office. The fairy would hide in one of the paintings in the hallway then come and tell him who it was.

"Thank you Buttercup," Albus said to the fairy portrait then smiled as he said out loud, "Come in, Mister Potter."

"You wanted to see me Professor?" Harry asked as he opened the door, wondering like many others before him, how the man knew it was him.

"Yes my dear boy, sit down," Dumbledore waved his good hand at the chairs in front of his desk then removed the top off of the candy dish he always had on hand. "Sweetarts?"

"Sweetarts?" Harry asked as he sat down.

"Yes, a muggle candy I discovered this summer," Albus said as he pushed the dish closer. Harry hesitated for a moment then reach over to pluck one of the candies, he had discovered he had more of a sweet tooth since he started turning into Mew and wondered if it was a side-affect like his wanting to play with toys in his animal form. "Now, remember what we talked about before school started?"

"The training?" Harry said as he rolled the Sweetarts over his tongue.

"Yes. I admittedly had a different idea of how your training would go, I originally planned on showing you a series of memories I collected over the years about Tom," Albus explained. "But I have had a change of plans. I will still show you some of the memories but you will also be trained in spells under Professor Flitwick and Sirius as well as myself. And I'm sure Madame Cologne will have some things to teach you as well."

"Really?" Harry asked surprised, he didn't know what good a bunch of memories would do but getting some real training for this war, that he was forced into, would be great.

"Yes. Filius and Sirius will take care of teaching you spells that you will need against Tom and his Death Eaters," Albus said. "I will take care of teaching you occlumency, something I should have done last year instead of putting it off on Professor Snape."

"That would be great, Professor," Harry said, extremely happy he was getting real training.

"We will start this weekend to give you time to settle into school and to allow Filius and Sirius to prepare," Dumbledore said. "That is all Mister Potter; take a few more Sweetarts with you and head on to class. Oh, and Mister Black and Miss Potter's rooms are in Fluffy's old rooms, look for the Luck Dragon."

"Thank you Professor," Harry said as he took a few more candies, once you got pass the shock of the taste the Sweetarts were really good.

**

"How the bloody hell did I get into potions?" Ron asked as he looked at his schedule for the year. "I didn't make an O on the owls."

"Professor Cologne must have lower standards than Professor Snape," Hermione said.

"I think she's offering the chance to tutor sixth years to catch up," Harry said. "You know, since Snape never taught us anything right."

"Huh... I guess that makes sense," Ron said as he scratched his head. "Just thought I would get out of potions now."

"But you can't get into Auror training without potions!" Hermione pointed out. "What about you two? Did you get into potions too?" She asked Ranma and Ryoga.

"I've been on the receiving end of Cologne's potions enough to last me a life time," Ranma said with a snort. "No way am I going to learn any of that junk. ‘Sides, I've got to go to that little guy's classes for some 'charms' lesson cause I'm still not up to standard."

"I have potions," Ryoga said. "Sometimes I have to make them on my 'trips'."

"I'll take Ranma to Professor Flitwick's classroom," Hermione said, falling into Prefect mode. "And meet you at Professor Cologne's."

"Ok, we'll save you a seat," Harry said, waving as Hermione led Ranma off.

When the trio of boys entered the dungeon classroom, Shampoo waved happily and bounced over.

"Good morning Harry," Shampoo said as she leaned against the table. Around their table several male members of the student body stared as the purple hair girl's chest bounced and her rump wiggled. Even Ron stared for a moment before quickly turning his attention away before Hermione caught him. Harry grinned slightly.

"Morning Shampoo, I thought you were going to have breakfast with us," He said. Shampoo sighed softly.

"Shampoo want to but Great Grandmother have Shampoo finish setting up class room," She admitted then smiling cutely. "But get eat with friends at lunch!"

"What an air head," One of the Slytherins muttered from the other side of the room.

"Fits right in with Pot-head's group," Another one said.

"If you are all quite finished," Cologne said from the office door connected to the potions class room. Shampoo pushed away from Harry's table and joined her at the front of the class while Cologne stood on top of her desk, looking out at the mix of students. "As your Headmaster introduced last night, I am Kon Lone of the Joketsuzoku. I am also China's leading Potion Mistress.

"You will find that I am as hard a task master as Potion Master Snape but I am also fairer than he is," she continued as she started to hop around the room on her staff. "I do not care what house you belong to in this school or the so-called purity of your blood. I will judge you on your brewing abilities or lack thereof. Instead of jumping straight into making potions like your previous professor would have you do, today we shall go over the proper way to prepare ingredients and brewing techniques, something Snape has neglected to do."

"We don't need lessons in brewing or ingredients prep," Malfoy said with a snort. "If you can't do either then you don't need to be here."

Cologne quickly moved and slammed her staff down on the table in front of Malfoy, making most jump at how fast she moved and how loud the bang had been.

"If you have something to say Mister Malfoy, I suggest raising your hand and not speaking out of turn," Cologne said. "You will find that I will not allow you to get away with the same things your head of house did. I am also the professor in charge of this class, so what I say goes."

"Wow, she's scary," Ron muttered softly. Cologne heard him and smirked slightly.

"The same goes for you, Mister Weasley," She warned him as she started to move around the room again. "I will also be holding tutoring classes to allow anyone who wishes to truly learn potions the chance, please pass this along to your other class mates. Now step one of potions safety..."

Over the next hour Cologne grilled and taught everyone the proper way to go about making potions. Some, like most of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws, already had a pretty good idea of what to do and needed very little if any correcting. On the other hand Ron, who was the only Gryffindor in the class who didn't already have the knowledge, unlike Hermione, Ryoga and Harry, and the Hufflepuffs, needed a bit more work. Cologne could already tell who had a real talent for the subject and who didn't. Malfoy surprisingly wasn’t all talk, the blond boy truly did know his way around a potion lab.

The class ended as the bell rang throughout the hall ways, giving everyone the signal to pack up their notes.

"For homework, read and write a short summary of how to properly prepare and brew the first potion in your book," Cologne called over the noise.

"Errr... Professor, I didn't know I was going to be in this class so I didn't get the book," Ron said.

"Several students over the years have left their potions texts behind, you may pick one of them to use," Cologne said, waving her hand at a bin that contained said books. Ron rushed over and picked up a book off the top. He opened it for a moment to make sure that it was useable and noticed that inside the cover the words 'Property of the Half-blood Prince' were written. He shrugged and stuffed the book in his bag then rushed to join his friends.

***

The rest of the school day went smoothly with all of the professors preparing them all to learn the NEWT level spells for the next two years. Harry was not looking forward to classes two days from now when he had his first DADA class with Snape. He remembered the days when Snape covered for Remus in his third year and had a feeling it would be much worse. At lunch time both Ranma and Shampoo joined them at the Gryffindor table and at least twice they had to stop Ryoga from wandering off down the wrong hall way and getting lost.

During lunch Harry softly mentioned to his friends about Dumbledore's message about where Sirius and Hedwig were. It was decided that after dinner they would drop in for a visit.

"Oh my god, it's Falkor!" Hermione said excitedly as they found the right painting in the third floor corridor.

"Who's Falkor?" Ron asked.

"He's a luck dragon, a character from a book called 'The Neverending Story'," Hermione explained. "I loved reading that book as a child and I liked the movie as well."

"Password?" The white dog-like dragon asked with a twinkle in his eye. Harry frowned to himself.

"Dumbledore didn't give up the password," Harry admitted.

"Let me go tell Sirius you are here then." Falkor offered, rising off the ground in the painting and flying into the 'air', disappearing from his painting into one of the paintings inside.

"How was he flying without wings?" Ron asked.

"Why would he need wings?" Ranma asked confused, he never met a real dragon before, the closest thing to it was Prince Herb of the Musk who was part dragon, but he had seen several statues and paintings of Japanese and Chinese dragons before, none of which had wings or needed any to fly.

"Duh, a dragon needs wings to fly," Ron said.

"I've never seen a dragon with wings," Ranma said.

"You've never seen a dragon except for Herb and he's only part dragon," Ryoga said with a roll of his eyes before turning to Ron. "Some breeds of Asian dragons don't have wings, their magic lets them glide through the air instead."

Ron made an 'oh' sound while the painting opened with a grinning Sirius on the other side.

"Harry!" Sirius said as he swept his pup up into a hug while Harry laughed.

"Sirius put me down," Harry said between his laughter. Sirius spun Harry one final time then put the teen back on his feet, ruffling the boy's hair.

"Well come on," Sirius said as he waved the rest of the teens in.

"Harry," Hedwig said with a smile when she saw her human.

"Hey Hed," Harry greeted with a smile as he sat beside her on the couch.

"So how did classes go?" Sirius said as he sprawled himself in a cozy arm chair. Hermione's eyes lit up as she started talking about the classes they had attended that day.

"Professor Cologne is a lot different from Professor Snape," Hermione added at the end. "I don't agree with her that Professor Snape is a bad teacher," here Harry and Ron snorted in disagreement, "but she is good. I was already impressed when I sat in on Harry's lessons during the summer."

"Great Grandmother say not have to teach potions with fear like greasy bat-man does," Shampoo said. "If fear, be too nervous to make potions."

"Sounds right to me, Neville’s a perfect example of that," Harry said.

"Yeah, he's so scared of Snape he can barely move most of the time," Ron agreed. Hermione sighed, she respected Professor Snape but the man did intimidate a lot of people.

"What did you do Padfoot?" Harry asked his godfather.

"Me and Hedwig stuck around in here all day," Sirius said with a shrug. "Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for me to wander around, at least not yet. So me and her continued her lessons. Let me tell you, Hedwig is catching on quick to her reading and writing. And she's got a lot of the first and second year spells down pat."

"I am just amazed at how quickly she's learning," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "It shouldn’t be possible."

"Mione, I think anything is possible with magic is involved," Harry said. "Plus Hedwig was already dead smart as a normal owl. I think it's great that she's learning everything." Hedwig beamed and seemed to preen under her Harry-chick's praise. Hermione sighed, it didn't seem logical but then again logic seemed to be thrown out the window in the wizarding world.

"So how was the feast?" Sirius said, changing the subject. The teens told the man about Dumbledore announcements and how he told the school about Ranma's curse.

"I saw a lot of people giving me looks today," Ranma said. "Between classes. Like I was something they couldn't figure out but wanted."

"I can hazard a guess why," Hermione said. "You are the first squib ever known to use magic."

"Ah, I see what you’re getting at Hermione," Sirius said as he quickly caught on, sitting up in the chair so he could look at Ranma. "A lot of pure blood families, the bigoted ones, think that the purer the blood the more powerful the witch or wizard. That leads to a lot of inbreeding; my family is very guilty of it. Both my mother and father were first cousins in fact."

"Aiyah... is dangerous," Shampoo said with wide eyes. "Long long time ago in village, all outsiders who defeat Joketsuzoku were hunt down and killed. Only marry in village, but too too few men in village even now. Defects in children start to show up, need new blood for village. New law made, outsider men who defeat Joketsuzoku woman marry. Sometime outsider female who defeat Joketsuzoku man. It bring new fresh blood, keep old blood from mixing."

"Is that why you want to marry me so bad?" Ranma asked. Shampoo turned to Ranma, looking him in the eye as she thought how to word what she wanted to say.

"At first Shampoo did want Ranma cause he strong man, give Shampoo strong children," Shampoo explained. "But Shampoo get know Ranma more, Shampoo love Ranma now for who he is. Want Ranma for Ranma." Ranma slowly nodded his head, having a feeling in his gut that she was being truthful.

"Well most families have the same problem as your village," Sirius said. "Problems keep popping up. Most of my family is insane but a lot of families are starting to lose their magic. More and more squibs are starting to pop up if the whole family hadn't been killed off during the wars. All pure bloods are related in some way, Harry's grandmother was my great aunt. Ron's grandmum on his dad's side is another one of my cousins and so on. And the closer related the family members the worse it is."

"So a squib being suddenly able to use magic is amazing to them," Hermione said.

"And something those families will want to know how to use," Ron added. "Squibs in most families are a disgrace. I don't know anything about the one cousin we have that is a squib, Mum never says anything about him, other than what he does for a living."

"Well I ain't no piece of meat for them," Ranma said as he crossed his arms. "I get enough of that back in Nerima."

"If they found out about the place you were cursed, they may just leave you alone," Hermione said.

"If they want to be stupid and go to Jusenkyo that is their problem," Ranma said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Errr... so what was that new form you found Harry-chan?" Ryoga asked, changing the subject as he sense the tension in the room.

"What new form?" Hermione asked. "When did you have time to change into new Mew forms?"

"Well, I discovered two yesterday. The one I mentioned to you," Harry nodded to Ryoga. "And one I discovered on the Hogwarts Express when I spied on Malfoy."

"Harry!" Hermione yelled. "Would you drop it about Malfoy already? He isn't up to anything! You are just so used to being suspicious about Malfoy that it's clouding your judgment."

"Hermione, can I ask you why you think Harry is wrong?" Sirius asked, wondering about this since Harry first brought this up to him after their trip to Diagon Alley. Hermione blinked at the sudden question.

"Well..." She frowned for a moment as she tried to piece together her reasoning. "Just because he's been a right little berk to us all these years doesn't mean he's up to what Harry thinks he is. Malfoy is a bully but to think he's on some mission for Voldemort is silly. Oh get over it Ron, it's just a name," she added when she saw Ron flinch.

"Why is it silly? Voldemort isn't above using kids in his schemes," Sirius said. "He's done it before. In my last year at Hogwarts, right before Christmas hols, there was an attack inside the school. A few students were killed and two teachers. And behind it all was six students." Hermione gasped and Ron gaped while Harry looked unsurprised.

"A bunch of slimy Slytherins, I bet," Ron said.

"Three Slytherins, two Ravenclaws and one Hufflepuff," Sirius informed them. "And at least two of them were sixth years. All six of them were under orders from Voldemort himself. It was the only successful attack ever made on the school, they pulled it on a day that Dumbledore wasn't here."

"So... Harry might be right?" Ron said after a few seconds. Sirius nodded his head slowly; he remembered that terrible day oh-so clearly. At least one of the students killed had been one of their dorm mates. "Blimey..."

"Would Malfoy... really do something like that? He's always been a little coward," Hermione said.

"You can't disregard someone just because they are a coward. Look at Pettigrew, he's also been a coward but look at everything he's done," Sirius said with a wave of his hands.

"Look Hermione, maybe you and Ron are right. Maybe Malfoy isn't up to anything," Harry said as he looked at his two best friends. "But what if he is? After the last four years, isn't it better to know and be prepared instead of being blindsided?"

"Oh Harry..." Hermione said softly. "Nothing we say will stop you, will it?"

"No, not until I have proof one way or another," Harry said firmly. "If I find that Malfoy isn't doing anything but being his usual self, I'll be satisfied and leave him be. But what if I'm right?" Hermione sighed while Ron frowned.

"Can't we ever have a normal year?" Ron asked after a few minutes. Harry gave the red head a weak smile.

"I don't know what a normal year even is mate," He said. Hermione and Ron gave weak laughs, knowing Harry was right; they never had a normal year.

**

The teens decided to hold off on Harry showing off his new transformations until the weekend. The rest of the week passed fairly quickly. Word passed around that Cologne was willing to tutor anyone in Potions and several students signed up. Cologne had informed Harry and Shampoo they would be helping for an hour or so every night. This would go toward Harry's apprenticeship and excused him from potions homework for the time being.

Ranma's own lessons were going well also. He still hadn't seen much use for transfiguration. That was until McGonagall listed several things that it could be good for. Most of it went over Ranma's head and he found it useless but when Minerva told him that it was possible to use this branch of magic in battle, Ranma's interest was piqued. He started to pay attention to her lessons afterward and pieced together what he could and couldn't use in matches. And whom to use the abilities with.

The lessons with Flitwick went well also, Ranma showed skill with using Charms. Everyone hated DADA with the exception of most of the Slytherins. While Snape did know his stuff, he was just as judgmental as ever and several times Harry had to grit his teeth.

On top of that, as promised Dumbledore had started to teach Harry occlumency. Unlike Snape who just screamed 'clear you mind' then attacked Harry, Albus started off by teaching Harry just how clearing his mind worked and how to build up a shield around his mind-space. The snitch charm Harry always wore helped as well, as it was a steady ever going source of a shield, it gave Harry something to build off of.

Harry sighed as he flopped down onto the couch in the Gryffindor common room, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes.

"Alright there mate?" Ron's voice asked from across from him.

"Yeah, Cologne and Dumbledore have just been working me a lot this past week on top of homework," Harry said as he lifted his hands. Ron was sitting in a plush chair across from him playing what he thought was chess at first with Ryoga. He blinked as he looked again, the board was brown with black squares over it and thick black dots. Across the board were several little black and white round stones. "What are you two doing?"

"He's teaching me how to play something called 'Go'," Ron said, waving his hand at the board. "It's great! It's got a lot of strategic moves just like chess."

"He tried to get me to play chess the other day, I've never played but my grandfather on my mother's side taught me how to play Go," Ryoga said as he laid a black stone down. "Once I taught him, Ron-san took to it quickly."

"Well, Ron is a great strategist," Harry said with a chuckle. He was happy to see his two first friends get along so well. Shirokuro jumped up onto the couch beside Harry and laid his head in the teen's lap, giving a happy whine as Harry laid his hand on his head.

"Uhhgg," Ranma said as she stomped into the common room and sat down in front of the couch.

"What's your problem Saotome?" Ryoga asked, looking at Ranma out of the corner of his eye.

"A bunch of kids just cornered me," Ranma said as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Two of the girls wanted to know just how much like a girl I am like this and a stuffy guy asked me about being a squib with magic."

"What color was on their robes?" Harry asked.

"The girls had bronze and blue and the guy was silver and green," Ranma said. "I had to jump over their heads to get away."

"You think you would be used to it from your old school," Ryoga mused.

"Daisuke and Hiroshi liked to ask me questions 'bout my curse but they were a lot more perverted," Ranma said.

"People here haven’t seen a curse like yours," Hermione said as she walked up with two large books in her hands. "You knew people here were going to be curious. I'm surprised a pure blood took this long to ask about how your curse allowed you to use magic."

"It's just annoying," Ranma said with a huff. "It was annoying at Furinkan, at least everyone got used to it, and it's annoying here."

"Well you can either answer their questions or ignore them," Hermione said as she opened one of her books to read.

"Uggh," Ranma said again, leaning her head back. "I feel so restless here; I haven’t been able to have a good workout in weeks!"

"We don't have a good place to spar Ranma," Ryoga said as he lost against Ron once again and turned to face the other Japanese teen. "The way we fight, we would end up destroying the school and I don't think Dumbledore-sensei would be happy about that."

"Well... I think I know someplace you could fight," Harry piped up. "We could get the Room of Requirement to come up with a room or...."

"Or what?" Ron asked.

"Well... we could go down in the chamber," Harry suggested. "It's large and has plenty of room for you two to jump around in. And it wouldn't matter if you blew a few things up, it could use a little redecorating in fact," He added as he remembered the tacky looking snake statues that decorated the Chamber of Secrets.

"The chamber?" Ron asked confused as he frowned to himself. Blue eyes widened as he got where Harry was talking about. "The Chamber of Secrets?" He hissed. "Harry, are you crazy?"

"No, I think it's perfect," Harry said. "It's out of the way and with the basilisk dead it'll be safe. We could go to the Room of Requirement but now that most of the school knows where it is, we won't get much privacy. And think about it, with these two fighting, a lot of Slytherin's chamber will be damaged."

Ron bit his lip, his little sister and his best friend had almost died in that chamber.

"I think Harry is right," Hermione said as she looked at him over the edge of her book. "That room is Harry's now by right and it'll be all to ourselves. Slytherin might have hidden things down there we could use in the war if Voldemort hasn't already taken them out."

"Well... I think it's bloody insane but I'll go along with it," Ron said with a sigh.

"We'll go tomorrow," Harry said then. "Padfoot will want to see it too, I bet." The other teens agreed, Ranma looking forward to having a real workout after so many weeks without one.

***

Harry yawned as he waited in Moaning Myrtle's restroom for everyone else. Padfoot made a huffing noise as he waited with Harry at the boy's feet. It was very early in the morning; the entire group had agreed to go down to the chamber early so as to avoid other students.

"I know Paddy," Harry said, scratching his godfather behind a shaggy ear.

"What are you up to this time Harry?" Myrtle asked as she floated out of the stall she haunted.

"We're just going down to the chamber Myrtle," Harry said, looking at the ghost. The ghost made a sniffing noise.

"You only come here to either make something in secret or go down there," she said. "You never visit me."

"I'm sorry Myrtle, you've heard about what has happened around in the castle, I've barely had time to visit anyone," Harry said. "You could come to the chamber too; the thing that killed you is dead now. You can see it face-to-face." Myrtle stopped her floating around midair and looked at Harry in surprise. No one had told her that whatever it was that had killed her was gone now.

"I... I think I would like that," She said softly.

"Bloody hell, did we really need to get up this early?" Ron said as he gave a jaw cracking yawn as he and Hermione entered the restroom.

"It's the best way to avoid being seen and followed," Hermione said, a lot more awake than the red head was. Ron grumbled and leaned against the sinks with another yawn. The door opened again, Ranma dragging Ryoga behind him.

"I found him outside by the green houses," Ranma said as he pushed Ryoga to stand next to Harry. Ryoga had wandered off on his own and Ranma had ended up having to track down the other teen with the map Harry loaned him. Said map was handed back to Harry who wiped it clean with the words 'Mischief Managed'. Ryoga just blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. The door opened a final time, this time admitting Cologne and Shampoo.

"That's everyone," Harry said, walking over to the sinks. Ron quickly pushed away so he wouldn't fall in when the entrance was opened. Harry stopped at the faucet with the snake carving and hissed {Open}. The sinks sunk into the floor and moved aside, revealing the slimy slide Ron, Harry and Lockhart had slid down to get to the chamber in the boy's second year.

"Ugh, I think it’s got even more slime on it," Ron said with disgust. He sat down at the mouth of the hole then looked up at Harry. "How are we going to get back mate? Fawkes brought us up last time."

"Let me try something first," Harry said. "I always wondered how Riddle or anyone else got out of the chamber without a broom, I figure there is either another way out or..."

Harry looked at the slide and thought up an image of a snake in his mind so he could speak in Parseltongue. Behind them Ryoga shivered slightly, he didn't know what it was about Harry hissing like that but it sent shivers down his back but in a good way.

{Ssstairssss,} Harry hissed, grinning as the slide rippled then shifted into the form of stairs.

"Blimey," Ron said with wide eyes. "That would have been nice to know all those years ago, huh mate," He added as he stood up. "Still slimy looking."

"Honestly Ron," Hermione said as she pushed her way to the front. "Just use a cleaning spell. Scourgify." The bushy haired girl pointed her wand at the steps and waved it in a 'S' pattern. The cleaning spell flew out of her wand and struck the slime, cleaning it away. She was very eager to get down to the chamber and see it for herself, having missed this adventure last time and thinking of all the history she could find in the chamber.

"Ok guys, let’s be careful just in case there are other traps down there," Harry said as he headed down the stairs first. It look longer to walk down the steps than it had sliding down it three years ago, but Harry wasn't about to complain.

"Hey mate, what about the cave in?" Ron asked from somewhere in the middle of the group.

"Padfoot is going to transfigure an arch out of the rock," Harry called back. When they reached the bottom the girls wrinkled their noses at the amount of animal bones spread out over the floor.

"I wonder how animals kept getting in here," Hermione wondered as she looked down at a pile of bones with a cat skull on top. "This many animals, many pets must have gone missing."

"There's got to be some small entrances," Harry guessed. "Lumos." The tip of his wand lit up and he waved for everyone to follow him.

Halfway down the tunnel, they came across the cave in with the crushed snake skin under it.

"You two were very lucky to survive that," Hermione said with wide brown eyes as she looked at the pile of rocks blocking their way.

"We know," Harry said while Sirius changed back to his human from and started to change the rocks into a stable arch they could pass under. "It was the backlash from Ron's broken wand when Lockhart used it that caused this."

"How long was the snake skin?" Ranma asked, eyeing the crushed skin. "Looks like a pretty big snake."

"I don't remember but when I killed the basilisk it was larger than that," Harry said.

"All safe to go under," Sirius said as he finished.

"Not too much further from here," Harry said, motioning for everyone to follow him again.

"Aiyah... is big door," Shampoo said as she looked up at the large round door that blocked the way into the chamber.

{Open,} Harry hissed. As the snakes that decorated the door drew back one by one, Harry mused that he didn't remember the door closing when he and Ginny left the chamber years ago but he supposed it could have and he didn't notice. As the door opened with a groan, bubble-head charms were cast on everyone to block the smell of the decayed snake inside.

"Whoever built this place really liked snakes," Ranma said as the torches in the chamber lit up with green fire.

"Yeah, I bet the Slytherin’s common rooms have snakes all over them too," Harry said. "There's the basilisk’s remains."

"Bloody hell!" Ron said as he saw the skeletal remains.

"Kami-sama..." Ryoga said with a bit of a pale face, his Harry-chan faced that thing? At 12 years old? Myrtle didn't say anything as she floated closer to the skeleton, looking at it with a blank look on her face.

"You think we can call House Elves in here?" Ron asked as he looked around the chamber. "I bet they could do something about the smell."

"Let's try," Sirius said. "Dobby!"

Within seconds Dobby and Kreacher appeared with twin pops, rolling around on the ground as they started fighting.

"Master Dogfather is calling Dobby!" Dobby said as he pulled on Kreacher's ears.

"Kreacher is blood traitor's elf!" Kreacher growled before trying to bite one of Dobby's arms. The group blinked in surprise at seeing the two House elves fight.

"ENOUGH!" Sirius yelled loudly once he got over the shock. Both House Elves halted in their fighting, Dobby still pulling on Kreacher's ear while Kreacher had been scratching at Dobby's face. Both of them let go of the other and turned to face Sirius. "Kreacher, what are you doing here? I didn't call for you."

"Poor Kreacher is Master's House Elf," Kreacher said with a bow. "Master Black should be calling Kreacher, not disgrace of House Elf."

"Dobby not disgrace, Dobby good elf!" Dobby yelled.

"You have no room to talk Kreacher," Sirius said coldly. "Because you wouldn't tell me that Harry wanted to talk to me, he thought I was captured by You-Know-Who. You are the disgraced elf, you can't even keep the house clean, why would I want you to clean this chamber?" Kreacher grumbled and turned his head away from Sirius.

"Sirius, must you really treat him like that?" Hermione asked. Sirius sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Perhaps you should give him something to do," Cologne suggested. "Allow him to show that he is a good servant."

"Fine, you can start cleaning up the tunnel outside the chamber, and ONLY the tunnel. Get rid of the bones and slime but any snake skin you find is to be put to the side. No sneaking off with any, and stabilize the whole tunnel as well so it doesn't cave in again," Sirius ordered.

"Kreacher here to serve," Kreacher said with a slight sarcastic tone as he bowed very low again then popped out of the chamber. Sirius shook his head then turned to Dobby.

"Can you clean up in here a bit? At least do something about the smell and those remains?" Sirius asked.

"Dobby be happy to help Master Harry Potter’s Dogfather," Dobby said with a bright smile. He snapped his fingers once, using the magic that was unique to his race to send a strong wind through the whole chamber. Everyone yelped as hair and clothing was blown about for a few seconds before the wind died down. "Bad bad smell gone, can breathe air safely."

Harry sighed in relief as he canceled down the Bubble Head Charm and breathed in the much fresher air.

"Dobby, Ryoga and his friend Ranma are going to do some fighting against each other, don't be alarmed when they destroy parts of the chamber," He said to his little House Elf friend.

"Harry Potter's Roya and Ranma not hurt anyone?" Dobby asked, eyeing the two Asian teens. Ryoga scowled at Ranma who was snickering and smirking as Dobby butchered Ryoga's name but was able to say his correctly.

"We'll be fine Dobby, their type of fighting is just very destructive but they won't hurt any of us," Harry assured him.

"Finally, come on P-chan," Ranma said as he grabbed Ryoga's arm and dragged him to the middle of the chamber.

"Don't call me P-chan!" Ryoga yelped as he was dragged. As the two martial artists got into their stances to start, Dobby used his magic to move the basilisk remains to the side of the chamber, out of the way.

Ryoga wasted no time attacking, seeing the remains of the basilisk had driven home that Harry could have been killed, almost had in fact, and Ryoga never would have known. Harry had been one of the few people that Ryoga had even been able to call a friend, that he could have lost Harry before ever seeing the younger teen again fueled Ryoga's depression.

"Bakusai Tenketsu!" Ryoga yelled as he leapt forward and jabbed at the floor under Ranma's feet. Ranma jumped into the air out of the way of flying shards of rocks, his arms crossed in front of his face to protect it. Ryoga jumped up into the air after Ranma, exchanging a flurry of punches and kicks with the pigtailed youth.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma's fist blurred as he landed hundreds of punches on the other teen to get Ryoga to back off.

"Bloody... hell..." Ron said, his mouth gaping as he watched Ryoga and Ranma leap around the room, clashing together to exchange blows then jumping apart again. Hermione was also shocked, not even bothering to scold Ron for his language as she watched. Harry grinned. This was the first time either of his friends saw his other friends fight. There was no room at Grimmauld Place and they hadn't been allowed outside to spar.

"How... how are they doing that?" Hermione asked. "That shouldn't be possible, not without magic! Things like that don't happen outside of movies and cartoons!"

"It's very possible," Cologne said with an amused chuckle. "Both Hibiki and Son-in-law have trained all their lives to reach their level. As have I and my Great Granddaughter."

"Don't worry about it Mione, you get used to it after a while," Harry said while in the background he heard both Ryoga and Ranma scream out 'Shishi Hokodan' and 'Moko Takabisha', Hermione watching with wide brown eyes as green and blue chi balls flew through the air.

"What are those?" Hermione asked.

"It's chi child," Cologne said. "Everyone has chi, it's an energy that runs throughout the world. But very few people are able to use it; it takes years of training to learn how to use it even a little."

"It's like magic?" Ron asked as he watched Ranma push off one of the snake head's that lined the room just in time to avoid another chi attack, Ryoga's Shishi Hokodan blowing the stone statue to smithereens.

"Not quite, magic is usable only by a few people. Chi is something that everyone has but is unable to use without training," Cologne corrected him. "There is Chi Magic, it is fueled by chi energy. It is the closest thing to magic that there is."

"Shin Shishi Hokodan!" Ryoga yelled, his whole body glowing with chi.

"NO! You could cause a cave in, you idiot!" Ranma yelled as the ground started to crack under Ryoga's feet. Harry turned at the yell, his green eyes wide while Ryoga ignored Ranma's warning; he seemed deep in his depression and anger.

"Ryoga!" Harry yelled loudly. Ryoga blinked as Harry's voice was able to get through to him, turning to face the younger boy while the energy died down around him. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief and wondered what the hell Ryoga's problem was; he hadn't seen Ryoga that upset in a long time.

"Harry?" Ryoga asked then noticed the damage around him, blushing heavily. "Errr... oops?"

"I think that is enough for you two right now," Cologne said while Dobby started to repair the floor.

"Errr... Hey Harry, didn't you want to show us that new form?" Ron said trying to dispel the awkward silence. Ryoga was grateful for the change in subject and turned to Harry.

"Yeah, you seemed very excited about it," Ryoga said. Harry grinned and changed into his Mew form. His body started to glow and grow before Ranma could let out a strangled scream, everyone quickly backing up as Harry became very large and tall.

"Whoa," Ron said when Harry finished changing and towered over them in his Giratina form.

"Merlin, I've never seen anything like it!" Hermione said as she tried to take in Harry's full form. "It's snake-like but... wow."

"It is indeed impressive," Cologne agreed.

"Gira.." Harry said as he waved the first two spikes on his body while the ribbons-like appendages on his back moved on their own.

"You said looking at the basilisk triggered this, right?" Hermione asked.

"Giratina," Harry nodded his large head.

"Well he can't be a basilisk ‘cause we'd all be dead by now," Ron said.

"Of course he's not a basilisk Ro-" Hermione was cut off as Harry bent over with a surprised sounding "Giratina!"

Harry's form started to glow again, this time a slightly different color than his usual transformations. The others watched as parts of Harry's form changed by growing or shrinking while his overall height came down a few feet. When the light died down, Harry's form was changed but still had the same overall look as before.

"Gira-giratina?" Harry said in surprise. He was much more dragon-like now, the spikes along his body replaced with six thick legs with gold claws and gold bands wrapped around all of his legs. The three open rings around his neck were more fitted against his skin while the mask on his face was down and open, showing a black face underneath with his bright green eyes. His tail was a dark gray as well as shorter and the six ribbon-like limbs on his back were gone, replaced with two bat-like black wings with three red spikes each.

"Oh my god, are you ok Harry?" Hermione asked worried as she laid a hand on one of Harry's legs, Ryoga stepping closer in worry. With a pop Harry changed back into human, stumbling due to the difference in height. Ryoga caught Harry before the younger teen could fall, Harry blushing slightly as he was held for a lingering second before Ryoga set him on his feet. Ryoga had a very faint tint on his cheeks as well which Ranma noticed.

"What happened?" Sirius asked.

"I-I don't know," Harry said. "It was like I couldn't hold that form anymore and my body forcefully changed. It didn't hurt, I just wasn't expecting it, and it was different from the other ways I've transformed. But I... I think I was the same creature, different shape but I felt like it was the same." (2)

"Are you sure you're ok?" Ryoga asked, worry in his dark green eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry assured him softly. "Just took me by surprise."

"That was something else mate," Ron said. "You were huge!"

"You could scare the pants off some Death Eaters with either one of those forms Pup," Sirius said with a grin. Harry smiled slightly, feeling a little better.

"Wait till you see the form I took when I escaped from Malfoy," Harry said, giving Ranma just enough warning to turn his head away so he wouldn't see Harry's cat-like form. This time when Harry-Mew glowed and changed, everyone had to look down as he got smaller and smaller. "Joltik!"

"Oh! You're so small," Hermione said as she knelt down to look at the four inch bug-like creature on the ground. Hermione held out her hand for Harry to crawl in, her skin crackling softly with little arcs of electricity as Harry-Joltik absorbed the static. "Oh!" She gasped in surprise as her hair frizzed out a little more. Harry's tiny form was a drastic change from the two tall forms of Giratina.

"I can see how Malfoy didn't see you mate," Ron said, stepping back slightly when Harry turned to face him. Harry as a Joltik looked a little bit too much like a spider to Ron.

"Joltik," Harry jumped from Hermione's hand onto Ryoga's arm, crawling up to his shoulder.

"He's kinda cute like this," Ryoga said with a grin.

"Speak for yourself," Ron muttered. "He looks like a spider."

"Maybe a little but he has four legs, not eight," Hermione observed as she smoothed down her bushy hair.

"What looks like a spider?" Myrtle asked, she had been looking at the bones of the creature that killed her and hadn't paid any attention to what had been going on. Harry looked up at the ghost and made an alarmed sound as he felt his ability trigger. He quickly jumped off of Ryoga's shoulder as he had no idea what he was about to change into and didn't want to hurt his friend by accident. Harry glowed as he shifted in midair and when the light died down, a large five foot ghostly head with two free floating hands hung in mid-air across from the group.

"Haunter!" Harry said in surprise.

"What just happened?" Myrtle asked.

"Harry... did... did you just turn into some sort of ghost?" Hermione asked.

"Ha-haunter," Harry waved his hands, he didn't have a heart beat and he was slightly freaked out at first. "Haunt haunter." He slowly calmed back down, he seemed to be a ghost but he didn't feel /dead/.

"Oh Harry, you can share my u-bend just like I promised," Myrtle said with a girlish sigh. Harry seemed to sweat drop while Ron snickered and Hermione sighed. Ryoga gave Myrtle a small glare; Harry wasn’t going to share anything with this crazy ghost-onna.

"Err... maybe some other time Myrtle," Harry said as he quickly changed back into human, glad to feel his heart beating again.

"Well, my offer still stands," Myrtle said as she started to float upward. "Plenty of room for both of us!" She added with a girlish wink as she left.

"And I thought I had girl problems," Ranma said, making the others either face vault or shake their heads.

***

Meanwhile back in Nerima, inside of Okonomiyaki Ucchan's, Ukyo was leaning over one of the tables in the front room. It was late at night and the restaurant was closed for the evening, allowing Ukyo to pour over maps of England in peace. She had become obsessed with finding out where Ranma had gone. Ryoga's friend Harry had left the same time as Ranma and Ukyo knew deep down that her fiancé was where ever the British boy had gone.

"Ukyo-sama," Konatsu, a young man raised as a kunoichi, as such he acted and dressed like a young woman, said as he entered the dining room. "I checked the Amazon's restaurant to see if they know where Saotome-san is but they're gone."

"Gone?" Ukyo said as she looked up. "What do you mean gone?"

"The only person there is the older Chinese man, the others are all gone," Konatsu said. "I asked around and some of the owners of the nearby shops said Mousse had left with a bunch of older women weeks ago. The others left at different times and haven't returned since."

"Damn it," Ukyo said with a groan as she leaned back in her seat. "Harry was living with them; I bet Cologne is using him so Shampoo can get closer to Ranma-honey. Damn it."

"Maybe you should just give up for now, Ukyo-sama," Konatsu suggested. "You haven’t been getting very much sleep lately."

"I can't give up," Ukyo said as she rubbed at her aching forehead.

"I did hear something else..." Konatsu said slowly, he was worried about Ukyo. She was spending all her time trying to find out where Ranma had gone.

"What?" Ukyo asked tiredly.

"Tendo Akane... I heard her say something about that Harry boy," Konatsu said. “She was talking to herself while writing in a diary; I don't even think she noticed she was doing it. She said something about him being a... wizard?"

"Wizard? Like spells and dragons and stuff?" Ukyo asked.

"I suppose, she seemed convince that he is one and said something about a school he goes to," Konatsu said with a delicate shrug of his shoulders.

"Did she say where or what it was called?" Ukyo said, grasping at any information she could get.

"No, that dirty old man that lives there tried to grope me then chased me off when he found out that I am not a girl," Konatsu said with a shake of his head. "I didn't get to hear any more than that."

"Hmmm," Ukyo tapped her fingers against the top of the table. "I'll have to confront her myself then. She's got to know /something/."

"If you say so Ukyo-sama," Konatsu said unsure, he thought Ukyo's obsession with finding Ranma was going a little too far. Unfortunately, she wouldn't listen to him so all the kunoichi could do was follow his employer and watch over her. 'I hope that this isn't a mistake,' He thought to himself.

***

Author notes:

(1) A furo is a traditional Japanese bath.

(2) In the games, Ditto and Mew cannot hold onto Giratina's basilisk form for long and is forced to change into the other form. This is because Giratina can only hold that form itself outside of the Distortion World if the Pokémon is holding an item called the Griseous Orb. As Ditto and Mew don't have the item they change into the altered form after a few seconds.

Edit 7-9-14: Very little editing needed to be done here.