Never let go

Never Let Go

Chapter: Four

Who Am I?

The Concept of Kendo is to discipline the human character
through the application of the principles of the Katana.

The purpose of practicing Kendo is:
To mold the mind and body,
To cultivate a vigorous spirit,
And through correct and rigid training,
To strive for improvement in the Art of Kendo;
To hold in esteem human courtesy and honor,
To associate with others with sincerity,
And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.

Thus will one be able
to love his country and society,
To contribute to the development of culture,
And to promote peace and prosperity among all people.

Motto from the All-Japan Kendo Federation

Disclaimer: Never was mine, never will be mine!

A/N: Great many special thanks to Roxana Chez, Christina, and Huw for inspiring me and helping me get this chapter up. I am very sorry it took so long, but well...I heed a busy life and the lateness is an example of this. Hopefully I will get the next chapter up sooner than this one...

"Who the hell are you, and what have you done to my Harry?"

Harry was floored. Why had he so instinctively answered Cody? How could he be so stupid as to do such a thing? Hermione, of course had figured it out in a second. He doubted anybody could piece together the facts as quickly as she could. As he looked up at her gaping face, he relented. He could not do a single thing to make her believe that he was really her Harry, and suspected that she had already drawn up about a million conclusions as to whom he was. Best choice for him at the moment was the truth, no more façades, no more lies, no more disguises, he was gonna risk being put into Mungo´s because really, there was nothing he could do.

With a deep sigh, he opened his mouth to tell her his story, but before he could, she whipped out her wand and pointed it straight at his chest bellowing, "Finite Incantatum!"

A red spark burst forth from Hermione´s wand and shot towards Harry´s body, dissipating when it hit his chest and entered his body. He felt a slight tickling sensation where the spell hit, but other than that nothing changed. Hermione stared at him with a mixture of shock and disappointment.

"You can get expelled for doing magic outside of Hogwarts you know," Harry commented, smartly, much the same as she would have done, given the same situation.

"Not if it´s the first time," Hermione retorted. She had a point, but that still didn´t get them any closer to solving the mess they were in.

"Fine, but will you let me explain who I am? You wanted to know didn´t you?" Harry said irritably.

Hermione nodded and she walked over to one of the two plush chairs that were by Harry´s window, and sat down. Harry walked over to where she was but did not sit down. He just stood there, looking at her irate face, waiting to see if she was going to tell him anything. What he was about to tell her, was both extremely farfetched for anybody to comprehend, and painful.

"Well? Are you going to say anything? Because I have half a mind to go down and tell your Mu- I mean Lily all about you," she snapped.

"No," Harry replied shakily. "Please don´t. It´s just hard. I don´t know where to start."

"The beginning is as good a place as any."

"You´re right, sorry. Um...I guess it all starts when I was a baby. My parents James and Lily Potter, were killed when I was a year old, when Voldemort," Hermione visibly shuddered when he said this. "Came to my house and tried to kill our whole family. He succeeded in killing my parents but when he turned the killing curse on me, and it backfired. It gave me this scar," he said pulling back his bangs to show her the scar.

"Are you trying to tell me that you survived the killing curse, that You-Know-Who shot at you?" she asked incredulously.

"Well...yeah, that´s kind of why I told you. Besides it´s true...and I can tell you´re not believing me are you," he said once he saw the look on her face.

"You know what? I don´t know what to believe right now, just get on with it and then I´ll decide."

"Ok, well after my parents died I was sent to live with my only blood relatives, the Dursleys who-"

"That´s not true, what about your aunt Aimee? You know the one that lives in America?" all she got was a blank stare from Harry. "You don´t know about her do you? She is your dad´s sister."

"So what, now you believe that maybe what I'm saying is true? You believe that my parents are James and Lily?" Harry said to reassure himself.

"Well, I don´t know, but it´s just...I can´t explain it. Whenever I looked into my Harry´s eyes I can always tell if he is lying or not. I´ve known him since we were both babies. His mother and my mother were friends from Muggle primary school. But, you´re different, your eyes, they´re...darker. They are grayer, just barely though, you couldn´t really tell unless you looked really hard and well...I don´t know. This is so confusing. Now tell me, how did you get here and where is my Harry?" she demanded.

Sighing deeply Harry said, "That´s the part I don´t know. I was just..." Harry paused here. He was wondering if he should tell her what Vernon had done, but then decided against it. He didn´t need to worry her about the Vernon in this life. If in fact that Vernon had even a decent cell in his body. So after the long pause he continued saying, "just cleaning up the attic, and when I was going down the stairs, one of the boards gave way and I fell down. Then suddenly, I woke up yesterday in a field and I came here and well...that´s it. I don´t know what happened to your Harry, I don´t even know what happened to me. But please, I need your help, its just so...frustrating having everyone know you and you not knowing a single face or having everyone expect you to act a certain way but you can´t because you don´t know what to do."

Harry conveyed the most piteous face he could muster. It didn´t come out naturally though and he had to force it quite a bit. Normally he would never stand for a shred of pity no matter how hard it got, but the situation he was in was just way out of line and the one person who could help him out of it, was staring at the drooping lip and watery eyes that he was expressing.

"Fine," she sighed. "I don´t know what I can do, but if it means that I can get my Harry back any sooner I might as well help you. Now lets get back downstairs and see if anybody is still here."

Agreeing with her wholeheartedly he calmly walked over to the door and turned the knob granting him access to the outside hallway. A quick turn to the left and he was walking towards the stairs with Hermione in tow, no doubt thinking about the recent turn of events.

When they got to the bottom, they looked around and noticed that the four uniformed Aurors plus Sirius, Remus and James were all sitting on the plush red couches of the living room. They all seemed to be in deep conversation and stopped talking when they noticed the two of them come down the stairs. Staring pointedly at his son, James put across a look that said, get out of here we are discussing something important. Amazing that he could get all that out in a single look.

Taking the hint, Harry pulled Hermione´s arm to the right and into the dining room. In it were her parents and Harry´s mother.

"Hi there honey," Mel Granger said to his daughter.

"Hi daddy, what are you talking about?" Hermione said.

"We were just discussing the trip to France dear. If it´s alright with you kids we´d like to take it in about a week," Lily said.

Harry looked at Hermione´s face to see it contorted in concentration. Obviously she was rethinking her proposal from earlier today. Going with you boyfriend to France on holiday was one thing. Going with a near perfect stranger was another case altogether. Looking away, Harry felt sadness creep up into him. He´d never gotten the chance to go on a vacation, and desperately wanted to try to find some good out of the situation that he was in at the moment. But he couldn´t make it difficult for Hermione, she had lost her boyfriend and who was he to make it worse by trying to take his place.

"A week sounds fine. Holly and Zack both seem pretty excited so I'm sure they wont have a problem either," Hermione chimed in. Although her voice sounded cheerful, Harry couldn´t help but notice that it was a forced cheerful and not the normal giddy expressive language the Hermione he knew used when she was happy about something.

"Great. I´ll just go talk to that lump of a husband of mine and we´ll get it all sorted out," Lily said standing up.

"He´s in an Auror meeting Lily, I don´t think now is the right time," Hermione warned.

"Oh, ok. Well then, I guess its time to clean up a little bit anyway. Harry could you be a love and go get your brother and sister to come help. We´ve got quite a bit of trash in the back," Lily said.

Nodding his head, Harry once again started for the stairs and climbed them up to go to his sibling´s respective rooms. Giving them his mother´s orders, he followed them to the backyard and helped the group clean up the tables and chairs. Watching as his mother made the clean tables and chairs disappear with a swish of her wand, he wondered why she couldn´t have just cleaned the tables using the same method. Obviously, the years spent living, as a muggle hadn´t left her. Either that, or she was trying to teach her kids some discipline.

Walking back inside, he noticed that the Aurors were gone and so was Remus. Looking up to see his godfather and his father chatting he noticed the big smile on his dad´s face. The goofy, lopsided grin that he himself had so obviously inherited was lighting up his features from the blue of his eyes to the pitch black of his hair. Something was making him that happy and no doubt he would tell everyone in due time.

Turning right at the stairs he started walking up not noticing Hermione following him cautiously. The day had, had its many twists and turns, most where for the better. He felt much better finally to have the big secret of his chest even though it was only to Hermione. When he reached the landing to the stairs he felt a hand grab his arm and turn him around.

Looking, once again, into the chocolate brown eyes that she had on her perfectly proportioned face, he quickly felt guilty and focused his eyes instead on the railing that followed the same path as the stairs, down the wall.

"You know, I don´t have a problem with you going to France with us right? I mean you´ve probably been on vacations before but never with your family have you?"
Hermione asked.

"Actually the only thing the Dursleys ever took me to was the zoo, and that was only because they were forced to. But yeah, this would be a great opportunity to both get to see France, and get to know my family a little better. I feel like the big hole that has been missing from me all along has finally been filled. When I walked into this house yesterday it actually felt like home, it´s hard to describe."

Hermione nodded once and said, "Did the Dursleys not treat you well or something?"

He felt like shouting, `Of course they didn´t treat me well, they hated me for Christ´s sake´, but he held is tongue and said, "You could say that."

"Well don´t worry," Hermione said, the gleam in her eye coming about. "Your going to get what you missed out on your entire life and were gonna have fun doing it. I´m just going to have to teach you to be more like my Harry. Like how he-" she started talking, but was cut off when Harry held up his hand for quiet while looking over her shoulder.

Holly was walking up the stairs looking down at her feet and walked past Harry and Hermione muttering words that neither of them could hear, but Harry clearly heard the words Ron and stupid git used consecutively. Suddenly he grew aware of the final member of the trio that hadn´t been there at his party. It hadn´t really struck him as strange that he hadn´t shown up for it, but now that he was mentioned Harry couldn´t help but feel the slightest bit abandoned.

"What was that?" he called out to Holly before she reached the door to her room. Quickly she turned around and stared at the couple as if she didn´t even notice they were there when she walked by them.

"What was what?" she said playing dumb.

"You said something about Ron being a stupid git, what Ron are you talking about?" he asked.

"What do you mean what Ron?" holly asked. "That pompous arse, Weasley. The Ron who is always bothering us. He makes me so mad sometimes. He thinks that just because he is in Slytherin that he-"

"Hold on, Ron Weasley is in Slytherin," Harry interrupted before his better judgment could stop him. The idea that Ronald Weasley, the one person in the world that hated Slytherins more than Harry, could be in Slytherin was absolutely laughable. Ludicrous, absolutely barking mad. Quickly noticing the looks he was getting from the girls, from Hermione a look of infidelity and Holly was giving him a look of disbelief. As quick as he could get out he said, "I-I mean, of course he´s in Slytherin, I was just joking with you." He laughed nervously when he saw the expressions on both girls faces slip.

"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted," she said staring pointedly at Harry. "Ron thinks that just because he is in Slytherin that he is all high and mighty and he wouldn´t let Ginny come over today. I mean it´s not her fault she is the only good one to come out of the family. They practically disowned her when she owled home saying she was in Gryffindor. Ugh...anyways, I'm just going to go to sleep. Been an exhausting day. G´night Harry, and happy birthday. And congratulations you both on getting together, I'm really happy for you." That said she disappeared through her door.

"Hermione honey, we have to go, got a long drive in front of us," the voice of Mel Granger rang out up the stairs.

"Ok I´ll be right down," she said to her dad. "Come on, you have to say goodbye to my mom. My Harry always hugs her and begs her to take him home with her. Its sort of an on going joke, do it or else they will get suspicious ok?"

Harry nodded his head and followed Hermione down the stairs to the foyer where the adults were waiting. Mel had his daughter´s coat ready and Helen was standing by the door her eyes immediately shooting towards Harry when he walked in behind Hermione. Remembering what Hermione said, he walked up to Helen and tried his best to sound sincere when he said,

"Ready to take me home?" looking at Hermione over Helen´s shoulder. Hermione gave her a thumbs up and gave James a hug and told him goodbye. She repeated the action with Lily and then went to stand next to her dad. Harry let go of Helen and she replied with a,

"Now, now Harry, you know how your parents are, never let yah have any fun," she said chuckling to herself.

"Come on Helen, leave the boy alone, he´s probably tired. Besides we have a long drive home. We´ll see you in a week´s time ok James? Lily?" Mel said.

"Yeah, you can count on it," James replied once again getting that dreamy look on his face. Harry watched as Hermione and her parents walked out the door. Hermione turned around at the last minute and gave Harry a look that seemed to say good luck and it warmed his heart, that she would still cared for him even after she´d found out the truth.

"Ok Harry. Well your father and I are going to go to bed now, don´t stay up too late now," Lily said as she and James started to clamber up the stairs.

"Actually I was just about to head up myself," he said following after them. Watching his parents from behind he couldn´t help but notice that they´re fingers were intertwined and his mum was leaning on his dad for support. It warmed his heart to see his parents, so full of love even after sixteen years of marriage. Slowing down when he reached the landing he saw his parents share an embrace in front of their door and his dad lean down to give his mum a peck on the forehead. Slowly he opened the door and they both walked in.

Zack´s door opened and he walked out wearing nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms which were a checkered blue and green. He was aiming for Harry´s door but when he saw Harry on the landing he quickly changed his footing and walked back towards Harry.

"Oh, there you are. I was just about to go in your room. Anyways I was gonna tell you that you should get a good nights sleep because your in for a surprise tomorrow," he said grinning evilly.

"What do you mean surprise?" Harry said to Zack´s retreating back. Zack didn´t respond, he only walked into his room and closed the door. An audible click was heard as he locked it leaving Harry standing outside contemplating what he meant.

"Ass!" he said hopefully loud enough to be heard through the wood. Walking to his own room he opened the door and walked in. Before he could even close the door he heard Cody hiss out,

"Harry? Did I get you in trouble? I can tell you it was not my intention what so ever," he said.

Sighing heavily at the concern the snake was showing. He walked over to the closet to grab some clothes to sleep in and said, "No Cody, don´t worry you didn´t get me in trouble. I was just stupid and...it was my fault so don´t trouble yourself. Besides, I´m glad Hermione knows now, maybe she can help me get back."

"Yes perhaps," Cody said. Finishing putting on his sleepwear Harry climbed into his un-made bed and pulled the covers around himself. If there was one thing he had learned today, it was to heed other people´s advice, and if Zack said to go to sleep early he would certainly do as he was told. Turning off the light he muttered a quiet, "G´night Cody" and sunk into his pillows. He was asleep before he could even hear Cody´s reply.

* * * * *

"Wakey, Wakey sleeping beauty!" an annoyingly cheerful voice chimed into Harry´s right ear effectively snapping him out of his nocturnal indulgence in dreamland. Even though he was awake, that didn´t mean he was going to give the unseen nuisance any satisfaction by regarding his attempts. "Come on lazy bones, its time to wake up and I'm not gonna leave till you get up."

Harry still didn´t get up nor give any outward sign that he was awake at all. He was however now fully awake, albeit very tired. Cracking his eyes open a little he looked towards the windows and saw just the tiniest sliver of light coming from the horizon. Clearly it was way to early to be up and doing anything.

"Come on Harry, you promised to go running with me in the morning," the voice said adopting a whiny tone that only little brothers were capable of using. "Besides all you do is sit on your fat arse all day and read books. You need to get some exercise or you´ll die of a stroke."

Proving too much of an irritation Harry finally did concede and wrenched open his eyes to see the face of Zack Potter poised precariously tilted to the side. "I do not have a fat arse," he said incredulously.

"Yeah, yeah they all say that. Now come on get up and lets go," Zack said suddenly excited. The excited ness was squelched when he saw the over exaggerated look of dread on his brothers face. "Oh come on you ninny, I'm not gonna work you that hard. It just gets boring sometimes when I have to do it all alone, I´d rather have someone there to talk to."

In his last ditch attempt to try to get out of the promise he had made, Harry said, "What about Holly, I'm sure she would like to run and do stuff like that."

"Yeah but I´d rather have my big brother come. Besides, Holly is definitely not a morning person. You should see how bitchy she gets when you wake her up, almost as bad as when you bother her during that `time of the month´," he said shuddering. "Come on quit lollygagging!"

Realizing he wasn´t going to win this argument he sat up in bed and raised his hands up in a big stretch. He heard several of his bones crack and his mouth opened in a big yawn.

"I´ll wait for you down in the living room, now hurry up!" Zack called out, leaving Harry to dress in peace. Standing up and walking to his closet he rummaged through the dresser and pulled out a pair of meshy shorts that would be perfect for running, and a plain grayish blue T-shirt. Peeling off his sleep clothes he pulled on the shorts first and then succeeded in tugging the shirt on. Looking under his bed for his trainers he suddenly remembered that he left them by the closet. Picking them up he carried them in his hand out the door and down the stairs.

When he reached the living room he saw Zack doing pushups. Taking his time, so that Zack wouldn´t get the idea that he should do pushups too, he put on his shoes. When he finished lacing them up, he stood erect and pulled his arms over his head and intertwined them. Stretching out his back muscles again, he could feel all the left over sluggishness start to recede from his body.

When Zack finished his pushups he instructed Harry in all the proper stretches that they were going to do. First, touching the toes. It burned Harry´s calves when he did it and he nearly cried out, but after a few seconds of touching his toes, he could feel his muscles start to stretch and soon enough the pain diminished. After a few more stretches in which Harry´s calves and quadriceps immerged fully stretched and having a slight tingly sensation in them, they headed through the foyer and out the front door.

The sun was fully visible, but was so low on the horizon that it gave off a reddish-orange tinge mixed with the bright yellow-white. Taking his time walking to the road, Zack explained how far they were going to go.

"Ok, so were going to go about a mile. You haven´t ever really done much running before so I just want to see how you´re doing. There is a big willow tree about half a mile down this road. When we reach it I´ll ask you how you feel, if you think we can go on, then we will, if not, then we´ll turn around ok? Just remember, today you don´t have to push yourself so hard, just try to relax and go with the flow. Imagine yourself gliding through the clouds and you wont feel the pain," Zack said with a sense of wisdom that seemed strange behind the normally mischievous glint that shown through his eyes.

"Ok!" Harry said. He was ready. He might not have wanted to run, but it couldn´t hurt. Zack took off down the road at a moderate jog, and Harry trailed after him. They continued at the pace for a good minute or two before Harry started feeling the effects of the run. His heart was pounding wildly up against his ribcage and breathing through his nose was becoming harder and harder. When he saw the willow tree on the side of the road start to come in view, he increased his pace and passed Zack up a little. Surprised at his brother´s sudden eagerness, Zack too sped up and chased Harry down towards the willow tree.

When they were nearly at the tree, Zack shouted, "Do you think you can do a little more? You don´t have to, we can turn around right now if you´d like." His voice didn´t sound the least bit winded whereas Harry had finally given up trying to breathe through his nose and was drinking in the cool morning air into his increasingly greedy lungs.

Although he wanted to go farther and test his stamina a little more, he though better on it and said through the wind, "No, I think we should head back. Don´t want to push myself too hard or otherwise I will be too sore to run tomorrow."

Nodding his head, Zack reached the willow tree and circled around it and dashed off down the road again. Harry, still struggling to breathe, ignored the constantly growing burning sensation in his chest and legs, and tore off after Zack. Pumping wildly with his arms to try to gain momentum, he finally caught Zack and matched his pace pound per pound.

Finally, Harry could see a clear view of the house and noticed Zack suddenly make a mad dash for it. He seemed to have a hidden resource of power that he used for it because he was running as if he hadn´t been running at all. Harry tried to catch him up, but soon found himself stumbling and eventually just let Zack run up ahead, and followed at a more leisurely pace.

When he reached the grass in front of the house he collapsed onto the ground and started breathing as hard as he could trying to catch his breath while trying not to hyperventilate.

"Oh no you don´t, if you sit down you´re gonna get cramps. Stand up, you got to stretch again," Zack barked, his voice seeming perfectly stable. Obviously one mile was nothing to his running honed body. Standing up again Harry did as before and stretched out all the muscles of his legs while Zack took to jogging around the fence that surrounded the house and the backyard. When Harry was finally done he saw Zack jog back towards him and say, "Ok, well I'm going to go run some more, you go and take a shower or something, I´ll be back soon enough." And with that he took off back down the road towards the now fully risen sun.

Finishing his stretching, Harry got up and walked through the door into the foyer. Looking at the walls surrounding him, he noticed the assortment of pictures splashed neatly across them. A picture of Harry as a baby, with both his parents, the same picture he often stared at in the photo album in his world. Turning from that picture he noticed a similar one next to it, only this time joining Harry and his parents were two pink faced babies, one donning midnight black hair, and the other a shock of brilliant red. The two babies were each being held in one of the parents´ arms, while Harry, a toddler now, was standing in between his parents knees holding on to the material on the backs of their legs. There were a couple more pictures like this, with the parents and their three kids. There were also pictures of Harry on that black piano he now knew sat in the garage.

Then there were some pictures of Harry in a strange black suit holding a sword that looked like it was made out of wood. He could see strange symbols carved on the suit and many more on the sword as well. He saw himself twirling and striking at a man that looked as if he were as old as Dumbledore. The longer Harry looked at the picture, the more perplexed he became with what the occupants of it were doing so he decided to stop doing it and walk up and take a shower, which he much needed from all the sweat that was poring down his body.

* * * * *

When Zack got back from his run he saw Harry sitting in the living room calmly switching through the channels. Holly was walking down the stairs looking as if she were going to join Harry on the couch. He had just run several miles and he needed to take a shower so up the stairs he went and into the shower.

When he emerged, clean to the bone and hair standing every which way, he walked into his room and pulled on some clothes. Walking to the corner of his room he picked up his Asteroid 260, the fastest broom on the market, and walked down the stairs.

When Harry saw his brother walking down the stairs, a broom perched on his shoulder, he instantly started to get excited. He´d always loved flying and he often felt that it helped clear his mind up a bit when things got too hectic. So as his brother walked through the kitchen and presumably outside through the back door, Harry got up and tossed the Remote Control at Holly, saying, "Here, go ahead and watch whatever you want."

"Thanks Harry," she replied.

Nodding his head, he walked to the backdoor and opened it. He looked outside but didn´t see his brother anywhere. Figuring he was in the air flying on his broomstick, he craned his head back to look up at the brilliant clear blue sky. Still, not seeing his brother he walked to the fountain in the middle of the yard and turned to look back at the house. He noticed a window he hadn´t seen before, that jutted out the top of the third window of the house. It was obviously an attic, but he had never seen an attic window surveying the back of the house rather than the front.

He had no time to dwell on the architecture of the house as Zack came zooming around the house and nearly collided with him. He had to dive out of the way, onto the rough concrete while Zack zoomed off laughing at the top of his lungs. After a couple of victory laps around the yard he landed a few feet away from Harry.

"You nearly scared me senseless you prat," Harry remarked all the while eyeing the foreign broomstick.

"Thank you, Thank you," Zack said while bowing as if he had delivered a star studded performance. When he righted himself he noticed Harry looking at his broom. Holding it up he said, "You want to give it a try Harry?"

Looking dumbfounded at Zack, he slowly nodded and took the broom from his outstretched hand and began to survey it. It was a brilliant forest green that had the words Asteroid 260 drawn carefully and precisely in dark black letters. Looking at the tail he saw no twigs bent of out of place and the whole thing looked in pristine condition. If it weren´t for the color and the name, Harry would have betted that it was exactly like his Firebolt back in his world.

"It´s not a book you dork, you don´t study it!" Zack said slightly miffed at his brothers over scrutinizing at yet another one of his treasures.

"Oh, sorry, I was just admiring its er...niceness?" Harry said, lamely.

Taking the broom, he mounted it and kicked off into the sky. He instantly felt that rush of euphoria that normally came about when he went onto a broom and he let it delve into him, lapping up it like a newborn puppy does milk. Letting his instincts take over he drove the broom pretty high and without a second thought careened over to his side taking the broom and himself plummeting down to the earth. When he was pretty close to the ground, he wrestled against gravity and brought the broom to a level flight path about ten feet above ground. Next he swerved as if riding down an imaginary slalom in the air, dashing in and out of the imaginary posts in the air. Lastly he flattened himself on the broom and shot, like a bullet towards the house, before applying the air break he knew would be there, and stopping just before he hit the attic window.

Still feeling the rush from his flight, Harry glided down to his brother, who was staring open mouthed at him. Touching the ground, Harry took the broom from in between his legs and held it out for his brother to hold, a great giant smile plastered on his face.

Instead of taking the broom from Harry´s hand, Zack turned and ran straight for the house, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Dad! Dad!"

Running out the backdoor, adept with his Auror skills, James Potter surveyed his backyard trying to pick out the trouble that he assumed Zack was calling him for. However, when he saw nothing, he quickly turned to Zack who was staring wide eyed from him, to Harry and back again, as if trying to say something, without uttering words.

"What´s the matter Zack," James said, sounding concerned. "Is someone in trouble?"

"No, no," Zack replied, quickly shaking his head side to side. "But Harry, dad. You should have seen it, he can fly dad. And I'm not talking about just getting on the broom, I'm saying he can soar!"

Feeling his dad´s burrowing into him Harry focused yet again at the beautifully crafted broom he now held in his right hand, still outstretched as if to give it back to Zack.

"Are you sure Zack?" James asked, sounding unsure.

"Yes, dad, I saw it with my own eyes I swear!" Zack uttered. Turning to face Harry he bounced up and down on his heels and chanted, "Come on Harry, show dad what you can do. Do exactly what you just did again ok?"

Harry could have hit himself over the head yet again. Obviously the Harry from this world didn´t take much of a liking to Quidditch or flying a broom for that matter, and his previously performed theatrics hadn´t helped the situation he was in at all. Hopefully though, they wouldn´t get suspicious about him. However, at the present moment, he was being pressured into flying by the wayward comments of his brother and the expectant look on his fathers face. He had always dreamed of making his dad proud of him for doing something, and now was his chance. He would fly for his dad and give it all he could.

Harry yet again mounted the Asteroid 260 and flew to a considerable height before plummeting back towards the ground and basically repeating what he had just done previously, the ever present sense of flying bound euphoria returning, stronger than ever at the sight of his fathers proud eyes shinning up at him from the ground. Spurred on by a new sense of exhilaration, Harry performed a set of tricky barrel rolls and dives ending in corkscrew like turns, hoping to impress his father and brother even more.

Finally, after growing quite dizzy, Harry hovered down to the ground and landed. His dad now shimmered that radiant glow that he had always dreamed about. The feeling of happiness, which was completely opposite what he felt earlier in the summer, washed over him yet again.

"Harry, where did you learn to fly like that?" James asked.

"Well, you know I just picked it from uh...from watching Zack all the time," he said, stumbling slightly with his wording.

"But you never watch when I'm practicing, your always reading books!" Zack said, laughing at the end.

"Yeah, well, just goes to show you that I don´t always read books, so.. umm.. hah!" Harry replied now getting slightly uncomfortable at the fact that he was messing his act again. He made a silent vow to himself to read that journal sometime in the near future. At the moment however, he couldn´t because James and Zack started blabbing on about how it would be great that Harry was made the new seeker to take Cedric´s position that he left vacant when he graduated. They had Harry do all sorts of drills; some he had done with the team and Wood´s near suicidal practice strategies, and some he hadn´t but had witnessed the cup teams do at the world cup the year past.

James had a spare trunk of Quidditch balls in the attic and he went to grab them along with two extra brooms he kept up there as well, so they could play. When he returned, Harry saw the words Welsh Nation Team engraved on the door of it. Surprised at the fact that his dad had played for the Welsh national team, he figured that he would have to look into it later on, now was time for Quidditch.

* * * * *

After a few hours of Quidditch, in which Zack and James test Harry through every rigorous seeker trial they could think of, they deemed him, ready to play and a sure-fire candidate for the next seeker. Zack even offered to pull a couple of strings if he was made captain that year, which was highly likely as after Cedric, he was the team member that gave the most. So, as the boys walked back into the house, sweaty from the heat and bottoms slightly soar from the hours spent on a piece of wood, James spoke up.

"Ueshiba-Sensei is coming today at three o clock boys," he said looking down at his watch. "Its almost two thirty right now, so I´d suggest you two get into a clean pair of clothes and meet us down at the dojo ok?"

Zack nodded as if this "Ueshiba-Sensei" thing came everyday. Harry however, was very, very confused.

When he got back up to his room, he shut the door and calmly walked over to a sleeping Cody. Not really wanting to wake him, but needed to none the less, he softly hissed, "Cody, wake up I need to talk to you."

Cody lazily opened his eyes and lifted his head to look at the disturbance that had awoken him. "What is it Harry?" he replied.

"Well, my dad, Zack and I were out playing quidditch-"

"But you don´t play quidditch Harry, you said you hated it."

"That was the other Harry maybe, I would die without being able to fly a broom, but that´s besides the point. The thing I wanted to talk to you about is that my Dad was talking about some thing called Ueshiba-sensei and he said it was coming at three. Then he said to get into a clean pair of clothes and meet in the Dojo," he said looking helplessly at Cody. "I don´t know a thing about what he said, do you?"

Slithering closer to the heat lamp placed in the corner of his terrarium, Cody replied, "Well its actually quite simple, Ueshiba-Sensei is your Kendo teacher, he comes every Tuesday, and Saturday to your home and teaches your family Kendo, although I really shouldn´t say teaches, more like practices, as your family as already quite adept to the art, especially you. What he meant by the Dojo, is that building that is in the corner of your backyard, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. That is where you train."

"Wait, wait, wait, what the hell is kendo?" Harry said, still clueless.

"Kendo, is an ancient Japanese practice of sword fighting," Cody said. Upon seeing the stricken look on Harry´s face, he quickly said, "not a real sword though, in reality its just four pieces of bamboo tied together by a few pieces of leather. And I believe you wear armor of some sort."

"Wait," Harry said remembering the picture he had seen in the hallway. "Do you wear a funny black suit and twirl your stick around trying to hit each other? Is it like fencing?"

"Well, I don´t know what fencing is, but I guess you could say you twirl the sticks around, although I think its more uniform than that. It´s supposed to be a learning form of martial arts, the kind that helps enlighten your soul. And as for the suit, it´s more of a really dark blue."

Harry nervously started pacing holding his face with his right hand and tapping the tip of his nose with the index finger.

"What am I supposed to do? I don´t know how to use a sword, and I´ll bet there is a bunch of technique behind it too. What am I going to do, what am I going to do," he uttered, on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Not knowing names was one thing, not being able to wield a sword, albeit bamboo, was another.

"Well, I don´t know, have you found yourself doing anything in this world you weren´t able to do before?" Cody inquired.

"Well there was the piano yesterday..." Harry trailed off, a smile replacing the frown he wore. He had enjoyed it immensely when he was able to play the piano but were playing the piano and fighting with a sword the same thing? He highly doubted it.

"So you´ve never played the piano before yesterday?" Cody said.

"Never even seen one, much less play one."

"Well, what do you remember doing as you played the piano, since obviously looking at the smile on your face, you performed quite well, I hope."

"Oh I performed...well...there is just no good enough word to describe how well I played, it was amazing I just sat down on the piano and I took your advise, you know the calm down and let your instincts take over bit, and then suddenly it was as if my fingers were doing the work for me. It was like nothing I´ve ever experienced before."

"Well there you have it, you just have to relax, and then I'm sure you´ll be able to perform most if not all the techniques the other Harry was capable of. Perhaps you and the other Harry are still linked in a way...who knows?"

Turning to his closet he called over his shoulder to Cody, "What should I wear?"

"Usually you wore a simple pair of shorts and a shirt. Keep in mind you are going to be putting more clothes and some armor."

Picking up another pair of meshy shorts colored black, he pulled those on along with a white T-shirt that had a pocket on the right front part of his chest. His attire was similar to what he took that morning to run and he decided it was his best choice.

"How do you know so much about the other Harry? I mean do you roam about the house somehow?"

"I have my ways," Cody said, not really letting on to how he did whatever he did.

"Ok...well, I guess I´d better go face the music..." Harry said, as if expecting is every impending doom to come about right the second he walked into the so-called "dojo".

Walking out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen, he saw Holly, talking to Zack. Zack had a gigantic grin on his face, and Holly looked upset. Waving over Holly´s shoulder, Zack called attention to the fact that Harry had just walked into the kitchen and Holly quickly turned around and looked up at her brother. She was wearing a pair of bright yellow, shorts that were of the same meshy material that Harry´s were, and a white T-shirt that had something in a language using funny looking squiggly lines. He guessed it was some kind of Asian because of the way the characters had such uniquely drawn lines and shapes. What kind of Asian language it was, he could not figure out, as he hadn´t really seen much of it in his lifetime.

"They turned you!" Holly said exasperatedly.

"Turned me what?" Harry said, unsure of what she was talking about.

"Quidditch, they got you to play it. How could you do it Harry? I thought it was you and me all the way, against the evil Quidditch regime!" Holly said, animating her little speech with several arm movements and finishing off by hitting Harry right in the middle of his chest.

"Ouch!´ Harry exclaimed, rubbing the spot that he was slapped on. "What do you mean against the `evil Quidditch regime´, Quidditch isn´t all that bad you know."

"Oh my god, its too late isn´t it," she said turning back to Zack.

Zack nodded his head up in glee, the grin still plastered on his face and as radiant as ever, "Yah huh, we definitely get him. Looks like its just you and mum."

"Ugh...you men are just so...so...ugh!" she said, and stormed out the back door.

"Did you just see what I just saw?" Zack said, astonished.

"You mean that our sister is very mad at us for some reason?" Harry said.

"No, she didn´t know what to say. For once, Holly did not know what to say. Oh man I should have used a recording charm or something to catch that."

"You can´t use magic during the holidays though."

"Oh, but that would have so been worth getting just a stupid warning, I mean...jeez. Ah well, I think they are all waiting for us, let´s go."

Following Zack to the building he had seen the day before, they went around through the back, which Harry had never seen. The doors were made out a paper that was as strange sight to Harry, as he had never seen a door made out of paper and wood like the present one was. Watching as Zack pulled of his shoes by putting the toe of one shoe against the heel of the other, he decided to do the same. When he was done he noticed that Zack had donned a pair of straw sandals and was walking up the short stairs that led up to the door which had a sign under it that had the same Asian letters that were on Holly´s shirt. Since he knew that the Dojo and Kendo were Japanese, he assumed that the letters were Japanese. Just as he hit the door, he placed his right fist into the open palm of his left hand and held them over the middle of his chest. He then proceeded to complete a short bow, before walking into the room.

Not wanting to be left behind, Harry quickly put the only sandals left and walked up the stairs. He almost walked through the doors without bowing, but suddenly remembered it just before his foot landed. Quickly stepping back, he bowed the way he had seen Zack do it and walked in through the door.

Straw mats covered the floor from wall to wall, except for a sizable rectangle in the middle of the floor that had an X taped in the middle. The rectangle was made of soft looking mat and was surrounded with the same white tape used for the X in the middle.

Following the straw mats, he noticed that on the opposite side of the Dojo, there were five separate rooms. He looked up fast enough to see Zack disappear in the far right one. Squinting through his glasses he saw that the named Zack was written on the wood on the side of the door along with more Japanese characters.

Walking to that side of the room he followed the line down seeing his mothers door right next to Zack´s and his fathers door in the middle. Harry´s door was on the other side of his dads and holly´s on the far left. Noticing the new Japanese characters written under his name he took his time to study the elaborately carved wood. Obviously, whoever had taken up the task of carving it, took a lot of time as the curves and edges looked more like works of art than they did writing.

Opening the paper door, he walked inside to see a strange cage helmet placed on a shelf directly on the opposite side of the door. Walking to the shelf, he inspected the helmet. The wire that made up the cage was colored a brilliant gold and ran horizontally across. The cage was attached to the helmet by a red lining surrounding the edges of it. The helmet seemed to continue on, past just the normal size of the head and curved out to create, from what Harry could tell by just looking at it, shoulder protectors. Also, just under the cage, there was a square piece of helmet material that was obviously used to protect the throat.

Placed on either side of the helmet sat two gloves. He picked them up and examined them. They looked like boxing gloves but were the same dark blue color as the helmet and were much smaller. The inside, palm part of the glove was a tan color and presumably made of leather. The outside covering of the glove was hard, but could still be moved.

Putting the gloves back on either side of the helmet, he looked under the shelf. There was a metal bar that ran from one wall to the other and held up two pieces of clothing. First he decided to look at the jacket that hung from a hangar. Feeling the material, he noticed that it was quite thick and was colored the same dark material as the helmet and gloves. On the inside however, it was silky, as opposed to the cotton outside material, and colored a nice sky blue color. There didn´t seem to be any tie for the jacket, nor any buttons and the sleeves looked quite short, probably only able to reach just past Harry´s elbows in length.

Hanging next to the jacket was a similarly colored long cotton skirt. It had some ties around the waist area and they hung loosely down towards the ground as the skirt was folded down the middle and the foot and waist of the skirt met at the bottom. A strange feeling of anger shot through him at seeing the skirt folded the way it was, but it was so sudden, he´d almost dreamt he´d felt it. Shaking his head from side to side quickly, as if to banish anymore of the strange feeling, he turned to his left, were he saw two more strange pieces of equipment placed a shelf.

The first one he saw looked to be a chest protector but unlike the other parts of the uniform, this piece was black. The bottom area of it was plain, without carving and looked to just be used for protection of the stomach area. The top half however was completely different. The carving started just around the middle and engulfed the chest protector from then till the top in lavish carvings consisting of several Japanese characters and symbols. Knocking on the armor, he could tell from the noise it emitted, that the whole thing was made of some type of would.

Next to the chest armor, was something he couldn´t quite place; it looked like three rectangles sown together and onto a belt of some sort. It was covered in the same cloth that he had seen on the other equipment, sans the chest protector. The rectangles seemed to be made of the same wood that the chest protector was made of but the rest of it was just the cloth. When he picked it up and placed it around his waist, he noticed what it was for and blushed. This piece of equipment was meant to protect the groin area.

Turning around, he noticed the last piece of equipment, or rather, last pieces. On a wooden rack, that stood upright, there were three bamboo swords, each placed in its own holding place going horizontally down on the rack. The top sword had a large white grip and beautifully carved wood. Picking it up, he noticed that the grip seemed formed to fit his hand and sat comfortably in it. The ring that separated the grip from the actual bamboo sword was also elaborately carved with several flowers, and it seemed to be made of leather.

Putting the sword back on the rack, he took the next sword and admired it. This one had a black grip and the bamboo seemed to be painted or lacquered to give it a shiny look. There was another Japanese symbol carved into the wood, and it seemed to be burned into it, giving it a unique black look against the beige color of the wood.

The last sword he picked up was different from the other two. Instead of seeing the imperfections of the previous swords, he noticed that this swords wood was perfectly straight. When he felt it, it didn´t even feel like wood and tapping lightly on it with his nail proved his point.

Suddenly, a knock was issued on the wood to the side of the paper-paneled door and Harry instinctively brought the sword up to a fighting position. When the panel slid to the side, he was surprised to see someone, clad completely in the uniform he had just admired. It was hard to see who it was through the cage of the person´s helmet, but the brilliant green eyes shone out like beacons and he instantly knew it was his mum.

"Harry, what are you doing not dressed yet? Everyone else is waiting!" her voice rang out behind the bars. "And why didn´t you put in your contacts? You know you can´t practice with them on. Come here let me do a vision spell," she said. Upon seeing the quizzical face her son showed, she quickly added, "It´s only temporary though, you should know that."

Harry quickly nodded and walked over to stand in front of the shorter Lily Potter. Pulling out her want from a pocket in the fabric of her jacket, she took off Harry´s glasses and pointed her wand towards his eyes murmuring a charm. Nothing came out of the wand, but his vision instantly went from extremely blurry to very clear, very fast.

"Now come on, lets get your gear on," she said, walking over to the jacket and long skirt that hung on the bar. When she saw the skirt hung from the bar however she picked it up and turned to Harry and frowned, "you know your not supposed to hang this Harry, you should have folded it. Its very old and very expensive, you should take better care of it."

With that, she helped Harry get into his uniform; the skirt and jacket were placed on first. The skirt was tied around his waist securely and the jacket was folded over with the right flap on top of the left. The chest protector was next, and it went over his chest, followed by the groin protector, which was tied around his waist. Then the helmet went on and Harry immediately felt his peripheral vision diminish and he couldn´t help but stare at the bars that stood in front of his face. The gloves came on next and Lily handed him the top sword on the rack. Lastly, she pointed to the all black, plain fabric shoes that were previously covered by the cloth from the skirt. Picking them up and placing them on, although with some difficulty, he looked up to his mum to see her nod and slide the paper door aside and walk out.

Walking out the door, he saw the old man he had seen from his pictures. He had barely any hair on the top of his head but that was made up by the beard that he wore down to the middle of his chest and the mustache he was also sporting. He didn´t have on all of the armor that Harry had on, but he did have a black jacket similar to the one Harry wore and some white pants that looked very comfortable. Harry himself, felt very hot and awkward in the suit he was wearing, but he guessed that if it kept him from getting hurt, he could deal with it. Another thing that felt strange to him was being able to see without the use of his glasses. He´d never tried out a sight spell, feeling that the glasses brought out his personality better, but without them on, he felt freer.

"Today, we will have a tournament of sorts," the old man said in remarkably well accented English. "You will each have an opportunity to fight each other in the first round and the one with the best percentage at the end will face me to see how well you are progressing. First we will have Holly and Zachary fight."

The shortest figure, which Harry assumed was Holly, started to walk towards the rectangle in the center of the room and stood on the edge of it, the sword tucked into a loop on her left side. Zack walked past Holly and stood on the opposite side of the rectangle while the old man started walking to the middle of the rectangle. Holding two yellow flags in his hand, he stood on the X for a moment before back peddling outside the taped rectangle.

When the old man was out of the court and on the sidelines, Holly and Zack both did a deep, low bow and then moved three steps forward. Then they each bended their knees and held it in a low squatting position while they drew out their swords. Standing up they held out the swords in a ready position about an inch apart from tip to tip.

"Hajime!" the old man shouted and Holly and Zack began to fight. Somewhere in Harry´s mind the whole thing registered as a familiar practice as had the piano playing but he instead focused on the twirling battling figures of his brother and sister.

Holly drove the sword in an upward motion momentarily dragging the tip of the sword for a moment. Parrying the blow, Zack tried to regain some momentum but holly was too quick and brought the sword in a semi-circle direction up and over Zack´s sword to strike him on the right side of the head.

"Yuko Datotsu Hidari Men! No Holly-desu!" the old man shouted raising that flag one the side that Holly originally started. Harry was amazed at how well his siblings were moving and fighting. It was as if they had been doing it for years and had no qualms about their techniques. Again though, when the old man had shouted the words Harry could feel something registering in the back of his mind and it was growing stronger. Figuring that if he were to calm down perhaps the incident with the piano would re-create itself in this situation and he´d be able to understand what they were saying. But calming himself down was harder said than done in this situation where he was sure to be next and was sure to get his butt kicked in.

Zack and Holly Lined up again and the old man returned the flags to his sides.

"Hajime!" he shouted yet again and this time a voice registered in his mind, translating what the old man had said. It was faint, but he was sure the voice had said, "Begin!" and that´s exactly what Zack and Holly did. Zack this time took up in the beginning, swinging his sword in a horizontal motion aimed at Holly´s torso. Holly blocked it expertly and aimed a blow towards Zack´s head again. This time however, Zack was not caught off guard and he blocked Holly´s sword driving it down so that the two swords were stopped at the separation between sword and handle.

They stayed that way for about ten seconds circling each other and glaring menacingly through the masks. Holly then shoved her sword, which was on top of Zack´s, down effectively breaking the pause, and stabbed her sword straight for Zack´s throat hitting the protector and then raising her sword in triumph.

"Hansoku no Holly-desu!" the old man hollered, clearly excited, and raised the same flag again. The voice was back in Harry´s head again and it translated the sentence to basically "Victory Holly."

Taking off her helmet and grinning Holly said, "Hah, I knew I´d beat you again Zack!"

Not bothering to take of his helmet Zack just muttered, "Yeah, yeah..." while sulking over to stand to the right of his dad.

"Very good, Very good Holly, I'm impressed. You must take great care to not gloat though, it shows weakness and that should not be shown," the old man said wisely. "Next up lets have..." he paused, thinking. "Lets have Harry and James."

Taking deep, calming breaths, Harry sauntered over to the edge of the rectangle. When he saw his dad get to the other side, he let go. Fully relaxed he watched, as if a spectator to his own body, as it did the bow, the walked the three steps and pulled out the sword. He watched as the old man yelled to start and he and his dad went at it. Wanting a little piece of the action, Harry tried to call back his body but it felt like he was under the imperious and was having difficulty regaining power.

He saw as his sword came crashing down on the top of his dad´s helmet and saw his dad stumble back a grin appearing through the bars on the helmet. Again, they stood ready and again they attacked, parrying blows left and right and lunging at any available spot the attacker left open. After the new volley of attacks, James struck a blow on the left side of his torso. The old man raised a flag in James´ direction calling a Yuko Datotsu.

For the first time since the match had started, Harry felt nervousness creep up into his body and with the nervousness he felt the feeling come back. Unfortunately for him though, he couldn´t seem to calm down enough to let his instincts take over and he was left to try to do whatever he knew how to do. Holding the stick at the ready position as he´d witnessed he stared into the eyes of his dad, covered by the gold colored bars of metal. They were a little hard to see but the sapphire seemed to radiate out of the bars and show the concentration welling up in them.

"Hajime!" the old man barked and James shot forward, sword moving in a crescent shaped strike aiming for the side of Harry´s head. Thinking quickly, Harry deflected the blow and shot a blow to the glove holding James´ sword. James blocked the blow however and stepped back a little to regain his composure. Harry wouldn´t let him though, as he lunged towards his dad and stabbed the sword at the left side of his torso, to quickly for James to block.

Harry was just as shocked as the day before when he had played the piano. Not because he accomplished something he had never done before, but because he had actually done it, with the power of his own body. He himself had struck the blow that had won him the match and he was bursting with pride. He wanted to jump and shout out his glee, but the old man´s words stopped him from doing it and instead he walked back to the line that his family had made, his mum shaking her head at his dad.

After his first fight, everything progressed quite quickly for Harry. His second was against Holy and he had beaten her, but only just barely as he had only just beaten his dad. Zack was harder to beat than when fighting against Holly. He was quick, and resourceful was able to edge Harry out after a long fought battle, with a swift strike to the side of Harry´s torso. Harry´s mum however, was a completely different story. She was fast, nimble had technique and had lots of power. Harry could barely even get a shot off of her before she had driven him down for the win.

In the end, Harry had two losses, one to Zack the other to his mum. Holly had two, one to Harry and one to her mum. James also had three losses, one to Harry, one to Lily and one to Holly who had gotten in a lucky shot to win the match. Zack also had three losses as he´d only managed to beat Harry.

In the end it was Lily who won the tournament, as she had not lost once and when she fought against the old man it was like a blur of dark blue swinging swords made of bamboo. The old man managed to edge Lily out in the end though giving her, her first and only loss of the day.

"Good, good," the old man said, slightly winded as opposed to Lily who was clutching her chest trying to suck air into her greedy lungs. "You have all learned well and I am very proud of you all. Now, as they say in America," he chuckled, "Hit the showers!"

Grumbling, they all went into their own rooms and disrobed, Harry taking extra care to fold the skirt, although he was sure that it wasn´t folded right. When they all immerged they were sweaty and they each went to the door one by one bowing at the entrance and then bowing to the old man.

Walking to the house, Zack quickly shouted, "I call first dibs on the shower!" and ran off with Holly in tow trying to get in front of her brother. It was a futile battle though, as Zack was a much faster runner and easily beat her to the door and up the stairs.

Laughing at his siblings for acting like little kids Harry looked up at his parents sharing that same embrace he´d seen them in the day before with his mum and dads fingers intertwined and her leaning on him. He´d always imagined them this loving and the face that they were there, sharing the embrace made him feel surreal. He doubted for as long as he was in this world that he could ever get over the fact that these people were actually his parents.

Walking up the stairs and into his room he stared at the ceiling of his room waiting for the shower to be open. He was very tired and decided that a little nap would probably be the best for him.