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Elemental Trinity

A Harry Potter/Pokémon Crossover

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Nov 30, 1994; 3:10 PM; Astronomy Tower

I have to die.

Your death is not an option, Harry. Dumbledore's words came.

I have to die.

What is the point of my existence?

I have to die.

That can't be it. There has to be more.

I have to die.

I want more than that.

I have to die.

I refuse. I won't let Voldemort win!

And yet, I have to die to truly kill him.

No. Let the world burn! So what if I'm the remaining Horcrux?

Let the innocents who have never heard of wizards burn?

…

Let Hermione die? What did she do to deserve such a fate?

I don't want to die. Haven't I done enough for everyone?

I have to die.

Haven't I lost enough?

Those were my thoughts as I stared over the Hogwarts grounds from the Astronomy Tower.

Dumbledore's revelation continued to weigh on my mind.

To destroy the Horcrux, I had to die. There was no other way. His attempt to reassure me had been hollow.

I understood why he hadn't said a word on the matter. Part of me wished that he hadn't told me.

You can't think like that, Potter. My inner self snarled. You're supposed to be part of the House of Gryffindor! The Brave and the Bold!

"Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin." I mumbled weakly. Red said nothing, likely realizing that wasn't directed at him.

And we sure showed that ruddy piece of cloth what's what! My inner self countered. Are you going to sulk here forever? You've already avoided Hermione and the others. Are you going to avoid Luna, as well?

"..." I didn't reply.

She is like you. My inner self sounded like he was holding himself back from snarling at me. Do you want to cause her pain like the sort you received when you were a child?

"..." I gave no reply, though I forced myself to my feet. I felt like crying, but I suppressed the tears whenever they threatened to appear.

I was stronger than that, at least.

I scoffed; the strong, silent hero going headlong into his own death. How poetic!

"Feeling better?" Red's voice came from the device.

"...Not really." I replied quietly.

"I understand." Red said.

"You understand, do you?" I felt my ire rising as I made my way through the castle.

"Fair point." Red conceded as I went down the moving staircases. "I don't understand what you're going through, but I can still sympathize."

"I don't want your sympathy, Red!" I almost lost hold of myself in that moment. "I just…"

I don't want to deal with this crap anymore.

"Both Dumbledore and I will do our best." Red insisted. "He has his own knowledge base, while I have mine."

I didn't reply, entering the hallways once more. I was to meet Luna near the Great Lake— there was plenty of time.

"Wandering the halls alone, Scarhead?" Draco's voice came from behind me.

Just what I need.

Without hesitation, I spun and silently cast a stunner, knocking the ponce out cold in less than a second.

In the time it took for Malfoy's two goons to realize what had happened, I had cast another two stunners.

The hulking brutes fell over their leader, Goyle's face mushing against Malfoy's.

Disgusting. I think their lips are touching.

I grimaced at the ugly sight and, with a shake of my head, left the scene, passing by a shocked looking duo of Slytherin girls— one of them being the girl I'd bumped into a while back. The other was Davis. I didn't even acknowledge their presence.

If I had a limited time on this Earth, then I preferred to spend it with people I liked, not scum like Malfoy.

"Potter!" I heard the girl's voice from behind.

I spun quickly and readied myself for another fight. Unlike Malfoy, this one was actually learning material far beyond our year's curriculum.

It was probably going to be tough.

I went into a dueling stance as she held her hands up in surrender.

"Calm down!" She said, her blonde hair fluttering along with her movements. "I don't want to fight you."

She nodded to the heap of stooges. "I'd say you've shown exactly how frighteningly powerful you are, in this instance."

I blinked, lowering my wand but not leaving the stance. "What do you want, then?"

Davis stayed quiet.

"I want you to teach me, Potter." The blonde said.

"I—" I said before closing my mouth. She wanted me to teach her? "Teach you what?"

"How you fought like that." She took a step forward, eyes aggressive and demanding.

I blinked again, still not truly comprehending. "You want me to teach you how to fight?"

"Are you deaf, Potter?" She countered. "That is exactly what I've just said."

I narrowed my eyes.

"It's less me being deaf and more me wondering why you would want to learn anything from me." I replied frigidly, assessing her features. "I don't even know your name."

She bristled at that.

I shook my head, losing interest in the situation. I was going to be late to a meeting with someone who was actually worth my time.

"The answer is no." I turned and briskly left the premises. Did she think I was stupid?

She was probably planning on cornering me with more reinforcements before humiliating me in some fashion. As far as I could tell, such was the Slytherin way.

Plus, I didn't forget the fact that they both quite happily wore the stupid badges.

"Today is just not your day." Red said.

I snorted, completely in agreement. "It just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

I sighed deeply, warding the thoughts away as I exited the castle and made my way to the Great Lake.

"Hopefully some time with Luna will sort things out." Red offered.

"Yes." I nodded without really agreeing. "Maybe it will."

The rest of the trip to the Great Lake was quietly made; nothing more needed to be said between us. With a mutter of "Tempus", I checked the time.

3:50 PM

I'm early.

I sighed and waved my wand, transfiguring the ground behind me into something much softer and taking a seat.

"Useful, that." Red commented. "Your manipulation of Aura never ceases to amaze."

I snorted. "I'm glad I can amaze the mighty Champion of Kanto."

"Wiseass." Was his immediate answer. "I have been processing the information Dumbledore has shared, and I'm currently cross-referencing data pertaining to souls, Aura, Ghost-types and Pokemon moves."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

I stopped to consider the information. "And?"

"Nothing yet, though there is significant data to go through." Red supplied. "Doing broad searches usually ends with this sort of problem."

"I understand." I said, feeling my voice tremble for a second. I took a moment to regain my composure.

"I'll find an answer." Red sounded confident. "I always have, in the past."

I entertained the thought of possibly surviving for a while, before looking around in confusion. It had been quite a while, and there was still no sign of Luna.

"Tempus." I incanted.

4:10 PM

"She's late." I murmured.

Or maybe she stood you up. The thought came unbidden.

I snorted. There was no way in hell she would miss a fun afternoon looking for random creatures to scan. It was her passion, after all.

She must have simply been held up.

With that in mind, I lay back and stared up at the cloudy sky, letting my mind drift off in the sea of gray; thoughts of Horcruxes, blonde Slytherins and drama of all kinds filtered away into nothing.

I stayed that way for quite a while, until I began to hear the pitter-patter of footsteps, but there was something odd about it. I couldn't quite place the reason of the strangeness.

Opening my eyes, I got to my feet and dusted myself off before looking towards the source of the noise. It was Luna.

I smiled. She was late, but she'd come.

"Tempus." I cast for the third time that day.

5:20 PM

I had been lying down for more than an hour? Time felt like it had stood still! Shaking my head in amazement, I waved the floating numbers and letters away before focusing my attention on the girl.

She was moving around carefully for some reason. Perhaps she had hurt herself the day before? It would have explained the lateness.

I blinked, my eyes going down to her feet; her bare feet.

Luna was walking barefoot at the end of November. It might not have begun snowing— that was going to happen any week now— but the ground was still hard and quite cold.

"Luna!" I rushed toward the girl, stopping her in her tracks and helping her to the soft spot of ground I'd made.

"Thank you, Harry." She murmured weakly. In an instant, I had Charmander out.

My fiery companion materialized in a flash of light, snorted a few flames and shivered in the cold air.

He growled and bathed a few nearby rocks in fire, turning them red-hot and providing us with a heat source.

It looked like the training was paying off, big-time. Red had said that he would soon evolve. If Charmander's flames were this powerful now, how much stronger would he get when he reached his final evolutionary state— as Charizard?

It was mind-boggling.

"He's so adorable!" Luna cried out, moving away from the soft earth to pet my companion. Charmander growled but obediently held himself back when I gave him a look.

"What is he?" Luna asked curiously, keeping her eyes on the little monster the entire time. "We all saw him and two others at the First Task, of course, but we never figured out what they were."

"Can you take this question, Red?" I pulled the device out and opened it. The screen turned on, displaying Red's visage looking at us neutrally.

"Would you like an explanation as to what Charmander is specifically?" Red asked. "Or, would you prefer a more broad view of Pokemon?"

"Both, please!" Luna settled back down on the soft earth. With a wave of my wand, I transfigured some for myself and had a seat, placing the Pokedex in front of us both.

"All right." Red smiled. "Are you ready?"

He got nods in return.

"Very well. I suppose you should've had this speech much earlier, Harry. It's something of a rite of passage for beginning trainers. I'm not actually a Pokemon Professor, but I suppose being Champion is a close second.

"Pokemon is the name we gave to all creatures in our world." Red began.

"Why?" Luna interrupted curiously.

"Because we use these devices called Pokeballs." The image of Red zoomed out as he grabbed one of the balls at his belt and pressed the button, releasing a Charizard next to him. "Which can hold any of the monsters in our world. We can fit them into our pocket. Hence, they are pocket monsters; Pokemon."

"I see!" Luna nodded, before raising a finger. "But, wouldn't that make them belt monsters, since you had them on your belt?"

Red returned the unmoving Charizard before giving her an amused look. "Funny, I said something similar, my first time around. Suffice to say, old Oak didn't appreciate that. Anyway, on with the introduction."

"We used them as pets, companions, and often in battle, as they possessed great powers which could only be honed to their full potentials with trainers." Red explained, smiling at the memories. "That's the broad view of it."

A few seconds passed before Luna finally spoke, still petting the annoyed Charmander. "I think I understand. And Charmander specifically?"

"Charmander is a fire-type, as you can tell by the flame at the end of his tail." Red began to explain before Luna interrupted him once again.

"Type?" There was a glint in her eye. I stifled a sigh as Red went in full explanation mode, going through the broad view of all the information I had been learning over the past few months.

It was worth it, however, to see Luna's eyes sparkle in amazement and wonder at a long-forgotten world of mythical and powerful creatures— even by the magical world's standard.

Creatures which formed the land and sea, creatures which controlled the weather, creatures which ensured we had day and nighttime, and so on.

It almost made me forget about her cut and blistered bare feet.

Almost.

"Luna…" I interrupted her volley of questions. "Why did you come barefoot?"

She froze for a moment, before turning to me, not really meeting my eyes with her own unfocused gaze.

Defense mechanism.

"Oh, I lost all my shoes." Luna replied dreamily. "I'm sure they'll turn up eventually."

I felt a fire roar to life in my belly, but suppressed it as strongly as it came. "They'll turn up?"

"Oh, yes." She nodded, looking down at Charmander, who was no longer trying to struggle. Charmander poked at her hand. She smiled slightly and continued to pet him.

"Luna, I—" I was at a loss for words. "Have you lost things before?"

"Yes, but they always—"

"Luna."

Her pale, silvery eyes focused, staring right into my own ones of emerald for just a moment before unfocusing once again.

She plastered a smile on her face, her dotty aura coming back in full swing.

It's a fake smile.

"It's all good fun!" She said.

If anything, it made my blood boil even more. "Luna… Who did it?"

Her eyes focused on me once again, but she didn't answer, her body taut with tension.

I looked away in frustration. I wanted to find whoever did this and hex them to bits, but Luna's refusal to even say anything spoke volumes to me.

"You're afraid they'll escalate if I do anything." I realized. "You've tried to talk to teachers before and nothing happened; so they got worse, didn't they?"

It was like a repeat of my days with Dudley at school. Luna was momentarily surprised by my words before her look shifted to sudden realization.

She relaxed, blinking slowly. "You understand."

I sighed through my nose, closing my eyes and remembering those unpleasant years. "All too well, Luna. All too well."

She didn't say anything to that.

"I know what you're going through." I felt an intense urge to speak. "I won't do anything if it means making it worse."

She walked all the way here on bare feet just to make sure she didn't lose what probably was her only friend. It must have been agonizing. I thought sadly.

Luna still didn't respond, instead letting Charmander go, scooting over to me and leaning her head on my shoulder.

"Do you at least know who's doing this?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head.

"If these people do something… worse, will you tell me?" I asked.

Luna didn't answer again. I sighed, feeling even more frustrated than before. A few seconds later, she finally spoke.

"Thank you." Luna said quietly.

I looked down at her as Charmander sat by the Pokedex, poking at it with his claws. "What for?"

"For caring."

I felt my heart twist at her words. "You don't have to thank me for that, Luna."

"..."

"I won't pry anymore." I tried to smile but the expression came out a little strained. "Do you want to just sit here and learn more about Pokemon for a while?"

"That would be quite nice, Harry." Her dreamy voice was back.

"...Then that's what we'll do." I finished and took a deep breath. "All right, Red, Luna. Have at it."

And so the rest of the day was spent teaching Luna about the world of Pokemon and beyond.

Nov 30, 1994; 10:30 PM; Chamber of Secrets

"Keep at it, Charmander!" I smiled as the loyal creature liberally bathed the dead basilisk with its flames. "Make sure to make it a long, steady stream of fire."

He cut off his training to give me a nod before going at it once again.

Squirtle was doing the exact same thing, but with bubbles on the other side of the basilisk.

Hopefully, this will aid Charmander in learning Flamethrower, and Squirtle in learning Bubblebeam down the line— hopefully before the Second Task.

Bulby sat beside me, her vines lifting the basilisk's tail as strength training. I wanted those vines to be strong enough to tear steel apart.

I hadn't forgotten the immediate danger of the Triwizard Tournament, even though the thought of Horcruxes loomed over my mind incessantly.

The drive to live and conquer this new hurdle had only begun to set in my mind after I'd escorted Luna back to her dormitories, letting her wear my shoes the whole way.

She'd thanked me and given me a kiss on the cheek, before skipping her way inside.

It was humbling, in a way. After what those bullies had done to her, she was still so positive, innocent and friendly.

That was what I wanted to protect. That was what my mother and father had died protecting.

I refused to let some soul piece latched onto me ruin it. I will not have it!

"You're looking much better, now." Red said, his face appearing in the open Pokedex beside me. "Have you come to an answer?"

"Yes." I nodded, a determined feeling settling itself in my gut. "I've always been a fighter. This is no different. I won't let Voldemort win! Not with this, not with anything else."

"Well said." Red eyed me with respect, before changing the topic. "Just be patient. I've never failed in anything I've truly set my mind to."

I nodded, feeling a little sheepish. I'd been so melancholic and melodramatic the entire day, but Red had accepted it so easily.

"There's no need to apologize." The man easily read my face again. "I would have reacted the same way."

"Really?" I was skeptical, and gestured at him. "You're working on a solution already."

"I may be a human consciousness in a machine, Harry." Red seemed wry. "But I can process data at a rate of 55 gigaflops."

That didn't explain a thing to me.

"How much is that?" I replied.

"Let's just say that it's really fast— for the size of the machine, anyway." Red said. "It allows me to cross-reference thousands of years of data as well as make predictive models of untested procedures with a fairly high percentage chance of success. It will still take time, of course. So far, I've only managed to increase your chance of survival from 5% to 13%. I will not even consider a procedure unless it reaches beyond 70% chance of success, and even then I will give it substantial thought."

I blinked at the information overload, before shaking my head. "I didn't really understand most of that, but I did understand the part where you're improving."

Red seemed amused. "You just focus on the Triwizard and your friends. You haven't talked to either Hermione or Neville today."

I winced, the feeling of guilt overcoming me for a moment. "I didn't want to see anyone. Besides, what am I supposed to say to them, now?"

"Yes." Red said. "But you're past that now. As for what to say; while I wouldn't suggest telling anyone about this Horcrux business, you should still tell them that you didn't quite feel well."

I shrugged.

"You should look into getting Neville to create apricorns, you know." He continued. "Imagine being able to capture any magical creature."

That took my interest. "Hagrid would certainly love something like that."

"He would." Red agreed with a smirk. "But I was thinking along the lines of using it in the Great Lake. It's full of monsters."

"Yes." I agreed, the idea slowly growing on me. "There are grindylows, selkies and who knows what else."

"It probably wouldn't work on the grindylows." Red mused. "As they move in formation. Catching one wouldn't do anything. A solitary animal can likely be neutralized, of course. It could even be used to buy you some precious time. It takes a while for Pokemon to break out of their cages, after all."

"This is assuming we even manage to create the Pokeballs before the Second Task." I snorted. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Red. We don't even know if Neville will even do this for us, let alone succeed."

"From what time I've had to analyze the boy, I know for a fact that this is something he'll do, and do it gladly." Red was supremely confident in his statement.

I turned my attention to my Pokemon and smiled. "You guys can rest now. You've been at it for a while."

Bulby and Charmander nodded, though I couldn't see Squirtle from behind the basilisk. He was no longer shooting his bubbles, so he must have stopped as well.

A few seconds later, he joined us in our small huddle.

I thought for a long moment, of what I would say to them.

"Sorry I didn't properly call you out yesterday, guys." I scratched Bulby's bulb, watching her shiver in pleasure. "I have to talk to you about something. Something really bad happened, and—"

I couldn't finish the sentence, finding myself at a loss for words. How could I tell them that my life was in danger?

"There's something wrong with me." I quietly said. "And it m-might kill me down the line. Like a disease."

Their eyes widened as they looked at me.

"But, I am going to fight it." I quickly added. "I'm not giving up on it. I refuse to. But, if anything happens to me, well… I-I want you guys to—"

I couldn't finish the sentence, my heart having leapt to my throat. I struggled to hold back tears.

"If anything happens to me, I want you to stay with—"

The three cut me off by huddling closer and giving me a tight, group hug. They could not speak the words, but this action alone spoke volumes.

Loyal to the very end.

"You guys…" I felt an indescribable mix of happiness and sadness overwhelm me, the tears flowing freely now. "Thank you."