Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter or Pokemon. This is non-profit fan work; only what I make up is mine own.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics in case a pokemon talks.

Chapter 5: The Threshold

Ash spent several hours poring over the books in Flourish and Botts, and when he and Lance left they were loaded down with somewhere near fifty.

“Good thing we can shrink them, isn’t it?” Lance asked, as she reached into midair and pulled out her staff.

It was quite pretty, a black body, the top with a moon in the center, a small sun and star off to one side, dark blue jewels embedded in silver underneath the celestial spheres, and a sharp blade at the other end. So it was also a physical weapon.

“Little…” Lance said, as a yellow sprite appeared and shrank the stack of books to the size of a half-dollar.

“There you go.”

“I can’t use cards yet…” Ash said, a bit sadly. Lance had taught him how to enter the dream realm, but as of now, he could only summon the pokemon, not the spirits.

“Do not worry. As you grow older and progress, your magic will improve.”

“Hai!”

“And remember, it is all about control.”

Ash smiled, as he followed her, they visited the other shops and finally met up with Harry just before he left.

“Hey, I’ll see you at school.” Harry said. Compared to Draco Malfoy whom he had met in Malkin’s robe shop, Ash was quiet and seemed nice enough. Of course, that was probably not an accurate litmus test, but he didn’t care much.

“Okay.” Ash replied, smiling as he waved goodbye. “Lance-chan, what about a wand?”

Lance looked thoughtful as they sat down with ice creams outside of Florean Florescue’s ice cream parlor. “Well… true, all your magic I’ve taught you is done without, but… the wizards here have become so dependent on more artificial means of magic, that they are helpless without those wooden sticks. And you don’t want to stand out.”

“I see…”

Silent watched as she kept an eye out for eavesdroppers, ready to banish any.

“So, we’ll fake it.”

“Honto ni?”
“As long as you have a wand, it doesn’t matter where it comes from, right?” Lance asked. “Here you go.”

Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a wand of white wood, almost fourteen inches long.

“Feathers from the three legendary birds inside. You will find it easy to use and a transfer step before you can use your staff.”
“Arigato, Lance-chan!”
Ash hugged Lance tightly as she smiled. “But I have one more question. How will you come to school with me?”
Lance’s eyes crinkled up in a mischief-laden smile. “I’ll show you when we get back home.”

They spent four more days touring Diagon Alley before going home, and Lance even snuck a peek in Knockturn, just for a look. She wound up buying a good portion of dark items, although Ash couldn’t see what was wrong. It was all magic, right?

Lance did warn him not to tell anyone though, so he didn’t’.

They also sent Pidgey with a letter so the staff would know Ash was coming.

Why would he rat on her? She was his only friend. There were no other young rockets around. In any case, he was Giovanni’s son and better than them.

They teleported back to HQ, reported to his father satisfactorily, and then set about to enjoy the rest of their summer.

Much of it was spent reading with glasses of lemonade and cold soda, with battles and exercises and even some more command classes in between, but Ash didn’t mind. He greatly enjoyed being occupied; wasting time was such a bore.

Finally, September rolled around, and off they went to the station. Ash caressed the sapphire-blue miniature dragon perched on his shoulder. He was careful not to stroke the wings the wrong way, as they were razors.

< You’re so cute, Lance-chan! >

< Thank you. I’m glad the transformation worked. >

< I hope nobody suspects. >

< Me too. >

Taking a deep breath, and allowing his enhanced eyesight to take a look, Ash spotted the barrier and walked through it, followed by his traveling case.

A trunk was too unwieldy, and as long as he could shrink things, they would all fit in the leather-bound case his father had offered. Quite compact, actually

Harry was getting on the train when Ash saw him. “Hey, Harry!”

“Hi, Ash! Nice to see you!” Harry said. “Looks like you got here without problems.”

“What about you?”

Harry sighed. “I didn’t know about the barrier. My muggle relatives just dropped me off.”
“Muggle?”
“Non-magical.”

“Oh…” Ash nodded, feeling the familiar throb of magic energy running through his body in little rivulets of power.

He couldn’t imagine being without it, even though he had only possessed magic for a few years.

But even though his father had no magic, Ash loved him just the same. After all, Giovanni was a good parent, just very busy.

That was why Ash had Lance.

She was his everything, essentially.

Harry’s eyes widened as he spotted the dragon – was it really a dragon?

“Woah… I heard that it is nearly impossible to get a dragon as a pet.”

“Really?”

“Didn’t it say only cats or owls or toads on the letter?”

Ash looked downcast. “Oh no…”

End Chapter

Started 3/13/04, Completed 3/20/04