Disclaimer: What's mine is mine, what's theirs isn't. I'm broke anyway.
Harry Potter and the Wild Stallion
by
Eric Thorsen
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Chapter Five: When Harry Met Nodoka
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“Damn it!” Ranma growled looking down at her soaked, female form, then swore loudly in Japanese.
She turned to glare at the red headed twins who were the cause of her current state. They just gawked at
her, shocked by her sudden appearance, at least until the girl stood up and walked over to her.
“How . . . How did you change from a boy to a girl so fast?” She demanded, then turned to glare at
the twins. “Did you guys put something in that water?”
The older Weasleys shook their heads violently, and raised their hands to ward off their sister.
“We've never created anything that would do that. Though it would be a wicked prank to pull on
someone.” Fred and George looked at Ranma speculatively.
“Not if it was permanent,” Ranma muttered, then sighed. Before she could explain, she heard her
mother's voice.
“Are you all right, Ranma?” Nodoka came to the door. Ranma sighed again and shook her head.
“I'm fine mom, they were having a water fight.” Ranma grumbled. Her mother sighed, shaking her
head philosophically. “They want to know how I changed though.”
“It's all right to tell them about the curse dear, magic is part of their everyday life.” Nodoka smiled
at her daughter and went back to helping Molly.
“Whoa, who's the hot chick,” Another red head asked as he came around the corner, followed by a
skinny kid with black hair.
‘She's even hotter than Cho.’ Harry thought, then shook his head to wipe the thought from his mind.
‘I wonder who she is.’
Ranma glanced at the boy who followed the fourth red head around the corner. 'Hmm . . . He looks
like he got even less food than me growing up. I wonder why.' “Look, first of all I am not a 'chick',
regardless of what I look like, got it buddy?” Ron nodded nervously, while Harry looked at the
unfamiliar redhead questioningly. Ranma noticed his expression, as well as the expressions of interest on
the redheads faces as well.
“You're not a girl either,” Ginny said glaring at her brothers in exasperation. “You were a guy before
the water hit you, and you act like a boy, but how did it happen? Was it something the twins did? Who
are you anyway?” She glared at her older brothers, then turned back to the new girl.
“My name is Ranma.”
“I’m Ginny, and these are my brothers, Fred, George and Ron, and Ron’s best friend Harry.”
“Okay, to answer your question, I changed into a girl because of a curse I picked up in China during
a training trip. Cold water makes me a girl, hot changes me back into a guy.”
“And where can we find this place where you got cursed?” Fred asked eagerly. Ranma glared at him
suspiciously and shook her head.
“Listen, you don’t want to go there. Jusenkyo is a cursed training ground filled with thousands of
springs. Each spring had something drown in it, and if anything falls into a spring, it takes on the form of
whatever drowned there.”
“So you fell into the spring of drowned hottie?” George asked eagerly.
“No, the spring of drowned girl. From everything I’ve found out in the last two years, this is what I
would have looked like if had been born a girl.” Ranma shrugged, then shivered because of the breeze
blowing over her wet clothes. Ginny noticed the shiver and then glared at her brothers.
“Maybe we should go in and change. Hermione should be getting here soon. Besides, I don’t know
about you, but I’m getting cold.” Ron bolted into the house at the mention of Hermione, ignoring his
mother and their other guests. The others, walking in more slowly, greeted Dumbledore and were
introduced to Ranma’s mother.
“Um, Professor, could I have my stuff? I need to change.”
“Certainly Ranma.” Professor Dumbledore enlarged Ranma’s duffle bag, and she gratefully
followed Ginny upstairs to the bathroom. Locking the door, she looked through the clothes in the bag,
and tried to decide whether it was worthwhile to change back. Deciding it was, she ran the water in the
sink until it heated up, then filled her bathing pail and dumped it over her head. She gasped when she
saw that nothing had happened, then noticed the small pink package she had learned to have readily
available at certain times of the month. Checking the personal calendar her mother wanted her to keep,
Ranma swore viciously when she confirmed her fears.
“What’s wrong Ranma?” Ginny asked curiously, knocking on the door. “Did you forget something?”
“No, it’s just . . . Hold on.” Ranma looked at herself in the mirror for several seconds, growling
about bad luck, then opened the door and let Ginny into the bathroom.
“I though you were going to change. Why are you still a girl?”
“I tried, but it didn’t work. I’m physically, if not mentally, female in this form okay?” Ginny
nodded, not sure where he was going with it. “Well, when I’m in this form, I have all of the problems
anyone who is born female has, including the possibility of getting pregnant during certain times.
Unfortunately, if I change right at the begging of one of those . . . times, I’m stuck until I’ve gone
through the entire cycle.”
“Oh, so you’re stuck until you’re . . . time . . . is over?” Ginny noticed Ranma blushing, then
grinned at her. “Well, I would suggest you avoid Ron and the twins as much as you can until you are
able to change back. I don’t think they believe you are really a guy. How long are you usually stuck like
this?”
“About 27 days,” Ranma sighed in annoyance. “The hormones do it . . . After my first period, mom
thought birth control pills would be a good idea, in case one of my enemies raped me while I was stuck.
It ended up being the worst idea she’d had since she let my dad take me on that training trip I mentioned.
I spent three months stuck as a girl before we figured out that the pills were causing it.”
“Birth control pills? Wait a second, why would your enemies have raped you? What kind of people
were they?! Didn’t they know you were a guy?”
“They didn’t care . . . You see, it wasn’t very long ago that I had to beat guys up every day in the
showers at school for splashing me, just so they could look at my female side.” Ranma followed as Ginny
led her into what was obviously her bedroom. “I hate to even think about what they would have done if
I’d tried to shower there when I was stuck as a girl.”
“Why, was it an all boys school?” Ginny stared when Ranma shook her head negatively. “Why not
use the girls’ showers when you were stuck? Wouldn’t that have worked?”
“The girls at my school had almost as many problems with the guys trying to peep on them as I did.”
Ranma said, shrugging as she got dressed in her female clothes, making sure to use her female
underwear. “Besides, they knew I was a guy, so if I’d tried that, they would have killed me before I
could explain.” Ginny led the way back downstairs. When Nodoka looked at her questioningly, Ranma
sighed and then laughed softly.
“What’s so funny Ranma? And why are you dressed like that?”
“Is there something wrong with my outfit?” She asked looking down at herself and then giggling at
her mother’s slightly annoyed expression. “That time of the month mom.” Nodoka sighed when she
recognized Ranma’s meaning, then turned to their hostess, who was glancing questioningly between
Ranma and Nodoka.
“Ranma has a curse that makes him turn into a girl, Mum,” Ginny explained, getting a startled
glance from Nodoka that she was the person explaining. “The only problem is that if he changes at the
beginning of a fertile period, he’s stuck as a girl until it’s over. The twins caught him on the exact wrong
day.”
“You poor . . . child.” Molly hesitated and then decided on the more generic term. “Isn’t there a
countercurse?”
“None that we know of.” Nodoka said with a sympathetic glance at Ranma.
“Maybe Albus knows of one.” Molly suggested looking hopefully at Professor Dumbledore who was
looking at Ranma with a bright twinkle in his eye.
“Perhaps. You say this is a curse, Ranma? How was it placed upon you? Was it cast upon you, did
you get it from touching an object, or was it something else?”
“Um . . . I fell in this spring in China. It was in a place called Jusenkyo” Ranma explained with a
shrug.
“Ah . . . and since you were male when we arrived, I assume there is something that allows you to
return to what I assume is your true form.”
“Yeah, hot water switches me back, but only if I was in the middle or end of one of these . . .
‘fertile?’ periods. Any time except the first day.”
“Ah . . . and the name of this springs?”
“Niiyannichuan . . . The guide said it meant Spring of Drowned Girl. Um, is there a counter curse
that you know of?”
“I’m afraid not. You see, most of what are called ‘Cursed Springs,’ are actually springs which
contain minerals that for want of a better word, ‘hold’ magic in the water. From what you’ve described,
this place was likely the location of a wizards duel that got out of hand. Most curses from springs
dissipate in a year.
“But, I’ve had this curse for longer than that already.” Dumbledore looked to Nodoka, who nodded
in confirmation.
“Oh dear, then there can only be one explanation. What most likely happened is that you swallowed
a small amount of the water from that spring, Ranma. The minerals I was speaking of tend to fix
themselves in the body if swallowed, which means that the curse is almost certainly permanent. The
mineral cannot be removed from your body after so much time.”
“What about the spring of drowned man? Wouldn’t that help? I’ve been looking for it for years.”
“Then you are lucky you did not find it. Ingesting water from another spring would only combine the
curses, and the magic that is now part of you would counteract an external application very quickly.”
Ranma shuddered at the idea of combining the female and male curses. At the same time she offered up
a prayer of thanks that Happosai had used up the cask of water Mr. Tendo had saved for the wedding,
though she wondered why the water hadn’t done anything to the ancient master.
“Before you lose hope however, I will have Madame Pomfrey, the matron at Hogwarts, examine you.
If you like though, I will see if I can do something about the second curse you seem to be under.”
“Second curse?”
“How could you not know that you were under the Chaosium Malignae?”
“Malignant Chaos?” Ginny asked as she sat next to Ranma, who had collapsed into one of the chairs
at the table, completely confused.
“The Chaosium Malignae is often referred to as the ancient Chinese curse. It makes you a focal point
for chaotic energies and then magnifies the effects of those energies.” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled at the
dawning comprehension in Ranma’s eyes.
“May you live interesting times... no wonder I had such a messed up life.” Ranma muttered to
herself.
“Indeed.” Dumbledore frowned as he used a spell to examine the curse. What he saw extinguished
some of the twinkle in his eyes. “Unfortunately, I can not reverse the effects that have already been set in
motion. It has been many years since I have seen this curse so far advanced. You are fortunate to be alive
at this stage of the curse’s development.”
“So, it was because of this spell that I’m stuck like this, and you can’t make anything that’s already
going to happen not happen, but once it’s gone nothing new will start?” Dumbledore nodded solemnly
and Ranma grinned. “Okay... I can deal with it for the now. How do I get rid of the curse?”
Dumbledore smiled and started muttering in a language that sounded like, but wasn’t quite, Chinese.
As the ancient wizard continued, Ranma felt a weight lift slowly from his shoulders. Ron, Harry, and the
twins came down the stairs at the tail end of the cure, and looked at the still female Ranma.
“If you’re actually a guy, why are you still a girl? Why didn’t you change back yet?” One of the
twins, she thought it was George, asked, looking her over.
“You splashed him at the worst possible moment,” Ginny replied, glaring at her brothers. “Now he’s
stuck like this for the next four weeks.”
“Um... Sorry about that Ranma.” Both twins shuffled uncomfortably under their mother’s glare.
Ranma looked at them and then shrugged.
“You had no way of knowing.” Ranma admitted. Then she grinned. “Don’t think this gets you out of
any revenge for splashing me though. I’ll get you when you least expect it.” The twins stared at her for
several seconds before they jumped at the sound of a car coming up their driveway.
“Did Dad get a new car?” Ron asked as he followed everyone out into the yard. He was answered
very quickly when a bushy haired whirlwind jumped out of the car and slammed into Harry.
“Um... Hi Hermione,” Harry said uncomfortably, his eyes pleading for Ron to rescue him. Seeing
that he wasn’t going to get any help from his friend, Harry decided to get out of this situation himself.
“Need... Air... Can’t... Breathe...” Hermione let him go quickly, then hit him when she saw his grin.
“That’s for yelling at me when all I wanted to do was help.”
“Sorry Hermione, it’s... It’s still hard.”
“I understand. Just let me help, okay? It’s hard for me to see you suffer like that.” Hermione smiled
when Harry nodded, then noticed Ranma and her mother and whispered. “Who are they?”
“Um... I don’t really know. Ginny says the girl is actually a boy, but her name is Ranma. She and her
mom are from Japan.”
“Really?” Hermione and Harry walked over to the others who were introducing themselves. They
got there just as the Grangers finished.
“I am Nodoka Black and this is my daughter Ranma, at least for now anyway.”
“What do you... did you say Black?” Hermione said as her mind caught up with what Nodoka was
saying. “Any... any connection to Sirius Black?”
“I was his wife, and Ranma was his daughter, again, for now.”
Harry stared at the calm, older woman for several moments with several emotions chasing across his
face, mostly horror and sorrow. Finally, it was too much for him and he ran away.
“Harry?” Hermione said, confused. Ginny was about to go after him, when Nodoka restrained her.
“I think Harry and I need to talk. He seems to blame himself for my husbands death, or at least that
is the impression I received from your mother.” Ginny looked at her mother, who nodded, and she
allowed Nodoka to follow Harry while the others went into the house.
Nodoka followed Harry’s trail which wasn’t too difficult since it had rained recently, and the ground
was still soft. The trail led into a nearby forest, and the path was even easier to follow, and shortly she
had found her husband’s ward, standing next to the stream she had heard in the distance earlier. She
watched as he threw rocks into the water for a while, then sat down on a nearby rock, staring across the
water. Nodoka watched him for several minutes before she walked to the edge of the water and looked
out over the river, watching Harry out of the corner of her eye.
“Did you cast the spell that killed my husband?” She asked, surprising Harry who hadn’t even
noticed her. He gaped at her for several seconds before she turned to face him directly. “Did you?”
“N... No, but he wouldn’t...”
“I did not ask why he was there, child. I asked if you had cast the spell that killed him. You did not.
Therefore, you could not be responsible for Sirius' death. Knowing my husband as he was before we were
separated, nothing you could have done would have prevented him from being there to protect you.”
“But if I had learned to block Voldemort out, he wouldn’t have needed to be there.”
“Harry, why did you go to the Ministry offices that night.”
“Because Voldemort tricked me.”
“No Harry, you know that now. At the time, why did you go?”
“I thought Sirius had been captured and was being tortured.” Harry muttered. “But...”
“You went to the Ministry because, as far as you knew at the time, someone you cared for was in
danger so terrible that even one second of delay could mean his death. Does this sound like something
bad, or wrong?”
“When you put it like that, no, but...”
“Harry, why did you leave after I introduced myself?”
“I... I though you wouldn’t want me to be there.”
“And why did you think this?”
“Because I’m responsible for your husband’s death.”
“Even if you were, which you are not, but if you were, that does not mean that I would want you to
isolate yourself. I know what it is to be alone, more alone than you could possibly imagine, I would never
wish that on another.”
“But...”
“But this does not help you. Harry, what you need to understand is that no one except you blames
you for Sirius’ death. I do not. Ranma does not. No one does. They all blame the... female who cast the
spell. She is the one who sent him through that veil, so she bears responsibility for his death. No one
else.”
Harry stared at Nodoka in surprise, then looked down, blushing when she smiled at him. She held out
her hand to him and smiled even more brightly when he took it.
“Now, it was a mistake for you to go there without getting help from any adults, but from what
Professor Dumbledore told me of the circumstances, that would have delayed you unreasonably based on
your knowledge at the time. The only thing that is important now though, is that you know that no one
blames you for what happened to Sirius. Not me, not Ranma, no one. Now, you need to stop blaming
yourself, which is much more difficult. Instead of thinking about what you could have done differently
then. It is the past, nothing can change it. Think instead of how you will stop it from happening again.”
Harry thought about what this woman, the wife of his godfather, had said. It made a lot of sense,
though it was hard to admit that. Then he smiled shyly at her and followed her through the forest, still
holding her hand.
“Thank you.” He said finally, as they came withing sight of the Burrow.
“For what?”
“For talking to me, and making me think instead of just react. And for forgiving me.”
“There was nothing to forgive, but you are welcome. Now, I believe that this is your sixteenth
birthday, correct?” At Harry’s nod, she became very businesslike. “Well then, enough of this depressing
attitude. Molly-san has spent most of today preparing a party for you... it would be rude to ignore her
preparations.”
“But...”
“I would like to know, how do you like where you are living currently. Do the Weasley’s treat you
well?”
“The Weasleys?” Harry looked at her in confusion for a moment then realized what she meant. “You
think that I stay with the Weasleys. I don’t normally live here during the holidays ma’am. I live with my
aunt and uncle in Surrey.”
“Really? I was told that my husband was your guardian from his release until his death.” Nodoka
blinked when he stared at her. “What is it?”
“Sirius... Sirius wasn’t released from prison ma’am, he broke out. He’s been on the run from the
aurors for as long as I’ve known him.”
“But... then how can his will be probated? Wouldn’t all of his possessions have been confiscated?”
Nodoka noticed the confused look he was giving her and laughed sheepishly. “I’m sorry. You wouldn’t
know that, would you? What are your aunt and uncle like?”
“Well the Dursleys... they hate anything to do with magic. They think of me as an ungrateful burden
on their household and a freak.”
“And are you ungrateful or unusually difficult for them to care for?”
“I... I don’t know. I am grateful that they took gave me a house to live in and food, and I did
everything I could to help out around the house.”
“But?”
“They made me do all of the chores while their son sat around watching television, always gave me
leftovers to eat, and until I was eleven they made me sleep in the cupboard under the front stairs. Even
after that, they made me sleep in Dudley’s ‘second bedroom’ with all of his junk.” He scowled, thinking
about everything he’d endured from the Dursleys.
As Harry spoke, Nodoka got the feeling that he wasn’t saying everything, but what he was saying
was enough. There was no way she would allow a child, or even a teenager like Harry, to live in a home
where he was so obviously unwanted. Especially when she could provide an alternative. Nodoka smiled
at the boy walking beside her and cleared her throat as the Burrow came into sight. “I can assure you,
Harry, that I find nothing freakish about you. Which is entirely besides the point. Today is your day. You
are supposed to be enjoying yourself.”
“But... I can’t...”
“My dear child, I knew my husband. He would never have wanted your birthday ruined. Birthdays’
were very important to him.” Harry looked at her questioningly when she chuckled softly at a memory.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that every day that involved a party of some kind was important to Sirius.” Harry
thought about and realized that she was right. Sirius would have hated to have any opportunity for a
party ruined. They walked the rest of the way back to the Burrow in a companionable silence. Harry
followed Nodoka into the kitchen, then froze at what he saw.
(
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