Harry Potter and the Wild Stallion By Eric Thorsen ***Disclaimer: The characters and concepts employed in this story are the sole property of their respective creators or those people to whom they have seen fit to sell their rights. The author of this story makes no claims except where the character or concept is original. In other words, what's mine is mine, what's theirs is theirs, so leave me alone all right? ***Author's notes: This is a different universe from the canon Ranma ½ or Harry Potter worlds, so characters may appear to be out of character. In addition, this story takes place after OOTP for Harry Potter and after the failed wedding attempt for Ranma. Finally, unlike the rest of my family, I DO NOT like Akane Tendo. In fact, I think that Ranma deserves more than a delusional sociopath with megalomaniacal tendencies. Deal with it. ************** Prologue: Injuries and Revelations ************** "Ranma you jerk!" Ranma Saotome glanced up from his drawing pad and swore to himself looking around for the source of the angry shout. He sighed in relief when he saw that Akane Tendo was standing in the yard below glaring up at him, rather than next to him on the roof. "What did I do this time?" Ranma sounded bored, even to his own ears. "What did you do?" Akane's voice rose even higher. "What didn't you do? You were supposed to wait for me to finish my drama club meeting so that we could pick up the groceries for dinner tonight! Instead, you left and I went to the store to buy them myself. When I got home, I found out that you had already bought them and were nowhere around." "I was up here." "What are you doing up there anyway, waiting for one of your girlfriends?" "You wouldn't understand." "What wouldn't I understand? That you couldn't wait to get home so you could spend the three hours I was in my play practice kissing that tramp Shampoo!" "I haven't seen Shampoo since the disas… I mean the wedding." Akane's face went red for a moment and she started to glow as she glared up at him, then turned and stormed around to the side of the house. Ranma wondered what she was doing, but he didn't have long to wait. An extendable metal later slammed into the side of the house, and Akane soon appeared at the top of it, the violence of her steps making the ladder shake as she climbed. Ranma stood up and tossed his drawing supplies to the patio for safety's sake. "No Akane, there's noth…" "Shut up you… you gigolo!" Akane seethed, her battle-aura getting brighter and starting to swim with black ribbons. "I don't know why my father wants me to marry a scum like you. It definitely isn't because I want anything to do with you." "Our fathers agreed on it. It's a matter of honor." "Honor; as if you or your father know anything about that! As far as I can tell there is only one way for me to restore my honor after having you as a fiancé." "What… what's that?" Ranma was getting nervous about the amount of black that Akane had in her aura. She couldn't hate him that much. Akane's expression went blank and then her aura turned solid black, making it nearly impossible for Ranma to see her. Then her aura condensed into a massive mallet that seemed to absorb the light around it. "DIE!" Ranma ducked the first swing of the dark mallet, but her follow through clipped the side of his head, dazing him enough for her to flatten him on the slate roof with her next swing. Her fourth swing carried him off the roof and almost into the koi pond. In the house below, Nodoka Saotome and Kasumi Tendo, Ranma's mother and Akane's sister, were sipping tea and trading recipes when the heard the impact on the roof. Rushing to the porch, they arrived in time to see Akane jump off the roof, aiming for Ranma's head with her mallet. When he barely rolled out of the way in time, Nodoka and Kasumi gasped, shaken by the sight of the rock Akane hit collapsing into gravel. "Akane, what are you doing?" Kasumi yelled, trying to distract her enraged sister. "You could have killed Ranma!" "That's kind of the idea!" Akane laughed insanely, and swung her mallet again, sending Ranma's semi-conscious body head first into the boundary wall with a sickening crack. Nodoka swore and ran to the entry hall, where she retrieved her family katana from the closet. She returned to the porch and ran into the backyard, hoping to arrive in time to save her son from his fiancée. There was a sizzling clang when she brought the sword around in a block that stopped Akane's mallet inches from Ranma's unprotected head. "This stops now Akane Tendo." Nodoka rasped, glaring at the enraged teenager. Akane sneered at the older woman and drew her mallet back for another swing. "Do you really think that you can stop me?" Akane demanded, shifting her focus from Ranma to his mother. "That gigolo deserves to die. His very existence is a blot on my honor. His life is mine to take whenever I please!" "Akane!" Kasumi was shocked at her sister's words and attitude. "If that is the way that you truly feel, then I bless those who stopped you from marrying my son, girl." Nodoka shifted her sword to a high guard position, moving to stand protectively over her son. "You are unfit to be any man's wife, let alone my son's!" Kasumi stared at Nodoka for several seconds and then ran back into the house, calling for her father. "Who do you think you are, saying something like that to me?" Akane shrieked in rage, the aura of the mallet in her hands getting darker still and the grass around her starting to smolder. "I am Akane Tendo, heir to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and the greatest martial artist in Nerima. Your son is nothing more than a male whore who gives himself to women for their pleasure and amusement. He is not worthy to lick my shoes." "You are nothing more than a spoiled child who has gone too long without discipline. A pathetic little girl who cannot see that she is nothing compared to those around her." "You… You Bit…" "That is quite enough, young lady!" an enraged male voice roared from the porch, drawing the combatants' attention. Soun Tendo stood in the doorway to the house, but one not seen in eleven years. His grim face and stiff posture spoke of outrage at his daughter's actions. "To attack an opponent after he has fallen is dishonorable enough, but to insult those who would preserve your honor by stopping you is almost worthy of seppuku. Be careful that you go no further." Akane laughed, turning toward her father and taking a step in his direction. "You dare speak to me of honor? You are nothing to me! Less... You are…" Akane's tirade cut of as everyone in the yard heard a loud thump, and watched in shock as she collapsed to the ground, unconscious. "Ma…Master you have returned?" Soun asked in surprise, drawing confused looks from everyone else except the ancient master. "Ah Soun, I see you have finally recovered from your nervous breakdown." Happosai grinned at his student and pulled his pipe out of his gi. After he took a couple puffs on the pipe, the old man sighed and looked down at Akane. "Unfortunately it looks like your youngest child hasn't escaped from your wife's family curse as we hoped." "What curse?" Kasumi asked horrified. "What is this curse Grandfather Happosai?" "Insanity dear," Soun answered with a miserable expression. "Her mother and her sister both had it, and if she hadn't died of cancer so would you your mother by now. Unfortunately your mother and I were second cousins, so it was worse with Akane." "But father, what about Nabiki? What about me?" "Not to worry child, this madness only appears through the female line if only half of the x-chromosomes are damaged. If both were, then the child would die before birth. Fortunately, you and Nabiki inherited the undamaged chromosome from your mother, like great-grandmother on your father's side. There is no danger to either of you. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Akane, or poor Kodachi." "Kodachi Kuno as well, Grandfather?" "Yes, unfortunately her father comes from the same line of that family as your mother did. This means that she, her brother, and her father are all affected. None of them could escape it, just like Genma couldn't escape the impotence that has plagued his father's family for generations." "But master… Genma has a son." "Born three months premature and that healthy?" Happosai laughed. "Soun, only Genma would be stupid enough to believe that. Why do you think I forced him to leave on a yearlong training trip right after he told me? No, Ranma may be Nodoka's son, but he is not Genma's." Nodoka blushed rosily, but didn't deny Happosai's words. "Then Ranma is…" "Not Genma's heir, and therefore not honor bound by anything that idiot has done. The Saotome name will finally die out with Genma." "Good riddance to bad rubbish." Nodoka muttered, blushing hotter when she saw everyone else staring at her. "Auntie Saotome?" "I'm sorry Kasumi, but Genma has only brought me trouble since the day that I met him. If only…" Nodoka sighed, and then jumped when she heard a loud thump behind her. Everyone turned to look and gasped at the sight of Ranma lying against the wall, blood pooling around him and streaming from his head. "Ranma!" Nodoka ran to her son while Kasumi ran to the phone and called an ambulance. * "His blood pressure is falling. We'll need to give him a transfusion quickly or we may lose him!" One of the paramedics, a tall man, with close-cropped hair, shouted to his partner, who was sitting next to Nodoka in the ambulance. "Ma'am, I need to know your son's blood type for the transfusion." The paramedic said as his partner inserted an IV needle into Ranma's arm. "Ma'am?" "He's AB-negative and," she swore softly as she recognized a possible problem. "He's also Vel-negative." The paramedic stopped what he was doing and stared at Nodoka for several seconds before swearing to himself. "Ma'am that's impossible, Vel-negative is a gaijin rare blood type." "I know." Nodoka replied simply. "Ranma's… Ranma's father was English." The paramedic nodded, still dazed, then shook off his bewilderment and had his partner pass the information to the hospital. They transfused plasma, while the hospital tried to find a source for the needed blood type. Nodoka stayed in the waiting room when they took Ranma into an operating room. Twelve minutes later she saw four US Marines come up to the admission desk. They were immediately rushed to the OR where Ranma was being operated on. Seven hours later, the marines left, and one of the doctors who had been operating on Ranma came out and took Nodoka into a conference room. "Mrs. Saotome, your son was lucky that you remembered his blood type. If he'd received Vel-positive blood by accident, I doubt he would have survived. That being said, your son has some rather unusual injuries that I would like to discuss with you?" "What kinds of injuries, Doctor?" "There were numerous injuries all over his body, some of them very old…" "My son has been a martial artist since he could walk." "Mrs. Saotome, some of these injuries cannot be explained by any form of martial arts training that I or my colleague have ever heard of. For example, were you aware that your son had what appears to be a cat's claw embedded in the orbital bone of his left eye?" Nodoka gasped in shock. "As to his other old injuries, were you aware that your son fractured his skull almost fifteen years ago and was never treated? That a piece of bone from that fracture had been putting pressure on his brain?" "Is he… Does my son have brain damage?" "It's too early to tell ma'am." The doctor sighed, taking her question for a negative. "The bone fragment was putting pressure on a part of the brain that we really know very little about. However, the fracture was very close to the hypothalamus, so there might have been some personality effects from the pressure, as well as some… sexual dysfunction." "What?" "The part of his brain that was under pressure controls several things, but two of them are sexual behavior, and hunger." The doctor looked at Nodoka questioningly when she gasped. "Have you thought of what may have caused some of your son's injuries?" "No, but I've just realized that this pressure that you describe makes since when combined with some of my son's behavior recently." "What do you mean Ma'am?" "Over the past year, I have observed my son eating enormous amounts of food. At the same time, no less than twelve beautiful young women have approached him sexually. His only responses have been confusion, followed by abject terror. Would you consider this normal?" "Not for a seventeen year old boy. Sadly, this only serves to confirm my diagnosis. Fortunately, though I never thought to say that of a head trauma, his recent injuries made it possible for us to correct the damage from the earlier one. We relieved the pressure on Ranma's brain, but now we must wait to see how this will affect him. Nodoka nodded to the doctor gratefully and came to her feet. "If there is nothing else doctor, I will leave my son in your capable hands. It is past time that I informed Ranma's father of his condition; his biological father." "Ah… no ma'am… I mean, yes Mrs. Saotome, I believe that would be a good idea." Nodoka nodded and left the hospital. First, she took a bus to the nearest police station, swore out two arrest warrants, one for Genma Saotome on suspicion of child abuse and neglect, and the other for Akane Tendo for assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder. She then took a train to her family home, which she had inherited from her parents, and started searching through boxes that she hadn't opened for over seventeen years ************************ "… This number is no longer in service. If you believe you have reached this number in error, please disconnect, and try again." Nodoka set the receiver back in its cradle, and stared into the distance, wondering what she should do now. Unknown to her, a single tear slid down her face and dropped to the necklace that she held in her hand, rubbing her fingers over the pendant she hadn't worn since before her marriage to Genma. As the salt water was massage into the cool metal, it started pulsing with a pale green light. Nodoka sat staring into the distance for almost half an hour before she stood up to go back to the hospital. Almost unthinkingly, she put the necklace on; never noticing that it glowed for another ten minutes before it stopped suddenly as if someone had purposely turned it off. Its appearance returned to normal, a silver charm in the shape of a massive dog with what looked suspiciously like a huge smile on its face.