A/N This fanfiction is dedicated to the wonderfully amazing and talented NatRipper. Enjoy!

(Chapter 1)

Higurashi Kagome sighed contentedly as she laid back down onto her soft, plush bed and enjoyed the warm summer breeze coming from the open window.

While yes, she did miss the warm, welcoming feeling of Hogwarts, she had to admit that there really was no place like home. Hogwarts just didn't have most of the commodities that Kagome enjoyed here in Japan such as sushi, hot springs or even simple chopsticks. Of course, this wasn't really surprising or anything considering the school's rather limited contact with her home country.

In fact, Kagome was actually the first ever Japanese student to be accepted into the prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry. The young half blood witch was actually a part of a new exchange program meant to strengthen the ties between the two wizarding countries.

Kagome looked over to her raven, Kageyama, a pitch black bird with inquisitive ebony eyes. It was hard to believe how different it was around here. Letters were delivered through ravens here in Japan, a custom that England had decided to ignore, believing the birds to be "nearly untrainable" and "omens of death". Kagome thought that that was utter bull, but then again, England wasn't exactly the most advanced country in terms of magic.

One of the greatest? Sure. But it had long since stagnated, refusing to leave behind its traditional ways and bigotry in favor of a more scientific life as Japan had done.

Let's take quills, for example.

Quite frankly, the use of quills in England baffled Kagome to no end. She found them to be rather annoying and unbalanced in her hand, too thin and feathery to be an adequate replacement for the stiff wood of the traditional brushes she had grown up with. In a way brushes reminded her of wands, actually. They were meant to be an extension of one's self, whether it be conveying thoughts and feelings onto a simple piece of paper, or allowing one's power to materialize into the physical world through incantations.

Reluctantly getting up, Kagome reminded herself of all the things she had to do today. First, she had to write out individual letters for her friends, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Luna. And yes, before anyone asks, Kagome is friends with the boy who lived.

Funny story actually.

In all honesty, Kagome hadn't been all that interested in being friends with him in the first place. She thought it was absolute crap that a baby of all things could possibly survive the Killing Curse without outside help, seeing as a baby's magical levels are always at an all-time low in their first few months- meaning that Harry couldn't have possibly had the proper magic necessary to even dream about achieving such a feat.

Unlike England, a country filled with those who were obsessed with traditions and superstitions, Japan was a scientifically innovative country and as such had deigned to get to the bottom of this mystery. After extensive research, Japanese scientists had completely ruled out the possibility of Harry Potter surviving the Killing Curse on his own.

As such, the wizards of the oriental country were under the impression that either a) Voldemort made a mistake, or b) some sort of spell had been discovered or invented by Harry's parents that provided protection against the curse itself. Seeing as both of his parents were certified geniuses, most people went with the second option. Kagome on the other hand thought it to be the former option, having had the absolute honor (please note the sarcasm) of meeting the Dark Lord himself during her first year, in a fiasco involving a mythical stone that certainly didn't belong in a school full of children under protection spells that a bunch of first years could get through.

Voldemort was…unimpressive to say the least. Scary, sure. Kagome had to admit that. But compared to all the horror stories she'd heard about him all her life? About the cold-hearted, bloodthirsty killer obsessed with the purity of wizarding blood?

It was slightly anticlimactic, especially compared to the many clans of demons that existed in Japan. Heck, she was sure that he wouldn't have survived even ten minutes in the same room as the current Lord of the Spirits, the Japanese equivalent to the Minister of Magic.

He had been grotesque in the parasitic form he had taken on upon her 'timid' former professor's head, a sight that still made her want to throw up to this day. But he also seemed…irrational. Insane. There was nothing about him that screamed 'deadly foe' as he had known as in his prime.

He had been utterly dependent upon someone else, upon someone who was clearly too much of a retarded lackey to think for himself. If that wasn't pathetic, then Kagome didn't know what was.

Then the way that Dumbledore just banished him with only a few quick words brought Kagome's opinion of the man (if that vile thing could even be called that anymore) to an all time low.

To think that the supposed tyrant of a Dark Lord could be taken down by just a few words, words that weren't even a spell? It only showed that while perhaps Harry (or rather, whatever his mother had done) had not succeeded in getting rid of him entirely, it was obvious that Voldemort had fallen too far to be considered a real threat to her loved ones.

After all, if someone could've done this to him once, then why couldn't he be banished again? The thought made her feel safer, more secure in that her friend's lives wouldn't be anywhere near as endangered as they should've been, and that made her quite happy. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't at least a little bit afraid of him, but that was only natural. She is still young and she is not quite so fearless as those of her House are made out to be.

So yes, Kagome did believe that Harry's survival was just a miscalculation on the part of an insane psychopath. As for how she met the guy, it was really a friend of a friend sort of thing at first.

When Kagome first saw Harry Potter, it was obvious to her that he didn't enjoy the attention at all. From the way that he shifted away from loud noises and tended to look down at his shoes whenever he was being excessively complimented, it was more than just obvious.

So she had figured that she shouldn't make it worse for him by giving him even more attention. It would be better to try and befriend him once he was more comfortable with his new environment.

Instead she decided to make friends with Hermione Granger, a very intelligent if a bit bossy girl who was having trouble making friends with anyone else. The other girls had often whispered behind her fellow Gryffindor's back and try as she might, Kagome just couldn't put a stop to all the gossiping.

Eventually this cruel case of bullying escalated to the point of Hermione hiding in the bathroom on Halloween night, having reached her breaking point and been in desperate need of some time to just cry it all out.

Of course, this also just so happened to have been the night of the mountain troll's wonderfully timed attack…

Long story short, Ronald Weasley and Harry decided to show up and apologize for something Ron had said earlier, arriving just in time to help save Hermione from the troll, earning not only Hermione's friendship, but Kagome's as well. After all, anyone who was brave enough to stand up to such an intimidating monster to save her friend was definitely more than just alright in her book. The four Gryffindors had been nearly inseparable since then.

Breaking out of her thoughts, Kagome walked over to the raven's intricately designed cage, unlocking the door and allowing the graceful bird to settle upon her shoulder where he belonged.

"Sorry Kageyama, it looks like you'll only be able to hang around with me for another hour or so," Kagome said, gazing upon her companion apologetically. The raven turned to look at her with what could only be described as a deadpan stare- not that this was surprising or anything. All messenger ravens had at least a trace of demonic blood in them, resulting in their high intelligence and ability to comprehend human speech, although they couldn't exactly speak it.

Kagome merely shrugged in response. "I'm meeting up with a few of my muggle friends after breakfast, they wanted to see me before they went to school to say hello or something like that. Something about not wanting to bother me when I should be asleep from the jet-lag? Honestly, it's already been a few weeks, I'm pretty sure I've gotten used to it by now. Anyways, I doubt they would take to the idea of a raven sitting on my shoulder all day like this very well. You know how muggles are."

The term 'muggle' was actually a very derogative term, according to Japan, anyways. The proper word was 'mundane', but her time in England had given her a few bad habits, this one included.

Kageyama merely lowered his head in resignation, cooing in the raven version of the famous puppy-dog eyes. While this may have worked on her mother, Kagome was happy to say that she was immune to such things and brushed the look off entirely.

"Sorry," she said, completely unapologetically, "-maybe I'll let you have some extra seeds at breakfast today."

The bird immediately perked up at this sentiment, completely forgetting his previous façade. Kagome chuckled before adding, "eh, depends on how well you behave."

Kageyama immediately deflated. He was known for always causing mischief around the house, after all the idea of actually behaving was just so damn boring.

"Kagome! Breakfast is ready!"

"I'M COMING KAA-SAN!" she shouted back, making sure to shout extra loudly in a jolly attempt at further annoying the dissatisfied raven perched upon her shoulder.

Kageyama lightly pecked at her ear in displeasure as she waved him off. She did have to get ready after all. The ebony bird gracefully flew off her shoulder to rest upon her bed post, politely turning away as she changed into a pair of black sweat pants and a light blue t-shirt. Kagome then hurried to the bathroom to finish getting ready and hurried down the stairs. Kageyama joined her momentarily, returning to his favorite spot.

Kagome's family tended to get up early in the morning, for various reasons. Saotome, Kagome's mundane mother, liked getting the chores done as soon as possible. Souta, her younger brother, needed to get up early to go to school, of course.

Wizarding schools in Japan usually weren't boarding schools. In reality they weren't very different from muggle schools, aside from the obvious difference in specialization. However, they also tended to teach muggle subjects in order to discourage the ignorance of the world around them.

Kagome's grandfather was an old, but highly respected wizard in the Japanese magical community with an annoying habit of loudly getting up at 5 a.m., causing the rest of the family to develop the habit of being heavy sleepers.

The Higurashis had actually been purebloods up until Kagome's father married her mother, but that didn't really matter considering how insignificant blood status was in Japan these days.

The only thing that was really frowned upon was being of mixed demon blood, however even that was slowly become more acceptable, especially considering that the current head of the auror department in the Japanese House of Ancients- their equivalent to England's Ministry of Magic- was a half-demon, and a highly respected one at that. Though, Kagome had never seen him before and she didn't quite remember his name either. In fact, the only prominent member of the Ministry that she actually knew of was the Lord of the Spirits himself, and even then it was only out of hearing his name mentioned so many times by her grandfather. Politics just weren't her thing, honestly.

"Morning Kaa-san, Ojii-san, Otouto," Kagome greeted, plopping down onto her seat.

"Good morning Kagome," her mother answered, smiling brilliantly at her daughter. Kagome had always thought that her mother had the prettiest smile in the world. It was so gentle and yet so radiant at the same time. "Have you forgotten what day it is today?"

Kagome frowned, ignoring Kageyama's indignant squawk. "Tuesday?"

Souta snickered, grinning impishly if a bit teasingly. "Wow Onee-chan! You forgot your own birthday! Congrats, you've officially joined the ranks of those blonde ditzes that you go to school with!"

Kagome's eyes widened comically as she took in the new information. "Seriously? My birthday?"

Ojii-san nodded seriously. "Fourteen is an important age Kagome-chan! When I was young, girls your age…"

Kagome tuned the rest of her grandfather's speech out. After all, it wasn't as if she hadn't already heard this whole speech before. What was more important was that she had entirely forgotten to keep track of the date and was rather surprised to know that it was already the 15th of July.

"Well if that's the case," she began, "-then where are my presents?"

"So eager," her mother teased. "Can't you wait until after you eat?"

"But I don't wannaaaa," Kagome whined. She was still a teenager after all, and what was a teenager that didn't whine and complain every once in a while? It was nice, not having to be the mature one now. She did more than enough of that back at Hogwarts...

"Sorry Onee-chan, looks like you'll just have to deal with it~!" Souta cheered.

Breakfast was a cheerful, if a bit quiet affair. It wasn't long until Kagome could finally open her presents, although they were a bit underwhelming. Her mother and brother both gave different sets of books, although her brother's set was more for entertainment purposes while the set from her mother was to help her keep up with her mundane subjects while she studied at Hogwarts. Kagome didn't mind though, her friendship with Hermione had served to give her a fierce appreciation for books and everyone in the house knew it.

Her grandfather gave her an "antique mummified hand of an imp", which was promptly thrown to Buyo- much to her grandfather's chagrin. While yes, it probably was a priceless antique and all since most minor demons are extinct now, it was still disgusting and she really wanted it as far away from her as possible.

Buyo was her family's cat. He wasn't magical or demonic in any way, he was just…a cat. A very, very fat cat. There wasn't really much to be said about him, other than his apparent desire to eat poor Kageyama (who often made his contempt for Buyo known, loudly, on her shoulder resulting in many headaches).

Kagome moved to get up from her spot at the table, knowing that there were probably a billion owls with birthday presents waiting in her room.

"ONEE-CHAN! I NEED YOUR HELP DOWN BY THE WELLHOUSE!"

Souta had just left the house for school, but apparently that still couldn't stop him from being a pain in the arse. And here Kagome had thought that she would be able to get some peace and quiet today…

"Go up and hang out with the other birds, 'kay Kageyama? I'll be up there in a sec," she sighed, reaching up to her shoulder to stroke her bird. Kageyama nodded and gracefully flew up to Kagome's room.

For generations, the Higurashis had been the caretakers of a Shinto shrine. The shrine has existed for three hundred years, consisting of the Sacred Tree, a thousand-year old tree said to be blessed with the spiritual power of many priests and priestesses that had lived before, a main shrine for worship, the house and a well.

The sacred tree- also known as the Goshinboku- has always been an important part of the Higurashi family's lives. It was where Kagome's father had proposed to her mother, it had been the site of their wedding vows, it had been the place where Kagome had taken her first steps…it had been the site of her father's funeral.

It was where Souta had first discovered his interest for mundane sports -soccer in particular- having played the game there with Kagome, using the tree as a goal.

It was where Kagome had her first bout of accidental magic, turning the leaves pink in a fit of jealous rage when she had thought that her mother and grandfather had spent more time doting over Souta than her.

It was where Kagome had first received Kageyama and it had even been there to witness the beginning of her new life in Hogwarts- when she said goodbye to her life in Japan three years ago. The Goshinboku had been there for generations, watching over the lives of the many generations of her family as they lived and died.

On the other hand, the Bone Eater's Well was practically useless, closed off and uncared for.

Sutras covered the old well, supposedly sealing off the remains of demons that had been thrown into the well so that they could never return to the land of the living again. If Kagome had to be honest, the story sickened her. She had several demonic friends from primary school and as such she was obliged to feel terrible about it on their behalf. Of course, according to the story the demons sealed away were lesser, far more violent demons with a few less brain cells than the demons that Kagome was better acquainted with- but the principle was still the same.

Japan's magical community consisted of three major groups. Aside from wizards, the oriental country also hosted the greatest spiritual and demonic populations in the world.

Spirituals, priests and priestesses, were not mundanes as one might assume. Or at least, most weren't. Instead of having magical cores within their bodies that allowed for the use of magic, they had spiritual cores that were used to generate spiritual power. Though spiritual power did not have as wide of a range of uses as magic did, it was still essential for daily life as the barriers produced by spirituals were what kept mundanes from noticing the existence of the magical community in their country.

In fact, magic in Japan actually arose as a mutation of the gene for spiritual cores several hundred years ago, producing magical ones instead according to the many skilled geneticists employed by the House of Ancients.

It was impossible to have both a magical and spiritual core. In spite of their connected origins, magic and spiritual power never went together well. Whenever magic came into contact with spiritual power a disaster of some kind would occur, whether it was a small explosion or even the deaths of the spiritual and wizard in question. It just never worked.

The Higurashis had originally been a family of spirituals, however about four hundred years ago (talk about an old bloodline, take that Malfoy!) the magical core mutation took hold of the bloodline, resulting in them becoming a shrine-keeping wizarding family, something that isn't entirely unheard of but not exactly common either.

Demons, or daiyoukai to be specific, are exactly what they sound like. Demons. However, unlike the demons in other countries, Japan's demons were highly intelligent humanoid creatures that tended to live for centuries and easily blended in with an intermingled with humans. There used to be demons of the regular kind there too, the kinds that were essentially mindless in their bloodlust, but the Tajiya Movement, a collaboration between daiyoukai, spirituals, wizards and demon slayers (mundanes with knowledge of the magical world that essentially functioned as highly skilled aurors, even today) that nearly eradicated the entirety of the lesser demon population, ending their reign of terror against the many civilians of Feudal Japan.

Anyways, Kagome found Souta at the entrance to the well house, anxiety glittering his eyes as he looked into the darkness of the house of the Bone Eater's Well.

"What's wrong, Otouto?" she asked, exasperation evident in her tone.

"It's Buyo," he explained. "He went into the well house and I have a really bad feeling about this…"

"Scaredy cat," Kagome teased. "Afraid of the dark?" Souta had never been the bravest child. He would do well in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, she supposed, but not Gryffindor.

"No I'm not!" Souta protested weakly. "It's just…"

"Whatever you say," Kagome dismissed easily. "But you're right, he shouldn't be down there. I'll go get him."

"Be careful, Onee-chan!" Souta warned.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry," Kagome said casually, waving him off.

Entering the well house, Kagome carefully made her way down the small, creaky wooden stairs. "Buyo!" she called out.

Thump.

Kagome jumped, squealing at the unexpected noise, reaching for her wand- only to remember that she had left it in her room in her haste to get downstairs. She heard Souta making a squeak of surprise as well back at the entrance.

"Meow."

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as she bent down to pick up the cat. "You've caused quite a bit of trouble, stupid cat."

Souta snickered from the doorway. "And you said I was the scaredy-cat! What was that, a horror movie scream?"

Kagome's eye twitched in annoyance. "Like you were any better, Mister I-Scream-Like-A-Little-Girl!"

"Well at least I-"

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

THUMP.

THUMP.

THUMP.

Kagome froze, dropping Buyo in shock. It was the noise from before, only it was louder, faster, stronger. And most certainly coming from the old, sealed up well. The boards covering the well shook and Kagome found that she has forgotten how to run, almost as if she had been cursed by the Jelly Legs Jinx.

Then, it burst through and grabbed her.

It was humanoid, obviously a demon though not any kind that she knew of. It was bare-chested with large, plump breasts and six arms. A skeleton of some sort of serpentine creature trailed behind it.

The thing dragged her to the well as she kicked and lashed out at it, trying to get away from it, from those beady black eyes, but to no avail. It was strong, too strong for a human girl to even dream of overpowering.

She couldn't scream. She wanted to, but she couldn't. All of her screams of terror came out silently, silent pleas for help that would never be heard.

She was going to die. Totally going to die. Kagome didn't know how a lesser demon (because daiyoukai look absolutely nothing like this) of all things managed to get into the well but it did and now it was going to devour her flesh like they do in the stories!

It forced her into the well. Its hold around her tightened and suddenly the surroundings turned to blue stars. There was a strange feeling in her stomach, though it was probably from the lack of air brought on by the demon's choke hold.

Flesh began to form upon it's skeletal lower body, forming what was not unlike a centipede as opposed to the serpentine figure that Kagome had first assumed it to be.

"Alive," it whispered in reverence, its voice coming out as a low, guttural feminine thing that chilled Kagome down to the bone. "Alive once more…my power is already returning to this forsaken body…I must have it now."

Its voice echoed, sending chills down her spine. It reverberated within her mind, permanently etching itself and the fear it gave her into her memories.

"The jewel," it hissed. "GIVE ME THE SACRED JEWEL!"

Jewel, Kagome thought in her state of panicked confusion. What jewel?

The first thing that came to mind was the legend of the Shikon no Tama, or the Sacred Jewel of Four Souls. However, that was impossible. The jewel was long gone, doomed to forever be nothing more than a story behind a bunch of key chains sold at the family shrine.

"No…" Kagome managed, her adrenaline finally kicking in. "L-LET GO OF ME!"

There was a surge of something (power, maybe? Magic?), that ripped through Kagome, stealing away the fear that once plagued her. There was a flash of pink light, a scream, and suddenly- the creature was gone and she was back in the old well.

oOo

A/N- Yes, Kagome is fourteen not fifteen, as that is her canon age in the manga.

11/15/15- After rereading this chapter I found that it wasn't quite up to my standards so I just edited it through and added more. Like it?

REVIEWERS GET VIRTUAL COOKIES!

10/12/16- Ummmm...yeah, this got revamped. Finally. Sorry for the wait!