Hello, hello

Hello, hello! Maybe ya'll remember me, or maybe this is new, but welcome to my newest story anyways. I'm UK, and I've finally got the time to focus on some fanfiction for a while again. This story has been spinning in my mind for almost a year, so here we go.

Summary: What if things went differently for Harry? What if a single Muggle-born girl and two Muggle-born boys went to his school? A slight alternative universe to the original, with some new friends and new adventures to pad the way. Romance between Harry/Ginny (later), Hermione/Kurama, Kuwabara/OC, and Ron/Luna (later).

Told in my older fashioned styles of William Faulkner-esque multiple point of views, here it is:

Ulterior

Chapter 1: The Letters

Harry

Number four, Privet Drive, had been my gilded cage for eleven long years. My cousin, Dudley, had lived the life of luxury and happiness, and the pudgy idiot gets anything his heart desires. He had two large bedrooms, filled to the breaking point with stuff. I had a broken pair of eye glasses and a cupboard under the stairs. His mother lovingly woke him every morning; mine had died when I was only one in a car accident.

And my aunt made me wake up early to make his breakfast. The loud knocking on the door was her, obviously, and so was the screechy voice.

"Get up, lazy, and make breakfast." Aunt Petunia stalked off, her high heels making a loud click on the linoleum. I knew what today was. It was Dudley's birthday, and it really broke my heart to hear that he was already awake. He was whining about having one less present than last year. He should be grateful. I rarely get presents for anything, and usually they're socks, and old socks at that.

I felt a little better upon finding out that I was going to get to go to the zoo with them today, instead of staying with Miss Figg and her cats. You can imagine my surprise when I started talking to a snake, but that's not important any more.

I got a letter.

I had a letter, addressed to me.

Of course, that didn't last very long, either.

Sarah

You can imagine that when I got the letter, I was a little shocked. Me, an eleven-year-old girl, normal as anything else, had a letter, delivered by an owl. Mom is still staring at the letter as if it was a joke, and I wasn't too sure it wasn't. At least, not until a gentleman showed up on the front stoop wearing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt advertising Pepsi-Cola. Either it was supposed to look vintage, or it was, and he didn't know how much the thing was worth at all.

He was gripping a newsboy hat in his hand nervously when mom answered the door. She didn't have any legs, so I'm sure the guy had a little bit of a shock when she opened the door. He couldn't help staring. Lots of people can't. Just don't know why they always stare at where her legs should be and not into her stunning chocolate eyes. People say we look alike, me mom and me, but I don't think so. She's so pretty, and I'm ordinary-looking.

"Mrs. Galis, I presume?" he asked, taking a tentative step forward.

"Yes, that's me, how can I, um, help you?"

"I apologize for barging in like this, but your daughter Sarah received a letter a few moments ago, and as an Informer for Muggle Parents, it's my duty to inform you the whys and wherefores and such."

Mom nodded slowly, and backed out the way. The front entryway wasn't very wide, and it took some maneuvering for the gentleman to make his way into the living room, where I was sitting. He gestured to the letter with a smile.

"I see you've already read it through, jolly good, Sarah." He put out his hand to shake, and like my dad had taught me, I shook it firmly and with authority. He seemed perturbed.

"My name is Elijah Treeamble, and I am an Informer for Muggle Parents," he said, smiling at me. "My job is to help you understand what it is we're offering you, Sarah, and explain to your mom and dad and any siblings what it all entails."

"I get that I'm invited to a special school," I said slowly. "But what's this about witchcraft? Is it like, code, for art or something?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that," Mr. Treeamble said. "Has anything odd ever happened to you, Sarah? Something unexplainable?"

I thought over my long life of mishaps. Catching the teacher on fire in kindergarten, the spigots blowing in the girls' bathroom in first grade. Oh, and can't forget the time that my water suddenly turned into juice that one time. What about the time the cat jumped out of the tree and into my arms, not hurting either of us?

"Yeah, plenty of stuff like that, but I just thought it was coincidence," I said.

"They all happened because, my dear, you have the potential to be a witch," he smiled tenderly. "Not many Muggle-borns like yourself show quite as much as you have, though. Your signs started so early."

I shrugged. "Umm…so what's this all mean?"

"On the 1st of September, you will join us on a train and head out to Hogwarts. Now, since your parents are Muggle, we'll be helping you get to Diagon Alley to get your school things, and we'll be waiting at King's Cross on the first to help you find your way to the train. There are some rules that go with all this should you accept, however."

"Like what?"

"No magic outside of school, for one thing," he said gravely. "Once you know how to control yourself, you won't be allowed to do any until you're of age. You'll graduate from Hogwarts at seventeen, that's when you'll come of age for our purposes. You'll be able to get a job then. Well, you'll learn more as we go along. I just need to talk to your parents now."

He turned to my mom, who had sat silently the whole time. "Either you or your husband will need to accompany her to get her school things. Once we let you into Diagon Alley, you'll have a map, and your list there, but that's as far as we'll be assisting you, as long as you don't need financial assistance."

"No, no, we're plenty well off," Mom said. "I'm all right with this, but I don't know how my husband will take it. He's a bit…anti-witchcraft…"

"Ah, one of those," Mr. Treeamble said. He winced. "Well, you'll have to deal with that on your own, but then, there are a few ways to get around not telling him. One way is to send a letter to the Ministry requesting a Memory Charm should he find out anything."

"I think that's best," Mom sighed. "What do you think, Sarah."

I nodded. "Probably best. Matt and David shouldn't know, either, they'll be too quick to spill. Then we'll always be asking for those...charm thingies. How would we get a letter to the…what is it again?"

"Its official name is the Ministry of Magic," Mr. Treeamble said. "Most wizards call it the Ministry for short. They're our government. And you'd send the letter by owl. I'm sure you can get one when you go shopping, it'd probably be nice to have so you can communicate."

I nodded. "Until then, not another word."

Kurama

"Precisely why do we have to revert back to our eleven-year-old selves, Koenma?" I asked, sitting in his office. It was just Kuwabara and myself. Yusuke had an entire section of the Makai to take care of, and Hiei and Mukuro were expecting any day now. I smiled inwardly at the thought. They were perfect for one another.

"You'll be attending the equivalent of a combined junior and high school," Koenma said, pacing atop his paperless desk. He had gotten so much better at his paperwork lately, and it wasn't even from cheating. "If I had anyone else who had as high spirit energy, I wouldn't be asking you. I know how hard it is for either of you to leave your families."

I nodded, frowning. Mother was happy with her husband and her stepson. She wouldn't mind missing me for a while.

"The fact of the matter is, you'll be learning something brand new as well," Koenma said, quietly as Botan and Hinageshi helped de-age Kuwabara and myself. "I need to know what is going on in the wizarding world. All of my contacts there have passed away in recent years. The only thing I'm aware of with them lately is deaths."

My frown deepened. "That is troubling, that you can't see their activities. Why is that so."

"It's all politics between the gods, nothing that is quite so precise as one particular reason or another," Koenma said. "The bottom line is that Spirit World doesn't see anything that happens within the wizarding realm. It's to prevent Muggles from finding out about them, mostly, among other things."

"What does us having spirit energy have to do with this?" Kuwabara asked. His intelligence had significantly increased since he buckled down to get into college. His bachelors in business had gotten him pretty far—he basically owned a small chain of restaurants, along with some realty and a few small businesses. His own business hand in things was no longer needed. Margaret, a woman who had come over from the States, watched over all of the businesses. He just reaped the benefits.

Which was probably why he was sitting here now, instead of being left alone.

"Spirit energy can be converted into magical energy with a simple potion," Koenma said, smiling broadly. "It's a one-time thing. I hear it tastes awful, but it will get you in Hogwarts with a little tweaking on my part."

Koenma produced two old-style goblets from behind his desk and handed it to each of us. As promised, the concoction looked, smelled, and ultimately, tasted like a smoothie of rancid meat, overripe fruit, and spoiled milk.

I didn't immediately feel any difference. However, after about ten minutes, my spirit energy felt…alive. As though it were a different, distinct part of me, rather than something I could call upon. Koenma smiled at the two of us.

"Something different there, huh, Youko?"

I nodded, though the feeling began to fade a little again. "What is that?"

"Magic," Koenma said, simply. "It'll spike, as if you've just cast a spell for the first time, but then the feeling will fade. You'll be able to recall it again at will now, the same as if it were your spirit energy. It is an unconscious thing."

Koenma then began to explain the "tweaks" he had been talking about before. We would be placed in a home in London as brothers with Hinageshi as a single mother of the two of us. She would be the "Muggle" who will act surprised and such when we get our letters. Since Hinageshi actually closely resembled me on a few matters, it would be a very good lie. Kuwabara as a brother, however, wasn't plausible until Koenma explained that our "father" was much taller, with carrot orange hair like Kuwabara's. I chuckled at how seamlessly this was going so far.

"Now, once you are at the school, everything will be up to you," Koenma said. "Keep up with your studies. I'd like a full report at the end of every other week. Hinageshi will visit you to pick it up, as we will have no means of communication otherwise.

"One other thing, Kurama. You will have to call your brother by his first name. Your surnames will be changing for the duration of this assignment. We'll decide that when we find the house. For now, go pack some personals to bring with you."

And like that, we were dismissed.

Chapter End

An introduction to Sarah, the OC, and how Kurama and Kazuma will be involved, as well as an introduction to Harry and around what period of time this is all happening in.