Chapter 1 – Getting Started
Yuka left when the mother wolf came back. She picked up her bag and started walking. She would need to find a place to stay.
"Hey there," Mugen Jinoshi called out to a girl passing by. "You look like you could use a place to stay for a while! You can stay at my school if you like. You even get to have a dorm all to yourself until the school year starts."
Yuka looked around. "Me?" She asked pointing to herself. Her tail swished. "A school?"
"Yes you," Mugen answered. "Come here and hold onto my hand. I will take you there by special means. Then you will get sorted into the house that best suits your personality."
Yuka smiled. "Ok. Are there animals there?" She grasped his hand. "I'm Yuka by the way."
Yuka was awed by the size of the school. She saw a few squirrels run into a dark forest. She desperately wanted to know what this person thought of her. But she didn't want to read his mind.
"There is no need to be so shocked," Mugen told Yuka. "Besides you have a different name than what I am used to. 'Yuka.' What does that mean? Not to be nosy or anything but I am just simply curious about it."
He led her toward the front door of the school. Mugen saw that she was scared yet she held herself well and didn't show it through her tough yet young exterior. He smiled at her to show that he didn't mean her harm in any way.
"I hate my name." She looked down embarrassed. "No one told me what it meant. So when is my first class? And where?" She walked briskly beside him.
"Technically speaking," Mugen answered, "your first class will be..." he thought for a long moment. " DoubleCharms, followed by Double Transfiguration. After lunch you will have Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts and History of Magic. However, I will teach you one day a week about your family for a couple hours in the morning."
As he opened the door, he caught a big whiff of what the cooks were making for dinner. He thought he smelled roasted chicken and a honey baked ham (both of which for his favorites and popular among the students). Yuka paused next to him after he stepped into the main Entrance Hall.
"It's quite alright," Mugen answered.
Then he lead her to one of the upper stories. "Follow me, young lady. Cherry rhubarb pie!"
The door swung inward to reveal an office lavishly decorated with the earliest of antiques from the earlier 1900's. Everything was in shades of reds and blues and even a light lavender runner stretched across the desk. Mugen snapped and a chair of a reddish blue appeared in front of the desk which he stepped behind so that he was facing the young girl. He motioned for her to place her things down next to her chair knowing that he would have to explain a lot of things before moving on to the actual lessons.
Yuka smiled and her tail swished. She turned to Mugen. "What is Charms?" She smiled again her canine teeth flashed. Suddenly she smelled something...wonderful. Her mouth watered, how long had it been since she last ate? "When is it time to eat?" She sniffed the air again. Her ears turned away from the smell and to a loud noise. "What is that? Is somebody fighting?"
"Charms is a class that has to do with casting magic spells. Magic spells are things that can be...Oh hell I can't even begin to explain what magic sells are. We eat in about..." he looked out the window at the position of the sun, "an hour. If you want something now, I will make an exception and allow you to eat here in my office. That noise you hear is nothing of major importance at the moment. Nobody's fighting and you can calm down, Yuka."
Yuka smiled but it was hard. Like most animals she could sense tension in the air. She curled her tail around her and sat down. Her ears drooped. "I will wait to eat with everyone else. I'm sure that some people would be angry if we ate before them."
"Honestly, I don't mind in the least and I will explain why you don't eat with everyone," Mugen answered. "Nobody hates anybody here, Yuka. What happens here stays here. And I do not mind that you have your tail and ears out, Yuka, but do you think that you could go all human in front of the other older students for me?"
He snapped again and a small plate appeared in front of Yuka. On it was a turkey sandwich, and a bag of potato chips.
"All human?" She touched her ears. "I'll try." She concentrated and put her hand to where her ears used to be. They were gone. "Wow! I've never done that before!" She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her canines were still there. "This feels funny," She said, and bit into the sandwich.
"Don't worry so much about it, Yuka," Mugen told her. "I would know because when I was growing up, before my parents died, we always went around in either our full demon form or our half and half form. It takes some getting used to but I promise that you will get better at it and more used to it from time to time."
He smiled at her. He teleported behind her to look at her neck and saw that she had the mark that most half demons have from birth. Mugen was full demon but he was also half of two different species: cat, which was his mother, and wolf, which was his father. He reached up to feel the spot on his neck where he knew his spot was. His was more proclaimed than Yuka's ever will be.
Mugen teleported back to his seat. He saw the startled look on the young girl's face. That's when a knock came to his door.
"Come in," he called to the person on the other side of the door. "Oh, Mr. Potter," he said. "Here is a new student that will be starting here along with you and the rest of the school. This is Yuka, she is seventeen and still getting used to the idea of being around normal humans and wizards. Yuka, this is Mr. Harry Potter."
Yuka smiled at him. "Hello, Harry."
She noticed the scar on his forehead and wondered about it. She would find that out in a little bit, right now she wanted to find out where his housing arrangements were. "We're in the same place," she said happily and turned back around.
"Now Yuka," Mugen started, "Mr. Potter will be your guide until you are comfortable with your surroundings. And with each other."
With that he disappeared in a wisp of smoke. Yuka realized that she was alone with Harry. She quickly hid her ears and tail.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"No big deal," Harry answered. "What sort of demon are you anyway, if you don't mind me asking?"
"I think wolf." She looked quizzically at his scar. "If you're a demon it should be on the back of your neck. Not your forehead."
"Um well I'm not a demon," Harry answered. "I am human. I got this scar when I was a year old from the worst known wizard of our time, Lord Voldemort. Well not exactly worst known but best known evil wizard I guess is how you would put it."
Yuka smiled. "Do you know when charms is? I don't want to be late on my first day."
"Follow me. I think that it will be starting in about 10 minutes," Harry answered. "I know my way around this school just about as well as some of the other students that are about to graduate. Like me and my two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger."
Harry smiled and motioned for her to follow him out into the hallway and towards the charms classroom and Professor Flitwick. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw that Yuka hadn't budged.
"Ok." She followed hesitantly. Lot's of thoughts that weren't hers were flowing in. She shook her head to clear them. Most were scary. She hurried to catch him. "Will your friends like me? This is the most people I've been around in a long time."
"I don't see why not," Harry answered. "Besides you don't have to be so scared of everything you hear or see around here. Like a couple years ago, there was a teacher, Umbridge, that was absolute torture on everybody because she thought that instead of giving us hands on experience with spells, like what professors Moody and Lupin did the previous two years, that we would learn from reading and that we would be too scared to actually do anything really 'out of our league' as she put it. Personally I was excited when Professor Jinoshi showed up and took up all duties for McGonagall after Dumbledore died last year. I threatened to never come back and start my training as an Auror right after that. Then I heard that Professor Jinoshi was doing both duties of being the headmaster AND teaching classes in DADA, I came back anyway and thought to finish out my education. And after Snape ran off with Malfoy and truly never returned, I was grateful because I never wanted to see both those gits for a good long time until the time for fighting comes up again. Am I talking too much or what? Oh good we're here! You will absolutely love Professor Flitwick within the first few classes, I promise. Not only that but he loves new students. He drooled over how well Hermione had done her levitation spell back in the first year. I thought it was funny!"
Harry took a deep breath and allowed Yuka to step past him into the charms classroom.
Yuka stepped into the room. She was automatically pelted with thoughts. She grimaced and tried to put up a mind block. She sat where Harry pointed and looked around. She was really nervous, and was fighting her 'normal' parts not to show.
"Try to stay calm," Harry whispered behind her. "Just sit down and act as normal as possible."
Yuka nodded. "Everyone here are big thinkers. Aren't they?" She took a deep breath to relax herself. A bit of her ear started to come up but she forced it away. She would need to work on that.
"Well yeah. It's NEWT year for the seventh years, meaning that those in this class have passed their Charms OWLs with at least an acceptable or better. Now all we have to do is take the NEWTs and hope against all odds that we pass and get the job that we want. Unlike the Weasley twins, Fred and George, a couple years ago when Umbridge was around trying to 'clean up Dumbledore's mess' as she put it."
At this point tiny Professor Flitwick climbed atop his stack of books and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, including Yuka's.
Yuka looked up. Even her human ears were better than most. She heard the rustle of feathers outside. 'Owls? Newts? Aren't those animals?' She looked hard at Professor Flitwick. She wanted to go into his mind to get the answers but didn't want to cheat.
"Don't worry so much," Harry whispered to her. "Professor Flitwick is a very good teacher. Just try not to pry into his mind too much because then he will get very upset that you have violated his mental privacy and all that crazy stuff. I know you have mind reading capabilities but try not to use them around here. People will start to think that you are Voldemort in disguise or something."
"Who is Voldemort?" She whispered back.
"Voldemort is a wizard like me only ten times worse and very evil and into the Dark Arts. Sort of reminds me of Snape only twice as bad, you know? Snape is the old Potions Master that ran off last year with a fellow student, Draco Malfoy. I am just grateful that nobody here wants to kill me or hate me for being alive anymore because of my parents and what happened in the past."
This was way to confusing for her. "Okay. Gotcha." 'Ya. Right.' She listened hard to the teacher. She just wanted to learn what she was supposed to learn.
Harry rolled his eyes to his two best friends and smiled. "Well here goes nothing for Flitwick. She is definitely going to throw him for a major loop if you get me. Ron! Do you mind!!! I do NOT want to look like an idiot in front of a newbie. Hermione do you think that you could get Yuka some decent set of sheets. I saw her carrying some when I was in the Headmaster's office and they looked rather ratty like someone or something has been chewing on them for years."
Hermione nodded as Ron looked down at his parchment and started doodling Fluer Delacour's name on the blank sheet, his ears turning as red as his flaming hair.
Yuka walked out of class. Others kept looking at her strangely. She wanted to change into her wolf form and attack them! She gripped her new books tighter. She concentrated on keeping her normal parts from showing.
Harry raced out of the room after her. "Yuka, wait up!"
When he caught up to her, he put his hand on her shoulder. Apparently she didn't like being touched so Harry removed his hand as quickly as if he had touched a red hot Snitch. "Yuka, please tell me what's wrong?"
"They think things about me that I don't like. I want to hack into their fears and show them that I'm not to be toyed with. They want to ask me questions that I don't want to answer." She looked at him. "Why are they scared?" She asked. Her canine teeth flashed.
"They' re scared because they don't know you well enough yet. I know the feeling too well. Being ignored by your peers is the worst feeling that anyone can have, especially if you are famous like me for something like defeating Voldemort and not even remembering what happened. But that was a while back when the Weasley twins were still around. Now they own their own joke store in Diagon Alley. That's where all of the wizarding world get all of their house and garden supplies here in England. It's also where the students get all their school supplies like books, ink, quills, and parchment. Not only that but you can also get Quidditch supplies like a broomstick and handle polishers and the sort. It's a little too hard to explain about Quidditch right now. However Professor Flitwick will be wondering where we are and why we haven't returned to class by now."
Harry led the way back to the charms classroom. Yuka walked sulkily with him. Being ignored she could handle. One of the more rude thoughts about her that she encountered, she returned with a student's worst fear. Spiders. The student started to scream and she hid a smile as she sat down.
"Yuka!" Harry scolded. "Ron shut up would you?! We're right in the middle of class! Hermione would you shut him up for me please... never mind... Silencio!"
The screaming stopped and now Ron was sitting there in his seat as dumbfounded as the day he was born.
Yuka laughed. "Ok. But it was funny."
"Don't you ever let that happen again. Especially not in front of a teacher, Yuka! Now what was the counter spell? Hermione is better at it than either one of us freaks."
Hermione muttered the counter spell and Ron coughed to see if his vocal chords were damaged from all the screaming he did. Harry near about fell off his chair with all the silent laughing he was doing on both Yuka and Ron's behalf. As hard as he tried Harry couldn't stop smiling every time he looked at Yuka and Ron. That's when it hit him. They would make a better couple than Ron and Lavender ever did two years earlier during their fifth year.
"Yuka," Harry whispered. "Do you think that you would want to go out with Ron? I know that he would hate you every time you pulled the spider trick on him but at least it will keep him in line. Please? For the sake of all our friendships with each other."
"D-date him?" She looked at him. "He is kind of cute."
Harry nudged Ron in the ribs and whispered to him that Yuka would be willing to date him. Ron looked shocked. He whispered back to Harry that he would sleep on it after dinner that night. Harry told this to Yuka just as the bell rang. Harry stood to leave and looked back over his shoulder to see that Yuka again was rather still and hesitant about going anywhere on the school grounds.
Yuka sniffed the air. "Where to now?" She followed hesitantly.
"Now we go to dinner," Harry replied. "Being that you have started so late in the day, professor Jinoshi will be get you caught up in the other three classes that you have missed today in your private lessons in a few days."
With that Harry lead the way to the Great Hall for the last meal of the day after classes. Then Harry felt the sharp pain that he usually associated with Voldemort shoot through his head along his scar line. he stopped and felt someone bump into him from behind. He looked at the person with utter hatred and saw that it was Yuka.
"I'm sorry, Yuka," he said quietly, his expression softening. "I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that sometimes I get these pains in my scar and I don't have room to think about what I might do to those around me, including Ron and Hermione. Will you forgive me for that?"
"Yes." She walked with him. She glanced nervously around. She brought her ears up momentarily then hid them again. "Um. I'm not very hungry. I think I'll take a walk." She dashed out of the room before he could stop her. Once outside she sighed and turned into her full wolf form. Then she dashed into the woods.
Harry was confused. Yuka obviously never really liked being around people because of how she grew up. He understood that but only to a certain extent. Harry had grown up in a household where he was shunned by what remained of his family for his entire life... that is until he was accepted to Hogwarts and made friends with the Weasley family (Ron, Ginny, Percy, the twins, Bill, and Charlie) and Hermione.
"I swear that girl will never make friends the way she acts. Well I guess that the Golden Trio has yet to officially become the Fab Four this year! Come on, guys. I'm hungry. Let's eat!"
Yuka watched the school from the shadows of the woods. She had never been in these ones before. They were very creepy. She flicked her tail and looked around. She heard a growl to her left and spun around. She trembled at the sight she saw. It resembled a wolf except it stood on two feet. It was very scrawny and had a hungry look in it's eye. She was too scared to move. She sent a hasty thought to Ron. Since she had already tapped into his mind once it would be much easier. 'Help!' She thought. 'Please!'
Ron jerked up from what he was eating and looked around. "Did you two hear something?" he asked around a mouthful of food.
"No," Harry and Hermione answered together.
"Well I could have sworn that I had heard something like a call for help or something. Which direction did you say that Yuka ran off in Harry?"
"Toward the forest," came the frightened reply.
The three friends stood up at once and raced out of the Great Hall shoving past fellow students as they went and much to the surprise of many of them. Cho and Marietta were two of them. Both rolled their eyes in exasperation.
When they got to the forest, they stopped dead in their tracks. There was Yuka and what resembled an unfed and lanky wolf standing upright like it was part human, part animal. That's when it hit Harry that it was Lupin, their teacher from their third year and Harry's private tutor on the Patronus charm.
"Yuka run!" Harry shouted at the small white wolf that he knew to be his newest friend. "Run! Now! I know this beast! It's our teacher from third year! NOW RUN!"
Harry saw the hesitation that he would learn to associate with Yuka when she was scared and uneasy. "Yuka!"
Yuka listened. She dashed away from the thing. She looked back over her shoulder to see it following her. 'What have I gotten myself into?!' She thought desperately.
Harry, Ron and Hermione dashed after the wolf-thing that had somehow leaped over their heads after they had gotten between it and Yuka. Harry saw Yuka running as fast as she could yet the werewolf was still hot on her trail.
"Please, dear gods, if Lupin should catch Yuka, I would never forgive myself and don't let him remember this at all," Harry panted to himself as he raced alongside Ron and Hermione. "Yuka! Go toward the school! he's not willing to let the students see him in his wolf form! we'll stay here to make sure that he doesn't come after you!" Small hesitation. "YUKA! GO! NOW!"
She didn't want students to see her in her wolf form either but she did as she was told. She accidentally barreled into a student who began to scream. 'This would be funny if I had planned on it!' she thought. When she noticed he was no longer following her she changed to her human form. She changed in mid stride and fell. She lay on the walkway, her tail and ears visible and wished to die.
Harry, Ron and Hermione barreled into the former teacher knocking him over. Harry had forgotten that it was a night of the full moon and that Lupin was in the wolf loop as he called it these days. Hermione conjured up some strings from her wand and the threesome tied the werewolf up to his disagreement.
Mugen Jinoshi heard a nearby racket in the forest. He walked toward it to see three students that he recognized as Harry and his two friends, Weasley and Granger. They were wrestling with what looked like a werewolf. After a two minute fuss they finally managed to tie it and move away. Harry turned toward the headmaster with a startled look on his face.
"It's alright, Harry," Mugen whispered. "Is that who I think it is?"
"Yes, Headmaster," Harry replied. "This is Professor Lupin. We would have used the full body bind but we were scared that it would keep him in his wolf form past dawn. I sent Yuka back to the school because she was out here alone when Professor Lupin saw her. What should we do, sir?"
Mugen looked at him with deep despair weighing on his heart. "Take him to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will know what to do with him until morning."
Yuka sat up and looked at the horrified students. Her cheeks burned and she quickly hid her wolf parts. Then she stood up and ran to her room.
Mugen's neck hair suddenly stood on end. He looked in the direction of the school. He changed into his wolfish feline form and took off toward the front door of the school. As soon as he reached the doors, he changed to human form and raced inside just in time to see Yuka race off toward the Gryffindor girl's dormitories. He heaved a sigh of exasperation as he raced after her to see if he could calm the 17 year old girl down enough to eat something and see the nurse.
As soon as he reached the portrait of the pink silked fat lady, he panted the password and flung the portrait wide only to come face to face with a scared looking first year. he smiled then took off up the stairs to the girl's dorms three at a time so that wouldn't have time to change on him like they had so many times on the boy students.
"Yuka, dear," he whispered through her dorm door. "It's alright. The other students don't hate you. I promise. They just have to get used to the idea of a student that has mind reading capabilities like yours. Would you be willing to come with me to my office and eat something then go to Madam Pomfrey about possible injuries?"
He waited patiently for her answer.
She nodded. Tears staining her cheeks. "They saw me in my wolf form." She sniffed. "Humans are so difficult to understand." She followed him. "I didn't hurt anybody did I?"
"Nobody was hurt," he answered. "I mean for injuries that you might have gotten from your escape from Lupin just now. And don't worry so much about being hated. I was easily accepted after what went down with Lupin four years ago. Humans aren't that difficult to understand. Besides you haven't been here long enough to judge anyone. They don't even know you that well because you are so quiet and self entertaining. Please just come with me and I will sort everything out."
He motioned for her to follow him. When he saw her hesitate, he knew something was wrong.
"Are you sure?" She rung her hands. "I can already hear their thoughts about me." She ran to him and clung to his robe. "They think I'm like him!" She buried her face in his chest. "Harry, Ron and Hermione are the only ones who don't mind me. They're nice."
"Absolutely, my dear girl. Besides you are nothing like Lupin. You can control your changing. He can't. That is what makes the two of you so very different and so very unique on your own. I don't mind you but then again I am the headmaster...You may call me crazy for asking you this but are you willing to become my adoptive daughter when the year is over in June? Please, Yuka. You need a family more than anyone else here at Hogwarts."
As soon as he asked, he regretted it but he knew it was for both of their own goods. He needed a child's love to keep him straight and she needed the love of a father more so than Harry.
"Are...are you serious?" she looked at him with hope. "I would love that!" She looked at him puzzled. "What's wrong with Harry?"
"Nothing's wrong with Harry except that he has a family that cares about him. Of course they don't show it very well but they do care for him like he is their own. And yes I am very serious about you becoming my adoptive daughter. With your parents being dead and all I would like for you to have a family again. Besides my dad died before I was born and my mother died in childbirth. I was raised in an orphanage with my twin brother, Youkai, until I was accepted to Hogwarts. My presence was kept a secret for only one reason: the other students would have rejected me for my pyrokinesis and teleportation abilities. Not only that but my transformations as well. You see, if you are too scared to admit to yourself that you are your own person then people will be scared of you especially in the future."
"I will try to prove myself to them." She smiled. "Can I tell my...friends?"
"Yes you may tell your friends," Mugen said softly.
Yuka smiled then ran off to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Yuka sat at a desk in the library thumbing through books on wolves. She was getting finished with the fourth one when a picture caught her eye. "Dad?" she asked quietly aloud. It was in fact, two pictures of her father. One in his wolf form and the other in his human form. She quickly closed the book and snuck up to her room with it.
Mugen saw her race out of the room with a slight spring in her step.
When Harry Ron and Hermione heard the news, they were ecstatic for their new friend. Then when they were done celebrating with each other, they turned back to talk to Yuka about it when they saw her racing back to the school and possibly the library.
"YOUNG LADY! If you wish to check out a book then I will let you. All you have to do is ask me!"
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. She just didn't want anyone to see what she was getting. "May I take this one?" She hid the title.
Madam Pince attempted to pry Yuka's fingers away from the title but to no avail so she sighed and nodded in exasperation. She would check the forbidden section of the library to see if any went missing. Especially one by the author of the book that Yuka had with her.
Mugen paced his office and wondered how Harry and his two friends were taking the news of Yuka becoming his adopted daughter when a knock came to his door and he told his guest to enter without hesitation in his voice. It was Harry Ron and Hermione.
"Ah yes just the students I wanted to see," he mumbled. "Please take a seat and allow me to explain why I am thinking of adopting Yuka..."
So Mugen explained everything about Yuka being an orphan and how he needed the love of a child because he didn't have a wife or children of his own. It took about an hour for him to get through it all because of all the questions that the golden trio were asking him.
Yuka sat in her room staring at the pictures of her father. She traced the pictures. "My dad." She hadn't seen him for so long.
After all questions were asked, Mugen allowed the golden trio to go to their respective dorms to get some rest after the struggle with the ex-professor Remus Lupin. Mugen then teleported to Yuka's room to see her outlining the pictures of a wolf demon in human and wolf form. He knew that he was this girl's father. Mugen audibly cleared his throat and saw Yuka jump about a foot in the air.
"Oh um hello!" She quickly shut the book and stood up. "Just doing some reading..."
"On what if I may ask? If it has to do with your biological father, then please continue what you were doing. I was just wanting to see how you were doing with taking in the news about being my adoptive daughter is all. It's almost time for lights out but I will allow you to stay up later just this one time. Hermione will be coming up in a few moments so be prepared to get your head chewed off. Just tell her I said that it was alright for you to stay up after lights out. Good night, Yuka, Darling."
With that, Mugen teleported back to his office and sat down in his chair, yawning widely and stretching like a feline as was customary for his breed. He then pulled out a pad of parchment, a quill and some ink the color of Harry's eyes. he quickly scribbled out an entry that he sealed tightly in an envelope. Mugen handed the envelope to his pet owl, Razor, allowing the horned barn owl to take off out the open window. Aside from Fawkes, the phoenix he inherited upon becoming the headmaster, Razor was his only pet. He had a kitten that he dubbed Scratch when he was a child but the orphanage wouldn't let him keep it upon entry.
Yuka smiled. "Goodnight." When he left she opened the book again. Now she was looking for others of her 'breed' as the man who had tried to capture her had said. She was astounded at the number of them. She had allowed her ears and tail to be out. Suddenly her ears swiveled to a sound. She perked her head up. "Must be Hermione..." She put the book under the pillow and laid down.
Hermione stepped into the room to see that Yuka was already seemingly asleep. What she didn't know was that Mugen had told Yuka that she could stay up past lights out.
Harry and Ron on the other hand were talking in their dorms about how Mugen Jinoshi, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, was thinking of adopting a current student at the end of the year. Just as Harry was about to complain that no one was going to adopt him except for Sirius, a tapping noise was coming from the window on the opposite side of his bed. He peeked through the curtains to see his snowy white owl, Hedwig.