Summary: When Sirius Black died, few expected Hermione to follow him behind the Gate. Even fewer expected a somewhat dishevelled, cursing, time-travelling Shinto priestess to come out in her place. And certainly no one expected Sirius to embark on a post-mortem road trip with the spirit of a demonic sword.
Title: The Witch and the Priestess
Genre: Adventure/Romance
Disclaimer: I am neither J. K. Rowling, nor Rumiko Takahashi and I do NOT own the Harry Potter universe or the Inuyasha universe. No matter how much I want to.
Rating: M, for adult themes, mild swearing, violence and lemon
Warnings: This is probably going to turn into a crack fic.
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"Now listen to me."
Sirius' voice was tense and Harry looked up at him, trying to hide the fear in his eyes. The fight around them was a confusion of shouts and noises. Green lights were flying, red, white, yellow, blue… hexes reverberating on the walls, only punctuated by muffled groans or high pitched shrills when someone was hit.
Amidst the chaos, Harry briefly wondered how he was able to focus on what his godfather was saying.
"I want you to take the others and get out of here," Sirius continued.
Harry stared.
"What?" he asked in disbelief.
He could not just turn his back while the only decent relative he had was risking his life.
"No, I'm staying with you…" he pressed but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder.
"You've done beautifully," he said and Harry knew, from the pride in his Godfather's voice, that Sirius thought every word he was saying. "Now let me take it from here."
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"Kagome, please…"
Shippo's voice was pleading, his big emerald eyes filled with near-shedding tears.
Kagome sighed in indecision and looked at Sango for advice but the demon slayer was resolutely staying out of the small kit's cuteness area, as they had ended up calling it. Shippo hugged her leg tighter, his lower lip trembling.
Propped against a tree, Inuyasha mimicked a good knocking on some imaginary head and Kagome considered the idea for a moment.
Her eyes fell back on little Shippo, who had now managed to shed the tears he had been building and was looking even more pitiable than a moment ago.
Kagome sighed again. Deeply.
"Fine, you little devil. I'll bring the damn candies and I'll sew the freaking plushie back to one piece."
Shippo's eyes lit with glee and he hugged her with all of his little strength.
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They were side by side, fighting Lucius and Amycus. Right in the center of the room, not even two feet away from the strange archway, godfather and godson were casting together like they were one entity, two wands for a single mind, and Harry felt a rush of exhilaration.
This was how it was meant to be.
"Expelliarmus!" he shouted, pointing at Lucius' left hand.
His spell reached the wizard's second wand and sent it flying backwards.
"Nice one, James!" Sirius exclaimed, a bit lost in the heat of the battle, before pointing his wand again and casting silently another expelliarmus. Lucius was disarmed. Another wand gesture and he was propelled against a wall.
Harry smiled to Sirius. His godfather briefly smiled back and-…
"Avada kedavra!"
The green beam seemed very slow. Harry looked at it, his mind wondering confusedly why his body wasn't moving to do something. Anything.
Sirius staggered. He looked at Harry, the light in his eyes already beginning to dull.
He stumbled once more and fell backwards, almost sucked up by the misty waves. They carried him through the stone archway and his body disappeared.
As if it had never existed.
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Kagome was walking towards the bone-eater well. The day was warm and, for once, Inuyasha wasn't being a jerk. He had actually managed the feat of walking all the way up from the village without irritating her one bit.
When knowing how the hanyou could easily get on her nerves, that was extremely impressive.
They arrived at the clearing and Kagome turned to him to say goodbye.
"Oi, wench."
She rolled her eyes at the appellation and bit back with her new answer to the hanyou's rudeness:
"What, dog-friend?"
Inuyasha growled at the nickname – he was half dog-demon, wasn't he? – but his eyes were smiling.
"Be careful, okay?"
She stopped for a bit, looking puzzled:
"What exactly could happen to me in the modern era?" she asked, "The worst beast I might encounter is Buyo, and he's only a danger to dry food…"
"Just… just be careful," he gruffly answered before sending her a pleading look. "Please?"
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.
"You know, Shippo is a lot better than you at the puppy-dog-eyes thing, which is kind of strange considering you're the dog. You should consider asking him for lessons."
The hanyou's gaze proudly drifted away in an attempt to maintain a certain dignity and his suddenly regal attitude couldn't help but to remind her of Sesshomaru. As much as the two brothers refused to admit it, there were a lot of similarities in their behaviours.
Knowing her answer wasn't the one Inuyasha had wanted to hear, she closed the distance between them and hugged him.
Of course, he protested loudly, but that didn't stop her. Also, she had come to realize that even if he was roaring complain after complain, he was not struggling that hard to get out of her arms.
"I'll be very careful," she declared without letting go. "Watch over the others for me, okay?"
His attempts at escaping stopped and he grumbled an agreement. Not knowing what to do with his hands, he put them on her shoulders.
She eventually let go of him, walked back to the well, and sat on the ridge.
"I should be back in three days or so. Come and see me if something goes wrong."
He nodded, solemn.
"Fare well, Kagome," he muttered under his breath though she could still distinctly hear his words.
She smiled back brightly and pushed her knees over the ridge. He was becoming more polite, there was no doubt about it.
Then she jumped, and the instant she did so, she knew something was wrong.
XXXXX
Sirius was floating in a white place.
The last thing he remembered was Harry's face and a green flash. He was dead, then?
He tried to look around him but there was only whiteness. He closed his eyes, but the white did not fade to black. He tried to move but when he put his hands in front of him, he realized he did not have a body. Or perhaps it had become invisible?
Considering the situation, he was almost certain that he should have been afraid but there was only peace within him.
He wondered if that was it. Death. This peaceful, boring state. If so, it was not so bad. He only regretted not being allowed to live longer. He would have wanted to stay and help Harry.
Oh gosh, Harry should be very sad right now.
Emotions flew into him and the perfect whiteness shattered.
Sirius looked at his hands. They were there. He had a body. Relief overwhelmed him and disappeared just as abruptly, replaced by the peace. Strange, he commented to himself before looking around and being quite surprised to find himself in a train station.
A very, very, very white train station that reminded him of King's Cross.
He went to sit on a bench and contemplated his options. He could try to get out, there seemed to be doors, but a voice within his mind was telling him that the outside would only be a repetition of the peaceful boring whiteness. He could also explore one of the four tunnels. They seemed much more as if they were leading somewhere than the door of the train station. However, the tunnels were narrow and he was mildly enthusiast with the idea of being overrun by some death train of doom or whatever.
After a while, he heard a noise coming from one of the rails and a train emerged from the white tunnel. It looked a lot like the Hogwarts Express, but with dark green in place of the red that Sirius remembered from his own school years. The bright colors contrasted greatly with the pure whiteness of the rest of the hall. In fact, he realized, they were annoying him.
The train stopped and the door that was the closest to his bench opened.
Sirius hesitated briefly before deciding that he had nothing better to do. He got up, walked to the train, put his foot on the first step-…
A very loud crash came from the platform behind him and he jumped around, his hand instinctively searching for his wand, which he obviously did not have with him.
The bench where he had sat had disappeared. The ground under it had shattered. Or… had been cut, as the four deep gouges forming a kind of square on the white paving stones seemed to suggest. Scared, but very curious, Sirius walked to the square hole.
There was a girl inside.