Author's note: It's here! A Furuba/Harry Potter cross-over! This is one of those things that's been rattling around in my head for a pretty good while, but I haven't actually set it down until now. It's weird, because I don't think I've written any fanfics about Harry Potter that didn't include me and my best friend. Who knows? We may still make cameo appearances, but I'll try to avoid it. Anyway. This is based on the Fruits Basket manga, so the colours of the Juunishi hair and eyes are all the ones displayed in the manga, not the anime. I've seen both, and I decided to go with the manga version. This is also set in the summer after the sixth Harry Potter book, for reference. So…go read, I guess. Have fun!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fruits Basket, or Harry Potter. If I did, I'd be soooo much happier. Trust me. I guess I own the original characters. Yeah. Go, me! I own Mizuki-chan! laugh

Chapter One: A Reunion and a Meeting

A loud scream pierced the groggy night. Harry sat straight up and fumbled for his glasses. He glanced at the clock by his bed. The numbers glowing the darkness read 2:14 a.m. He scrambled out of bed and practically flew downstairs, his heart pounding in his ears.

"What's wrong?" he shouted, skidding to a stop in front of the door.

Instead of the scene of blood and gore he'd expected, he saw a teenage girl with her arms thrown around Aunt Petunia's neck, squealing happily.

"Mizuki-chan!" Aunt Petunia laughed, hugging the girl in return.

The girl let go and clapped her hands happily, beaming at the older woman. "Kagura-chan, you've gotten positively scrawny," the girl scolded gently.

Aunt Petunia grinned. "Married, too," she boasted, extending the hand bearing her wedding ring.

The girl gasped. "Now that is a rock. I think even Momiji-kun's wife might get jealous over that!" she exclaimed, staring at the diamond.

Aunt Petunia laughed, for what Harry was sure was the first time in his life.

"Um…Aunt Petunia?" he said slowly.

The girl looked up from Aunt Petunia's ring in surprise. Before he could move, she squealed, scurried over to him, and threw her arms around him, too, squeezing him tightly. "And you look just like your daddy! Got your mama's eyes, though. I haven't seen her in years, so I don't actually remember, but my Ha'ri's eyes are purple, so they must come from your mom," she said, stepping back to look at him.

"Uh…" He stared at the girl helplessly. She was a stranger, but there was something oddly familiar about her, like someone he'd known when he was very small. She was dressed in cut-off jean shorts, a black hooded sweatshirt with the word "GAMER" plastered across the front in silver letters, and combat boots. On her back hung a denim bag plastered with images from the Chinese Zodiac, with sayings written beside the animals in silver marker. Her black hair was bound into twin braids, tied with orange and black ribbons. They hung to her hips, making Harry wonder how long her hair was when she let it down. In the braids, stuck at odd angles, were a rather beat-up orange pen, a skeleton key, several bobbypins, a paper clip, and three safety pins.

"Poor Harry. I guess your Dragon is still active, right? I mean, your curse hasn't been broken," she said, peering into his eyes worriedly.

"Yes. But I haven't seem him transform since he was a child," Aunt Petunia said, her arms crossed over her chest. She drifted over to them and smiled at Harry. "I'm sorry I've been so cruel to you all these years. I had to, in order to keep Akito from hurting you. If he thought you were happy, he would've taken you from us, and then we wouldn't have been able to find you. But now that Mizuki-chan's here, that means we're going to fight him." She looked at Mizuki expectantly. "Right?"

She nodded. "We're finally going to take up arms against her. We're finally fighting back," she said softly.

Aunt Petunia hugged the girl and rested her head against Mizuki's. "I'm so happy to see you. I've missed everyone," she said quietly.

Mizuki hugged the older woman tight. "I know! I felt so horrible about leaving you here, alone, when the rest of us at least got to see each other. Even Momiji-kun got visitors, when we could risk it. You were stuck here without being able to talk to any of us. I'm so glad you're okay," she said, guilt obvious in her voice.

Aunt Petunia smiled and let go of Mizuki. "For a Sohma to be without the rest of the family is so weird. It's so freeing, not having Akito breathing down your neck, but at the same time it's so hard not having anyone around who understands. I couldn't even call Shii-chan!" she said.

"That's not exactly a bad thing," Mizuki said flatly.

Aunt Petunia laughed. "I'm going to go change clothes and grab my bag. Can you fill Harry in for me?" she said, starting toward the stairs.

Mizuki nodded and slipped her arm through Harry's. "I'll tell him everything I can think of!" she said brightly.

Aunt Petunia disappeared upstairs and Mizuki tugged at Harry's arm. "C'mon. Let's go make Kagura-chan some coffee or something. She looked like she needs it," she said, untying the ribbons binding her braids and letting her hair hang loose. It was even longer than he'd expected; even though it had been in the braids, it hung completely straight, down to her butt.

"Wh-who's Kagura-chan?" the bewildered Harry asked as Mizuki dragged him into the kitchen and pointed him toward the bar.

"Sit," she said firmly, then she started bustling around the kitchen. "She's your cousin, silly. I think she may be directly related to Shigure, but I'm not sure. Hell, all I really know is that Yuki has a brother, Kyo's an only child, and I have a 'non-Juunishi' sister named Mitsuki," she said.

"'Non-Juunishi'?" Harry said.

Mizuki paused and looked at him in surprise. "Yeah. Y'know…she's not one of the Juunishi," she said, obviously confused at his ignorance. She suddenly gasped and stared at him, coffee momentarily forgotten. "You don't even know about the Juunishi? You spend seven years with at least half of them and you don't know about the Juunishi?" Her voice rose to a shriek, and by the time she was done her nose was four inches from his, her palms flat on the counter and her eyes staring straight into his.

"Um…no?" Harry said timidly.

She rolled her eyes and groaned in annoyance. "I thought I would just have to fill you in on the past few years, not the entire Sohma history!" She picked up the coffee scoop and began angrily dumping grounds into a filter, grumbling under her breath.

"Well, are you going to tell me, or are you just going to make coffee strong enough to kill a troll?" Harry demanded.

Mizuki stopped grumbling and looked at him, setting the coffee scoop down next to the sink. For the first time, he noticed how dark her eyes were. Her black hair fell in her face, but her eyes glittered out from under that curtain. Her eyes were almost as black as her hair, eerie and haunting. For just a moment, he caught a glimpse of a scarred past, of a life lived under torture and terror. Then she sighed and smiled wearily.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning. Um…let's see. Your dad is a Sohma, like me, and like your aunt. I know you think she's your mom's sister, but she's really your dad's cousin. Or something. Anyway. Point is, the Sohma family is huge. There's, like, 200 of us total, but only about fifty of us are 'inside'. The rest are 'outside'. The ones 'inside' know about the curse." She suddenly stopped, biting her lip and staring at him. She sighed and hopped up onto the counter by the sink. "Do you know about the curse?"

Harry shook his head. "I know how to cast a couple of curses, and my best friend can probably hex your head off, but I don't know anything about 'the' curse," he said. He glanced at the fridge and said, "Can you do magic?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah. A little," she said, shrugging.

"Good. You're not underage," he said, pulling out his wand.

"Uh…" She blinked as he waved his wand at the fridge. The door opened slowly and two bottles of soda flew out. Mizuki caught one as it glided past her head.

Harry waved his wand again and the fridge closed. His own bottle slid onto the counter in front of him, and he waved his hand at Mizuki. "Continue. Sorry," he said.

"Right. Anyway. The curse is…um…okay, well, let's start with this: you know what the Chinese zodiac is, right?" she said.

Harry nodded.

"Okay. Well, for the Sohma family, the zodiac is more than just an astrological tool. Twelve of the Sohmas are possessed by the vengeful spirits of the Zodiac: ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, ram, horse, dog, rat, boar, rooster, monkey, and cat. The cat isn't actually in the zodiac; it's a legend that goes along with it. For hundreds of years, twelve vengeful spirits that correspond to the zodiac have possessed the Sohma family. We don't have any special powers or anything–well, except for that we can communicate with our respective animals–but the 'curse' part of it is that when our bodies get weak, or, for some weird reason, when we're hugged by someone of the opposite gender, we transform into our animals. We transform back after a bit, but we're sorta naked, which sucks. But the point is, we're cursed, and it sucks royal butt," she said, taking a sip of her Coke.

Harry blinked. "So…you're saying that your family–my­ family–has this…curse?" he said slowly.

Mizuki nodded. "Yeah. When someone dies, any baby born could be cursed. It really sucks when a woman's already pregnant, and she can't do anything about her cursed child…" She looked down at her Coke, her knuckles suddenly white. She clutched the bottle tightly, as if it could save her from whatever pain lay within her. "That's what happened to my mom. She couldn't save her little girl from the curse."

"Poor Mizuki-chan. She didn't even have the experience benefit that the rest of us had," Aunt Petunia said, sweeping into the room. Harry's jaw dropped. She looked at least twenty years younger, and happier than he'd ever seen her. Her hair was down, with just a two pieces twisted back from the front to keep it back. She wore a short, deep blue dress and clunky black boots, and a silver, cat-shaped barrette glinted in her hair. On her back was an orange backpack shaped like a cat drawn in Japanese animation.

Mizuki looked up and smiled. "Kagura-chan! You look so pretty!" she squealed, simultaneously jumping off the counter and setting her Coke down. She scurried over to Aunt Petunia and hugged her tightly. "You look like our Kagura-chan again!" she said happily.

Aunt Petunia laughed. "I feel so much better in these clothes!" she said.

"Um…yeah! British housewife is so not you," Mizuki said, nodding.

"I know. I'm definitely not the 'housewife' type," Aunt Petunia said.

Mizuki snorted. "More the 'kicking-husband's-ass' type," she muttered.

Aunt Petunia laughed and threw one arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "How is Kyo-kun, anyway?" she asked.

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "How 'bout we discuss that during the car ride? It's not exactly a short story," she said.

Aunt Petunia nodded. "Okay." She looked at Harry and smiled. "C'mon. We'd better get out of here before Vernon gets home, or we'll never be able to leave. He said he'd be home sometime before dawn today. Sometimes one has to call in a favour and convince a few people to take one's husband and son fishing," she said, extending her hand to him.

Harry stared at her offered hand, then into her face, then at the hand again. He glanced at Mizuki, who was smiling and drifting toward the door. Half-finished thoughts whirled around his head, starting bar fights and crashing into jukeboxes. "What the hell is going on?" he finally burst.

Mizuki groaned and dropped her head into her hand, but Aunt Petunia just smiled kindly. "I know it's all very hard to comprehend, Harry. But you just have to trust us, and I promise you: if you come with us now, something very good will be waiting for you at the other end of this journey," she said gently.

"Like what?" Mizuki and Harry said simultaneously.

Aunt Petunia shot Mizuki a Look. "We're going to see people who can fight," she said through her teeth. "Like Yuki-kun…"

"Ooooh," Mizuki said, a grin on her face.

"Who's Yookeekoon?" Harry demanded.

Aunt Petunia laughed. "Yuki-kun, Harry. He's a cousin of ours. He's the Rat," she said.

Harry just stared.

"We're going to see Yuki," Mizuki sighed.

"Who's he?" Harry wanted to know.

Aunt Petunia and Mizuki exchanged knowing looks. "Someone who met you before, but couldn't tell," Aunt Petunia said mysteriously.

Suddenly, Mizuki's hip began playing a song Harry vaguely recognised. "I'll keep you my dirty little secret/ Don't tell anyone or you'll be/ just another regret…" a faint, canned voice sang.

She sighed and plunged her hand into her shorts pocket. "This thing rings at the worst moments," she grumbled. She glanced at the front of the cell phone and flipped it open. "We're on our way, sweetie," she said, bypassing a greeting. She listened for a minute, then said, "Yeah, I got him. Kagura-chan, too."

Aunt Petunia frowned. "Who is it?" she mouthed.

"Kisa-kun," Mizuki replied silently. Aloud, she said, "Wait. You want us to go get who, now?"

Another moment of silence, in which Harry peered curiously at Mizuki. "Should I go get luggage or something? My trunk's already packed," he whispered to Aunt Petunia.

She shook her head. "No need. There's clothes where we're going," she replied quietly.

"No way!" Mizuki gasped.

"What's wrong?" Aunt Petunia asked.

Mizuki held up one hand for silence, scowling. "No! I am not taking these two to go get…that one! Especially you-know-who!" she snapped. Then she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. "Sorry. I'm sorry, Kisa-kun. I know. I just…I'm hungry, and I still haven't talked to Fred today, and the kid knows absolutely nothing, so we're going to have to coach him on what's going to happen when he meets Ha'ri…" She was quiet, then continued, "Yeah. That's fine. I'll explain everything to the kid if you'll get everyone there. I just can't handle that right now. My senses are already on high alert tonight, and you know what'll happen if we put those two together. I'm so having one of those 'I-really-hate-reading-waves-and-being-an-empath-slash-telepath' moments."

"We got detail duty?" Aunt Petunia whispered.

Mizuki nodded. "Okay. Yeah, we'll be there in about an hour, sweetie. I'll see you when I get there," she said. She glanced at Harry, then got a sly grin on her face. "Hey. Uh, tell the girl that we're bringing her man by," she said. She paused, then laughed. "I know, I know. He gave her the 'it's too dangerous' speech, but I am so going to give him a lecture about that. They'll be back together before midnight. Tell her that, too."

Harry stared. "We're going to the Burrow?" he blurted.

Mizuki winked and nodded. "All right. Bye, Kisa-kun. Tell Hiro-chan we're coming so that he doesn't starting bitching when we get there." She snapped the phone shut and stuck it back in her pocket. "All right, boy and girl. We're making a slight detour, but we're making good time, so we still have time for the milk-shake-drive-by I was planning on. I need me a McDonald's Triple Thick, y'know?" she said, beaming and trotting toward the door. "Let's go, folks. No time for standing and staring at each other," she called over her shoulder.

"C'mon, Harry. I'll explain more in the car," Aunt Petunia said, grabbing his hand and pulling him along. They hurried out to a massive truck parked outside and scrambled inside.

By the time Harry had crawled into the backseat, Mizuki was in the driver's seat, fiddling with the radio and starting the truck up. Aunt Petunia slipped into the passenger seat and grinned. "Shall we go?" she said loftily.

"We shall," Mizuki laughed, and they lurched into a race down the street that reminded Harry slightly of the Knight Bus.

Author's note: First chapter! Yay! It's sort of long, but I just started typing and forgot to stop. But oh, well. I just had to have Mizuki's ring tone be Dirty Little Secret. That's All-American Rejects, y'know. I've always thought that this song sort of fits the Sohmas in general. There's a million others that fit Yuki, Tohru, Kyo…but that's another fanfic. As far as this one goes, I just couldn't help but put that song in there. Hope you liked! It'll all start to make sense eventually. Just sit tight and bear with me, okay? Thanks!

For reference, here's a pronunciation list, just in case some of you haven't read Fruits Basket:

Kisa: KEE-sah

Hiro: HE-roh

Kagura: Ka-GUR-ah

Mizuki: Mee-ZOO-kee (she's actually a character I invented, but the name's Japanese, so…)

Uotani (Uo-chan): OO-oh-tahn-ee (OO-oh-chan)

Hanajima (Hana-chan): Hahn-ah-JEE-ma (Hahn-ah-chan)

Momiji: Moh-MEE-gee (or you can say it how I say it: MOHM-ah-jee)

Sohma: SOH-ma

Hatori: HAH-tor-ee

Mayuko: MAI-oo-koh

Hatsuharu: HAHT-soo-HAHR-oo

Kyo: KEEYO (one syllable, not KEE-oh, which is how I said it before I watched the anime. I'm American, people! This isn't exactly my native tongue, here.)

All right. Well, that's it. If you want more, please review! I've got the chapters sitting in my computer, but I don't want to put forth the effort of uploading them if no one likes this bit. Yeah...I'm pretty lazy. But anyway. So if you like, please say so! Oh, and if I pronounced Mizuki-chan's named wrong, tell me that, too. I think that's right, but, y'know, never been to Japan, don't know anyone from there, so... ; P