Title: Voldemort's Daughter
Author: Tsubasa Kya
Disclaimer: I own neither the man-creatures from the "Inuyasha-sama" universe, nor the man-creatures from the world of "Harry Potter". They are solid belongings of Rumiko Takahashi and J.K. Rowling.

Chapter two: Kagome Higurashi Who?

The next morning found Harry toying with the wand that the foreign girl, Kagome, had left behind. It was odd, since he couldn't even get sparks to light out the end of it. Even though wands were supposed to pick their user, everyone knew that anyone could use someone else's. He was starting to think the wand wasn't actually real, and that kept bringing her threat to mind.

"You don't have a pointy-stick. I know you can't do magic without it."

"I can't?" Kagome released the bridge of her nose and pointed at Mr. Dursley with her finger, as if it were a wand. "Want to test that theory?"

Harry reluctantly turned to his homework. Now that his room was—unhappily—the attic, with only a tiny window to the outside world, he had plenty of time to do his work. Not that he didn't have that same time to do it before, but he hadn't actually gotten any work done during the span of time that Kagome was there and he really would have to work hard.

Especially on his potions homework. Harry glared at the page half-heartedly. And Hermione claimed that Snape wasn't actually out to get Harry? Well, he wouldn't have to if Harry flunked out of potions, since passing that class was the only way that Harry would get to be an Auror.

Still, sooner or later—he wasn't sure when—Harry fell asleep on the book he was studying out of.

-

The sewers were dark and terribly damp. Kagome's Magic Academy uniform wasn't something that could keep her very warm, but she was feverish and she so that helped to keep her warm. It didn't help her motivation to continue running; she wanted to just collapse in a heap.

In the above world, it was raining that day, so the sewers were flooding with water at every drain. Her back ached where the rat demon had clawed at her, and the cloak she tied around her was soaked with the red liquid that was intended to fuel her life.

She couldn't help but think if she were with her guardian, he would probably be pointing out the fact that she was such a weakling she couldn't even run away properly. She didn't even know how long she had been running, but the sewer finally ended in a giant culvert that came out under a bridge.

There was a thin body of water under the bridge, deep enough that she'd probably drown if she fell in. She could swim, but the fact that she was so tired and injured made her note that she probably wouldn't make it if she fell into the current. She sat down on her trunk, curling into a ball and tried forgetting about her back pain.

It was light on the outside. Day had risen, and she didn't know where to go or what to do. She was in a strange country and extremely far away from her guardian and her friends. In front of her, she saw her guardian. Gold eyes stared down at her for a moment before he turned and started walking away. It was the fever talking to her. That was the only explanation.

-

"Hedwig!" Harry called in excitement as his owl flew in through the open window. Hedwig was Harry's faithful snow owl and he had missed her quite a bit. But even more exciting was the letter she carried for him. He took it from her, opening it to read it, and then began stroking Hedwig lovingly as she perched on his knee.

Dear Harry-

It's good to hear from you, mate. Sorry about not coming to get you this Summer, but there's been a lot going on. Mum's got me and Ginny doing all the cooking and cleaning and everything at home this Summer and the only break we've had was today. That's why it's taken so long to get back to you.

But we had some excitement this Summer. I can't wait to tell you all about it. Mum says to keep quiet about it though. And I heard that Dumbledore got some new people for Defense of the Dark Arts class, too. It's supposed to be real exciting!

But at least my Summer isn't going as bad as Hermione's is, apparently. Did you know her parents moved to France? Hermione was going to transfer to Beaubaxtons! Without informing us! I only know because Hermione wrote to Ginny, and I stole the letter from Ginny. Can you believe her? Well, since the start of school is only a few weeks away, Hermione's on her way to stay with us.

And let me tell you, she's gonna get a mouthful. I'll even tell her off for you too, so that you don't have to later on. Anyway, mum and Ginny and dad say hi. I'll talk to you in a few weeks at school if not sooner.

Your friend, Ron Weasley.

While it was nice to hear from Ron again, at the same time it wasn't. Secluded from the wizarding world, Harry always felt like he drifted away from his friends during the Summer. He sighed and set the letter down, then carefully lifted Hedwig, putting her in her cage. He filled her water tray from a bottle and gave her some owl treats. That was not mentioning the fact that he was always the last to have news, since no one could talk about anything.

With Hedwig contentedly in her cage, Harry looked around the attic again and proceeded to clean it up some more. It was perplexing to him that Dudley's friend Wally had disappeared—the rat faced, skinny one. But Dudley said Wally had gone home earlier than planned, and left it at that. He wouldn't even mention Kagome, or how she had been there and seemingly cursed him. "What do you think, Hedwig?" Harry asked the owl, right as Petunia shrieked up the stairs for him.

He sighed and made his way down the stairs to find a welcoming party in his kitchen. "Fred! George!" he grinned broadly. Petunia was holding up rather well with two adult wizards in her house. And Dudley—sitting with Greg at the table—hadn't run away yet, so that was a start.

"Actually, mate, he's George, remember?" Fred said, grinning.

"I said it all in context, not speaking to either of you in specific, so there," Harry said.

George said, "Well, mate, if it's alright, we're going to take you with us for the rest of the Summer." He looked a lot buffer with his green dragon's hide vest on, and so did Fred. But they weren't wearing wizard robes, so Petunia might've thought they were just some hoodlums; or at least, if they didn't associate with Harry, she might've.

"Cool, my stuff's in the attic. I'd come." Petunia rose no argument, probably grateful. Harry led the way to the attic, and Harry felt very pleased to finally be able to go somewhere this Summer. He was promised, but nothing had come of it. And Ron Weasley's older twin brothers Fred and George Weasley were fun to hang around. They were natural tricksters, and had bailed out of school in Harry's fifth year so they could open a joke shop, Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, using money that Harry had gotten after winning the Triwizard Tournament.

George asked, "Harry, is that a footprint staining the carpet?" Indeed, there was a brown-red stain of a footprint on the carpet with spatters around it. Kagome had left it there as she raced away. Petunia had spent several hours trying to clean it up so no one would ever know, but finally decided instead it would just be easier to remodel the entire living room.

"And your long-neck aunt lets it be there?" Fred asked incredulously.

Harry shrugged. "Wasn't my foot that left it." He said simply and they made it to the attic. "Hedwig, look whose here!" Hedwig flew from her cage to land on George's arm.

"Hey, George, I got an idea. What about candy that transfigures people into owls for a period of time?" Fred said suddenly as Harry threw his things in his trunk. He might not get very far at all in the remainder of his homework.

"Good idea, brother Fred!" George said cheerfully. Then the boys started to look around and noticed the mess; the blood spattering the boxes in a heavy arc, the hole in the box, the moth eaten mattress. "Harry, you don't seriously live up here, do you?" he asked.

"Is that blood?" Fred asked.

"Don't worry about it," Harry grumbled. He would rather not talk about it. Or have the subject broached. Ever. Thinking of Kagome gave him a migraine, since it was purely impossible to tell just whether or not she was really a good or a bad guy.

"You can't honestly think we won't worry!" George said. "Come on, you're our hero, and you've got a crazy antagonist after you who, might I remind you, wants you dead? Where were you injured?"

"I wasn't injured, okay? Some girl came here, and ran off like she was being chased by the dead." Harry grumbled. Now packed, he noticed Kagome's mail was underneath a screwed up box. He pulled it out, both his and Kagome's wands in his pocket. With a glance at it, he looked at Hedwig. What if Kagome wasn't evil?

"Harry, what's that?" Fred asked, peering over his shoulder. With three people in the already cramped attic, the atmosphere was almost stifling.

"That girl got mail from Hogwarts." Harry explained. He quietly called Hedwig over and the bird came willingly. "Will you take this to that girl, Hedwig? I don't know where she went." Hedwig stared at him for a moment before seeming to do the equivalent of what a shrug would be for birds. Harry sent her off with the envelope.

After that, George grabbed one end of the trunk to help Harry carry it down the stairs while Fred grabbed Hedwig's cage. Harry decided not to tell them very much about what little he knew of Kagome; especially of the strange creature that came out of her trunk and bit him before she killed it with a bow and magical arrow. His shoulder screamed in protest to carrying his heavy trunk but instead of complaining, he tried to ease up the pressure by taking most of the weight in his other arm.

"So, are we going to The Burrow?" Harry asked as they entered the kitchen. It seemed they'd spent enough time upstairs as Harry packed for Petunia to finish baking cookies. Harry assumed she must have been making them before the twins had come, because he was sure it didn't take more than ten or fifteen minutes upstairs.

Petunia wrapped a paper plate of cookies up in saran wrap and thrust it at Harry. She said nothing of why she'd done it, but George and Fred laughed. Fred took the cookies for Harry since his hands were preoccupied and saluted Petunia before leading Harry and George to the door, as if he'd lived in the house his entire life.

It was something about the twins that Harry admired. They could adjust to anything, and fit in almost anywhere. Petunia said just as Harry was passing through the door, "Thanks for getting rid of the brat." She sounded cheerful. Then the door was shut and the three wizards were staring at the wood, all of them not sure what was going on.

"Well, Diagon Alley's waiting," Fred said.

George nodded, and Harry only followed, trying to puzzle out Petunia's words. Did she think Harry got rid of Kagome? Fred led the way to a muggle car and Harry wondered if it had the same 'extra features' that the last car the twins drove had.

-

Once night had fallen again, Kagome found she was too wet and cold to stay curled up in the sewers. Her demon cat had woken up and other than a limp and that he was wet and shivering, he appeared unhurt. She gathered Kiyoshi up again and kicked her trunk into movement. She had to keep moving. Demons were after her, and unfortunately she was a perfect target with the 'homing beacon' around her neck.

She knew she was sick, but she forced herself to move. She set Kiyoshi down as she opened her trunk for clean clothes and some towels to rub herself and her cat as dry as possible. Before tending to herself, she dried Kiyoshi and found his carrier in her trunk so she could put him in it. He didn't like being in it, but he didn't complain. As usual, he knew something important was going on, and he was grateful at any rate for the plush comfort of the pillows lining the bottom of the carrier and knew he would be warmer there than against his wet mistress.

Once Kiyoshi was settled, she peeled the cloak from her injured back, nearly crying out loud when the wounds—dried blood plastering cloth to skin—ripped open. Tending the wounds was nearly impossible since she couldn't get to her back, but she did her best with what she had. She used sterile bandages to wrap it as best as she could. She changed into a clean, dry uniform the same as before. The uniform from the Magic Academy didn't help with keeping her warm, but she found her guardian's haori and pulled it on.

She wasn't going to allow herself die of sickness or from an attack in a lonely sewer. She carefully exited the sewer, following the short walkway to crest the small hill with her pet carrier in one hand and her trunk following dutifully behind her. Minutes later she found herself looking at a street nearly abandoned in the darkest evening hours.

A few people were out and about, but none of them looked at the strange girl who appeared from under the bridge. Once on the sidewalk, she set Kiyoshi's carrier down and went into her trunk for her bow. Summoning a taxi-service required a wand, generally, but she could bypass that with a PDI-made weapon. Her bow could double as a wand if someone knew how to use its' refined magical properties.

A couple passing by saw her climbing out from the trunk, and to them, it looked like she was climbing from beneath the ground. They stared at her in confusion as she slammed the trunk lid shut and put her unreliable latches into place. She set Kiyoshi's carrier on the hovering trunk, the night's shadows beneath it making the trunk look like it was on the ground.

Sparing the obvious Atarimae no Hito couple a small glance, she held the bow in her right hand and held it out. Generally she held the bow in her left hand and guided the arrow with her right, but in this case the bow needed to be in her right to summon the taxi-service. The couple shook their heads in confusion before taking to the continuation of their stroll.

With a loud crack that the peaceful Atarimae no Hito didn't hear, a large triple-deck bus came to a screeching halt a few feet past where Kagome was standing. A chipper young man bounded off the bus and greeted Kagome; she was beginning to wonder if her life would ever be sane again, or how much longer she'd be able to stand up.

She walked forward to glance at this chipper young man, seeing between two and four of him alternately, yet knowing that one to three of him didn't exist. "How much is your taxi-service?" she inquired.

The man's nametag became visible in the light flowing out of the windows of the bus. "Stan," it read. He gave her a speculative glance, seeming to take note of her uniform. "Long way from home?" he asked, surprisingly enough speaking her native tongue. She supposed it was a spell or something, that allowed him to speak every language to better service the patrons.

She nodded. " Japan," she said. She was unaware she had been speaking her native tongue to begin with. She was too tired to care either way. "How much?"

"Depends really on where you want to go. Would you pay in English currency, or Japanese currency?"

Kagome shook her head, "Japanese, if you accept." She needed to sit. Her legs were going to fail her; she had lost so much blood. "I need the closest Gringotts, so I can change my currency from my home's coins to England's. I'll need to purchase clothes, and also a place to sleep; best if all these are in the same general vicinity."

"Ok, not a problem." There wasn't much difference between any country's coin system. Each language called it something different, such as a Galleon in comparison to a Horikui. The price value was the same, but the coins had different faces, so some places would not accept currency from another country even if the value was the same coin versus coin.

Stan climbed onto the bus again and she had to go into her trunk again to take out her coin purse. She hadn't had a chance to go to Gringotts before she was whisked away to St. Mungo's, so the purse was getting to be a little on the empty side. When Stan had come back, she had it ready and was leaning on her unstrung bow-staff. The coiled bow string was wrapped in an oiled cloth still in her trunk, as keeping it strung constantly was bad for the staff.

Stan gave her a sum that it would cost her and she counted out the money. He compared each coin to a magical chart that told him she didn't try to cheat him in his ignorance. Standard procedure, she figured. Once he was satisfied that she gave the correct amount, he offered to help with her trunk and carrier and she gratefully accepted.

"The best place you probably want to go," Stan said still speaking her tongue, "would be Diagon Alley. There's a pub that doubles as an inn. Shouldn't be difficult for a cute girl like you to have someone explain how to get into the alley either." He winked at her, but she was too ill to be embarrassed. She smiled weakly and followed him onto the bus. She was glad to see that there were beds on the bus.

She thanked Stan for his kindness, and he immediately settled himself in a seat by the driver. As the two began to talk, she noticed Stan's level of speaking was far worse in English than he'd spoken in Japanese. But she was asleep quickly, her pet carrier and trunk secured beneath her bed, and her bow-staff on the mattress beside her.

-

Harry was covered in mud and truly knew he had seen better days than that particular fateful day. Fred and George were having a blast with what had happened, cracking jokes at unreliable muggle technology. Harry wanted to tell him that the car they used to pick them up, though an old beater, wouldn't be unreliable if the two of them had ever thought that some sort of fossil fuel was required to run the car.

Harry had warned them that they needed to stop at a gas station to refuel, but they hadn't listened so now Fred, George, and Harry were pushing the car to the side of the road. Of course, about thirty minutes earlier it had decided to start raining, which meant on this particular back road to nowhere, a lot of mud was to be encountered.

But Harry did suppose it was better to be pushing the gasless beater than to be stuck in Aunt Petunia's house with Dudley and Greg. The boys had eaten Petunia's cookies hesitantly at first, at least until Fred did some sort of anti-poison spell. Hermione would have been proud of Fred.

Now, the three of them were sitting cold inside the car and wondering what to do next. Their little non-magical rescue plan hadn't worked, proving the fact that at least these two wizards could not go without magic. Harry's broom wouldn't fit all three of them, even though they could apparate or disapparate. Even if it could, his invisibility cloak wouldn't hide his trunk and flying trunks were generally looked at oddly by muggles if seen.

"We could enchant the car to fly!" George said. It was the ninth time the idea had been thought of.

Harry repeated, for the ninth time, "There's no gas to get the car to speed so it has the momentum to pick up off the ground with a simple flight spell," he'd been researching flight spells for an essay for Professor Flitwick this summer, "and none of us would be able to perform a more advanced flight spell to enchant it any other way. I don't particularly want to get kicked out of Hogwarts for doing magic either, and there're inconvenient laws against casting magic on muggle objects."

Fred said, for the ninth time in a shocked tone of voice, "Oh yeah. Doesn't dad work for that department of the ministry?"

Harry sighed and shivered from the cold. The twin's joking nature sometimes was more difficult to handle than normal because it was hard to tell whether they really were joking or not. Then he remembered about the Knight Bus. "What about the Knight Bus?" he asked, putting voice to his thoughts.

George exclaimed, "By George, I think he's got something there!"

Harry couldn't help but laugh, and Fred cackled. The two immediately started to get out of the car and Harry followed suit. They pulled his trunk out of the back seat with difficulty, slipping and sliding in the mud and getting wetter than they had been. Finally they got it out and Fred and George held it between them in a vain attempt to keep it free of mud. Harry grabbed Hedwig's cage and checked to make sure Dudley's massive hand-me-down pants pockets still held both his and Kagome's wands.

He took his wand out, and in unison the three wizards held out their wand hands, with their wands pointing out. With a loud crack and screeching sound, and streaming lights, the Knight Bus came to a halt and Stan, the driver's assistant, jumped out with a raincoat on, the hood up.

"Yeh boys needin' a lift?" Stan asked.

"Yeah." Fred said.

George added, "Diagon Alley. Mind if we get on?"

Stan nodded and let them pass by. "We got a few goin' there already. An ol' guy, an' a young chick."

Once in the dry confines of the bus, Fred and George secured the trunk to the free bunk closest to the front on the driver's side. It was the same one Harry had that first time he'd ridden the bus, he remembered. Free of their burden, the brothers dug in their dragon skin jackets for their coin purse, paying Stan for all their fare before Harry had opportunity to object.

"Wanna buy a set o' spares?" Stan asked when the bus sped off, barreling down one street before jumping into nothingness and landing in a new place, traveling high speed down a new road. Stan offered a set of rather bland, but clean clothes. "We got a place yeh change."

"I'm good, but thanks mate." George and Fred both said at the same time. Harry's shoulder hurt too much for him to think about caring that he was wet and uncomfortable. The three boys sat on the bunk and while George and Fred started cracking jokes once more—they did that a lot—and Stan took his seat by the driver, Harry stared blankly at the back of a person sleeping across from them. They were female, obviously from the way their skirt was tousled and revealed more than modesty deserved. They either really liked the color white, or it was a uniform.

Their skirt looked to be made of durable cotton, but their over-shirt had the look of silk from where Harry was sitting and the way the light hit it. Long black hair became a nest around the person, and there was a wooden staff lying on the edge of the bunk. Harry thought that the pea-green skirts and silk shirts must be an 'in' fad for girls of the wizarding world now; he wouldn't know since he rarely got news from the world in which he belonged. Kagome had worn a short skirt like that...

Harry thought it was odd that Stan wasn't bugging him. He had clearly shown his like for Harry the first ride on the Knight Bus. But soaked as he was right down to the bone, his dark hair matted to his head, just a scrap in a sweater and pants that would fit a whale, perhaps Stan didn't recognize him? Add to that the factor that he was traveling with two incredibly humored wizards wearing dragon skin jackets, he just didn't seem like Harry Potter.

Not that he really minded not talking to Stan. And it was nicer being on the Knight Bus without the incredible feeling weighing heavily in his gut that he was running away. He reached up and put pressure on his shoulder; it hurt like mad.

Kagome hadn't really said much about herself that could sway her as a good guy or a bad guy, unless the fact that she talked about the "Dark Lord" in her sleep. In that case, he'd have to immediately peg her as bad. Oh, and he could put her under the 'bad' category rather easily if he counted the fact that she cursed his cousin, and had a magical artifact that could take control of her.

If he saw her again, what would he say to her? He shifted on the bunk so he could glance out the window of the Knight Bus and watch the scenery pass in a sickening blur. Would he first ask her why she ran away? Or would he ask her why she was bleeding so bad as she ran?

Then again, if she was bleeding so bad would she have survived? Wouldn't she need some treatment? Her cuts could get infected and she would end up in a very unlucky situation as her body tried to stave off the infection. She could get seriously ill; perhaps even die.

He should have run faster to stop her. She'd seemed very scared, petrified, by something. What? Would he ask her that? Or would he demand more information on her? He was extremely uncomfortable with the thought that she could be some sort of spy for Voldemort. In that case, she was a really good spy, but also very bad. A good one would have made sure there was no doubt in Harry's mind that they were on the side of good.

She hadn't done that. She seemed willing to let him come to his own decisions. Well, if she was good, then she wouldn't have done anything in her power to make sure he didn't think her evil. But if she was under Voldemort's control, or even following him willingly, perhaps her tact was to make him think she was bad, then make him change his mind, then by that time she would be looked at as good and no one would think her bad and--ARGH!

How could these thoughts be so hard? It was like trying to put together a puzzle with all the miscellaneous puzzle pieces that were shoved into a jar after they were lost and then found again. No one knew what puzzle they actually went to. Or if they even owned a puzzle with the "tye-dye" color scheme.

Before he realized it, the twins were leaning against each other snoozing. Harry's shoulder hurt too much to even think of sleep. The extreme cold had made him miserable and pained. He let them sleep. He'd kick them awake when they got to Diagon Alley, as they seemed to want to take him. But he did wonder why he wasn't going to The Burrow this summer. He'd looked forward to seeing Ron all summer, but maybe Ron, as Fred and George's brother, would be there at some point?

When Stan poked his shoulder to get his attention, he hissed in pain, taking in a deep breath in an effort to concentrate on forgetting his shoulder wound. Damn that whatever-it-was that had been in Kagome's trunk. It only served to make him more certain she was working for Voldemort. No sane person kept something that dangerous, unless it was Hagrid who simply did not count. Skrewts and dragons were not cute. Hagrid was dense enough to miss this fact.

"Eh, we're 'bout t' be at your stop. Buh't was wantin' a favor from yah, 'Arry." So much for the dellusion that he'd been forgotten. Stan wanted something; they all wanted something. He didn't generally want to give something. He unwillingly gave his mother and father, because he'd been too young to either understand or protect them. They died for him. Tonight, he seemed to hold tighter to that than usual. Usually he blamed Voldemort for that, not himself.

"What is it, Stan?" Harry asked, glancing at the generally cheerful young man. He seemed nervous, but Harry's shoulder hurt too much to be anything other than annoyed.

"That yo'n girl? She's for'en. Some'at show 'er t' get 'round?"

Harry glanced at the girl as she was indicated with a jab of Stan's thumb. She was still asleep, but tossing fitfully. With an inaudible sigh, he nodded. He could at least show her to use the stones behind the Leaky Cauldron. Stan thanked him and looked at her for a moment as if debating waking her. Then he decided better to wait until they got to the stop.

Harry looked back out the window. He would've woken her; wasn't his problem though. Then they were pulling up to a screeching halt at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry shook his friends awake and the twins looked around groggily at first before jumping to their feet and attacking the restraints on the trunk. They'd pulled the trunk off before Harry could alert them to the fact that he'd agreed to help the foreign girl.

They practically dragged him through the Leaky Cauldron and out back before he could protest once.

-

Kagome cried out loud as her fitful sleep was disturbed and she was woken. "Sesshoumaru-sama!" she gasped. She grabbed the bow-staff for comfort, wiping her cheeks with her free hand. She glanced at Stan to see if he would condemn her for having a bad dream; he didn't seem to care either way, though he seemed sympathetic.

"Bad break up?" Stan asked, misunderstanding her desperation. She might want Sesshoumaru for that reason, but she needed him for an entirely different one.

"Yeah," she said to simplify the questions. She wasn't going to tell Pleasant Stan about the jewel. After it had been ripped out of her, she'd come to learn that it was far more active in its attempts to control her during the few weeks surrounding its day of creation. So during this time of the year, she was supposed to have her guardian to lend his strength to her control. "So where are we?" she inquired of the man, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

He worked at the restraints on her pet carrier and her trunk, heaving them toward the exit as she trailed after him. "It's raining hard," Stan said. Indeed, rain was pelting the bus in angry torrents. They were just a few feet from a door what looked to be leading into a tavern of sorts. "But that's the Leaky Cauldron where you'll get a warm bed, hot food, and a hot bath. There's someone waiting to help you on the inside. I'll help you with the trunk before," Kagome shook her head emphatically.

"No, it's not necessary," she insisted. As he set the trunk down in surprise, she kicked it, and the trunk with the pet carrier lying atop it jumped out of the bus, much to the dismay of the demon cat in the carrier. Kiyoshi complained loudly as the carrier crossed the sidewalk to come to a stop at the closed door of the tavern.

Stan grinned at her and saluted her before saying his goodbyes. "It was nice to meet you. I hope you can ride the bus again sometime."

Kagome nodded her head at Stan, not replying to him as she stepped off the bus. The door shut and sped off. Rain drenched her white clothes, plastering the fabric to her body. She crossed the sidewalk, entering the Leaky Cauldron. Her trunk trailed her heels as she slowed down, realizing she didn't know what to do, or who was waiting for her to show her around. There were so many people here; big, hairy men; skinny, shady men; wizards and witches everywhere.

One of them looked like they might be a waitress. Kagome approached the woman, carrying her bow-staff. She didn't know why, but she seemed to be attracting attention. It was just a guess, but Kagome thought it might be her clothes. All the other women in the room were quite covered; compared to them, Kagome was naked.

"Hi," Kagome said, careful to speak English. The woman glanced at her, pausing in her step. "Um, I was told that there's an inn somewhere?"

The woman chuckled. "You're standing in it, dear," she told Kagome. She pointed to a boy behind a bar where several people were sitting. "Talk to my son; he needs the practice assisting patrons, so if you're patient with him, I'll take ten percent off your final tab when you leave."

Kagome nodded and approached the boy somewhat hesitantly. He didn't notice her right away, but as whispers of her flew down the bar he looked up and saw her. "Hi," he said, setting down the task of cleaning glasses to favor instead the task of helping her. "What can I get you?"

"I was told to see you about a room?" He nodded and Kagome continued, "Right now, I have only Japanese currency. I need to change," the boy stared blankly at her and she trailed off. "I mean, if it's a problem…"

"A foreigner," the boy mouthed. She wouldn't have known he'd said anything if she didn't know how to read lips. "Well, you can change currency at Gringotts, and then we can rent you a room."

Kagome frowned and looked around for a way to tell the time—any way really. With it raining as bad, it could be the middle of the day. But coins were placed on the counter from around her, and all she saw was a pale arm. She did recognize the voice though she wasn't sure why he had followed her.

Was he secretly working for Naraku?

"Here, I'll pay for her room." It was Harry Potter. Why was Harry following her? The young bartend stared at the boy behind Kagome as if amazed to see him, before he reached out for the coins on the counter and handed them a key. Kagome was too nervous to take it, so Harry took it for her, and he grabbed her arm, carefully leading her up the stairs.

She glanced at the teen beside her, her brow creasing in worry. Sure, he said he had an antagonist creature of his own, but for a bad guy, the antagonist was the good guy… What if this Voldemort was really a good guy, but Harry made him out to be a bad guy?

It was so confusing… and as they crested the top of the stairs she found that the new altitude coupled with her sickness made her extremely dizzy. "Why are, who are you?" she asked.

"I'd like to know the same thing," Harry growled in an animalistic fashion as they entered the room she'd be staying in. Her trunk continued trailing and then set itself down by the end of the bed.


Merry Christmas. I know you've waited for this for a while now.