Forgot this last time: I don't own Harry Potter or Inuyasha. This is a blanket disclaimer that applies to every chapter in this FANfiction.
Japanese (when in England)
English (When in Japan)
Kagome and Hermione walked together to the carriages, Ron and Harry slightly behind them. Kagome stared at the strange horse-like creatures that drew the carriages, but pushed her curiosity aside. There were probably several magical creatures like this that were a part of everyday life here, and she didn't want to look too naïve.
"I think we have Potions and Herbology separately, and Occlumency obviously. But everything else is with me and Harry and Ron." Hermione said, smiling at their new Japanese friend as they boarded the carriage.
"That's good."
"I feel bad that we're not in your potions class; Snape is a nightmare." Hermione said apologetically.
"It's okay, I'm sure I'll live."
"I don't know… If you get on his bad side he might poison you or something." Ron said, shuddering.
"Ron! I'm sure that he wouldn't go that far." Hermione said.
Kagome noted uneasily that she hadn't quite contradicted Ron's statement.
"Well, we'll have plenty of time to talk about that during the feast, but we're here." Harry pointed out.
The group jumped out of the carriage and made there way into the Entrance Hall. Harry and Hermione directed Kagome to the Great Hall as Ron sped ahead to 'get seats' ("More like find the best seats for food." Harry snorted)
"Over here, Harry!" Ron called, waving at them from some seats. Lavender and Seamus sat across from him, looking at the strange new student.
Kagome stared at the floating candles and the ceiling, echoing the starlit sky above it. Her gaze swept over the four house tables, then up to the staff table. Her grandfather was not present yet, though she could tell which seat was his. The seat to his right was empty too, though the rest were filled. She caught a glimpse of a fat old woman, a greasy haired man and rather large hairy man, before she was ushered into her seat by Hermione and another red headed girl.
"I'm Ginny Weasley. That's my brother, Ron." The girl said.
"I'm Kagome."
"Are you new?"
"Yes. I'm from Japan, and I only recently discovered that I had magical powers."
"Say, Kagome. Isn't there a magic school in Japan?" Hermione said.
Harry and Ron looked up in interest, having met students from other schools the year before.
"Yes, but Hogwarts is a far better school and I am half-English. In the end, it was decided because my late English father was the one I received my magic from; he was a squib." Kagome fibbed quickly.
"Oh." Hermione said.
At that moment her grandfather entered from a door near the staff table, and took his seat. Kagome looked up into his sparkling blue eyes, so much like her own, and smiled. Dumbledore gave her a small wink, before drawing the attention of the entire hall.
"We are ready to begin the Sorting Ceremony." Dumbledore said, his voice ringing through the large hall.
The great doors were pushed open, and a rather stern lady entered, a crowd of First Years following her nervously like sheep.
"When I call your name, you shall step up to the stool and put on the Sorting Hat." The woman said sharply, clearing her throat.
Kagome watched in interest as the hat shouted out the different houses.
"A talking hat?" Kagome whispered to Hermione.
"What? Oh yes, it's the Sorting Hat. Magically enchanted, and lives in Dumbledore's study."
"Wow."
"Mhmm."
"Which professor is Professor McGonagall?"
"The one who brought the First Years in, why?"
"She's supposed to take me to Professor Dumbledore's office before I return to the Common Room." Kagome explained, her grandfather's name slipping off her tongue awkwardly.
"Oh."
They fell silent as the hat finished sorting 'Zaink, Drew.'
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts." Dumbledore rumbled. "Just a few reminders, the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds, and Mr. Flich would like to add whizzing whirpools to the list of items forbidden on campus. Monthly trips to Hogwarts have been cancelled for the year."
The was a large outcry.
"It is for your own protection." Dumbledore said firmly. "Now enjoy the feast."
The tables filled with food as Harry, Ron and Hermione leaned together.
"He didn't mention You Know Who." Ron whispered.
"I think that it's 'cause of Umbridge." Harry said.
"Who?"
"The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. She was at my trial over the summer." Harry said.
Kagome did a double take.
"Trial?"
"He was framed." Hermione said, waving it off as the continued their discussion.
Kagome then concentrated on the food and joining in on the other, only slightly more normal conversations.
"So Fred and George have these awesome candies that make you sick, to get out of class." Seamus was telling Lavender, while Ginny snorted.
"But some of them give you giant yellow pus filled blisters." Ginny retorted.
Kagome gave up even trying to find a semblance of a normal conversation, and just enjoyed that everyone around her was just as abnormal as she was.
"Kagome? The feast's over." Hermione said, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Oh." Kageome stood and said her good byes as she headed towards Professor McGonagall. Her grandfather had already left the room.
"Miss Higurashi? Follow me please." The professor instructed.
Kagome nodded, and followed the stern woman through the castle.
"Careful about the stairs – they have a mind of their own occasionally." She warned.
Kagome watched in amusement as stairs moved, startling a pair of students in mid climb.
"This is Professor Dumbledore's office. You should know the password, and he will direct you to the Gryffindor Common Room afterwards. Good night, Miss Higurashi. I shall see you tomorrow in Transfiguration." Professor McGonagall said, before sweeping her way down the hall.
"Werthers?" Kagome said to the gargoyle. It leapt aside, revealing an escalator like set of winding stairs.
She stepped onto them nervously, and glanced around as they took her up. It was a plain stone passage, and she soon grew bored. Eventually, they stopped in front of a door. She reached up a hand to knock, but the door was opened from the inside.
"Kagome. Come in. We will talk in my private quarters, away from the prying eyes of my paintings." Dumbledore said, leading Kagome away from his study, containing the curious portraits of past headmasters.
"Hello Papa." Kagome said, hugging him as soon as they were out of sight.
"Did you make any friends?" Dumbledore asked in Japanese.
"Yes. They are all very nice; Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny." Kagome said.
"Good." Dumbledore, said, smiling down at her. "Now about your schedule."
"Hai?"
"Occlumency; I'm afraid that yoou'll be privately tutored by Professor Snape. I shall be very busy this year, so I'm afraid I won't be seeing much of you. I understood from conversations with your mother that your mind has been attacked several times. I believe you will greatly benefit from those lessons."
"Hai, Papa."
"I also left you a free period, but this book here is what I want you to use. It's the only one I could find that contains any decent information on Japanese Mikos; unfortunately much literature has been destroyed over the past 500 years surrounding priestesses of your caliber. Did you know that you were the last miko of the Fuedal Era?" Dumbledore said, handing her a thick novel.
"I was?"
"Yes. Now this should help give you some back ground on your powers, but there are no instructions or teaches for mikos nowadays, so you will have to just keep practicing shooting with your bow and arrows. I am giving you permission to enter the Forbidden Forest; I know you can take care of yourself, but do not tell anyone else where you go. I cannot show favoritism. There area few lower class demons, but they are quite far in. Closer to the castle you will encounter unicorns and centaurs. Maybe even a giant." Dumbledore said.
"Thank you. I'll keep practicing."
"But school comes first; no miko jaunts before your homework is done." Dumbledore said playfully.
"Shall I go now?"
"Yes. I will have a painting show you the way to the Common Room. You got my letter with the password, right?"
"Yes Papa. Thank you!"
"Good night, Kagome." Dumbledore said softly.
--
Kagome yawned, and slipped into her bed. It had been a tiring walk back to the common room, escorted by some deranged knight on a 'quest'. Really, her grandfather had to learn to make less eccentric friends.
"How was your meeting with Dumbledore?" Hermione asked quietly.
"Good. Just wanted to make sure I was settling in alright." Kagome said. "'Night Hermione."
"Goodnight."
--
Kagome woke with the sun, and quietly moved out of the dorm into the Common Room. No one else was up yet, so Kagome curled up in an armchair by the fire.
She stared into the fire for a while, and yelped when a head popped out of it.
"Who are you?!" Kagome screamed in Japanese.
"Shhh! What did you say?" the man said, shaking his ash covered head and looking around the room.
"Who are you? Why are you in the fire?"
"Just get Harry Potter." The man said, still glancing around wildly. "No one's supposed to be up.." he mumbled.
Kagome scrambled away from the stranger in the fire, and ran up the steps to the boys dorm.
"Harry! Harry!" she whispered fiercly.
"Ka-Kagome?" Harry said, sitting up and putting his glasses on.
"There's a man in the fire talking and he asked for you!" Kagome said.
"Sirius!"
"Who?"
"No one. I'll be right down."
Harry swept past Kagome and ran down the cold stone steps to the fire.
"Sirius! That was dangerous! You're lucky it was just Kagome that found you."
Kagome returned to the girl's dorm, understanding that it was a personal conversation.
"Just Kagome? Anybody seeing me is trouble! I didn't think anyone would be up so early. I was just checking in on you."
"Kagome's new to the magical world – she won't know who you are. She's from Japan."
"Are you sure? I'm positve I've heard that name before." Sirius said. "Maybe Dumbledore mentioned her once."
"Probably. She's a new student in 5th year, he's bound to have said something."
"No, no. Not recently. He mentioned the name when I was still in school."
"Then it was a different Kagome. Anyways, what did you want to say?"
"I was checking in on you. We didn't get a proper goodbye."
"Oh." Harry sighed in relief, having wondered if Voldemort had been active.
"I've got to get going. Try and come up with something other than I'm a wanted criminal to keep your Japanese friend occupied with, okay?" Sirius said, his face fading back into the ashes.
"'Kay."
--
Harry and Kagome hadn't talked since the incident with the fire, and Kagome seemed to be avoiding the subject, much to Harry's relief. The group had gone to breakfast, Ron and Hermione not even noticing the slight tension between the two dark-haired friends.
"So we have Defense Against the Dark Arts first, all of us together!" Hermione said. "I can't wait for classes to start."
"But it's with that frumpy old toad Umbridge." Ron pointed out.
"But it's Defense Against the Dark Arts! It's hard to make that class dull." Hermione pointed out.
Kagome listened, interested in this class.
"What do you do in this class?"
"We learn spells to defend ourselves. It should be even more helpful now that Voldemort is back."
"Oh." They entered the Great Hall and sat down together to eat breakfast.
Kagome yelped in surprise when the owls came swooping through the windows, dropping packages left and right.
"Don't worry, it's just the mail. And look, you have a letter!"
"Who's it from?" Ron asked.
"Inuyasha!" Kagome smiled. He'd written (well, scratched in some ancient kanjis) a letter to her. Probably mom's idea… Kagome thought.
"Say what?" Ron said.
"My friend from Japan sent me a letter." Kagome said. "He's not normally this sweet."
"That's nice of him. Viktor sent me a letter, too." Hermione said, holding up several pages of parchment.
Ron choked;
"You're still in touch with Krum?"
Kagome gave up even trying to understand what her English friends were talking about.
"So what if I am? He's very sweet; he wants me to visit his home next summer."
Ron coughed louder.
"And you're not going, right?"
"What if I am?" Hermione repeated stubbornly.
Harry sighed, and interrupted the fight.
"C'mon. We're going to be late for class if you two keep this up."
"Fine." Hermione and Ron stopped talking and gathered their things, moving out of the hall and towards their class.
"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I am Dolores Umbridge and I will be your teacher this year. Please be silent and read the first two chapters of your textbook. No wands will be necessary."
Kagome sighed; her grandfather had already made her read all of her textbooks in an effort to catch her up.
"Professor Umbridge? I've finished the book already." Kagome said, beating Hermione to it.
"I have too." Hermione added.
"Read it again."
Harry and Ron stared at the two girls as they glared angrily at their teacher. Both seemed to share a passion for learning and being told to reread a book instead of learn something new had shocked the two students.
"But professor –"
"Kindly refrain from talking. Speak again, and it will be a detention."
Kagome frowned unhappily. Her grandfather hired teachers like this? Hermione too looked rather disgruntled and opened her book with a loud clatter. Harry and Ron read slowly and silently, afraid to even say one word to the girls. Their wrath was almost scarier than the new teacher's pinky, frilly talk-and-die attitude.
The class passed silently, the clock ticking loudly and Umbridge staring down at them disapprovingly as if they were still doing something wrong.
When they were finally dismissed, both Kagome and Hermione slammed their books closed, already half way through again.
"That teacher is ridiculous!" Kagome cried, frustrated.
"I haven't learnt anything!" Hermione wailed. "This year is going to be awful."
Harry and Ron just watched the two rant, happy that Hermione had found a kindred spirit to complain about the lackings of their education with.
"Transfiguration should be better. Dumbledore placed us all in the Animagus class – we should get to learn to transform ourselves." Harry said consolingly to the distraught pair of girls.
"An Animagus?" Kagome asked.
"A person who has mastered the skill to transform into a specific animal. I think Dumbledore created this advanced class after my dad and his friends taught themselves, rather than have everyone do that and end up half way in between." Harry explained.
"Then we don't want to be late." Hermione said, ushering them towards the Transfiguration classroom.
--
This is, yet again, longer than usual. I'm on a roll! I've always liked the Animagus idea so I've decided (on the spur of the moment at the end of this chapter) to include it. I actually think it improves my plot. Jost a reminder that this does not follow the plot to the 5th book, because anyone can put another character a scene and I like making my own plots. Plus Sirius has always been my favorite character and I don't think I could kill him off… I cried for days when it happened in the book.