Author's note: I'm gettin' all hyped up on the updates. Yay, me! … Okay, maybe not so good, because I know I'm still being REALLY slow, but…well, I've got a list of excuses and assorted inanimate objects I could blame, but I'll just let you draw your own conclusions. Point is: I'm sorry-sorry-sorry, and I hope you can forgive me and not let your hatred of me colour your opinion of my writing. Don't blame poor Mizuki-chan and the others for my mistakes! All right, I'll shut up now and let you get on about with the reading of the fanfic.
P.S. Thanks to EVERYONE for reviewing. Don't think I forgot about all my reviewers!
The girl drove about as well as the driver of the Knight Bus, too, even without the speed. She kept flinging the truck around corners, nearly mowed down two pedestrians, and fairly destroyed a full six-pack of beer that was laying in the street.
This last event caused her to burst into giggles, nearly laying on the steering wheel and roar with laughter. "Did…did you see that?" she gasped, slowing down a bit and barely keeping the truck in the right lane.
"Good Lord, Mizuki-chan! That was…you're…you're insane!" Aunt Petunia said, the upper half of her body flung across the arm rest they shared.
"I know!" Mizuki giggled, wiping tears from her eyes and sitting up a little straighter.
She slowed down a bit for the rest of the drive, even after they swung into a nearby fast food restaurant for milkshakes. Nevertheless, Harry spent a fair amount of time clinging to the seat and his own clothing in terror, his knuckles white.
"So, are we going to tell the kid what's waiting for him, or are we just going to sort of spring it on him?" Mizuki asked around a mouthful of chocolate milkshake.
Aunt Petunia glanced back at Harry, who still clutched a rather large handful of his hooded sweatshirt. "Are you all right, Harry?" She, at least, seemed to have adjusted to Mizuki's out-of-control driving, and now just leaned gracefully to one side or another when the younger girl took a particularly wild turn.
He nodded, not trusting his own voice.
Mizuki laughed. "I think I scared the voice out of him!"
Aunt Petunia slapped her arm gently. "Mizuki-chan, be nice. It's not every day the poor boy gets sent on a rampaging ride of death," she scolded. "But then, you do seem to manage it at least once a year," she added, glancing at Harry.
He blinked. "You know about that?" he said, surprise briefly overriding his fear.
"Of course. You think you're the only one with connections in your wizarding world?" Aunt Petunia said loftily.
"Who do you know?" he demanded.
The women exchanged exasperated glances. "Let's just say that we–well, Kagura, at least–probably grew up with at least half the people you've known for six years," Mizuki said.
He stared at the two, his eyes darting from one to the other. He finally settled on Aunt Petunia. She was the one who had shocked him most. He was rather used to people entering his life and saying strange things, but Aunt Petunia had been one of those things he could count on: she would always hate him, and love Dudley, and that was simply the end of that. But now…
"W-what was that she was calling you?" he asked her.
Aunt Petunia laughed. "Oh! Harry, my name isn't really Petunia Dursley. I'm Kagura Sohma, and this is my cousin, Mizuki Sohma. We all had to change our names when we went into hiding," she explained.
Mizuki wiggled her fingers over her shoulder at him. "Hey. I kept my name, thankyouverymuch," she said, shooting Aunt Petunia–Kagura. Her name's Kagura, Harry reminded himself rather forcefully–an annoyed look.
Kagura rolled her eyes. "Okay, we all, EXCEPT FOR MIZUKI-CHAN, changed our names," she corrected.
Mizuki laughed. Harry was beginning to notice that she did that a lot, and, in turn, influenced Kagura to do the same. "Get your facts right, Kagura-chan!"
"I'm so sorry if I've been dealing with a lot. I'll ignore all that to pay attention to every detail of your life," Kagura said sarcastically.
Mizuki grinned. "Good," she said happily.
"About how long do we have until we get there?" Kagura asked, apparently choosing to ignore Mizuki's last comment.
"Um…an hour, maybe. Hour and a half if we get stuck in traffic," Mizuki replied, glancing at the clock set into the dash. Instead of the usual glowing, green numbers, this one bore scripty, glowing, silver numbers, with four different times displayed. Harry blinked at it, then looked at Kagura. At this point, the odd clock was the most normal thing that had happened that night.
Kagura twisted around in her seat to look Harry in the eyes. "Mizuki-chan told you about the curse and everything, didn't she?" she said.
Harry nodded. "How I'm…a dragon?"
"Right. Did she explain what that means? About being hugged and everything?"
Harry nodded again. "Yeah."
"What do you think we talked about? The price of tea in China?" Mizuki demanded, her voice dripping with mock offence.
"I just wanted to make sure before I started telling him about all this other stuff!" Kagura sighed.
"What…other stuff?" Harry said slowly.
"Um…all right. We'll start with this," Kagura said, half to herself. She smiled at Harry and shifted into a more comfortable position. "You're possessed with the spirit of the Dragon," she began.
"Wait…I'm possessed!"
"Not the biggest news you're going to get, so calm down," Mizuki said serenely in response to his widened eyes.
"Yeah. And…your mom's not dead."