7th Year

Chapter Four: Letters and Shadows

A few days later, Lavena went to Genkai's temple to talk to Yukina.

"I still can't believe he did that." Lavena said to her friend as they sat on Genkai's porch drinking tea. Yukina dutifully nodded her head as she had done the last fifty times after Lavena had said the exact same thing.

"He won't even tell me where he is." Lavena continued, oblivious to the fact that she was ranting. "He keeps saying I'm too inexperienced, too ignorant of how to use my energy. What does he think I've been doing all this time since I found out I was a half demon?" She exclaimed, nearly spilling her tea as she flung her arms over her head in frustration.

Yukina deftly steadied the cup before it fell and spilled its contents all over the floor. "I'm sure that Koenma is as stressed over this as you are." She said, trying to calm her friend.

Lavena gave a short bark of a laugh. "Yeah, because I'm the one that's making him so stressed out." She stared out at Genkai's forest and started to sulk.

Yukina sighed. Lavena had been like this almost all summer. Occasionally, she went up to the Spirit World to yell at Koenma, but so far it hadn't done any good. She was just as clueless as to where Kurama and the others had gone as she had been at the beginning of summer.

Botan suddenly landed in front of them.

"Good morning girls!" She said cheerfully as her oar disappeared. "Isn't it a beautiful-"She abruptly stopped when she saw Lavena's sour face. "Day?" She finished in a small voice. "Uhhh, I have a letter for you Yukina." Botan said nervously and handed the other blue haired girl a small envelope with what appeared to be chicken scratch written on it.

"Thank you Botan." Yukina said as she opened the envelope. Inside was more chicken scratch with a signature at the bottom of the letter. "It's from Kazuma." She told her friends as she began to read.

When she was done she looked over at Lavena.

"Here Lavena," She handed the letter over. "You'll probably want to read this."

Lavena looked at her questioningly. "Why would I want to read something Kuwabara wrote?" She asked as she took the piece of paper, but started reading nonetheless. A few moments later she stopped and a look of absolute joy spread across her face.

"I'm going to Britain!!!" She yelled, startling both her friends, who quickly tried to cover their ears.

"What? Lavena wait," Botan cried when she realized what Lavena had said.

But Lavena had already dashed to her room to pack her things. Yukina and Botan could hear her singing and occasionally squeaking to herself.

"What's the matter Botan?" Yukina asked when Botan groaned.

"Lord Koenma doesn't want Lavena to leave the city, much less the country." She said as she sat down. "He wants to keep an eye on her in case another demon tries to kidnap her again to gain the power that the Ultimate being gave her."

Yukina looked back down the hall where Lavena was still singing. "What if you and I went with her?" She asked. "We could help out Kazuma and his friends with their mission as well as watching out for Lavena. Maybe I could even help them by finding the Ice Maiden they're looking for.

Botan thought about it. "Yes," She said acting more like her normal cheery self. "That would work. If anything happened to Lavena, or even to any of the others, I could fly right back to Lord Koenma and tell him. This way, everyone's happy." She cried and threw out her arms and gave Yukina a huge hug.

"Oh, Yukina you're a genius!" She cried and smiled from ear to ear as she let go of her friend and held her at arms length to look at her.

"Th-thank you Botan." Yukina stammered, surprised by her friends sudden actions.

Suddenly Botan backed up. "I'd still better tell Lord Koenma what's going on though, so I'll be right back." She quickly hopped on her oar and flew off into the midmorning sky with a bright, "See ya later!"

Yukina sat down and let out a sigh. Sometimes her friends could be very strange. Still, it would be nice to see Kazuma and his friends again. Although she would have to tell Master Genkai that she would be leaving, and there were a few other things to take care of before she left.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Lavena cried pulling a suitcase that looked like it was about to explode with her. Yukina turned to look at Lavena.

"And packing is one of them." She said to herself.

"Huh?" Lavena asked.

Yukina smiled. "Oh, nothing, I was just talking to myself." She stood up and went inside. "I'm going to go pack. Tell me when Botan gets back." She called the last sentence over her shoulder and Lavena assured her that she would, and then she sat down on the porch to wait.

*******

Several time zones away, Kurama was working by the light of a small, gently glowing plant as he sat in his assigned room. He was thankful that student teachers here received their own rooms, so he didn't have to sleep in the student dormitories. He looked up from what he was doing and glanced out the window. He sighed. It was roughly 2 in the morning, but he hadn't been able to sleep because at home it would be about 10 a.m. He sighed a second time. It appeared it would be hard adjusting to the radically different time zone here in Britain. He silently began to tinker with Yusuke's broken communicator. It had gotten smashed in his pocket while he and Kuwabara had been rough housing on the train and Kurama was doing his best to repair it, even though he didn't know a single thing about it. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, then went back to working on the small compact mirror.

The next thing he knew, he was awaken by someone pounding on his door. He looked down at his watch, and then remembered that it didn't work here. He yawned and stretched his stiff neck, realizing that he had fallen asleep after patching up Yusuke's communicator.

"Hey Kurama are you awake?" Called the person who had been pounding on the door.

Well speak of the devil. Kurama thought to himself as he got up to open the door and admit his friends.

"What is it Yusuke?" Kurama asked in a slightly drowsy tone.

Yusuke was smirking slightly to himself at the slight of the mussed up fox. "I guess someone just got up." He snickered, causing Kurama to give him a hard look.

Yusuke just shrugged it off. "I was just coming to tell you that you're going to miss breakfast if you don't hurry, and that the new professor isn't here yet and according to one of the other teachers, she probably won't be here for a couple of weeks."

Kurama grimaced. He honestly did not want to be here that long. "Thanks Yusuke, I'll be down in a minute." He closed the door before Yusuke could give him any more unwelcome news.

Kurama quickly changed and went to find breakfast in the Great Hall. He barely made it in time to snatch a piece of toast before heading to the greenhouse where Professor Sprout was expecting him.

Despite the fact that Kurama would rather be anywhere else, he found the class he was helping to 'teach' very interesting. He had never had the chance to thoroughly study the human wizard's flora. The wizarding community was one of the more secretive circles in the human world so, seeing as how he couldn't get out of it anyway, Kurama planned to take advantage of this little glimpse into their society.

It was around the middle of the morning that Kurama saw that the three students who had shown Yusuke, Kuwabara, and him to the school were standing at the end of the table, talking amongst themselves in hushed voices. There seemed to be something different about the boy in the middle. He didn't look that different from the other students except...

Kurama's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Except he had traces of demonic energy surrounding him. Kurama reached out with his own senses to see if there was indeed another demon nearby, but all he could find were his friends.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly called loudly near his ear. Kurama looked over to see another boy staring at him, probably another seventh year.

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom?" It took him a moment to remember the student's name.

Neville Longbottom gave his new 'student teacher' a look full of suspicion. Kurama could tell that he was wondering why he had been watching Mr. Potter. From what Botan had told him and the others before she left them at the station, Harry Potter was the young man who had defeated a Lord Voldemort. She had also said that Voldemort had been an incredibly powerful dark wizard that could've probably taken on a lower class demon and survived. However, he had been defeated earlier this year by Harry Potter, although from his friend's actions, they were still worried about his supporters at the moment.

"You're from Japan aren't you?" Neville asked as he went back to his work.

"Yes," Kurama answered not looking up from his own assignment.

It was silent for a moment, and then Neville started speaking again, just not in English.

"Why are you watching Harry?" He asked quietly, so only Kurama could hear.

"You speak Japanese very well Mr. Longbottom. Where did you learn it?" Kurama asked casually, never looking up at his 'student'.

Neville refused to look up as well. "My great aunt lives in Japan. My Gran and I go to see her at least once every year, so they both thought it would be wise for me to learn how to speak Japanese. Why are you watching Harry?" He asked again, his tone was so normal it was like he had just continued speaking about his family.

Kurama continued to ignore his question. "And you actually learned the old fashioned way? You don't use a charm?" Kurama was pleasantly surprised that this young wizard had not used the easiest solution to his problem. He had expected most of the children here to be like the pampered brats that he was used to being classmates with at college. It was an excellent school that was mostly attended by higher class children that usually didn't have a brain in their rich little heads.

Neville just shrugged at Kurama's question. "My Gran and Great Aunt thought it would be better if I learned at least most of it myself. Now," He said sternly and finally met the eyes of his curious 'teacher'. "What do you want with Harry?"

Kurama realized from stubborn look on his face that Neville was not going to drop the subject. "Nothing," He answered simply and watched as Neville narrowed his eyes in disbelief.

"What do you mean nothing?"

Kurama's green eyes bored into Neville's blue ones as he spoke. "My friends and I do not want Harry Potter." He emphasized the latter half of the sentence to make sure that Mr. Longbottom got the gist of what he was saying.

Neville stared at him for a moment longer then turned back to his work with a small nod.

Kurama hoped that Neville would tell the other Harry Potter Protectors that he believed the new student teacher was telling the truth. The last thing he or the others needed was a bunch of seventeen year olds watching their every move.

*******

Later that night, the Forbidden Forest was silent. There wasn't a sound for miles as if all the creatures had just picked up and left. The only thing that moved was the shadows. One in particular slithered across the ground, acting more like a living thing instead of just a place that the moon light didn't reach. It slunk across the dead leaves that seemed to permanently litter the forest floor as it made its way to its hideaway. However, the leaves that rustled in the slightest gust of wind made no sound as it passed over them.

Soon, the black splotch arrived at the abandoned rabbit burrow that it was using as its residence for the time being. It slid down, like mud that was pouring through a hole, and plopped down inside. Its insides started to squirm and wriggle like ink that was being squished in a plastic bag, until things that resembled a head and limbs were stretched out of its new torso like clay. Now the black splotch resembled a creature somewhere between a snake and a turtle, including gleaming red eyes that had appeared on its new head. Quickly, it scuttled off in a bug like fashion down the short hallway until it reached the main chamber.

"So, the fox demon sensed my energy on the boy, did he?" The shadow demon thought to himself as settled down in the main chamber for sleep. "Well, that will make it harder for me to play with the young wizard." It smiled evilly to itself as it shifted into a black blotch once more. After its wriggling stopped, its smirk left and it began to think seriously about what the former spirit detectives' presence meant.

"They will make it harder for me to collect the items." It thought angrily, causing its gelatinous form to ripple like dark water on an old pond, and then it smoothed its wrinkles decisively.

"No! They could not know that I am here." It told itself firmly. "They must be here for the missing ice witch. They won't know that I'm here until after they leave, and by then it will be too late." It muttered the last part to itself like a twisted version of a lullaby and eventually fell asleep, its words still hanging in the air.