T.T Still no reviews...maybe I ought to put this in the Harry Potter section instead.

Chapter 4: Summer's End

Sarah

I spent the rest of the summer locked up in my bedroom with Lucky and my schoolbooks. I didn't like The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, because I found it dull. I read it through nonetheless—who knew when I was likely to see a dark wizard? Were they even around anymore? I'm sure they were. People like that don't just disappear.

I found One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi fascinating, though I didn't read it from end to end with rapt attention. It was more of one of those look-it-up books than a textbook. Now Magical Drafts and Potions was interesting—probably one of the few things anyone could have done without the aid of magic, and yet subtlety magic nonetheless. I was too frightened to try mixing up a potion right there in my house. First off, my dad and brothers would want to know, and second, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to yet or not.

Now, A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration was awesome. I couldn't wait to try changing colors of things, and the shapes and the textures. Probably what interested me most was The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, because I was fascinated by simply going through the motions of the various spells with my new wand.

I had bought other books, things about the school (Hogwarts: A History) and stuff about famous witches and wizards (Order of Merlin and The Real Circe), but my schoolbooks were so far beyond anything I'd ever thought possible that I focused on them above anything else.

Of course, my dad had been really weirded out by the sudden appearance of me with a trunk full of stuff (locked) and a live bird of prey. Dad didn't know what was in my trunk, of course. The bird was what he knew about. I cleaned Lucky's cage every week, and fed him and watered him. He sat on my shoulder as I read, and sometimes accompanied me to the kitchen table. Lucky didn't spend a lot of time in his cage, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Lucky was also, I recalled about a week before term was supposed to begin, a mail bird. His main objective was to deliver letters for me. I really had no idea how that was supposed to work, considering. I decided to test it, just to see how it would work.

I wrote a brief note to Kurama and Kaz, telling them how I was enjoying reading my textbooks and how baffled my dad was with Lucky's presence. I folded up the note and sealed it with a sticker. I flipped it over and paused for a minute.

"Well, Lucky, I hope you know what you're doing, because I don't," I said. With that, I simply wrote Kazuma Nobunaga on the outside of the note and fixed it to Lucky's talon with some spare yarn. I opened a window and off Lucky flew into the night.

I unlocked my bedroom door after locking up the rest of my books and the notes I'd been taking on several rolls of parchment.

"Where's your bird at?" Dad asked as he peered into the room. He was probably waiting for me to come out, because the last time I'd checked he'd been in the living room.

"He's flying," I said. I went to the kitchen to get something to eat. "Relax, dad, Lucky isn't rabid. He's my pet."

"I know, you explained before," Dad said. The last time we'd had this discussion, I had told dad that I was watching the bird for a zoologist friend of mine while he was away in Turkey. So far, the lie had worked.

Matt and David were playing Guitar Hero in the living room when I entered. I smirked and grabbed the mic and a controller. "Let me play!"

The boys groaned but relented. I played through several songs with them before mom called us into the kitchen for supper.

We were halfway through supper when Lucky flew in from the window with a roll of parchment attached to his talon, and it wasn't mine. Dad, Matt, and David watched as I carefully pulled the parchment off and looked at the letter.
"Who is that, dear?" Mom asked nonchalantly. "Your friend in Turkey?"

"No, it's that guy from school," I said, perusing the note.

We're reading up, as well. Glad you've been able to discover how the letters work, we had no idea.

Kaz

The writing was simple, and he had no joined letters. He wrote neatly, as though he had only recently learned the alphabet. I was sure, from a Japanese perspective, that his writing was very well progressed. I smiled to myself as Lucky plucked a bit of steak from my fork.

"He's glad the 'pigeon' was able to figure out where he lives."

Kurama

Kaz's cat had taken the potions with some difficulty, but the changes were immediate. Eikichi was more energetic and intelligent. He hardly required a litter box any longer—he used the toilet like any normal being. He didn't talk, but you could see how he was listening. I transformed into my fox form just for curiosity's sake, and got a very plaintive shock.

"So the fox finally figured it out," Eikichi "said", a smirk coloring his golden eyes. "It's so obvious. I can communicate, you know."

"So I see," I said. "Are you enjoying your new level of intellect, Eikichi?"

"Duh!" He started cleaning his face. "It's like waking up from a long sleep. Kaz takes good care of me and all, but it's good to finally talk to someone who can understand."

"I see what you mean," I said. And I did. It must have been awful being alone as an animal for so long. "If you ever need to talk, come to me. I'll find a way to transform."

"Thanks, Kurama. Nice of you."

"Not at all."

With that, I'd transformed back into my typical red-haired human self. Hina and Kaz were in the kitchen as she cooked for our final night "home". I had been warned by the Eeylops shopkeeper that it may take up to a week for my owl to make a round trip from Japan and back, but I didn't mind too terribly much. Mother would understand, though the avenue the letter was arriving would be odd.

After all, Mother would expect my letters via post, though she did know that I was in England. I had decided that it would be best to send both Kaz's and my letters to Shizuru, and she could take my letters to Mother and gather the replies. I hated to ask that of Shizuru, but I really had no choice without telling Mother everything.

Hina had played the part of our mother flawlessly. However, there had been one minor flaw in Koenma's plan to have her visit us at the school every two weeks. Hogwarts, while already being unplottable, was located somewhere in Scotland. Hina would never find the place, let alone be able to visit every two weeks.

"I'll just write you," Hina said, smiling. "I'm sure Okuroshi can make it to Japan once a week and here once every two."

"But should our letters be found?" I wondered.

"Why don't you use invisible ink from one of your plants, Kurama?" asked Kaz, spooning himself some rice, steamed vegetables, and a couple of yakitori. It was probably the last recognizably Japanese meal we'd have for some time.

"That's true," I said. There were several Makai plants that would make excellent invisible inks that would not be revealed by magical means, or so I hoped. The only way to test that was to wait until I was aboard the Hogwarts Express tomorrow morning, and even then I should probably wait until I have a moment of privacy. "I'll leave the revealers for the inks I'll try behind for you, Hina. Most likely, I'll use the leaf juices from a tala plant to write, so you'd need the roots to reveal it."

I grew a decent amount of three of the more prominent invisible ink revealers and left her with several months' supply, and a few of the plants just in case.

With that done, and dinner eaten and put away, Kaz and I retreated to our room to pack up the rest of our things for the next day. I picked up the book that Mr. Flourish had given us, glad to have the book in my grasp. It had detailed how wizarding families lived, and a variety of jobs we could have after Hogwarts. In addition, I'd learned about why the wizarding world was so cut off from the Muggle world.

And, consequently, why Koenma didn't have access to it. Witches and wizards had been oppressed for centuries by religious peoples around the world—a famous case being that of Salem in the United States. Because of the way Koenma's father, King Enma, had treated the wizarding world for so long, the people inhabiting it were paranoid and protective of what little remained theirs.

I had learned how they traveled—the Floo Network, and Apparating—about ghosts and goblins and dragons and house elves. It had even told me about what kinds of sweets were available, and not to be afraid of moving paintings and pictures and moving staircases. I was about as prepared an eleven-year-old non-Wizarding child could ever have been.

Yet still, as Kaz and I laid down to sleep for the next morning, I couldn't help but feel the old excitement stir within me. To learn something brand new, without the hindrance of having to go it alone as I had when I first reached the Human World.

I fell asleep and dreamt of changing Kuwabara's hair purple and starting up a band called Which Witch is Which.

Although you will find dreams mean a lot in this story, some of them just end up being silly. Like Kurama's.