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Here's the next chapter from Toshiro's POV. It's a nice long chapter so I hope you'll all enjoy it :)


Toshiro POV

Sleeping in a bed was not something I was used to. It was way too fluffy for comfort and I was already wishing I had a futon to sleep on. Another problem in the room was the snoring which came from two of the five other beds. One of them was Ron and the other one the round faced boy called Neville who had lost his toad on the train.

Halfway through the night I decided to give up on sleeping and went downstairs to be met by Yuriko who was sleeping in one of the armchairs. I walked up to her as quietly as possible and poked her in her side. 'Aah!' she yelled and she grabbed at the thin air where her zanpakuto normally was. 'Crap,' she muttered as her fingers only found thin air. 'Don't do that, Shiro,' she growled as she glared at me.

I plopped down on the chair opposite Yuriko and stared at the now smouldering fire. 'Couldn't sleep either?' Yuriko asked after a while. 'No, the bed is too fluffy and two boys in my room can't sleep without sawing through a rainforest at the same time,' I sighed. 'It was just the bed for me… oh, and Granger who was muttering parts of our textbooks in her sleep.' We sat in silence, like we often did, for another few minutes. 'We could go walk around the castle and see what we can find out about that Quirrell guy,' I suggested when I was done with staring at the fire. 'Sure, why not. It's not like we're going to be able to sleep.'

I pulled out my gikongan and plopped a pill into my mouth. A second later my shinigami form emerged from my gigai and it felt great. I had to admit that these gigai were better than the usual ones but it still felt better to be in my shinigami form. Yuriko was in shinigami form as well by now and was stretching her body before grabbing her zanpakuto from her back and just holding it. We both had our zanpakuto's on our backs as they were too large for us to wear at our hips. This might change when our bodies would grow, but for now this would have to do. Not that it bothered either of us as we were used to it.

We instructed our konpaku, who were now in our gigai, that they had to go to our dorms and stay there. They both nodded and bowed to us before walking upstairs towards our respective dorms. Yuriko pushed the portrait away and we both climbed out. The fat lady in the portrait looked confused at the spot where we were standing. 'Must be the wind,' she muttered after looking around a bit. She swung her portrait back again and closed her eyes to go to sleep.

I nudged Yuriko and started walking down the corridor. Quirrell's office was a few floors below us so I went to the first staircase I could find and jumped down. I landed silently on the floor below and a second later Yuriko landed next to me. We ran through the castle and passed several teachers who were patrolling the corridors for students who might sneak out of bed. I thought I saw some of them look up when we ran passed but that had to be an illusion; no one could see us now.

We used shunpo a couple of times and soon found ourselves at the door of professor Quirrell's office. I tried the door, but it was locked which meant we would have to go the long way around. Yuriko had already thought of this as I felt a cold breeze come through a now opened window. We jumped outside and used our reiatsu to stay airborne as we made our way to Quirrell's office window. The room had three windows and one of them was open which made entering without making a noise that much easier.

I motioned for Yuriko to go on ahead and check whatever was in his desk as I made my way down the spiral staircase and into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. I walked straight to the teacher's desk and started going through the various drawers in search of something suspicious but didn't find anything. 'Shiro-kun, I think I've found something,' Yuriko called from upstairs. I flashed to her side to see that she was holding some pieces of parchment with scribbles on them. Each of them had a date at the top and it appeared they were all from August this year. 'Take a look at this one,' Yuriko said. She handed me the top piece and continued with reading through the others herself. I started reading the parchment and didn't really know what to make of it. This looked like some kind of journal from his holiday but then the thriller version of it.

"As I walked deeper into the forest I could tell that something was wrong. The animals weren't making a sound or maybe that was just because there were no animals. Some of the people in the village had warned me not to go into this forest but I had to. This forest had been on my travel list for so long that I couldn't just ignore it. It is supposed to be full of magical creatures and I want to find as much of them as I can. Maybe I can learn something from them for my classes this year.

As I'm sitting on the forest floor writing this the everlasting silence around me seems to thicken. It might just be my imagination but I was sure I saw something move a second ago, but now everything is as it was before. I'm going to try and get some sle…"

That's where the short story on this parchment ended and I had a feeling that the reason he stopped was written on the next pages. I nudged Yuriko to give me the next one which she did without looking up. "He tells me everything is going to be alright. That he will never hurt me and I believe him. He needs me as much as I need him and I'm proud that he trusts me so much to let me carry him with me. The only catch is that I can't tell anyone about him, but that isn't going to be a problem. I've already gotten the turban from my earlier trip so I can just wear that so no one will see him." A few lines are left over before he continued in a much sloppier scribble.

"He asked me to help him and I did, he asked me to hide him and I did, but what he is asking now is something so revolting and morally wrong that I'm thinking that I might have made a mistake. It is a crime to do what he asks of me and yet… I have no choice. He controls me and his need for this one thing is too great for me to ignore. I don't want to do it but I have to. I just hope no one will ever find out." Another few blank lines and after that the handwriting got even worse. "I'm back in Britain and people are starting to notice things. After my time in the forest and doing things I wished I hadn't done have made me skittish and afraid. I'm stuttering more than ever and I just don't know what to do. He tells me to just make up a story about how a vampire scared me so much in Albania that I've become like this. Maybe I should just do that… I once again don't have any other choice. It's just for a little longer as he will be able to live on his own soon enough."

Yuriko handed me the final piece of parchment on which the handwriting had become so bad that I had to do my best to make out the words. "I met him… the one he's after. It was an honour to meet him… but he tells me not to think like that… It hurts… it hurts the longer he stays with me, but I can't do anything about it. I have been getting him what he needs, but it doesn't seem to sustain him for as long as it once did. People will get suspicious if I keep this up. I'll be going back to the castle soon and I just hope that the headmaster won't notice anything. He says that it will all be fine and that we'll get what we are looking for soon. I guess I have no choice but to trust him."

I put the parchment down and shook my head. This wasn't good at all. Whoever Quirrell had taken with him from his vacation was up to no good. We had to find out where this person was and get rid of him. 'Let's see what else we can find,' Yuriko suggested. I nodded and went back to the classroom to see if I could find something. I looked through all the cupboards en desks but there was nothing I could find that mind indicate who the man was that Quirrell had taken with him.

'Master, I hope this was enough for the coming weeks?' A hesitant voice asked from the corridor. My head snapped to the door and before I could call her Yuriko appeared at my side. 'It seems that he's taken his little friend with him,' Yuriko mused. I nodded and remained quiet to hear more of the conversation. The conversation had stopped though as the lock was turned and the door to the classroom opened. Quirrell entered the room on his own and closed the door behind him without letting anyone else in. He was about to turn around when something seemed to stop him. 'A presence? What kind of presence?' Quirrell asked to the thin air before him. He spun around and his eyes darted towards the spot where Yuriko and I were standing. 'I can't see anything, master,' he squeaked. 'We'd better get out of here,' Yuriko whispered. I nodded and we both ran upstairs and jumped out of the office window before Quirrell or his invisible friend could do anything.

We raced back to the Gryffindor tower using shunpo to go faster and I was relieved when we were once again standing in the common room. The fire had gone completely out by now and Setsuna had found a sleeping spot on one of the armchairs. We said our goodnights at the staircase and I walked upstairs at a normal speed. My konpaku was lying on my bed and I stepped into it gratefully. We had learned a few things tonight which we had to tell sotaicho-dono. I was sure Shota would be up for a little trip so sending a letter first thing tomorrow morning wouldn't be a problem.

I had no idea when I had fallen asleep on my too-soft-for-comfort bed, but what I did know was that I was woken up by my five roommates' overly excited screams. 'Wake up, Toshiro! Today is our first day of classes!' Harry yelled happily over the calls and screams from the others. 'You don't have to yell "wake up" when everyone is already acting like alarm clocks,' I growled as I untangled myself from my sheets. 'You're not really a morning person, are you?' Ron asked while trying to pull his pants over his head. 'No, I'm just not into the whole childish-screaming-when-you-wake-up thing,' I retorted. Ron huffed and wanted to response but got distracted by his failure at dressing.

'Toshiro… we are still children,' Harry said as if this justified their behaviour. 'Then I guess I'm just more mature than you guys are.' I heard Ron snort at this remark which made me grin. They had no idea how much more mature I was compared to them. I quickly dressed, went down to the common room and wrote a letter for sotaicho-dono about what Yuriko and I had found out last night. By the time I had finished the others came trooping down in single file. It amazed me how they clustered together like that and I wondered whether they were going to do so the entire school year.

I nodded to all of them and headed to the portrait hole. 'Aren't you going to wait for Yuriko?' Neville asked. 'I think she'll be able to find the Great Hall on her own, so no,' I replied without looking back. I went to the owlery to find Shota but the bird wasn't there. Cursing the fact that my communicator wasn't working I walked back down towards the Great Hall where breakfast would be served. I quickly located Yuriko and went to sit next to her. 'Did you use Shota to send a message?' I asked while grabbing a piece of toast. 'No, why?' 'I wanted to send a letter about what we had found out but Shota wasn't in the owlery,' I shrugged and took a bite of the toast. 'Maybe he went hunting. He should be back by lunch time so let's try to send it then,' Yuriko suggested.

The others from the first year arrived then as a herd of sheep which ended our conversation. While everyone, including Yuriko, was talking excitingly about the first day of school I let my eyes wander around the Great Hall. All the younger students were talking excitingly about the first school day while the older ones were just quietly eating breakfast or reading the paper. The staff at the high table was talking quietly amongst themselves and only Quirrell and Snape were quiet without looking at anyone. As I took another bite of my toast a rustling sound caught my attention and I looked up to see a massive amount of owls flying into the Great Hall. They all circled above us until they found their respective owner and flew towards him or her to give a letter or parcel.

I soon spotted Shota's yellowish feathers between all the brown and he was carrying something with him. He soon spotted me as well and swooped down. The bird landed gracefully on my shoulder and held out his leg to me so that I could take off whatever it was he was carrying. I quickly took it off and looked at it to see that it was the same newspaper other students were reading as well. 'Why did you―' I started to ask when Yuriko snatched the paper from my hands. 'I thought this was the best way to keep up with things that are going on in the magical world. If anything out of the ordinary happens it will probably be in the paper,' Yuriko explained quickly before burying her nose in the paper.

Shota hooted happily, probably at having delivered the paper successfully, and dipped his beak in my goblet of pumpkin juice. I didn't really mind as the orange substance wasn't one of my favourite drinks. I quickly pulled out my letter to Yamamoto sotaicho and attached it to Shota's leg. He gave me what I could only describe as a questioning look and I quickly whispered Urahara's address to him. The lady at the owl store had told me that the owls in the wizarding world understood spoken addresses as well as written so I assumed that telling Shota Urahara's address would do. Shota hooted happily again, nibbled at my ear once and then took off into the air and was out of one of the upper windows in the blink of an eye.

'Anything interesting in the paper?' I asked a bit distracted as I was looking for a teapot somewhere. They probably didn't have any green tea, but some normal tea should be here, right? This was Britain for crying out loud. They couldn't survive without tea. 'Nothing special. Just normal, everyday things,' Yuriko sighed. She folded the paper and handed me a teapot which I had apparently overlooked. 'Thanks,' I muttered as I poured the hot liquid into my cup and added a bit of sugar and milk.

Professor McGonagall came by then with the timetables and an overexcited Hermione squealed happily before grabbing her bag and racing off to her first lesson. Others soon followed her example, though less enthusiastically, and soon we were all waiting in front of our first ever magic lesson which was Transfiguration. 'I hope we'll get to transfigure something. I've studied all the books and am certain I know how to do it,' Hermione was saying to no one in particular. I rolled my eyes and leaned over to Yuriko. 'We've read all the books and are certain we can do it, but why tell the rest of the class all the time?' I wondered quietly. To my surprise it was Ron who answered me. 'Because she wants to show everyone how perfect she is,' He grumbled. Harry sniggered at his friend's comment, but couldn't reply as McGonagall took that moment to open the door to her classroom and let all of us in.

The lesson was quiet easy and as both Yuriko and I had expected we knew everything. McGonagall was a strict teacher and the head of Gryffindor house, but that didn't mean she favoured any of her students. We did earn some house points by answering her questions right and because Hermione, Yuriko and I were able to transfigure our objects perfectly while the rest of the class wasn't even close to achieving this.

The rest of the week went by at about the same pace. I got used to sleeping in the warm, fluffy bed and wasn't disturbed by my snoring dorm mates anymore either. His was because Yuriko had found a spell in one of the third year books that the Weasley twins had left in the common room that would silence any sounds that came near its caster. The lessons were interesting as well. Charms, which was given by a midget of some sort, was actually a fun lesson as we could use a lot of magic. Astronomy was interesting as was History of Magic though the teacher of the latter was quite boring. At Defence Against the Dark Arts we kept a close watch on Quirrell, but we couldn't find anything dodgy about him other then the nervous breakdown he seemed to be having every couple of seconds.

The last lesson of the week was potions from none other than Snape. Yuriko and I had already decided that he wouldn't be our favourite teacher mostly because he just treated us like small children. I know that we looked like that and that everybody else in our year actually were children, but none of the other teachers treated us the way Snape did. He would take points from Gryffindor for no apparent reason and looked at Yuriko and I as if we were freaks of nature. Yuriko had snapped earlier this week when Snape told her to move out of the way by just saying "move!". She had refused to move until he at least made it into a question which caused Snape to glare and take ten points from our house. Yuriko had moved out of the way and had focussed her reiatsu a little. That was enough to cause a small pool of water to come into existence just in front of Snape. I got the hint and added a bit of my own reiatsu to freeze the water. Snape, being completely full of himself, didn't notice and slipped brilliantly onto his back.

My trip down memory lane was interrupted by the arrival of said teacher. Snape glared at all the Gryffindors and gave a slimy smile to all the Slytherins with whom we had this lesson. I followed Harry and Ron into the classroom and sat down at one of the desks in the back of the room. Yuriko went to sit next to Harry on the other side and we quickly pulled out our books, quills and such. Snape was meanwhile writing all sorts of things on the blackboard with his wand. I didn't really care what he was writing and instead focussed on the different items in this classroom. There were different cabinets with potion ingredients and there were several shelves with cauldrons and books. Nothing that seemed to be dangerous so I dismissed the classroom from my head and turned back to Snape who had now finished writing and was looking at his students with and evil grin.

As everyone finally settled down, Neville was the last, Snape moved in front of his desk. 'Put your wands away and keep your books closed. Grab a piece of parchment and a quill so you'll be able to take notes,' Snape ordered in a low voice. I heard Yuriko grumble something about being treated like a child while she took out her parchment and quill. 'I already dislike him,' Harry mumbled next to me and I nodded in agreement. Snape was definitely not my favourite teacher though I had to admit that he would be quite a good captain of the twelfth division in soul society as he was about as creepy and slimy as Kurotsuchi taicho.

'In this room,' Snape continued, 'you will learn how to brew various potions. Some good, some bad and some might even be lethal.' He walked through the room at a slow pace, checking whether we were all writing down what he was saying. He stopped in front of our table and smirked down at Harry. 'Harry Potter. Our new celebrity,' Snape said with obvious venom in his voice. Harry looked up at Snape in an innocent and questioning way. 'Tell me, mister Potter. Where would I look if I wanted a bezoar and what does said bezoar do?' Snape asked menacingly. 'I don't know, sir,' Harry answered truthfully. Snape smirked and looked around to see if anyone else found this amusing as well. Of course Malfoy and his little bodyguards were smirking and pointing at Harry, but the rest of the class just watched what was going on between Harry and Snape.

Snape began asking more questions to Harry at which the boy only replied with an "I don't know, sir". Meanwhile Hermione had her hand up in the air as far as possible and I was sure she knew the answers to every question Snape threw at Harry. 'Sir, if you want the answers I think Hermione can give them to you,' Yuriko said calmly. Snape immediately turned his attention to Yuriko. 'I did not ask for your opinion miss Kuchiki. Five points from Gryffindor and miss Granger, please put your hand down you look like a fool.'

The rest of the lesson went by as normally as it could. Snape gave us instructions for a potion that would cure boils if it was brewed correctly and told us to work on it in pairs. As I was sitting next to Harry I was paired up with him. We quickly began cutting up our ingredients and mixing the potion while Snape moved around the dungeon and corrected Gryffindors when they did something wrong and praising the Slytherins when they did something good or wrong; it didn't matter with them. 'I see the two foreigners know how to make a potion,' He commented when he passed our table. Yuriko looked up from her potion to smirk at Snape, but didn't say anything. Snape glared back at her and it was only because Goyle called him that he moved away from our table.

When the lesson was finally over we quickly packed our bags and walked back up to the entrance hall. 'What a git. How the hell did he ever become a teacher?' Ron ranted as we walked up to Gryffindor tower to dump our bags. 'He knows what he's talking about so I guess he was hired for his knowledge instead of his people skills.' Yuriko answered with a shrug. 'Hear hear.' Ron called. A huff from behind me made me turn around to see Hermione coming towards us. 'What are you huffing about?' Ron asked annoyed. 'Nothing, just that professor Snape is probably a great teacher if we gave him the benefit of a doubt,' she said knowingly. 'Of course he is,' Harry said while rolling his eyes. Hermione huffed again and stalked off towards the Gryffindor tower, leaving us behind on the staircase. 'She's seriously mental, that one,' Ron whispered.

We made our way to the common room faster than usual, with the help of some secret passageways that Yuriko and I had found on our nightly expeditions, and were heading out the moment Hermione entered. 'How did you…' she trailed off at the end and looked at us questioningly. 'It's not that hard to figure out, you know,' I told her. 'Fine, don't tell me. See me care,' She huffed. As she walked off towards the girls dormitories Harry turned towards Yuriko and me. 'Hagrid asked whether we would like to come over. I told him yes, but I can't speak for you guys of course.' 'We kind of planned something else, but we'll try to join you after that,' I said. 'That's cool, see you guys later than,' Ron said happily. He and Harry left the common room to go to Hagrid and I turned to Yuriko. 'Ready for some practise?' I asked with a grin. 'You bet.'

We trained until dark, but had to return to the castle if we didn't want to miss dinner for which we were already late. When we finally returned to the common room we were met by a large crowd standing around the notice board. 'We're going to have our first flying lesson next week!' Ron told us happily. 'Flying on a piece of wood… that should be fun,' Yuriko muttered only loud enough for me to hear. I chuckled quietly and sat down in one of the good armchairs. Setsuna jumped on my lap and curled up there while purring contently. 'I guess it could actually be fun, but I doubt it's faster or better than using Shunpo,' I shrugged as Yuriko sat down opposite me. 'Anyway, that's next week. Right now, we have to finish that essay Snape gave us about potion basics.' Yuriko nodded and we went to grab our bags from our rooms. When we got back both Ron and Harry were sitting in the good chairs and were working on their own essays. Yuriko and I joined them on the floor and started as well. We were finished quickly though and enjoyed watching both boys struggling with their essays until Yuriko took pity on them and helped where she could.

We spend the weekend in the library or common room. Not so much for Yuriko or me, but because Harry and Ron had some homework to finish and as we had to keep an eye on Harry we were forced to join him in reading through books and, in our case, pretending to study. The thought of learning to fly kind of distracted both boys which meant that they had a lot to do on Sunday night. As we didn't think anything would happen to Harry in a crowded common room, Yuriko and I decided to go on another patrol around the school. This time we went to bed early and ordered our konpaku to just stay in bed and sleep, or at least pretend to sleep. We walked around the school more freely in our shinigami form as no one could see us and decided that it might be a good idea to check out Snape this time. He didn't really seem to be a threat to Harry other than putting him on the spot during potions, but we couldn't be too sure.

His office was dark and creepy and I had to suppress a shiver that ran down my spine. Snape had jars filled with whatever lined on shelves against the wall and each jar contained an animal of some sort which was suspended in some kind of liquid. His desk was full of papers and vials and he had different samples of things in his drawers. We searched for anything that might help us protect Harry, but in the end we didn't find anything remotely interesting other than the fact that Snape was a creepy guy.

We made our way back to Gryffindor tower by using shunpo, but stopped as someone called "who's there?" into our direction. It was a standard reflex to stop whenever someone called that to you, but it took us less than a second to realise that whoever had said it couldn't have been calling it to us. No one could see us in our spirit form. We climbed out the window closest to the tower and used shunpo to get to the window that would lead to the common room. We were surprised to find Harry and Ron asleep in the same armchairs they had been in before we left. Both of them still had their essay on the table in front of them and were leaning with their heads on it. I walked over to them and glanced at the portion of the essay that wasn't covered with a head. 'They really need to study more,' I chuckled as I could spot a lot of mistakes with just one glance at Ron's paper. 'This one isn't that bad though it could be improved,' Yuriko commented as she looked at Harry's paper. 'Let's go upstairs, get back into our gigai's and wake them up. Sleeping like this can't be good for their necks.' 'You go as it would be strange for me to know they didn't go to bed yet,' Yuriko yawned. I rolled my eyes at her, but had to admit she was right about that.

I quickly ran upstairs and found my konpaku on my bed while pretending to be asleep. I quickly got in and caught the pill that sprang from my mouth. I walked back to the common room quietly and woke Ron who was drooling over his essay by now. 'Wut? Wa's happening,' he mumbled. 'Toshiro? What're you doing at my house?' I chuckled at his sleepy comments and shook him again. This time his eyes sprang open and he jumped up from his seat. 'What's going on?' he exclaimed. 'Shush, nothing's going on. You were drooling all over your essay and I thought it might be a good idea to wake you up before it became unreadable,' I told him. Ron looked at his essay and back at me, 'Thanks man… I owe you,' he mumbled. He then walked over to Harry and shook him hard to wake him up. 'What?' Harry asked sleepily. 'Time to actually go to bed, mate.' Ron said while trying to stifle a yawn.

Harry just nodded and we all went up to our dorm together. It took Ron only a couple of seconds before he was asleep again and snoring loudly. I lay awake for a bit longer as I was thinking about what we had learned in this past week. Even though Harry said that Snape hated him for some reason, it was Quirrell that was more suspicious so far.

The next week arrived rather quickly and before we knew it we were all standing in the courtyard with the Slytherins. Next to me lay a broomstick which I eyed with disgust. Yuriko was looking the same way at her broomstick and I could guess we were both thinking the same thing, no way that we were getting on this thing. We had our own way of "flying" for which we didn't need a broomstick. Harry and Ron on the other hand were grinning from ear to ear and were almost bouncing on the spot from excitement. 'All right, listen up!' a witch with spiky grey hair and yellow eyes called. 'Welcome to your first flying lesson. My name is Madam Hooch and we will be going through the basics today so pay attention.' She walked to the middle of the row of students and looked at all of us before continuing.

'Now some of you might think you can ride a broom, but that doesn't mean you will be able to skip the basics,' Malfoy grumbled at this, 'so listen carefully. I want you all to hold your right hand over your broom and say "up". This should make your broom leap into your hand instantly. Ready? On my whistle.' Madam Hooch blew her whistle once and the courtyard erupted in shouts of "up". I sighed and said "up" in a bored way. My broom flew up instantly and I grabbed onto it quickly. I looked around then and saw that both Yuriko and Harry were also holding their broom and Harry looked extremely proud of himself. Ron was having a little more trouble with his broom which was only rolling on the ground as if it didn't want to fly up. I was also delighted to see that Malfoy, who had been bragging about being able to fly a broom perfectly, was having a lot of trouble as well. Every time he said "up" the broom moved up a few inches before falling back on the grass again.

After about five minutes everyone was finally holding their broom and waited for the next instructions. 'Alright, now that you are all holding your broom you can mount it,' Madam Hooch told us. Everyone swung their right leg over the broom handle and looked at madam Hooch for her to continue. 'When I blow my whistle you will kick off from the ground softly, hover and then lean forward a bit so that you can land. Is that clear?' We all chorused a "Yes, madam Hooch" at which madam Hooch nodded. 'Alright, ready? One, two…' but she never got to three as Neville, being too nervous, had kicked off too early and way harder than necessary and was now flying around the rooftops. This wouldn't be a problem if Neville could actually fly, but it so happened he couldn't. He was screaming and crying loudly as he tried to make his broom obey him, but to no avail. The broom just seemed to move as it pleased and it didn't look like it wanted to come down any time soon.

'He's going to fall down!' Hermione shrieked as the broom started shaking as if it was trying to get rid of its rider. I made a split decision and checked if no one was watching me. Everyone was occupied with what was going on in the sky so I took out my gikongan and plopped a pill into my mouth. The second I swallowed it I left my gigai and emerged in my spirit form. 'Stay here, look at the kid in the sky and act alarmed,' I ordered my konpaku. He nodded and did exactly what I had told him. 'Toshiro, hurry,' Yuriko whispered from beside me. I nodded and jumped into the air just as the broom finally won and dislodged Neville.

Everybody below me gasped as Neville fell down, but I caught him when he had only fallen about six feet and let us drop down at a slower pace. The only problem was that in those six feet he had managed to hit his hand on the castle wall and it seemed to be broken. Neville was screaming at the top of his lungs and had his eyes shut tight as if that would lessen the pain of the impact somehow. I slowed us down at the last second and lowered Neville to the grass. He lay there wailing and soon madam Hooch arrived to take a look at his wounds. Everyone gathered around him, even my konpaku, and I was barely able to jump up before getting stuck in the middle of all the students.

I landed next to Yuriko who was standing at the back of the group and let out a sigh in relief. 'That could have ended badly,' Yuriko commented as if she was talking about the weather. 'I guess it could have. Well, now we'll never know.' 'Out of my way, coming through!' madam Hooch barked then and the entire group opened up to reveal that Neville was standing on his own feet though madam Hooch did have to support him. 'I am taking mister Longbottom to the infirmary. Anyone I see on a broom in the mean time will be packing their bags and going back home faster than you can say Quidditch,' madam Hooch told us sternly. Everyone nodded and watched as she led Neville to the castle.

'That fat boy had it coming,' someone sneered. I looked around to see Malfoy standing in the middle of the first years. He was throwing a ball up and down and I recognized it as the remembrall Neville had gotten from his grandma this morning. 'Yuriko, that's Neville's remembrall,' I said. Yuriko nodded and made her way over to Malfoy. 'Give that back, Malfoy,' she all but ordered. A hint of the taicho she actually was shone through her features now and it made Malfoy take a step back. 'No,' Malfoy said, but he didn't sound very confident anymore. 'Give it back, Malfoy!' Harry stepped from between the other first years and came to stand next to Yuriko. Malfoy turned his attention to Potter and his smirk returned as he was more confident when facing Harry. 'No, Potter. I think I'm going to leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find it,' Malfoy sneered and he jumped on his broom and sped off into the sky.

I jumped after him immediately, but stopped when I heard Hermione's voice. 'No, you can't. You'll get expelled, Harry,' she all but pleaded. I looked back to see Harry completely ignore Hermione, mount his broom and kick off after Malfoy. I had to hand it to him, he could fly fairly well. 'Give it back, Malfoy!' Harry snapped again as he hovered in front of a slightly startled Malfoy. 'You want it? Go get it,' Malfoy turned around and tossed the remembrall away. Harry didn't hesitate at all and raced after the ball. Malfoy wanted to follow him, but that wasn't going to happen. I used Shunpo to get in front of him and quickly raised my reiatsu. It had an immediate effect on Malfoy and his broom. Malfoy began to shiver and ice started to form on his broom. This caused the Slytherin to lose control of the broom and he quickly moved downstairs and landed with a thud on the ground before he lost complete control.

No one was paying attention to him though as everyone was cheering and running towards the other side of the courtyard. With one shunpo I was above the event and saw that Harry had landed and was holding up the remembrall in victory. The victory didn't last long though as the castle doors opened and professor McGonagall came walking out. 'Harry Potter!' she called. The effect was that everyone became quiet in an instant and Harry hung his head and lowered his arm. 'Follow me,' the professor said, making no room for discussion. As Harry followed McGonagall I let myself drop to the ground and stepped back into my gigai.

Madam Hooch came back soon and we finished our flying lesson with only theory, but also with a promise that we could start flying next week. I was glad we wouldn't have to fly now and quickly put my broom away before following Ron and Yuriko to the castle. 'I wonder if Harry's going to be okay,' Ron sighed as we entered the common room. 'Ron! Toshiro! Yuriko!' We turned around to see Harry standing in front of the portrait hole with a large grin on his face. He walked over to us quickly and motioned for us to put our heads together. I sighed at the childish behaviour, but did as he asked. 'I didn't get in trouble,' Harry whispered. 'McGonagall took me to see this kid named Oliver Wood and told me I would be the new seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team!' 'Wow… then you must be the youngest player in― 'A century, according to McGonagall,' Harry finished for Ron.

As the two friends started talking about everything that had anything to do with Quidditch, I sat down in one of the good armchairs. 'Well, at least he didn't get himself expelled,' Yuriko whispered as she sat down on the floor next to me. Setsuna jumped into her lap and Yuriko started patting her automatically while looking at the fire in the hearth.

The look on Malfoy's face the next day was priceless. The young Slytherin had probably thought that Harry would have been expelled because of his actions, but nothing was less true. 'Good morning,' Harry said with a grin as he sat down next to me. 'You look overly happy today,' I commented. 'Well, I didn't get expelled, got a reward even and the look on Malfoy's face just now makes today perfect.' I grinned and shook my head and concentrated on my breakfast again. The owls with the post came in a few minutes later and today Shota was among them. He landed gracefully on Yuriko's shoulder and held out his leg so that we could take off the note that was tied around his leg. Yuriko quickly read it before passing it to me and giving Shota a few pieces of her bacon. The owl hooted happily and flew off with the rest of the owls to get some well deserved sleep.

The note came from Urahara-san and was short, but clear. It basically told us to keep up the good work and keep an eye on Quirrell. It also said that some other shinigami were looking into Quirrell's stay in Albania which might lead to some clues as to what happened to him there. I quickly put the note away and picked up the Daily Prophet that another owl had brought. 'So Potter, I see you weren't send back to those muggles after all,' a very familiar voice sneered. I looked up from the paper to see a glaring Malfoy standing next to Harry. 'What do you want, Malfoy?' Harry asked without looking up from the piece of toast he was holding. 'You and me, a duel, tonight,' Malfoy stated. 'Duels are forbidden, Malfoy,' Yuriko said in a bored tone. 'You stay out of it, freak. Just go back to wherever you came from or something. You and your white haired friend,' Malfoy sneered. I felt Yuriko's reiatsu increase slightly as Malfoy said these things and within a few seconds the sleek haired boy's clothing were wet and he was dripping on the floor. 'What the…' Malfoy turned around to see if anyone had their wand out, but everyone was just looking at him with a very amused look on their faces.

Yuriko lowered her reiatsu, stood up and left the table then. 'See you in class,' I told Harry and Ron. 'Yuriko, why did you…' I trailed off at the end as I didn't really know what to say. 'That Malfoy was just getting on my last nerve. No one insults you or me that way. We are taicho and much older than he is,' Yuriko stated. 'I know what you mean… It's frustrating to not be treated with the respect we deserve… but I have to admit that it was kind of funny to see Malfoy get soaked like that,' I chuckled. 'I shouldn't have done it though,' Yuriko sighed. The bell sounded then and we quickly made our way to the charms classroom.

That night we decided to do some investigation again. We ordered our konpaku to stay in bed and sleep and used the window in the common room to get outside. The cool air felt wonderful and I relished in it for a second. 'Let's go,' Yuriko said. We went to the closest window and snuck back inside the castle. Yuriko closed the window behind her and motioned for me to follow her when I heard voices down the hall. I held up my hand and Yuriko stopped and listened as well. The voices were those of students and to my horror I recognized Harry's voice as one of them. 'Guess we have to check it out,' Yuriko sighed.

We walked over to where the voices were coming from and saw Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville standing near the portrait of the fat lady. The only problem was that there was no fat lady in said portrait which meant that the four students weren't getting back into the tower any time soon. 'We have to go. Malfoy's waiting,' Ron hissed. 'Malfoy? You're going to that stupid dual I heard you talking about this morning?' Hermione asked indignantly. 'None of your business. Let's go, Harry.' Ron grabbed Harry's arm and started dragging him down the corridor. Hermione and Neville looked at each other for a second before following the dynamic duo as they probably didn't want to stay in the corridor alone.

The group of four led us to the trophy room where they all sat and waited. 'This night is being wasted by those idiots,' I grumbled as the seconds ticked by. 'Well, we're doing what we are supposed to do which is watch over Harry,' Yuriko said though she didn't sound happy about it either. 'What's taking him?' Ron asked in an angry whisper. 'Maybe he was too scared to show up,' Harry suggested. 'No, I think…' whatever Hermione was thinking remained unrevealed as footsteps sounded in the corridor next to the trophy room. 'Where are they, my love. Are they in here?' the sniffling voice of mister Filch asked his cat.

The effect on the small group was instant. They dashed to the other side of the room and raced through the door there. The second the door closed the other door opened to reveal Filch and Mrs. Norris. 'They were here, my dear. I know they were,' Filch wheezed. He made his way across the room towards the door where the students had just disappeared through. I acted immediately and jumped in front of the door with my right hand pointing towards Filch. 'Bakudo no kyu, Geki!' I called. A red light immediately engulfed and paralyzed Filch. His eyes bulged as he fought against the unknown and, to him, unseen force. 'Let's follow the others,' Yuriko suggested. I nodded and raced through the door that Filch was now looking and cursing at.

We followed the corridor and stopped as we came to a crossing. I concentrated and listened and heard the faint sound of footsteps to the left. 'This way,' I said and used shunpo to get to the sounds faster, knowing that Yuriko would follow. 'It won't open!' said Ron's voice from the left. 'Oh, move over,' Hermione ordered. I walked into the room the voices were coming from to see Hermione walk to a door with her wand out. 'Alohomora,' she said confidently. A click sounded through the room and with a smug grin Hermione opened the door. 'Whose there?' a greasy voice asked and I spun around to see Snape approaching fast. The others heard him too and quickly ran through the door.

Snape appeared in the doorway a few seconds later and glared inside. Yuriko pulled me a bit further into the shadows as Snape walked into the room a bit further. 'I'm sure I heard… never mind,' our greasy haired teacher muttered to himself. He shook his head and walked out of the room again while muttering something about a senile old caretaker. 'Filch must have tipped him off,' Yuriko muttered. 'I guess so. Let's just see where―' The screams of multiple voices interrupted me from what I was saying. I jumped to the door through which the four Gryffindors had just gone and wrenched it open. The next thing I knew I had to jump out of the way quickly as all four of them raced out of the chamber and into the corridor through which Snape had just disappeared.

I didn't have time to think about that though as a loud snarl from beyond the door caught my attention. I walked forward cautiously and looked into the room from which the snarling came. 'Oh my…' I let my sentence trail off as my eyes fell upon a sight I never thought I would see. A giant dog with three heads was standing in the middle of the room. He was snarling and growling at the door and saliva was dripping from his three mouths. 'That's the biggest dog I've ever seen in my entire life,' Yuriko whispered beside me. I nodded and forced myself to look away from the dog. There had to be a reason for that monster to be inside the school.

'Look! He's standing on a trapdoor,' I exclaimed. Yuriko followed my gaze and nodded. Whatever was down there must be extremely important if Dumbledore would let a dog like that guard it. 'We'll have to come back for that later then. We'd better go back to our dorms now and check whether the others all got back alright,' Yuriko said. We closed the door behind us, locked it and raced off to the closest window. The night air was once again refreshing and we took our time to get back to Gryffindor tower. I quickly wished Yuriko a goodnight and walked up to the first year dorm to see if Harry, Ron and Neville were all alright. I checked each of their beds and was relieved to see that nothing had happened to them on their way back here.

My konpaku was fast asleep as well and I had to shake him quite hard to wake him up. 'Thanks for tonight,' I told him before stepping back into my gigai and catching the konpaku pill. I lay down in my way too fluffy bed and for once sleep came quickly though I couldn't forget what we had learned tonight.


Once again, let me know what you think!

I'd like at least 5 reviews before I update again :)

~Marieke~