A/N According to the internet, sunset in Scotland in September is at 8:07, so Astronomy will be held at 8:15. Although, now that I think about it, I'm kind of worrying too much about the details.
Disclaimer: I'm really not a very creative person, do you really think I could come up with all this by myself?
Oh, and thank you so much for the reviews! Reading them is what finally got me to post this. Please, enjoy!
Chapter 4: Classes Begin
Kurama was beginning to regret his decision to come to classes with Teddy.
He found this 'History of Magic' class insanely boring, and that was saying something, considering that he had sat through kindergarten at the ripe age of three thousand.
The other students apparently found it almost as interesting as the fox did, because they were completely absorbed in anything other than their literally transparent teacher. Teddy was absentmindedly rubbing Kurama's ears and passing notes between Dylan and the girl who had been on the train with them. Her name was 'Meghan' he believed. The other students were involved in a wide variety of activities, anywhere from flicking folded triangular pieces of paper back and forth, to etching pictures into school property with inky quills. Kurama sighed, and hoped that Herbology, which had been listed as the next class, would be more interesting. Even if the class wasn't though, he could have some fun with the plants . . . Unless these idiot wizards taught without examples. Ugh, what a day this was going to be.
He noticed with amusement that about ten minutes before the class was scheduled to end, most of the students had begun to pack their bags.
Five minutes before, everyone had their bags pulled off the floor and into their laps, their legs tensing in anticipation and eyes looking longingly at the door. Kurama himself had crawled to the floor in preparation.
The moment the second hand hit the twelve mark, they were out the door and flooding down the hallway, completely missing the Professor's incomplete sentence.
Kurama dodged the small feet and tangle of black robes with only a bit of difficulty, following Teddy closely. Apparently most of the students who had sat through the last class had Herbology as well, because they were all heading in the same general direction.
When they arrived outside, and headed for green houses, Kurama couldn't help but grin. This would definitely not be as boring as the last class.
They soon arrived outside the third greenhouse, and a tall man with ear length curly brown hair and a few freckles on his nose and cheeks waved them inside, propping the door open for them.
Kurama followed Teddy in, until he arrived at the teacher. The man apparently hung around plants quite a bit- the man's aura practically radiated green. Approaching his feet cautiously, Kurama sniffed, and immediately decided he liked this teacher; the man's scent was a pleasant mixture of moss and herbal tea, laced with the barely perceptible after taste of aloe.
Deciding that he should introduce himself, he gave a gentle tug on the man's pant leg. The was a startled jump, and a quick step back, before the professor looked down, then sighed in relief.
"Oh, sorry about that, for a minute, I thought the Devil's Snare had got out again."
Kurama grinned. To think, the wizards kept Devil's Snare here. He was going to have fun collecting seeds.
"So, who do you belong to?"
Kurama glanced up at the man's face, then looked over at his boy deliberately.
"Ah, Teddy. Harry mentioned his owl had gotten sick and was going to stay with Andromeda during the school year. I guess you're the replacement, then?"
Kurama snorted indignantly.
"Of course, right. Sorry, I'm Professor Neville Longbottom, pleased to meet you."
Kurama raised an eyebrow. 'Longbottom?' He couldn't help but let out a small canine snicker. Neville frowned.
"Oh, come on, it's not that funny."
By this time, the entire class had entered the room, and the few that were paying attention to their unfortunately name professor were snickering in a good humored way.
The Professor rolled his eyes, but grinned good-naturedly and walked to the front of the class, Kurama close at his heels.
He settled himself at the front, and Kurama sat on top of his feet- the fox was rather enjoying himself while playing the unintelligent animal. Neville then addressed the class.
"I've ordered your puffapods this year, but they won't be coming till next month. So instead, we're going to do a bit of review. I know most of you just came from Professor Binn's class, so instead of reading out of the book, I decided we would trim the Abyssnian Shrivelfig Shrubs today- which you should remember from last year."
The students quickly set about trimming the odd looking plants with purple, very dry looking pear shaped fruit on them. Kurama reached out a tendril of reiki curiously, investigating this new fruit's properties, and quickly decided that he would definitely not be using this plant. He didn't need to be any smaller than he was now in his fox form, thank you very much.
He instead decided that he would stay on Neville's feet and watch the rest of class- and would explore the rest of the plants later. He did have all year after all. Besides, it was a bit amusing sitting there, because the Professor seemed to be trying to get him to move. Kurama stayed firmly on his feet, grinning a bit. Finally, Neville bent down and looked the fox in the eye.
"Look, I've got to walk around and check on the students. Could you, uh, perch somewhere else, maybe?"
The fox grinned, and jumped promptly onto the man's head.
"Wah?" He yelped, stepping back and up, bringing Kurama to a new, and slightly dizzying height. Quite a few students turned round and smiled knowingly- many of them recognized the position that Kurama had shown to favor on Teddy.
He's quite tall, I'll have to be careful when I jump down.
Neville, as promised, walked around the class, keeping his neck stiff- probably for fear of dumping the fox off.
When they reached Teddy, Kurama peeked over the nest of soft curly hair and watched his cub cut the ends of the plant by aiming his wand carefully and saying 'Diffindo.'
Kurama was quite interested by this. He had not actually seen anyone do magic up until this point. There had been magical items, and the green portal in the fireplace, but this was his first exposure. He squinted his golden eyes, and watched as a small amount of the boy's reiki snaked down his arm, and through the wand. When it reached the wand, it changed colors- from Teddy's natural purple and blue color, to a silvery red- and then it wrapped around the branch it had been directed at and made a clean cut.
It was fascinating to say the least. To think that humans had found a way to change the basic nature of their reiki so that they could perform almost any type of task. And it seemed very efficient as well. It would take quite a bit of these 'spells' before they would feel it.
The rest of the class passed quickly, and soon it was lunch time. Kurama managed to make his way down from the tall professor's head by way of the desks. Trailing along behind his owner, they quickly managed to make it to the Great Hall. Teddy and Dylan split apart from Meghan at the far right table with the rest of the red and gold students. Kurama, deciding he didn't feel like sitting under the table for the entire meal, sat between the boys. The rest of the students seemed delighted at his meal time participation, and soon he had a donated napkin, and people were passing him all sorts of pieces of food. Victoire- who was sitting opposite them- had even taken to cutting up pieces of her meat and tossing them across the table. He had quite a bit of fun jumping up and to the side, snapping his jaws round the morsels- that is, until several stern gazes were directed towards them, and Victoire blushed cutely and stopped. Nonetheless, the meal was very enjoyable, and a very full fox, along with the satisfied students, made their way to the 'Common Room.'
According to the student's conversations, they had no more classes until night, in which they would have Astronomy.
Kurama sat on the bed that Teddy, Dylan, and another boy named Fergus were currently occupying, and half listened to there conversation.
"So, what classes did you have today?" That was Fergus. He spoke with a slightly strange accent. Kurama wasn't an expert when it came to English, but he was pretty sure it was called 'Scottish.'
"Well, we had History of Magic." Sighed Dylan, and Fergus grinned knowingly.
"Catch up on lost sleep?"
"No, but we did have a nice conversation with Megs about what spells would be best to use if we ever got stuck in the Forbidden Forest."
"Where did that topic come from?"
This time Teddy answered.
"She said that she had gotten up early this morning to see Hagrid, and he mentioned that some sort of creature had scared the Centaurs."
Fergus' eyes widened.
"Scared off the Centaurs?! If Acromantula don't bother them, what in the world could it be?"
Teddy shrugged, apparently not as concerned as his two friends.
"I don't know. She said that Hagrid said he was going to look into it. I don't think he'll find anything though. Harry said that the Centaurs don't really like humans- except Firenze- and that every time he went in there, they pretty much tried to kick him, and everyone else out." He paused, then smirked slightly. "Like Professor Umbridge."
Fergus immediately leaned in, and Dylan looked interested.
"Has he told you about the Battle at the Department of Mysteries? My dad said nobody ever really found out what happened there, but that he said Voldemort was there, and he and Dumbledore and Harry had a battle."
Teddy bit his lip, then smiled a little.
"Well . . . I guess he wouldn't mind if I did. It all started with Umbridge- you know that though." The two boys nodded.
"Anyway . . ."
Kurama listened to the story carefully. Now this was definitely a reason for Harry to be well known. A few key bits of information were left out, like who exactly 'Voldemort' and 'Dumbledore' were, and what a floo was, but he filled in the blanks with context. Voldemort was obviously the 'bad guy,' and Dumbledore the 'good guy,' as well as an ally to Harry. But apparently, this was quite some time ago, because it appeared that Harry, along with the people who had gone with him, were all students. He did find out what the winged dark horses were that had pulled the carriages. What a fascinating creature, to only be visible to those who had seen death. It sounded like something the reikai would use. He absentmindedly pictured Botan riding on the grim looking horse, and couldn't help but grin at the image. He would almost pay to see that.
The ending to the story was not a good one. It seemed that even though the 'Order of the Phoenix' people had arrived in time to help, the whole reason they were there- to save 'Sirius'- was forfeit, and Voldemort, along with many of the 'Death Eaters' (what a ridiculous name), had escaped.
The boys looked at each other solemnly when the story ended, and Dylan gave a little sigh.
"I'm really glad Harry finally defeated him. My parents weren't a part of the war like you guys' were, but from all the books and stories, well, it would have been horrible if . . . you know . . ."
He drifted off, looking down at the red comforter.
"Yeah, I know. I'm glad they won too."
So, he defeated 'Voldemort' . . . but he was just a student? Why would a student have to defeat an evil wizard. Couldn't this 'Dumbledore' have done it?
He paused, and suddenly Yuusuke came to mind. He had just been fourteen when he became Spirit Detective, and Kuwabara as well. Kurama had been young physically too, but that didn't count for much when you had powerful youki and over three thousand years worth of memories.
The boys meandered off soon after, Fergus to do homework- he was apparently older, and therefore had more to do- while Teddy and Dylan went over their schedule for the next week.
"Let's see . . . Tomorrow we've got potions, Divination, and Care of Magical Creatures."
"Uhm, actually, I have Arithmancy instead of Divination."
"What? Why'd you pick that? It sounds like Arithmatic- that is to say, it sounds hard."
"Well, I would have, but Aunt Hermione wouldn't let me pick it, and Harry said he wasn't willing to risk 'The wrath of 'Mione' for me."
"Well, I'm sure it's not that bad. Well, Divination should be interesting. I've heard that Trelawney's batty."
"Yeah, but she does some real prophecies too, remember?"
"Yeah, I know. You're the one who made me read the article about her in the Quibbler."
"So, what do you have Wednesday?"
The conversation carried on like that for quite a while, until the two had talked through both their schedules and then some. They finally stopped when a few of the others came up and started getting ready for dinner.
Kurama decided to stay behind for this meal. As Shuichi Minamino, he had grown used to regular meals, but when he had returned to Makai, he had easily fallen back into the habit of eating less frequently. Usually he would just eat in the morning, and not waste the rest of the day with food gathering. This was in part because it was easier, but also because as a fox, he did not need to eat so many meals. He decided he would spend the time wandering around again- although he would stay in the red and gold house.
He found several other rooms on the boys side, presumably for the different ages, as well as the bathrooms and showers. He then entered the Common Room, which was much more pleasant when it wasn't full of noisy children blowing up cards and throwing books around- not that he had a problem with children, but they could be quite troublesome en masse.
He then explored the girl's dorm. It was nicer than theirs- and neater too. Even though it was only the second day, the boys had already managed to accumulate an unhealthy amount of mess, which Kurama was afraid was only going to get worse. Teddy's space wasn't to bad for the most part, although his boy had managed to get his papers strewn across the bed while he and Dylan had been looking over schedules.
The girls bathrooms were also in much better shape than the boys were, and it was filled with the pleasant smell of roses along with the tang of soap. It was a nice contrast from the boy's mildew and hot water smell.
Just as he entered the Common Room again, he heard a sharp crack. He turned sharply, in time to see a small brownish imp like creature begin to hop about the room, tidying up the tables and picking up scraps of paper.
He raised an eyebrow. It looked like a low class demon . . . and felt like one too, although the youki seemed to center around the creatures fingers, instead of concentrated in the core like most.
He padded over to the creature, and gave a low growl, tensing slightly. It seemed to have no harmful intentions- unless one felt that cleaning up after students was harmful- but it was a low class demon. They could be unpredictable, depending on their master.
The small demon jumped and turned.
"Oh dears! Yous is scaring Bellls! Bells didn't know anyones was still here! Alls the others' animals stays other places."
Kurama paused for a moment, eyeing the creature's concerned face. He needed to figure out why it was here, and to do that he would have to speak.
Usually he kept his youki concealed, but the low class should have been able to recognize him for what he was. That meant that it probably wasn't very bright.
He released some of his youki and bared his teeth. The demon responded immediately with a squeak and a quick jump back.
"You! Yous is a demon! Nos! You can'ts be heres! Heres is no demons allowed!"
"Then how do you come to be here?" He asked, flicking his tails in a show of irritation.
The little thing blanched and looked down ashamedly.
"Tis true that we is used to be demons, but nots anymores!" It snapped its head up, its ears quivering furiously.
"We is servings only the humans nows! They is our masters! We is only House Elves now, and we is helping them and doings good!"
Kurama huffed.
"So, you have denied your demon heritage in order to serve the humans. No wonder you are so weak."
"Yes!"
Kurama blinked. It seemed proud. Strange. Well, it didn't look like he would provoke it with words, and he didn't really want to start a fight in the student's Common Room. He didn't know when they would get back, and he didn't think a 'pet' fighting a 'House Elf' would go over well.
"Very well. Tell me, are your intentions regarding the humans only to serve?"
"Yes! We dos everythings they tells us tos! And ifs we don't, we is punishings ourselves!"
"How many of you are there?"
The House Elf sniffed and turned up its prominent nose.
"I is not telling you! That is classifieds information."
Kurama regarded it for a moment.
"What if I promised that my intentions were only to protect the students from any threats?"
The creature's eyes grew to a monumental size.
"Why would yous do that? Others is tellings me that we is the only demons who is nice to humans."
"One of the human cubs saved me from captivity. I owe him. I am pretending to be his pet."
The little elf grinned and clapped her hands.
"That is very goods! We always is wanting others to be nice to humans toos! Don't worry! I is telling the others abouts you, and we is keeping your secret! There is lots and lots of us at Hogwarts! If yous is ever needing me, my name is Bells. We is all coming when our names is called."
Kurama nodded.
"Thank you, I will do so."
With another crack, Bells disappeared, and Kurama was once more alone in the Common Room. He walked over to the spot where Bells had been standing, and took a sniff. The scent of youkai wasn't very strong- it actually smelled more like . . . a kitchen? Odd, but he supposed that if they really were servants to the humans, then they would cook the meals. It would explain why all the food spontaneously appeared on the table. He had assumed the wizards had enchanted the food dishes somehow, but this made more sense.
Next he examined the trail of youki the House Elf had left behind when it disappeared. It felt similar to the fireplace portal. Apparently these little demons had picked up some talents from the wizards.
The students soon returned, and began getting ready for their final class. Astronomy didn't start till nightfall, but Teddy and Dylan left early. He trailed behind them curiously, until they reached a curving set of steps. The fox grimaced at the strong smell of bird and old feathers that was coming from ahead of them. Apparently, they were planning on sending a letter.
Personally, the fox thought that the wizards mail system was a bit ridiculous. He had found out about it this morning while laying under the table. Dozens of birds had suddenly flapped noisily into the hall, dropping packages and letters all over the place. It had been a great show of self control not to kill a particularly idiotic one that had dropped its letter on the ground near him, and had hopped over to pick it up.
The only thing that had stopped him was the fact that it had been very skinny, and looked overworked, and therefore would not have made a very satisfactory meal. (Besides, feathers were very hard to deal with. He always managed to get some stuck in his teeth.)
The two boys made it to the top, only slightly gasping for breath, with a very discontent fox in tow.
Teddy pulled out two letters, and called down a ruffled looking bird with brown and grey speckled wings. It eyed the fox wearily, until Teddy began petting it kindly and fed it a few scraps from dinner.
Kurama sniffed from the attention the spoiled little bird was getting, and trotted over to the window.
"Here, I've got two letters. This one is for Harry Potter, and this one is for Andromeda Tonks. Can you manage them both?"
The bird cooed indignantly, and Kurama glared at it.
"Thanks, if you bring a reply, I have some owl treats saved for you."
The bird took off with a hoot, and Kurama watched it carefully as it exited through the window.
Dylan called down another owl for himself.
"Here, I've got a letter for Jane and Russel Derwent."
The owl gave a glance to Teddy, then looked pitifully at the other boy. Teddy grinned.
"I've got some for you too. But only if there's a reply."
The owl nodded and took off, obviously very pleased that it had managed to get a treat out of the deal. The three exited the room and walked casually out, heading in the general direction of the Astronomy Tower.
A/N So, sorry it took this long to update. I don't really have a legitimate excuse. I was going to make this chapter longer, but I don't thing I could have taken writing them sitting through Astronomy. And, this story will have a plot and all that, but right now, I'm still setting the story up, so, enjoy Kurama being lazy, 'cuz he'll be pretty busy later on.