I know it took ages, and I'm really sorry!! (And not the best chapter title either...)

But here's the next chapter!

My favourite character makes his entrance!

Chapter 4

Harry, Ron and Hermione made their way to the Gryffindor common room; they had left as soon as dismissed. For one thing Hermione had wanted to leave in a hurry, she was utterly out breath from the effect of Captain Kenpachi. Ron didn't blame her and followed suit, while Harry, who was simply confused and wanted answers, went with them. They were on the second floor, with a few sixth and seventh years behind them when they stopped to chat. After Captain Hitsugaya had been introduced, his underlings that they had come across were named as vice-captain of the sixth division, Abarai Renji (the scarlet haired man), vice-captain of the tenth division, Matsumoto Rangiku (the large breasted woman), third seat of the eleventh division, Madarame Ikkaku (the bald man) and fifth seat of the eleventh division, Ayasegawa Yumichika, the womanly man, who they now knew was definitely male since Professor McGonagall had referred to the men as "these gentlemen".

"Can you believe that snowy-haired kid is gonna teach us!?!" belted out Ron, "How embarrassing is that!" Harry could see that Ron was quite furious. Being the youngest son of the Weasley family had meant Ron was often pushed around by his older siblings, especially Fred and George. This wasn't going to be easy for him, since now he was going to be pushed around by someone much younger.

"Maybe he's a child genius, Ron. He's probably clever or something and got promoted real quickly." said Harry.

"Actually, mate I don't reckon they get much smarter than Hermione." he answered.

Hermione turned her head away, but Harry could see red smudges imprinted in her cheeks.

"Umm, let's hurry! I can hear the prefects coming up with the new first years." she said as a clatter and chatter came from down the staircase.

They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor and uttered the new password, "strawberry head" and clambered through the hole in the wall.

"Straight to bed I think" said Hermione, and she rushed off towards the girls dormitories.

Ron looked a little disappointed at the lack of a goodnight kiss or even a hug and stalked off before Harry could say anything. Harry collapsed into an armchair for a second. He thought about all the curious things that had happened. Questions raced through his mind, but none of them seemed to have any plausible response.

Why were these strangers here all of a sudden?

Why were they referred to as captain and vice-captain?

Why hadn't he been affected by the powerful magic of the giant Captain with the pink haired lieutenant?

He was worn out and could have slept till morning without a care. He was just dosing off as a cushion hit him dead in the face.

"Wha-?" he gasped.

"Harry get up, mate. You don't want to be here when the first years turn up. They'll probably nick your hair or your clothes. C'mon!"

"Thanks for the cushion, Seamus. I'm dead tired."

The three arrived at breakfast the next morning to find more new faces and a comforting, old one. Ginny was there. She ran to meet Harry at the foot of the marble staircase, hugging him as they collided.

"Instant recovery over night!" she said, "I just arrived, actually. I got the knight bus this morning."

"On your own? That's not wise." said a concerned Harry.

"Shush! Aren't you happy to see me?"

Harry frowned, that wasn't a fair accusation, he thought. They entered the Great Hall to find almost every single person of the female gender with her head turned up to the teachers' table. They looked, and saw.

"Oh my gosh." said Hermione softly.

Up on the staff table sat the most beautiful man Harry had ever seen in his entire life. His ebony hair, long and straight, was hanging around his shoulders secured with a traditional Japanese kenseikan. A few locks fell over his perfectly chiselled face. His slate coloured eyes were fixed firmly forward and his disciplined stature, flawless. His attire was of a captain's, white and black robes, as well as a scarf of white silk. Despite his hard look and grim gaze, the man was truly gorgeous. Ron eventually thrust Hermione away towards their house table, giving all the other girls dirty looks along the way. Harry saw Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil gossiping rapidly into each others ears while staring up at the handsome captain. Some things just don't change he sighed.

They sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table and piled their plates. Hagrid was waving cheerily from the staff table at them; they returned it heartily and began discussing the lessons that they may be having that day.

"Not potions first I hope," droned Ron, "I really can't be bothered for Snape first thing!"

"I wonder how many 'different' lessons there'll be on our schedules. I'm actually quite looking forward to it now." said Hermione.

"Well yeah, with pretty boy up there, what girl wouldn't" Harry laughed, Ron didn't.

"No! I mean to find out about the different kinds of magic from this Soul Society place!" Hermione protested.

"Hang on. What?" Ginny cut in.

"Oh yeah, you weren't here."

They filled Ginny in about the 'new style of teaching', but all she could say was "huh?"

"It's true, I mean look. There's two sitting on the Ravenclaw table." Harry pointed out.

Sure enough two tables away, sitting a few seats away from Luna, sat vice-captain Matsumoto and Abarai. They seemed to be arguing about something, again. Harry noted that no one was sitting in a three seat radius of them. He also now saw that there was another captain seated at the staff table, another man. He had silver hair and a foxy grin permanently embedded into his thin face. He was staring over at vice-captain Matsumoto with red slit-like eyes. Harry shuddered as he saw them, thinking of the cold snake eyes of Voldemort. No way! It's not him, he assured himself. Matsumoto found his gaze and looked back for a second and the captain winked at her. Yeah, that'll happen, mate Harry thought sarcastically but to his astonishment the woman returned his gesture with a gentle smile. Freaky!

"Gryffindor seventh year time tables" called Professor McGonagall.

Ron got up, stuffing a whole piece of toast into his mouth and collected a piece of parchment from his head of house.

"Damn!" he groaned. "We've got potions first.

Harry kept reading his own timetable, free second lesson, then… Zanpakutō with Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. Zanpakutō? What on earth was that?

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Hope you liked it! Please review!

New chapters coming soon! But, I really need to re-watch a few bleach episodes first to check if I've got all the technical stuff right :P Please bear with me!!