Hyorimaru gazed down at the Younger version of himself. "Very well," he said after a second. "When I was at school several of my dorm mates took to calling me Hyori. In an effort to make this a little less confusing you may call me Hyori for now."
Hyorimaru smiled up at Hyori. "my thanks." He replied simply.
Hyori snorted. "I know father has told you this a great many times, that your face gives away too much of what you feel. Learn to mask it pup. A demon gives nothing that his enemies might use against him."
Hyorimaru cocked his head to the side like the curious puppy he currently was. "When did you learn it?" he asked after a second.
"That would be telling, young one." Hyori replied raising one sculpted brow. "Needless to say you will see… eventually." He snorted at the pout on his younger self's face. "Come, it is time we procured your school supplies." That said he offered the boy his hand. His younger self was still too young to travel from Africa back to Japan without help.
Hpiyhpiyhpiy
Kenji glanced up at the flash of light outside his shop door. Demons had come to call, which in and of itself was not unusual in Spirit Avenue. In Japan Demons came and went as they pleased, when they pleased. There were set 'Demon Territories' that Wizards and Muggles alike avoided. But it was not that they were considered second class in Japan's Wizarding society. On the contrary the Youkai themselves had portioned off these massive territories – if you were not of demon blood or in the presence of a demon you were not allowed beyond their borders – on pain of death.
No what startled him was their presence at his shop.
Demons, despite being both powerful and dangerous could not use a wand. Their natural energy simply overpowered the wand's core. Causing them to either disintegrate or explode the first time the demon in question tried to use it.
Before he had the chance to contemplate the oddity of the situation further the elder of the two demons opened his door and gestured for the boy to precede him inside.
Kenji rose to his feet and bowed.
The two simply inclined their heads, an acknowledgement of custom, even if they didn't bow in return.
Kenji studied them for a moment, long silver hair was bound up in a high tail that was held by a leather thong. On the elder it fell in a striking waterfall to his calves. The child's hair on the other hand – while bound in the same style fell only to his thighs. Both where tall and delicately lean, with an effeminate quality to them. They exuded power like a man who hadn't bathed exuded his stench. A slim crescent moon sat in the center of their foreheads resting delicately over eerie killing curse green, slit pupil eyes. Ice blue markings brushed their lids and gave off the look of what on any other species he'd have taken for eye shadow. Twin Ice blue stripes adorned their cheeks the backs of clawed hands. But it was the fluffy white tails draped about them like a fluffy sash, that told him exactly what he was dealing with.
White Akita Youkai.
An extremely dangerous variety of Inuyoukai – one wrong move and they would kill him, without so much as a backwards glance. Their where countless myths and legends dating back as far as Japanese written history could tell, all of which held the Akitas as either benevolent on malevolent but never as an actual friend.
Even the famed InuTaishu had only been benevolent.
"What may I do for you my lords?" He asked slowly.
The elder raised an immaculately sculpted and groomed eyebrow. "Young Hyorimaru has need of his own wand."
The look on the demon's oddly impassive face forbade questions.
HPIYHPIYHPIY
Hyorimaru was becoming impatient. So far he'd tried out several wands only to have them all snatched right back before he could so much as wave the idiotic piece of wood.
HPIYHPIYHPIY
Almost 2 hours and every wand he'd ever made had passed, and Kenji was becoming quite frustrated. Rather abruptly the idea occurred to him. What if it wasn't one of his wands the child needed? There were wands here that predated his great grandfather. However it was rare that a wand would choose a wizard so long after its original making. Most wands found their wizard within the maker's lifetime, but there were a very few that found their match in the years following its maker's death. He had one in the back room collecting dust that was at least a thousand years old.
Excusing himself he quickly went to retrieve it.
He picked it up off of the pedestal it had been resting on and wondered why he hadn't thought of it the moment the two walked through his door. The beautifully carved cherry wood box bore a carved battle scene and above it all a great dog demon ran in the clouds. As a child he had asked his grandfather about the wand and heard the same story of how it had come to be, that had been passed down in his family since its crafting.
The great dog Demon Inutaishu had apparently traumatized his family generations ago by walking into their humble hut and pulling a single hair from his head ordered the wand crafted. He'd come back a few months later to see the finished product, and to inscribe a set of odd ruins upon the wand with his claws, before leaving it in his families care.
The finished product was an eleven and a half inch cherry wood wand with a duel core of Unicorn hair and the single hair the demon had given. It was the most temperamental wand in their humble shop, and had apparently burned the hand of every wizard ever to hold it.
Swallowing his fear of what the dog would do if the slim stick of wood in his hands burned the pup; he presented the box to the boy.
As soon as it touched the boy's hand, a cloud of smoke shaped suspiciously like an Akita shot out of the tip and bowed to the boy. It then disappeared with an eerie howl, leaving behind a white shapeless blob of smoke that shifted and elongated until it seemed to gather weight and sank to the floor, with an odd sound like leather wrapped steel striking the floor.
It solidified to reveal just what it had sounded like – a leather wrapped parcel.
The boy, smirked slipped the wand into the leather arm sheath that came standard with all wands, and tucked the wand up his sleeve before he knelt and unwrapped the odd parcel on the floor carefully.
Looking up at the elder dog he smiled, his young face showing the same delight of any child his apparent age at the discovery of an unexpected gift. "It's a Katana. Like Father's and Uncle Inuyasha's." he observed mildly, gently cradling the cherry wood hilt in one small hand.
The older dog smirked, his hand falling to his hip to caress the identical cherry wood hilt at his hip, like most men would caress a lover. "Read the inscription on the blade." He advised.
The boy brought the sword up in a graceful arch and read, "For my Grandson;" Aloud.
The boy, sheathed the blade and slipped it into his belt, looking like nothing more than a smaller version of the man who stood beside him.
"How much?" the elder asked calmly as if untrained little boy's conjured full length swords out of 13 inch long sticks of wood all the time.
Kenji stunned stupid responded without thinking. The man pulled a feather light never full bank bag out of his Kimono sleeve, and counted out 12 gold coins before exiting with the pup in toe.
Kenji sat heavily upon his stool when the door closed.
"A demon sword." He muttered to himself. "All these years my family had been keeping a demon sword, in the back room and not a one of us knew what we had?" it all seemed like a wild tail.
IYHPIYHPIYHP
Hyorimaru smiled to himself as he followed Hyori into the next shop on their list. Hyori had insisted that he required a good trunk. Hyori stood quietly to the side watching him as he went through the different trunks. After a few minutes the sales associate finally noticed them and made his way over.
"Can I help you find anything?" he asked, carefully not meeting Hyori's gaze. Apparently he had some experience with Dog demons. The four claw marks down his cheek only supported the fact that he'd once made the mistake of looking a dominant dog in the eye.
Hyori gazed at him for a moment, establishing his own dominance before he spoke. "I require a seven compartment trunk. One compartment must be a dojo, another must be a library, and there should also be a potions lab. Beyond that we require that one compartment be a walk in closet. It should be covered in black ray leather and carry the crest of our house. As to the purpose of the other 3 compartments I shall leave that up to you."
The man bowed, "it shall be ready in an hour my lord."
Hyori handed him a paper with the Crest of their house on the front. "See to it that it is." He replied mildly. "Come Hyorimaru, it is time we got the rest of your school supplies."
HPIYHPIYHPIY
Hyorimaru settled himself down across the table from his older self. They'd had a good day, and had gotten all of the supplies he needed for Hogwarts. Tomorrow they would be traveling across the ocean to Brittan, where he would be boarding the Hogwarts express the following day.
He couldn't wait. Hyori had told him some of the things he would see at Hogwarts. Ghosts – seemed interesting, and werewolves. Would they be anything like uncle Kouga? He was after all a wolf demon.
However when he asked Hyori the man nearly choked on his sake.
HPIYHPIYHPIY
Draco Malfoy sighed as he gazed down at all of his new stuff. Out of it all his favorite was his new Hawthorn and dragon heartstring wand. His father had bought him a new black leather wand holster for his arm as an extra gift – students didn't really need a wand holster but Slytherins almost always carried one. His was made of black lamb's skin and was beautifully worked with small snakes.
He'd strapped it to his arm and slipped his wand into it as soon as Mr. Olivander had confirmed what he already knew – the wand had chosen him. He had yet to take it off. It was ten minutes before his bed time and he had yet to take it off.
Clad in his Slytherin Green silk Pajamas he finished packing away the rest of his school supplies and covered the cage containing his new owl, before climbing into bed. He ran a finger over the serpent themed leatherwork of his wand holster and wondered what the coming year would bring.
Earlier when his parents had taken him first to Gringgots and then on into Diagon ally to collect his school supplies; he'd run into the famous Nicolas Potter. Remebering what his father had told him about powerful families requiring powerful Allies – he'd tried to make friends with the other boy while they were being fitted for their Hogwarts robes.
It was a risky move on his part, the Dark Lord was psychotic according to his father – and possibly not as dead as everyone seemed to think. By allying himself to Nicolas, he would have effectively be allying his family to the light should war ever break out again. Or he was effectively severing ties with his own family, because that was all that would spare his family Voldermort's formidable wrath.
Nicolas however had been less then enthusiastic about the prospect of making friends with a 'future snake in the grass'. He'd told him not to talk to him unless he made it into Gryphondor by some unforeseen miracle.
Draco hated to admit it but that had hurt. He consoled himself with the knowledge that there were plenty of Powerful families in the Slytherin house.
With a sigh he closed his eyes wondering who his year mates would be.
HPIYHPIYHPIY
Hyorimaru tugged at a lock of his now black hair, and looked at his now alarmingly Human hands. It was weird, he could feel his claws and if he touched them he could feel his sharp fangs – but he couldn't see them. He hated this, the illusion made him look exactly like he would if he hadn't been adopted by a demon. He looked like James Potter.
He felt like he needed a bath!
He growled at the thought of looking like that Human pig.
"Stop fidgeting." Hyori told him mildly. "This is to protect you until the time comes for it to be taken down. Don't worry – you won't have to put up with it for too long just long enough to misdirect a few people. Then I will take the illusion down. Be mindful of your claws in the meantime."
Hyorimaru sighed and watched quietly as his katana was packed away in the dojo of his trunk. Before the whole thing was shrunk and stuffed into a pocket on Hyori's gi. Then he focused all of his energy inward dissolving into a white light and followed his elder self to the train station and platform 9 ¾.
HPIYHPIYHPIY
James Potter smiled to himself as he bid his son goodbye, and reminded him that he would be seeing him at Hogwarts since he was to teach their this year. He'd told Nicolas about his dead twin earlier in the week. He'd told the boy how he'd taken them both to Japan for a vacation and of how they'd been attacked by deatheaters, who had killed Harry before he could do anything.
He didn't want his son to know his twin had been dark.
"Father?" Nick asked suddenly. "are you sure Harry is dead?"
James sighed, ever since he'd told him Nick had been almost obsessed with finding his twin or at least his body and having him buried with the rest of the family. The boy wanted his twin to be alive and kept having dreams about a silver haired boy. "I saw them carry off his body myself. I'm fairly sure it was Malfoy who took the body. Why do you ask?"
"Because that boy looks just like me." Nick breathed, "His hair is a lot longer but he looks just like me."
James whipped around to follow his son's gaze, and he froze. Rage built in his heart as he beheld the worthless seed of his loins. The boy was standing quietly beside a beautiful man dressed in traditional Japanese armor. His pointed ears and vivid marking proclaimed him to be a demon. James swallowed his rage and quietly told his son to get on the train while he found out.
