I don't own Harry Potter or Yu Yu Hakusho so please don't sue!

Chapter 9:

Both Harry and Ron found it difficult to concentrate in the rest of their classes. Hermione stayed in a tiff for the rest of the day as well, since she was never able to get a hold of Professor Jaganshi after class and she had been late for her next class, Charms, because of it. The rest of the school did not believe Harry's class about this new teacher, and Harry just assumed they would all learn their lesson shortly. Harry and Ron were already planning on finding out more about this teacher, and Hermione, miffed, agreed to join them. During their Charms class they held their conspiratorial conversation.

"I think that tonight we should check the map, and if he's not in his office we should sneak in and find out what we can in there," Ron suggested.

"Yeah! That sounds perfect. We all don't fit as well under the invisibility cloak anymore though, so one of us should stay behind…" Harry started.

"That should be you, Harry," Hermione stated matter-of-factly.

"What, why?" Harry asked aghast.

"You're forgetting about your appointment with Dumbledore tonight, and you already have quite a bit of homework, so you'll be tired and who knows how long you'll be with the headmaster!"

"Oh yeah," Harry stated sadly, "I'd forgotten about that." They stopped their conversation and walked in silence down to the Great Hall for lunch.

When they reached the table and began eating, Ron started chatting merrily, trying to cheer Harry up. "Don't worry, mate, anything we find we'll tell you!" Harry gave him a look. "Of course!" he added, and began eating hurriedly, putting food in his mouth as an excuse to stop talking, afraid to make his friend's mood worse.

Hermione, oblivious to her friends, sat down and said, "Well I just can't believe Professor Jaganshi walked out of class early!" she said, picking out her food carefully; eating a well balanced diet was pertinent to staying alert in class after all. The two boys looked at each other; they knew the real reason why Hermione didn't like their new teacher.

"Well I don't care what you say about him, I think he was bad ass," Ron stated.

Before Hermione could do much more than shoot Ron a dirty look, he spotted McGonagall heading their way. "I wonder what we could've done this soon to get on her list," he said. Harry wondered the same thing as she neared them.

"Potter, I'd like to speak to you about Quidditch practices and tryouts." Ron let out an audible sigh and McGonagall shot him a look.

"Oh sure, Professor," Harry said, relieved.

"As captain you have to make sure that your practices don't interrupt any other club activities…" She droned on for a couple more minutes; Hermione and Ron had to leave for class, but McGonagall told Harry that she would write him an excuse. Most of what she said he already knew, but he also knew that interrupting her would be a bad idea, so he kept his mouth shut. By the end of the conversation they had decided that team tryouts would be that Friday, and so she promised him she would put the notice up in the Gryffindor common room.

The rest of the day went by without consequence, though the whole school was still abuzz with talk of the new teacher. Back in the common room, with Hermione nagging at him that he should get on his homework, Harry poured over the Marauder's Map, watching Hiei, who sat in his office seemingly doing nothing. He and Ron outlined a general plan for how the night was going to go, and Hermione only pitched in once all of her own homework was done.

"How do you have all of your work done?" Ron exclaimed.

"It's simple, I worked on it," she stated snidely.

"Yeah, but I meant how do you get it finished so damn quickly?" Hermione decided not to answer Ron and just ask Harry what was going on. So Harry explained that they should probably leave when he left for his appointment with Dumbledore, so he could open the portrait hole for them, and then they should approach Hiei's classroom first and foremost and see if they couldn't find anything in his desk. If that gave them no new information then they should see if they could get into his office; Harry was lending them the Marauder's Map to see where he was.

"But what if he is still in his office later? How would we get him out?" They all thought on this and none of them could come up with anything better than some sort of distraction.

"Why don't you leave that to me?" a voice asked from over Harry's shoulder. All three of them jumped and looked around to find out whom the voice belonged to. Ginny stood behind and a little to the right of Harry, leaning on a chair, her head cocked and a smile on her face. "You guys should know not to plot things without me." Ron groaned. "So what is the mission objective?" Harry sighed. Ever since the previous year with what had happened in the Room of Prophesies (Harry quickly blocked out the memories of that time, setting his jaw stubbornly), Ginny had taken to thinking that she was a part of these things. Hermione loved it, since she wasn't the only girl anymore, but Ron and Harry found it slightly annoying for different reasons. Hermione bounced right into explaining what they were doing. Ginny only interrupted once to say: "Oh! I don't have his class till tomorrow afternoon! Is he as short as everyone says he is?" They continued talking strategy until Hermione gave Harry a wide eyed look.

"Look at the time, Harry! You're going to be late!" Not even bothering to look at the time, Harry ran upstairs and quickly grabbed his invisibility cloak out from his trunk and shoved it into his bag. He got downstairs and stopped only momentarily, bending over his friends as if talking to them, but really only passing the cloak to them. Then he jumped through the portrait hole and skidded through the halls up to Dumbledore's office. The main thing on his mind was something along the lines of, 'Geez, I hope I don't run into Snape.'

As he neared the stone gargoyles that guarded the entrance to the headmaster's office, he panted, "Cockroach Clusters!" He regained his breath on the stairs, and was finally breathing normally when he entered the room. Dumbledore sat at the large desk with the usual tinkling instruments out and tinkling. Harry smiled at the old wizard and waved at Fawkes, who, as usual, sat right behind Dumbledore.

"Ah, Harry, right on time I see." Harry's face was hot from the run up there still, and all he did was nod. "We shall dispense with niceties for now, and get right on to business. You are here to gain valuable knowledge which will hopefully help you defeat Tom when the time comes for your final battle."

Harry nodded excitedly, "Will you be teaching me advanced spells?" Even though he had forgotten earlier that day that he had lessons, and even though he did want to go with Ron and Hermione, he had also been looking forward to this. What in the world was Dumbledore going to teach him?

Dumbledore simply pulled out from under his desk his pensieve.

"What's that for?"

"Your lessons, of course." And without elaborating he beckoned Harry towards him. "Come, Harry, let us look into the past to learn what we can from it."

BREAK

Hiei tightened up the wards on his Jagan once again, contemplating what he had witnessed in Riddle's past: yes, it was all very well and good, the man had been creepy even as a child, but for what purpose was the old man showing Potter? Hiei did not think that knowing more about Voldemort would help them defeat him, for not knowing his enemies had never hindered him or the Tantei in defeating any of their enemies. Then again, he was much more powerful than these pathetic wizards.

Though he thought it a waste of time, any intel was intel, and he was interested as to how Tom Riddle transformed into the man that Koenma had shown them. He was looking forward to Harry's next 'lesson'.

As he walked back to his classroom contemplating these things, an oddly dressed little man popped his head upside down in front of Hiei's, his wicked little smile filling Hiei's vision. In an oily voice he stated, "Little naughty children ought to not try to get into professors' offices. They'll get what they deserve, that they will, that they will!" He cackled and Hiei smirked.

"Job well done, Peeves."

BREAK

Back in the common room Harry found neither Hermione nor Ron, not knowing, nor caring much out of tiredness, where they were. Though he was very curious about what they had found out, if anything. Perhaps they were still in Professor Jaganshi's office. He stumbled up the stairs to his room, thinking sadly of all the homework he had not finished. When he entered the room a strong smell hit him, and his roommates were grumbling in their sleep. Ignoring the stink, he fell onto his bed and passed almost instantly.

~Edited by kitsuneluvuh~