Okayyy, so here's the ninth chapter! I know I took a long time off, I had pretty much given up on this fanfic. Oh well… I'm back. Sorry everyone.
I actually wrote this for the eighth chapter, but decided it'd be too long if I put it in so I divided it up. If you're wondering: so why did it take a long time to update, I don't actually know. I've become rather absentminded recently.
Hitsugaya sighed as he entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, wondering if Matsumoto had actually listened to him or if she was just going to teach something completely useless again. Thankfully, Momo the cat didn't attack him when he cautiously poked his head through the door, so his temper didn't rise dangerously again like last time. In fact, Matsumoto's reiatsu seemed pretty far away. In the library, actually. Was the crazy woman actually reading? That was a surprise.
Unfortunately, Malfoy was already sitting at his desk when he arrived, with his 'friends' (cronies, more like) sitting next to him. "Look, it's the old man," he sneered, "Killed any cats lately, oldie?" The two fat boys approached, knuckles cracking. Hitsugaya didn't even flinch; those two were about as intimidating as Hinamori with a watermelon. Heck, even Yachiru was scarier than them.
"I had nothing to do with yesterday's incident." Hitsugaya muttered, not looking at him, and ignoring the two fat boys who were desperately cracking their knuckles in an attempt to get him to show some emotion. One actually tried punching him, but of course, he missed and ended up much worse than before.
Malfoy opened his mouth to reply with something 'undoubtedly witty' when the door opened to reveal Neville, who initially seemed thrilled that he was actually early for once. Then his face fell when he saw that the Slytherin boy and the white haired boy with his piercing teal eyes were the only ones there.
"Longbottom, what a surprise. Decided to show up early, have you?" Malfoy had obviously decided that it would be more fun to tease Neville than Hitsugaya, seeing as every single comment he made bounced off him (except for anything about being short, little, tiny, or anything along those lines, but then Malfoy hadn't said anything about that yet).
Neville made an unintelligible sound that sounded like blubbering and decided to hurry to his seat before the two knuckle-cracking fatties came his way.
"H-hi Toshiro," he stuttered, tripping slightly. "Did you finish the homework?"
Truthfully, while he had finished the second piece of homework, having read it all before they came to Hogwarts, he had only written four and a half pages for the essay and only had one paper crane, but he had found the spell for increasing the numbers of something and wanted to try it in class. It wasn't like he was about to squeeze one thousand paper cranes into his bag, and especially not for Matsumoto.
Not waiting for an answer, Neville continued hesitantly, "I haven't finished reading the textbook, and there wasn't anything in the library about the legs and I don't know how to fold origami…"
"Don't worry," Hitsugaya muttered, trying to remember the words for the spell. "I'm sure Professor Matsumoto will forget all about it when she comes in." Finally remembering the strange words, Hitsugaya tapped the origami crane and muttered "Gemino."
Neville's eyes widened as another crane appeared next to the original. Smiling with a sense of satisfaction, he repeated the spell until the desk and floor around him were overflowing with the paper birds. Okay, so it was lazier doing this, but at least it saved paper and he didn't have to waste time doing something completely useless.
Hyourinmaru's deep growl echoed through his head. Matsumoto's having a bad influence on you. You're wriggling out of work with excuses.
Hitsugaya grimaced. It's not like I'm going to waste time folding all that useless origami when I should be investigating this place.
Hyourinmaru snorted but accepted his reasoning. Pulling himself out of his head, he turned to the mess on the floor and started shoveling them all back on his desk.
"Wow… I thought you skipped the first year…" Neville muttered, his jaw hanging open.
"Er… well I managed to do some… reading… on it…"
"Reading is different from actually doing it though!" Neville exclaimed, hesitantly pulling out his own wand. "What was the spell?"
The result was an explosion of sparks that singed some of Hitsugaya's hair ("So much for good luck" he grumbled). Coughing slightly, Neville gave up and decided to finish reading the textbook instead, muttering about how it was so much easier. Sighing in exasperation, he dug through his bag and pulled out a book he had borrowed from the library on ghosts. After several minutes he concluded the author had been drunk and mind wiped when he wrote the book, and his mind wandered from the messy script to McGonagall's words. The Chamber of Secrets. An ominous name, but that was not the problem. If they really were dealing with a magical monster, they had no idea what its powers and capabilities were, what it looked like, or how to kill it. But they'd have to find a way, if it really was the thing that attacked the cat, there was no telling if it would harm any of the students. Even if he didn't like them, they all had souls that needed protecting, and lives were more important than anything personal. The door opened and Harry and his friends entered.
There was a pause as Harry glared at Hitsugaya, who wasn't even looking at him due to the fact that he was still staring at the book, pondering on the issue of the Chamber of Secrets. His eyes then slid to the slightly burned but still intact paper cranes that were all spilling over the desk and on the floor despite all of Hitsugaya's efforts. Ron, who was standing behind Harry, coughed in surprise at the sights, causing Hitsugaya to look up.
"Did you fold all that?"
Neville shook his head, "No, Toshiro did this spell thing that made all these duplicates, but… er… when I tried…"
"Something blew up?" Ron guessed, raising an eyebrow.
Neville opened his mouth to retort when Hermione popped up behind the two boys.
"Did you use the Gemino spell, Toshiro? That's really advanced, and even more so seeing as you skipped the last year."
Looking mildly surprised, he asked, "Is it?
"Yes, it is! Not that I have any trouble doing it though." she finished, looking rather vexed at Ron, who was smiling a smile similar to Matsumoto's when someone figured out something that he didn't or if something could do something he couldn't. Then all glances turned to Harry, who looked, strangely enough, triumphant.
"Have you just achieved something, Potter?" Hitsugaya inquired, looking skeptically at the almost happy boy.
Before Harry could answer, he was pulled away by Hermione, who whispered loudly (although Hitsugaya's imagined she thought she was quiet),
"Harry, when I say that it's advanced, I mean that it's hard, but not impossibly hard, it's probably only a third year spell, and-"
"I can hear you, you know." Hitsugaya interrupted, now looking less skeptical and more exasperated. Perhaps Potter simply felt jealous that a new student was able to perform a spell that he couldn't (not that Hitsugaya felt like bragging, after all, magic was quite similar to Kidou), but then again, he didn't seem like the type to freak out about test scores. But it seemed to have been much more private than that, seeing as Hermione squealed rather loudly and dropped all her books. Red faced, she hastily picked them up and walked away from the doorway, settling in a seat next to Hitsugaya. Still looking mortified, she nervously changed the subject.
"P-Professor Matsumoto sure is late today, isn't she? Class has already started for fifteen minutes."
"But considering that fiasco last lesson, maybe she's just hiding from us." Ron muttered, fingering one of the cranes. "But I'm pretty sure I saw her at the library. She was talking to Dumbledore, actually."
"You went to the library?" Hermione asked skeptically. "You, Ronald, went to the library?"
"What, am I too dumb to go to the library?"
"I never said that, it's just that-"
"Well you didn't say it, but you implied it, which is the same as saying it really."
"I was not implying anything at all, I was merely expressing my surprise and happiness that you would actually take time out to study."
"Because you think I am too stupid to read!"
"That is not what I meant at all…"
Their bickers continued and Hitsugaya groaned, trying to block out their annoying voices. He was actually more concerned about what Ron had said before he started fighting with Hermione. Matsumoto was talking to Dumbledore? What did the old man want with her? Perhaps it was due to her stupid teaching, but from what he heard most teachers weren't all the good anyway; the DADA teacher last year had ironically joined forces with the renowned Voldemort and the headmaster had just let him carry the guy around on the back of his head right under his nose. In mid thought, he was distracted by the door opening, revealing Matsumoto, sweating and out of breath.
"Professor Matsumoto!" Hermione and Ron shouted in unison, their argument finally stopping. "Y-you're late!"
"Oh yeah… sorry about that," she panted, collapsing in her chair. "I had some… matters to take care of."
"Like getting drunk?" Malfoy sniggered, his laugh followed by the rest of Slytherin.
"Detention for you, Mr. er… well… blond person!" she shouted, looking happy to finally be able to say something like that. "And… er… ten points from Slytherin. Wait, no… make that fifty. Nah… I think one hundred suits your punishment better." She grinned ear to ear as the Slytherin's stared at her, shocked into silence, and the Gryffindors did the same, jaws hanging open. Except for Hitsugaya, who smacked is forehead in annoyance.
"Y-you… you stupid woman!" Malfoy yelled, obviously upset at having lost one hundred and sixty points in about two seconds. "How dare you! My father will hear about this!"
Matsumoto just laughed evilly and picked up the role book, calling out the names, trying her best to pronounce them right this time. However, when she reached Hitsugaya's name, she called out,
"Hitsga Toro."
Hitsugaya didn't even have time to scowl at the mention of tuna before she rushed onto the next name. Looking slightly baffled, he wondered if this was just another trick of hers that she thought was funny. But usually, if she tried teasing him she would look at his face to see his 'priceless expression'. She wasn't even moving her eyes away from the register.
"And… has everyone done their homework?"
There was an outbreak of groaning and protests. Hermione's hand shot in the air and she announced, "Professor, I've done my homework!"
Matsumoto smiled sweetly, causing Ron, who was sitting next to Hermione, to turn red and look away. "Good, Ms. Granger. Now, I'll have all your cranes…" It seemed she had forgotten about everything else. Che. Typical.
"Toshiro's done his homework as well." Neville piped up, pointing to Hitsugaya's desk, still overflowing with bits of paper. However, Matsumoto seemed to ignore him. As a matter of fact, she wasn't even looking at Hitsugaya, instead hurriedly looking at the next person whenever her eyes wandered around the room and landed at his desk. Something was wrong.
"Okay… so now… I'll be teaching you…" she flipped quickly through the book, her eyes straining on the tiny words scrawled on the parchment. "Patronuses"
Again, Hermione's hand was in the air.
"Professor, that's a seventh year book."
Blinking in surprise, Matsumoto checked the cover to find that Hermione was quite right. "Oh, sorry then, wait a second," Fumbling for another book, she flipped it open and coughed slightly before declaring that they would be learning about Hambledon Quince, author of the controversial theory that wizards originated from Mars and Muggles from mushrooms. After a fit of laughter from Malfoy, she discovered it had nothing to do with the subject and grabbed yet another book. Finally finding a chapter on vampires, she started babbling about bats and the sun and some guy called Lorcan d'Eath*. In the end, she managed to squeeze a bit about zanpaktous in, but everyone except Hermione was all fast asleep to hear her, and Hermione seemed to have heard something else, and scribbled down something that looked like Zaku Pants. And during this whole time, she had neither looked, walked near, called on, nor talked to Hitsugaya. And finally the lesson ended, with Matsumoto setting tons of homework not related to the subject as usual, and dismissed the class. Hitsugaya was about to walk out when he heard Matsumoto shout out:
"Mr. Hitsugaya. Detention. Now."
Feeling rather annoyed, he turned and glared at her. "Why?"
"Were you paying attention in class?"
"Yes."
"You weren't paying attention!" Matsumoto almost squealed, sounding rather hysterical, and Hitsugaya realized that this was no joke, but that she actually wanted to speak to him. He told Ron and Hermione, who were looking rather worried that he'd catch them later and went up to her.
"What?"
She was jumping from foot to foot, looking very anxious. "Well…"
He waited.
"…"
It took all his effort and experience with Matsumoto's ranting to understand what she was saying, and even then it was hard to tell the words apart. She kept talking, unaware that her captain was getting rather annoyed at how hard it was to comprehend anything she was saying until he shouted at her, the volume overtaking the fact that he was much shorter. Matsumoto took a deep breath and said slowly,
"The headmaster says that there is something strange about you and has asked me to spy on you and report to him if there is anything… funny about you."
Cursing under his breath, Hitsugaya paced around the room. "Shit. How'd he find out?"
"The wandmaker. He contacted Dumbledore and recounted the incident with Hyourinmaru."
Running a hand through his hair, Hitsugaya asked,
"How much has he guessed?"
"Little bits and pieces. He said the Potter boy thought you were the one who attacked the caretaker's cat, and the wandmaker blabbed about that time in his shop. I think for a split second, he saw Hyourinmaru. Dumbledore's managed to guess about his** existence, to some extent."
"Potter suspected me?" Hitsugaya asked sharply, "Did Dumbledore say why?"
Matsumoto thought back to Dumbledore's long line of suspicions. "No. I don't think so."
Hitsugaya thought for a little while, then remembered. Potter had passed out the other day, and while the nurse had associated it to lack of food and rest, one of his suspicions was feeling an overload of reiatsu, but the theory had been abandoned due to the little probability of that actually being the case. At any rate, Potter's reiatsu had been growing lately, and it was probably time to rethink the reason for his strange behavior.
"Potter probably thinks his passing out the other day was caused by me. Which it most likely was." Hitsugaya mused.
"Good thing we're blocking our reiatsu output then." Matsumoto said.
"The wandmaker saw Hyourinmaru?" Hitsugaya plowed on, wary of how much the headmaster knew.
"I think so. Dumbledore said he saw something with red eyes, and I dunno… he described it as a chunk of ice."
Hyourinmaru growled at the indignity of being called a chunk of ice. It's like saying you're a walking hunk of flesh with white string stuck to the end of your head. Hitsugaya ignored him. "Well, obviously you're going to have to lie. The problem is how to do so without Dumbledore suspecting you. The old man's pretty smart, no doubt he's got a more reliable way of checking up on me, yet he's using you. Killing two birds with one stone."
"Which means that you'll have to be a good boy from now on and not go sneaking around the school at night."
Hitsugaya sighed. Oh, the irony. He had been so careful of Matsumoto not screwing up that he himself did the exact thing that he had been trying to avoid. How could he be considered a prodigy if he could not even stay undercover properly?
"It's not just me, but you too. Remember that Dumbledore is probably inspecting the both of us."
Matsumoto nodded. "Oh right, about the cat... it seems the rest of the teachers are very tense about what happened… especially about the writing on the wall."
"I've heard about a legendary Chamber build by one of the schools founders." Hitsugaya recounted the story McGonagall had told them. "If there really is a monster living in the so called Chamber then we may have some problems. We don't know what the creatures in this world are like."
"But why attack a cat when it's hunting Muggle borns down?" Matsumoto asked,
"Perhaps it was a mistake, and the cat just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But quite a few students are Muggle borns, which means that a lot of souls are at stake here."
Matsumoto shivered. "Haineko is a cat… will the thing attack me to get to Haineko?"
Hitsugaya sighed. "If you can handle hollows and Arrancar but can't handle one monster what use are you to Soul Society, apart from draining all the supplies of sake?"
"Hey, that was mean, taicho!"
"Just stating a fact."
Matsumoto pouted. "Well, you better run along now, taicho. It's getting dark… you wouldn't want to be attacked by the evil monster under your bed, now would you?"
After shouting at her for five minutes Hitsugaya left the room. Momo jumped into Matsumoto's arms, evidently frightened by the screaming fit.
"It's okay Momo, I won't let mean taicho scare you." Stroking its fur, she began counting her newly attained cranes.
---
Harry walked down the flooded hallway, his footsteps reverberating across the walls. He saw the reflection of Mrs. Norris, hanging from the candlestick. The bloody words shimmered in the dim light.
He felt his chest tighten as he walked further down. His cloak was getting soaked and he was shivering. Strange, why was it getting colder? His breath appeared in front of him in white swirls.
At the end of the corridor was a chair. A tuft of white hair was barely visible over it. Harry stopped, breathing heavily. Was it because of the cold, or because his lungs felt oddly constricted? Water dripped from the ceiling and landed on the wet floor, the sound echoing in Harry's ears. He pulled out his wand as the chair slowly spun around. Harry gasped. It was Hitsugaya, his pale hands locked together, his teal eyes piercing Harry's own green ones. He smiled.
"I've been expecting you."
Harry practically flew out of his bed, screaming. The rest of the room was startled awake.
"Harry, what's wrong?"
Still shaking, he looked around. Ron was staring at him, a worried look on his face. It was just a dream. Just a dream.
"J-Just a nightmare." Ron sighed and pulled the covers over his head. Harry was about to do the same when he noticed that Hitsugaya's bed was empty.
"Has anyone seen Toshiro?"
"He was downstairs writing something in Japanese." Neville piped up. "But it's been a while, last I saw him was at least…" he checked his watch "six hours ago."
Harry sighed and kicked the covers away. "I'm going for a walk."
"Where to?" Ron asked under the blankets.
"Just… somewhere."
He put on his cloak and went down the stairs. The fire was still roaring, but it seemed colder than usual. Harry spotted a long scroll filled with unreadable Japanese characters. Even though he could not read it, but he was amazed at how neat they were; in his experience male handwriting was utterly illegible. He seemed to have used a paintbrush- several of them lay next to a pot of ink. Hitsugaya was sleeping on the couch next to the table, which happened to be the furthest from the fire. His hair was slightly ruffled; it seemed he had been running his hands through it. For a moment, Harry thought he looked just like everyone else, sleeping peacefully, then he remembered how much he hated him. But still… could he have been wrong?
The small boy stirred, and Harry noticed that he actually wasn't in peace. He was sweating profusely, and looked paler than usual. His eyes were squeezed tight together, and it looked like his was biting his lip as if in pain. The hand that wasn't supporting his head was clenched into a fist, and had become quite white. This was the first time Harry had seen him like this, and it disturbed him. What was he dreaming about?
Then he opened his mouth. "Can I help you, Potter?"
Harry jumped. His eyes had opened, and they were staring at him. It was scary how the guy could sense him when he didn't even make a sound.
"Um… I think I left something down here."
"Something?"
"Er… yeah… a Charms essay." Harry stammered, hoping he wouldn't attack him or something. His hand was already on his wand.
"I did not see one down here. You may have left it in your bag."
"Oh… really?" It was Harry's time to sweat. "Okay then… thanks." He turned to go back upstairs. "Aren't you going up to sleep?"
"I find it far too hot in that dormitory."
"Isn't it warmer in here?" Harry asked.
"If I were to open the windows in the room the rest of you would be quite cold."
Harry was confused. He's being considerate? He almost shivered at the thought. "Then… who are you writing to?"
"My parents." Hitsugaya lied, rolling the scroll up. "They are quite worried about my well-being."
Harry tried to imagine the parents of this strange white-haired boy. Somehow he couldn't think of anyone. Wait a second, wasn't he a grown wizard in disguise? Was he writing to Voldemort? He frowned, somehow he couldn't imagine Voldemort reading Japanese. "So… your parents are in Japan?"
"Yes."
"Aren't there any wizarding schools in Japan?"
"Well… there are, but my parents wanted me to learn at a better school, and in their opinion Hogwarts is the best school on this planet to learn magic." It almost killed him to say that; this school sucked so much that had it not been for his maturity and loyalty to his mission he would have packed his bags and returned to Seiretei. Anywhere was better than this hell-hole.
"Is that right?" His suspicion towards Hitsugaya was evaporating against his will, he could kill him right then and there yet he did not, and it seemed more and more apparent that he was not an evil Voldemort-follower. But then again, he could just be an experienced liar.
"Well… goodnight."
"Goodnight."
Harry left, their conversation still ringing in his head.
*From J.K Rowling's official website :D I feel like a nerd.
** Confused about Hyourinmaru's gender. Oh well.
I wasn't really bothered to write Matsumoto's lesson, so sorry to those who have been looking forward to another demonstration of her klutzyness. I'll try to write it in some other time though. However, I'm aware that she is going slightly out of character and being a bit too dumb… have to change that…
Oh my god this chapter was an absolute fail… I've completely forgotten my entire plan TT^TT… it's so sad… Not to mention that I have encountered a HUGE writer's block (as you can probably tell from the long space between updates). Oh well… I'll try to update as soon as I can with a hopefully better written chapter.
Thank you to all those who reviewed, they were the only things that kept me tethered to writing this. Seriously, thank you all of you :D
FallenSnow
