Let's just skip to the chase . I'm sorry. I have no excuse. Now on with the show!

Classes went on as usual.

Every day the Golden Trio would go to their classes like nothing happened. They wouldn't talk about their missing friend at meals, but every day after dinner they'd go see Professor McGonagall and ask about Kurama.

McGonagall had soon gotten into the habit of asking for daily updates on Kurama from St. Mungo's.

Apparently, Kurama was improving. This was good news.

School was slow and boring, and nothing of interest happened, besides the miracle in portions on day, when Neville was called on and he actually answered a question right. It was a question about the plant in a potion… but c'mon, he got it right. That's got to count for something.

Before they knew it, Christmas came after two months of nothing.

Harry and Hermione had once again been invited to the Burrow for the holidays.

"Hey Mr. Weasly, remember when we went to go see you in St. Mungo's?"

Mr. Weasly raised his eyebrow. "How could I forget?"

Harry smiled sheepishly back to him before he spoke, "Well, could we visit Eric is St. Mungo's?"

At his suggestion, Mr. Weasly shrugged. "Sure, I guess. We could go tomorrow if you guys really want. Just let me talk to Molly about it."

"Thanks Mr. Weasly."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione paraded happily into Kurama's room. He smiled to them as they walked in, and he began to twitch slightly.

"Hey guys!" he exclaimed after the twitching ended. Ron grimaced.

Hermione, on the other hand, hurried over to him. "Was that normal?" she worried. Kurama laughed, and his fingers jerked from their place on his lap. He grabbed her hand.

"Yeah. The Healers have been saying that the curse did some damage to my nerves…" his lip twitched this time, "and their going to fix it soon." Hermione squeezed his hand as it shuddered around hers.

"What was it like?" Ron blurted out without thinking. Hermione glared at him, but Kurama laughed again.

"It was horrible."

Kurama didn't expand on this. Harry gave Ron a quick glare too, before beginning his well-thought out question for Kurama. "What about after you woke up in the hospital. Nobody gave us any details."

Kurama closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. It had been horrible in the hospital too. "I lost my memory of everything for the first week or so, and then it came back up to the few minutes before…" he paused. They had done so many tests on him during that time looking for eternal damage. "Then I was really… weird. I felt really weird, and I acted really weird. It was like I wasn't conscious of anything I was doing. Now, I feel fine, and they've fixed all eternal damage except the twitch. I should be back after the holidays."

Hermione leaned over and hugged him.

"Thank God! We've met people who were tortured into insanity by that curse!" Hermione cooed over him. She had really not wanted him to leave them like that, because of one moment of stupidity.

Kurama laughed, "I can assure you that I am perfectly alright." Twitch. Hermione raised her eyebrow and Kurama just rolled his eyes. "At least, for the most part."

Yusuke groaned. "I'm bored," he complained. "Why weren't we allowed a Christmas holiday? We know where he is, and we know that we can't get to him… so why are we here?"

"Because Hiei didn't want to take a flight back home for the holidays and have to come back… and Koenma isn't going to let him stay here alone…" Kuwabara replied. Yusuke had asked that question twenty times a day and his answer was quite routine.

He shot an angry glare at Hiei, who shrugged. "We didn't waste all this time, you know."

Kuwabara shrugged. "Yeah. We did find a passage into that crazy ruin that they call a school—"

"It's cloaked," Hiei reminded him. "It's not a ruin up close."

The human ignored his companions interruption, "— and when students are back at the school we've got a plan to break in and figure out what's going on."

Yusuke sighed. "We need Kurama to be there though. How are we to know if he's even there?"

Hiei tapped his third eye and smirked. Then he said, "And he couldn't have been in a human hospital that long."

Kuwabara nodded. "How could he? He has faster healing than a human… if he was trying to block it, it would be slower than a human though…"

Yusuke looked to Hiei, "He can't do that subconsciously, can he?"

"No."

Looking around for Kurama, Harry, Ron and Hermione boarded the train back to the school. They didn't see him right away, but he was sitting calmly in their usual compartment with a smile on his face.

"Hey," he said.

Hermione was so happy that she hugged him. He laughed. "We've been so worried about you," she said. "Ron and Harry said that you wouldn't be back by the time you said you were. They said you were lying to calm me down."

Harry and Ron shook their heads quickly behind her back. Kurama laughed more. "I missed you guys!" He looked from them to the girl. "Now 'Mione… get off me… can't… breathe…"

She jumped back, blushing, and Harry and Ron took their turn to laugh.

"Okay… time to make our move?" Yusuke asked his companions.

"Time to go," Kuwabara replied and they took off down the tunnel.

"So I found the Marauder's Map at Ron's place. I can't believe I forgot it there... I thought it was lost in my trunk…"

"The what?" Kurama inquired and Harry pulled out his second most prized possession. "It shows the real name and location of everybody in the school. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. See there's us—"

The Map did show them. At least, Ron, Hermione, and Harry. What it didn't show was Eric Riddle.

"Shuuichi Minamino…" Harry trailed off, looking to the boy in question.

Kurama stared at it. "You mean that… that's me..?"

"Apparently so," Harry said, his eyes on the name. "The Map never lies…"

"Missing and presumed dead a year ago," Hermione said. "When did you loose your memories?"

"September of last year," Kurama replied.

Hermione frowned. "Do you think you could have been kidnapped and had your memories wiped?"

"But why? Was this Shuuichi a powerful wizard or—"

Harry cut him off, "No, he was a muggle. Who's this father of yours, then? You said he was a Death Eater…"

His cover was falling to pieces! "I… his name's Tom…"

Harry growled, "Voldemort… he's been using you… but…"

"Why?" Hermione finished. "Shuuichi was a muggle… how do you have magic?"

"I've had it since I woke up without any memory… could they have done something to me?"

Harry hadn't take his eyes off the map and he noticed something on its edges. "Hermione, have you ever heard of a student called Yusuke Urameshi, Kazuma Kuwabara, or Hiei...?"

Hermione frowned. "No. Why?"

Kurama frowned. "Aren't they those guys that attacked us?"

"Did they say their names?"

"Yeah," Kurama replied, "and that's it… they acted like they knew me… maybe they could explain what's going on?"

Ron shook his head. "We're going with you. You could be making that up— they could be Death Eaters and you could be trying to distract us."

"Then let's go!"

Ipromisetoupdatethisyear.