ATTENTION: TheLadyG says that she very glad is to have finished this chapter and she is very sorry that it is so late, however she recently had ear surgery and is coming off of the narcotics so for the past few weeks her writing has looked like this Hello I'm….Oh Shiny….Ow Ow Ow….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Since She did not want to subject any one to a chapter of that she felt compelled to wait.

Shiori was finally asleep, and despite how uncomfortable Shuzo Takagaki was, he had no intention of moving her. He was still holding his wife in the same hug that he had given her when he arrived home several hours earlier. The cause of all her grief was on the kitchen table, a letter from the coroner's office, still unopened. He had only known his new stepson for a few months, and it was still unbelievable to him that he was gone. He prayed for a sign that somehow things would get better.

His prayer was interrupted however by a knock at the door of the cottage. Gently Shuzo moved away from Shiori. He made his way quietly to the door, and answered it in a hushed voice, so as not to wake his wife.

His whispered, "Hello," was cut off by a very agitated Snape grabbing his arm and informing him, quite loudly, that Hogwarts had an emergency.

Shuzo allowed himself to be pulled outside, and then silently shut the door. Turning to Snape, he asked angrily, "What is the meaning of this?"

Snape did not take well to that tone and responded with equal anger, "if you spent nights on campus, like a proper teacher then you would know."

"Sorry," Shuzo said with no hint of an apology, "I have a wife who needs me right now."

Snape looked as him without pity, "the school defenses caught a Demon."

"Are you serious?"

"I don't joke."

"You should have told me sooner, what are we waiting for?"

Snape looked down, "We are waiting for you to get your shoes."

"Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck."

"Um, Yoko…"

"What now Shuichi, can't you see I'm ranting."

"First it's 'can't you hear I'm ranting', second I believe that we have both learned that you should listen to me, and third I think some one's coming."

"First, I don't care, Second, Whatever, and Third, no one is coming, they're already here."

Kurama raised his head slightly and saw two people, presumably men, both in black robes. The one in the back walks forward and says in a very familiar voice "I assume this is it."

Shuichi, in shock took control away from Yoko just long enough to whisper, "Gifu-san(1)?"

Shuzo turned on him, "Forget it demon, your tricks will not work on me."

At this Yoko pouted, and asked "why does everyone always assume I'm lying?"

"It's because we know spirit foxes are natural tricksters. You must be the lowest of them all, pretending to be my dead son," Shuzo answered in a low growl.

For a split second Yoko almost stammered out a "but…" however he quickly realized that that would sound pathetic, and no matter what, Yoko was not pathetic.

The other man, growing weary of this dialogue and raising his wand asked, "are you going to get rid of…it…or should I?"

Shuzo however held out a hand and said, "Wait."

"I thought you said his tricks did not work on you"

"That's not it; Dumbledore told me at the beginning of the year that he hoped the older students would get a chance to see a demon."

"Nice of you to tell me now and not before we walked all the way out here." The other man commented snidely, "but for the safety of the school, see that he's gone by tomorrow night."

"He's a trickster by nature I know better than to keep him here longer than necessary."

Yoko watched as Shuzo created Caution signs around the area and then left with the other man. "They're both wizards, I guess we are in the right place," He told Shuichi, however Shuichi was not paying any attention.

"Yo, Shuichi what are thinking of now?"

"He called me his son that means that he thinks of us as a family, mother will be so happy."

"That's great Shuichi, but your stupid Stepfather also thinks we're dead."

"True, I wonder why?"

Yoko however was not paying any attention he was too busy cussing out all humanity for their stupidly.

"Yoko, please calm down, you sound like a lead singer in a rock band…"

Yoko stopped, "Well?"

"Thank you, Kuwabara."

"Um, Shuichi, Kuwabara's not here."

"I know that, but he gave us a rock CD, and remember…"

"Plants grow better in a noisy environment."

"Right, vibrations from rock music help improve plant growth (2)."

Yoko smiled, "and they could not completely seal our power."

"They only lessened it, so if we work all night…"

"We should be able to create a vine powerful enough to persuade them to let us go."

"Just remember this persuasion cannot result in death."

"I know, shall we get to work?"

Kurama used his right hand to plant a seed in ear piece of the headphones. He then flung the headphones as far away from the barrier as the wire would allow. With his left hand he found the CD player, turned the volume to maximum and hit play. Immediately he could hear the thump of the music.

Yoko smirked, "and you said the batteries were completely dead."

"…They were…"

"Well they don't sound dead now."

"This doesn't make any sense; batteries cannot draw energy from thin air."

"I don't know, this air is pretty dense with energy"

"Spiritual energy, but then again all forms of energy are related." Shuichi fell silent for a second, "if there is enough energy in the air to power the CD player without batteries, then we are very, very lucky."

"However we wouldn't need luck if someone didn't insist on wasting all the batteries watching for owls…"

"No, then we would need a lot more luck."

"Shuichi that made absolutely no sense."

"The energy in the air, if they batteries were not dead, would most defiantly overload the CD player (3)."

It was near the end of breakfast, when Dumbledore stood to make his announcement. He had timed it so that his audience was mostly sixth and seventh years, since he knew, as most people who work with teenagers know that it is near impossible to get most of them up early, and those who do get up early will usually wait for their late rising friends.

"Students," He said, "Professor Shuzo has informed me that a great opportunity has presented itself to the students of this school. I would like to extend an offer for all sixth and seventh year students to go with him to see a living demon that has been caught on castle grounds."

As the students in great hall broke into excited whispers, Harry turned to Hermione and asked, "Demons really exist?"

"Of course," Hermione stated, "you would know that if you ever read Hogwarts, A History."

At this Ron perked up "Man, if I knew demons were in that book I would have read it."

"Yes, they are mentioned in the section on the building of the castle. It tells of the castle's defenses against them."

"Oh," Ron looked forlorn, "I thought It would be something interesting, like demon battles."

For that statement, Hermione glared at Ron. "Anyway," she said turning to Harry, "That's what so odd about there being a demon on these grounds, It should have been repelled by a spell, much like the one that keeps ordinary humans from wandering onto Hogwarts Grounds. However this spell is very hard to keep up, thus to conserve energy it only makes demons, or muggles for that matter, feel the need to leave from the outer circle."

Harry thought a second and then asked, "So if they got through that then they would be home free?"

"That would be true for a muggle, but not for a demon. You see there is a collapsible wall sensitive to demonic energy surrounding the school."

"In English?" Ron asked.

"If a demon came near this 'wall', it would fall on them, and thus trap them. Its obvious that the Founders were more worried about a demon sneaking past the barrier than a muggle…"

"So anyway," Ron cut her off, "do you guys want to go?"

(1) Stepfather

(2) This is from the result of a MythBusters experiment

(3) Sorry if anyone disagrees, this is just my theory on why some technology does not work at Hogwarts while other tech such as watches and cameras do. If anyone wants I will flesh out the entire explanation at the start of the next chapter.

Sorry again that it took so long.