I'm having a sudden brainwave of ideas for this Fanfiction! I can't wait to write them all out! Hopefully I'll have a few more chapters up before long, but university has now started again and I can't make any promises. Just praying that because I have the ideas I can write them out faster!

And also, thank you all so much for all the support and reviews! I definitely would love to hear feedback! Anything that you feel! Thanks again! =]

The next couple of weeks went by a lot faster than the first two days had. No more Shinigami duels or Captains fainting in common rooms. The students had their lessons with the Shinigami instead of Defence Against the Dark Arts, as promised. A different teacher showed up for a few of lessons, each lecturing them on a different aspect of Shinigami lives and what they did. Apparently some kind of Shinigami academy existed in the Soul Society, like Hogwarts, that trained young spirits to become Shinigami. After their training the graduates were assigned to a force from the thirteen protection squads, each lead by one captain. Rank was decided by seat and the lower your seat, the higher your rank. After Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had finished teaching them about Zanpakutōs they had Captain Ichimaru and his assistant-captain, Izuru Kira teach them about Hollows. Kira was a pale, blonde, quiet sort of person. He mostly lurked at the back of the class and only spoke when offering help to students with their work. Captain Ichimaru as usual wore his eerie grin and had his eyes closed. He always stood at the front and lectured, a board-pointer in hand, indicating different concepts he had written with it. Most of the students tried to get Kira to help them when they could, as they couldn't stand the silver-haired captain hissing in their ears. Harry didn't blame them but luckily he and Ron had Hermione to rely for help (of course she preferred they didn't).

They were just at the end of the first of these lessons on the Friday of the third week of term when Captain Ichimaru said "Izuru, why don-cha hand out the homework I've set. Then y'all can go. Enjoy your weekend! Don't get hurt now." He grinned even wider, then turned and vanished.

Harry, as well as everyone else, had gotten used to this by now, though they still had no idea how the Shinigami were doing it. Apparition was of course impossible within Hogwarts and the grounds! Ron had consulted Hermione shortly after the Shinigami Duel as to whether she had read anything about it in the library, but she angrily responded that she had not. The anger was not directed at Ron, who was nevertheless hurt, but at the fact that she could not find any information about the Shinigami or where they were from in any book in the library. Harry was amused at this. This was the one class where Hermione did not know the answers before she went to the lesson. It tormented her beyond hope and yet she still had not given up looking for the tiniest hint of Shinigami whenever she could! He kept this glee in Hermione's misery between himself and Ginny. Since Ron and Hermione were going out now, it was probably best if he didn't laugh at her in front of him, though no doubt he found it funny too. This was not the only reason Harry had to be happy; it was a Friday, he didn't have so much homework that he couldn't relax tonight and the weather was surprisingly warm and sunny despite the fact that it was almost October. For this reason the trio decided to walk down to the lake's edge and unwind for a bit before dinner. Apparently, this was what many others had in mind too. They walked in silence, with Hermione pouring over their homework from Captain Ichimaru, Ron gazing at the sky and Harry simply trying to forget everything. This was however difficult due to Parvati and Lavender giggling and gossiping behind them.

"Urgh! He's way too weird! The lesson was really boring too!" Lavender was saying.

"I know! The vice-captain isn't that cute either… If only we could have you know who" Parvati added.

They giggled loudly. Ron furrowed his eyebrows at this.

"Yes, yes!" she said.

"Captain Kuchiki!" they both said together, dreamily.

At this Ron snapped. He turned and shouted "OH MY GOD, SHUT UP! CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE TRYING TO CHILL OUT HERE?"

The girls looked shocked and quickly walked away, muttering something to each other. Fuming, Ron turned back. Hermione seemed to have ignored him while several nearby people increased their distance from them.

"Ron, you can't keep screaming at everyone who makes a reference towards that man. He hasn't really done anything to you." Harry tried to calm Ron down, though he knew what it was that Ron was still angry about. At the end of their first potions lesson Captain Kuchiki had given Hermione a present for having the best potion. Ron, that night, had questioned Hermione like a criminal about what he had given her, and more importantly what he had whispered to her! Hermione could see that Ron was jealous and tried to playfully deny that it was 'nothing'. But after he made a scene about it in the Gryffindor common room she gave in. Inside the box was a single block of chocolate. She had showed it to both Ron and Harry. The chocolate was shaped like a kind of cartoon character, none that Harry recognised but it kind of looked like a cloud with arms and legs. Why Captain Kuchiki would give anyone such a thing was beyond him. Hermione answered this.

"What he told me was that he had his subordinates make them to raise money for something but they weren't selling to other squads. He wanted me to figure out what was wrong with them." Ron had looked blankly at Hermione.

"What? That's what he said! Though it's obvious why! I mean look at the design!"

"I bet they taste rubbish too! That guy definitely isn't the type who cook!" Ron said snidely. "Anyway… he probably wants the money to have his hair done or something." He snorted as his own joke.

"Well, why don't we find out" Harry had suggested.

They nodded, and Ron (pretty sure of what he had said) gulped down his immediately. After a second he frowned.

"What? Is it bad?" they asked. And after he didn't answer they proceeded to eat their own pieces.

"Oh my gosh, it's better than Honeydukes best chocolate!" Hermione exclaimed. Harry had to agree. Ron's temper rose again. From that point on he decided that he hated Byakuya with a passion and reacted violently to any mention of him. Hermione in turn hated his childishness and began to take no notice of him whenever he acted the way he did at Parvati and Lavender.

Back in the present, Ron growled at Harry's advice as they carried on walking. As they got closer to the water's edge they saw two Shinigami sprawled out at the spot they were heading to. Renji couldn't be missed with his bright, blood red hair and the other small person was obviously Rukia. Renji must have heard them coming because he turned around and waved.

"Yo, Harry! Ron! How's it going?" he said.

"Fine, thanks." Harry answered.

Silence…

"Uh… nice day isn't it?" Ron said.

"Oh, yeah… You guys know Rukia, right?"

"Yeah! Umm, is your Captain okay now?"

"Yes, he's much better. Thank you for asking."

Luckily for everyone at that moment Ikkaku came running towards the lake, accompanied by Yumichika and broke the awkward conversation.

"Hey Renji, where've you been? We've been looking all over for you! Captain Kuchiki's fuming! Did you forget about the meeting?"

"Huh?" Renji said, confused.

"The Captain and Vice-captain meeting, you idiot! He just sent us to drag you over there."

"I know that it's today! But it's not time ye–" Renji raised his watch to eye level. "NOOOO! Shit, shit, shit! I lost track of time!"

Ikkaku and Yumichika sniggered.

"Damn it, he's gonna kill me!"

"Hell yeah!" Ikkaku said, still laughing.

"Renji, hurry up. Don't keep my brother waiting!" Rukia cried.

Renji sped off toward the castle. The two 11th division members followed, obviously eager to watch Renji get told off.

"Sorry about this, excuse me." Rukia told Harry and friends, and then she darted after the others.

The three stared after them for a while before finally settling down on the grassy bank.

"Is everyone from the Soul Society a complete nutcase?" asked Ron rhetorically as he laid back.

Harry chuckled and rested his head on his bag. What a term! Shinigami, swords… What could happen next he thought? He smiled happily as Hermione chattered on about the homework and the extra reading she planned to do after dinner – just like old times. Yes, the excitement of dark creatures and wizards had finally ended!

They weren't sitting long before Harry felt a strong breeze against his robes. And he knew something was wrong when Hermione said, "what the –?" He opened his eyes, and the sky all of a sudden seemed to have turned dark! There were no clouds, yet the bright September afternoon was gone. Ron seemed to have nodded off but Hermione elbowed him and he woke with a start. "What's happening?"

A number of students around them were getting up and looking around too. Harry was getting a bad feeling.

"Let's go back to the castle, guys." Harry pleaded.

"Why, what's wrong, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"It just feels weird! I don't think we should stay here. It feels like, like something's coming."

"What? What's coming? Mate, you look pale!" Ron shook Harry, concern in his eyes.

A girl suddenly shrieked. She pointed at the sky. They all looked up. The sky seemed to be cracking. Breaks appeared from a centre point and spread along an axis.

"What is that?" said someone nearby.

But that wasn't the end of it. As the fracture in the sky kept spreading something seemed to be forcing it to do so. Another round of screaming followed from the students as a large pair of skeleton hands appeared from the 'other side of the sky' and began pushing the fault wider and wider. And then, a head poked out. It had a skull head, and was simply huge. Students began to flee back to the castle. Harry came back to his senses and began shouting at everyone to follow suit.

"Get out of here! RUN!"

The trio remained, as did Seamus and Dean who were nearby as well as a couple of Ravenclaw seventh years.

"What the hell is that?" Ron said under his breath.

"A – A H – Hollow." Hermione stammered.

"How the heck d'you know that?" Ron gasped, eyes still transfixed at the sky.

"We just had a lesson on them! You really need to start listening in class!"

"Whatever, don't give us that lecture now! What do we do? Or more importantly what's it gonna do?"

"If I understood Captain Ichimaru correctly… it's going to attack us and then turn us into one of them."

"Then we've got to stop it, wands out guys!" Harry ordered, "You guys too!" Harry called to the other seventh years. They obeyed. What could work against this thing he thought? By this time the Hollow was getting ready to plunge down at them, putting its weight on 'this side' of the sky and preparing for a thrust downwards.

"We should try and hit it with as many spells as possible, and someone from the school will hopefully come down to help – probably the Shinigami!"

The Hollow dived at them.

They all ran backwards as it crashed to earth. It didn't seem to be hurt though and quickly got back up, leaving a crater in the grass. As it looked around it spoke.

"Lots of choice for a feast here too! Not as good as those Shinigami I just left but you'll do!" The creature sounded ravenously hungry; its words were icy and wicked.

Seamus decided he was having the first shot and sent an Impedimenta spell at the beast. It staggered and fell on one knee. Some of the others nodded in approval. Deciding not to give the thing another chance to recover Harry sent a Reducto charm at it's left arm, shattering it and earning him shouts of praise from his fellow seventh years.

"Nice Harry!" Ron patted him on the back "leave the other arm to me!"

Ron sent Reducto at the right arm breaking it too. The young wizards and witches cheered in delight. The Hollow was getting angry, and its rage exploded after it lost its second arm.

"DAMN YOU, YOU CHILDREN!" it screamed. "I didn't think you weaklings would make me fight for real. It's time to get serious." It said.

The Hogwarts students certainly weren't expecting what happened next. The Hollow gasped, then grunted and after a second four new arms sprouted from its body. They grew longer than the first and shot out to grab three students. Hermione, Seamus and a Ravenclaw were caught in the thing's grasp. Hermione yelled, as did the Ravenclaw girl; they were both being waved around in the air, while Seamus was held still in front of the Hollow's head as a human shield. The Hollow then used its spare arm to hit the students. The arm was retractable and could be shot straight at people. It grazed Dean, but missed Harry who quickly used a Shield charm to deflect the attack.

"Let go of them you bastard!" Ron bellowed at the creature. This only made the Hollow laugh and it swung the screaming girls around faster.

"Like you pathetic kids could ever defeat me!" it laughed harder, "actually, I'm not even sure why you can see me but it doesn't matter since I'm gonna devour you anyway!"

Harry wasn't about to let that happen, neither was Ron. They both, as if their minds were in sync, sent severing charms at the arms as the Hollow bellowed in delight. The arms were lost before the thing had even stopped laughing! Hermione, Seamus and the Ravenclaw girl fell hard on the floor; Dean and the other Ravenclaws rushed forward to help them get away as the creature shrieked in distress. Harry didn't want to give it time to recover again and sent Sectumsempra at its head; unfortunately he missed as the thing fell sideways. The spell shot off across the lake and vanished. Before he could send another spell at it one arm jutted towards him and he lost balance. Ron couldn't catch him with his attention turned to Hermione and Harry's glasses fell off. As he scrambled for them he squinted his eyes at the monster, trying to be vigilant. He could just make out a giant, white, hazy arm coming down to slash him. In the confusion he lay forgotten, and frozen.

A black blur swooped in front of Harry from somewhere above. It stood still for a second and then was gone. Then Harry heard a new voice.

"Thought you could get away, eh?" the voice said, slightly chuckling, "not on my watch! I'm not killing you for attacking me back in the soul society, but for trying to kills these guys!"

Harry heard a slashing noise and then a yell of agony. There was of a flash of blinding light and a slur of words Harry couldn't make out the meaning of.

"That'll teach 'im." muttered the voice.

Harry had now forgotten what he was doing but now someone was coming closer and then his glasses were near his face, "Here you go." Said the stranger's voice. Harry took and put his glasses back on, and then scrambled up. The bright day was back and the sun shone warmly down on them. There stood in front of him was a Shinigami, a new one. He thanked the stranger for saving them and quickly looked around to see if everyone was okay. They all seemed fine so Harry turned back to check out this new person. He was fairly tall, young (around 16 or 17 Harry thought) and in black Shinigami robes, of course. He was smiling, though his eyebrows were creased, and he had startling orange hair. More ginger than Ron but with no freckles.

"Thanks again!" Harry said. He stared at the spot where the monster had been. "That was a Hollow, right?" The stranger nodded. "I thought they were only meant to be in the soul society, why was it here."

"No, Hollows are in the Living World mostly. I'm a Substitute Shinigami and my job's to send them back to the Soul Society after cleansing them. This damn one… I don't even know why it was in the Soul Society, but as I was about to kill it, it got away and ran over here. If it hadn't taken so long to open the doors to the living world, I'd have been here sooner. You guys are alright, yeah?"

"Yeah, fine thanks to you!"

"But it already had some damage to it, pretty easy to finish. You the one who wounded it?" he asked Harry.

"Well yeah, a bit. The others got some shots as well."

"Nice! You're not even hurt. If you hadn't dropped your glasses, you probably would have killed it before I got here!"

"Oh, well –" But Harry was cut off.

"ICCHHIGOO!" a girl's voice was coming from the distance.

"Oh, Inoue! You guys got here at last!" Ichigo answered.

"If we hadn't landed over there I'd have killed him! That one was mine, Kurosaki!" said a boy in square spectacles that had just run over to them with the girl called Inoue.

"Shut up, Ishida. I got here first, I finished it, end of!"

"Umm, sorry Uryuu." apologized the girl, "If I hadn't pushed you when I tripped, you would have got here with Ichigo!"

"No, no that was my own fault." The boy looked away pushing his glasses further up his nose.

Ichigo turned back to Harry and the others, who were now gathering round to meet their mysterious saviors. Only the orange-haired boy had the robes of a Shinigami on, they saw. The girl was wearing a pair of leggings and a simple top, and the boy called Uryuu Ishida was in blue-lined white robes and was wearing white gloves to match.

"Do you know if any of the other Shinigami are around?" Ichigo asked them.

"I think there was a meeting or something for the lieutenants and the captains…in the school." Harry pointed up to the castle.

"Right, better go find someone then! Bye you guys!" Ichigo turned to run off but Ishida stopped him.

"Wait Kurosaki. I sense that some are on their way. Your spirit sensing powers are still below par, I see." He pushed his glasses up his face again, smiling slightly.

"Don't get so cocky, Ishida, just cos you can sense some reiatsu. Who is it then?"

"Ichigo, it's Renji-san and Toshiro-kun. Maybe you do need to train a bit more." Inoue Orihime said laughing nervously. Sure enough after a minute or so, Renji's startling red ponytail and Captain Hitsugaya's bright white hair were visible in the distance.

"Yo! Ichigo! You finally got here!" Renji said.

"Don't make it sound like I'm late or something… I was supposed be guarding the Soul Society, remember?" Ichigo looked at Renji like he was a fool.

"You –" Renji began, but Captain Hitsugaya hushed him up.

"Stand aside, Abarai!" He stepped forward to speak to Ichigo. Renji did as he was told but remained scowling at his odd-haired comrade. "Now tell me what happened."

Ichigo explained that he was guarding the South Wall of the Soul Society with Ishida and Inoue, as he was told, when thousands of Hollows started appearing from nowhere, and seemingly congregating towards him. He fought off and killed them all except the one that appeared at Hogwarts. They had to go find Yoroichi at the North Wall to ask her to open the gate to the Living World, although by the time that they got here, the Hollow was almost dead anyway. He motioned to Harry as he said this. Hitsugaya nodded at Harry, and he muttered something under his breath like not bad.

"Well, Kurosaki, you'd better come into the castle and explain it to Captain Kuchiki; he's in charge at the moment." Ichigo and the others nodded.

"Can you come too?" Hitsugaya asked Harry.

"Me?" Harry said, perplexed!

"Yes, you seem to have had a great hand in this. We need your side of the report. In fact all of you." He said to the other students, who thought they had been forgotten at this point. When they slowly nodded the captain began walking away. They began to follow but soon heard a great rumble in the distance. The person making the noise got closer and soon they could hear his words.

"ICHIGO! YOU FINALLY GOT HERE!" Kenpachi roared. "LET'S GO AT IT NOW BEFORE THE SUNSETS!"

Ichigo stopped and gaped at the insane captain galloping madly towards him. "I'll see Byakuya later." He said to Hitsugaya, and then he fled towards the forbidden forest, clearly just looking for a place to hide.

Kenpachi reached them and bellowed at them as to where the hell Ichigo had gone. Renji pointed at the forest, and again Kenpachi was gone, hollering as he went.

The Hogwarts students stared after them, confused. Hitsugaya sighed and they turned to listen to him.

"They're all idiots!" he said.