Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognised as belonging to someone else.

I LIVE!!!

My Muse, Neko-chan, decided to go sleep somewhere out of the way for a while (I eventually found him amidst the clutter under my bed), but I'm back now. The next chapter of Hidden Behind My White Mask will be out soon and you may wanna check out Fox Priest.

Notes to the Reviewers:

Kurama will be the only one in his body, to those who were wondering. I just thought that would make things interesting and...complicated (smirks).

Speaking of Fox-Boy, he will be mentioned soon but won't appear for several chapters.

It won't be a spell on Lily, per say, more like influencing.

I've also had a few mentions about Luna and Blaise. They are only applying for Three Towers. Harry wasz the only one to receive an invite as a child.

'God-modeing'. Heh. Like that one.

Shori, you shall find out about soon... Eventually.

With the making of Kurai, I was, beleive it or not, basing her personality loosely on Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo, someone else who will be appearing later. Argh, the carnage they'll do.

71 Reviews! Only one less than chappy 10. W00T!


Crane had always preferred exams to assignments. It had to do with only spending an hour or two on it before moving on, as opposed to the week upon agonising week it took to do a good essay or report or whatever else it was for the assignment.

He was thankful, though, that Principle Sesshoumaru (whom Kuronue apparently knew ('CHIBI-FLUFFY-CHAN!')) had given him a list of specific things to study for the classes he missed. Even he would have trouble going through three classes worth of material in two days. He thought he had the list of effects of certain spells for Battle Magic down, Transfiguration he could pull off if he put his mind to it and Politics and Economy had always been his forte.

Blaise and the redhaired girl (Marina? Morina? Morvina?) had looked surprised when he turned up for breakfast after being away for three days, but Luna had greeted him as if he hadn't been gone at all. After that, Klocia had turned up in short order, followed by another person with raven hair in a braid to his ankles, eyes forest green around the outer iris and grass green around the pupil, and looked like he could be Crane's brother. Crane recognised him from Runes. His name was Calder; no last name, and, as far as the wizard could tell, a sidhe.

Crane only had one class that day; Intermediate Potions. He was looking forward to it.

Crane had heard…things about this Potions Master. Not perverted or evil or anything like that; merely incredibly immature, though grounded in reality, a certifiable genius and very smug about it and, for some reason, reminded Crane greatly of Crookshanks. The teacher's name was Washu; she had long spiky pink hair, green eyes and was a good half-head shorter than Crane. She also insisted that she be referred to as Washu-chan.

He rather liked Washu as a person, though he didn't particularly like her as a teacher. As soon as class started, the two instantly began butting heads. They ended up ignoring one another eventually, to the relief of the class and Crane's poor, unfortunate partner, once again that Pierre What's-'s-Name.

Despite his dislike of every Potions Teacher he'd ever had (including the tutor he'd attended as a child), Crane enjoyed Potion making. It was just like cooking.

This didn't stop him being first out of the room when class ended, though.

Not bothering to drop his books off at his dorm, the little dark-haired boy made a direct line for the dining room, the sidhe, Calder, a few steps behind him and Klocia pacing along behind him, an oddly predatory little smirk on her face.

He sat in his spot at his table and picked up the menu, not really caring that Calder and Klocia sat down and also made to order.

Crane was just trying to decide between the chocolate mousse and cookies 'n' cream ice-cream and the White Chocolate M&Ms Cheesecake for dessert when Blaise and Morvina (Was that her name? He thought it was.) bustled Luna and a small, slender boy into the room and towards the table, looking strained and tense. He chose the cheesecake and set down the menu, clasped his hands while waiting expectantly for an explanation.

When the four were seated, Crane raised his eyebrow inquiringly at Blaise.

"Luna almost started a cross species war. We can expect a confrontation sometime soon. I'll point them out when they get here." Blaise was seated so he could keep an eye on the door. Neither Blaise nor Morvina looked happy.

Luna was her usual dreamy self, smiling vaguely off into space.

The two fey were studiously pretending to ignore what was being said around them.

The boy had yet to raise his head from his view of his lap.

The wizard reached out and took the boy's chin, raising it so he could see his face. The boy glared; Crane raised an eyebrow and removed his hand before it was bitten. "Now what's your name?"

The boy blinked his big turquoise eyes, his short ash-white hair waving haphazardly around his pale face. He didn't appear to understand.

"He doesn't speak English," Luna told him absently. "But I think he speaks a type of Japanese."

The darker boy turned back to the boy and repeated his question in a generic medium of Japanese Kuronue had picked up during his time with the Inu-no-Taisho and used when addressing some of the older Ningenkai youkai.

The boy jumped, obviously startled, but quickly he recovered and answered the darker boy. "Hitsugaya Toushiro. And you?"

"I'm Crane Black, or Black Crane in the Japanese style of introduction. Are you here for the entrance exams?"

The boy blinked. "Entrance exams? I'm not even sure where I am."

The rest of the table was watching the exchange curiously; Crane ignored them.

"This is Three Towers Institute of Sorcery, probably the most elite magic school in the three worlds. We-" He gestured to the students of many races and schools filling up the dining room, "- are here at the school for a cram session week. At the end of the week, we will sit an exam which will last six hours with a one hour break in the middle. When we enter, we will pick up an envelope for each of the classes we are attempting to enter into. Each envelope contains a test with twenty multiple-answer questions, five short-answer questions and one essay question with a minimum of 250 words. Competition is high to be accepted here, especially because of the war over in Europe."

The look on the boy's face was enough to tell Crane Toushiro had suffered a brain overload.

Crane smiled cheerfully. "Don't worry. You'll get the hang of it."

"They're here."

Crane followed Blaise's line of sight and growled.

It was the pervert who had hit on him in Flourish and Blott's a while back. Looked like he'd be spending the rest of the afternoon on the doll he'd put aside.

Revenge was something Crane excelled at, after all.

(SPACE)

Not having any more classes that day, Crane had returned to his room to continue working on his doll, but had become distracted by a dull gleam beside the shrunken trunk.

Sitting back on his bed, he began turning the object over in his hands, the tarnished silver links of the chain tinkling against his wrists.

It was a dull and old silver locket the size of the average human's palm. Oval in shape, the back was smooth and marked by years of wear. The front, however, was a pair of folded bat wings that opened outwards to reveal various small cogs that began turning when opened, producing a tinkling, simplified version of Carol Of The Bells.

Kuronue had had it made for Youko by an old friend of his, a relatively young kitsune named Shippo whom he had met while checking on Taisho's whelps. He remembered how thrilled the fox had been with it, turning it over and over in his hands for hours afterwards, listening to the tune and snuggling into the crook of Kuronue's shoulder, purring like a happy cat.

The sex that night had been phenomenal.

Crane snuggled into his pillow and went to sleep listening to the locket, Neko-Chan curled up against his back.

(SPACE)

Bright and early the next morning, Crane changed into his white polo shirt and black shorts and plaited his hair into two plaits which he then coiled into two loops behind his ears.

Crane had…heard things about PE from muggleborns.

Entering the dinning room, the little demon host almost rolled his eyes when he saw Klocia and Morvina's long loose hair and Calder's long braid. He was glad he'd brought extra hair-ties.

(SPACE)

Since Physical Education was mandatory, all the students in sixth-year were required to attend at the same time.

The teacher was…horrifying.

The teacher's name was Maito Gai.

The teacher's assistant was…appallingly horrifying.

The teacher's assistant's name was Rock Lee.

Together, they were both clad in a horrific bright green full-body spandex suit apiece, complete with orange leg warmers, sparkling black eyes and twin chrome dome black bowl-cuts.

Twenty-five minutes into PE, Crane already hated that class; and not just because of the Terrifying Two.

He was on his third lap of the indoor oval and, while he was faring better than the other wizardborns and many of the other races, he was hot, sweaty, his lungs hurt and his feet wanted to fall off.

It was a big oval and even Kuronue was making sympathetic noises.

"YOSH! Embrace the power of YOUTH, young ones, and you shall succeed!"

Crane snarled at the despicable smaller green monster as it ran past him, full tilt, on its twelfth lap of the oval. Other students had similar reactions.

The use of vengeance dolls on the duo would be lost on them since they were more annoying than both Molly Dolly and Tatter Rags, Rag'N'Bones would probably run away from them and Padfoot wouldn't be finished for a week or so yet.

"YOSH! Keep running my Youthful students!"

Crane stared hatefully at the back of Gai.

He'd get back at the green monstrosities if it was the last thing he ever did.


Honestly, I had no idea what I was thinking when I put these two in, other than it cracked me up and gave Crane a reason to be pissy next chapter.

Pleez review. Cheers to the new year!