"Family? Let me tell you what kind of link I have with them. They are just lumps of meat linked by hatred and murderous intent."
Gaara (Naruto)

oxo…oxo

Toushiro had been curled up in the library when he had heard a sharp tapping noise on the window behind him. Turning, he saw the faint outline of an owl through the rain spattered glass and got up in order to let the bird in, realising immediately it was his own owl. She looked very bedraggled from the storm raging outside but there was no mistaking her intelligently bright eyes.

Akira hooted loudly as she landed on her master's shoulder, shaking the rain from her feathers before nipping slightly at the boy's ears. Toushiro scratched her head absently before taking the note she held in her claws and giving her one of the little owl treats Harry had given him. She snapped it up quickly before extending her wings and taking off, leaving back through the window she had come in by. Apparently this note didn't require an immediate answer.

Setting the Quidditch book he had been reading on the table next to him, he opened the note and scanned it, taking in the short message it contained.

I would please like it if you came to see me in my office this evening; I have something I wish to discuss with you that cannot be done by note. The password is 'gummy bears'. You know the rest.

'Your loving farther'

Toushiro repressed a sigh before frowning. Nothing good could come of this, nothing good at all, but he had to go. Besides, he had some questions to ask Dumbledore and if the old man wanted answers from him then he would go for a trade of information and try not to tell the wizard anything that he didn't need to know. He would even lie if he needed to.

Picking up the book again he lent back in the cosy chair of the library and continued his reading. Surprisingly he had found himself deeply interested in the book after the first few pages and the information it contained was very useful, going through all the rules of Quidditch and how it was played. Begrudgingly, he could now see why the two boys were so into it; it looked like it would be a very interesting sport to watch.

"Toushiro?"

The shinigami looked up, surprised by the voice that called his name. He would see her often in the library but other than the time at the Gryffindor table she had never spoken to him. He studied the way she twisted her fingers nervously into her bushy brown hair, wondering why she was talking to him now. He hadn't exactly been nice to her the only other time he had.

"I wanted to ask…why didn't you agree with me the other day?"

Ah. So that was why she was talking to him. He lowered the book and straightened himself in his seat, pondering how exactly he should go about answering or if he should answer at all. The reason was simple really but he wasn't sure exactly how to put it, so he just answered honestly; not thinking at all.

"I knew they wouldn't listen to me even if I argued so I decided not to bother wasting my time doing so." He answered, watching as she frowned at his words.

"But what they were doing was wrong," Hermione replied, confused. "Shouldn't you always try and stop people who are doing things that are wrong to the best of your abilities?"

Toushiro shrugged. "That depends on what it is they are doing. What they were actually doing was fairly mild really and they weren't pulling anyone else into it unwillingly. In the end it was their own choice if they did something stupid and would have paid the prise of it themselves if they had gotten into trouble."

Hermione looked at him for a moment, taking in his words. "But they could have lost Gryffindor house points."

Toushiro barely stopped a sigh, closing his eyes as he struggled to keep his patience with the girl. Why was he even trying? Wouldn't it just be easier to walk away and leave her to her misguided conceptions of rules? He knew it was only a mild thing that the boys had done but he couldn't tell Hermione how he knew that. It would mean explaining about more serious things that a 'first year muggle born' wouldn't know and that would cause trouble.

"Think of it this way, if they had gotten into trouble then yes they might well have lost points. But the bigger a fuss you make about it, the more likely it is that what they were doing would have been found out by someone who would tell a teacher and get them into trouble. However it didn't happen. So it's fine." He replied, looking the girl in the eyes as he spoke, unsure exactly why he was going to such lengths to try and convince her. She nodded slowly and he smirked slightly. "Sometimes you need to take risks, Granger."

She opened her mouth to reply before closing it and nodding again. She then proceeded to pull a book from the shelf and sit down next to him, allowing her legs to curl up underneath her as she opened the book and began to read. He looked away, raising his own book back to where he could read it before turning back to her again when she spoke, a small tinge of pink dusting her cheeks.

"You can call me Hermione you know." She told him, her eyes still searching the page instead of looking at him. He watched her for a moment before looking back at his own book, deciding not to reply at present. He would try and work out his relation to the girl at a later date. But for now, he would learn what he could about Quidditch; he was looking forwards to no longer being lost in conversations.

xxx…xxx

That evening came quickly for Toushiro and he soon found himself wandering the corridors, having left his Gigai back in the dorms; seemingly asleep with his covers nearly drowning him. He was, in no way, looking forward to this meeting. It could be nothing good he had decided and good things were the only things he really felt like dealing with right now. Unfortunately he didn't have too much of a choice.

So, he sped towards the gargoyle that hid the old professor's office, deciding to try and get it over and done with as soon as possible. Because really, how bad could it be? The soul reaper scoffed at the thought, saying the password before watching as the gargoyle jumped aside. He then proceeded to knock on the door, keeping a stoic face as he walked in on the wizard's command.

The office was the same as it had been when he had first been there, but it still took a lot of effort for him to keep his eyes trained on the man behind the desk. There was a small twinkle in Dumbledore's blue eyes that made Toushiro feel vaguely uneasy. That was the look of a man who knew something, something you wouldn't want him to know. It was the look of a man who wanted to flaunt that knowledge.

"Welcome Mr Hitsugaya," The professor welcomed politely, a smile on his face as he gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Have a seat wont you?"

Toushiro hesitated slightly before walking over to the seat, taking Hyorinmaru off his back to place on his lap and sitting down on the large chair; feeling very much like a naughty little kid. He did not enjoy the feeling.

"You wished to see me professor?" he asked, his tone cool and emotionless, letting the man in front of him know he wasn't all too happy about the fact. Dumbledore's smile widened and he nodded, seemingly not noticing the almost disgruntled glare being given by the shinigami.

"That I did and I since know you like to get right to the point I will do so. You see, I have come across some information that I found…well, lets say interesting. I would like it if perhaps you might answer a few questions?"

Toushiro said nothing, choosing instead to just glare slightly at the man. He knew damn well Dumbledore would ask them anyway so he wasn't going to dignify that particular question with an answer. Indeed, Dumbledore continued on, realising straight away he would get no reply to that question.

"What do you know of reapers, Mr Hitsugaya?"

Shit

"Reapers professor?"

Dumbledore nodded, not fazed by the lack of emotion in Toushiro's voice or expression. "You see, one of the ghosts came to see me the other day about a very mysterious matter. They told me that there was a reaper in the school, pretending to be a student."

Toushiro continued to say nothing, hoping beyond hope that the man didn't know it was him and was just telling him to keep an eye out. It was a vein hope.

"They told me it was you. Are they correct?"

Toushiro's eyes narrowed as he looked into the man's face, seeing no negative emotions and feeling surprised. In fact, Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling and there was a small smile playing on his lips. His eyes narrowed further. There was really no point in lying; he knew that if it was a ghost who told Dumbledore then he would take them seriously. After all, ghosts were the only ones who could sense soul reapers and so they were to be believed in this matter, especially because they only usually dispatched a handful of shinigami to England due to the growing wizarding population and so lack of hollows. Oh, there were still a few but no where near the level of other places such as Japan.

Besides, if he didn't tell the truth now then the man would be less likely to believe any lies he might need to tell later. So he nodded, saying nothing and watching in annoyance as Dumbledore's smile grew.

"I see. So now that that's settled I have some questions to ask if you don't mind." The old professor continued, not waiting for an answer before rushing into the first question. "First, I thought that reapers were extinct due to the decreasing population of hollows?"

Toushiro raised an eyebrow at the question. It seemed Dumbledore knew a fair amount about them already; the fact that they hunted hollows, that there were more of them and probably other things too. But extinct? Apparently wizards were far more narrow minded than he had given them credit for.

"Obviously, we are not extinct," very much the opposite in fact. "The shinigami just did not find the need to send many 'reapers' to England giving the scarce amount of hollows that actually appear there."

He decided that the truth would be best, or a small part of the truth at any rate. Dumbledore didn't need to know the fact that they only sent the weaker shinigami along with the new recruits as basic experience training. There weren't even many regular patrols. Sometimes there were student exercises there but that was a rare occasion too.

The professor nodded behind his desk before shuffling slightly in his seat, digesting the information given before coming up with the next question.

"So, other than the fact that you are on a 'mission', why are you here?"

Toushiro pondered that one for a moment, debating what to tell the curious old man behind the desk.

"I believe I have told you this already. Someone changed time in a way that has destroyed my timeline so I have come fix it. I traced the disturbance to this place but a year from now."

"Ok." Dumbledore replied slowly, the infuriating twinkle still in his eyes. "So what happened in England to change your timeline so bad when there are little to no hollows here?"

Toushiro sighed. There wasn't really any way to lie out of this one without it sounding…well, childish. "A…friend of the shinigami failed to show up and 'save the day'." He summarised, cursing Dumbledore to the pits of hell as the man lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Sounds interesting. Care to elaborate?"

"It's a long story with I don't really care to recall." Toushiro dodged the question, almost sighing in relief as Dumbledore nodded and left it alone. He did not want to get into that right now. It would mean explaining a lot of information about the soul society that he really didn't want to divulge.

"So, this friend. They are from England then?"

"He is Japanese. In fact he should be about ten years old at this point."

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Do you know why it was here that the disturbance was caused then?"

Toushiro shook his head negatively. The old professor hummed slightly before leaning forwards into his chair, watching the Taicho in front of him with eyes that told of new found realisation.

"Maybe he is to come to Hogwarts?"

The young captain narrowed his eyes in thought. It was a possibility. After all, the first year of Hogwarts started when the students were eleven years old and if Ichigo was ten now and the disturbance happened here next year then it was in fact quite likely. But what would convince Dumbledore to take Ichigo, a person from Japan with no magical power, into Hogwarts?

He was going to find out.

oxo…oxo

Dear readers,

There we go then ^_^ I'm sorry for the wait, this story was just sort of stuck in my head and wouldn't get itself down onto paper…well, word document anyways. So thanks for sticking with it and hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner than this one was ^^

Animeloveramy

Diggah Tunnah. Dig digga tunnah - Quick before the hyena come

AnimeAiedail