Me: I'm glad I got this done. Hope you like it.
Friend: She/He does not own Kyou Kara Maou or Harry Potter.
Me: Hey.
Friend: Yeah?
Me: Shut up.
Three days had passed before we had a feast to celebrate my return. It had all my favorite foods, or at least my favorite ones from this world. I really enjoyed mingling with people and I especially enjoyed seeing all of my friends again. It wasn't as large or extravagant as any other parties I have been to but I did enjoy it. It was a lot more relaxed, which I enjoyed the most.
I was given some wine, but I didn't really drink it. Alcohol was never really something I was into drinking, even if it was traditional for the King to at least have a glass of wine every feast. In fact, the smell made me a bit dizzy, forcing me to abandon my glass and head out to the balcony to relax. The breeze felt nice on my skin as I walked out into the night air. Everything was peaceful, just the way I liked it.
I leaned on the rail and looked out at the half-full moon. Although only half-full it was still pretty bright due to the lack of clouds in the sky. I watched as the light from the moon illuminated the garden below me. It was a breathtaking view, especially when you could see the whole garden. "Yo, Young Master, what are you looking at?" I turned my head a bit to see Yosak standing behind me, in drag.
I sweat dropped at I looked at him. His biceps were bulging out of the dress he was in, which was pink and sleeveless. He was wearing a wig that matched his hair color but extended his hair so that it curled around his shoulders. He was in full makeup too, but what shocked me the most was the fact that I was expecting him to be in drag. "Hey there, Yosak," I said while smiling nervously, "I was just looking for a place to relax. It gets pretty hot in there." I turned my head back to the garden.
"Hm," Yosak said thoughtfully as he looked out to where I was staring. "Oh, that reminds me. I got you something. It's a late birthday present." I twitched. I had been getting late birthday presents all day. The feast was Gunter's idea, Gwendal gave me a homemade stuffed tiger that was as big as me, Celi had given me some shampoo that smelled really nice (I was suspicious of this one the most), Conrad had promised me an entire day off from Gunter's lessons for tomorrow so we could play baseball, while Greta baked me a cake. I was a little scared of what Yosak would give me, but I was sure I would be happy no matter what.
I waited and stilled as I saw what Yosak was pulling out a dress. I twitched and rubbed my temples knowing I would never use that in my life. "Yosak . . ." I said, not really knowing what else to say. It was only until I noticed his laughter that I knew he was kidding. "That's not funny!" I yelled at him more in frustration then anger.
"It's all right!" He said as if I hadn't been embarrassed enough, "It's too bad you would have looked really cute in this one Your Majesty." I lowered my eyes and blushed at his statement. This was too much. "Don't worry; this is your real present." I raised my eyes slowly to see what he was taking out. There was the sound of fabric and then a look of blue. What I saw was a deep blue cloak that was perfectly my size.
"My favorite color," I said quietly as I held the cloak in my hands. The blue was dark enough so that it would look black from far away. There was a wooden fastening instead of a metal one and it looked hand-carved. It was the shape of a teardrop but carved on the inside were the inscriptions Y. S. with two
Larkspur flowers on either side.
I looked up at Yosak, not really knowing what to say. It was a great present, and I definitely didn't expect something like this from Yosak. "It's stain resistant and it will keep you warm no matter where you are." He said proudly, "I made that fastening myself. I thought those flowers were appropriate." I smiled. Indeed the Larkspur was considered July's birth flower. The thought of this made me smile a bit before I unclipped it and maneuvered my arms so that I could put it on. Yosak was right, it was warm.
"Yosak," I called before he could leave.
"Yes, Young Master?" he asked a little confused.
I grinned and pulled out my present from my Pocket Office. I pulled out the green pendant that I had bought in the Wizarding world. "For you," I said as I put it in his hand. He looked at it with surprise written on his face. "It's a good luck charm. Conrad has one too, only it's blue." I smiled at him, hoping he liked it.
He smiled and bowed at me before putting it around his neck. It was then that he left to join everyone else at the party. I yawned and went back to my garden watching. That only left one more person to give a present to. Annissina was someone who scared me to no end but at the same time she was a great friend. It was a shame that she was gone for a few days due to family issues but she would be back by tomorrow.
I glanced back at the party but when I did I could see something move out of the corner of my eye. I whipped my head around to see men running across the garden and behind a few trees. They were completely dressed in black, which made me think ninja. I turned around and ran inside, trying to locate Conrad. Something wasn't right, and I was going to get to the bottom of this.
When I did see him I grabbed his sleeve, getting his immediate attention. "Conrad," I said quietly as to not make a scene. "There are strange people in the garden." He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded while I let his sleeve go. He waved for a soldier and whispered something in his ear. There was a nod before half the solders exited to investigate. Three of these soldiers went to inform Wolfram, Gwendal and Gunter of the situation.
This wasn't cool. I just got back a few days ago and already we were having problems. Then again, had there ever been a time when there wasn't a problem? I really couldn't think of any.
While Conrad and the others were working up on how to capture those guys, I worked on entertaining the
guests so that they wouldn't panic. It was a difficult job to say the least. I had never worked so hard to keep a conversation with someone. It was a relief when nobody noticed anything.
Everything went fine the rest of the night, but I couldn't shake this feeling of unease. Was it those bandits? What there something going on that I wasn't being told? I trusted everyone to take care of the situation but I still felt worried. It kept eating me out until I found myself not being able to sleep. I had a feeling that whatever it was, I wasn't the only one being kept in the dark.
I need to do something, was my only thought as I dressed myself in my usual school uniform attire. I grabbed the cloak that Yosak gave me and twisted it around myself. I brought the hood up over my eyes and sneaked out of the room. I knew that this probably wasn't the best course of action but what else could I do? Normally I would ask Conrad, Gwendal or Gunter for the answers but I knew that they probably didn't know any more than I did.
I hesitated a moment before grabbing my wand. Magic would probably come in handy for sneaking around. I groaned as I realized I was picking up bad habits from Harry. I had heard stories from Hermione.
A levitation spell helped keep my feet off the ground so that I could move silently. I walked the halls, not really sure what I would find, but hey, things usually happened at night, right?
I was about to turn the corner when I heard voices. Instead, I just stayed out of sight and listened in on what they were saying. "Is his Majesty safe?" It was Gunter's voice.
"Yes, but I don't think the bandits will harm him," It was Conrad this time.
"You can never be too careful, what do you think they want, Conrad?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. I don't really understand their actions though,"
"How can we? They kidnap a Demon Tribesman Noble and then he is returned in a week's time, unharmed but with no memory as to what happened." Gunter sounded frustrated.
"Quiet down. Do you want everyone to hear us?" This time it was Gwendal.
"But Gwendal, this is important. From what Gisela's told me the Nobles that they have kidnapped were returned but with their magic resources drained." I rolled my eyes as Gunter started to panic. Still, this was an odd situation. Why would someone drain a Demon's energy? It was nearly impossible to contain unless you had the right balance. Usually that would require storing it in a living being, but only Demons were capable of being strong enough to do that and even then it was unstable.
Oh God(?), was I actually learning from Gunter's lessons? I put a hand to my forehead before trying to put the thought out of my mind. I'll save that thought for a later date.
This was a tricky situation. If someone was draining our magic then there had to be a reason. Just what was going on? I walked back to my room as I pondered this. There were a whole list of possibilities of what could have happened and a lot of question.
The most likely possibility was that they made their prisoners use their magic to do something for them to the point of exhaustion while they could be taking the energy themselves, but then again, why Nobles? Sure it was most likely that they had stronger magic but there were commoners who could have gained a strong trait of magic that would be just as useful; it would be less suspicious and we wouldn't be in this much of a panic.
Unless; the kidnappers weren't Demons. I froze at what I just thought of. It was possible, most Demons knew of that rare commoner that could do magic but the same couldn't be said for humans. Yet it was common knowledge to almost everyone that Demon Nobility had strong magic. I stopped short and in a split minute decision I turned around.
In my haste my hood fell, leaving my slightly longer hair to wave in peace. Instead of heading back to where Conrad and the others were I took a different turn and headed to Gwendal's office. They were probably done speaking by now and I really didn't want to sneak up on them. They were trained soldiers after all.
There was a light coming from the crack below the door. I guess he was back. I didn't hesitate when I opened the door, which was probably a bad idea but I did it anyway. Gwendal looked up from his desk with that usual grumpy look on his face. Oddly enough, I was too tired to care.
"I had a premonition." I said as I walked in and closed the door behind me. Conrad was standing behind Gwendal while Gunter was sitting with papers in front of him. "I'm sorry but I couldn't sleep." I explained before yawning, "I heard you talking in the hallway and I just had an idea as to who these 'bandits' might be." Gunter looked guilty, Conrad smiled with Gwendal frowned even harder than before.
"And who might that be, Your Majesty?" Conrad asked with some amusement in his voice. I knew he wasn't making fun of me. In fact, he probably trusted my judgment on this situation to the highest regard. That's what I really liked about Conrad; he knew almost everything.
"Humans," I said simply as I took a seat and sat down, before Gunter could talk I raised my hand, "Look, most Demon's know this but there are commoners who contain strong Demon Magic, which is what I think they're after." I took a deep breath and then rubbed my eyes, "If these 'bandits' are kidnapping people who have strong magical abilities then we can only assume that they are using that magic for something, but they probably only think that Nobles have magic ability, thus the reason why they kidnap them."
I watched as all three nodded and pondered over the thought. I sighed as tiredness took over my body. I guess it was time for bed. "Conrad, I will run through documents of any humans that have transferred here from a few weeks ago. Can you escort his Majesty to his chambers?" said Gwendal as he opened a drawer and pulled out a wad of paper. I grimaced and got up to follow Conrad out into the hallway.
We walked back in silence but it wasn't awkward. When we reached the familiar green door I turned and smiled at Conrad who chuckled back, "You always surprise me, Yuri." I grinned even wider at his off-handed praise.
"I've been forced to think for the past few weeks, so I think I'm getting used to it by now." School really was turning me into a nerd. I guess it probably had something with being seventeen as well but I would leave it with the school. I sort of missed my 'act before you think' image. "Good night, Conrad!" I said cheerfully before heading into my bedroom to join Wolfram and Greta in sleep.
It took a few days but soon Gwendal found a group of humans who had recently moved into the vicinity. As it turned out; they were kidnapping Nobles in order to get them to heal one of their friends who got injured and ended up in a coma. They didn't have the money to hire a doctor and they were still suspicious of the Demon Tribe so they threatened the people they kidnapped to heal their friend. Little did they know that healing magic only worked when the person performing it wanted to heal the injured person.
Since there was no harm done they got away with a fine and I was the one who healed the injured human (who turned out to be their leader). They were extremely grateful but they also got chewed out by their leader who had a great respect for the Demon Tribe and as it turned out, was a fan of mine.
With that, the case was solved. It was surprisingly easy to fix this problem compared to other problems I had in the past. To my dismay, the two weeks were coming to an end. I really didn't mind going back, but I knew that I would miss it here. Then again, I could always come back which was a plus.
"What's wrong, Shibuya?" asked Murata as we sat at a table and drank the tea that the maids had prepared for us. I looked out at Greta who was playing with one of the Noble children who had stopped by to visit. I sighed as I put my tea cup down. "You don't want to leave, do you?" I gave him a look and he continued, "What I meant was, you don't want to leave her alone."
I puffed my cheeks out before holding back tears. It was true I didn't want to leave my little girl alone; she was going to grow up without me. "I know it's going to happen, Murata!" I yelled at him as he laughed at me. "She's going to grow up, get married and leave me!" I slammed my head down on the table as he just laughed even harder.
"That's all part of growing up, Shibuya. She'll still love you as a father." I peaked up at him and his calm composure. I don't know why but for some reason I needed to hear that.
"Really?" I asked as I sniffed. I wasn't going to let her get married. Not yet anyway.
"Really," He answered as he went back to his book.
Later that night, Murata and I were heading back to Hogwarts. We said our goodbyes, I had given away all of my presents and had gained some of my own. I was about to step in the water when I looked back at my family. I smiled and waved goodbye before disappearing into the icy waters.
We were pulled through the familiar suction of the water before resurfacing in the lake. The lake was even more freezing. I sneezed before getting up and out of the cold water. Murata followed suit. The cold wind didn't help much as it pushed against our wet cloths.
"L-let's go inside," said Murata as he hurried forward, I could only nod as I followed him into the castle.
Walking into the common room was probably the most heavenly thing to do. My body shivered as I hurried to the flames that seemed to grown in size as I came closer. I breathed a sigh of relief as I shed my school uniform coat and rolled up my white sleeves. I took off my Pocket Office and set it to the side to let it dry along with my coat. I sat in front of the fire and waited for it to dry my completely.
"Yuri?" I yawned and looked behind me to see Harry standing behind me. I waved at him and motioned to a spot next to me. I knew that only an hour had pasted before I left, Murata and I checked the time and date before I headed up to the common room. He walked over and slowly sat himself next to me. "Why are you all wet?" he asked after a few minutes.
I looked at him in the corner of my eye to see that he was wearing his glasses. "I fell in the lake." I said with a shrug. It wasn't a complete lie. His head turned to me before deciding what to ask next, but for some reason he didn't. "Why are you awake?" I asked him, trying to keep up a conversation.
He shrugged as he looked at the fire with sudden interest, "A lot on my mind." He said as he looked ahead with obvious frustration. I hummed but then reached into my Pocket Office to grab something that might help. I gripped my hand around the box and it out as I knew exactly what it was.
I opened up the rectangular box and opened the packaging to let open the smell of chocolate. "Here," I said as I offered a piece to him. He hesitated before taking the piece and smelling it. "It's called pocky." I explained as I grabbed a piece myself and taking a bite of the semi-sweet treat. "Trust me, it's good." He gave me a skeptical look before taking a bit himself.
His eyes widened at the taste and I laughed a bit at the look on his face, "It's really good! Where'd you get this, Yuri?" I smiled as I finished my piece and grabbed another. I put the box in between us so that we could both reach it.
"It's really common in Japan. I'm surprised that you haven't heard of it. It's pretty popular all around the world. Then again, that could only be the muggles." I licked my lips as I grabbed for another piece. I couldn't believe that I had completely forgotten about this. "There are other flavors too. Like strawberry, green tea, and dark chocolate. It's good right?"
Harry nodded before taking another piece, obviously in a much better mood then before. The happy mood didn't last long, however when he hesitated to take a bite and instead sighed at the fire. "Is this about your friend?" I asked as I stopped myself from taking a bite as well. Harry stiffened at my words, so I could only guess that it was. "I know this is none of my business, Harry, but it's not healthy to keep your feeling pent up inside." He didn't answer; instead he just looked ahead at the fire.
I sighed, wondering what to say next. "You know what baseball is right?" Harry's lip twitched up a bit. I knew he knew about it. I had been talking about it constantly ever since my brother had sent me the supplies. "Did you know that I had quit it for a whole year?"
He looked at me with disbelief on his face. "You?You quit baseball?" I laughed at his reaction before continuing on with my story.
"Well, I was sort of kicked out." I scratched my head in embarrassment, "You see, one of our players was sick so we had another player fill in for him. He was decent, but not as good as the one who was sick so he had a lot of expectations. In one game there was a pop fly, meaning the ball got hit up high in the air, and he missed it. We lost the game because of that but the coach took him aside and said that he was worthless and that he shouldn't play baseball again." I looked down, lost in thought at the memory. "He said it so loudly that the other team and even the people in the stands heard him. I lost my temper and punched him, telling him that he was the worthless one."
Harry could only gap at me as I retold my memory. I remembered telling Conrad this story when I first went to the Demon Kingdom. "I mean, normally I can control my emotions, but that coach had been doing stuff like that the entire year and my anger just boiled up inside. I could have probably done something sooner but I was a coward." I sighed and lay on my back to look up at the ceiling.
"You're not a coward. I mean, c'mon you're in Gryffindor!" I smiled as Harry tried to cheer me up. I wasn't depressed, I was just a little embarrassed at the memory.
"Tell that to the Sorting Hat! He couldn't decide between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. Not that I would have minded either. I wouldn't have minded any House, really." I stretched and lifted myself up in my sitting position. I was mostly dry, except for a few patches.
Harry was silent as he seemed to be recapping what I had told him, "The Sorting Hat said that I would do well in Slytherin." He said it like it was a bad thing. I raised an eyebrow and looked him over. These House rivalries were getting out of hand.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked as I took another piece of pocky. He looked at me as if I was insane and I just grinned back at him. "I hardly believe that even if you were in another House, Harry, that you would be a completely different person then you were today. I have nothing against Slytherin. In fact; I made some friends who are in Slytherin." This time it was Harry's turn to laugh.
"Yuri, you can make friends anywhere!" I blushed as I realized he was making fun of me, "The only time I've seen you retaliate against anyone was when Malfoy insulted your mother and even then you didn't use magic, you just punched him." Well, I had learned my lesson as to not slap pretty boys, so I punched him instead.
"That was actually interesting. He looks exactly like a friend of mine, except a lot more bratty." I finished my pocky before grabbing another. "Man was I surprised when I saw Malfoy! I thought he was my friend for a second, but when I saw his two henchmen I knew it wasn't him."
"How do you figure?" Harry asked me before going for another piece.
"Wolfram's way too proud of his strength. He's got great sword skills, not to mention that he is physically fit. Malfoy on the other hand, prefers other people to do his dirty work. He hates exercise and he can't even come close to the kind of experiences Wolfram's been through. Also Wolfram only uses magic as a last resort."
I lifted my coat and felt through it to see if it was completely dry. Eh, it was close enough. "Well, I'm headed to bed. I think it's good if you just sleep on things Harry. A clear mind could change everything." I grabbed my Pocket Office before climbing the stairs and to the dorm room. There were snores on either side but I didn't care. After using my magic to travel between worlds, I was beat.
I changed into my pajamas and simply fell on my bed. I reached my hand out over the mattress only to see that no one was there. I really missed Greta and maybe even Wolfram although there were others to take place of his snores. I heard Harry's footsteps just as I was falling asleep.
Me: Hm, this may be my favorite fanfic that I have written so far . . .
Friend: And why is that?
Me: BECAUSE IT'S THE EASIEST TO WRITE! MWUHAHAHAHA!
Friend: . . . . .