I do not own anything.

"Japanese"

Despite all of the celebrations going on around him, both those celebrating the normal Halloween and the ones celebrating the fall of Voldemort, Toshiro's normal dinner time ritual remained untouched, much like the array of sweets in front of him on the table. He wasn't about to touch the damned things so whoever was sending them up too him was wasting there time. Honestly, they should have realized by now that all they needed to send to his little corner of the table was some watermelon and some fish for his cat.

Chaos controlled the hall as the ghosts swooped through the air and the children nearly joined them after all the sugar they were intaking. The noise was mind blowing since none of them could carry a tone to save their lives but most insisted on trying to sing anyways. Even so, Captain Hitsugaya still rated the chaos at a six out of ten on the scale of Rangiku, and that was being generous.

So he had no trouble performing his normal task, reading. Another full moon had gone by since his first attempt, but when he had returned to the third floor corridor, he found a much stronger magic lock on the first door. So even though he had found out that the vines in the basement was 'Devil's Snare', he couldn't get there to see what lay beyond.

Getting though the lock would be a snap, he had a range of kido spells to remove magic seals. The problem lay in how to cover his tracks after the night was done. He needed a way to either temporarily disable the spell, or a method of recasting it after his job was complete.

He had used some Squad Twelve tech to scan the magic lock and sent the data back to Squad Twelve with his request for assistance. Sadly, Kurotsuchi was throwing one if his fits about Rangiku and Yachiru kidnapping his 'daughter' to play, and wasn't forthcoming with help, even though this job was for getting him the Sorcerer's Stone. The mad scientist would get over it sooner or later, but Toshiro couldn't risk a whole month going by with no progress, and so he started to do research on magic locks.

He was so far on his eighth book on magic locks and was disappointed in the fact that most of them seemed to be about the history of such locks rather than how to slip past them or how to identify them. So while they had some entertaining stories, they were not very useful.

Toshiro wasn't discouraged however, as he remembered that research took time, even when you knew what you were looking for. He remembered how they had to dig through hundreds of books in the archives in order to find the old documents on the Bounts. He had roughly two more weeks till the next full moon. Plenty of time.

Still, even though his surroundings were hardly more than a murmur in his ears, he couldn't help but think about Granger. The girls in the hallway had said it was something Weasley had said that had triggered all this. Not surprising.

Toshiro had never liked the red haired boy. He was loud, simple, lazy, selfish, and from what Granger said about him, refused to chew his food properly before speaking. She had also told him about how she had ended up stuck outside her dorm with him and Potter after they left it for some stupid duel, ignoring her as she had tried to stop them. Honestly, he wasn't sure why Hermione would want someone like him as a friend. Toshiro didn't actually know Potter as much other than he seemed to have a knack for disobeying rules and somehow getting away with it.

They had all forgotten about their meeting with the white haired boy in those hallways, and if they remembered the Cerberus, Hermione didn't mention it to him. Though it hardly mattered, if they did remember it they wouldn't know about what it was guarding. And even if they did remember and knew what it was guarding, they couldn't get to it. And even if they did remember AND know what it was guarding AND could get to it, why would they want to?

Their involvement had been a fluke, and unlikely to continue, unless these children were nosy to a point beyond even Kurosaki's legendary skills at sticking his nose were it doesn't belong. But for some reason, no mater how much he tried to reason why they were completely out of harms way, he still had an itch he couldn't get rid of that told him that something was up.

"Being here has caused me to start getting paranoid." He mumbled to himself in Japanese. But no sooner had his voiced this hypothesis than it was tested.

The doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and Professor Quirrell stumbled in, every single part of his manner from his walk to his panting was designed to draw attention. Then he started showing. "Troll!" He screeched at the top of his lungs, the word penetrating the excitement around the room. "Troll! In the dungeons!" He stopped, trembling for a few seconds while the entire room had gone deathly quiet. "I thought you should know." He mumbled out before falling to the ground in a faint.

Complete chaos took over again, though this chaos would be closer to an eight on the Rangiku scale. Everyone seeming to be saying the same thing, but each trying to be heard over everyone else. Panic was starting to set in.

It was Dumbledore who regained control, sending three loud blasts of magic from his wand that silenced all voices and drew the attention of everyone in the hall. Then he started giving orders like a Captain in war times. "Prefects, escort your houses to their dormitories, your teachers and I will settle this matter." He said, getting up from his set. Even as old as he was, power radiated in his voice and he moved with such meaning that everyone immediately set out to do his orders.

Toshiro finding himself forced to follow along in order to maintain his cover as a mere student, even though the stink of fowl play was all over this. A troll couldn't get into the castle without assistance, the wards around the school were strong, Toshiro himself had went around the perimeter in order to observe them.

The troll was merely a distraction, one that would force all the teacher to go to assist, and the only objective that Toshiro could think of was the stone. So as he was being herded through the castle, he widened his senses in order to perceive everyone inside Hogwarts.

Sure enough two pockets of souls were moving upwards towards the third floor, one the double soul of Quirrel, and the other Snape. Hitsugaya frowned. He knew they were both going, but where they working together? Both were long time faculty at the school, though Quirrel had been muggle studies before changing fields. So he couldn't rule out that they had been ordered there in order to guard the stone. But something made him doubt that. Why send Quirrel if it was for guarding. The popular opinion of the man was that he was a useless coward.

But were both of them infiltrates or just one of them, Toshiro couldn't even began to guess. Personally, he hoped Snape was, it would give him a good excuse to kill the man. Unfortunately, he couldn't go to head them off without blowing his cover, but if they did steal the stone, they would still have to get it off the campus grounds before they could use their transportation magic. That meant they would have to run nearly five miles over open ground outside of the castle, and if they set one toe outside, Toshiro would know they had gotten the stone and would be on them like a hawk long before they could get past the barrier. All he needed to do was stay undercover and observe.

But as his senses widened he nearly stopped in his steps. He could feel an none human soul inside of Hogwarts, the troll's soul. But it wasn't in the dungeons, it was on the first floor near three human souls; Potter, Weasley... and Hermione.

Toshiro's mind was racing. If he went now and eliminated the troll, he could save their lives for sure, but that would certainly lead to him being detained afterwards for questioning which would lead to him being unable to hunt down Quirrel and Snape if they did try to get away with the stone.

His orders were clear, the Sorcerer's Stone, and the several hundreds of souls it was created from, was top priority. It was the Soul Reaper way. The lives of the living were short and next to meaningless compared to the value of an eternal soul. Soul Reapers did not interfere with the living unless their souls were at risk. People died all the time, children died all the time. He was a soldier. His orders were clear!.. But...

He thought of Hermione, the way she still tried to talk to him even as everyone around them told her he was a dangerous beast. Her nerves habit of spouting information. Her grateful smile as he had tried to comfort her. She had tried to be his... friend.

It went against everything he had taught, but he turned on his heels in mid stride and with his spiritual energy being forced into his step he shot of like a rocket, out of the crowd of Ravenclaws that were heading for their dorms. He ignored the shouts of surprise and the calls from the Prefects for him to go back.

This want against everything the Soul Reapers stood for, but he couldn't let her die.