Wow, you guys have been so great… the response has been – actually overwhelming (happy dance, happy dance!).To everyone who has reviewed, done a story alert, or even favorited... a great big THANK YOU!

And so, here's the next chapter; as always, I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter (I do have a Ravenclaw T-shirt though…)

||Characters are speaking Japanese||

Chapter 21

It was of course Professor Umbridge who brought Harry down from the high he was on; Cho had praised him, she had tried to stay after the meeting to talk to him… Quidditch practice had actually gone well, even for Ron… he was caught up with his homework thanks to Ichigo and Hermione… Hermione had helped Ichigo draw up a budget for the remainder of the school year, and he really had had a hard time grasping yen to Knuts, Sickles and Galleons. Ron had written to Bill, asking if it would be possible for him to get into Ichigo's vault for him, and get the money to maybe Professor Snape or Professor McGonagall; then they'd sent out the owl, who had been excited at having something to do. Ichigo had been right – she'd been getting bored.

So of course, come Monday morning, there was a huge sign on the Gryffindor board, covering up everything else.

BY ORDER OF

THE HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS

All Student Organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.

An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.

Permission to re-form may be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).

No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.

Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with

Educational Decree Number Twenty-four

Signed

Dolores Jane Umbridge

High Inquisitor

"This isn't a coincidence," Harry said to Ron as he read through the notice several times. He turned around and searched the room, and found Ichigo hunched over, whispering with Rukia and Tatsuki. They hurried over to the trio.

"It has to be," Rukia said, softly, "She can't know, not already."

"There were other people in that pub," Tatsuki pointed out, her hand in a fist. "Any one of them could have told her."

Ichigo shook his head, and frowned, "Does Hermione know yet?"

"She hasn't come down yet," Tatsuki sighed, and propped her chin on her hand.

"Let's tell her," Ron said, running for the door to the girls' dorm.

"No, Ron, wait!" Rukia called out.

"Oh, let him find out the hard way," Tatsuki sighed. Ichigo glanced at them curiously.

Ron had made it all the way up to the sixth stair when it happened; an alarm went off, and the stairs melted into a long, smooth slide made of stone. He tried to keep his balance, arms flailing madly, before he finally toppled over backwards and slid down to the bottom to land in a heap at Harry's feet.

"Are you all right?" Ichigo hurried over to help him.

"Er… I don't think we're allowed up there…" Ron said red-faced as Ichigo and Harry helped him up, while trying not to laugh. Several girls came zooming down the slide.

"Oh oh, who tried to get upstairs?" they giggled, waggling fingers at the three boys.

Ichigo held his hands up. "Eh, I'm not in on this one," he said, backing up.

"Just me," Ron admitted, "I didn't know that would happen. It's not fair!" he looked at the other two. "Hermione's allowed in our dormitory, but we're not allowed in hers?"

"It's a rather old rule," Hermione said, as she slid down the slide and got to her feet. "If you ever read Hogwarts, a History you would know that. The founders felt that girls were more trustworthy than boys… why were you trying to get in, anyway?"

"To fetch you – look!" Ron grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the board and the oversized notice, where she was joined by the others.

"It was there when we got up," Tatsuki admitted, "I don't know who put it there."

"Someone must have blabbed!" Ron said heatedly.

"Impossible," she replied in a low voice.

"Why? Just because you…"

"I jinxed the parchment," she admitted, blushing. The others stared at her.

"You… jinxed the parchment?" Ichigo said in strangled voice. He needed to tell Toshiro before he included it in a report to the Head Captain…

"If anyone runs off and tells Umbridge, or anyone else, we'll know right away and they'll immediately regret it."

"Why?" "What will happen?" "What kind of jinx?" Harry, Ron and Rukia all asked at the same time.

"Well…" Hermione fidgeted a bit, "it will make a severe case of acne look like a few cute freckles. Come on, let's get downstairs and see what everyone else thinks."

They hurried down to the Great Hall, watching as people scurried about like mice, muttering among themselves about the latest Educational Decree. They had barely taken their seats when Neville, Dean, Fred, George and Ginny descended on them.

"Did you see it?"

"D'you think she knows already?"

They were all looking directly at Harry. He leaned forward, after making sure there were no eavesdroppers.

"We're doing it anyway, of course!"

"That's the spirit!" George nodded, approvingly.

"Oh, for… here comes Ernie and Hannah…" Ron said, looking over at the Hufflepuff table, "And the Ravenclaws, and Smith…"

"They can't all come over here!" Hermione said alarmed, "It'll look too suspicious!"

Ichigo signaled Uryu and Momo, who headed their housemates off at the pass, while Hermione made a little gesture that she would talk to them later.

"I'll tell Michael," Ginny said, rolling her eyes and hurrying off.

"Ah… why won't that look odd?" Ron asked.

"Don't be daft, they're seeing each other," Hermione said impatiently, "It won't look odd if she goes to talk to him; or if she talks to Luna, they're good friends."

"They're… what?" Three Weasley brothers said at the same time. Hermione sighed and looked over at Tatsuki, who was pounding on Fred's back, as he had started choking on a piece of toast. Harry snorted.

"Is that why she can talk to me now?" he asked in a low voice. Hermione nodded with a slight knowing smirk.

Rukia stood with a smile. "On that note… I think I'll go say hi to Momo and Yuzu."

Hermione looked over at Karin. "Can you take a message to the Ravenclaw table for me?"

"Sure," Ichigo's sister looked up at her and nodded, "What is it?"

"Have Toshiro tell the Ravenclaws that were at the meeting that we'll talk to them later…"

Karin glanced at her brother, who nodded once, and leaned over to whisper something to her. She shrugged, not understanding it, but she guessed that something big was up, so she also grabbed a book out of her bag while she was at it; better to make it look good, she thought, as she headed over for Toshiro, who had been watching the goings on with a frown. Uryu had waylaid most of the Ravenclaws, who were jittery; and Momo and Mizuiro had cornered the Hufflepuffs. Now it seemed, Rukia, Karin and Ginny were being sent to calm the rest. Idiots, he thought, panicking at the first thought of being caught. At least the Gryffindors had remained fairly calm – until they'd seen the others panicking. Karin smiled at the person sitting next to Toshiro, who smiled back and scooted over to make room for her. Normally the Houses were very jealous and territorial, and didn't usually allow members of other Houses to sit at their tables; but the Japanese students seemed to be immune to that rule. They figured that these kids had known each other for a while, and being new to a country, they were going to need to stick together in some way – so Gryffindors were tolerated at Ravenclaw (especially when they saw how cute this pair was together; the 'aw' factor kicked in and no one wanted to say anything except maybe giggle at them); Hufflepuffs at Gryffindor, and so forth. Except for the Slytherins, which were not accepted at any table other than their own.

Karin opened her book, and Toshiro peered at the page she had opened it to.

"I'm having a little trouble with this passage," she said to him. Then she switched to Japanese, ||Hermione said they'd talk to everyone later…and Ichigo said not to tell the Head Captain about the meeting, and he would explain later as well.||

||Understood,|| he said just as softly. In a normal tone of voice, he explained what the passage meant, what the author had meant to convey – even though he knew Karin had understood it perfectly well, and had just needed an excuse to come over. She peered down at the hardest word she could find on the page – "Oh is that what that word means? No wonder I had trouble! Now it makes more sense. Thanks, Toshiro."

"No problem. I'll see you in class in a little while."

She hurried back to the Gryffindor table, nodded at her brother and winked at Hermione when she got there. Mission accomplished. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, especially when she saw calm start to prevail at the Ravenclaw table. Rukia, Momo and Yuzu were giggling over something at the Hufflepuff table, and they were calming down now also, since Ernie was also laughing with them.

Harry, Hermione and Ron lagged behind the others on their way to Binns' class.

"Did you get to ask Ichigo about Toshiro?" Hermione asked Ron.

"Yeah, he said he didn't know what that was about, because he hadn't had a chance to talk to him about it yet. He thinks he was testing a spell, though," Ron said with a shrug, "If he had to guess, I mean. I did find out who the red-headed pineapple was that we saw earlier, though."

"What?" they looked at him momentarily baffled.

"The red-headed guy with the sword, with the pineapple growing on his head."

"Oh… Ichigo knew who he was?"

"Uh, well, not at first. Not until I said 'red pineapple on his head,' at which point he started laughing," Ron smirked, "Turns out he does know him, really well. His name's Renji, he works for Rukia's brother. Ichigo guessed he was probably there checking up on her, because of the Prophet article. Apparently 'nii-sama' is somewhat overprotective, and he hates Ichigo."

"What?" Harry stared at Ron, surprised, "Why would anyone hate Ichigo?"

"Beats me. But…" Ron laughed, "Renji is Ichigo's friend… so although Big Brother knows that they get along, he doesn't realize just how well…"

Hermione laughed, watching their new friends walking ahead of them, hands linked. "So, he sent this Renji to check up on his sister, because he doesn't trust or like Ichigo, but not realizing that Renji does?"

"Pretty much – Ichigo said that Renji has been very much like an older brother to the whole lot of them…"

The three laughed, wondering when Big Brother would figure it out.

"Harry! Ron!"

It was Angelina, and she was hurrying after them, a desperate look on her face. Ahead of them, the others had heard her, and stopped to wait for them.

"You realize she's including Quidditch in this?" she said when she reached them. The two boys gaped at her; everyone had been so concerned about DADA, they had not even thought about her forbidding Quidditch… the House Cup… she couldn't…

"We have to go and ask permission to re-form the Gryffindor team!" she exclaimed.

"What was that?" Ichigo asked, walking back. He tried to remember what was on the notice, and then groaned when he remembered: 'Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club' is what it had said. Team, as in Quidditch. Damn, the old bitch wouldn't… but she had.

"She's right, it did say 'Team'," Uryu said solemnly, frowning, "I didn't even think of it, because Quidditch is so much a part of the school tradition…"

"Harry – please, please, please, I am begging you, please do not lose your temper with her again, or she might not let us play anymore!"

"Okay, okay!" Harry said, because Angelina was nearly in tears, "I'll behave myself, I promise."

"He's been good for three weeks…" Momo said, helpfully.

"Yeah, I haven't had to 'assault' or 'wrestle' him in class once," Ichigo said wryly, which at least drew a half-hearted chuckle from Angelina, who had gotten the whole story from the Twins.

They had expected Umbridge in Binns' class, but she wasn't there. So they had to endure another boring, boring lecture… and then, oh joy, it was double Potions with Snape, in his dungeon. Only the Slytherins didn't mind that class – and Ichigo. Of course, it was rather amusing to see that Draco Malfoy was no longer Professor Snape's golden boy… and that a Gryffindor had replaced him. For that reason, the Japanese teen had attracted the Slytherin's enmity. Of course, Harry mused, had Draco known that Ichigo was a descendent of Old Salazar Slytherin himself, the blonde would probably have been kneeling at his feet. Ichigo said he had actually been given a choice of which house he could go into, since the Sorting Hat had been at a loss for the first time in anyone's memory… so he could have easily chosen Slytherin had he wanted. But he had been the last to be Sorted, Rukia had already been placed in Gryffindor, his oldest friend was in Gryffindor… and as much as his gut had been screaming at him to choose Hufflepuff, because he had been sure that was where Yuzu would be going and that was the sister who needed watching over the most, Ichigo admitted that he had found himself choosing Gryffindor and following Rukia (Or so he had told the others).

Ichigo had told Ron, Harry, Neville and Dean (and Seamus, who'd been shamelessly eavesdropping) that he'd been torn at the decision. "Yuzu really needs looking after," he'd told them, "Karin can handle herself just fine, as you've seen," he rolled his eyes at how well the one twin had adjusted, which had brought chuckles from the four boys. "But Yuzu is very tender hearted; it's why she's a Hufflepuff. And I get along well with Professor Snape: I like Potions, so I couldn't see what would be so wrong having him as my Head of House," he sighed, now that he'd gotten to know some of the Slytherins, he'd have been leaving some corpses lying around before long; in fact, less than a day because he hadn't met a single Slytherin he actually liked. "But I really liked Professor McGonagall as well, and I like Transfiguration…" he shrugged, "I just found myself saying Gryffindor." He looked away, scowling. "I'm glad I didn't choose Slytherin, I'd have turned the whole lot of them into rabbits as soon as I figured out I could," he muttered.

The others had laughed at the thought of Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle hopping around as foul tempered rabbits; Harry and Dean had images of Monty Python and the killer rabbit from the Holy Grail movie… it would be a new look for Malfoy, although he had made a rather nice bouncing ferret the year before.(AN1)

When they arrived at the Potions dungeon, it was to overhear Draco Malfoy loudly proclaiming that the Slytherin Quidditch team had already been given permission to reform, and wondering if the Gryffindor team would ever be allowed to play at all. Ichigo walked by, looked at the group of them, and sneered, "Dasai!" His friends laughed. (AN2)

Malfoy scowled; he hated it when someone threw Japanese at him, and this time, he knew the speaker wouldn't get pointed for 'mis-pronunciation,' since Ichigo was a Japanese native. In fact, he was highly doubtful that Snape would ever point Ichigo for anything. The Potions Master's sudden favoritism of this outsider utterly baffled the members of his House; they didn't think it could be because of his brilliance in the class (because Hermione was just as brilliant and she was looked down upon) but they couldn't be too sure. He'd written to his father, trying to find out more about the Japanese students; but so far, they were apparently what they appeared to be. For once, Lucius Malfoy was unable to learn anything about someone. He remembered Ichigo's mother, but that was about it. Apparently Masaki had been a great beauty… one nearly every boy in the school had had an immense crush on – even those in Slytherin; from the tone of his father's letter, he'd been able to deduce he'd been one of them. She had been in his year, and Head Girl, and quite brilliant at Potions and Transfiguration, just like her son was. Masaki had been a pure blood, from a very old family, and they had been quite wealthy, even more so than the Malfoys. He also remembered that she had been quite close with one Lily Evans, who became Lily Potter… they had all been killed by Death Eaters, except for Masaki, because no one had known where she had gone off to. Mystery solved, apparently. Lucius admitted to some great curiosity about the boy and his sisters.

"Speak English!" Crabbe ordered, clenching his fists and trying to bully Ichigo, who was not impressed at the least.

"Urusai!"

"You're not funny!"

Ichigo just smiled, "Kitanai!"

Malfoy's face grew redder; then he looked over at Potter and smirked.

"Well, it's all who you know, isn't it?" he said, "If all you've got is a few foreigners who can't speak proper English, because you know, if it's a question of influence with the Ministry, you all don't have much chance," his smile grew almost sinister. "Why, they've been looking for a chance to sack Weasley's father for years; and as for Potter… well, it shouldn't be too long before they have you carted off to St. Mungo's. I understand that there is a special ward there, just for nutcases like you…"

It was doubtful if anyone could have predicted what happened next; it wasn't Harry or Ron who threw themselves at Malfoy, which is what he was trying to provoke; rather it was Neville, his face flushed, who had rushed forward.

"Neville, don't!" Harry reached out to grab hold of him as he tried to reach for a stunned Malfoy. Ron grabbed one arm, and they hauled him back, struggling.

Crabbe and Goyle, after their initial surprise, moved between the Gryffindors and Malfoy – only to find that Ichigo and Tatsuki had done the same.

"And what's a girl supposed to be able to do to us?" Crabbe looked down at Tatsuki, not realizing she could probably beat him with both arms tied behind her back.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Are you really as stupid as you look?" he said, scowling at them, "What, do you think the Chinese are the only ones who study the martial arts in Asia?"

Crabbe took a step backwards, his eyes reflecting his uncertainty. Behind Ichigo, Uryu and Momo had to go help Ron and Harry control Neville, while Hermione was talking fast, trying to soothe him.

It was this tense scene that Professor Snape happened upon when he opened the dungeon door. He stared at everyone, and then said, "Fighting in the hallway? That will be ten points from Gryffindor – Ravenclaw – and I see Hufflepuff involved as well, how odd. Now release Longbottom, or it will be detention for the lot of you. Inside, now."

Neville stalked past everyone, ignoring them, including Professor Snape, who gave him an inscrutable look, then gave Ichigo a long cool look; he'd get what happened out of him later, because Professor Dumbledore would want to know; at this point in time, every little facet of information was important, even knowing what had set Longbottom off. Ichigo sighed inwardly; he never thought he'd see the day he'd be playing snitch on his friends.

"What the bloody hell was that about?" Ron wondered as they entered and headed for their seats. Ichigo glanced at his friends and grimaced. Part of their briefing by Professor Dumbledore had been brief histories of all Potter's friends, including Neville. They knew why Neville had reacted so strongly; and they knew that Harry was aware of it, also. His parents were permanent residents at that very ward in St. Mungo's that Malfoy had mentioned, because they had been tortured by Death Eaters, and their brains had been damaged irreparably by it. Neville was understandably sensitive about such issues.

"As some of you may have noticed," Professor Snape said coldly, "We have a visitor."

Ichigo and Harry looked at each other with similar expressions of dismay on their faces.

"Is she following us?" Ichigo said so softly, that Harry almost couldn't hear him. He just shook his head, and glanced towards the darkest corner of the dungeon… good lord, did they really make robes in that disgusting pink color? He looked over at the other Gryffindors: Rukia and Tatsuki were both eyeing her with distaste; Hermione and Ron with dismay. He glanced back at Uryu and Momo. Uryu wasn't bothering to hide his dislike; Momo had her head down so her hair hid her face. Mizuiro… well, it was always hard to figure out what he was thinking. The two Professors that Harry hated the most… it was hard for him to make a decision over which one of them he wanted to triumph. He was actually tempted to toss a coin… he wondered if Ichigo had one…

"Today we shall be continuing with our Strengthening Solution. Your mixtures are as you last left them; if they were made correctly, they will have matured over the weekend to a bright turquoise color. Instructions on the board," a wave of the wand revealed the potion directions, "As always. You may proceed."

Ichigo had to stop Harry several times from adding the wrong ingredient; he was so interested in Professor Umbridge's questions, he wasn't paying attention to his potion.

"Well, this class seems to be fairly advanced for their level…" she said, eying Hermione, Uryu and Ichigo, "Though I question the wisdom of teaching them a potion such as the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus."

Snape straightened up slowly from where he was inspecting Dean's solution, and turned to face her.

"The Strengthening Solution has been included on the O.W.L.s an average four out of five years," he said stiffly, "Can you guarantee that it will not be included were we to eliminate it?"

Salvo one blocked successfully, Ichigo thought smugly. The entire class was now mostly paying attention to the two Professors, and barely looking at their own potions. He'd finished, so he needn't even bother with it anymore.

"How long have you been teaching here?" she asked in that simpering tone of voice. Even Rukia looked ill.

"Fourteen years."

"You applied for the DADA post, I believe?"

"That is correct."

"But you were unsuccessful."

"Obviously since we are speaking in the Potions lab, and I am the Potions Master."

Salvo two blocked with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

"And you've applied regularly since you've joined the Hogwarts staff, I believe."

"Yes."

"Do you know why Professor Dumbledore has consistently refused you the post?"

"You would have to ask him that," Snape replied coldly. Actually, Ichigo knew – but he supposed Snape did as well. He couldn't imagine Dumbledore not being upfront about why he constantly refused him.

It was because Dumbledore didn't want to risk losing him.

He – and many other Professors – believed that Voldemort had jinxed the position of DADA instructor when he hadn't gotten it himself. Snape's argument was that, as a former Death Eater and follower of Voldemort, he knew best how to prepare Hogwarts students to face him; however, no DADA instructor had lasted for more than one year in the position since Voldemort himself had been turned down for the job. Dumbledore felt that Snape was far too valuable to risk to the jinx/hex/curse or whatever it was. He was also far and away the best Potions Master Dumbledore was ever going to find, although he had hinted that at least until Ichigo graduated...

"Oh, I shall," Professor Umbridge replied with her saccharine smile.

"I suppose that all of this is – relevant?"

"Oh my, yes," she responded, simpering. "The Ministry wants to have a thorough understanding of all the Professors - backgrounds."

Once she had left him and Snape looked around, his eyes met Ichigo's; Harry glanced back and forth between the two, and because he was doing that, and not paying attention to the amount of dragon's blood he was dropping into his mixture, it congealed into a smelly orange mess. Ichigo started suddenly, and looked back at Harry's cauldron, and reached out just in time to stop him from adding too much more, which would have caused the bottom to fall out, and spray both of them.

"No marks again, Potter," Snape said with a sort of malicious pleasure, "An essay on how and where you went wrong, as well the correct composition of the Strengthening Solution for the next lesson. Evanesco."

"Yes, sir."

"Sorry, Harry," Ichigo said quietly, feeling guilty.

"Not your fault. You aren't responsible for my potion; I am."

"But…"

By the end of class, five more students had the extra homework: Rukia, Mizuiro, Ron, one of the other Hufflepuffs, and oddly enough, Goyle – but most likely only because his cauldron had shattered from his rather pathetic mixture just as Professor Umbridge was passing by, succeeding in scalding her. It was also a rare case in Potions of points being deducted from a Slytherin. However… Ichigo frowned over at Uryu, who was very slyly sliding his wand back inside his robes. His eyes widened slightly.

He didn't just… he wouldn't… but when the Quincy just gave him a smug look, Ichigo had to turn away in order to keep from dissolving into laughter.

"What?" Harry asked him.

"Later," Ichigo said, his lips twitching slightly; He told them at lunch what Uryu had done.

Ron and Harry had thought it was brilliant.

"Don't know who else could have gotten away with it," Ron grinned.

"I do," Harry said, looking over at Ichigo. Snape would have just looked the other way; in fact, he might have even awarded Ichigo points for it. Not for successfully playing a trick on a Slytherin – but for getting Dumbridge with it.

"I hate Mondays," Harry muttered as they walked out of the hall and into the courtyard, "Maybe I should skive off Divination…"

"You can't," Hermione said firmly.

"Our conscience," Ron said morosely.

"Oh, but you have to go!" Momo pouted at the pair of them, "Making stuff up is just no fun without you there!" Mizuiro was nodding in agreement.

Hermione glared at the four of them, who all appeared to be totally unrepentant.

"Hermione! Come on, we'll be late!" Tatsuki called out to her from where she and Rukia waited for her. She gave the unrepentant four a final glare before she hurried she hurried after the two to what was easily her favorite class – Arithmancy.

"So when are you going to do your Potions essay?" Mizuiro asked, "I think I'm going to do mine during DADA. I've already read the chapter."

"I know what I did wrong – I was paying too much attention to Snape and Dumbridge, and not enough to my potion," Harry admitted with a grimace, "I don't think can admit that, thought."

"Oh, why not?" Momo said, smiling. "Maybe he might actually appreciate the honesty."

"Because then I'd have to admit that I was rooting for him to humiliate her," Harry admitted.

"Well, that would be different, that's for sure," Ichigo agreed with a grin.

Author's Notes:

1) See Goblet of Fire – the movie… as Harry and Dean were both raised as Muggles, they would probably have seen the movie – or at least heard of it.

2) 'Home boy' or 'uncool'. This is an abbreviation of Datte, Saitama no… (but, that's from Saitama…) which was a phrase first used by downtown Tokyo-ites, meaning that something comes from the unfashionable outer suburb of Saitama.

3) Literally, "You're noisy!"

4) Literally, "You're a dirt bag!"