Ichigo noticed as he walked into the Great Hall for breakfast that a great many students were shooting him rather dirty looks, eyeing him with suspicion, distrust, and maybe even a little fear. He also noticed that many of the students were huddled around copies of a newspaper. A growing sense of dread and foreboding permeated his body, swelling through him like wasp venom. "Skeeter," he hissed under his breath. Still, he had to stay calm. There was no telling how many sources the meddling reporter had within Hogwarts. Ichigo knew human nature. The woman and her cronies would just love for him to give a reaction. They would undoubtedly twist any reaction he gave into a confirmation of their accusations, and Ichigo would have no choice but to abandon the mission. Diplomatic immunity or not, if the Japanese government got involved the mission would be screwed.

Sitting down at the teacher's table as usual, Ichigo pointedly ignored the looks even some of the teachers, especially Karkaroff and Maxime, were giving him, although he noted that Dumbledore looked as merry as ever. He glanced over at the Gryffindor table and noticed that Potter and Weasley weren't sitting together. In fact, the two were pointedly ignoring each other, with Granger glancing worriedly between them. Ichigo raised an eyebrow in interest. It seemed that the two friends had had a falling out. If he had to hazard a guess, Ichigo would bet that the conflict between the two stemmed from Potter's being chosen for the tournament.

Ichigo knew that it wasn't easy to be a friend of an extremely famous person. Weasley probably felt overshadowed by his friend's legacy, and those feelings would lead to jealousy. The fact that Potter had apparently been found 'worthy' by the Goblet of Fire to compete against students with knowledge far more extensive and superior, would be one of the underlying reasons behind the feelings of jealousy and resentment Weasley currently felt.

He winced in sympathy as Weasley stormed from the table in a temper, leaving Potter glaring after him, with Granger looking torn about whether to follow their red-headed friend or staying behind to comfort Potter. Ichigo sighed resignedly. There wasn't anything he could do about the conflict between friends, and Weasley didn't like him very much either. Potter would just have to sort it out himself. The Boy-Who-Lived's safety, though, was another matter. The first task of the Tri-wizard Tournament was fast approaching, and despite what Dumbledore had said about the tournament being safer this year, Ichigo was still rather worried. There was a reason that the tournament had been discontinued, and it wasn't because of financial issues.

He would have to find out what exactly the first task would be, in order to better prepare for protecting Potter if it got out of hand. One of the supposed reasons Ichigo was here at Hogwarts, in addition to observing the wizarding culture, was to provide security, so any intervention on his part would not cause undue suspicion.

For the moment, though… Ichigo rubbed his temples as he prepared to face a day of hostile reactions from students and teachers alike. Apparently these wizards had yet to learn that not all that was in the newspaper was to be believed. He groaned quietly. It was going to be a long day.

#

Harry tried hard to ignore the green swirls of the badges Malfoy and his cronies had cooked up as he walked in the hallway. Silently he cursed to himself. Why did this have to happen to him? Not only was he being targeted by almost all the students of the school, he had even had a fight with his best friend, who was now ignoring him. Now according to Moody somebody had entered him in the tournament so that he might get killed. As if there hadn't been enough attempts on his life in the past few years at Hogwarts.

Harry was fuming so hard that he completely failed to notice a familiar-looking blonde Ravenclaw come to a complete halt in the hallway in front of him. Distracted by his thoughts, he plowed into her, sending both of them to the ground.

"Oomph!" Harry grunted as an elbow drove into his stomach, his breath leaving his lungs in an explosive whoosh. He lay on the ground, dazed, his head spinning from where it had hit the ground.

"Oh dear," said a dreamy voice somewhere above him. "Are you quite alright?"

Harry blinked. The figure was blurry, and he realized that his glasses had been knocked off in the fall. Groping around blindly, he reached for his glasses, but his hands grasped nothing but the cold floor.

"Here," the voice said again, and Harry felt his glasses being set on his face. Blinking, he focused on the person who had helped him. Recognition flashed through his mind as he looked into the wide blue eyes of Luna Lovegood, the Ravenclaw whom they had followed into Captain Kurosaki's chambers. An instant after the recognition struck, so did the guilt. He had intruded on the privacy of this girl and witnessed her collapse, and she didn't even know.

"Are you alright?" Luna repeated in her dreamy voice, though her bright blue eyes were intently focused on him. Harry frowned. Hadn't her eyes been grey before?

Struggling to his feet, he hurriedly bent to collect his things, placing his books back into his bag, which had fallen open when he fell. "Er, I'm okay," he stammered. "Sorry for running into you."

He was about to hurry away when he felt a warm hand grasp his wrist, pulling him back. "Wait," Luna said. "You're Harry Potter."

Harry felt warmth creep up his neck. Great, he thought morosely. She's just going to gawk at by scar, or accuse me of cheating to get into the tournament. Just like everyone else.

"I believe you, you know," Luna said airily, as if what she had just said hadn't caused Harry's jaw to drop and students in the hallway to stop and gawk.

"Wh-what?" Harry stammered again. It seemed that all the students around him, who had been snickering at his fall, shared the sentiment, as they began backing away from Harry and Luna, until the hallway was deserted but the two of them.

"I'm fairly sure that I made myself quite clear," said Luna, the dreaminess vanishing from her voice abruptly. "He's worried about you, you know?"

"What?" Harry asked again. "Who's worried about me?"

"Ichigo," Luna said.

"Who's Ichigo?" asked Harry, getting increasingly confused.

Luna sighed. "Of course, he's never allowed you to call him by his first name. I'm talking about Captain Kurosaki, of course."

Harry blinked, feeling exceedingly stupid. "Oh, is that what his first name is?"

Luna sighed and shook her head, muttering something under her breath, which Harry couldn't make out. "What was that?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Luna said airily. "You needn't worry about it. It wasn't anything to do with you. Not directly, anyway."

"What's that mean?" he shot back.

"I just said not to worry about it." Luna sighed in exasperation. "At any rate, the first task is coming up soon. Do you know what it is?"

"No…" Harry said, confused by the sudden change of subject. "Mr. Crouch said something about not knowing being a sign of bravery, or something like that. Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Luna said again. The dreaminess reappeared again, and her eyes wandered elsewhere. "I believe Hagrid wants to see you." Before Harry could say anything, she skipped off, whistling an oddly familiar cheery tune.

Harry could only stare at the blonde's retreating back, completely mystified at what had just happened.

#

Ichigo stared at the quartet of massive fire-breathing dragons. One of them, with wicked looking spines all across its back and tail, could breathe fire. A smaller, but no less fierce, red one could breathe fire. The green one was whipping its tail back and forth in irritation and could breathe fire. The tan-colored short-snouted one stomped the ground in anger and snorted fire. Did he mention, they could breathe fire?

A drop of sweat rolled down the back of his neck, and it wasn't from the heat of the dragons' breaths. No, the sweat was caused by the stupidity of these British wizards. For kami's sake! There was a reason dragon slayers were held in such high regard around the world. And now they were expecting mere untrained children to face them down? Granted, the champions wouldn't have to kill the dragons, no. They had to steal an egg from a nesting mother. Apparently, the British wizards had never found out that mothers will do anything to protect their children. Ichigo knew this from experience, and it still caused pangs of pain in his heart.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered as he watched the dragon-keepers struggle to subdue the raging Hungarian Horntail. A familiar reiatsu prickled the edge of his senses, and he reached out, feeling around the forest for the source. Along the way he detected several other reiatsu.

Karkaroff, Maxime, Hagrid, and Potter, Ichigo mused to himself. Very clever. Maxime managed to convince Hagrid to show her the dragons, and now she'll go tell her champion. Karkaroff is also most likely going to tell his champion, and Potter's here, which means the only one left out of the loop is the other Hogwarts champion, that Diggory boy.

Ichigo grinned, his worry over the dragons forgotten. Now, what will you do, Potter? Show me just what sort of man you are. Show me that you are worthy of everyone's expectations for you. He felt Potter's reiatsu creep away from the clearing, which was now sporting several very badly burned trees. You're a very interesting kid, Potter. Very interesting.

#

Ichigo stood in the middle of the Quidditch pitch had been terraformed almost beyond recognition in preparation for the first task, a few hours before its beginning. Potter had not failed his expectations. The young boy had made the honorable choice and informed the other champion of the dragons. Although not telling him would have given Potter a higher chance of winning, the decision to even up the playing field for Diggory had caused Ichigo's respect for him to jump several levels.

He gazed up at the sun, which was hovering in the sky a few hours from noon. The additional shinigami security were due to arrive any time, and Ichigo had been originally granted at least another captain, with maybe two vice-captain level fighters. He had requested additional reinforcements after seeing the dragons and doing some research on them. They had notoriously magic-resistant scales, which meant that low- to mid-level kidou would be all but nullified, as well as thickly armored scales. While in their gigai, no matter how specialized and modified they had been to better channel reiatsu, Ichigo, who could normally take on all three dragons without even breaking a sweat, would have trouble with the smallest one.

The air thickened noticeably, and Ichigo looked expectantly as the glowing senkai gates materialized. The rice-paper gates slid open, revealing the blinding white of the Dangai. He idly wondered who had been sent this time.

"GOOD MORNING, ICHIGOOOOOOO!"

"Aw, fuck."

#

Phew! This past week has been killer at school. I've had three tests in two days, so I spent all weekend and last week preparing. That studying paid off though, since I did quite well on most of them, although my AP Physics grade could have been better…

Anyways, I bring you the next chapter of The Reaper, and our favorite comic relief character: Isshin Kurosaki! Next chapter, an unexpected surprise for Ichigo, some very nasty dragons, and more badass shinigami! Stay tuned, drop a review, and I'll see you next time!

~fokker333