Author's Note

Apologies for taking over a month to update! Sadly, this will likely become the norm because life has gotten busy because school, but I'll try to at least keep it below two months. For those of you wondering, Salt Lake ComicCon was Awesome! I got to meet JOHNNY YONG BOSCH! (For uneducated people, that's Ichigo's English voice actor) He said that he was also sad that the Bleach anime doesn't go to the Thousand-year Blood War. You might have seen me running around there in my dual blade shikai Ichigo cosplay. And YES! I got over one hundred loyal minions before Hogwarts, and almost two hundred minions total. Seriously, thanks for the support guys. Urm, and this chapter's a bit shorter than the rest, but I just wanted to get this out since it's been so long.

Anywho, enjoy the chapter!

Harry awoke abruptly on the morning of his hearing as if someone had dumped water over his head. After laying in his bed for a moment and slowly drowning in the despair of his imminent hearing, he sprung out of it, unable to take the thought of it laying down, and got dressed. He quietly slipped from the room he shared with Ron, leaving the other boy asleep, not wanting to think about how the next time they met they might no longer both be students. Having successfully made it into the hallway, Harry quietly tread down it, slowly sinking into the thoughts of the day's fate once again.

His thoughts were broken when he heard several thumps come from behind the drawing room door. Curiosity aroused, and trying to put off thoughts of the hearing, he crept closer to the door, just in time to hear a muffled curse along with a particularly loud thump. Worried that someone might be hurt, he quickly opened the door, only to find the room rearranged, all the furniture in the room had been pushed to the walls. In the center of it all was Uryu and Ichigo, who was rolling off his back and onto his feet, swinging a leg out in an attempt to sweep Uryu's legs out from under him. Uryu quickly moved back, dodging the sweep, and brought his arms up to guard the punch Ichigo aimed for his sternum upon gaining his feet.

Harry stood frozen in the doorway, watching the two exchange blows. Watching the battle before him made Harry consider his definition of fighting. The only fighting without wands that Harry was familiar with was the beatings that Duddley would give him before Harry had a wand to scare him off with. They made Duddley seem clumsy in the extreme, with their smooth, sharp movements. It almost looked like a dance, one of a violent nature.

"Oh! Ohayou, Harry-kun!" Orihime chirps from a chair that had been moved to a spot on the wall by the door, startling him. "You're up early today." She flashes a bright smile at him. Harry notices Urahara's cat, Yoruichi is sitting on the arm of the girl's chair, tail flicking as she watches the fight.

"Er, yeah." Harry awkwardly replies, not really sure how to reply to that. "I jus–" His train of thought is cut off as another loud thump sounds. He turns to find that Uryu is now on the ground, carefully pinned by Ichigo, his fist just barely brushing Uryu's nose.

"Aaaaand match! Kurosaki-kun wins!" Orihime exclaims, hopping up from her seat. Ichigo pushes up from his crouched position over Uryu, smirking as he offers a hand to help the Quincy to his feet. Harry watches as Orihime dithers over the two and they assure her that they're fine, nothing more than some bruises from the match.

"Do you do this every morning?" Harry asks as the three walk towards the door. Harry steps aside and follows them as they head downstairs.

"Most mornings." Ichigo replies, rolling his shoulders and stretching a bit. "It's good exercise and keeps us from getting complacent."

"Complacent?" Harry asks. He can't imagine much of anyone else being able to actually to fight at the same level as those two were. The fight looked like it belonged in some kung fu movie and Harry could honestly say that he hadn't believed that kind of fight could happen in real life.

"That's more of an issue for Kurosaki than Inoue-san or myself." Uryu says, pushing his glasses up. "He gets into lots of fights back home, so he feels the need to do this or he's afraid he'd get his ass kicked when we return home."

"Hey! No one said you had to with spar me. And I'm not afraid of getting beaten when we go back home!" Ichigo denies. "I just can't stand sitting around all the time." He mumbles.

Harry considers asking more questions, but they've reached the kitchen and his hearing resumes its menacing looming of doom over him. And so after nibbling on a piece of toast, he receives wishes of luck and leaves with Mr. Weasley to go to his hearing.

Harry's mood significantly improved after his hearing, seeing as he had been cleared of all charges, and he wasn't sure what was more amusing: watching Orihime try to get Ichigo and Uryu to join her in Ginny, Fred, and George's war chant of "he got off" or seeing Shinji join at Orihime's request only to get pummmeled by Ichigo as he tried to make a conga line with his hands on the girl's hips instead of the traditional position on a person's shoulders. Harry never noticed the strange looks he got from Urahara, Shinji, and Uryu when his scar burned for a moment.

It was a few days later that Ichigo, Uryu, and Orihime found themselves being taken to Diagon Alley by Lupin with Shinji tagging along as a chaperone of sorts, though he was mostly just people watching with an ever amused grin on his face. It didn't help his "mature adult" image that whenever they ran across any particularly plump witches or wizards he would flare his reiatsu a bit so that he could watch them scurry away on chubby legs as his grin widened. Lupin would always frown when he did as it always made him flinch a little, even when he could tell the feeling was coming.

The afternoon was spent getting the basics that the three would need for the coming school year. Robes, cauldrons, scales, telescopes, the works. Their supplies had kindly been paid for from the Hogwarts vault, though they didn't get to see the inside of Gringotts as Dumbledore thought it best to try and keep the Japanese group away from beings who were more… aware, so he had made the withdrawal ahead of time and simply given the money to Lupin.

The last stop they made before heading home was at Ollivanders wand shop. Lupin and Shinji decided to wait outside while the three got their wands. When Uryu asked Shinji why he wasn't getting a wand as well, he said that he didn't want or need one. Also, Dumbledore only gave them money for three wands, which Ichigo suspected was the real reason why, knowing Shinji wouldn't mind having a wand to play with. And so Uryu, Orihime, and Ichigo went into the shop on their own.

There was a tinkling of a bell somewhere in the shop as the three stepped in. their first impression of the shop was dusty and small. It was filled with thousands of small slim boxes on shelves that reached the ceiling and the silence over it all was heavy, daring anyone to break it. Though sensing magic wasn't something they could do, Orihime, Uryu, and Ichigo could tell that there was a certain air of power sleeping in the shop, waiting to be awakened.

"Good afternoon." a soft voice says. All three jump at the sound of the voice, Ichigo and Uryu placing themselves between Orihime and the voice, the blue light of reishi gathering at Uryu's wrist as Ichigo sinks into a fighting stance, Blut instinctively activating. "My, my. Quite a jumpy group, aren't you?" the man with the soft voice says, watching them with wide silvery eyes.

Orihime was the first to recover from the surprise of Mr. Ollivander's sudden appearance. "Konnichiwa!" she greets with a small bow as she steps out from behind the two cousins. "We're here to buy wands." she says with a bright smile.

"Yes, yes. Of course you are, my dear." Mr. Ollivander replies with a kind smile, charmed like so many others by the healer's kind smiles. "Dare I ask what happened to your previous wands?"

"We've never had wands before, jii-san." Ichigo replies.

"I see. Rather uncommon for wizards and witches of your age, but certainly not unheard of." Mr. Ollivander muses. "So which of you will be going first?"

"I will." Uryu announces, stepping forward.

Mr. Ollivander just nods his head, pulling a tape measure with silver marking from his pocket. "Now which is your wand arm, Mr. –?"

"Ishida, Uryu Ishida." Uryu calmly introduces himself. "And I'm right handed."

"Hold out your arm please, Mr. Ishida. That's it." the wand maker says as he begins to measure Uryu from shoulder to finger, wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, and more. As he measures, he says, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. Now a wand choses their wielder, so of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

It was at this point that the three realized that while Mr. Ollivander was flitting about the shelves taking down boxes, the tape measure was continuing its measurements of its own accord. Both Uryu and Orihime, being the seamstresses they were, thought how useful such a tape measure would be while Ichigo wondered what would happen if he tugged on it, the hollow half of Zangetsu encouraging him.

"That will do." Mr. Ollivander tells the tape measure and it falls to the floor in a small pile. "Alright, Mr. Ishida. Try this one, Blackthorn wood and dragon heartstring. Ten inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Uryu takes the wand, stares at it a bit, looks to Mr. Ollivander, and receiving a nod, gives it a little flick like he's seen Mrs. Weasley do during their stay at Grimmauld Place. Mr. Ollivander snatches it out of his hand almost at once. "Wha–?"

"Cherry wood and unicorn hair. Eight and a half inches. Swishy. Try –" and Uryu did, only for it to be snatched away once more. He frowned a bit at this, seeing as it was the second time Mr. Ollivander had done it, but figured it must be a part of the process.

"No, no. Here, beech wood and phoenix feather. Ten inches, springy."

Uryu gripped the wand and something about it felt right. He gave it a small twirl and light blue sparks fizzed from the tip. Orihime happily clapped for him while Ichigo had a light grin for him.

"Very good! Very good indeed. I don't often find the right wand for someone so quickly. So who's next?"

"Ooh! Me next! Me next!" Orihime squeals, bouncing up and down with a hand raised in the air.

"Of course, my dear. Your wand arm please, Ms. –?" Mr. Ollivander trails off as he stoops down to pick up his tape measure once more.

"Inoue. Orihime Inoue." She cheerily replies, holding out her right arm as Uryu did before. Mr. Ollivander nods as he begins the same measuring process before moving out among the boxes again.

"Here you are, Ms. Inoue. Try this, mahogany and unicorn hair. Eight inches, whippy. Give it a wave."

And so Orihime's own wand trials began. After about a dozen or so wands, Mr. Ollivander found her match: willow and unicorn hair, nine inches, nice and flexible. When she gave the wand a wave, golden sparks came out its tip, causing her to giggle in delight. Ichigo and Uryu give her small grins.

"And that leaves you, Mr. –?" Mr. Ollivander says, turning to Ichigo.

"Kurosaki. Ichigo Kurosaki." He replies and like Uryu and Orihime, holds out his right arm. Mr. Ollivander gets to work measuring before once more roaming the shelves, plucking several boxes from the shelves before coming back to start the trials one last time.

The stack of boxes continually grows on the spindly chair in the corner. Much to the three's disbelief, Mr. Ollivander seems to get happier the higher the stack grows, unlike Ichigo who is getting annoyed with the continuing process of picking up a stick only to have it ripped from his hand.

"Tricky customer, tricky customer." He mumbles. "To fierce for unicorn hair, most definitely. Not at all compatible with phoenix feather. So certainly a dragon heartstring core, but what wood?" He goes through the shelves, tugging out a few boxes, only to shake his head and place them back on the shelves. After a while, he comes back with three boxes.

"We'll start with this one. Yew and dragon heartstring, eleven inches. A bit bendy. No." He snatches the wand back and opens the next box to reveal a dark black wand. Ichigo perks a bit at the sight of this one as it reminds him of Zangetsu's appearance. "Ebony and dragon heartstring, 10 and a half inches. Flexible. No, not that one."

Ichigo frowns as the black wand is snatched from his hand. He honestly thought it would be that one.

"Maybe, maybe this one. Cedar and dragon heartstring, 12 inches, firm." Mr. Ollivander says, holding out a wand of a deep reddish-brown color. Ichigo takes the wand and giving it a wave, produces black and red sparks with a blue one coming out every now and then. Mr. Ollivander smiles, quite pleased to have found a match. "And there you have it, Mr. Kurosaki. Now that will be twenty-one galleons for three wands." The three paid the man using the money Lupin had given them and Mr. Ollivander bowed them out, for once receiving bows in return.

Orihime was quick to show off her new wand to Shinji and Lupin while Ichigo and Uryu were more reserved. After checking that they had gotten everything they would likely need without having an actual school list to go off of, they headed back to Grimmauld Place.

So that's the chapter. I only got six votes on wands for Ichigo and Orihime with a 4:2 on the types offered. So Uryu's wand is beech, which is for people wise beyond their years. Ichigo's cedar, for the loyal who can become quite dangerous. And Orihime's willow, for healing and often unfounded insecurities. Ah, yeah. Not a whole lot happened in this chapter. Sorry, but next chapter we're going to Hogwarts!

Please comment/review to tell me how I did.