Notes: I decided to upload the chapter today since I'm in for another 2 weeks of suffering until the semester ends. Next week is going to be particularly harsh so I'm going to need as much time as I can get this weekend to get work done. As always, thanks to everyone that's been following this story so far, and special thanks to all of those who've supplied feedback.

You guys can skip the following rant if you want. I just needed to make things perfectly clear.

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(ARC)

To Guest:

Oh boy, I'm gonna need bullet points with this one. I'd like to start off by thanking this reviewer for the feedback, however there are several things I have to say about it:

-First of all in the first chapter of this story I warned readers that this story may contain certain adult topics plus some adult language and jokes. I continue to stand by that.

-This is a T-rated fic which means it will not contain any graphic scenes involving intercourse between characters of binary or non-binary gender. HOWEVER making light references and jokes regarding certain relationships is fair game.

-The pairings in this story are technically straight (almost canonically so), though personally I have no qualms about non-binary couples. This is simply because romance isn't really my thing. As far as humor goes, if I want to make, as you say, 'icky gay jokes' I don't see why not as long as they are not offensive. I already make enough 'icky' straight jokes as it is.

-About the aforementioned "gay incest" jokes I'd like to highlight the importance of context. The first time Zidane and Kuja's 'relationship' is mentioned was before their status as 'brothers' came up (technically they were both created artificially so they aren't really technically even brothers). There hasn't been any references to incest after that. There is an implicit joke in the last chapter that was left up to interpretation by the readers, however Hermione did not know who the people were at the time so her reaction is really just her own interpretation of what was happening. As you'll read in this chapter, context is extremely important.

-Yes, many other readers did find it funny.

-I'd like to point out a certain fallacy in your statement, specifically the 'It's icky for there to be gay jokes in a story that only has straight characters'. This story actually does have at least one character that is canonically not-straight. I'm not talking about Kuja since being flamboyant doesn't mean he's gay (I do personally picture him as asexual though). I'm talking about Dumbledore who was revealed to be gay by Rowling herself (though apparently he's asexual now). Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but homosexuality does exist in the HP universe.

-There's also FFIX's Quina who is described as a He/She in-game. Unless Qus reproduce asexually or through assumed roles like some hermaphrodite animals, there's a bit of ambiguity concerning his/her gender. The game seems to treat him/her as a male since he/she can't wear female equipment and Zidane's 'protect girls' ability doesn't work on him/her. Interestingly enough he/she does marry Vivi so even though it's part of the plot to get to the Iifa Tree, it does show an instance of a non-straight marriage in that game. Still, he/she seemed pretty happy about it at the time.

-You're free to have your own opinion on the subject, but take into consideration that your words can be considered offensive to others.

So yeah, that just about sums it up. Congrats on being the 200th reviewer.

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Anyways, on with the story. Let's see who spots the cameo (though it's pretty easy this time along).

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Chapter 41: Another Side, Another Story

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Zidane´s day so far had not been very pleasant. After Kuja´s assault during practice, the blonde found himself dragging his soaked and shivering body back to the castle, his tired and aching muscles protesting his every move. He thought of visiting the Hospital Wing since his cold seemed to have gotten much worse, but then changed his mind and headed directly to the Common Room. He needed a change of clothes and a hot shower, the latter which could be troublesome to get at this hour since the showers would be filled with people. Maybe he could use the Room of Requirement for it if Neville wasn´t currently using it.

In the back of his mind he also reminded himself that he needed to find Ginny and ask her if she knew any spell for fixing the scorch marks on his Quidditch robes. Kuja had really done a number on him, from light first degree burns on his arms and legs, to the scorched fur at the end of his tail. He would even have to cut off the burnt end of his ponytail, which wasn´t really as bad considering that his hair had grown quite a bit in the past few months.

Zidane only managed to kick off his boot, and pull on his bed´s hangings before he practically passed out on his bed.

When he finally woke up after what felt like an eternity, he arguable felt a lot worse than before. His head was groggy, his stomach was growling from hunger, and he felt the unpleasant sensation of having slept in his soaked clothes. Even worse was the fact that he had yet to shower, making his skin feel rather grimy. Had he not lived in the streets for so long, his current state would have disgusted him.

Zidane blinked the lightheadedness away and then pulled off the hangings of his bed. To his surprise, the sky was completely dark outside, and there were voices coming from downstairs.

Just how long had he slept?

The blonde wrapped his tail around his middle and got up as he remembered that he was supposed to meet Kuja. Maybe he would let him use his bath. He could then visit the kitchens afterwards to get some food, since he probably missed dinner.

He saw Harry and Ron playing wizard chess in the Common Room, as well as Hermione reading near the fire as usual. The twins were both up to their publicity stunts again, while Ginny was playing with Crookshanks. Neville was nowhere to be seen, which at least made things less awkward for him since he was still rather upset about the whole fight. Maybe he had been too harsh, but it wasn´t like Neville had been completely without fault.

Nobody seemed to notice him as he slipped out of the Common Room, which was good since he didn´t feel up to explaining.

He quickly made his way towards Kuja´s quarters, passing the library on the way. He saw a couple of students on the way over, but other than that, it was rather uneventful. He was already almost near the Trophy Room, so he walked into the empty armor filled corridor there as per instructions. Facing the ninth suit of armor to the left, Zidane said the password, ´Flare star´, and waited. A slit appeared on the stone wall right besides the armor, which then became an elaborate set of dark wooden doors. With a small shrug, the blonde opened both doors and entered.

"Hey, anybody home?" Zidane asked as he closed the doors behind him and looked around. The place was just as he´d expect from Kuja. In fact, it looked almost like he had stepped back inside his Parisian Mansion. It was a lot bigger than it should be possible, at least. He had even put two marble angel statues at each side of the door. He really hadn't spared any expenses.

"Oh, I was almost about to call you. I thought that maybe you forgot." Kuja said as he strolled in wearing a velvet bathrobe. "I don´t like being kept waiting, you know."

"Well maybe if you hadn´t played that round of ´Kill Zidane´ earlier, I wouldn´t have nearly passed out in my bed. I haven´t even been able to shower yet you know?" The blonde retorted.

"I know, I can smell you from here." Kuja deadpanned.

"Mind if I use your bathroom?" Zidane asked.

"By all means, just leave your clothes outside and I´ll clean them with magic. Thank Eidolons I won´t even have to touch them." The older genome said with a hint of disgust.

Zidane just rolled his eyes and stepped inside the bathroom. "Just get dressed or something in the meantime. It´s so weird to see you in a bathrobe."

The hot water felt heavenly to his tired muscles. It was even better after he healed those pesky burns with a cure spell. It worked, even though casting magic still seemed to take a lot out of him. He was not really cut out to be a mage, though knowing a bit of magic still came with its perks.

Once he felt clean enough, Zidane got out and grabbed a towel from the towel rack. Unsurprisingly it was a royal purple with silver peacock embroideries.

´Of course.´ Zidane thought, rolling his eyes once more.

Just as Kuja said, his clean clothes were waiting for him right outside. He got dressed quickly and then left in search of the other genome. When he found him, he couldn´t help but gag.

"I thought I told you to get dressed, not undressed! I didn´t even think you still had that thong outfit!" Zidane said in exasperation. Kuja was wearing a similar gown to the one he had fought him in many times, only without the armored parts and made of a softer looking fabric.

"How many times must I tell you that it´s called a codpiece. Clearly you have not enough taste to be able to appreciate such a work of art." Kuja said, sticking his nose up. "At least it´s better than those rags you call clothes."

"Alright fine, codpiece. Think we could get this over with? I´m starving." Zidane said.

"Fine, come over here and I´ll give you your inoculation." The silver haired genome said.

"Inoculation?" Zidane asked.

"I came up with it a while ago when the same thing occurred to me. Basically this world has recognized both of us as foreign threats, invaders if you will, and to get rid of us, it sent a bunch of native pathogens to infect us, that´s why your health has been steadily getting worse. Since we are not from this world, our bodies have no way of fighting these pathogens other than the innate enhanced defenses that we were designed with. They've resisted until now but alone they cannot resist for much longer, since they don´t know what they´re up against. I´m giving you a special mix of mine that includes weakened version of those pathogens, just so your body becomes strong enough to recognize them and fight."

"I guess that makes sense in its own sort of way, like training with smaller fry before moving onto the big monsters, but why didn´t that ever happen to me in Gaia if genomes are from Terra?" Zidane asked, a bit surprised that an entire world was capable of that kind of discrimination.

"Well, that would have been the case if not for Terra´s failed attempt of assimilating Gaia. You know that almost all life was wiped out from the planet after that correct? The organisms, even some of the landmarks that appeared in Gaia afterwards, were actually originally from Terra. In layman´s terms, the planet was so mixed up that it became unable to recognize organisms of its own and simply accepted all of them. Gaia was and still is a young planet, so it was not really much of a problem. Earth however, is different."

"Well, that makes me feel welcome." Zidane said with a scoff. "So, when are you giving me this inoculation thing?"

"Yes, just sit down over there and I´ll go get it." Kuja said. Zidane shrugged before sitting down on a dark leather sofa nearby that was actually a lot more comfortable than it looked. "Alright, here we are."

Zidane turned to look, only to nearly fall off the couch.

"Woah, hold it right there, what is THAT?!" The blonde said jumping up onto the armrest with his hand held before him as if it could keep the other away. Behind him, his bristled tail helped him keep balance.

Kuja was holding nothing other than a needle, a BIG NEEDLE with some sort of vial thing attached. It reminded him of the stuff Doctor Tot used to carry, but not quite the same. The vial wasn't made of glass, though it was filled with some sort of liquid, but it didn´t matter much to him since it was attached to a HUGE NEEDLE.

"It´s a syringe, I mean, how else am I supposed to inoculate you?" Kuja said, tapping the transparent bit lightly and then pressing on a part of the syringe to make a bit of liquid shoot out of the needle. "Come on, don´t be a baby and let´s just get this over with."

"Oooh, no. There is no way I am going to willingly let you come at me and stab me with that thing. No freaking way." The blonde replied, slowly backing away and heading towards the exit.

"Really now, it won´t even hurt." Kuja said, approaching him with the needle brandished.

Zidane snorted in response. "You mean like those Ultima spells you used to play target practice with me?"

"They barely grazed you!" The silver haired genome said. "Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Trust me when I tell you that you want the easy way."

"YOU¨RE NOT GETTING NEAR ME WITH THAT THING!" The blonde yelled.

Now, many would say he was exaggerating, but in his defense, there were many things to reconsider.

Whether Zidane was conscious of it or not, from the beginning of a genome´s life cycle, the infant genomes were provided with initial nutrition directly through an IV. Since older genomes were the ones responsible for this process, and because these same genomes weren't particularly known for their ability to empathize, for genomes like him that had an active soul, the experience could be traumatizing to some extent; that trauma capable of expressing itself again later on in life as a deep fear of needles.

Furthermore, the needle was currently held by none other than Kuja, the man that had beaten him within an inch of his life in the past, and not just once either. Even if the man had turned over a new leaf, wounds like those were still difficult to forget. Not to mention that the older genome was considered by many a bit of a sadist, and he HAD wounded him several times even after meeting again, most of those times being consciously aware of it.

In other words, Kuja was just about the last person in the face of the earth that he would trust a needle with.

With these thoughts in mind, Zidane did the only logical thing and ran.

"Oh come now, just give me your arm and let´s get this silly act over, you won´t feel more than a small prick." Kuja said, following right after him, needle in hand.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME, THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL YOU´RE STICKING THAT IN THERE!" Zidane shouted as he grabbed on the door handles and pushed, being slightly confused when he felt hit the wood from the other side. He decided to ignore it since he was a bit too busy running for his life.

"I´ll be gentle, I promise. Now just take that off so we can get this over with, I don´t have all night." Kuja replied, getting closer and closer.

"I TOLD YOU I´M NOT DOING THIS, KUJA!" The cyan eyed genome shouted, his tail twitching irritably in the air behind him. His tail however stopped when he heard a sudden ´gasp´.

Zidane stopped in his tracks and so did Kuja. Looking around, he quickly caught sight of a girl on the ground, though since her hair seemed to be covering her eyes and the corridor was a bit dark (the girl probably couldn´t see him at all), he could not tell exactly who it was.

Behind him, Kuja gave a small clap and the unlit torches in the corridors flared to life, bringing light to the hall once more. Zidane looked at the girl again and then froze.

´Hermione?! Wait but- what´s she doing here after curfew?!´

The bushy haired girl was looking at him once more with something akin to surprise and…fear? Her face was pale and her eyes were wide, almost as if she´s just seen a ghost, and not the friendly Hogwarts type either. Her brown eyes seemed to trail behind him, making him frown in confusion and follow her gaze. It was then that he realized that his tail was uncovered and visible for the world to see.

´Shit.´

"Wait, hold on, this is not-" Zidane began, holding both hands up in a sign of surrender. Maybe if he took it slowly, she wouldn´t freak out or anything.

Hermione screamed.

And boy could she scream. The blonde thief quickly realized that at this rate, she would probably wake up the entire castle.

"Do something!" Zidane said urgently, turning towards Kuja, who was now leaning casually against the door.

The older male huffed in annoyance before pointing at the girl and shooting a bluish green jet of light from his fingers and directly at her forehead. The girl instantly quieted down, her mouth hanging open, and her eyes staring blankly into space. Zidane waved a hand in front of her face, and after seeing no response, he turned towards the older genome.

"I said do something not shoot her in the head with magic!" The blonde said angrily.

"Well you weren´t very specific, were you?" Kuja said and Zidane ran a hand through his hair.

"Alright, first things first. We have to get out of here. What if someone heard her?" Zidane said, pulling the brunette over his back. Unfortunately, and much to his embarrassment, the girl was just about his own size, making it far more difficult. "Crap, she keeps pulling down on my sweatshirt. Some help, Kuja?"

Zidane pulled up his sleeves for better grip since the girl was slipping off his shoulders, and looked expectantly at the genome behind him. Kuja shrugged before coming up right by his side, only instead of helping him with the weight, Zidane felt a sharp prick in his now exposed shoulder. The teen jumped up in surprise, dropping Hermione on the floor by mistake.

Zidane looked at Kuja just in time to see him withdraw a now empty syringe and put a small cotton ball right where he had inserted the needle.

"That wasn´t so bad, was it? Just keep pressing down on the cotton, unless you want it to feel sore later on." The silver haired genome said nonchalantly. Zidane just stared at him wide eyed.

"Are you kidding me?!" Zidane asked in disbelief. "Hermione is acting weird because she got hit by your magic, after freaking out like that might I add, and you are still going on about that? You even made me drop her!"

Kuja just waved a hand in dismissal. "She should be fine. All I did was hit her with a quick memory spell that should wear off in a bit. There´s nothing to worry about-"

"W-Where am I?" Hermione´s groggy voice interrupted. Both males looked down at the girl as she seemed to snap out of her trance. Brown eyes met pale purple and then cyan before landing on the furry appendage behind Zidane. Hermione gasped.

Another jet of light shot out from Kuja´s finger, hitting the girl square on the head again.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?" Zidane shouted in exasperation.

"Couldn´t have her waking the dead with that screech of hers. You might want to use your indoor voice as well." Kuja said, holding a hand towards his ear with a look of displeasure.

"I meant, why the hell would you even do that again?! She´s the smartest girl in school, what if you give her brain damage or something like that?!" The thief asked, whispering harshly.

"I know what I am doing." Kuja said with a huff. "Memory charms like ´Obliviate´ are completely harmless, well, mostly harmless. Actually now that I think about it-"

"Ok fine, whatever. Just help me get her inside will you?" The thieving genome asked as he once again picked up the brunette.

"Wait, you aren´t bringing her to my quarters." Kuja said, crossing his arms.

"Well, why not?" Zidane asked angrily. "You did just shoot her in the head twice with a memory charm."

"Do you realize just what a scandal it would be if one of the students was discovered sleeping the new Professor´s quarters?" Kuja said.

"Since when do you care?" The blonde asked.

"Since I have a reputation to uphold." The older male replied.

"Says the guy wearing a skirt and a thong." Zidane retorted.

"It´s a codpiece." Kuja said slowly, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "And no, you can´t bring her here."

"Then where I am supposed to take her?" The thief asked.

"Take her up to her dormitory. You´ve entered women´s rooms before, that shouldn´t be much of a problem." The purple eyed genome said.

"The stairs turn into a slide if a guy walks on them." Zidane deadpanned.

Kuja held a glowing hand towards him, and suddenly he felt lighter on his feet as the glow seemed to encompass him entirely. Looking down, Zidane noticed that his feet weren´t even touching the ground.

´Float. Of course.´

"There, problem solved." Kuja said with a satisfied look on his face.

"W-What the, what is going on?" Hermione´s voice called out slowly as the girl stirred from her spot on Zidane´s back.

Kuja frowned, extending his hand forward and shooting the spell forth again, the girl going limp once more.

Zidane fought the urge to slam his head against the wall. "At least make sure to knock her out properly this time, will you?"

Kuja cast sleep over the dazed girl before bidding him a goodnight and shutting the double doors to his quarters in his face. Zidane sighed, before casting an invisibility spell over them both. It was then that he noticed the envelope lying on the floor.

´She must´ve dropped this.´ The teen realized as he picked it up. It looked rather important and, knowing Hermione, she wouldn´t want to lose it. He felt an urge to look inside, but after much consideration, he decided against it. He already felt guilty enough as it was.

The trip took him at least three times as long as a normal one, even if the ´float´ spell helped him carry a great part of the weight. The corridors were completely empty as this point, and thankfully, they did not run into Filch. The fact that nobody seemed to have heard them earlier just showed how lucky he had gotten off.

Zidane entered the Common Room with no problems, the portrait of the Fat Lady always opening up despite of the hour, even when the woman was asleep. In hindsight, the Fat Lady really should stop doing that, but who was he to complain?

To his great relief, the Common Room was empty and the stairs to the girl´s dormitory did not turn into a slide as he walked over it. Finding Hermione´s room was easy since, just like with the boy´s room, their names were right outside of the door. Finding Hermione´s bed was even easier since it was the only one currently unoccupied.

With soundless steps, Zidane walked over to the bed, dumping Hermione gently onto it, and then throwing the envelope back into Hermione´s almost disturbingly-super-organized trunk, the paper becoming deeply wedged between the side of the trunk and some books. Carefully, the teen walked back towards Hermione and removed both her shoes, the girl not noticing since she was out like a light.

'Oh gods, if she ever finds out, I am so dead.' Zidane thought to himself, feeling just a bit nervous as he attempted to soundlessly remove the girl's cloak so at least it didn't look like she had just arrived from an outing. He heard a shuffle from one of the nearby beds and stopped in his tracks, just long enough to confirm that the other girls were still asleep. Going back to his task he moved Hermione's body into a more natural position and placed a nearby book from her nightstand, in her hand so it would look like she had simply fallen asleep reading. ´Come on Zidane, let's just do this quick, leave through where you came from and go back to the boy´s dorm. It will be like this never happened.'

Zidane paused as the sudden feeling of becoming heavier hit him. His feet suddenly touched the ground with an almost inaudible ´tap´, making him silently curse whatever deity was conspiring against him.

´Float´ had worn off, and now it looked like he´d be making his escape through the window… right while it was pouring outside, just fantastic.

Zidane sighed. He was going to kill Kuja after this.

…..

"Me tactless? Why couldn´t Cho ask whether I like you more than her?" Harry asked in disbelief.

It was breakfast in the Great Hall and after retelling his surprise and difficult meeting with Rita Skeeter to his fellow Gryffindor DA members, a tired Hermione had then decided to touch another subject altogether. Unfortunately, his date with Cho was still a touchy subject for him. To say things didn´t go very well would be a huge understatement. It may have been his first date, but he was pretty sure that having your date run off crying into the rain was not supposed to happen. The fact that she had ignored his very existence since then and was now sitting at the Ravenclaw table with her back to him probably wasn´t a good sign either.

According to Hermione, he had inadvertently made her jealous by saying he was supposed to meet with the bushy haired girl in the Three Broomsticks. But how the ruddy hell was he supposed to know? He had done his best to act like a gentleman through the whole ordeal, and in the end he was only greeted with Cho´s sobs and a roomful of judgmental looks from the rest of Madame Puddifoot´s clientele. He still couldn´t believe how quickly everything had gone up in flames. One minute they were getting on fine and then the next, Cho was telling him how she had been asked out by Roger Davis earlier and how she used to snog with Cedric in that very same shop. She had even asked him about Cedric´s last moments, which was quite possibly one of the very last things he wanted to talk about at that moment.

"Girl´s don´t often ask questions like that." Hermione explained slowly with a yawn, almost as if she were dealing with a toddler when it came to the matter of the opposite sex. Perhaps she was right.

"Well, they should!" Harry replied. "Then I could´ve told her that I fancy her, and she wouldn't have had to get worked up over Cedric dying."

"I´m not saying that she was sensible." Hermione began as they were joined by a muddy Ginny and Zidane, an equally muddy Ron following them close behind. "I´m just trying to make you see what she was feeling at the time."

"You should write a book ´Translating mad thing that girls do so boys can understand them´." Ron said as the three joined the conversation. He was soaked in a mixture of rain, sweat, and mud, neither doing him any favors. The other two were in similar states, just tired, soaked and miserable. As the three went to sit at the table, Neville rose from his seat next to Seamus and Dean and left the hall after apparently catching sight of the blonde. If Zidane took any notice of this, he didn´t show it. Apparently Neville and Zidane were still not seeing eye to eye.

"Well in their defense, they are not the only ones prone to over reacting." Zidane said calmly, saying the last part louder, while turning towards Neville´s retreating figure with a scowl on his face. The blonde then turned his attention back towards them, expression changing as if nothing had happened, before continuing. "I heard from some Hufflepuff girls what happened, but you shouldn´t feel bad. Cho wasn´t exactly the best dating material to begin with."

"Hey, Cho isn´t just some object, you know, she´s been through a lot." Hermione shot back, a disagreeing look on her face, similar to the one she got when hearing of house elves being treated as property. Ginny too seemed to agree with Hermione. Zidane turned to face her and for a moment, he could have sworn that the blonde had averted his eyes away from her. It happened so quickly that Harry wasn´t even sure if he had really witnessed such a strange slip.

"Hey, all I´m saying is that Cho wasn't quite ready for you from the beginning, anyways." Zidane said, poising both arms in surrender. His entire expression was composed now, leading him to believe that he really did imagine what happened earlier. The cyan eyed teen sighed before looking thoughtful and listing off things. "She still hasn´t gotten over this Cedric guy, meaning that having any relationship with Harry that doesn´t involve her mentioning him all the time is nearly impossible for her. Not to mention that judging by what happened, even if the two hooked up, Cho would want Harry´s constant care and attention, meaning that he would have to sacrifice time with his other friends, especially you Hermione, since Cho will feel possessive. I mean, no matter how you look at it, it´s not really fair to Harry at all."

There was a small moment of silence as everyone seemed to process the teen´s words, before Hermione gave a sigh.

"I suppose you´re right when you say it like that." The bushy haired girl admitted, before covering her mouth and letting out another rather large yawn.

"Are you alright? You look a bit tired." Ginny asked in concern. "Did Lavender and Parvati stay up late gossiping again?"

Now that Harry thought about it, Hermione really did look a bit groggier than usual. It was strange, considering that she had always been kind of an early bird.

"It´s rather odd. Now that you mention it, I remember heading to the girl´s dormitory last night before my memory becomes fuzzy. I must have been more tired than I thought since I fell asleep while reading." Hermione said, and Harry could have sword he saw Zidane avert his gaze if even for one second, his expression becoming unreadable.

"But enough of that." Hermione said, after all, she had been working particularly hard lately, so it shouldn´t have been much of a surprise. "I was meaning to ask you three, how was practice?"

The trio´s attitude instantly deflated.

"It was a nightmare." Ron said, putting his hands over his face.

"Oh, come on." Hermione said, taking in their expressions. "It couldn't have been that-"

"Yes it was." Ginny said, cutting the girl off. "It was appalling. Angelina was nearly in tears by the end of it."

Zidane on the other hand was muttering angrily under his breath about useless beaters and evil brothers.

According to the twins, it really was that bad. He had spoken to them in the Common Room after Ron and Ginny left to get cleaned up. Zidane said he needed to do something first, but he would meet them afterwards.

"Well, Ginny´s not bad. In fact, I wonder how she got that good." George said, frowning as he considered Harry´s questions.

"She´s been sneaking into your broom shed and taking each of your broomsticks for a turn since the age of six." Hermione commented passively as she read a book on what appeared to be ancient runes.

"What about the others?" The messy haired teen pressed.

"Well, nobody´s really living up to our expectations." Fred began.

"Well, to be fair Zidane does make a decent beater were it not for his flying. According to Angelina he can only manage about 15 minutes of decent flying before the cold weather eats him up, poor bloke." George said, shaking his head sadly.

"Still better than Kirke though. He has a higher chance of knocking himself out than hitting a bludger. Angelina is at her wit´s end with him." Fred said.

"Kind of reminds us of our dear old mum." George said with a laugh.

"What about Ron?" Harry asked.

"Oh he´s fine." George said before continuing in afterthought. "As long as no one´s looking."

"All we have to do is ask everyone to look the other way when the Quaffle goes up his end." Fred joked before looking out the window, a surprisingly thoughtful look on his face. "You know, Quidditch is just about the only thing in this place worth staying for."

"Forget it. You two still have exams!" Hermione admonished in a matter not at all dissimilar to .

"We aren´t all that fussed about our NEWTs." Fred said in dismissal. "Good thing the Snackboxes are ready to go, once we figured out we could get rid of the boils with Murtlap."

Hermione shook her head.

"Anyways, shouldn´t you be off to see Professor Kuja?" The bushy haired girl said as the twins began bickering about the game tomorrow. Harry nearly slapped himself in return. He had completely forgotten.

Grabbing his things and hazardously throwing them into his school bag, Harry quickly said goodbye and dashed out of the Fat Lady´s portrait. The last thing he heard before leaving was Hermione ranting on about the negative competitive aspects of Quidditch.

The trip took him half as long as it normally would, which worked out well in the end since he managed to make it just barely in time. He had learned the hard way to always be on time when it came to Professor Kuja. Well, Snape as well, but there was a clear difference between both men. While Snape never hesitated to berate him about wasting other people´s time, Professor Kuja never verbally lashed out at him. Instead, the pale man would compensate by making him go through more dull and pointless exercises, many of which had being trying the limits of his patience. Many times though, Harry was sure that the man was doing it for him own amusement. This was mostly because, aside from how long it took, it was not all that different from what he usually did in these lessons.

"Professor?" Harry asked as he tentatively knocked on the large door of the man´s office. A large part of him really just wanted to turn around and leave, but he persevered. If he did not arrive, Professor Kuja might stop these lessons, which in turn, would make him have to go back to having Snape as a full time Occlumency Professor.

The door seemingly opened on its own, which Harry took as invitation to come in. The office was seemingly empty, save for the voices in the back. Harry recognized the silver haired man´s voice, but the other much lower one seemed like a complete mystery. The strangest thing was that the other voice sounded more like a noise than a proper voice, making any words being spoken unintelligible to him. In fact, had it not been for the fact that he was in a school where Muggle technology didn´t work, Harry could have sworn that the man was on the phone.

"Oh, I´m terribly sorry, but I must hang up, my dear student is here." Professor Kuja seemed to say to the other person.

After curiosity grabbed a hold of him, making him close in, Harry then realized that the man was indeed speaking to someone, only instead of a phone, he seemed to be using a large orb, just about the size of the crystal balls Trelawney used in her lessons, but this one made of a dark amethyst like stone.

"I´ll be expecting the shipment tomorrow then, make sure that those curse-breakers don´t slack off this time, I cannot auction off items that can potentially kill the buyers. Yes, that really was unfortunate. I also want you to update our offer on that cup. Yes, the golden one. I can negotiate with them, but if they´re not willing to lower the price we´ll just have to drop our deal. Alright, I´ll call you later, bye bye."

The other voice seemed to stop coming from the stone, just as the silvery-haired man turned to face him. After seeing the curious look on his face as he saw the sphere, the eccentric man smiled.

"Like it? I´ve been developing it for a while now. Owls are too slow, apparition and Floo can be such a headache sometimes and simple authorized Portkeys require such a ridiculous amount of time to acquire legally due to all of the red tape." The man said and Harry found himself agreeing. Looking at the odd stone orb one more time, the teen nearly jumped as he caught a small glance of what appeared to be a giant burning eye.

The man gave a small cough to bring his attention before covering the stone with a long silk fabric. "Well, there are still some tweaks to take care of, but I must say it is going rather well. But enough of that, let´s get on with the lesson, shall we?"

Harry followed the strange man and sat down in front of his large desk like always. This time, however, it seemed as if he had caught the man at a bad moment, judging by the large amount of books and parchment that littered his working space. He was even sure he saw blueprints of something, as well as several star charts, far more complex than those he´d ever seen during Astronomy.

"So, dear Professor Snape told me about your last lesson with him." The man said, strange purple eyes gazing down at him through half closed, lilac painted lids. "He claims that there has been no improvement whatsoever."

Harry mentally groaned. That last session had been simply awful. Since Snape was probably giving this man feedback of their sessions, this could very well mean that he´d have another array of pointless exercises waiting for him. Just thinking of this made his anger spike. It was just so useless. He still wasn´t even able to balance the crystal ball on the table. All he had managed to gain was a nearly insane amount of practice while using the levitating charm. Had Professor Kuja not done it before, he would have thought the task to be impossible.

"I'll let you to it then." The man said lazily as he saw the look on the teen's face. "I trust you know what to do."

Harry was about to turn around and walk over to the corner of the room where he usually practiced, but then hesitated.

"Wait!" The teen interjected, making the older male look at him with a delicate brow raised in question. "I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't see how these exercises are helping me. Couldn't we simply begin with the lessons already?"

It was true that he was just about fed up with the exercises the man had given him, but more than that, what really worried him more was the increased frequency at which the dreams kept coming back every night. Even worse was the occasional burst of alien emotions usually accompanied by a burning feeling in his scar. These last events were becoming more frequent and were often the ones that disturbed him the most. After all, it was a constant reminder of how Voldemort was on the loose while he was stuck levitating tables.

It was very unpleasant and if he had to describe the feeling, he would quickly say that it made him feel stuck. Like a fish caught in a small puddle during a hot summer with nowhere to go and nothing to do but watch slowly as all the water dried up. Voldemort was plotting, the Ministry was doing nothing, Umbridge was taking over the school, Dumbledore wouldn't even look at him, the Order had shut him out, and now he couldn't even make the bloody sphere stay on the table.

A melodious laughter snapped him out of his thoughts, and he quickly turned to see Professor Kuja laughing as if it were the funniest thing he had ever witness. He couldn't help but feel anger swell inside of him. In fact, he was really beginning to see why Zidane seemed to dislike his brother so much at times.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." The silvery haired man said after having composed himself. "You must learn to walk before you run and all that. If you can't develop the skills I am teaching you now, then you won't be able to succeed in the next step."

"Skills?" Harry asked, puzzled. The only way he could see this helping him out against a Legilimens was if it somehow involved using crystal balls as projectiles to defend himself. "I still don't really see how this is supposed to help me learn Occlumency."

Professor Kuja seemed to look thoughtful for a moment before asking. "Snape has been having you resist his attacks, correct?"

Harry nodded.

The older man looked up again, face thoughtful. "And you wish to carry on from there, is that right?"

Harry nodded once more.

"Well, how exactly do you expect to accomplish that without the basics? Your foe won't dawdle around, waiting for you to defend yourself, and in your particular case, you must be ready at all times for an attack. Sometimes it won't be as obvious." Purple eyes seemed to narrow as a smile crept up on the man's face. 'Like right now.'

Harry's eyes widened as he realized that the eccentric man's lips didn't move and that, in fact, the voice was coming from inside his head. But how? Snape had never done something quite like this.

'If you don't focus enough, you'll be an open book for anyone to read.' Professor Kuja's voice warned as the man's smile stretched even further. 'This is just a small skill of mine that can be quite useful from time to time. If you can block out my voice, then and only then will I consider you a fully-fledged Occlumence.'

The man broke eye contact with him and nonchalantly continued to sort through the many papers that littered his desk. Harry on the other hand, stood there frozen in surprise. To have his defenses breached so casually was a fact that disturbed him greatly. He didn't even feel a thing, unlike with Snape during practice. It made him feel exposed and defenseless. He wondered how many times someone as skilled had seen into his mind without his knowing.

He felt invaded.

With a shake of his head, Harry turned around and walked towards the table that had the crystal ball on it. He would continue to try until he got it right, if it meant learning to protect his mind. He wasn't keen on having others look into his head without him realizing, especially people like the man before him. Good or not, it was starting to become transparently clear just how dangerous of a man Professor Kuja was.

'Perhaps I can ask Zidane for some advice. It's his brother after all.' Harry thought, mind alert, and eyes looking warily at the occupied desk on the other side of the room.

…

To be continued…

…..

MOTA has reached the 200 review mark so in commemoration, here's the OMAKE I promised.

This one goes out to all of you who've been wondering how Zidane has been doing it to take baths unseen (answer: not very well apparently).

…

When Zidane left Gryffindor Tower, the halls were already deserted, but then again, it was to be expected since it was way past curfew. Of course, the blonde didn't care about such things. Curfew wasn't necessarily a rule; it was more like a friendly suggestion. And besides, sneaking away past curfew just meant he had all the school to himself. It was the best time to do all the things he couldn't do when the students ran about.

"Sandalwood chops." Zidane muttered as he stood to the left of the statue of Boris the Bewildered.

The wall gave a low rumble and soon opened up to reveal a hidden door. Zidane felt a grin tug at his lips as he opened the door and closed it behind him. What greeted him inside was a large spacious room with several toilet stalls on one side and a huge pool sized tub on the other. Said tub was surrounded by various bath taps of all shapes and sizes and the window right above it was in fact an enchanted stained glass window portraying a bathing mermaid, the creature's figure all the more beautiful with the moonlight illuminating it.

Zidane let out a drawn out whistle as he looked at the room in full view. The Prefects Bathroom was really quite a sight. It made the blonde glad that he had eavesdropped on Hermione and Ron's conversations. It sure beat the regular bathrooms. Heck, it almost beat Alexandria's…well, almost. The prefect´s bathroom didn´t come with his sweet Dagger included.

"Well, I didn't come here to just look at it." Zidane said as he set his towel next to the edge of the pool and began taking his robes off. Thankfully, it appeared that the tub filled much quicker than it would otherwise suggest. In only a few minutes the pool-like tub had been completely filled with water and whatever the hell the fragrant and multicolored liquid that came from the other taps were. Zidane supposed it was some kind of bubble bath, or scented oils. It would explain why there was foam filling the tub and exotic smells rising up in the air.

"Oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about." Zidane said as he tested the water and saw that the temperature was just right.

Closing off the rest of the taps, the genome then proceeded to shrug off the rest of his clothes. He had just finished slipping his tail out of the hole in his pants when he paused and frowned.

'Did someone just giggle?' Zidane thought but then passed it off as a trick of his own imagination. He had already checked if anyone was using the bathroom, not to mention it was very late at night and the only people with access to an invisibility cloak were currently asleep in Gryffindor Tower. He knew this because he had personally made sure to slip a little sleeping weed in their dinners.

Just in case.

Zidane sat quietly, listening keenly for a possible intruder, but after hearing no one else, he gave a shrug and slowly lowered himself into the tub. With a content sigh, he took a deep relaxing breath and allowed himself to relax and enjoy the many exotic smells that rose into the air.

"This is the life." Zidane though as he leaned back while his tail snaked lazily under the thick layer of foam. "I should come here more often."

Just a few meters away, perched on top of one of the toilet stalls, a certain Hogwarts ghost quietly agreed. Though that tail was a strange thing, Moaning Myrtle didn't get a show like this very often. And she had to admit it; this boy certainly gave Harry a run for his money.

The mermaid from the stained glass window gave her a disapproving look, even though a smile still grazed her lips. Myrtle just let out a few girlish giggles, and noticed the blonde boy stiffen but then relax once more. She didn't know why he couldn't see her, but she sure wasn't going to complain about it.

….

A/N: As stated before, Zidane can't detect ghosts very well, though it's never been that much of a problem before. Ignorance is bliss, I guess.