From the Last Chapter

A thunderstorm raged in the background as if imitating the mood of the man inside. He had almost white blonde hair and he stood at the window waiting, his features were briefly illuminated with each flash. He caught the owl as it flew in the window and quickly tore open the envelope. His lightning quick reflexes grabbed the picture as it fluttered toward the ground. The sound of his heart breaking was almost audible in the silent room. Taking his wand firmly in his right hand and pointing it at Van in the picture he whispered a spell under his breathe causing the image of Van to be replaced with his own. Zilas Malfoy was now holding Hitomi Kanzaki with her arms around his neck and his arms around her waist. The perfect pair wrapped in love's embrace (AN3) Zilas took the envelope and letter straight to his father. He was not prepared to watch his beloved Hitomi from the shadows he would have her, body, mind, heart and soul. Even if it meant selling his own to Lord Voldemort.

Chapter 6

The chapter I meant to be chapter 5

Hogwarts-The Next Morning

The golden sunlight fluttered through the curtains, drawn haphazardly over a window, illuminated the two figures in the bed. The woman shifted as the light glided over her eyes before burying her face in the man's strong shoulder. The man's arms tightened around her small frame as his eyes opened to see the owl staring down at him from the headboard. He quickly rolled off the bed with his startled bedmate still enveloped in his arms.

"Van? What are you doing?"

"Sorry soldiers instinct took over, I'm not used to seeing an owl six inches from my face first thing in the morning." (AN1)

"So can we get off the floor now and see what it wants?"

"… I suppose …" He released her and she crawled back on the bed and wrapped a sheet around her torso before untying the parchment from around the owl's foot. As soon as she was finished the owl flew to a nearby chair, grabbed one of her perfumed scarves and flew out the window. Hitomi and Van stared after it for a moment before redirecting their attention to the letter.

"Well that was odd and I liked that scarf too." Van knelt on the bed behind her and kissed her bare shoulder.

"Who's the letter from? And don't worry about the scarf I'll buy you a new one."

"I don't … know …" Hitomi turned the parchment until she saw the Malfoy crest. "It bears the Malfoy crest." She unrolled the parchment and Van read silently over her shoulder.

Dearest Hitomi,

I am very pleased to hear that you've returned to Hogwarts. I will see you at the conference tonight. We can remise old times and discuss our future over a glass of wine.

All my love,

Zilas Malfoy.

Van grit his teeth, and tightened his arms around Hitomi's waist.

"I hope he realizes that you're married now."

"Don't worry I will be sure to slowly and patiently explain to him that there will never be anything between him and myself. Why? Are you jealous?"

"NO!" Van declared heatedly, in response to the amused expression on her face he continued, "Well you are my wife and I'm the only one allowed to call you dearest and love and and … I'm not jealous of some weakling who didn't end up marrying you." Hitomi nodded her head sagely,

"Of course not love, you aren't even capable of being jealous of Zilas, I mean his nickname in school was the blonde Adonis but you have nothing to worry about at all." Van's expression went from semi-calm to steamed. "Van, sweetie, you do realize that I'm joking with you right?" Van regained his semblance of composure.

"Of course I do, I was so sure you were joking I wasn't even angry."

"Of course you weren't. I love you."

"I love you too." He leaned over to kiss her and she whispered against his lips,

"Don't you have that meeting in Zaibach today before the masque?" His eyes widened and he leapt out of bed quickly grabbing his clothes and putting them on.

"Why did you have to remind me now?! I could have slept in!"

"I don't want you to be late and make Fanelia look bad and besides I'd like to take a shower before breakfast and if you're in the shower with me I'll miss teaching first class AND breakfast." He gave her a half-hearted glare and grabbed the port key on her desk and disappeared but not before saying,

"I'll pick you up at 8:45 to get ready for the ball. I love you."

"Mmm" Hitomi stretched and got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom, she was about to take a shower when she felt sick to her stomach. She quickly threw up in the toilet before rinsing out her mouth and brushing her teeth. "What the heck is going on with me? That's the second time this week." She shrugged it off and took her shower and prepared for the day.

In the Gryffindor Boys Dormitories

All the second year boys had gotten up to greet a new school day, in other words they had all played practical jokes on each other the night before and were all covered in some sort of sticky blue goo and were getting up early to wash it off. Well almost all of them Mamoru Kanzaki was still blissfully sleeping dreaming his little boy dreams of winning the Super Bowl or getting Sammy Sosa's autograph on live TV. Until the boy who lived and his red haired friend decided it was time to wake up the little new teachers little brother. Harry wished to wake him up gently, while Ron just grabbed his sheets from beneath him and pulled effectively spinning him out of bed.

"OUCH!!" and the young wizard came up swearing. "What the did you do that for?"

"We just wanted to introduce ourselves I'm Ron Weasly and this is Harry Potter." Ron stuck out his hand to be shaken and Mamoru just opened and closed his mouth in anger.

"I know who you both are, we met briefly in first year. Did you have to wake me up?! I was having the best dream."

"Breakfast is also in half an hour and the showers will be plugged for the next at least twenty minutes because of the potions that my twin brothers mixed up for jokes this year."

"Those are your brothers' pranks?"

"Yep."

"Hmm very interesting maybe it wasn't such a horrible thing to be woken up after all. I just have one warning for you, make sure that no practical jokes are played on Hitomi. She has a lot of spells that would blow your mind and you'd never win a war with her. And it's very possible that her husband who is 6'2 and has successfully fought and killed a fire-breathing dragon will come and find you and kick your $$e$."

"He fought a fire-breathing dragon? And won?" Mamoru nodded. "My brother Charlie works with dragons all the time! That's so cool!"

"That's actually how he met my sister, they were both fifteen. We better get ready for breakfast, I'm starved."

"Right."

In the Great Hall

Most of the sleepy students were shuffling into the Great Hall and the teachers were taking their seats while leaving the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher's seat unoccupied beside the potions teacher. Hitomi glided into the Great Hall as if dancing on the air itself.

"You seem to be in a good mood Professor Kanzaki." Hitomi sat down and helped herself to a glass of juice,

"I'm in a very good mood Professor Snape."

"I'm guessing you had a good night with your husband?" Hitomi blushed and replied,

"I'm sorry but I don't kiss and tell."

"That's what I expected." Hitomi smiled at him as Headmaster Dumbledore made his announcements and explained all the letters about the conference that had been sent to parents. Breakfast was finally served and the students ate hungrily while talking with their mouths full. Professor Snape leaned over and spoke softly in her ear, "Miss Granger from Gryffindor is giving you her detective look, it seems like she's very curious about you. You'll probably have to talk to her very soon about what curiosity did to the cat."

"I don't expect for her to be a problem, she'll 'discuss' it with Mamoru before she confronts me … if she ever gets around to confronting me. She's a very smart and stubborn girl but I don't believe she has the guts to approach me with illogical conclusions."

"That is very true, just watch out for her. She thinks that she knows everything and is a trifle arrogant and is a bit anti-social. And she loves homework, she's a very strange child."

"I don't know, I haven't met her yet but she seems a lot like me when I was her age. She's very meticulous and when worse comes to worse I'll bet she's a good person to have on your side."

"That is so very true." And with that the conversation ended. Breakfast ended shortly after and all the teachers and students made their way to their classes. Hitomi took particular notice of Mamoru joining the tightly knit group of friends that included Ron Weasely, Hermione Granger, and the famous boy-who-lived Harry Potter.

DADA Classroom First Period Seventh Years Gryffindor/Slytherin Split

Hitomi waited for everyone to get comfortable and to calm down before introducing herself.

"Hello everyone, I'm sure you all remember me after all I didn't graduate that long ago and I haven't forgotten much so don't worry too much about homework from this class. I remember what it was like trying to finish all my assignments while still trying to figure out who was taking who to where and when. Of course there will be a minimum of thirty minutes of homework a night." A few people groaned in the classroom. "But of course homework for this class isn't that difficult, it could be something as easy as learning a simple block for the next days lesson plan that I'll tell you about in advance. And as a teacher I am expected to mark something after all teachers don't have anything better to do right? Well I have something better to do. I can't vouch for anyone else. Marks from this class are going to be simple, I will give quizzes on the theory of DADA and I will have some quizzes that will test your ability to cast different spells. A major test will be on the twenty-second of each month so you have plenty of time to study, the only time that such a test will be moved is if it's a weekend or if I was out really late the night before and call a free class. I will have bonus marks available for students who are slipping in their studies or just want to do better than everyone else, and to get these marks is extremely simple, it's so simple it should be illegal! Bonus marks are for volunteering for class demonstrations and I also take bribes, I especially like Chocolate covered turtles that the muggle world makes. They may not know too much about …well anything … but they can make good candy. Are there any questions?" A hand was raised in the back, "Yes?"

"Are you single?" Hitomi laughed gaily at the question,

"I'm afraid not, not since I got these rings anyway." She held up her left hand for the whole room to see. There were oohs and ahs from all corners of the room. The Gryffindors and Slytherins glared at each other for once noticing each others existance in the class. "Oh and that reminds me I don't approve of fighting in this class, so I strongly discourage anyone from showboating because my punishments aren't too much fun, cleaning bathrooms on every floor for each offense the muggle way is more than you are probably prepared to do in this class. Since that's everything let's get to work we have a busy day of review ahead of us, so who would like to be the first person to earn some bonus marks by demostrating …"

Hours later in the third period Gryffindor/Slytherin second year split class

Hitomi gave her little speech that she'd been giving all morning making sure that everyone in the class was VERY aware of the punishments involved with fighting in class. "Are there any questions?" She looked around and her heart dropped into her stomach when she realized that Draco Malfoy's hand was in the air, "Yes Mr. Malfoy?"

"Why didn't you marry my brother?"

"I had meant about the course not about my personal life."

"So? Answer the question anyway."

"Okay but just this once I don't appreciate being directed by students. I didn't marry your brother because I fell in love with someone else."

"Who?"

"That is none of your business. Everyone turn to page six of your text books please and I'd like a volunteer to read the first paragraph out loud as I make notes for you to take down on the board." She scanned the room, "Okay Miss Granger, please read the first paragraph." Hitomi snapped her fingers and the chalk jumped into her hand and she started to write from her personal notes as Hermione read out loud the possible defenses against a full body bind spell. Unknown to Hitomi a bucket of water had levitated and was gently gliding over to where she stood writing notes. It was about to tip over when, "Mr. Malfoy if I turn around and look up and see a bucket of water within ten feet of me you will be punished severely. You have until the count of five. One … Two … Three … Four … Five." She turned around and the full contents of the bucket fell on her head drenching her from head to toe. The look on her face was of pure outrage. "MR. FILCH!" Everyone turned to the door expecting Mr. Filch to show up at the door but were shocked when Professor Snape was standing in the doorway.

"Is there a problem Professor Kanzaki?"

"Yes, I'd like to talk to you in the hallway alone."

"Of course." He waited as she gracefully performed a drying spell on herself and stormed out the door. The students couldn't hear the words being said outside but they could hear the tones of the two Professors. They came back into the room in no less than fifteen minutes.

"Mr. Malfoy it has been decided that your punishment will be chosen by Professor Snape this time but be warned if you ever even think of playing a trick like this again on me you will not got off so easily."

"Mr. Malfoy I will expect to see you in my room after last class. You have a lot of work ahead of you."

"Thank you professor. Now class since we were interrupted so rudely by Mr. Malfoy's sense of humor HE will be responsible for all the readings for the rest of the year unless I'm feeling very charitable. Continue where Miss Granger left off Mr. Malfoy." She snapped her fingers and the chalk continued writing on the black board by itself. "And you may all thank Mr. Malfoy for the two hundred question review exam that you will take in Monday's class that I was planning on breaking up into ten different classes. I'm not a person to mess with Mr. Malfoy family ties or not, I don't lose." The whole class was in shock as she sat down heavily into her chair at the front of the class. "Mr. Malfoy I don't hear page six paragraph four being read out loud." As Draco started to read out loud to the class Hitomi could literally feel the shock in the room. As she began to relax a little she began to consider her present situation and threat.

'I'm sure they won't be too disappointed when they only get a fifty-question review exam, I don't have that much extra time on my hands. Now all I have left to do is to pick my hairstyle for tonight's masque.' Hitomi grabbed a few hair magazines out of the bottom drawer of her desk and as Draco continued to read and the chalk kept writing notes she start to work on her hair style for that night that she would start after class was over. The Gryffindors in the class were whispering among themselves, the most interesting conversation was the one with Ron and Harry trying to convince Mamoru to get his sister to change her mind about the huge review exam.

"I can't promise anything, she is incredibly strong willed when she makes a decision. Although if we're lucky I can talk to her husband and convince him that it's very important to keep her very occupied this weekend so she can't write the exam."

"If you can do that."

"Will you guys hush up? I'm trying to copy all the notes from the board."

"Sorry Hermione." The three boys chorused, very quietly so they didn't disturb Hitomi from her magazine. The class continued and ended without incident. All the students could literally feel Hitomi's excitement for her first day of classes to be over.

AN1-I was very very tempted to have a bucket of water floating over their heads but I think I'll save that one for later in the chapter.

AN –I do realize that the characters are OOC but this is how the escaflowne world exists in my head so I'm afraid that as the all powerful author you will just have to deal with it. Ha Ha! I'm all-powerful! I'm the best! WHACK What the ?! Oh no they're back! NO the inhumanity! My … my … my original very abusive muses are back! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Runs away screaming

Primary Muse: Sorry she was getting a little conceited and it's my job as her muse to burst her bubble every once and a while. Not to mention she was getting way too excited and worked up since her car accident two days ago (Monday March 10, 2003). Don't worry she isn't hurt badly just some lower back pain and retroactive bitchiness. And may I say it's great to be back? I don't even know what this story is about so I think I'll go back and read it. Please excuse me…

She throws several small silver spheres on the ground and a cloud of smoke slowly floats to cover her body. As the smoke reaches her head a fan from somewhere author whistles innocently blows away the smoke showing the Primary Muse swearing as she climbs a rope to the ceiling. She looks embarrassed as she leaps into the dark areas in the room and slinks away. And who is victorious? ME!!!! You would have never guessed would you?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't quite make it to where I wanted to get this chapter so the masque won't be until the next chapter. And for the record I'd like to have this story completed within the next six months at the most and remember reviews make the fingers type faster!!! HINT HINT.

I already have a few different stories ideas that I'd like to try after I'm done this story, you never know I may start the new story before I finish this one. Please R&R I'm begging you all, without reviews I will get really really lazy. Oh and because of my accident last week I will be going to physiotherapy so I won't be online or updating very much.

I also wanted to tell everyone that I'm in the process of looking for a beta-reader (because my current friend who's helping me is kinda busy lately). To be my beta you have to have msn messenger (my address is in my profile) and I have to have read at least one of your stories. If you're interested you can review or email me. Oh and if you do add me to your msn please email me first so I have some idea of who's asking to be added.

Thank you

Enzeru No Yami