I just have three words to say: I hate typing. That's why it's taken me so long with this chapter. I am so slow at typing. All well, on to the chapter!!
/Means telepthy/
=Means Japnese=
Chapter Four: The Sorting!!Hiei and Kurama gazed down into the depths of the lake, only looking up when the man, whose name was Hagrid as they found out, called out to duck. The little fleet of boats passed under some trailing ivy. The ivy tried to cling to Kurama, but Kurama sent them away with a small burst of ki. Once the boats passed under the ivy, the demons looked up to see their first glimpse of Hogwarts. Despite himself, Kurama felt his mouth drop open in awe. He hadn't expected such a large castle! Glancing over at Hiei, Kurama noticed that the fire demon was in a similar state of amazement. What the fox also noticed was enough to have Kurama yelling at Hiei telepathically.
/You idiot!/ Kurama shouted, pulling Hiei's hands away from his bandanna that hid his Jagan. /Do you want to blow our cover before we even get to Hogwarts!/
/No,/ answered Hiei telepathically. /The castle has so much power. I just want to see it with my Jagan unwarded!/ Hiei's mind voice seemed to be almost whining.
/You can see it later. I promise that one night we can come out here and you can look to your heart's content./
/Fine,/ said Hiei. Coming from anyone but Hiei, the tone would be considered pouting.
By that time, the boats were scraping on the beach. The new students climbed out of the boats, some with more grace than others. Hagrid approached the large door at the top of the beach and knocked three times on the ancient wood of the door. The door was soon opened to reveal a young, stern-looking woman with her hair pulled up in a tight bun.
"First years Hagrid?" asked the woman. Hagrid nodded. "Thank you, I'll take them from here." Hagrid disappeared soon afterwards.
The students followed the woman into a small room. There, she addressed the students.
"You will wait here until the school is ready for you. Then, you will be Sorted into your respective Houses. The different Houses are: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each has its own distinguished history and none is any better than any other. During your time here at Hogwarts, your House will be like your family. You will eat, sleep, and attend classes with your House. Your triumphs will earn your House points, while your defeats will lose your House points. The Sorting is about to begin, you would be wise to spend this time making yourself presentable." With this, the teacher left the room.
A short while later, the woman returned and simply said. "It is time."
Hiei glanced at the frightened first years, many were taller than he, and snickered as he followed the woman out of the room. =They look like their going to their trial,= he said to Kurama in Japanese.
=Well they kind of are,= replied Kurama. =So we decided on Gryffindor?=
=Yes,=" said Hiei. =The boys that we are supposed to baby-sit are in Gryffindor. It would be most beneficial for our mission to be in the same Houses as them.=
=The 'boys' are supposed to be the same age as us.= replied Kurama. =Gryffindor, the House of the Brave.= Kurama smirked and said sarcastically =Sounds a lot like us, doesn't it?=
=Hn,= said Hiei. By that time, they had followed the Professor to a set of tall doors. She flung them open a little dramatically and, once again, most of the new students were shocked into speechlessness. The two demons kept their amazement to themselves as they surveyed the floating candles, the four House tables, and the enchanted ceiling. In front of the staff table, there was a small stool that had a worn and battered hat on it. The whole Hall's attention was focused on the hat. As Kurama and Hiei watched, a large rip near the brim of the Hat widened and the hat burst out in song.
Hiei soon lost interest in the Sorting Hat's song and went back to watching the students. The Marauders were huddled around something yet again. Hiei smirked at the boy's secrecy. He was startled from him thoughts by Professor McGonagall's loud voice.
"When I call your name," she said. "You will come up here and I will place the Sorting hat onto your head. Whichever House it chooses for you, go over to that House's table and be seated quietly until the Sorting is completed. The first years will be Sorted first. Adams, Jane!"
Hiei tuned most of the Sorting out as Jane was Sorted into Ravenclaw. His thoughts wandered until an elbow from Kurama brought him back right as "Walker, Morgan," was Sorted into Gryffindor.
"Now, the foreign students will be Sorted. They will all be joining the fifth year classes. I will say your name as best I can and the country that you came from." The Professor unrolled another scroll and started with "Bjorkson, Lars, Iceland." The Sorting Hat quickly proclaimed Lars, a tall boy with blond hair a Huffelpuff. The Sorting continued much the same.
"Coolridge, Ivy, Australia." "Gryffinor!"
"Duncan, Mattie, United States of America." "Ravenclaw!"
"Hans, Fritz, Germany." "Slytherin!"
"Ingel, Melany, Luxembourg." "Huffelpuff!"
"Jagen-, Jagin-" it was Hiei's turn. "Jagunsi, Hiee, Japan." The Marauders burst into silent laughter at Professor McGonagall's struggle with Hiei's name.
"Its Hiei Jaganshi." said Hiei irritably as he walked up. His sharp demon hearing picked up snatches of the whispering crowd.
"He's going to be a fifth year? He's so short!" "I've seen first years taller than him!" "He really likes black, doesn't he?" Then the Sorting Hat slipped over Hiei's eyes, saving the other students from his trademark death glare.
There was a short pause, then something whispered in his ear. /You're going to have to let me in/ said the voice.
/No I don't./ Hiei replied, realizing that it was the Hat. /Put me in Gryffindor./
/Why should I?/ said the Hat. /I'm not going to Sort you until you let me in!/
/I have to protect these three boys./ Hiei was starting to become annoyed.
/Why are you going to protect people, you're only fifteen! Who do you think you are, bossing me around? Let me in already!/
/Fine, I'll let you figure it out for yourself./ With that, Hiei let some of his barriers around his mind drop. Hiei kept most of them up though, he wasn't about to let some Hat pry through all of his secrets. Hiei grinned to himself and brought to mind the Sorting Hat on fire.
/What the-?! A demon! Of course I'll put you in Gryffindor Mr. Demon sir. But aren't you a little curious about what House you belong in?/
/Fine, but be quick about it./ Hiei felt the Sorting Hat sort through his memories.
/Of course, of course. Now you have several qualities of Slytherin in you, you are very cunning and ambitious. You also have a wonderfully quick mind! Ravenclaw wouldn't suit you very well, you aren't very studious at all. What's this! A sister! You are very loyal to her. And to your foxy friend Kurama. That is defiantly not a Slytherin trait. You have too much of a temper to be a Huffelpuff. You would make a great-/
"GRYFFINDOR!" This last was shouted to the whole Hall, which was getting a little restless, seeing as Hiei's Sorting lasted quite a bit longer than any of the others. Hiei gladly removed the Hat and sauntered over to the Gryffindor table where the Marauders were waving him over to an empty seat near them. He sat across from Sirius and had and empty seat between himself and Remus.
As the next student was Sorted, James leaned over the table from where he was sitting next to Sirius to shake Hiei's hand. Hiei reached out to take James's hand, but stopped when his ferret's head popped out of the sleeve of his robe to look up at the Sorting. A tall girl with long black hair had just been Sorted into Ravenclaw. Koru leapt out of Hiei's sleeve across the table and before Hiei could grab him, the ferret had disappeared toward the girl. Hiei swore violently and raced after his pet, being sure to fun at human speed. Just before Koru could jump onto the girl's robes Hie grabbed him with a triumphant yell. Startled, the girl whirled around.
"Gomen, uh, sorry," stuttered Hiei, embarrassed. "I don't know what got into Koru here, my name is Hiei Jaganshi. You're Diana Migus right?"
"Its Dice," said the girl. "Its ok. Ferrets can be a little independent. Isn't that right, Mare [pronounced maré I think]?" She reached up to pet the small head of a ferret that had stuck its head over Dice's shoulder.
"Is that ferret blue?" blurted out Hiei.
"Yeah," answered Dice. "it was a spell, blue is my favorite color. Besides, Mare means sea in Italian. That's where I'm from."
"Well, this is Koku," said Hiei, noticing that the girl was over a head taller than he was, around 5'8". "Koku is short for Kokuryuuhah, which translates into something like dark dragon or something like that." [I'm not to sure on that]
"Coolio," said Dice. "Now, I really should get to my table. Bye Hiei, bye Koku! I hope I see you two in some of my classes!"
"Goodbye," said Hiei, turning back to the Gryffindor table. Hiei swore when he saw that he had missed Kurama's Sorting. His mood improved a little when he noticed Kurama waving at him from the Gryffindor table.
"What happened?" asked Kurama as Hiei slid into the seat next to him.
Hiei glanced at the Marauders before replying in Japanese =There was this girl-= He abruptly broke off as Remus burst out laughing.
"A girl Hiei?!" sputtered Remus as the other three Marauders sent confused looks from across the table. "Sorry, but you don't seem to be the type of guy to go after a girl on the first day of school."
"Not me," said Hiei, switching to English. "Koku's the loverboy here." The topic of the conversation was currently staring across the Hall towards the Ravenclaw table. "Now as I was saying, Kurama, the girl, her name is Dice, has a ferret that Koku has taken a liking to. What did the Sorting Hat say to you?" Hiei abruptly changed the subject.
"Well, it first wanted to put me in Ravenclaw. The it thought that Slytherin might be a good place, but I convinced it to put me in Gryffindor." Something about the fox demon's tone made Hiei a little suspicious.
/You threatened it, didn't you./ The telepathic message wasn't a question so much as it was a statement of fact.
/Only a little!/ was the indignant reply.
/Baka Kitsune./
The Sorting Hat ended shortly with "Williams, Jace" and "Williams, Juce" of Kenya were Sorted into Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, respectively.
"Great," said James, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. "Now we can eat!"
Up at the staff table, a tall wizard that Hiei and Kurama recognized as Dumbeldore stood up and said "Thank you for a wonderful Sorting, Hat."
"You're welcome," called the Hat as it was carried away along with the stool, by Professor McGonagall.
When the giggles died down, Dumbeldore continued "Now for a few words before we eat," The whole Hall groaned, the loudest being James and Sirius of the Marauders. "Dine well!" With that, the plates in front of the students suddenly filled with food.
"Man," said Sirius as he filled him plate to near overflowing with food. "Dumbeldore really had me worried there for a minute. He shouldn't kid around when food is involved." The table snickered a little and it was quiet for a time, as everyone was too busy eating to talk.
The eating wound down and Hiei was feeding Koku tidbits of meat when he felt Sirius staring at Hiei's eyes, a forkful of shepherd's pie hanging forgotten on Sirius's fork.
"What?" Hiei said rudely.
"Your eyes," said Sirius. "They really are red. I had thought that on the train, it was just a trick of the light, but they really are red!" The other Marauders turned to Hiei as well
Hiei looked over at Kurama for help.
"Its genetic," said Kurama. "Both Hiei and his sister have red eyes."
"Cool," Sirius seemed to accept that explanation and returned to his eating.
Hiei shot Kurama a thankful glance. Soon, the remnants of dinner disappeared and were replaced by desserts. Several of which the Marauders had never seen before.
"What's this," asked James, holding up a bowl of brightly colored sticks.
Hiei looked to Kurama, but the fox was involved in a heated conversation with Remus and wasn't paying attention to his companion. Hiei sighed, knowing that he wouldn't get any help ant time soon from Kurama. "Its pocky,' answered Hiei, taking the bowl from James and selecting a few. "The brown are chocolate, the green are mint, and, the orange are, well, orange." James nodded his thanks before selecting a few.
"You're Hiei, right?" asked an older boy from Hiei's left.
"Yes," curtly answered Hiei. His unwillingness to talk seemed to go unnoticed by the boy.
"I'm Frank Longbottom," said the boy. "I'm the Head Boy. If you need anything, I'm the one to come to." He held out his hand to Hiei, who hesitantly took it. Just then, the desserts disappeared and Dumbeldore once again stood up and addressed the Hall.
"Before I send us all up the our beds, there are a few start-of-term notices to hand out. As in previous years, the Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits to student, that means you four." He looked sternly at the Marauders, who hand the We're-so-innocent-we-couldn't-hurt-a-fly look down pat. "The Whomping Willow is also off limits. The caretaker, Filch, would like me to remind everyone that there is to be no magic between classes, and that there is and updated list of forbidden items posted on the bulletin boards of the Common Rooms. Thank you and have a good night." All of the student took this to be their dismissal and got up. Hiei and Kurama got up as well.
"Remus," said a red-haired girl. "We have to take the first years to the Tower."
"Oh, right," muttered Remus, quickly getting up. "You two should probably come as well. We'll show you up to your dormitories."
"Yeah," said Sirius, slinging his arm around Hiei's shoulders as they walked out of the Great Hall. This only intensifies the height difference between the two, Sirius was almost a foot taller than Hiei. Hiei turned his death glare to Sirius who seemed remarkably unaffected by the intensity of the glare, which had sent many demons running in fear.
"Whose the girl that James is talking to?" James had wandered off to the girl that had reminded Remus of his duties before, he seemed to be trying to talk to her, but she just brushed him off. "James was staring at her all through dinner."
"Lily Evans," answered Remus. "James has had a huge crush on her ever since first year. Its kind of sad, really, she hates the sight of him."
"Really," said Kurama. They walked in silence for a while, then Kurama remembered some things that he had been meaning to ask Remus. "Remus, I've been meaning to ask you some things."
"Go on."
"Well, how do you know Japanese? And what were those creatures pulling the carriages?"
"You can see the thestrals?" Remus seemed a little amazed at that.
"Yes, is that a big deal?"
"You can only see thestrals if you have seen someone die. If you don't mind me asking, who did you see die?"
Kurama thought about all of the demons that he had seen die or had killed himself during his time as the thief Youko Kurama. He decided to say a little white lie. "My dad died when I was very little, so I don't remember him very well. Hiei was with me as well, so he can see the thestrals as well."
"Yeah," said Hiei, coming up behind them. Sirius was currently performing an "extinguishio" spell on the smoldering ends of his robes. Kurama shot Hiei a disapproving look. The fire demon just shrugged.
"Oh," Remus quickly changed the subject. "I forgot, do either of you play Quidditch?"
"No, we don't," answered Kurama. "I don't really think that I would like it."
Sirius had caught up to the group at this point, a corner of his robes was still smoking slightly. "Hey Hiei, you should try out for Seeker. Ours graduated last year, and you have the perfect Seeker build. You're so small."
"Maybe I will," Hiei said softly. "Are any of you on the team? You would have to teach me how to fly first." Kurama seemed really impressed with Hiei, who seemed to be really making an effort to be polite.
"Great!" exclaimed Sirius, "I'm a Beater and James over there is the best Chaser that Hogwarts has seen in years! He can give you some good pointers."
"Are you on the team, Remus?" asked Hiei politely.
"No," said Remus, his face going slightly red. "Part of me likes to keep all feet on the ground. Ah, here we are." The group had come to a stop in front of a portrait of a large lady in a pink dress. "This is the Fat Lady. Give her the password and she will let you into the Common Room." he explained. "The password for now in Lion Heart."
Much to Hiei and Kurama's surprise, the Fat Lady smiled and said "Thank you, Remus. Now off to bed with all of you." With that, the portrait swung opened and revealed the Common Room.
"This way, you guys." called Remus as he went up the stairs that led to the boys' dormitories. Hiei and Kurama followed, with the remainder of the Marauders close behind. Remus opened up a door that was labeled, "Fifth Year Dormitories." Inside, there was six four-poster beds. Hiei's trunk had been put by the bed closest to the window. Kurama's bed was the closest to Hiei's.
Sirius again slung his arm around Hiei's shoulders and said, "Welcome to the Marauders Mischief Management Room. You're in my territory now, shrimp." The next instant, Sirius was against the wall with a small dagger pressed against his neck. The Marauders were frozen with shock, but Kurama had on a faintly annoyed expression.
"No one calls me a shrimp," snarled Hiei, pressing the dagger slightly. "Especially a weak, annoying ningen." For once, Sirius was shocked into speechlessness.
"Now Hiei," said Kurama calmly. "I thought I told you to leave your knife in the trunk. Let him down, you're scaring the boy."
"I did leave my knife in the trunk," said Hiei as he reluctantly let Sirius down. Sirius collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. "I got it out again on the train."
"Why do you have a knife at school?!" asked Remus, who was the first of the Marauders to recover.
"Not just a knife," said Hiei as he walked over to his trunk and pulled out his katana. "My katana as well. Did you expect me to go unarmed around hundreds of ningens?"
"Hiei has special permission to bring his katana to school, as long as he doesn't wear it during school hours." Kurama cut in before anymore damage could be done. "now lets get to bed, I'm sure everyone is tired."
Everyone changed into their pajamas and went to bed. The Marauders agreed that they would talk the next day. Neither Hiei nor Kurama spoke anymore that night.
A pretty good chapter if I do say so myself. Long enough for some of you? Its a whole 11 pages for crying out loud! Over 3,000 words! That's almost as much as the whole first three chapters! My fingers hurt since most of this was written in one sitting. I hope to get another chapter out on my birthday, which in the 29th of June. I'll try my best!
Katana no Youkai Okami: I'm not really sure how the rest of the show goes, but from what I understand, Genkai comes back to life at the end of the Dark Tournament. Somehow, the Black Dragon now rests as a tattoo on Hiei's arm. He uses wards and bandages to control it, and sometimes I hear that there is a chain that is used to control it as well. For the Diagon Alley part, it will be gone over in parts through flashbacks, none of it had to much interesting stuff happen.
If someone can explain to me about Hiei's tattoo of the dragon more in depth, I would appreciate it a lot!