Disclaimer: I still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. Not Harry Potter, either. Sigh.
Chapter 2: Gryffindors and Classes
Eikichi and Crookshanks cautiously sniffed at each other in the Gryffindor common room. Each apparently decided that the other feline was tolerable. Both cats curled up comfortably by the fire.
The human (well, human-looking) members of the Urameshi team sat nearby, trying to decide what courses they wanted (in Kurama, Botan, and Kuwabara's cases) or had to (for Hiei and Yusuke) take.
"Charms, Defense Against Dark Arts, Potions, and History of Magic are all required classes, as are Transfiguration and Herbology. We should each take at least two other classes as well." Kurama said as he looked over the scrolls.
"You've got to be kidding me," Yusuke said.
"No, some students take far more than eight classes," Botan said. "And before you ask, you really do have to go to all your classes, Yusuke."
"All right, so which of them look easy?"
Kurama scanned the list. "Try Muggle Studies -- it deals with living in the non-magic world. You've done that before; I don't think you'll have any problems."
"That's one. What else?"
One of the other Gryffindors, a boy with bright red hair, looked over at the list. "Hey! You're not taking 'Care of Magical Creatures' yet. You should try it. Hagrid teaches it, and he's awesome -- as long as he hasn't gotten hold of any dragons or giant spiders or anything like that. And Hagrid practically never gives homework."
"Ron! That's no reason to take a class!" a brown-haired girl next to him said.
Yusuke shrugged. "Sounds good enough to me," he said, and Kurama laughed softly.
"Don't encourage him!" the brown-haired girl said. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."
"And I'm Ron Weasely, and that's Harry Potter over there." said the red-head, waving towards a black-haired boy.
"Hi," Yusuke said. "You Fifth years too?"
The Gryffindor common room suddenly fell very quiet.
"Umm…you did hear what he said, didn't you?" one of the older students asked the Japanese student. "Potter? Harry Potter?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the other ones are Ron and Hermione. Got it." He turned back to Ron. "No homework, right? I'm in."
In the end, all five spirit detectives decided to sign up for Care of Magical Creatures. Yusuke couldn't find anything that looked easier than Muggle Studies, while Kuwabara and Botan would take Divinations instead. The entire team decided that Hiei needed to learn more about "muggles" (and humans in general) and so signed him into Muggle studies. That way Yusuke could keep an eye on the short-tempered fire demon and hopefully keep him from frying anyone. Kurama would be in the class as well -- mostly to watch the other two. The fox was taking Ancient Runes as well. Yusuke had to wonder which course would be easier for him.
It was getting late by that time. The younger students (and a good portion of the older ones as well) were yawning, and the prefects were starting to say things about the need to be rested for classes in the morning. The spirit detectives allowed themselves to be led off to the bedrooms. The four boys would share a room, while Botan would bunk with the Gryffindor girls.
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The boys were awakened by a tapping sound against their window in the middle of the night. Yusuke groggily looked out to see Botan hovering there. He opened the window and let her in.
"Hi, Botan," Kuwabara muttered, waking up. Then he blinked and shrieked, "AHH! Botan! This is the boys' tower! You can't be in here!"
The others shushed him while Botan chided cheerfully, "Oh, don't be silly, Kuwabara. I just came up to talk to you and make sure everything is all right. Anyway, no one else can see me at the moment," she said, pointing down at the pink kimono that had replaced her black Hogwarts robes."
Kurama shook his head. "I wouldn't be so sure of that, not here. Dumbledore has quite a reputation for seeing what others can not. Does Koenma have some new information for us?"
"Not on Voldemort, unfortunately. He did tell me that your wands are ready and should be here tomorrow. That's very good news -- you'll need them for your classes, and Koenma wasn't certain they'd be ready on time."
"What about the artifact? Did he find anything about that?"
"No, Not yet," Botan said.
"You know, it would be nice if - just for once - we knew both who and what we were looking for," Yusuke said to Hiei and Kurama. "I think the closest Koenma's ever come to that was when he sent me after you guys, and all he knew then were your names."
"You wouldn't have listened to him anyway," Kurama murmured as Botan hurriedly tried to change the subject.
"So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?"
"This place is really strange, Botan. I mean, ghosts just walk around and talk to you like it's normal! And that one guy's head practically came off!" said Kuwabara.
"Well, duh, it's a magic school. Were you expecting it to be normal?" Yusuke scoffed. "But what's with what's-his-name? The kid downstairs. Harry. It was like everybody expected me to know it or something."
Kurama, unsurprisingly, was the one to explain. "Harry Potter is something of a celebrity in the wizarding world. You see, Harry was the cause of Voldemort's first downfall. Voldemort attacked his family when he was just an infant. Voldemort killed the boy's parents, but when he tried to kill Harry himself, something went wrong. Voldemort lost most of his powers instead. Did you notice the scar on his forehead? He's had that since the attack.
"Voldemort had held some sort of reign of terror over the wizarding world, but that ended when he lost his powers. And somehow Harry Potter was responsible for that loss…and the fourteen years of relative peace since then. To wizards -- good wizards, at least -- he is a hero.
"I've heard rumors that Voldemort has tried to attack Harry again, several times, since he came to Hogwarts. The boy has somehow been able to fend him off each time. It's likely, however, that Harry will be a particular target if Voldemort starts summoning demons."
"So this kid's faced off against an evil overlord a couple of times and won. Think he can take on a couple of demons?" Yusuke said.
Hiei snorted. "No."
Kurama answered more thoughtfully. "Any wizard has a better chance against a demon than a human without magic -- or the ability to manipulate his or her spirit energy, as you and Kuwabara do. And there are several wizards with whom I would not wish to fight, Voldemort and Dumbledore among them." He saw the look in Yusuke's eyes. "No, Yusuke, you can not challenge the headmaster to a fight right now."
"How about after we finish this mission?"
"Then you're on your own. Now, as I was saying, Harry Potter and wizards in general are far from helpless, but they are also not used to dealing with demons. We should keep an eye on him, especially when he leaves the school itself. That is when he'll be in the most danger, and when we must be the most careful."
"So what do we do now?" Kuwabara asked. "Unless Koenma comes up with something, we can't even find the…the…the thing until Voldemort uses it."
"And then we may be up to our eyeballs in demons," Yusuke added.
"Well, for right now, we go to sleep," said Kurama. And after Botan had left for her own room, they did.
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The Urameshi team was called to Dumbledore's office early the next morning to receive their wands. Mr. Ollivander had brought them from Diagon Alley himself and was waiting to see how they were received.
"Quite an unusual group of materials," the old man said, blinking his pale eyes as he lifted out the wand-boxes. "And of course it is strange to have so many custom orders at once."
"Ah, Mr. Urameshi," the wand-maker handed the first box to Yusuke. "Phoenix feather and oak, twelve inches. Sturdy. The feather came from a blue phoenix, I believe. A most rare creature, and a powerful core. Go on and give it a wave."
Feeling rather foolish, Yusuke did so. A stream of golden sparks shot from the end of it, scorching the far wall and narrowly avoiding singing Mr. Ollivander's eyebrows.
"As I said, quite powerful," Mr. Ollivander said, undisturbed, as he pulled out the next wand. "Mr. Jaganshi. Dragon heartstring and ebony, eleven and three-quarters. Very strong. Try it out, please." He handed the wand to Hiei.
Hiei swung it like a sword. A wave of black fire poured out to add to the destruction of the far wall.
"Yes, quite suitable. Now for Mr. Minamino. Kitsune hair and cherry, eleven inches. Swishy. A tricky core, that one."
"You didn't." Yusuke whispered to Kurama.
"This from the person who plucked Puu for his wand core?" Kurama murmured back, taking his wand. He gave it a gentle flick, and the air was suddenly full of falling flowers.
Mr. Ollivander nodded in satisfaction. "Mr. Kuwabara. Hiroseke stone and redwood, thirteen inches" -- Ollivander was interrupted at this point by Hiei.
"WHAT?!"
Luckily, Yusuke caught the fire-demon before he could inflict actual harm on Kuwabara.
"Calm it, Hiei! If you kill Kuwabara, Koenma will have to send me after you and there's no way I want to go through that again. And Kuwabara didn't make her cry or anything. Yukina just gave him the stone when she heard about the wands."
Hiei subsided reluctantly. It was easy being angry at the idiot. It was much harder to admit to being jealous that Kuwabara had a gift from his sister while he did not. Kurama laid a hand on Hiei's shoulder in silent understand. The fire-demon just glared at the wall. Parts of it started to smolder.
Kuwabara had been so lost in thoughts of his lovely Yukina that he hadn't even noticed Hiei's outburst. Now he lifted his wand, waved it, and started a small snowstorm.
"I'm sorry, young lady," Mr. Ollivander said to Botan. "I do not have a wand for you. You did not order one, did you?"
"Oh, no, I already have my own," Botan said, reaching into a pocket and pulling out what looked like a miniature version of her oar.
"Well, now that that's all taken care of…" Dumbledore said, raising his own wand. The damage to the office instantly repaired itself. "I believe you students have classes soon, but there should still be time for breakfast."