Life as Usual at Hogwarts equals Weird

With the strange new students, arguably evil teachers, and threat of dark wizards, Harry had almost forgotten about the (comparatively) mundane and less dangerous irritations of life at Hogwarts. In short, he had nearly forgotten the Slytherins...at least until he and Ron turned down a hallway and found Draco Malfoy tormenting one of his favorite targets.

Neville Longbottom stood backed into a corner, white-faced and shaking, holding his mimbulus mimbletonia before him like a shield. Malfoy was right in front of him, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. The Gryffindor boy should have been on his way to Herbology; Harry figured that Neville had wanted to show Professor Sprout his plant's progress. From what Malfoy was saying, the stink-cactus-thing wouldn't make it to the greenhouse. Neither might Neville.

In five years, hasn't Malfoy grown up at all? thought Harry, irritated, as he and Ron moved to defend Neville. Doesn't he know there is more important stuff going on? Though if Malfoy did know anything about Voldemort's return, it would be from the other side's viewpoint. Harry opened his mouth --

"Leave him alone, Malfoy. If anyone's going to be doing the bullying around here, it'll be me," said Yusuke Urameshi.

Draco spun around to see where this challenge came from. He didn't even notice Harry and Ron, looking instead to the far end of the hall where Yusuke waited with Kurama and Kuwabara.

"Oh, it's the new boy," said Malfoy, dismissively. "You should stay out of this, if you know what's good for you."

"Yeah, I've never been much good at that," said Yusuke. He did not seem the least bit intimidated.

Malfoy seemed annoyed that the other Gryffindors weren't disappearing like they were supposed to after one of his threats. Then inspiration struck and he tapped his prefect badge. "Prefect business. That plant is a hazard to the rest of the school. Of course, so is Longbottom, but we can't do too much about him."

"Prefect business, huh? Damn, I knew I should have done something about this little problem I've got with authority," said Yusuke. "Now drop the bullshit and leave the kid alone. If you're going to pick a fight, have the guts to pick on someone who wants to fight back."

Malfoy snapped his fingers. Crabbe and Goyle took up station in front of him like two miniature mountains. "Now who would want to fight back?" he said.

Yusuke grinned. "I would."

Malfoy sneered at him. Crabbe alone was nearly double the size of the Japanese boy, and dwarfed even Kuwabara. "Should I be cowering in fear now?"

"That would be a good idea, yeah," said Yusuke, and stepped forward.

Harry, with his Quidditch-quick eyes, caught the flicker of motion as Yusuke's hand shot out. Most of the other bystanders only saw Crabbe and Goyle stagger back and crash against the walls on either side of a wide-eyed Neville Longbottom. They did not get back up.

"Was that magic?" Ron whispered.

Harry shook his head. "I think he just hit them."

"What, with his fists?"

"Yeah."

"Bloody hell."

Now Yusuke advanced on Draco, who pulled out his wand and pointed it at the Japanese boy.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Malfoy said.

"You did that earlier. I didn't listen then, either," Yusuke said. He didn't bother to take out his own wand (and didn't know how to use it, anyway). He just reached out, yanked Malfoy's wand out of his grasp, and tossed it behind him.

For one instant Malfoy just stood there speechlessly. Then he scrambled backwards and grabbed the nearest object -- the mimbulus mimbletonia in Neville's hands -- and heaved it at Yusuke. Yusuke dodged easily.

Neville cried out and awkwardly lunged after his plant. Harry saw that Neville would never be able to catch it, and leapt forward. The pot brushed against his fingertips. He held on.

The poor cactus had had enough by this point, and let loose. Stinksap arced across the hall. Harry cringed. But somehow, miraculously (well, demonically is more accurate, but only the Urameshi Team knew it, and they all grinned at Kurama) the odorous liquid missed everyone except the three Slytherins.

Malfoy had backed into the same corner where he'd earlier trapped Neville. For once the sneer was gone from his face, and he looked almost as shaky as Neville had been. Harry wondered how he felt, now that he was on the other side of the bullying, and almost felt sorry for him.

Yusuke shook his head. Said, "And the real trouble with you, Malfoy, is that you're not even worth the fight," and flicked Malfoy on the nose with his index finger.

The results of this were unexpected to anyone who didn't know Yusuke well, because Malfoy's head snapped back and he fell onto his butt. One hand flew up to his face to catch the blood dripping from his nose.

But then Malfoy looked up, and between the stinksap-slimed hair and bloody nose, his eyes were alight with malicious triumph. Professor Umbridge was coming up the hall.

"One week! The new kid lands three Slytherins in the infirmary and only gets a week of detention! All Harry has to do is open his mouth in Umbridge's class and he's got detention practically for a month! Bet Uramashi wouldn't even have gotten a week if he hadn't picked on one of Umbridge's favorites." Ron still thought that the new students were dark wizards. It probably hadn't been a good idea to pair him with Hiei during Transfiguration practice. Hermione had come up with the idea -- if they were going to keep an eye on the Japanese kids, then they'd better start working with them. She'd gotten Kurama as her partner. The class was still learning Vanishing charms. The two of them together had accounted for a cageful of mice. The most any other student had achieved was some slight transparency, and Harry (who'd been working with Botan) hadn't even managed that.

All of Ron's mice had run away in fear. Ron was pretty darn sure that it hadn't been fear of him.

Harry and Hermione were still uncertain about the new students. Hermione (when they'd told her about the fight) had argued that dark wizards were unlikely to stand up for Neville. She had however been concerned when she'd learned that Crabbe and Goyle had been carried, unconscious, to the hospital wing.

Harry thought of the arm in the clearing and wondered if Yusuke had been taking it easy on the Slytherins.

Altogether, the three Gryffindors were just as confused as they'd ever been. And while Hermione had found some time to research, all that she'd discovered was that demons were Class Five Magical Creatures, to be approached only with extreme caution by experienced wizards. There had not even been a picture to go with the lack of description.

Hermione had promised to raid the library again to see if she could find anymore about demons, and Ron was trying to grab whatever extra Quidditch practice he could. Harry wished he could have helped either of them, but his homework overload was reaching critical proportions. He was on his way back to the Gryffindor common room to try to get it back under control when he saw Fred and George hurrying down the hall towards him. He began to call out a greeting. It came out as a squeak when they grabbed him by his elbows and dragged him along with them, very fast.

"You don't want to go that way, mate," said George.

"Trust us," Fred added.

"What did you two do this time?" Harry asked, struggling to keep pace with them while walking backwards.

"Oh, nothing much," said Fred.

"Just a little mix-up with some dungbombs --"

"And dragon manure, got to remember to thank Charlie for that --"

"And a slightly faulty levitation spell --"

"Just over the door to Umbridge's office."

"Shame we missed Umbridge."

"Did manage to nail Filch, though."

"Didn't expect the witch to see us, though."

"Yeah, she moves a lot faster than you'd think for someone built like a toad."

"Just hope she can't keep it up for very long."

It took Harry a minute to sort through the twin-speak, and then he got very worried.

"You mean you stayed around to watch?" he asked.

"Of course. Else what's the point?" Fred answered.

"And Umbridge saw you?"

"More like she caught a glimpse as we were fleeing the scene," said George.

"And followed," said Fred.

"You mean Umbridge is right behind you?" said Harry.

"You're the one looking backwards, man. You tell us."

Harry, looking, saw the dumpy figure reach the hall just as the twins turned round a corner. "Walk faster," he said.

"We're trying," said Fred, fervently.

"Let's just say that we picked a bad week to work on the Fever Fudge," said George.

One of the tapestries on the side of the wall twitched open, and a hand waved out of what looked like solid stone. "In here, quickly!" called a soft voice. Fred and George looked at each other, then dived right through the place in the wall where the hand was.

They found themselves in a deep alcove, dimly lit by the hall lamps shining through threadbare patches in the wall hanging. Shuichi Minamino stood just behind the tapestry, peeking through a particularly large hole.

The Weasely twins dropped Harry and scrambled back to entrance to find their own spy-holes. After a moment's hesitation, Harry followed.

They could here footsteps coming up the hall at a quick jittering pace -- and another sound, too. Umbridge was tapping the walls with her wand as she went along. Harry held his breath as she approached their hiding place. Her wand hit the tapestry not far from Harry's face -- and bounced off again with a faint clunking sound that any bit of wood might make on hitting cloth-covered rock. Umbridge hurried on. In moments she was out of sight; a moment more and the sound of her footsteps faded away.

Fred Weasely let out a long breath, and then grinned. "That was pretty close for a minute, wasn't it? Thanks for the assist, mate," he said to Shuichi. "How did you find this place? George and I must have crawled this corridor a dozen times looking for a good hiding-hole and didn't know it was here."

Shuichi smiled. "I have...something of a gift for secret spaces and hidden objects. I believe that this particular room doesn't show itself unless you already suspect that it is there."

"Yeah? Have you checked out the fourth floor corridor yet near the Ravenclaw wing?"

"You mean have I found the passage behind the painting of the old castle?"

"What about the dungeons, not too far from the Potion's classroom?"

"The grating where you have to tap the third bar twice with your wand, then hit the second bar three times?"

George raised his eyebrows. "He is good. It took us almost a year to figure that one out, and he's barely been here a week."

"Ah, we were only pitiful First Years then," said Fred, waving a hand. "Now we're older, wiser--"

"Taller, sneakier --"

"And have a more refined sense of humor," Fred said, paused, and amended, "Most of the time."

"Exactly how many secret passageways does this castle have?" asked Harry in fascination.

"We don't know yet," said George.

"But we do plan on finding out. Eventually." said Fred. "Now, we've had our suspicions about this patch of wall near the Quidditch field..."

Harry was still awake (mostly), working on one of his extra essays for Snape, when Yusuke came back from his last day of detention.

He heard the faint creak of the Fat Lady's portrait swinging open, and a much louder noise as it was slammed shut again. Yusuke stomped into the common room, swearing under his breath. He stopped when he saw Harry and stared instead.

A little uncomfortable with the strange boy, Harry looked down -- and saw the familiar marks from Umbridge's pen across the back of Yusuke's right hand. Then Harry blinked, adjusted his glasses, and looked again.

The words 'I WILL NOT FIGHT' were written there in heavy messy lines. But Yusuke had added two other scratches -- clearer, deeper, and more natural than those left by Umbridge's quill, crossing over the 'NOT.' Crossing it out. Changing the message.

He felt the grin forming, and looked up to find Yusuke grinning wryly back at him. The new student gave him half a wave and disappeared up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

Harry sat there for a long time after Yusuke had left, wondering about a question very different from the uses of wolfsbane in potion-making.

So what are you fighting for?

By breakfast the next morning, when Harry saw Yusuke again, all the marks were gone.