Response(s):

Saccharine-Ish Thank you! Actually, I was working on incorporating romance into it... I'm still thinking about the pairings, though...

Author's Notes: You're probably going to kill me for bothering to interject this mini-story into the mix, though it'll help to understand Thianadel's background more. If you're only here to read about your favorite charrie... I'll understand if you just skip this chapter...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter. Otherwise, I own the rest of this story.

Chapter 3: Thia's Story

o Told from Thianadel's POV o

I was born in and grew up in New York. I had a younger brother, Andrew, and an older half-brother, Bryan. We lived with my mother for a good part of the year and stayed with my father for the main holidays. Everything fell into the normal pattern of life until the year that Bryan turned 12.

That year was when our problems began. Bryan began to manifest certain abilities that were almost impossible to believe. He told us that he could feel ghosts-

"The tickle feeling," Kuwabara interrupts.

Yeah. He said it was like ice up his spine. And then he began to hear voices.

I will admit, he was pretty persistent. He swore that they were real and I believed him. But only me. My parents sent him to a psychiatrist.

Twelve is a pretty young age for a telepath to fully realize what his gifts are and accept them, not to mention sort out which voices are real, which are thoughts, and which is his conscience. Which, I believe, are the reasons why he had to be admitted to an institution.

And then, as if that wasn't enough, my father decided that being in two different boroughs of New York wasn't a great enough space between him and his mother. He decided on moving to Spain. And even that wasn't enough.

I can feel my voice getting weaker by the second. But this is a story that needs to be told and so I strengthen it.

That year, the day I turned 9, my father committed suicide. It's sad because my mother wasn't the type of shrill and shrewd woman that he always said she was. He killed himself over an illusion.

A half a year passed and everything was almost back to normal when I began to develop abilities, as well. Different from Bryan's, yes, but just as... untamed, I guess you could say.

And that's when I met Robin, my master. He was a psychic and a friend of Koenma's. Not as good as Genkai, but as near as he could be. So he trained me to be somewhat of an apprentice. I saw it as a way of avoiding a hospital or an institution.

I smile, remembering gentle Robin, who would keep me practicing until I was ready to drop, but who always had a soda ready for me when I did.

Nine. What an age to start training at! Another year and a half passed quickly without my family knowing about what I could do. When I was 11, tragedy struck once more.

It's like a curse or something was put on my family. Andrew, aged 8, went with his summer camp to the beach. He was pulled out by the undertow and drowned before the lifeguard could reach him. And that, apparently, was the last straw for my mother. She was heartbroken over everything that had happened to the very point where she was clinically depressed and near suicidal. She'd virtually lost both of her sons and felt guilty that her ex-husband had killed himself over her. So I was the only thing that she had. A daughter who wasn't home very much anymore. A daughter who put her heart and soul into training herself and her powers and her school work, but left hardly anything for home.

I threw myself into everything, even though that's the worst thing that you can possibly do. And my mom grew convinced that I didn't love her anymore. But that wasn't true. I wanted her to be safe. That became my new reason for wanting to improve my abilities. Because I didn't want to lose her the way that she lost everyone else and the way that she thought she was losing me.

I know that they must think I'm a pity case. So why am I telling them this? It's so personal... But then I realize that they've been through the worst with each other, these four. I have to tell them about my worst, even if after they hear this they think I need their pity.

Kurama's looking at me with so much sympathy and understanding in those green eyes of his, I feel like he knows how I feel. And he probably does because he loves his mother like I loved mine.

And so I thought I was under a curse or that someone upstairs must be out to get me.

In any case, I had gotten a lot accomplished with Robin in the 3 years he was my master. And then he told me that the final moments of my apprentice years had come and he would teach me the technique that had been passed down from generation to generation. After that he'd have nothing else to teach me.

The day after he told me that, the day that I was to graduate to the next step, an apparition appeared. I believe his name was Rando, though he was under a different cover at that time.

This draws a quick look from Yusuke and Kuwabara.

He stole the technique meant to be learned by me and killed Robin right before my eyes. Yet with his dying breath, my master whispered a spell that spirited me away to my apartment.

The next part of the story will be the hardest. I hate every minute of this, their eyes looking at me, boring into me. I keep my eyes on the tabletop.

My mother, panicky and not at all stable in her mind, had broken when she couldn't find me in my house. She concluded that I'd run away or something. So I, her only and her ray of fading light, was gone to her as well.

Deep breaths. Don't cry. It'll all be over soon.

She killed herself.

So, that's my story. The reason why I'm here is because Koenma knew Robin and he didn't want me to be floating around in New York to be influenced by outside sources. I was able to finish 7th grade, even though half of my time was spent at Spirit World, where I grew interested in you guys. And so, since after a year Koenma still had nowhere to put me, he gave me this mission with you.

I'm met with complete and utter silence from my companions, though the rest of the Leaky Cauldron is extremely noisy.

"Hn." Hiei crosses his legs and looks away. "Don't expect to get any pity out of me with that tale of yours, human."

I break out into a smile that I know is full to the brim with gratitude.

Author's Notes: If you've actually bothered to read this, then I must say, I'm as grateful to you as Thia was to Hiei. Whadda ya think? Isn't she a weird little NY chickadee? What does the rest of the gang think of her? That's in another chapter... And yeah, I know, I know, Sherwood, Robin... I was half asleep, ok? I'd love to hear your comments (or criticism, as the case may be...)!