DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter. I merely torture the characters.

Chapter 22: Hype

Gradually, everything turned normal again. The first indication of it came in the middle of May, when an outbreak of the Infatuation Bug (closely related to the Love Bug) struck swiftly. It was too late when the rest of the school realized it, and by then it had already affected ¾ of Hogwarts' female population.

The target of their affections? None other than the oh-so-handsome Suichi Minamino.

"He was sooo heroic the other day, remember? Like a Prince Charming!"

"He's trying to protect us! How romantic is that?!"

Thia gagged. If you only knew that we were here to protect Harry... How did we get promoted, anyway???

"Oh, Thia! You're Suichi Minamino's friend, right?" some Hufflepuff asked.

Since when does everyone know my nickname?!

"Nope. I happen to be his private secretary. Do you have any messages that you want me to relay to him?" she asked, her face deadpan and voice extremely serious.

"How come Kurama has a fanclub and I don't? I deserve equal respect, you know!" Yusuke exclaimed one Saturday, outraged.

"Cheating on Kayko much? You're not exactly a romantic type of figure, Yusuke," Thia informed him.

"I'm not cheating on Kayko! I'm not her boyfriend, anyway!"

"Oh, shut up, Urameshi, 'cause we all know that's not true," Kuwabara solemnly stated.

"And anyway, pity me. I told one girl that I was his secretary as a joke and the thing spread like wildfire. I'm almost as popular as my so-called boss, though thankfully, for waaaay different reasons."

"That was a stupid thing to do. But where are the others?" Yusuke asked, meaning Hiei and the epitome of romance himself, not to mention the suddenly missing Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

"Hiei's probably haunting the dungeons or . HHR are studying or doing homework or something. Rabbit went God knows where," Thia informed them.

"You know," Yusuke began, "I hate it when people speak in a code that I don't get."

"HHR stands for Harry, Hermione, and Ron. And Rabbit is-"

"-Me. Personal secretary?" Kurama questioned as he slid into the seat next to Yusuke.

"I didn't think anyone would be so dense as to believe me!" Thia protested as she watched Kurama duck his head behind a book.

"There's going to be gossip about all of us, you know. Written gossip."

"Oh, let them gossip. What tabloid is there for them to publish all of this stuff in?"

"Modern-Day Romeo Magazine: Suichi Minamino," Yusuke said.

"They've started making magazines already?!" Thia's eyebrows shot up.

"No. It's called sarcasm."

"I didn't think that it could get any worse than the fanclub in my regular school," confessed Kurama. "And I was wrong."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were spying on Hiei. Or, at least they had been. Now they were looking at thin air, because the demon had disappeared. Whether it was due to an invisibility cloak or to magic of his own, they had no clue. It was creepy, though, because one moment, he'd been standing there, and the other, he was gone, not even leaving a faint after-image.

"See, I told you!" Hermione exclaimed when they'd finally gone back to the castle. "Why would he suddenly disappear into the forest?"

That, at least, Harry had an answer for.

"He's a demon, remember? He probably knew that we were there and he didn't want us to disturb him."

"And what wouldn't he want us to disturb?"

"His solitude. You were pretty loud, you know," Ron said.

"Oh, sure, team up against me, won't you?" Hermione went off in a huff.

"I don't understand her at all," the red-head said, defeated.

"Are you supposed to?"

Hiei sat in a tree far from the Hogwarts castle, watching those foolish humans search for him. It was rather amusing, actually. They'd followed him into the forest, and he let them. Let them wander around for a while. When they left, then he would be able to finally do what he wanted. The confines of that stupid school were stifling him. Even in the sessions with Genkai, he'd been forbidden to draw his sword.

Good, they were gone. Hiei leapt down silently and unsheathed his beloved katana.

Damn humans... damn castle... damn Koenma... With each curse, Hiei gathered speed, swinging his sword cleanly through random branches here and there. Damn Potter... damn Koenma... damn Tsurin... damn Pearl... damn Koenma...

And finally, the last stroke came with the pronouncement of, Damn headmaster.

"Filthy humans," Ronan spat.

Deep in the forest, the centaur had heard a great crash and cantered in the direction of the resonating sound. And then he'd seen it. One of the oldest, thickest, and tallest trees in the entire forest had fallen, though apparently not from normal circumstances. It had been sliced clean through, a neat and perfect cut that allowed the entire world to see the hundreds and hundreds of rings that spiraled on the freshly cut surface.

"Filthy humans," the centaur repeated, even though deep inside he knew that no ordinary human could do such a thing.

By later that day, Kurama's calm had begun to shatter. His fan club was everywhere, and the other boys weren't helping at all. Apparently, several of them had accepted bribes to snap a few compromising pictures of him.

Was Harry really the one who needed an entire security team on his tail?

That wasn't to say that the other members of the team hadn't managed to pick up a few fans here and there. So, Yusuke's wish had been granted.

Kuwabara (or "The Dedicated Soldier of Love and Humanity", as he had dubbed himself) was simply ignoring his fawning disciples, as he was constantly thinking of his "precious love, Yukina". Yusuke was incessantly retelling stories of himself and his heroic exploits (minus a few details about his girlfriend, his job, his boss, his very talented support team, his death, and a few embarrassing moments here and there) to a group of giggling girls (need he really mention that they were second years?). Hiei... Well, Hiei had, um... intimidated... his fans into staying away from him. And Thia's tactics were a bit different from Hiei's, but just as effective in warding off admirers.

"Thi-" Kurama began. He'd only managed to find her right now, even though he'd been looking for some time.

"Get ears, you freak, and leave," she snapped, and tossed her hair over her shoulder.

"Vicious," Kurama commented, and caught up to her brisk pace. Seeing who was next to her, Thia stopped dead and a hand flew to her mouth.

"Uh... Sorry! I didn't realize it was you and I was just finished blowing off some blown-up Gryffindor. I didn't mean any of that-"

"It's fine," Kurama laughed.

"So? Where's the flock?"

"I eluded them."

"Ah." Thia caught the look in Kurama's eye. "What is it you're thinking?" she asked, highly suspicious.

"What would you like to do? Today, I mean."

Confusion showed on Thia's face. "I don't know. Poison Snape?"

"He's not that bad."

"Yeah, well, you don't have spelling problems. Have you any idea of the points he'll take off if I spell something wrong if there's essay part on the final?"

"Surely you can remember that something is spelled 's-o-m-e-t-h-'"

"Oh, shut up," Thia muttered. "Who are you and where have you thrown Kurama?" The young man next to her gave her a pointed look. "Oh, right, you wouldn't get thrown anywhere. Why are you in such a- a- funny mood, then?"

"I really don't know." It was completely true. Somehow, he'd been swept away by a feeling of relief and freedom, oddly enough. "But answer my question."

"'Please' would be nice. Seriously, I don't know. I know you have a scheme cooking, so why don't you just say it so that I can tell you how brilliant it is."

"Why don't we just wander around?"

Thia gaped. "Brilliant, yeah right. Uh, hello? What are we doing right now, if not wandering?" It was true, they were just floating about, walking in the more secluded halls of the upper levels of the castle.

"I meant outside," he said, and motioned vaguely at the window that they had just passed. Thia glanced out.

"It's going to rain," she pointed out, looking once more at the gray sky.

"So?"

"You really are in a funny mood today. All right then, Minamino. Let's go."

It didn't immediately begin to pour the moment that they walked out of the door, but the sky sure did darken menacingly. They wandered here and there, talking and joking around like the friends that they were. When the rain finally began to fall, they were in a plain grassy area, not far from the Forbidden Forest. Thia was about to suggest going for cover when the rain began to sheet down, pounding them with icy cold water. But it felt surprisingly good, even if they did get drenched.

"Do you want to go back?" Thia had to practically shout over the rain. Kurama smiled and shook his head. "You've gone insane, did you know that?"

HHR, Yusuke, and Kuwabara had met up in the Gryffindor common room and were currently just sitting around, looking bored.

"Hey, look at those idiots down there," Yusuke said suddenly, watching some girls getting drenched in the rain.

"Urameshi... You do know who those idiots are, don't you?" Kuwabara asked.

"No. Wait. Holy shit! Wait. No, I don't know, Kuwabara. Care to fill me in?"

"Kurama and Thia."

"It really makes you wonder why they were put into Ravenclaw, doesn't it?" Hermione asked, shaking her head.

Grass, when wet, becomes slippery.

Bang!

"Ow!" Thia yelped as she rubbed her lower back, where she'd felt a jolt. Above her, Kurama was laughing as he held out his hand to her. Thia rolled her eyes and took it, purposely distributing her weight so that-

Bang!

"Ow! You let go of me!"

"First of all, you were going to take me down with you. And second, my hands are slippery." This time, he held out both of his hands to her and pulled her upright. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." She peered up at him for a moment. He looked like a wreck, with his red bangs plastered to his forehead and his face pale from the cold water. He was soaked.

"Good." Thia didn't look much better. Her hair, still tied up, was bolt straight, and she was as pale as he. Kurama still held her hands loosely in his, even though he kept telling himself to release her.

"If I catch a cold, can I blame it on you?" she was asking him. Standing so close to him, holding hands... it was like electricity running through Thia, pumping her blood and creating those weird butterflies in her stomach.

"Sure," he replied, smiling again.

"And you're 100% sure you haven't gone mental?"

"Positive," Kurama said, half to himself, and-

The five Gryffindors were pasted to the window, astonished.

Finally, Yusuke managed a: "Who the hell saw that one coming?"

"Yeah..."

-kissed her.

Thia's heart stopped beating. Thoughts rushed through her head, none of them comprehensible except for: What?

He broke the kiss within moments and backed up two steps, not knowing whether she would hit him or not. But... she was in some sort of daze, watching him with a look of disbelief. Her heart had finally started up again, and was racing at a rate that would probably get a car a speeding ticket. (a.n.: sorry, corny line, I know. can't help myself.)

Tell her you're sorry... Tell her you're sorry, some voice of reason was urging him, but he wanted to see her reaction first.

Slowly, Thia broke through the stupor and walked forward a small step, then took another one, barely matching one of the strides that he had taken. Kurama knew that if she was going to hit him, he wouldn't stop her and that it would somehow hurt him more than a lot of other bruises he had gotten.

She took a third small step, but just as she was about to take another, the earth beneath her suddenly just vanished. Kurama leapt at her, his sense of forewarning having kicked in only seconds before. However, only one of her feet was on level ground and Thia crashed into the mud trench that was unexpectedly beneath her before he could pull her away.

Lying there, in the mud, Thia felt the power that dwelled in this pit just crash down on her, practically crushing her lungs. It was only as she struggled to get up that it relented a little, and she held out her arms to Kurama so that he could help her out. The ditch was shorter than her, but only by an inch or two, and with the walls of it so slippery, there was no way that she could just climb her way out.

"God, that hurt," he heard her say as he hauled a muddy Thia up. "I feel like I twisted my knee. If you planned this, Kurama, I swear I'll kill you." And he heard, in her voice, that she was dead serious. Toying with her emotions was clearly something worth death, in her eyes, and it was something that he wouldn't do.

"How could I? Why would I? We're trapped now." For the first time, Thia looked around and saw that the trench wasn't localized to where she had fallen, but surrounded them on all sides, a circular moat (for it was quickly filling with water) around a triangular patch of land.

Responses:

YYH-Yu-Yu-Hakusho-Fan/Hiei=Hot, lobs-stacey-ters, slave2anime, and The Legendary Beckster—Thanks for reviewing!

Meghann/xKitsunex—Oh, Voldemort would've probably used Avada Kedavra if he didn't need his Death Eaters to do his dirty work... The 6th book is called Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (or something like that). There's a lot of info about it on JK Rowling's site... Thank you for reviewing!

Falcon-sama—::squeals:: COOKIES! PLUSHIES! I love you! (In a completely platonic way, that is.) Bobby: I want the Hiei one!

starchild--I'm glad you agree with me! Thanks for reviewing!

Author's Note: I know that I have a tendency to make these notes long and drawn out, whereas other authors clearly hate them. I just like to talk. Today it's short(er), though. So: How'd ya like it? Does everyone understand what happened with the ditch? Well, if you didn't, then too bad, 'cause I'm not gonna explain it. Yet. And the end of this chapter doesn't count as a cliffhanger, does it? (I don't think so, but then again, I'm a bad judge.) And if you find that any of the characters are OOC, then please tell me! It's my constant fear that I'll screw up...

::Waves hand around like a Jedi:: You will review... ::waves again:: You will review... So do it already!!! Bobby: ::in Watto voice:: Who do you think you are, a Jedi? I'm a Toydarian! ::gags Bobby:: Sorry... we're a bit obsessed with Star Wars.