DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho or Harry Potter. ::sob:: Take pity on me!

Chapter 25: The Final Battle: Ended

The tables were turned and the Spirit Detective and his rag-tag team were the ones who were grasping for a solution to their new problem. They were unable to so much as touch Lord Tsurin's new army, though the weapons that the army possessed were fully capable of wounding them.

Yusuke sent a Spirit Gun zooming through the attackers, which created the rather odd effect of making a whirling thing in the middle of the warriors' stomachs. Which, technically, was about as good an effect as nothing at all. They didn't even slow their pace.

"Harry!" came Hermione's shriek as one of the ghost-like beings reached out and grasped the young wizard with an iron grip. Heads snapped around and several of the warriors took this opportunity to swipe at their opponents with daggers.

"Damn!"

Meanwhile, try as he might, Harry couldn't break free of his captor. Kicking did no good, as his foot only sank into the icy cold that was the ghost-being's body. Too late, he saw that they were moving, quite quickly, to the demon known as Tsurin.

Who was actually laughing hysterically, slapping his massive knees and stomping his gigantic feet. The ground shook menacingly, and the deep tones of the laughter resonated in everyone's ribs. Desperately, Harry wondered what the heck this evil being would do to him- kill him? Offer him to Voldemort? Ah well, the world was doomed, either way, wasn't it? Or perhaps not.

Suddenly, the wizard was face-to-face with only the ugliest demon on the face of the earth. Didn't they have plastic surgeons down in Demon World?

"So. This is the foolish little brat," Tsurin boomed.

Or breath mints, for that matter?

"Voldemort worried over nothing. Nothing at all. I could snap your little neck in an instant, stupid human boy. You were an idiot to even think you would withstand the greatness that is Tsurin," he snarled, and took Harry from the ghost-like warrior by the collar of the boy's shirt.

"Someone help Harry!" Ron was saying in the background.

"Shut up! Do you think we're having a tea party over here or something?! There's no way to beat these damn things!" Yusuke yelled back.

"But you can do something, little brat," Tsurin said, his breath blowing in Harry's face and bringing his attention back to the evil lord.

"Er- does that mean you'll spare me?" Harry was fishing for time. Just bring me in a little closer, just a little bit closer!

"Yes- for a time, you nuisance of a human. You can destroy Voldemort. If you do so, then I will spare you." Tsurin brought Harry a fraction of an inch closer. "But if you refuse this, you will die a hundred deaths."

"Uh-huh. Will you, er, spare my friends?" Closer...

"No. Those foolish humans dared to oppose me! They will DIE!!!"

"How about the demons?"

Tsurin brought Harry so close that the boy could see the pores in his monstrous nose.

"Are you playing games, stupid human?!" Tsurin pulled Harry closer, his huge face looming. "Did you not hear me the first time? I will kill those traitors to the demon race with my bare hands!!"

"Playing games?" Harry gave a tug and the chain broke. "Never quite occurred to me."

Something in the background caught Tsurin's eye. Why had his army stopped? What- They were- were disappearing! Tsurin's grasp on the stupid human boy slackened for a moment, and by the time he realized his mistake, Harry had slipped out of the demon's reach. In his hand was the chain holding the Pearl and the Peridot.

"No- No!"

"'Stupid human. You will be the first that I sacrifice to the Pearl!'" Yusuke mimicked in a high-pitched tone of voice that didn't resemble Tsurin's actual voice in the slightest. "Well eat this, 'All-Powerful Lord Tsurin'!"

The Spirit Gun blast that Yusuke produced completely decimated Tsurin.

The Pearl in Harry's hands began to glow suddenly and he nearly dropped it when it spoke, scaring the living daylights out of just about everyone in the vicinity.

"Fear not. I only wish to claim what is rightfully mine: Master Tsurin's soul."

"Whoa. The Pearl just talked!"

"Obviously, Kuwabara." Hermione, however, sounded rather dazed.

Through the air came a floating thing, almost like a wisp of cloud, and yet so different. As it was sucked into the Pearl, the light seemed to dim, and once the Pearl stopped glowing completely, Harry put the chain into Genkai's outstretched hand. If he or any of the rest of them never saw the accursed things again, then so much the better.

"Don't you hate villains like that? The ones who have about a thousand tricks up their sleeves and catch you off guard, but are really wimpy in the end?" Yusuke asked, yawning. It was, after all, about 7:00.

"Not really," Thia answered, touching a spot on the back of her head where a dagger had scraped her. "It's actually quite brilliant. Make up in brains what you lack in brawn. It's the fact that they're all talk and nothing else that's a real pain. Oh, damn!" she swore when the tips of her fingers came away with blood. "How many times do I have to go to the hospital wing in a year?!"

FFFFWEEEEET!

Wormtail silently handed the plate to his master.

"Yes?"

"The demon is dead, sir."

"Fine." And it was. Because that fool had been planning to betray him from the start. So, Voldemort would've had to dispose of Tsurin anyway.

The Lord Voldemort sent the Communication Plate into the wall across the length of the room, just to scare Wormtail. And it worked.

They were back in the castle. For once, there wasn't a whole lot of blood and no one was knocked out. What a relief for Madam Pomfrey. There was, however, a chunk of Thia's hair missing where the dagger had nicked her, and she was agonizing over the fact that it was going to have to be cut.

McGonagall and Genkai were speaking in hushed tones in the corner, supposedly discussing the incidents that had just occurred, but in all reality, they were talking about the stubbornness of adolescents. In particular, adolescents that they taught.

Dumbledore swept into the hospital wing with an air of 'What did I miss?'

Before they could launch into the story, however, Professors McGonagall and Genkai took him aside.

"I see. Now would one of you explain to us adults what these artifacts are?" the headmaster asked after the basic story had been told to him.

With that permission, they (meaning, of course, Harry, with interjections from the rest of the group) launched into a story of how they had done research to try and figure out Botan's cryptic message and the just as cryptic clues, all the way to the final battle.

"So you assumed that Professor Genkai and her team were trying to intercept this?" Dumbledore held up the Pearl.

"Yessir."

Genkai shook her head. "We never knew about the Pearl or the Peridot. What we were doing was selling an artifact to an important storeowner in Knockturn Alley. In return, we wanted his alliance and whatever information he could find out. We believed that this attack was simply another of the ones that Voldemort sanctioned."

And so the pieces of the puzzle flew together.

In the Great Hall, five Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw watched Thia pace angrily, her newly shorn hair swishing around her face. Hiei, who was sitting at the very end of the table, was not watching, was bored stiff, and was making 'hn'-ing sounds every so often.

"Urgh! If you had stayed put and not run into battle like the idiots that you are, then he might not have been captured and then she wouldn't have screamed and- URG!" was the agitated pronouncement.

"Hey, calm down," Kuwabara said disapprovingly, trying to act like a sort of mediator.

"I will NOT calm down, Kuwabara!"

"He's right. What are you worried about? Hair grows back," Harry said distractedly.

"Wrong thing to say, buddy!" Thia yelled, and was about to pounce on The Boy Who Lived and beat him into a bloody pulp when Kurama stood up and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You look fine."

It was hard for her not to smile when she felt so unreasonably giddy, but Thia put up a good effort, crossing her arms and sighing exasperatedly.

Yusuke got a very sly look in his eyes.

"Hey, why do you listen to Suichi and not to us?"

Both teens flushed slightly, clearly thinking the thought, 'I will kill Yusuke. I will. And I will enjoy it.' Hermione saved the day.

"Because he actually said something nice." Thia looked like she was about to fall on her knees and worship the Gryffindor. "You boys, you're always saying something stupid and insensitive."

"HEY!" was the unanimous reply from the Gryffindor boys.

"Well, you do."

"NOT! WE DO NOT!"

"There you go, Ron. That was something stupid."

"Well- well-"

"Face it, man, you can't win with her," Kuwabara said darkly, giving Hermione a look to match, dark, accusing, and disapproving. "It's just like Urameshi can't win with Kayko."

"'N you know what's not fair? How Thia and Suichi both win. Always. That's just bloody wrong."

"See! Insensitive creep! I'm standing right here!" Thia went off, face burning.

"Girls! What the heck is wrong with your kind?" Ron asked Hermione.

"'My kind'? Ron, you're such an idiot."

"WHAT?!"

"You heard me, Yusuke," Botan said as she leaned against her oar.

"WHAT?!"

Meaning: 'We just saved the day AGAIN and we STILL have to take FINALS?!'

"Yup. Koenma specifically said that you had to stay until the school year ends. After all, if you leave now and Voldemort attacks all of a sudden and kills Harry, then your mission still fails."

"WHAT?!"

"Shut your mouth, Yusuke, you're catching spiders," Hiei snarled.

"I HATE YOU, KOENM-"

"Shut up! You still have to take finals, no matter how much you curse Koenma." And then, in an undertone, "I would know."

Finals. How anticlimactic.

Responses:

Rose, lobsstaceyters, slave2anime, Minakra, Shadow Fox777, Icy Tears, Dark Comet--Thanks to all of ya!!

Long Live Asato Kido-- SIRIUS!!! PIG!!!.......::GASP!:: a YYH/HP fic in my honor?!?! ::faints:: ::Bobby gapes:: Thia: WOOHOO! THANK YOU!!!!

Mana-Chan Saiyan-- Thanks a million times for pointing that out! o.O Wait, you're stalking me?? COOL!!! ::Thia and Bobby sweat-drop::

Meghann-- Ding-ding-ding!!! You got it! Yet another reference to LOTR. (I'd make a fanfiction, but I'm not quite sure what it'd be about...) And see, Thia didn't die! It's cause I remembered how much I hated JKR when she killed Sirius off...

Arano Honou-- CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!

Author's Notes: Okay, so I have a few announcements to make.

(1) I am quitting fanfiction . net. No, I'm just kidding. KIDDING, PEOPLE!!!! So don't sic your very fierce Chihuahua on me or mutilate various parts of my anatomy. Do something tasteful, like sending a handsome assassin to kill me. The real #1 is: (1) I am writing a sequel. Unfortunately, my laptop won't work right (I'm using a relative's) and I didn't get a chance to save the three chapters that I had written of the sequel. Aheh. But anyway, the summary's in my bio under 'We're Doing It Again?!' or something like that. To tell you the truth, I hate that title. Any suggestions?

(2) Okay, yes, this story is coming to a close, but I have to completely rewrite chapter 26, the FINAL CHAPTER of the real fanfiction. And then I'm putting up the Deleted Scenes. A gag reel is first. And I think I've already told y'all this already, I'm just being redundant. Again.

(3) My sense of timing with this entire fanfiction (and the sequel) is screwed. I know it's supposed to be skewed, but I like that word better. Which reminds me: Has the newest YYH DVD come out yet? (the one after In the Blood, I mean…)

(4) Aheh. Please don't hate me. I don't want to get up your hopes that the ending of this will be, erm, movie-ending-style. So, just a warning. It's nothing bad, of course, it's just not... what some people might want.

(5) REVIEW! I just wanted to say that. And please review for any of my other fanfictions. 'Cause, you know. I'm a review hog.