STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES.

Location: Original plan for chapter 4. Very beginning can be used for the edited chapter 4.

Chapter 03: The End of the Ride and the Beginning of the Mission

For the rest of the ride they made small chat ("What school did you used go to?"), though Kurama and Thia had the same idea to get engrossed in a book, ("Is that the Potions textbook... and the Transfiguration textbook?! Hermione, you've got a bit of competition!" "Shut up, Ron!") once the red-head had finally given her text back to her.

Then the train stopped and it was time for everyone to get off.

A bellow of "Firs' years!" was heard all over the station. And then: "Transfers jus' meet Dumbledore up at the castle. Follow the other studen's."

"Whoa! Freaky lookin' horses!" Yusuke shouted as soon as he saw the 'horseless' carriages. The black, skeletal things were straight out of a nightmare book, and yet a few of the other students were (fumblingly) reaching out and touching them, half affectionately and half frightened.

"They're thestrals," a few quiet voices piped up.

"You can see them? Who'd you see-" Ron was cut off by a sudden jab in his ribs by Hermione.

"If I'm not mistaken, all of us can see the thestrals," Kurama replied nonchalantly, and reached out to give one a slight touch.

"They give me the shivers."

"You'd rather they were monster-sized kittens, Kuwabara?" Yusuke asked, one of his characteristic smirks on his face.

"SHUT UP, URAMESHI!!!" the carrot-haired one bellowed, and threw his fist out at the other boy.

The others sweat-dropped.

"Are they always like this?" Ron asked.

"Yes."

"Don't just stand around! Break them apart!" Hermione shrieked at her friends, both new and old. Hiei gave her a cold glance that said clearly, 'You do it.' Kurama was smiling- smiling!

"Well?!" the bushy-haired girl prompted Weasley and Potter.

"Aw, 'Mione! It's just getting interesting! Get him, Kuwabara!"

Hermione turned to Thia, who grinned and rolled her eyes.

"Oh, look, it's Kayko and Yukina!"

The two boys shot up and stood at attention, both looking rather guilty.

"WHERE?!"

"Situation diffused."

As it turned out, it was not Dumbledore who met the transfers, but rather, the hook-nosed Severus Snape.

"You will follow me," he commanded as soon as he caught sight of them. Then he said, "I will advise you to stay away from trouble-makers such as Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley."

"Thanks for the pointer, but I'll..." Yusuke uncharacteristically withered under Snape's glare.

"He can make his own little friends," Hiei finished, staring Snape straight in the eyes.

No one else spoke as they made their winding way to the headmaster's office.

Mm... 'kay, I'm not sure which reviews are from which chapter, 'cause I have the distinct feeling that some of these were for the Gag Reel chapter (everyone seemed to like Mr. Boom-Boom...). Still, I'm going to say thanks to, well, everyone.

Responses:

Minakara, Princess Krystal01, dizappearingirl, Shadow Fox777—Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!

poltergeist report 101—Thanks so much for your suggestion!

samuraiduck27—Yeah, I feel so bad for Hiei, too! Thanks for reviewing!

lobs-stacey-ters—Thanks so much, especially for reading Pyrite!

DarkLordofDoomness—Heh! The word 'doomness' is cool! Meep! Not... The Hokey Pokey Stick of Pain!!! Oh, anything BUT the Hokey Pokey Stick of Pain!! ::faints:: Bobby: Worry not, we're working on the Sequel. ::mutters about stupid alter-egos:: Thanks for reviewing, and please come again!

slave2anime—lol. Hiei is yours! Well, for this month, anyway. The amount of people who want Hiei means that you all have to share him, unfortunately... But thanks for the review! (Am I becoming repetitive?)

Shichi—Yeah, there's going to be a sequel, but it hasn't been written at all yet. Thanks for reviewing!

Shessha's Crazy—lol, yeah, help yourselves! It's a reward for reviewing!

Long Live Asato Kido/ Falcon-sama—Thanks for reviewing! Gred and Forge, huh? Well, erm, have fun!

Author's Note: The reason why I didn't do this is because I had no idea how to continue and therefore trashed the idea (although the beginning part might be still good for the original storyline).

Thestrals: I wasn't sure about whether they could see the thestrals because I'm not completely sure that the whole you-can't-see-them-unless-you've-seen-someone-die rule applied to seeing people that you didn't exactly care for die, because obviously then they'd definitely be in. And then I started musing about how if you've already been dead, should you be able to see them because they seem to have a lot to do with the subject?... It made sense to me at the time, in a funny sort of way, but now I see that I'm a tad mental. Ah well, review, pretty please!

Sequel Update:

Ooookay. So, yeah, it's coming. I've written up the basis of the first chapter. There will be one or two, ahem, guest appearances by people who are rather de- Bobby: SHUT UP! That's called a spoiler for your own damn story! Fine. But, okay. The temporary cast of the sequel will include ::deep breath:: the psychics, Kido, Kaitou, and Yana. TEMPORARY cast. I do believe that the TEMPORARY title will be... ::drumroll:: 'Trick Questions'. That's a mean little teaser, eh?