Chapter 3: Separated in a Strange World

Even though, on the outside, Yusuke seemed totally calm and cool, almost as if he had done this all before, on the inside he fidgeted with fear. Through all the missions and adventures he had been on, any inanimate object they found that could talk turned out to be quite evil. Nonetheless, he walked to the stool, picked up the giant, rugged hat and sat down with it on his head.

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"Ohhhhhhh . . ." a voice in his ear whispered, making him jump a little in surprise. He could hear giggles from the students through the thick fabric of the hat.

"This will be fun," the voice continued. "Or rather, difficult for you. . . I can tell you have no idea what you are getting yourself into, but do not worry. I will sort you so that you will be best suited for your task."

Yusuke nearly ripped the hat off his head. What the hell?! This thing knows about the mission?! It must be reading my mind! Damnit!

"Calm down," the hat cooed before Yusuke could tear it off. "I am merely a singing sorting hat. You needn't worry about it. Now . . . for your house . . . yes, you seem best suited for GRYFFINDOR!"

Taking this as his cue to leave, he lifted the hat off his head and lightly placed it back on the stool, as if it might explode and start shouting his secrets to the world. After witnessing the entire sorting ceremony for the first years, he knew what he was supposed to do when the hat shouted Gryffindor, but he still didn't know what it was.

Unlike when each of the first years ran to their new house tables, the hall was completely silent as Yusuke walked to the table with the red and gold runner. Well, silent until . . .

"Yusuke! Over here!"

Although he still looked completely uncaring and cool, Yusuke's well-hidden anxiety was washed clean as the crazy-haired boy and his two friends leaned backwards in their seats and motioned him to sit with them. He gladly took the seat in between Harry and Ron. As his cheeks met the bench, the hall exploded in cheers of welcome from the Gryffindor table, in a kind of delayed reaction.

"Yes, yes! Congratulations, Gryffindor for the fine addition to your ranks!" the white haired professor cheered, and the hall quieted as he announced the hat's next victim.

"Kazuma Kuwabara, please approach the stool!"

Yusuke gave a small laugh when his friend jumped at the sound of his named being called. As Kuwabara reached the giant hat and laid it on his head, he merely watched with interest and curiosity of which name the hat would shout.

Moments later, the hat seemed to . . . chuckle. The hall went deadly silent, watching the tall boy quiver underneath the hat.

"HUFFLEPUFF!!!" it shouted, finally, causing everyone in the room to jump, including Kuwabara. The room quickly recovered from the shock and the Hufflepuff table boomed with claps and whistles.

"Kurama," the white haired man called, eyeing the long haired boy from over his half-moon glasses. "Please." he motioned towards the hat, but the boy had already started for it, obviously eager to be 'sorted.'

The rest of the students, however, looked on in confusion.

"Just 'Kurama?'" Ron asked to the air with one eyebrow higher than the other.

"Your friend doesn't have a last name?" Hermione turned to Yusuke, interested, but was met by a I'm-trying-to-hide-something-from-you look.

"Well," the dark haired boy laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head. Everyone that heard the question, and some that didn't, where now leaning in towards him to hear the answer. "Yeah, he sorta does, but we all just call him Kurama so it really doesn't matter, right?"

Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but Yusuke was saved as the entire hall turned towards Kurama and the hat.

The fox boy had been wearing the hat for less than 20 seconds, and was almost in a fit of giggles over something no one else could hear, as the hat and the boy conversed on a mental level none of them could reach. [1]

After another few laughs from Kurama, and a lurch from the hat, as if it had nodded, the rip near the brim opened wide to shout "RAVENCLAW!!"

Obviously annoyed at how damned long this ceremony thing was taking, Hiei didn't even wait for the old man to finish calling him forward ("Hiei, it is now your turn," Dumbledore beckoned with a smile.). He picked up the hat with a look of contempt, and placed it on his head. As short as the fire apparition was, the hat nearly consumed his entire torso, which brought laughs from groups of kids around the hall.

Hiei was under the hat nearly ten seconds before it shouted "SLYTHERIN" and practically spit the kid out of itself.

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The feast they received was, by far, the oddest one the boys had ever eaten. It was good, though, a fact that Hiei would miss, as he sat among the black clad students touching absolutely nothing at the table.

Yusuke spent most of the feast chatting with the three kids he had met on the train, all who seemed trustworthy and friendly, though somewhat dorky. He was starting to think that all English kids were rather nerdy, until two older boys, both donning their black school hats with the tops flipped over, approached the boy called Ron. He couldn't help but notice the flaming red hair and dense freckles that all three of them shared.

"Ronald, pumpkins," one of the boys teased, leaning over the red-head, whose face color instantly went as bright as his hair, "mummy gave this to us to give to you!" The older boy pushed a package into the smaller kids hands.

"She knew that you'd needed new knickers and forgot to pack them for you! Lucky we were there for her to give them to before the Express took off!" the other boy, who looked exactly like his brother, down the last freckle, teased as he ruffled Ron's hair.

"Shove off, Fred! Bloody hell, I hate you guys!" Now completely red in the face and neck, Ron hid the package under the table and tried to bury himself under his arms as the kids around them laughed as immature people must laugh at such a situation. Yusuke, being himself, also thought this was hilarious, and laughed extra hard, which caught the twins' attention.

"So you're the exchange student staying in Gryffindor, eh?" the one Ron called Fred asked, shoving some kids over so he could sit in the area. "You are gonna love our house."

"Especially our house ghost. He may be a tad melancholy, but none of the others can flip their heads off their necks like ours can!" At this, the bite Yusuke was eating got stuck in his throat, and he nearly choked.

"Ghosts? You can SEE ghosts here?"

"Well, yeah, there are lots of ghost who roam the castle."

"And a poltergeist."

Yusuke decided it was better not to ask, which would make him seem even more of a clueless outsider. Someday, he determined to tell his new friends about time HE had spent as a ghost, but now probably wasn't the time.

The feast came to a close, as all things must, and the clueless boys followed the flow of excited, yet tired children out of the hall. No matter how hard he tried, Yusuke could not get over how stupid they all looked in the black robes, especially Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara, who he saw standing aside in the Great Hall. Yusuke pointed them out to Harry and they made their way through the crowd to them.

"Having fun yet?" Kurama asked as Yusuke picked up a littler kid that he had accidentally stepped over.

"Great fun." he said, half sarcastically. "Now what?"

"Well, we are heading up to the tower," Harry piped in. "We can show you the way up there, but we don't know where the other houses are. You guys'll have to get someone from your houses to help you."

Suddenly realizing what "sorting" and "houses" meant in this place, Yusuke had a small urge of panic.

"You mean, we can't stay together?" he asked with his mouth hanging open.

"Yeah, that's how the kids at my table explained it," Kuwabara answered, shoving his hands in his pockets as if this bothered him as well. "And none of them could tell me where the other houses are. Guess it's a secret to the other kids. So we don't know where the rest of us will be." He glared at the wall at the end of his report, obviously upset.

Seeing the looks of confusion and curiosity on the English kids' faces, Kurama smiled reassuringly at his teammates.

"Don't worry, we'll see each other in classes, and we'll just have to make extra effort to hang out afterwards. The front steps looked like a cool place to hang out, especially under the beautiful starry sky," he stepped past the group, waving to a young Ravenclaw girl he had met, who turned bright red as she giggled her way over to him.

"Hey Ka-rama!" she beamed, looking up at the tall boy. "Want me to show you to our house? The castle can be kinda confusing sometimes. When I was new here, last year, when I was a first year, I got lost at least 50 times a week in the first month. You just gotta find the right staircase for the right time of day…" she babbled on, leading the fox-boy up a grand set of stairs. Yusuke watched him walk on without looking back.

"Well, I've had one hell of a day. Let's fine that Gryffin-dorm thing and get sleep, guys!" he motioned towards Harry, Hermione, and Ron, leading them towards the same stair steps.

Still standing in the same spots, Hiei and Kuwabara glared at Yusuke as he too left them to fend for themselves.

"This frickin' sucks," Kuwabara growled.

"For once, I actually agree with you, imbecile."

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[1]okay, I go from the book, and I say that the sorting hat does not talk until it shouts the house name, so there!

[[[wahhhhahahaha!!! I actually have a plot in mind for this! I don't know when I'll get chapter four up, but it should be rather soon. Please, tell me what you'all think!]]]