Chapter 5: Life As a Hogwarts Student

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The next few days proved very difficult and interesting to each of the groups of kids. Yusuke and his friends were finding it increasingly frustrating trying to navigate the castle, but each of them had been assigned kids from their own houses and years to lead them around. As expected, Hermione was chosen to guide Yusuke around, and sometimes they were joined by Neville, who took the opportunity to act like he wanted to get to know the exchange student better, but they all knew that he was just lost.

Kuwabara's partner was a tubby boy they all called Ernie. Kuwabara seemed to get along well with Ernie and his friends, as Yusuke spotted them across the Great Hall several times laughing loudly about stupid things.

Hiei however, had decided to find his own way about the castle, which seemed to work as he was always in class on time, though no one EVER saw him walking the halls.

Kurama, though, really didn't have a single guide, but actually a mob of giggling girls, some of which weren't even in the same house or year. This made getting to classes for him harder than it should have. --

After a few days of classes, which the exchange students merely watched and took notes in, they were each approached by a teacher giving them messages to meet to receive wands.

They were to meet at Professor Dumbledore's office…five minutes ago. But Yusuke's guides had been held after in Potions and the four of them were now racing down the crowded hallways together.

"Just like Snape to find the worst time to keep us after!" Ron snorted, heaving his bag over his shoulder as they ran.

"You didn't even do anything! That prissy-man teacher is just out to get you," Yusuke commented, trotting beside him.

"Yeah, we're used to it, though," Hermione agreed, between heavy breaths. "Here we are, Dumbledore's office . . .though we don't know the password. . ." They stopped in front of a giant statue of a creature Yusuke had never seen before. He was about to ask what it was when it began spinning and a spiral staircase was revealed.

"Well, I guess that's your cue, Uremeshi. Hope you get a strong wand!" With that, Harry and Ron nudged him onto the bottom stair, which began moving upwards like an escalator. Three seconds later, the stairs were stopping at an old door, which he opened without knocking.

"Ah, there you are, Yusuke!" the old wizard smiled, standing with the other three Japanese boys. Yusuke couldn't help but stare at all the oddities in this room: the moving paintings covering every inch of the walls, the thin, string-less mobiles floating overhead, the bright orange bird sleeping in the corner, the gnarled old. . . "Now we don't have much time to talk or gawk, so take a pinch of this. . ." the wizened wizard said, putting a bag of powder under Yusuke's nose and, with his eyebrow raised, he took a pinch. ". . . and follow my lead." He stepped over to the giant fireplace blazing with orange flames. Throwing some of the powder into the fire, it suddenly flared green, and to Yusuke's great surprise, the old man gathered his robes and stepped into the fire.

"Olivander's!" he projected from the neon green flames, and suddenly, he was gone.

Yusuke was aghast.

"Well, if you boys don't mind . . ." Kurama said. The other boys just shook their heads, so he threw his pinch into the now regular fire, and it flared green again. Yusuke watched open mouthed as his teammate calmly stepped into the blaze.

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>really long story, i know, but i DO have a plan . . .