Chapter 6: WTF, seriously?


After sprinting the halls to Dumbledore's office, the three friends were very much out of breath, but they had no time to gather it. Off to dinner to eat as fast as humanly possible, then to the common room to finish the homework assignment from hell.

Three hours into the assignment, the sun was slowly creeping behind the trees, and they weren't even close to being finished.

"Seriously, that prick must run out of pointless essays for us to write sometime. Hermione, have you found out what the hell a "Linkese" is yet?" Ron questioned, slouching so far down in his armchair, his butt was hanging off in mid-air.

Hermione tossed the amazingly tall book aside. "No, and I've looked everywhere. I think he may have just made that one up."

Harry looked up from his book, realizing that it too was useless and put it on top of the huge pile they had checked out from the library. He sat back, looking into the flames.

"I wonder when Yusuke will be back," he mumbled, thinking out loud.

"OH!" Hermione squealed suddenly, "I forgot to tell you, I went to the library on my own today . . ."

"When? There was no time that you could have . . ."

". . . and I found a book on the differences and similarities between magic from other countries. It mentioned how basic and instinctual the spells of Japan are. I think that . . ."

But whatever she thought didn't matter, because suddenly, the fireplace blazed bright green and grew about four feet higher. Hermione yelped and Ron cursed as a soot-covered Yusuke stepped out of the flames coughing and cursing. And in his hand was a wand.

"What?" he asked, patting soot off of his school robes while the three British kids watched with open mouths. "You look like you've never seen anyone jump out of green flames before."

"Yeah, well, the common room fireplaces aren't part of the Floo network," Harry protested.

"Tell that to old long beard," Yusuke retorted twirling his wand in his fingers. "So, looks like I've been hooked up with a magic stick. Mind showing me how to work it?"


Another two hours later, neither Harry, Ron or Hermione were any closer to being done with the report, but none cared. With the common room all to themselves, they were having quite the time tutoring the exchange student in the most basic, first-year spells. As funny as it was to watch the frustrated boy fling random objects across the room with a simple levitation charm, they had to agree that Yusuke was rather good, though most of his spells had more force and less control than normal. But by the end of the night, Yusuke was able to do a few useful spells and they would have gone for longer, but he insisted he needed to sleep.

Lying on his four-poster bed, the black haired Japanese boy stared at the ceiling, smugly thinking about the looks on his friends' faces when he shows them all the spells he already learned.

He rolled over lazily, glancing at the sleeping Harry a few feet away.

"These dorks aren't so bad," Yusuke thought. "And this place is kinda growing on me too." Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched wail from down on the grounds outside. Totally not willing to get out of the warm, comfy bed, he pulled the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes.

"I hope that was a normal thing . . .for this place, at least."


The next morning, Yusuke found himself standing red-eyed and sleepy in greenhouse number two with the rest of his house year and the Hufflepuffs. But before he could nod off for a few winks, Kuwabara elbowed him in the side.

"Hey, Urameshi, wake up! We've got our wands now, we have to pay attention!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever . . ." he waved at his teammate, closing his eyes again.

"I'm afraid he's right, Mister Urame-she," Madame Sprout scolded, waving the purple roots she held at him. "You boys may be new, but you must pay attention if you have any hopes of catching up!" She turned to the rest of the class, "Now this is a . . . " and Yusuke immediately tuned her out and stared out the glass to the castle beyond.

In another hour, the class made its way up the hill, heading back to the castle for Transfiguration. On the way, however, as Yusuke and Kuwabara were slowly trudging behind the rest of the group, they past a distracted looking Karama completely surrounded by giggling groupies.

"Hey, prissy!" Yusuke hollered about twenty feet away from his friend. Realizing that he was yelling at their idol, Kurama's fan club turned on Yusuke with blazing eyes, but said nothing about it as their prince parted their security circle and waved to his "friend." Watching him cross the green field, Yusuke noticed that Kurama had pulled his robes behind his back and tied them with a ribbon so that his pink and yellow uniform he wore underneath stuck out from the rest of the closed black robes.

"Good morning to you too, Yusuke," he greeted the boys.

"You look a little out of it, Kurama. You have a late night visitor last night?" Yusuke teased. "Maybe one of your fan club groupies?"

"Thankfully, no. Night is about the only time they let me alone," he sighed looking back at the gaggle of girls, which quivered at his very glance. "Which is how I managed to get some practice with this wand last night."

"You lie!" Kuwabara protested.

"I taught myself a few useful tricks," the kitsune smiled. "Like this little trick: Reparo!" he demanded, pointing his 13 inch wand at a rip in the shoulder of Kuwabara's robes. It instantly sewed itself back together. (Kuwabara: Hey, I liked that tear! It made me look tough!)

"Well, that one's cool, but lets see if you can master this spell I got in. . ." but Yusuke was cut off by a shrill cry from inside the depth of the black trees across the grounds.


As Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just reached the base of the castle stairs, the very air electrified with the sharp sound from the Forbidden Forest. They spun around to see the forest's birds jumping into the air, as startled as they were to hear the scream. Every student stopped to stare at the forest: the Griffindors halfway inside the castle, the Hufflepuffs right behind them, and the Ravenclaws closest to the forest as they headed to Care of Magical Creatures.

"What the bloody hell was that!" Ron cursed, his eyes flying about the forest edge.

"I don't know but . . ."

"I have a bad feeling . . . "

"There! LOOK!" Ron yelled, pointing a little to the right to the forest at the bottom of the hill. Up the green grass, running at an amazing speed was a creature none of the unusually experienced friends recognized. It was a very wide creature running on four legs, its long stringy hair flying behind it. As it headed. Straight. For. Yusuke, Kurama, and Kuwabara.

"YUSUKE! MOVE!" Harry screamed, but the boys had seen it coming too. They easily dodged the attack. As most of the young witches and wizards decided to merely scream, panic, and run, Harry, Ron and Hermione watched with fear from the top of the stairs as the creature swiftly u-turned and headed full speed back at the boys.

"USE THE STUPIFY CURSE!" Ron suggested, seeing Yusuke's arm twitch towards his wand. But the creature had reached them again and in a moment of black blurs, the three Japanese boys landed safely as the attacker missed again.

"SCREW THAT, RON!" they heard their friend yell back, not taking his eyes off his enemy. "I'M TAKING THIS THING DOWN THE OLD FASHIONED WAY! SPIRIT GUN!"

It was hard for Hermione to believe her eyes. She had read about ancient spells used without a wand in desperate moments that were said to have immensely destructive powers, but she had never seen a move like that. They all watched open mouthed, as their classmates scrambled up the stairs around them. Their new friend stood to face the approaching predator with his hands straight out, as if he hand a gun and meant to shoot it. But what went zipping through the air was not a normal bullet, but a large, round, glowing orb of . . . pure energy? She had heard of such things, but hadn't truly believed in the theories. Oh, but now . . . she could tell that she was going to be doing a lot more research.


Yusuke stood looking at the spot where the creature had last been. There was merely a scorched patch of grass there now.

"Guys, what was that?" Kuwabara asked stepping forward a bit with his hands in his pockets again.

"Whatever it was, its gone now," Yusuke smiled, fully happy with himself.

"Its nature doesn't matter to me, but its propose." Kurama said. "Why did it suddenly appear, and why did it target only us?"