Authoress Note: Uh…no review replies, I'm too tired. Enjoy, while I go and take a nap! (Everyone, please NEVER take an early-morning flight. My GOD is it hard to get up!)
Chapter SixThe HogsWHAT! Army: Part One of Three (both main events of the chapter(s) squeezed into one tantalizing package. Yummy.)
Sprout left the next morning.
Moody reported to Dumbledore the results of her interrogation, which, at Snape's request, had been under the influence of Veritaserum. Her memory of the incident had been vague; mostly all she remembered was green flames springing to life in her office fireplace as she graded papers. A hooded figure had emerged. She'd grabbed her wand from it's resting place on her desk and prepared to fight, but she took to long. The figure had already raised it's own wand and murmured the Imperious Curse. Next thing she knew she was trying desperately to fight the curse's effects as she wrestled with Yukina. When she'd been released from the curse, Yusuke and Kuwabara had been holding her back from Yukina and Parvati. Realizing all that she'd done, she'd fainted.
After Moody and the other members of the Order in the castle had been satisfied she knew no more and had been acting against her will, she went to her set of rooms and packed her bags, stopping only by Gryffindor Common Room to apologize to Yukina and Parvati under the steely gaze of a very protective kitsune. Her explanation for taking leave was that she couldn't bear to face the students so soon. She planned on returning eventually, but she didn't know how far in the future eventually was. Fellow faculty understood and let her go, Dumbledore the first to say her vacation was well earned.
Professor McGonagall explained all of this to the Tantei in a hurried manner in the early morning hours of Sprout's day of departure, a Friday. She also gave them a large, noticeable sign that proclaimed the particular Friday a, 'mental health day,' for the faculty. There would be no classes, and McGonagall passed on a message from Keiko to Yusuke: She'd be in her office all day.
After breakfast, the students, who'd never experienced a 'mental health day,' were in high spirits, all of them catching on gossip instead of unfinished homework. And, as we all know, everything that isn't supposed to get out does at Hogwarts. Parvati told and retold the previous night's events like a wounded war veteran just come home from some faraway battle. Although pretty much everyone in the Common Room had heard of the epic battle the night before, they still crowded around the girl to hear it once or twice more before becoming bored and ambling over to the other 'hero,' Yukina.
The ice maiden, who'd reported to Madame Pomfrey but been dismissed to enjoy the free day, was quite confused by all the attention. Hiei, Kurama, and Kuwabara rescued her. Poor Kurama, in a true show of affection hereluctantly lured some of the girls away while Kuwabara dazzled the boys with the Spirit Sword, making it appear and changing it's lengths and shape. He enjoyed the attention, while Kurama suffered talking to heart-eyed fangirls as Hiei smuggled his sister out of the Common Room. As agreed, as soon as the 'ice eagle,' had 'safely landed,' Kuwabara and Kurama conveniently had to go and meet up with Yusuke at Professor Yukimora's office.
"What took you, Kurama?" asked Kuwabara in an exasperated manner when Kurama approached. "We've been waiting for fifteen minutes!" The orange-haired human'sarm was around the stiff-as-a-board Yukina's waist. Hiei, ever the protector, was standing behind the two looking quite murderous. Yukina, glad to have someone to cling to besides Kuwabara, forced herself from Kuwabara's demanding grip and over to Kurama, who was only too happy to take the hand she offered. Kuwabara looked at their clasped hands oddly, the message not completely registering.
"Me and Kurama-kun were going to go take a walk." Said the apparition slowly. Judging by the startled look on the kistune's face, they had been planning no such thing, But Kuwabara didn't notice that.
"Let me come, my dear ice-blue rose!" replied Kuwabara energetically.
"Alone, Kazuma." She explained, just as slowly.
"A-alone?" stuttered Kuwabara, crestfallen.
"I'll walk with you later." She put in quickly.
Kurama, still looking a bit startled by Yukina's sudden need for a walk, looked to Hiei. Hiei inwardly snorted, apparently things were moving along with Yukina faster than he'd thought. The girl was already going out walking with the fox. Giving the tiniest of a nod and smile, Kurama relaxed. At least he had Hiei's blessing, for this part of his relationship-under-construction, at least.
"Well, Kurama?" Yukina looked up into Kurama's eyes, red locking with emerald and holding there. Kurama was almost lost in a trance, he'd never before noticed how deep her eyes seemed to go, right into her very—the fox snapped out of his daydream and smiled.
"Let's go." Although Hiei's warning from the night before was still fresh in his mind, Kurama found his arm snaking around her tiny waist. She stiffened a bit, and he cursed himself for not going for something less like a move. The shoulders or something, yeah, that would have been better. But then she relaxed, and he felt pressure on his shoulder, hesitant at first, then the full weight of Yukina's head. He smiled once more. Maybe he did still have it.
"Harry? I have a question," said Hermione, sitting down across from him and pushing a lock of dark hair from her face. "I was wondering…are we still going to hold meetings for Dumbledore's Army?"
Harryblinked, startled; he hadn't been expecting anything like that. In fact, he'd almost completely forgotten about the Army.
"Would we be allowed?" he asked finally, his green eyes bright. "Would Dumbledore allow it?"
"Already taken care of." Replied Hermione, handing Harry a folded bit of parchment. He unfolded it and read.
"'Dumbledore's Army, also known as the Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts Club, is hereby allowed to hold meetings if it's founders and teachers agree to continue. Signed, A. Dumbledore. P.S. And Harry, I trust you'll be inviting the new students as a good gesture. You may not have warmed up much, but they ARE students here.'" Harry looked up from the parchment. "The new students? Why should we invite them? They could be Death Eaters for all we know!"
"Yes, but do you think Dumbledore would have let them in if he had even the tiniest suspicion? And you saw them fighting those demons. They could teach us a thing or two, if you ask me. The next meeting is Sunday, if you'll hold it. I already made the notice. We'll post it on the message board if you want to continue. And I listed the other students as special guests."
Harry sighed. Teaching Dumbledore's Army had been fun, he had to admit. But he still couldn't shake off the feeling that those new students were hiding something. And Harry didn't much like being kept in the dark.
"And Professor Annemarie has agreed to help if we needed it." added Hermione in earnest. Professor Annemarie was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. There wasn't anything particularly special about her; she was rather plain looking, though her classes were definitely educational, since she'd been given the duty of covering up the slack in the student's education left by Umbridge. Technically, she was supposed to be called Professor Belle, but she preferred her first name, claiming her last made her feel life some withered old thing with a title of respect.
"Okay," Harry finally agreed. "Go put up the sign."
"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling a colorfully designed notice from beside her chair. "I knew you'd agree!" she excitedly ran to the message board, tacking her notice up over the Quidditch tryout forms and 'mental health day,' notice. People were immediately attracted to the sign and three-page sign-up sheet. Before you could blink, all of the previous members of the Army were signed up, and a few others had added their names to the roster.
The Tantei all were back in the Common Room by 3:00, all of them had skipped lunch to attend to their own affairs. Yukina and Kurama walked in looking quite bubbly indeed, laughing and talking like almost no one had seen Yukina ever do. Botan rolled out of bed around noon, and was playing a first-year in chess, losing every time. Hiei was laughing at the woman's frustrated expressions from the shadows, finding himself more than once gazing at the dumb onna affectionately. Kuwabara had been wandering about aimlessly, alone and still dismayed about Yukina's abandoning him. Yusuke and Keiko were in her offices most of the day, doing who-knows-what. When he returned, there was the tiniest trace of peach lipstick on his cheek.
When each of them returned, they drifted over to Botan and watched her play until Yusuke entered, at which time the red-faced ferry girl threw up her hands and proclaimed, "Enough!" The first-year grinned and collected her winnings; an assortment of beauty products and chocolates Botan had brought to Hogwarts.
Hermione, seeing this as a perfect opportunity to invite them since they were all together, approached the Tantei, pulling Harry by the hand.
"Hello!" she greeted them brightly. The six looked at Hermione like she was crazy, this was the first friendly thing that anyone from Harry's little group had ever said to them. She was answered with an awkward, collective, 'hi.'
"Well then, Harry here ran this little club last year, and we were wondering if you'd like to join." She smiled and jerked her thumb at Harry when she said the 'Harry here,' bit.
"What kind of club?" asked Yusuke, looking mildly interested. This was their chance to get on Harry's good side.
"Yeah, this could be a chance to see some pretty girls!" said Kuwabara excitedly. Realizing his folly, he turned to Yukina and Kurama and took Yukina's left hand, a blush rising in his cheeks. "Of course, I'd never choose any of them over you, my queen. I just like to look, you know?" the rest of the Tantei except Hiei, Kurama, and Yukina sniggered behind their hands, waiting for the apparition's reply.
"Well, Kazuma, it's quite all right." She replied after a moment's thought. Apparently she was trying to put him down gently in order to prevent heartbreak over a relationship that had only really ever been one-sided. On a romantic level, at least, they were friends of course.
"I'm happy you understand, my sweet!" he said happily, turning away and letting go of her hand, the red draining surprisingly quickly from his face.
"Good thing he's willing tokeep his options open.You have her. What did I tell you? No woman can resist us. Even some men"- Kurama felt the fox's presence seem to shiver, "have found it hard to resist us…"
"Shut up Youko, I do not have her. She could bow out of this…relationship, though it really isn't much of one, anytime. And there's still Hiei to deal with, you know."
"You shut up, Mr. Minamino. Hiei isn't a problem at all, and you know it, deep down. He loves Yukina with all his frozen little heart. He wants her to be happy, as he's admitted numerous times, and he is your best friend. He knows nothing will happen to his precious Yukina under your watch, and so, dear Shuichi, she's ripe for the taking."
"Why do I even bother with you? I should've shaken you off a long time ago. Everyone else thinks you're gone, you know."
"Well, that's because they're stupid enough to believe a lying fox, which, try as you might to escape it, you are. As far as why I'm still here? Because you need me, and you know it. I can do so many things Shuichi cannot recall how to do, or is too decent to. Want me to demonstrate? I'll seduce that yummy little girl for you."
Shuichi-Kurama felt the kitsune pushing at the carefully constructed walls of his mind, created to keep the fox caged. The edges of the teen's vision blurred and he inwardly sighed. Youko had tried to do this numerous times before, all with the same result, the fox was always put back. But this time, when Shuichi tried to reinforce the walls, the fox let out more energy, pressing harder. Shuichi-Kurama's knees gave for a moment as he tried to suppress Youko's escape attempt. He felt Yukina's hand on his back as control momentarily slipped away.
"Hey, Kurama, you okay?" asked Yusuke, stepping over when his friend's knees buckled, propping him back up. Kurama, whose head had dropped so you couldn't see his face, looked up at Yusuke, and in a voice very much resembling Youko's, hissed, "Fine!" and straightened. As he spoke, Yusuke swore he saw those green eyes flash golden, and a few strands of hair turn to white. Yusuke backed off, looking at Kurama oddly. "Whatever…"
Kurama shook his head a few times and seemed to go back to normal, his eyes and hair still red and green.
Hermione looked mildly disturbed, whilst Harry looked slightly interested underneath all of that resentment, as though he were silently contemplating something. "A Defense Against the Dark Arts club." She explained. "People come to us if they're interested in learning to better equip themselves for future…skirmishes, I guess. We were wondering if maybe you could teach a few classes for us and attend other meetings, too, if you wanted. Never can know too much."
"Well," said Kurama with a small smile. His voice was normal. "Considering you already advertised us on that notice, I guess we'll come. What time, and where?" The rest of the Tantei looked over to the message board to see the colorful notice that had been posted just hours before, then back to Kurama. All eyes seemed to be locked on him, wondering what had caused his little episode. (Only Yusuke and Hiei, who is still in the shadows, saw the change. Yusuke was blocking everyone else and Yukina didn't see the hair-change.)
"We'll bring you when it's time. It's a confusing path that you have to take. Harry and I really appreciate this. Don't we Harry?" The brunette pulled Harry to her side and nudged him with her elbow.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, clutching his side. "Yeah, sure. We really appreciate it." This was all said through gritted teeth, and whether it was from the pain in his side or the pain of saying it, the others in attendance would never know.
Harry and Hermione turned and left the Tantei alone. Once they were gone, Hiei smirked as Kurama headed for the stairs to the dormitory, complaining of a headache. Watching as his sister chased after his old partner, her hands glowing blue, Hiei smirked. The great Youko wasn't gone, after all.
How was it? Please don't say horrible! Not very eventful, Part Two will be the Hogsmeade trip, and Three the DA meeting. Review, please!