Disclaimer: I don't own YYH or HP. Thank you again to everyone who reviewed.
Chapter Four
"Does anyone have a mirror?! I'd like to see what this creep did to me!" Yusuke looked around the room angrily. Hermione, looking shocked, conjured him a mirror. Harry and Ron were gaping; Hiei and Kurama were looking mildly surprised. "Let me guess," Yusuke began before looking in the mirror, "I look deformed."
"That's one way of putting it," Snape muttered, earning a glare from Ron.
"Umm, Professor, shouldn't we be continuing with the transformations?" Hermione asked tentatively. In the background, Yusuke could be heard yelling.
"Before we continue, may I inquire about the effects of this potion," Kurama worded his question as a statement.
"Yeah, I got a question too. Is this permanent? 'Cause from Ron's memories, it wasn't permanent before, but it also didn't change the user's voice. So either you screwed up royally on this, or different ingredients were used," Yusuke asked sounding pissed off.
"That was my question, as well as Hiei's I'm sure."
"No, this potions is not permanent. Although it is longer lasting then the usual one. As expected, a few new ingredients have been added."
Ron frowned, "Why don't you just tell us the extra ingredients and be done with it?!" He exclaimed annoyed, throwing his hands up in the air. He was the only one who was throwing a tantrum about the ingredients though. Harry, Yusuke and Kuwabara just chalked it up to, what they believed, was just ordinary Snape behavior.
"And why should I do that?"
"Because…because…what if someone was allergic to one of the ingredients?" Ron looked proud about this answer. He stood up straighter and attempted to stare Snape down.
"That, Mr. Weasley is a prime example as to why you weren't invited to attend my class this year," Snape's lip curled in an obvious indicator as to how intelligent he thought Ron to be. "That happened to be a rhetorical question."
Ron turned very red. Whether it was from anger or embarrassment was hard to tell. It was probably both.
For the next several minutes, everyone was preoccupied with the Polyjuice transformations. Finally, only Hiei had yet to be Polyjuiced1 into Snape.
"Severus," Koenma interrupted Snape. Snape looked at Koenma inquiringly, an eyebrow raised, a hand poised over the goblet with a strand of long greasy hair suspended over it. Harry and Ron winced in sympathy for Hiei. Drinking Snape's hair, disgusting.
"I think you should consider letting Hiei transform later. It simply wouldn't do for someone to realize that you're acting differently, no matter how small the differences are."
"And who exactly would notice? There is no one that closely…connected with me in my life. This will, of course, make it easier, as does Hiei's similar personality. I don't see why…"
"What about Dumbledore?" Harry asked suddenly.
"Fair enough," Snape said finally after several moments of silence. He frowned and started to try and find a way to convince Dumbledore to…Snape started and wondered why everyone was standing around like morons.
"Ko…" Snape began. That seemed to awaken everyone from their daze.
"Right, now I have to fill you in on what's going on," Koenma announced.
"Uh, didn't we do this earlier?" Yusuke asked, looking at Koenma like the midget ruler had finally lost his mind.
"Yes, well, I explained the situation to you, not to them," Koenma gestured toward the young wizards.
"In that case, can you drop us all back to the Ningenkai? I really don't want to listen to this again," Yusuke whined.
"No! You're staying right here until they've had a chance to hear what's going on. Besides, you're going into London to buy your supplies immediately after this," Koenma stated, finger still pointing in the Golden Trio's direction from where he'd emphasized 'they'.
"Joy."
In Diagon Alley…
"Weird," Yusuke and Kuwabara muttered as the brick wall in front of them turned into a passageway.
"So, where to first?" Kuwabara asked since he was the only one who didn't receive any memories.
"Gringotts, to exchange money," Harry told him.
Inside the bank, most everything was marble, with some type of inlay crafted in. Kuwabara shivered. To him, the goblins reminded him of the fugaki. The group walked up to a relatively unoccupied goblin.
"Um, I…I'd like to exchange this for…whatever currency you use," Kuwabara stammered. Apparently, when the fugaki tried to eat him they traumatized him for life.
The goblin counted out the bills and coins. It handed back fifteen galleons, twenty-seven sickles and four knuts. It looked up as Hiei deposited two large precious gems on the counter.
"I'd also like these converted," said Hiei no evidence of being traumatized by Maze Castle at all. After waiting a while, the goblin finished weighing and measuring the jewels and handed Hiei a considerably larger amount of gold, silver and bronze than he did Kuwabara.
"Alright Hiei, let's split," Yusuke stated, rubbing his hands together with a grin. All Hiei did was turn around and walk away to where Kurama and Harry were emerging from a side chamber.
"Hey! Where're you going Hiei! That money was supposed to be split between the two of us!" demanded Yusuke angrily.
"This money is supposed to hold us over for the time we are here. I am not going to allow you to waste it on frivolities and second-rate tourist baubles," Hiei said coldly glaring at Yusuke. "If you want," he continued, "to buy something, you shall have to confer with me first."
Needless to say, Yusuke didn't look very happy with that idea, but continued walking.
By the time the three had arrived to where Harry and Kurama were, Yusuke had provided Hiei with several reasons on how, in certain situations, "tourist baubles" and
"frivolities" could save a person's life. On top of that Kuwabara kept pestering Hiei for, "Just a little bit". Needless to say, Hiei's patience was wearing thin.
The impeding disagreement was forestalled as voices from beind the door to a side chamber indicated that the door was about to be opened, violently if the raised voices was any indication. Kuwabara had just leapt out of the way before it was opened and out walked Lucius and Draco Malfoy. The moment they spotted the group, they walked over with almost identical smirks.
"What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be in Azkaban!" Harry asked, startled. He knew that Lucius had been captured during in the Department of Mysteries, so why he was here was a…mystery to Harry.
"How sad that you didn't read yesterday's Daily Prophet. Had you done so, you would've known that I was found not guilty in the trial," Lucius replied with a lazy smirk on his features.
Draco laughed at the look of hatred, annoyance and slight fear in Harry's eyes. The annoyance was funny, the hatred expected. The fear wasn't so much expected, as it was a possibility. Anyone would be scared that one of the Dark Lord's favorite Death Eaters had that much sway over the Ministry.
"The Imperious curse has such a sway over people that I'm afraid I simply wasn't able to resist."
"That's a load of crap and you know it!" Harry spat.
"What's the matter Weasley, Mudblood? Just realized that backing Potter is just a waste of time? That he's going to, inadvertently, bring about your deaths?" Draco asked suddenly.
Yusuke was at a loss. He knew he wasn't Ron, so he didn't really care what the snob in front of him said, if he hadn't had the memories. With Ron's memories, and the things Draco was saying, said memories were being stirred up from were they had happily been lying around collecting dust. And with the memories came emotions. The urge to beat the shit out of Malfoy was almost overpowering.
"Tell me Draco, how much of what you say is brought about by envy?" Kurama asked, calmly.
Lucius and Draco looked puzzled. This ability to think calmly when insulted wasn't a Gryffindor trait, and the way by which "Hermione2" had just delivered that statement sounded calculating, almost Slytherin.
"Envy? Why should I envy Potter for having a Dark Lord after his blood? Or for associating with low-lives such as yourselves?" Draco asked with a sneer and a glare.
"Now, now, Draco, no need to be defensive. All we came over here to do was to inform Mr. Potter that he has freed me from the grips of the Imperio curse yet again, and probably saved countless lives, as well as my reputation," Lucius paused and surveyed everyone around him. "Well," Lucius' eyes flicked over toward the clock3, "I'm afraid that Draco and I must take our leave. It was an interesting, if regrettably short discussion."
A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! It's all school's fault! Alright, maybe it is a bit my fault, but it's mainly school's!
1: I don't think Polyjuiced is a word. If it is than, no harm done. If it's not, there's still no harm done, but I just invented a new word that, most likely, no one will ever use.
2: I wrote Hermione in quotes because those little paragraphs that, dealt with how Lucius and Draco felt were in their POV. Kind of in their POV, but not really. It was...how they viewed the situation rather than everyone's views on it.
3: Yes, I know clocks wouldn't be used in the wizarding word to tell time, but that's the only thing I could think of without going into some huge explanation of something.