Chapter Five
The rest of the day was spent getting the needed school supplies. Hiei incinerated the dark fuchsia robe that a poor girl in Madam Malkins had thought would complement his black hair. The girl had fainted in shock, and everyone in the group wondered what the girl had been thinking.
Yusuke wasn't any better. He complained about that the robes looked like dresses, and that, if they expected him to wear robes of any type, they had better be olive green. This earned him several odd looks from the employees who had remembered him from previous visits.
Harry looked most distressed after he had taken off his robes. Kurama took one look at Harry's hand-me-downs, and declared that there would be a shopping expedition immediately.
After buying their robes, the group went to buy their books. Yusuke protested yet again. He didn't see why he had to get the books if he wasn't going to be using them. That, and he wanted to go down the street to see Zonko's (he wanted to see Weasley's Wizard Wheezes too, but for obvious reasons couldn't), and buy a few pranks. After being lightly scolded by Kurama, which, it seemed was a yearly occurrence, and being taunted by Hiei, he grudgingly bought the books.
Finally, after obtaining the all the other necessary items and after numerous headaches, the last shop they had to visit was Ollivanders.
Yusuke happily ran into the shop. They had visited the new Zonko's joke shop located in Diagon after lunch, and the owner had told him that some of the pranks that he had gotten could only be programmed with a wand and a certain incantation. Of course, the owner didn't know that Yusuke didn't have a wand, nor did he know that he wasn't Ron at all, but he didn't need to know that.
Mr. Ollivander looked up from his task of putting away all of the boxes.
"Hey, why didn't you just magic the stuff onto the shelves?" Yusuke asked.
Ollivander smiled at the boy's enthusiasm. "If I "magicked" something made of magic, the two magicks would negate each other."
"Oh, well, we're here to get our wand."
"Only two of you need a wand."
"What?" Yusuke looked around the room. Hiei had positioned himself in a next to the door, Kurama and Harry stood slightly behind Yusuke.
"He's right, I already have my wand. My grandfather made it for me," Kurama stated holding up his wand.
"Ah, yes," Ollivander nodded knowingly, "Mr. Minamino, I almost didn't recognize you."
"I'm afraid you have Ms. Granger confused with someone else. There are no 'Mr. Minamino's here," Hiei snapped, glaring at Ollivander, and generally acting exactly as they had outlined in Koenma's office.
Ollivander smiled, seeing the wary looks on everyone's faces, but Harry's. "I don't mean any harm to your…plan," Seeing the disbelieving looks on their faces he elaborated. "My only business is my craft, and my craft is to create the tools that any practicing witch or wizard may use, no matter what position they take. I am, in essence, the living embodiment of neutral."
"If you're neutral, then how do we know that you won't tell the Dark Lord what transactions are going to occur today?" Kurama asked.
"Well duh!" Yusuke exclaimed, startling everyone, "He's neutral, not suicidal! He's not going to tell anyone! And besides, if he did, he wouldn't exactly be neutral anymore, would he?" Yusuke finished with a smirk.
"…Very astute today, Detective. I'm surprised."
"What is this?! Just because Kuwabara isn't here, that doesn't mean that you can insult me instead! It's a fact of life!" Yusuke snapped at Hiei.
"Really? I wasn't aware that this happened to be something we all must obey."
"Well it is, so deal with it!"
Hiei rolled his eyes, not even dignifying that remark with a response.
"Heh, I win!"
Everyone turned around at the slight cough that was issued from behind them. Ollivander was standing there, waiting patiently for everyone to organize themselves. Once everyone had everything sorted out, Yusuke happily bounded up to the counter.
Ollivander raised an eyebrow at this behavior, then preceded to study Yusuke closely, earning him an odd look from said demon. After he finished the lengthy examination, he pulled out his tape measurer.
After the final examinations had been taken, Ollivander went over to one of the back shelves, and pulled out a normal, if very dusty looking box.
"Oak, 14 ½ inches with a phoenix feather core from Fawkes' predecessor. Do give it a wave."
Yusuke waved it, and it almost accepted him, but not quite. Instead of shooting out sparks from the end, it shot out the sparks from the handle. The result was Yusuke being propelling away from the wand that, once released, floated in mid-air.
"Hm, let's try the same core and a different wood," Ollivander declared, ignoring Yusuke in favor of searching for another wood type.
Yusuke stood up, rubbing his back and muttering about perverted old men and wands, when another was being thrust under his nose. Sighing, Yusuke took it, gave it a wave, and accidentally set a shelf aflame.
After waving his own wand and muttering an incantation to put out the flames, Ollivander returned to the back of the store. He returned with the same wood from the first time, and a bag full of red feathers.
"Since we have identified which wood you will be using, we need only identify which phoenix feather your core is. How do we know that phoenix feather is his core?" Ollivander asked seeing the looks of disbelief on the groups faces, "The first wand he tried worked almost perfectly, since it was made of this wood and a phoenix feather, it must be the core that is malfunctioning."
"Couldn't the different times of the day have affected the wood?" Harry asked.
"There would've been a more dramatic difference. Besides, Koenma told me about you."
"Oh, did he."
"Because of that information, I was able to determine what were the needed materials. But, enough about this. We need to pair you with your wand!" That being said, Ollivander and Yusuke began testing the different cores. It took three hours and fifty one minutes for Yusuke to finally find his wand. The core ended up being from circa 1480 BC, from an Egyptian's phoenix familiar.
Then it was Hiei's turn.
…………..
"Look, if you allow me to chose my own wand, then, not only will this process go faster, but my aura will be able to penetrate the core faster as well," Hiei argued with Ollivader.
"Yes, and if you use you demon aura to find you wand, you will taint all the others in the shop!" Ollivander argued back.
"How about this?" Harry started, only to be cut off by Hiei.
"No, I will not listen to some human fool attempt to reason with me. You are naturally going to side with the living fossil over here, and waste even more time!"
"Well gee, and here I was trying to help YOU so that YOU wouldn't even have to get the sodding wand!" Harry yelled.
"Hn, what made you think that I was going to pass up the opportunity to familiarize myself with a weapon specifically designed for me?My only complaint was that the process takestoo long. Having a wand will give me an extra edge, one that no one will be expecting," Hiei smirked and turned back to Ollivander. "Shall we continue then?"
……………
Somewhere in Malfoy Manor, a clock struck two. Everyone else was in bed, preparing for the day's activities, Draco's Initiation and the celebration that would follow, except Lucius Malfoy.
The change in Granger's and Weasley's power had startled Lucius, as well as the power he sensed in the short one with the spiky hair. If those were examples of the type of caliber of wizard that the Light turned out, Voldemort's forces would be in trouble. If so, then Lucius begin to enact what he had been thinking about since Draco was born.
After a few more hours of pondering, Lucius turned in. He wasn't happy with his decision, but it was the best idea that he had come up with.
………..
"Hiei, are you sure about this?" Yusuke asked. It was currently eleven o'clock at night, and they were all congregated in Kurama's room, including Harry.
They had all agreed earlier to keep Harry informed as to what was going on. They didn't need to foul up this mission because some "overly inquisitive brat" (Hiei) became curious at the wrong time.
They were currently discussing the different ways that Hiei's and Snape's plan could fail, and Hiei could be killed.
"Shut up Detective," Hiei snapped. "As kind as it is for me to hear you doubting my abilities, I somehow doubt that they would have the power necessary to harm me."
"The Death Eaters might not be able to hurt you, but what about those people Voldemort allied himself with?" Harry asked.
"Yeah! What about them?! What if they're at the meeting and…" The rest of Yusuke's sentence was cut off.
"Voldemort wouldn't blatantly flaunt his allies to his followers. He would be careful to not show such connections, in fact, out of fear of a spy," said Kurama calmly.
"Whatever you say, it still doesn't lower the risk that Hiei could be killed, and then…"
"And then what?" Hiei sneered, "If the risk isn't taken, then we may never know what sort of powers his allies have. If I do, there's only a small chance that I'll die."
Yusuke grinned. "I bet if we tried to stop you, you'd still find a way to sneak out, wouldn't you?"
"What do you think?"
After a few more hours of discussion, the group turned in for the night. Hiei had the misfortune to be roomed with Yusuke. Harry and Kurama shared a room because they were both wizards, and therefore had something in common to talk about.
………..
The next day was dragged on for what seemed like an eternity. The only interesting occurrence was when Yusuke received an owl from his "parents" that informed him that the Weasleys knew what was going on, and that he had their support.
After lunch, Yusuke dragged Harry into his room, partly because Hiei and Kurama had to discuss another aspect of Hiei's infiltration. A part that wouldn't affect Harry, but was still vitally important. As such, they wanted to meet secretly. Whatever they felt Harry had to know they'd tell him, and what they didn't feel he needed to know, he wouldn't be informed of. Yusuke didn't really care that he wasn't invited. Hiei had already briefed him.
But what really interested Yusuke was the pranking possibilities in school. Yusuke had decided that boarding school was the greatest. From what Harry told him, you could prank anyone, and no one would have hard proof it was you, unless you were really stupid. The fact that this was a magical institution was just an added bonus.
………..
"Hiei, have you decided what you would tell Professor Dumbledore? It's either the truth, a half-truth, or an out right lie," Kurama informed the figure that sat on his windowsill nervously.
"I know that fox, stop stating the obvious," Hiei cracked open an eye and leaned forward slightly. "Why are you so nervous anyway?" He asked, opening the other eye, and turning his face toward Kurama fully.
"Professor Dumbledore is a skilled Legilimens1," Kurama stated, as if that could explain everything. It would've, had it not been for the fact that, no matter how integrated the Makai was with the Wizarding world, it still didn't mean that Hiei had had a full magical education.
"And what, exactly, is a Legilimens," Hiei asked tersely.
"A person who can…see into a person's mind, know their thoughts on a whim. Now, I'm not saying that Professor Dumbledore does that in every situation like Lord Voldemort does," Kurama added hastily seeing the dark look he was getting from Hiei, "but he will use Legilimency on you. You do not exactly produce a warm and cuddly aura, Hiei. Professor Dumbledore will be wary of you attempting to take the position of the Potion's class' substitute."
"Hm, I'll have to reconsider my reasons then," Hiei said, then left in a blur.
………..
"Oh man, that's rich! The boggart actually changed into a dress-wearing, purse-carrying, vulture-topped Snape?!" At Harry's nod, Yusuke's chair that he was leaning back in fell backwards due to his laughter. Yusuke didn't seem fazed by this at all, he just continued laughing.
Harry sighed, the things that had amused him in earlier years now seemed far too childish. This didn't mean that he was going to become like Snape or Hiei, completely serious 24/7, but he was definitely going to be taking his role in the war far more seriously. In a way, he was glad that his Quidditch ban hadn't been removed. It gave him more time to prepare, and an excellent excuse for not wanting to join the team this year.
Yusuke and Harry looked up as the door opened and Hiei walked in.
"Get out," Hiei said, glaring at Harry.
Harry shrugged and left. Thinking about the war had left him in a depressed mood. He didn't like being around people when he was in this mood. He had tried to repress everything over the summer, and it had worked. But since he had had Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke assigned to watch over him, the full reality had hit. It had been gradual over the past few days, but now…Harry sighed, and decided to make another trip to Flourish and Blotts.
A/N: Well, I think that gave you people some food for thought. And, I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. School's being a bitch. To make up for everything, this chapter is about twice as long than normal.
1: I'm not sure if a person can be referred to as a Legilimens. Whatever. If someone was mentioned as such in OotP, then great. If not, then I just made up that term. No biggie, this is what fan fiction is for, after all.
Responses to the people who reviewed:
Yeah, sorry about not doing this sooner. Better late than never.
Talon and Skittles:
I'm glad you liked the funny parts. I'm afraid that most of my humor is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly dry...or insane...but mostly dry. Unless I'm hyper that is. Hope you like the update.
kit-kit:
I'm glad you are finding this original. I first became interested in YYH HP x-overs when I read Rose Whip, Spirit Gun, Black Dragon and Wands by Blaque Midnyte. I'm trying to make it as original as possible given the amount of these there are if a person bothers to sift through a lot of stories. As it is, the most I can try to do is attempt to reach the level of writing most of my favorite fics are on, which I might add, I will never be able to achieve, and have some fun in the process. And I'm not telling any time soon what Snape is the god of. Just take a guess. I think it's rather straight forward actually. Oh, and I'm updating ASAP. I really enjoy writing this story.
mangamaniac135:
I'm attempting to fix my grammar mistakes and such. I'm not that great at it, and I think that everyone I know is afraid that this is going to be slash. No matter how many times I tell them that I don't like to write slash all that much, and have only written one shonen 'ai fic, they still won't listen! Hope my grammar and punctuation had improved somewhat.
KaraKurama:
What?! Only 'pretty good' and not excellent?! Just kidding. Thanks, glad to know that you liked it. And here's my update.
mistressKC:
Yeah, I know. I had to have someone stop all the fights that seem to erupt whenever I write something. Kurama just seemed to be the most level headed of the people that I could chose from. That and the fact that he's now Hermione means that he'll be working non-stop now. ::grins:: It's odd though. I mean Hiei's one of my favorite characters, as well as Severus, and yet I bash Severus a lot, and Hiei hardly ever talks, except in this chapter. And then he gets all argumentative and I basically bash him. Gee...I'm odd.
FireFox6:
I'm glad you think so! And I also hope that you enjoy this chapter almost as much as the synapses within my brain did at being able to function properly since I've been sleeping for more than seven hours a day now. Yea! I won't be three times more likely to die within six years now! O.o;; too much sleep deprivation essay.