Disclaimer: Same as always
After everyone had been convinced that Yana and Mitari weren't working with the Dark Lord, the Order and the Reikai Tantei were all allowed some much needed rest.
Unfortunately for Yusuke and the others at Genkai's temple, they only slept for three hours or less (changes in time zone) before Genkai woke them, muttering about them doing something useful and "lazy slackers".
So, after going through the traumatic experience of waking Kurama up (who had wisely decided to sleep in his room after Yusuke pranked him), they were all assembled around a table eating breakfast. Or most of them were. Kurama was just glaring at Yusuke.
"What!" Yusuke cried. He had slowly kept edging away from Kurama throughout breakfast until bumping into Hiei, who glared at him too. Being faced with the possibility of being poisoned on one side, and sliced to pieces from another, Yusuke decided to attempt to reconcile with the mad poisoner (at least Hiei he could defend against).
Kurama didn't answer, instead he continued glaring at Yusuke, effectively putting Yusuke off his food entirely, and causing Harry to shift over too. The air eventually became thick with tension, and the table looked very lopsided with Kurama having approximately half the table to himself.
And just when it seemed that there was no tension left that could accumulate in the room, Hiei, who had been feeling increasingly claustrophobic , growled, moved over to sit next to Kurama and began trying to sharpen his butter knife on his fork (his katana having been forbidden from the kitchen after he tried to decapitate Kuwabara with it). No one dared to tell Hiei that it was impossible to sharpen a butter knife to the point where it was lethal.
"So…your hair doesn't look that bad," Yusuke's pathetic attempt at conversation didn't result in any change in Kurama's countenance. He didn't even twitch at the mention of his now lime green and hot pink hair.
"Say something to me, please!" Yusuke begged. Harry laughed, Ron and Kuwabara cracked jokes about Yusuke and Kurama being an old married couple, Hermione sniffed in disapproval and left in a huff, and Hiei became annoyed that his knife wouldn't sharpen and left to raid the cutlery draw.
"If you say something, I'll take you out to raid a florist. I'll even pay!" There was still no response from Kurama. Instead he let out a snore and his chin dropped to his chest.
In the following two months, Harry, Ron and Hermione were trained in the basics of rei control and, as a result, were beginning to practice wandless magic. Hiei and Yusuke were learning the basics in regular magic, and Kurama had forgiven Yusuke and held Yusuke to his word. Yusuke and Kurama had come back one night, both looking like two miniature walking jungles.
At the beginning of August, Yusuke, Hiei, Kurama, Ron, Hermione and Harry were shipped off to Hogwarts early for security reasons (that and so Yusuke and Hiei could become acquainted with the castle).
A week after settling down and resetting their internal clocks, the group was allowed to take a supervised trip to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies. Of course, under Hagrid's supervision, they also bought Skiving Snack Boxes, fireworks, dung bombs, several other of WWW inventions, several extra books, a spare katana and several books on the Dark Arts (these without the supervision of Hagrid). Since Yusuke, Hiei and Kurama and Harry already had their supplies, they were watched enviously as they lounged around instead of being fitted.
All in all, it seemed like the start of relatively normal August month when the mail arrived on Thursday. It arrived as usual. Well, maybe not as usual. There were several books that Hermione and Kurama had wanted to get that had to be ordered instead. So, there were a few spills and a few plates landing in a few laps.
At any rate, there was nothing to forewarn then that there was to be a large group of people transported to Hogwarts via port key.
The first thing Harry noticed was that everyone one of the arrivals was covered in blood. The second was that they were all Order members. And third, Harry noticed that the second wasn't entirely correct.
Ron must have noticed it as well. After gaping like a fish and turning red for a moment, he shot up from the table, pointed an accusatory finger and yelled, "What the hell are you doing here!"
Narcissa and Draco were oddly composed.
Narcissa sniffed, "What would your mother do if she heard you being so rude to a fellow Order member, I wonder."
Everyone, sans the Order members, showed some form of surprise on their face. Draco crossed his arms and scowled. Ron paled and shut up.
A/N: I didn't update in a looong time. And I'm terribly sorry about that. I'm also taking a Japanese class over the summer, so I might not be able to update as frequently as I might like to. -.- Also, this chapter wasn't as long as I would like either. I'm also very sorry about that. I feel like I should make up for the long wait, but I just can't. My mind is all…unintelligent right now.
Reviews:
1. LaBOBuren: I'm glad you enjoyed it. I also did away with the whole replacement thing to make things a bit less complicated.
2. Bluespark: Terry Pratchett is easily the best writer of the century. England is so lucky. Why do they get all the good stuff? Grimmauld Plac…has a nice ring to it. I'm glad you enjoyed the ending. When ever I write chapters late at night, they always seem to be funnier than the stuff I write in the day. Everything I write is depressing then. It's odd, really…
3. kit-kit: Thanks!
4. tbiris: I have a similar problem, except the reviews usually start with flattery (to butter the author up) and end with some variation of "update, PLEASE!".
5. spiritkitsune: Back to his usual form. But…I think I may throw in a potions accident that changes one of the boys into girls. If I do, I think I may have a poll later to see who.
6. genny62890: How can people not call you funny! You're hilarious!
7. WinterhartZahneelCalina: There's nothing wrong with being a dork! One of my best friends is a dork! That, and I'm glad you found this funny. .
Thanks to everyone who read. I hope you enjoyed the previous chapters and this one.