Author's notes:

For all intents and purposes, god's of death from Britain are technically called 'Reapers' instead of 'Shinigami' (makes sense, different culture... different language, hence different name).

Disclaimer: Yanagi-sen and I are only borrowing the characters from Yami no Matsuei and Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter books to torment for a while... Don't look for Harry to be appearing any time soon in this fanfiction. We claim no ownership over any character that does not belong to us... Itami Korin and Ishida Nanjiro are mine... those I claim and abuse at will.

Special thanks to Kara Angitia who is currently helping Draco speak more British style English.

Enter the Reaper.
Chapter three.

All the food that had been in this cold apartment had been burnt to a crisp and refused to come out of the pot. Sitting on the floor, wand clutched to his chest, Draco pulled the blanket tighter around himself. His precious Slytherin patch was clutched in his left hand as his right moved the wand in the proper motions. He was practicing charms, for lack of anything better. But even first year charms were difficult now. Why did this place have to be so cold? He was so hungry... He barely heard the knock at the door.

Silver eyes, that were tired and empty, lifted to look at the door. He couldn't summon up the energy to go open it though. He tried the charm again... the first they had learned. The cup barely lifted from the floor. There was another knock, this time more insistent... followed by someone calling his name. Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Nobody wanted him anyway. He pulled the blanket tighter around him, and shivered.

Outside, Watari glared at the door, he knew that Malfoy had to be in there... he'd asked the nice woman that lived across the street if she'd seen the boy go out, and she hadn't. Besides, where else did the child have to go? Sighing, the blonde teleported inside and nearly tripped over what he thought might be a saucepan. "Malfoy-san?" he said almost whispering.

The boy didn't look up. He waved that wand of his and pointed it toward a cup sitting on the floor in front of him. "Wingardium Leviosa." The cup lifted shakily a couple inches, then fell to the floor again. Draco sighed, then shivered.

He looked around the apartment and shivered. No lights were turned on and he could almost swear that it was colder inside than out. "Draco?"

"Huh?" The sound came from the pile of blankets on the floor.

Quickly the blonde went to where Draco was huddled under his blankets on the floor of the almost empty room. "Chibi, are you alright?"

Dazed silver eyes looked at him from a paler-than-normal face. "Cold..."

Watari crouched down to look at the boy in the eye, and ran a hand through that limp dirty hair. "When was the last time you ate?"

His eyes fell to the wand he gripped so tightly. "Don't know... can't make food..."

"Come on, we're going back to my apartment," gently, the shinigami put his hands on the wizard and teleported them outside of his home. Even sitting, Draco swayed from the aftereffects of the teleportation. Pulling a key ring from his pocket, Watari unlocked his door. Carefully he picked up the teen that now seemed as fragile as crystal and carried him inside, "It's going to be alright," he whispered. He could feel the boy's shivers. He could also unfortunately smell the fact that Draco obviously hadn't showered effectively for a while. The boy clutched the blanket around him. Turning on lights as he went, the shinigami headed up to the bathroom where he could get the boy cleaned up.

Draco made a disgruntled sound. "Cold... the water's cold..."

He settled the shivering blonde on the floor near him as he turned on the water and let it warm up. The shower attachment was held facing away from them and held a little closer to Draco, "Just feel the water... it isn't cold."

The wand was transferred to his other hand, which was also holding a scrap of embroidered fabric. His free hand reached out to the water. "It's warm?"

"Hei, it's warm." Watari took the blanket from around the boy's shoulders, folded it up and set it on a small shelf. "First thing we are going to do is get you cleaned up, alright?"

"Okay..." His clothes were wrinkled and showing signs of not having been washed for a while.

Carefully, the long haired blonde started to take the teen's clothes off and place them neatly folded on top of the blanket. Draco moved when prodded but was largely very docile. He almost reverently held out the scrap of fabric and his wand to the other blond. Nodding, he took those and set them with the rest of the boy's things. Reseating Draco on the small stool and commenced washing the boy... as he lathered the teen, he handed the shower head to him to hold.

"How do you get warm water? Mine is all cold..."

"By turning the knob for warm water."

"Oh..." The boy moved the water head over himself, rinsing the soap when Watari moved on.

Picking up the shampoo, he worked it into Draco's hair. Silver eyes drifted closed as the boy relaxed into the sensations. Massaging the minty shampoo in, Watari smiled knowing how good it felt to have someone else wash your hair. In fact... the boy might be in serious danger of falling asleep. Cautiously he rinsed the soap from Draco's hair and vigorously worked the conditioner in. The blond moaned softly, but whether it was from contentment or displeasure at not being allowed to sleep, Watari couldn't tell. Once he was finished and had gotten the conditioner out, he guided the teen to the bathtub. "Just soak there for a while and relax..."

"S'ok..." The boy slipped into the water. He leaned his head back on the edge, out of danger of slipping under.

Slipping out of the room, Watari threw a towel, robe and pajamas into the dryer so that they would be nice and warm for Draco when the teen got out of the bath. Wandering into the extra room, the shinigami went about preparing it to be used that night.


Only when the water started to feel cool, did the boy drag himself from it. He looked around for a towel... and realized that his things weren't sitting on the shelf anymore. A feeling of panic overtook him. "Wand... where is my wand... and my badge...?" He stumbled out of the bathroom, ignoring the fact that he was completely naked.

Almost immediately a warm towel was wrapped around him, shielding him from the slight chill in the air.

"Your things are safe." A calming voice said.

He couldn't really identify the voice, but he did recognize the tone. The tension started to leave his body and he pulled the warm towel around him. Gently he was pulled back into the washroom and toweled off. Pajamas were put on him along with a robe... both were warm and smelled sweet and clean, almost as though they had been charmed into being that way. It wasn't until his currently unidentified benefactor started to brush and do who knows what to his hair that Draco finally fell fast asleep.


Awareness came very slowly. He was warm, comfortably warm; and wrapped in sheets and blankets that smelled clean. He rolled over, pulling the blanket up over his shoulder. There was another scent he could detect... it reminded him of the library at Hogwarts... or Malfoy Manor. That particularly dusty smell that he associated with old books, Silver eyes parted slowly. Across from the bed he was on there was a large bookcase filled with books, and a scroll or two.

Where was he? Curiosity finally overcame lethargy and Draco pushed the blankets away. He sat up and yawned.

The room he was in wasn't all that large, but he could see at least three more bookcases in there with him. Draco frowned, where was he? He shifted, swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. He found slippers waiting for him and slid his feet in. He spied a robe laying over the end of the bed and pulled that on as well. On the other side of the door he now heard cheerful whistling coming nearer. Since they were coming to him, he simply stayed where he was.

The door was nudged open and a teenage blonde with waist long hair stepped in carrying a tray with what looked like might be food on it.

"Oh good, you're awake." The blonde said with a smile that lit up his entire face.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"Watari Yutaka, and you are in my home." The tray was set in Draco's lap, "and I didn't know how sensitive your stomach is since you apparently haven't been eating well, so I made rice porridge... while not the tastiest food it is highly nutritious."

"Watari?" His stomach growled audibly.

"One of the flasks on that shelf we slammed into as a result of the explosion you caused from NOT listening to me had an experiment that once turned me into a toddler... I'm lucky that since it was only a limited amount that went into my bloodstream through the cuts on my back, I only reverted to being a teenager." Slender fingers ran through that long silky hair, "Now eat."

He was going to protest, but his stomach made itself known again. Unable to deny his body food after trying to live on his own cooking, Draco dug into the porridge.

Watari watched as the teen wolfed down the food. "You know that you are an arrogant pain in the posterior?" He asked with absolutely no malice in his voice.

He paused for a moment... "I've been told that."

"You're also a kid that doesn't know any better." The shinigami sat down on the edge of the bed. "Which is the only reason that I haven't requested to have you transferred out of my block and into a desk job."

"Why not? No one else wanted me around." He chased the last spoonful around the bottom of the bowl.

Hazel eyes were clear and steady as the Japanese looked into silver irises, "You are not in Britain anymore. Whatever reasons they might have had to not want you is for them to worry about, not us."

"Do you know who my father is?"

Watari shrugged, "I only know a name, and that knowledge is about as relevant as who my family is... or who Tatsumi's family were... or any other shinigami for that matter."

"You... you don't care?"

"Malfoy Ruscious... I've read that he is powerful, and? Here that name is unknown."

Draco couldn't help it and started to laugh. His father would die to hear someone mangle his name so.

The shinigami smiled, this was perhaps the first time that he had heard the boy laugh since he arrived in Japan. "Malfoy-kun, you are in Meifu now. No one is looking at you and remembering what your family might have done before. Who you were before, doesn't matter. What defines you now are your actions... nothing more."

He sombered almost instantly. "What actions? I am useless."

A slender finger was held up and waved back and forth. "There is a difference between ignorance and uselessness."

"But I am useless... I can't even live by myself."

A mischievous smile spread across the spectacled teen's face, "So why do you say that you are useless?"

"Oh please... what have I done since I got here? I'm no more wanted here than I was in England."

"England sent you away. Japan hasn't. Now answer my question... why do you insist that you are useless?"

He clenched his fists. "My magic doesn't work anymore, ok! I can't do anything anymore! I'm totally USELESS!"

"Your magic doesn't define who you are or what you can do. Right now you are using your magic as a crutch." Watari winked, "As for it not working the way it is supposed to... that is sheer ignorance, not uselessness."

The boy looked horrified. "Magic is my life... a pureblood without magic is... is... worse than a squib, worse even than a mudblood!"

Watari slid off the bed and picked up the tray, "Magic is an inherent talent that you have, and something that you study. Therefore, it is not something that you can lose."

"It's there..." He whispered. "I can feel it... Its just beyond my reach..."

The shinigami started out of the room, "You are like a young piano player crying that he cannot make beautiful music because a key has fallen out of tune."

The blond didn't respond, just stared at the floor.

A few minutes later Watari returned carrying a white box. "For the time being, learn to live without magic... others have done so and survived for thousands of years."

"How? I can't heat water to bath and I'm not good enough to transfigure things into food even if I could use my magic."

The Japanese almost hit the floor laughing. "Gomen... I hadn't realized that your dependency on magic reached that extent," Watari apologized for his outburst, "You do not need magic to do those things here..."

"Don't need magic? But... how does one get hot water, or clean without charms?" He seemed genuinely lost.

The young scientist put the box on the bed and sat back down, "Simple, turn on the water heater and then twist the knob for hot water... and for cleaning, you get to do that manually."

"Twist the knob? But I did that... only cold. And what is a water heater?"

"Well, what is used in my apartment is a flash heater... which is a little device that is attached to the pipe the water travels through. The heater makes the pipe hot, which in turn makes the water hot."

"But how does the heater make it hot? Is it permanently charmed?"

"No magic is used." The blonde smiled, "The heat is all based on chemical reactions and electricity... "

"Electricity... what's that?"

"Electricity is a fundamental entity of nature consisting of negative and positive kinds, observable in the attractions and repulsions of bodies electrified by friction and in natural phenomena, such as lightning or the aurora borealis, and usually utilized in the form of electric currents." He explained. Draco's expression remained blank. "For the moment all you need to know is that it works." The box was handed over to the wizard, "and this is for you."

The blond looked at it. "What is it?"

"You seemed very attached to that black cloak... So I took the remnants of it to some friends of mine to see what they could do."

Draco looked surprised, then hopeful. Putting the box on the bed beside him, he practically tore into it. Sitting folded in the box was a black robe. While the material wasn't exactly like his Slytherin robe, the cut and style matched perfectly. The only thing missing from this new one was the patch that was sitting next to his wand on the window sill. The boy darted to the window and grabbed the patch. He lay it where it would have been sewn. "My robes..."

"Want me to attach the patch for you?"

Silver eyes looked up pleadingly. "Please..."

A small sewing kit was pulled from a pocket and the patch was fixed into place with a set of pins. Lifting the material up, the blonde tied his hair back, pulled a needle with black thread and began to stitch the house crest onto the material. Draco crept closer, watching intently. Tying the final knot, Watari snipped the thread and handed the robes over to the boy. "It's not the same... but it is close enough."

He pulled the robes to his chest, hugging them. "I thought they had been lost forever..."

The box was nudged towards Draco once more, "There's still one thing left in there."

The boy looked in the box again. Cocking his head, he reached in and pulled out... a scarf. Not only a scarf, a Slytherin house scarf. But he wasn't able to bring one with him.

"How..."

"I think that the only thing missing on this one is that crest," Watari halfway apologized.

He ran his hand over the knit. "It's so soft..."

"I'm glad that you like it... "

"Like it... I love it. They didn't allow me to keep mine. It's so much nicer than the one the school gave me."

Hazel eyes widened slightly, he had fully expected the scarf he had seen in the photo to be of a higher quality than the one he knitted for the boy. "So desu. Well, now that you are in such high spirits, I will now drag you back to your apartment and help you sort out what needs to be done there."

"Um..." Draco looked down at the pajamas he was still wearing.

"I'll be right back with the clothes you were wearing the other night."

"Okay." He was holding up the robes, checking the size.

When Watari returned, he had Draco's clothes... and the wizard would have sworn that they were charmed into giving off that powdery scent... not only that, they were still warm to the touch.

"They are warm..."

"They should be... and no, no magic was used to achieve that either." The shinigami chuckled as he left the room.

Draco got dressed quickly. He relished the feel of clean clothing against his skin. He pulled on the robe as well, tucking his useless wand into its inside pocket. He draped the scarf around his neck. He felt like a true Slytherin again.


Responses to Reviews:

Kara Angitia: Seeing that I am now sending the unedited chapters off to you, the fact that Draco isn't speaking very 'British' English should be remedied. .

Tosca: Nice to know that you are enjoying this... and poor little Dray-chan should be getting into better shape pretty soon.