A New Occupation
Inuyasha raised a knowing eyebrow, "What's with the sudden compliance?"
Harry, who still fought to keep his rage from blowing out the walls of his aunt's house, stiffly handed Inuyasha the letter. The older man looked over its contents with a small frown and gave a slight nod at the end of it.
Dear Harry,
Our parting at the end of the school year left you in rather low spirits and I apologize, but I do hope you will forgive an old man for his mistakes. You may not enjoy living at your aunt's house but it is for your best interest. In light of Voldemort's public outing and thus growing activity, I feel that you should remain there for the entire summer. The wards will protect you during these increasingly tremulous times, so you are not to the leave the property of number four. I also feel it would be best if you did not contact anyone as there have already been several owl interceptions since Voldemort's come to light. I have taken the liberty of confiscating your owl. This is for yours, and the Order's, own good Harry—letters are far too easily intercepted these days.
I do hope you are coping with the loss of your godfather, I cannot offer you enough condolences. I warn you now that he will not be the last. Please consider your actions more carefully in the future as your part in this war becomes more prominent.
Respectfully,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards
"Well," Inuyasha said, "He seems like a bit of a megalomaniac, don't you think? I mean...is it necessary to put in all these titles?"
Harry nodded and look towards Hedwig's empty cage, "I wondered where she was off to. I wrote a letter to the Order like they asked me to and she never came back."
Harry felt betrayed by the Order. He counted on them to protect him from his uncle in case he reacted badly to Moody's threat and they abandoned him. Without their support and without his friends, he was completely alone.
Or was he?
Harry looked up at Inuyasha who had just stood from his seat on the bed.
"So can I go with you?" Harry asked hopefully, hoping to his feet as well.
Inuyasha smiled warmly at him, "For now, yes. I'll just show you around where the gate is, but essentially you will live here." At Harry's pout he continued, "But we'll make it so you can enter and exit the premises easily enough."
"How?" Harry asked perplexed.
"The same way we'll do everything, Pinky. I'll explain later. First, I'd like to make clear a few things to your relatives."
It was only after Inuyasha strode out the door and down the stairs did Harry realize the reaction his relatives would have to a man with dog-ears on his head.
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Harry thundered down the stairs and stopped right outside the living room where, no doubt, his aunt and uncle would be watching the late afternoon news. Oddly enough, he couldn't hear any shouting. Maybe Inuyasha wasn't even in there...
Never mind—there was that distinct laugh.
Preparing himself for the worst, Harry entered the room.
Inside were his aunt and uncle with calm, yet slightly suspicious looks on their faces, and a man he almost didn't recognize. Almost. His hair had darkened to black and his eyes were now a strange shade of violet, but with normal, round pupils. The claws and fangs were gone and normal ears replaced his dog-ones. Inuyasha looked like a human.
"Well don't just stand in the doorway boy! Go fetch us some refreshments for our guest!" Petunia snapped at her nephew before turning her attention back to Inuyasha. She was giving him some sort of dreamy smile and—wait—did she just flutter her eyelashes at him? Oh, gross.
"Oh that won't be necessary, Mrs. Dursley. I need him here for the moment." Inuyasha replied with a charming smile.
"Please, call me Petunia," she giggled. Harry found this severely unnerving.
Vernon scowled at Inuyasha.
"I demand at once that you tell us what you are doing in our home, Mr. Nagasaki."
'Nagasaki?' Harry thought. 'Is that his last name?'
Inuyasha smiled jovially at Harry's uncle, not intimidated in the least by him, "I would simply like to inform you on what will be going on with your nephew this summer."
Vernon, in the midst of casting Harry a glare as if to imply Inuyasha's presence were his fault, stiffened. His face began to turn into an all too familiar shade of puce.
"Boy—," he choked out. "What have you done to yourself?"
Harry realized that they hadn't seen him since he went shopping. He granted his uncle a sheepish smile.
"If you will please not interrupt me, I'd like to continue," Inuyasha stated coolly. "Thank you. I simply wanted to inform you that I will be borrowing Harry every now and then, so if he seems strangely absent for a while, you now know why."
"But why?" Vernon demanded. "Where will he be going?"
"That is something I cannot answer, but I would appreciate it if you didn't mention it to any wizards."
"You're not a wizard?" Petunia asked in something akin to hope.
"No, I am not," Inuyasha replied placidly.
Harry admired Inuyasha's confidence. It was something that he would need if he were going to stand up to Dumbledore. Hopefully it would rub off on him if he hung around Inuyasha long enough. The adults of the room stood for Inuyasha's departure.
"Well, tubs," Inuyasha patted Vernon's stomach in a friendly gesture, all traces of shrewdness fleeing. "I'll be off now. Take care of the food-baby. Petunia," he lowered his voice to a murmur and kissed her on the hand. Harry's aunt blushed a brilliant shade of red before stuttering her farewell. Inuyasha and Harry exited the living room, leaving a seething Vernon Dursley in their wake.
"You—," Harry began at a complete loss for words, "you just hit on my aunt! What is wrong with you?!"
Inuyasha rounded the corner into his bedroom and laughed.
"I love how your family refers to you as 'boy'," Inuyasha jeered, ignoring Harry's earlier comment.
"Yeah well, we aren't exactly a close-nit family," Harry said bitterly.
Something about that remark triggered Inuyasha to burst out laughing and fondly throw an arm around Harry's shoulders.
"Kid, we are more alike than you will ever know."
Harry grinned up at him.
"Why do you look like a human?" Harry finally asked the question that had been nagging him for the last ten minutes.
Inuyasha lifted a dark lock of hair and pulled it in front of his face to look at it, "It's a long story, but every half-demon will turn human for a period of time. For me it was the night of the new moon. When I turned one hundred I learned that I had the ability to change from either form at will. Quite a bit of a shock actually."
"You didn't know it would happen?"
"I didn't know a lot of things about myself. But no one really knew what happened to half-demons when they turned one hundred—not many half-breeds lived that long. Back then anyways."
Harry began thinking about Inuyasha's age again, "But...will Shiva have this ability when she turns a hundred instead of having to use the ring-illusion thing?"
"She should," Inuyasha contemplated.
"Will she still look as young as you?" Harry couldn't stop the questions from pouring out of his mouth. Fortunately, Inuyasha didn't seem to mind.
"Maybe. I'm a little different from half-demons though. Technically I should age slower than a human but faster than a demon. That is generally how it works for half-demons."
"But..." Harry prompted.
"But I age slower than full blooded demons. Have you noticed Shippo looks a little older than me?"
"Well, yeah..."
"I'm older than him by a good sixty years."
"Really?" Harry questioned in awe. "Why is that?"
"'Cause my parents got bus-aay before his."
"You know what I meant!"
Biting down a smile, Inuyasha pursed his lips together and looked at Harry decisively, "Partly because I'm a guardian for Hell, and guardians stop aging all together when they are in charge of a gate...kind of like we're frozen in time. But before that I still aged slower than normal—and I will explain that some other time."
There was finality in his voice that told Harry he wouldn't be getting out any more answers.
"So how will we be getting in and out of this hell-hole?"
Inuyasha swiftly moved across the room and—using one arm—easily dragged Harry's bed away from the wall.
"Can you get me the book, please?" he asked.
Harry immediately knew what book he was talking about and dug it out from his trunk before handing it to Inuyasha. Inuyasha promptly flipped the book open to a page as if he had memorized all something-hundred of them and knew the content of each one. He knelt down before the area where the bed used to be, beckoning Harry to join him on the floor.
"Now, you see this?" Inuyasha pointed to the title of the page. Below it was a circular design of how the blood should be laid out.
"Portals?" Harry read the title.
"They're hard," Inuyasha explained. "And they require a lot of blood. Probably more than you're used to giving so I'll be helping you out."
For the next half hour, Harry and Inuyasha spent their time on the floor, making delicate slices in their skin to draw blood. Inuyasha was a great help to Harry. He pointed out things that Harry had been doing wrong when he was trying to self-teach and gave him tips on how to make certain rituals easier or quicker. Finally, after nearly an hour of analyzing and constructing the design, the portal was done. They both stood and admired their handy work.
"Not bad for a rookie," Inuyasha commented.
Harry grinned at him, "You did half of the work."
Inuyasha shrugged and moved the bed back to its original position, hiding the portal from view.
"Ready?" he asked Harry. Harry nodded, got down on the floor, and rolled under the bed. He placed two fingers on the gateway he was laying across and said, "Peragro."
Inuyasha saw a red light flash from under the bed before fading away and knew that Harry Potter was no longer on Privet Drive.
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Rock on.
Bad news: I won't be able to update for a couple of weeks because of exams and an operation I'm getting done.
Good news: After the operation I won't be able to do any activities for a month so lots of sitting on my ass and writing! Hopefully I'll get another chapter of Renaissance out during then. I haven't forgotten about it!
Thanx for reviewn'
