The Symbolism of Scars

"W-what?" Harry stammered, positive he had heard wrong. Inuyasha nodded candidly.

"Indeedy."

"Uh, heh, mind explaining this to me?"

"Well," Inuyasha began, sitting on what was left of Harry's bed. Harry followed the suit, knowing it would be another winded explanation. "Every being has a multitude of spiritual energy and/or magical energy. Humans in particular are meant to be born with a natural balance of spiritual and magical energies because the two forces will cancel each other out. Witches and wizards are humans who are unbalanced in favor of magical energy and have the ability to manipulate it. Priests and Priestesses are the opposite and have an overbalance of excess spiritual energy in their aura. This is what makes them so dangerous to demons, which are spiritual beings; they can manipulate a demon's energy and use it against them.

"Demons are a bit different. While they are spiritual beings, they have magical energy of their own that lies separate rather than mixing. It is unlike human magic and tainted by their own demonic essence, which incidentally makes human magic nearly useless against it."

"Their youki," Harry labeled.

Inuyasha nodded, "As I said before, had you brought too much spiritual energy to your core from the ritual, you could have canceled out your magical energy completely, leaving you as balanced as a muggle."

Harry gulped. Had he known his magic was at stake, he would have thought more about performing the ritual.

Or perhaps not.

"How do you know all this?"

Inuyasha hesitated for a split second before answering. This told Harry that he would not get a complete answer out of him as of yet.

"We won't get into my family history but I guess you could say I have the uh...magical gene."

Harry felt his heart skip a beat and stared at Inuyasha as though he had just met him.

"You—? You're a wizard?"

Inuyasha shook his head, "Nah, I can't be called that. Too much demon blood in me. But I can still see things as wizards do. Hadn't you ever wondered how I got the Book if I said I got it out of Hogwarts?"

Harry felt himself blush as he shook his head negatively. In truth he hadn't given any thought as to how a seemingly normal demon got through the wards surrounding the castle. He had grown far too accustomed to accepting anything Inuyasha told him.

"Well what matters is that your magical energy still dominates within you," Inuyasha leaned forward and sniffed Harry once more. "Though it was a close call. You smell very much like a half-demon."

A sudden, suspicious look passed over Inuyasha's face as he sniffed a third time. He stopped and sniffed Harry again. A low growl emitted from his throat as he lifted himself off of the bed and took a few steady steps away from Harry. Harry stared at him bewildered.

"Inuyasha—"

"Who did you see down there?" Inuyasha asked evenly, his voice low and dangerous. Harry had never been given any reason to fear Inuyasha before, but now, with his threatening and readied posture, Harry felt a little frightened.

"I told you—lots of demons."

"Did any stand out to you?"

"Well...maybe the last one. He attacked me when he saw the book. Oh! And he was the one who opened the barrier! I think he did it last time too."

"What did he look like?"

"Very human-like, actually. He had black hair and was wearing a baboon pellet...ught! And he was wearing make up. Dodgy if you ask me."

Inuyasha rubbed a hand down his face, looking extremely weary.

"Anything else?" he asked, even though he already knew who it was.

"Well...when we were fighting I tore through his creepy pellet and he had this scar on his back. It was sick. It sort of resembled a spider...it's hard to explain because it looked like...that..."

Harry felt his jaw drop as he stared at Inuyasha's back. The half demon had pulled his shirt overhead as Harry talked and the boy suddenly found himself facing an exact replica of the scar he saw hours before, imprinted in the center of an otherwise flawless back.

"W-what...but how—?"

"A parting gift," Inuyasha explained softly, pulling his shirt back on. "From Naraku, the demon you just encountered."

"Naraku? But isn't that the demon you..."

Inuyasha nodded, "Be thankful you're alive."

Harry sat back down on the broken bed, unsure when he had stood up in the first place. He felt a bitter half-smile creep up on his face as he finally understood what Inuyasha had meant all those times he said they were more alike than he could ever know. He knew now. Not only were they leading similar lives, but their destinies seemed to follow similar paths as well. He learned about something like this in divination once. Some souls were reincarnated when a destiny was left unfinished, but then there was what was known as parallel souls—souls that follow almost identical paths in completely different scenarios and settings.

Perhaps that was what he and Inuyasha were—parallel souls. Both were marked by their greatest enemy...fighting for people who don't truly care about them, who wouldn't take the time to understand them, to recognize them as people, fighting for a peace that seemed impossible. They were destined to uphold a battle that would follow them for the rest of their years, both warriors, both martyrs.

"Inuyasha," Harry said softly. "Why did you choose me?"

Inuyasha looked at him questioningly.

"How did you know I could use blood magic? Why did you just leave the Book on my bed for me to find? How did you know?"

Inuyasha bit the corner of his lip, casting his eyes downward. He knew it was time to tell Harry the rest of the truth.

"I knew the prophecy before I met you," he started.

"I figured," Harry responded dryly.

"I knew it four hundred and eighteen years ago."

Harry looked up to meet Inuyasha's eyes, startled.

"That's impossible," Harry said slowly, "It was only made sixteen years ago."

"No," Inuyasha said, "It was released into the human world sixteen years ago. But all prophecies are predestined and planned out by the PTB."

"The what?"

"The Powers that Be...you know...the guys upstairs," he pointed to the sky.

"Oh...you mean, like, God?"

"They're right below God actually—or whatever humans perceive as God. And all guardians to the gates of Hell are direct, uh, employers of them."

"So they're like your bosses?" at Inuyasha's nod, Harry whistled. Inuyasha was higher up in the food chain than he originally suspected.

"So when you became a guardian, you found out the prophecy?"

"Nope, I didn't become a guardian until the last two hundred years of my life actually. It was the moment I touched this book," he pointed to the Book cradled in Harry's arms, "that I found out. They summoned me to a meeting and explained that it was my destiny to help you with yours."

Harry grinned, "So we really must be parallel souls after all."

"Huh?"

Harry waved him off, "Never mind, I'll tell you later. Tell me more about what they wanted you to do."

"Nothing much more than that. I was the only true being at the time with the ability to use blood magic so I was told to master the art and just wait around for a few centuries until you came along so I could guide you. Though they didn't give me an exact date or any coordinates. The last few decades had me trying to keep track of every Harry Potter that existed. Let me tell you—your parents were not original when it came to naming you."

Harry snorted, finding no argument there and asked, "Do they interfere like this with every prophecy?"

Inuyasha shrugged, "I don't think so. This was a pretty serious prophecy compared to most. Voldemort coming to power would greatly upset to balance of light and darkness in the universe, especially with his carelessness in dabbling in the dark arts. Obviously the PTB decided to take matters into their own hands. They knew your ability ahead of time and knew I was the only one who could help you. End of story."

"Pretty deep," Harry said, still reeling from all the information he gained in the last half-hour.

"Alright, time to get to school..." Inuyasha said, standing up and brushing off his pants.

"Awww…" Harry whined, falling back onto the bed. "Do I have to? That guy that I'm still mad at is there. And he still has Hedwig."

"Your bird is fine, she's in the owlry. Now get your lazy, freak ass up and lets go. You need an education."

"Who you calling a freak, freak?" Harry asked with a mean smile, lifting himself to his feet, "And what about the demons? How will I fight them if I'm stuck in that prison? Dumbledore's going to have me watched implicitly, I just know it."

The thought of being around so many humans for so long was making Harry unusually uncomfortable. He was struck with a sudden feeling that putting himself in such a situation would not end well.

"Don't worry, they'll come to you," Inuyasha said. "Trust me."

Harry snorted at that last comment, moving about to shrink what he could find of his possessions before freezing, "Hang on...how did you know that Hedwig is in the owlry...?"

Inuyasha looked around, before flashing him an impish smile and leaping out of the ruined house, laughing as he bounded from rooftop to rooftop, impalpable to the human eye.

Harry growled, his eyes flashing an incandescent color at the challenge, and bounded after his superior. It was an amazing and exhilarating experience—jumping with almost no gravity, the wind whipping his hair as if he were on a broom—one he would never get tired of. The balls of his feet barley made contact with the tiles of the rooftops before he was airborne again. To his excitement he was quickly gaining on his mentor, though whether it was because Inuyasha was letting him or personal skill he had yet to find out.

Soon Harry was sprinting next to Inuyasha and the man's shocked face was enough to confirm it was the former.

"Holy, fucking shit. How the hell did you catch up so fast?" Inuyasha yelled against the wind. Harry just grinned and sped up, flying past Inuyasha. Rather than getting mad, Inuyasha laughed and followed the boy. The two flew over towns, using houses and cars as fleeting landing pads and push-offs. They passed over forests and plains until a looming, but welcoming castle materialized in the distance.

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Heck yes. The spiritual/magical energy thing might have been a bit confusing for some of you—just another wild theory I threw in there. Sorry, no crazy reactions this chapter...just some Inu/Harry bonding.

Now Harry must return from the dead. Officially.