Officially Undead
Harry was mere meters from crossing the wards surrounding the castle when a silver blur shot past him in an unexpected burst of speed and crossed over first, landing swiftly on other side.
"I win!" Inuyasha grinned, fist pumping. Harry landed next to him looking bewildered.
"Hey! You were holding out on me!" he accused.
"Not really, I just prefer not to travel that fast."
"It's the same thing," Harry deadpanned.
"About face and march," the half-demon's responded, moseying past Harry and towards the castle. Harry stood his ground for a few seconds before doing so, spending that time blinking and, once again, seriously doubting his mentor's sanity.
By the time he caught up to Inuyasha the man had changed his appearance to human.
"Are you going in the castle?" he asked.
"Yup."
"Uh...ok. why?"
"I like the architecture."
"No really, why?"
"I think you should know," Inuyasha said as they approached the doors, ignoring Harry's question altogether, "that everyone pretty much thinks you're dead."
Harry stopped short.
"What!?"
"Yeah—Dumbledore basically assumed that was the case and announced it to everyone."
Harry moaned and moved a hand over his eyes, "And here I was hoping to get away with 'I missed the train' again."
"You could still try that..." Inuyasha said thoughtfully.
"Inuyasha..."
"Oh, who the hell cares what they think! It's lunchtime anyways and—damn boy, you need a shower!"
Harry furrowed his brow and glanced down at himself, finally noticing the clothes he had been in for nearly the last month were torn, bloody, and oily. His personal scent was stronger than what he knew to be usual, mixed unpleasantly with the strong odor of sweat, grime, and demon blood. He must have gotten too accustomed to it over his vacation in Hell.
"Climb the wall, take a shower, and then walk around like you own the place."
"But I'm hungry," Harry pouted.
"So stop at the kitchens, bitch. Now go."
Not bothering to wonder why he was listening to Inuyasha in the first place, Harry turned tail and began leaping from windowsill to windowsill, hoping he was moving too fast for anyone to notice him, before he finally landed on what he knew to be the ledge of the Gryffindor sixth year dormitory. Luckily, due to the warm day, the window was slightly ajar and Harry was able to squeeze in without triggering any wards that might have been set in place. He stood and looked around the once vacant room. It pretty much resembled his dormitory last year except for one bed, which lay completely untouched with no possessions littered around it like the others were.
Smiling, Harry took out his trunk and un-shrunk it, placing it at the foot of his bed like usual. He then took out a fresh set of clothes, some toiletries, and headed off to the showers.
The shower took approximately a half an hour, due to the washing and re-washing of his body and hair—though the chemicals in the soap burned his nose they did their job. He noticed, while he was in there, that he had a few more silver stripes on his body than he realized: the side of each hipbone was marked with the sharp lines, as well as three horizontal strips on each side of his torso.
After he showered, changed, and checked that the glamour charm was still in place he decided to go down to the kitchens to eat. His trek down the hallways had him as distracted as a first year. He was suddenly seeing the castle in a whole new light. He could sense her as a being now, a sentiment being with so much energy and activity within her walls...energy that had nothing to do with the humans that inhabited her. It made him feel warm, the knowledge that, despite how isolated he anticipated feeling around so many humans—and he had accepted that he had essentially constructed a barrier between him and his former race—he would never be alone.
This new and undulated stimulation he discovered at every turn left him sufficiently distracted enough to not notice the oncoming group of girls in time to avoid them.
The girls and their giggling stopped the moment they spotted him, confusion and then alarm dawning on their faces. Steeling his nerves, Harry kept his face forward and continued walking, doing his best to ignore their stares. He only just recognized Marietta Edgecombe as part of the group and idly wondered how she got the "sneak" off her face.
"Excuse me ladies," he said as pleasantly as he could. They parted silently, still gawking at his as though they had seen a ghost. He rounded the corner at the end of the hall and the second he left their eyesight a flurry of girlish screams echoed throughout the corridors.
'Talk about a delayed reaction,' Harry thought laughing. He ran to the portrait he needed, tickled the pear, and entered the kitchen before any of the girls caught up with him. Before he could turn around, something tackled his legs, almost knocking him clean off his feet.
"Mister Harry Potter sir has returned! Dobby knew he was not dead, sir, Dobby knew it! He did! Dobby knew the good and great Harry Potter would return and fight the bad wizards!" the fidgety house elf squealed into Harry's knees.
"Yeah, okay, okay" Harry grumbled, not liking the prickly smell house elves gave off. The kitchen was simply filled with it. He forcibly pulled the over-affectionate terror off his person.
"Mister Harry Potter sir must be very hungry. Dobby knows this because Mister Harry Potter sir's tummy is saying so."
Harry blushed and put a hand on his stomach, willing it to shut up.
"Yeah a bit," he admitted. Dobby looked positively gleeful.
"What is Mister Harry Potter sir wanting? He is having anything he is wanting!"
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"Er...do you have ramen?"
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The great hall bustled with its gusto for a Thursday afternoon lunch. Everyone dined with splendid conversation, preparing for their next classes, when the doors to the great hall opened with a bang.
A group of hysterical, seventh year, Ravenclaw girls burst forth, unintelligible blather slipping forth along with them.
"He's back, he's back! He's alive!"
"The hall—he was right there walking towards us!"
"Good Merlin, he's gotten fit!"
The teachers stood, only catching snippets of what the girls were screaming.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore cried, sending the girls into silence along with everyone else in the room. "Now, what is the matter, young ladies? Who is back?"
"Harry Potter—," Marietta managed to get out before the room erupted once more. Dumbledore held up a shaky hand for silence, not quite believing what he was hearing.
"Miss Edgecombe, explain yourself."
"I—we—saw him, walking in the hall. He was there! And then he walked away and we couldn't find him. But he was really there!"
The other girls were all nodding in agreement to her story. Dumbledore looked at them sternly.
"That is not possible, my dear. It appears that someone has played a foul and uncalled for prank on you. Harry potter is—"
"Albus!" McGonagall gasped, pointing straight ahead. Dumbledore followed her direction and stiffened, eyes wide. Snape's jaw fell open in a most un-Slytherin manner. Flitwick dropped his fork. Morgana raised an eyebrow. Inuyasha snorted into his food. Every student head in the great hall turned to look at one Harry James Potter, standing casually in the open doorway of the great hall languidly petting a purring Mrs. Norris.
"...Dead?" he finished helpfully, his voice echoing throughout the silent dining area.
He had a choice of going to Dumbledore first and having the man announce his return, a cause for a padded integration. Or, he had the choice of revealing himself at one moment to everyone and getting it out of the way. He didn't much fancy wasting time sticking to the shadows and trying to avoid the stares, so he chose his second option, figuring Inuyasha would get a kick out of it at the very least.
Now he remembered why he didn't like abrupt attention.
Pandemonium erupted as his word snapped them out of their stupor. Children began screaming cries of 'ghost!' or 'imposter', teachers made vain attempts at gaining control of the situation while staring disbelievingly at the boy they all believed to be dead for the last month. Some students, the closer friends of Harry, tried running towards him, whether to harm or hug him, he did not know. Nor did he want to find out.
Swearing and dropping the purring pussy, he turned around and ran straight out the double doors, turning down the first corridor he came across. Some students, namely his friends from Gryffindor, followed him. The rest stayed where they were or ran back to their common rooms or to the owlry to spread the news.
Morgana remained in her seat, letting the humans deal with their own problems. She looked over to her former lover to see him snickering into his plate like a common teenager.
"You knew something about this didn't you?" It wasn't a question, more like a statement. Inuyasha schooled his face to be one of utter shock.
"How could you even think of accusing me of keeping things from the most respected and psychotic wizards of our time?"
He gestured to the tall form of Dumbledore sweeping through the mass of students and out of the Hall.
Morgana said nothing but continued to stare at him with those unblinking black irises.
"Alright, I might have known something," he admitted without shame. "But seriously, the whole cat thing...now that caught me off guard."
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As I was redoing the scene where Harry announces his presence I was listening to this jazzy tune...and realized it was the theme song from Dirty Harry.
