Problems Arisen

Harry blinked at the person on the other end of the wand.

"What?"

"You heard me. Who the hell are you?"

"What the fuck are you talking about Ginny?"

The petit redhead kept her glare steady.

"I saw you in the library. You turned into some kind of monster. Now what did you do to Harry?"

Harry paled considerably at the mention of her witnessing him dropping his glamour charm.

"Ginny, it is me," he said slowly, taking a step forward. Ginny responded by sending sparks out the end of her wand, burning his neck a little. He backed off.

"This is why you've been acting so strange lately," She continued in a trembling voice, "You've possessed his body or something."

Her eyes began to tear up and Harry began to feel bad at what memories this suspicion would cause her to relive. He sighed, realizing it was about time one of his friends knew the truth.

"Ginny, listen to me: I. Am. Harry. Remember how I was stuck in Hell this summer?"

She nodded, but didn't take the glare off him.

"Well, I had to do some things that would help me survive. To make this as uncomplicated as I can…basically I used a complex spell to turn me part demon so I could fight against all the demons that wouldn't stop trying to kill me."

Ginny shook her head, "I don't believe you. Harry would never resort to something like that."

Harry snorted.

"You don't know what I would resort to. Stop thinking I'm some goddamn goody-goody. Now I'm going to take the glamour charm off, but you can't freak out, okay?"

She said nothing so Harry took off the spell. Ginny sucked in a breath, finally getting a good look at him. Her gaze trailed from his slitted eyes, to his protruding fangs and finally to his clawed hands.

"I am Harry," he repeated.

Sniffling, she looked back up at the same emerald green eyes that she gazed into when she was rescued from the Chamber of Secrets—only now they practically glowed. Just beneath the mass of black and silver bangs, the telltale scar remained.

It seemed impossible, she didn't want to believe it, but it was Harry.

"Oh Merlin, it is you!" she cried and threw her arms around his neck. Harry officially freaked out at the sudden contact and decided to do nothing but hold his breath until she let go. Unfortunately, the only Weasley girl in several generations wasn't about to do that anytime soon.

"Oh, I was so worried you were dead and an awful demon or something took your place. Or worse, if Tom had possessed you and turned you against us!" she cried into his neck.

"Er...Okay. Ginny? You have to promise not to tell anyone."

Ginny pulled away.

"But why? Shouldn't you tell Dumbledore?"

"No. No one! Especially not him. Promise me!"

Ginny hesitantly nodded.

"But... what about what you did to Madam Pince?" she asked shakily.

Harry stared at her.

"I didn't kill her."

"I know. But you pulled something out of her forehead and burned it."

"Oh," Harry said in realization, knowing he'd have to tell her more than he intended. "Well...there are some complications with the barrier between this world and Hell and more and more demons are escaping. That was a demon I destroyed and I'm going to be killing a lot more until the problem is fixed."

Ginny looked scared.

"But if a demon killed Pince, shouldn't we tell Dumbledore? I mean, who's to say a student won't be next?"

"No. This is something Dumbledore can't fix. He'll only get in the way. It was my fault; I let my guard down. I guarantee you it won't happen again."

"Harry," she said, with the same warm look she used to give him when she was eleven (and this worried him greatly). "You put too much responsibility on yourself, you know that?"

Harry didn't know what to say to that so his stomach answered for him in a low growl. Both he and Ginny shared a look before breaking out into fits of laughter.

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"Harry Potter, where have you been? I've been waiting for you forever!" Hermione scowled as he walked into the common room with Ginny in tow. Harry froze on the spot and stared at her, wide-eyed. He could not deal with her now.

"Oh, uh," He forced the most realistic yawn he could fake. "I'm really, really tired Herm. I'm going to bed."

"Wait!" She cried as he sprinted past her and up to the boy's dormitory. She made to go after him but Ginny grabbed her arm first.

"Let him go. He really doesn't know anything about what happened."

Hermione looked very dubious.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now let's get to sleep. It's late."

"But...what if whatever killed Madam Pince is still out there? How do you know it won't attack us next? I studied the body and it wasn't any type of spell!"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Ginny said with a mischievous glint in her eye. "I'm sure it's all taken care of."

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Harry found himself in an unfamiliar room. It was completely bare, with dark grey walls that extended far beyond what he could see.

"Ah, Harry Potter. I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to you in quite some time," a high, disembodied voice spoke from the shadows.

Harry rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, seemingly bored.

"Cut the dramatics Tom. What do you want?"

"Why your allegiance of course," Voldemort replied, stepping from the shadows. He was dressed in a deep, black cloak with the hood pulled back to reveal a familiar, pale, white head with two, great, red eyes.

"Why do you insist on asking in some manner or another for me to join you when you know it'll never happen?" Harry said in irritation.

Voldemort shrugged.

"I thought I would try my luck, seeing as you and the old man have come to a falling out of sortsss."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "You are in no position to be calling anyone old, Tom."

Voldemort looked like he was about to curse Harry for a brief moment but refrained.

"I've heard a great deal of your exploits in Hell as well as a few new abilities of yours. I'm glad to hear you've taken a leaf out of my book."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the robed figure. "And how did you hear of this? I'm pretty sure I've kept it confidential."

Voldemort ignored him and carried on in a very satisfied tone of voice.

"Are you aware that there is a powerful demon searching for the very book that you possessss?" He grinned at Harry's startled expression. "Yesss. Imagine my surprise when, right in the middle of one of my death eater meetings, a portal to Hell erupted from the ground and I found myself face to face with the legendary Naraku."

Harry could not keep the despairing look from his face. Voldemort chuckled with delight.

"We had a long chat, he and I. Apparently he cannot entirely exit Hell due to some sort of spell your half-breed mentor placed on him. So he desires the book to break it. Can you imagine, Harry, the sort of power he and I would hold together if we were to join forces? Because I can. I can see an entire future of darkness awaiting us. Unimaginable power at my fingertips."

"Can you imagine Inuyasha and me kicking both your asses back to hell? Because I can."

The victorious smirk slid off his nemesis's face.

"Laugh while you can, Potter. But I will have that book! I can guarantee you that! Crucio!"

Harry's vision then went black as his scar exploded with pain. He fell to the ground as cruciatus curse after cruciatus curse washed over him.

"—rry...Harry...Harry!"

Harry sat up, finding himself sweaty and imprisoned by his blankets.

"Harry!" Ron screamed a forth time. The redhead was now shaking him by his shoulders, "Was it Voldemort? Was it another vision?"

Harry looked around him, breathing hard. Everyone in the room was awake and crowded around his bed. Apparently they remembered last year, because they all wore expressions of fear and anxiety. Harry's eyes widened; the full implications of his vision hit him like a freight train.

"Uh...no, not Voldemort," he said, pulling himself out of his sheets with haste. "It was the Chili...there were fingernails in it!"

Once he was free he ran out of the dormitory, leaving four bewildered youths and a bundle of blankets behind him.

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The second Harry reached Inuyasha's sleeping quarters he began pounding on the door. While teachers usually had an office attached to their classroom, they also had separate sleeping quarters a ways away from their workplace. The only obstacle Harry had encountered on the way down was Filch and Mrs. Norris, but simply jumping on the walls worked in avoiding them and he carried on.

The door swung open as Harry was about to knock on it again and he ended up missing Inuyasha's face by inches. Inuyasha glared at him, clad only in a pair of drawstring pants. He was in his normal form with his silver hair messier than usual and the triangular ears twitching irritably.

"What?" he growled. Harry shoved his way into the half-demon's room and plopped down on the bed. Inuyasha growled once more and shut the door.

"Ya' know, in America—we're usually asleep at this hour."

"I just had a vision from Voldemort and he's after the book too," Harry said hurriedly. Inuyasha blinked a bit, looking a little more awake.

"Huh?"

"Yeah! He and Naraku are planning on some sort of alliance and they both need the book. Tom said something about a spell you placed on Naraku that keeps him in Hell?"

Inuyasha paled and plopped down on the bed next to him.

"Oh shit," he moaned, rubbing his hands over his face.

"It's alright for now," Harry said reassuringly. "We have the book. All we have to do is hide it better so neither will find it."

"No, no. This wasn't supposed to happen."

"What?" Harry asked, staring at Inuyasha. "Hey. What have I said about keeping things from me? What isn't supposed to happen?"

Inuyasha looked up, "Never mind that. I need you to get the book and bring it here. It's not safe anywhere near other humans."

He got up to leave.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Harry asked, standing up along with Inuyasha.

"I'm going to see the PTB," he replied, throwing a sweatshirt on over his head.

"But..." Harry didn't want Inuyasha to leave so soon after having a vision. "What if he gets into my head again? He could find out where the book is!"

Inuyasha turned and gave him an annoyed look, "If he could do that, don't you think he would have done it already? Besides, even if he did know where it was it's not like he can do anything about it, right? Didn't you have some sort of training in occlumency?"

Harry gave Inuyasha a wry look, "All I know so far is to "clear my mind" and I can't even do that right."

"'Clear your mind'? 'The hell kind of advice is that?" Inuyasha said with distaste.

"Snape's advice," Harry sighed.

Inuyasha shook his head, "I don't really like that man. He's not a very clean person."

Harry had to laugh at that. Inuyasha continued.

"Tell you what, I'll teach you occlumency."

The wizard was sure he heard wrong.

"I'm sorry; did you just say that you'd teach me?"

"Well yeah," Inuyasha shrugged, "I mean, I've never taught it before, but I know I can do better than 'clear your mind.'"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute..." Harry said, holding up his hands. "You know occlumency?"

"Yup, it's a good thing to know," Inuyasha said. "Now—I really have to go see the PTB."

"Oh, no! You're not going anywhere! Where the hell did you learn occlumency? I thought you can't do magic?"

Inuyasha grinned, "I never said that, and occlumency isn't really magic—anyone can learn it."

Harry shook his head. He hated it when Inuyasha dropped bombshells on him like this all at once, "But where did you learn it?"

"Azkaban."

"WHAT?!?!"

"Oh look, a hummingbird!" Inuyasha cried, pointing behind Harry. Harry whirled around for a second, before facing back to him.

"What? Inuyasha, when where you..."

He was speaking to an empty room.

"ARRGH!" Harry growled, slapping his hands on top of his head in frustration. "I can't believe I fell for that! I'll fucking kill him when he gets back...why am I still talking to myself?"

Resolving to kick Inuyasha's ass later, Harry turned back to his dorm to get the book.

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Yup—more secrets about Inuyasha may be revealed. I'm definitely going to have Kagome come into this story, but it may be the sequel, which I already have mostly laid out. I also decided to have one of Harry's friends find out the truth and who better than Ginny?

I managed to find some internet at the Hotel I'm staying at in Las Vegas so I could post these. Right now the cleaning lady is here and she's talking to herself in rapid Spanish. It's very, very strange. Holy shit, she just threw a doorknob!

Thanks for being so patient you guys, you rock.