Wow, once again I was amazed at how many reviews I got: 13 were on the same day I updated alone! Half of which told me I was evil. grins Glad the cliff hanger was well done. However, the reason that chapter was so short, was, well partially so that I could finally update, but mostly because, as you're about to notice, I've switched points of view.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed: otakualways, Helen, lala-girl27, shangxiang10, The Violent Tomboy, pitbull123, Raiyevern, 冰, montrith, Kyokorain, midnight, KC, Fuji the Hobbit, Evil Toilet Paper (sorry, nope, don't know any other HP/IY crossover fics - most of the fics I read were BTVS x-overs), Angel of Mercy, Diana Artemis Silvermoon, inuyashas hun, kris, kitsunekilala, dragondolphin1990, Shadowed Rains, Aubrin Xerva,

I had sorta hoped that I was writing Draco mostly in-character, but, alas, too many people seem to think otherwise. Oh well, I don't think I could have worked him into this story as easily as I did if I had written him differently and no one seems to really mind. Plus, I'm apparently doing a pretty good job at all the other character, so I guess that makes up for it.

I was also rather surprised at how many of you liked the idea that I wasn't including romance in my fic (not everyone, but most of those who commented seemed happy about it anyway). Honestly, I just don't write romance. Which is odd, because I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, hmmm. . .

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this and if it wasn't so late, I'd probably think of something more interesting to say here.

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 5 - The Priestess

Harry Potter grabbed his head and hissed in pain. And Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's hearts stopped beating for about three seconds.

"Harry!" they cried at the same time.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Cho, her voice full of worry.

"Is it You-Know-Who?" Ron asked.

"You-Know-Who!" Cho cried, her eyes going wide. "You mean Harry really does have a link to him?"

"Yes, he does," Hermione quickly explained, "and it only acts up if You-Know-Who is either feeling a very strong emotion, or is close by."

"Oh Merlin! Harry, are you alright?"

"He's close by," Harry managed to gasp.

"He's here, in the park!"

"I. . .I think so. . . I'm not sure."

"Umm. . . where did Malfoy go?" Hermione asked.

"Probably off to join his daddy in his muggle-killing," Ron spat.

"More to the point, where's Kagome?" Cho was looking about her wildly, her eyes wide in fear that was steadily giving way to panic. Suddenly, Hermione grabbed her shoulder.

"Look, there they go!" she pointed into the distance, where Kagome and Draco were running towards the other end of the park.

"She's probably a death eater too and this was all a trap to lure us out," Ron said, his eyes narrowing after the retreating figures.

"Weasley, first of all, she's from Japan and You-Know-Who's supporters are mostly from Europe. Secondly, I think I would've noticed if she was a death eater, seeing as how she's living with me and constantly wears short sleeves. Thirdly, we had no idea you were going to be here and you didn't know we were going to be here. Besides of which, I know for a fact that her family are all muggles."

"Well, Malfoy seemed to think otherwise," Harry pointed out, the little bit of occlumancy Dumbledore had taught him so far in the summer was helping him deal with the pain from his scar.

"You don't suppose You-Know-Who's figured out a way to make the Dark Mark invisible, do you?" Hermione mused. "But if that was the case, Kagome would've made a perfect spy. Why would they want to give that up? No, Cho's right, it doesn't make sense."

"Well, if Kagome's a muggle then she's in even worse danger if You-Know-Who's here. Not to mention that she's with the ferret." Everyone looked to Ron as what he said sunk in.

"Oh my God," said Hermione, "he's right."

"Come on, we've got to rescue her!" Harry said.

"Well, at least she's got her bow and arrows with her," Cho commented as the group took off.

Hermione gave Cho an odd look and hesitated for a moment before running off after her friends. Even as she ran, the look on her face indicated that the wheels in her head were whirling around at the speed of light, processing this new information.

She was about to comment, when loud screams pierced the air. The group stopped dead.

"Oh Merlin, they're here!" Cho exclaimed, grabbing Harry's arm for support. Hermione rolled her eyes at the Ravenclaw.

Harry was the first to feel it. His blood froze when he felt the first whispers of darkness invade his mind.

"Dementors," he whispered. He then flinched when Cho's hand dug painfully into his arm.

"Dementors? My cousin's headed for a group of dementors!"

"Good thing we practiced the Patronus like we did last year," Ron as the group took off again.

They didn't get very far though. Suddenly two figures apparated in front of them.

"And just where do you think you're running off to?" asked Tonks fiercely, her green hair taking away somewhat from the authoritative stance she was probably hoping to achieve.

"My cousin," Cho cried, by now fully panicking, "she ran off in the direction of the dementors with Malfoy!"

"Malfoy!" Mad-Eye Moody barked. "Are you sure she's not a death eater?"

"Oh for Merlin's sake we've already been over this! No, Kagome most certainly is not a death eater. In fact, she's a muggle. I think she met Malfoy earlier in the park. I wasn't with her though, so I don't know how that happened."

"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye out for her," Tonks nodded, "now you four stay with Moody. I'm going to go help with the dementors."

"Hey, but we can help!" Ron protested.

"Not this time Weasley," Moody silenced him and Tonks vanished with a 'pop.' Then he took a bright purple sock out of his pocket and held it out to them. "Now, each of you grab hold of this.

Reluctantly, they all grabbed hold of the sock. The ex-auror looked at his watch.

"Right well, this should activate in 5. . .4. . .3. . .2. . .1. . .hey, what-"

All it had taken was a look for Harry and Ron to agree on a course of action, and so at the very last moment, they let go of the sock. Now they were both standing in the middle of Hyde Park, watching as people ran towards them.

"You know," Ron began thoughtfully, "if we survive this, mum's going to kill me."

"Better your mum than Voldemort," Harry laughed and the two wizards dashed straight towards whatever it was that was making the muggles run.

Meanwhile, Tonks was trying to fend off dementors, who were currently circling around the aurors in order to get at them from the side.

When she had arrived in the park there had been about three dozen dementors and only a dozen aurors. But Moody was on his way back to 12 Grimauld Place, so she expected Order members to begin arriving soon.

And they were going to need them.

The battle was already in full swing. Patroni flew, galloped and swam towards the dementors. Tonks jumped right in and sent her own iguana scampering into the fray.

It was working; the dementors were retreating and some of the muggles who had been laying on the grass in balls of hopeless misery were slowly getting up and wobbling away. But suddenly the dementors weren't retreating at all and were instead coming at them from the side. Tonks sent off another patronus.

Their side of the park was empty now, save for a few individuals sitting and staring into space with empty eyes. Tonk's head whirled towards the outskirts of the park, as the loud screech of car breaks carried over to her over the shouts of aurors.

"Merlin's beard, they've gotten to the street!" she yelled. The auror in charge heard her; she looked at her, nodded and then started barking orders to others. Tonks left her to it and sent another Patronus at a trio of dementors, who were getting a little too close.

Tonks wasn't concentrating as well as she should have. Her patronus was weakening as her mind was now preoccupied with thinking about the amount of people walking the London streets. Dark thoughts began fluttering through her mind. Her cousin's funeral, the Dark Mark floating proudly in the air above a small country house, where a family of seven had been slaughtered, the body of a new recruit she had led into battle against a group of death eaters laying lifelessly on the ground. . .

She looked in the direction of the street again just in time to be blinded by a bright light. Dementor screeching filled the air. It was a hideous sound, like the creatures themselves. But it was the distraction she needed to get her thoughts under control again. Turning her full attention back to the dementors in front of her, she noticed they seemed to be somewhat hesitant and unsure about something.

But Tonks wasn't. She raised her wand and concentrated on her happy memory.

Her mouth opened, ready to chant Expecto Patronus when suddenly a white light seemed to hurl itself at the dementors in front of her. Tonks gaped as she watched them disintegrate before her eyes.

All that remained in their place was an arrow.

Slowly, she put her wand down and walked up to the arrow. She noticed it was angled so that it appeared to have been shot from above. Putting a hand to her face to shield her eyes from the sun, she looked up at the sky.

She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting to see, but a flying cat with two figures sitting on its back certainly wasn't it.

Just then the person sitting in front raised a bow and aimed an arrow at the ground. Tonks saw long, black hair and guessed it was a girl. The moment the arrow left the girl's hand it began glowing and the farther away from her it went, the more light gathered around it, until it looked like a pillar of light careening towards the ground. It cut through a group of dementors and they disintegrated, just like the ones in front of Tonks had.

"Who in Merlin's name is that?" asked a familiar voice from beside her. She turned to Remus Lupin, grateful that the Order's forces had finally arrived.

"Hey, that's Kagome!" an even more familiar voice cried. Tonks frowned.

"Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley! I thought I told you to stay with Moody!"

The two boys looked a little sheepish.

"We wanted to help," Ron said.

"Voldemort's close," Harry added, "I figured you could use all the help you could get. Besides, we figured Cho might want someone looking out for her cousin."

"Though, it seems she doesn't need any help- Blimey, did you just see that!" Ron watched with wide eyes as Kagome's arrow destroyed another batch of dementors, this time one that were heading towards the palace.

Suddenly, Harry grabbed his scar again and hissed. There was blood on his hand when he took it away.

"Harry, we have to get you out of here!" Lupin said, pushing the two boys away from the others. They never did find out just how he was planning to do that though.

"Watch out!" Tonks screamed up at Kagome despite the fact that the girl probably couldn't hear her.

Luckily, the cat she was sitting on swirled away just in time to avoid the sickly green Avada Kadavra that had been heading in their direction.

"Did you see that?" Lupin gaped. "That curse must've had incredible power behind it to appear so clearly."

"Professor," Ron gulped, eyes wide in fear, "are you saying that You-Know-Who could actually be here?"

"I don't know Ron, I really don't know. But it looks like it."

Just then popping sounds erupted all around them. Harry scanned the area. All he saw were black robes and white masks: they were surrounded. The only way out was to fight.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a group of death eaters throwing curses at the cat in the sky. He was actually amazed at the agility with which it avoided getting hit. If the cat had played quidditch, it would've made an amazing seeker.

Unfortunately, it didn't see the killing curse coming at it from behind until it was too late. The cat roared in pain and staggered a bit in the air, before falling to the ground.

He guessed that the figure in black that lost its grip and fell limply to the ground was probably Draco Malfoy.

Well, there it is, another chapter done! Hope you liked it! Now please review!

P.S. When I said there'd be short chapters from now on, I meant I have the story planned out in intervals, but the actual length of the chapters will depend on how my muse hits and how productive she is. Though I doubt I'll have any of my 10+ page chapters from now on in this story.