Hey, are you seeing this? I said I'd have a chapter up by the weekend and look, here it is! And it's fairly long to make up for the fact that the last one was so short. I mean it's not superlong or anything, but considering I wrote it in like, three days, I think it's fairly long.

Oh, and althought no one asked about this, I figured I'd put it in for anyone who exclusively watches, or reads, the English-dubbed/translated versions of Inu Yasha. Anyway, "Kagome-neechan" means something like sister Kagome. Not in the religious sense, but more in the 'hey sis' kinda way.

Otherwise. . . I found it interesting to read who you guys thought the four figures were, well five really including the one who appeared in the last chapter. A few people guessed all four right after chapter 7. Though there were some odd guesses out there. Don't worry, that particular mystery shall be solved in this chapter.

Thanks for reviewing: i laugh at you, Rkhiara (please don't die, I need you to review! lol), dragondolphin1990, ALL, Moonlight Misstress, BRAC3 FAC3, Chibigreen (he might. . .), Kitroku, fluorescentpinkfairies, IYWriterGirl, Kite, Taiyoukai Lady/Diana Artemis Silvermoon, AnimeMoonlightGoddess, Helen (I want a Sesshy plushie too!), khstennis01, Orlandoroxmysox (you weren't actually expecting me to NOT have a cliffhanger were you?), Fuji the Hobbit (getting up early, what's that? I am unfamiliar with this concept. Except when I have to go to work. . .), iygurl, kurishii, cockroachelle (huh? Rin?), shangxiang10, PurityFlower1989, The Violent Tomboy, JennyTheWhiteWolf (thanks, I like to think I can be creative; I'm glad you're liking the story!), Inuyasha's hun, Angel452, Raiyevern (thank you, I try), Shadows stalk during the deep of night (yeah, you're right), watergoddesskasey, Shavaineth (don't worry, I don't think anyone got it right the first time 'round), ForestSprite, Moonjava, Shadowed Rains, Lord Fluffy, chinadoll27, animewolfgurl and Lady-Bloodrose (there's a chapter-length requirement for "the greats"? I'm flattered that you think my story's that good, btw.).

Disclaimer: I only own the plot in this story. And the dragon in this chapter. But only in this chapter. I don't own any of the other ones.

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 8 - Old Friends

"Who are you callin' a mangy wolf!" someone called from behind them.

Kagome's head snapped around at the familiar voice. She gasped.

There were four figures standing on the other side of the wall of sorcerers. Two of them waved at her.

"Hey Kagome-neechan!"

"Are you alright, Kagome-neechan?"

Kagome's expression quickly changed to one of joy as she waved back to her friends. It felt so good to hear someone speak Japanese again.

"Ginta, Hakkaku!" she called to them. "I'm fine!"

"You are not!" stated Kouga loudly with his arms crossed. "You're bleeding!"

"Oh, it's nothing really. . ."

The sorcerers around her gasped when Kouga, with one mighty leap, jumped over everyone and landed directly in front of Kagome. He looked down at her with a stern expression on his face.

"That," he pointed at the wounds on her leg, "is not nothing. I could smell your blood from the palace."

Then he reached down and pulled her to her feet. He took both her hands into his and Kagome really looked at him for the first time. He was still Kouga, but he was different, older, possibly wiser. He was a bit taller and the wild look that bordered on cruelty was gone from his eyes. His eyes were the eyes of someone who had seen a lot. There was still a mischievous spark in them though.

"You know, this was a lot more fun when that mutt was around," he said with a grin. Kagome rolled her eyes. Then she realized something.

"Your shards!" she exclaimed, looking down at his legs and momentarily thinking just how odd it was to see him wearing jeans. "They're gone!"

Kouga chuckled.

"That was 500 years ago Kagome-neechan." Her head snapped up to him. Unlike Ginta and Hakkaku, Kouga never called her 'sister'.

A second figure landed a little bit behind him and growled. Kouga looked at them and smiled. It took Kagome a few moments to figure out who the person was. The change was that dramatic.

Gone were the pigtails and slightly dimpled cheeks and eyes that constantly burned with fire. In their place was a proud, regal-looking woman with long, straight hair that went down past her waist. She was wearing a hunter green summer dress. There was still passion sparkling in her eyes, but it was calmer, more controlled. The only thing that had remained the same was the purple flower in her hair.

"Hello Ayame," Kagome said. She looked at Kouga, then back to Ayame and smirked. "I see you finally managed to beat some sense into him."

Ayame smiled.

"Actually," she said, pointing at Ginta and Hakkaku, "those two helped."

Kagome laughed. Kouga rolled his eyes and Ayame smiled.

"Now then, back to business," Kouga stated, suddenly completely serious again. He pointed at the wounds on her leg and said in perfect English: "Who did that to you?"

Kagome hesitated in answering.

'I know it's been five hundred years since I last saw him and he's grown up a lot,' she mused, 'but he's still Kouga and if I tell him who it was, he might just kill him. And I don't want anyone to die because of me. . . even if they do deserve something horrible to happen to them. . .'

Kouga growled impatiently.

"Kagome . . ." he warned, "if you don't tell me who it was, then I'll just have to kill all of them."

Someone began to laugh and then one by one all the masked sorcerers joined him. Kouga's eyes narrowed and he slowly turned his head to where Lucius and the Dark Lord stood. Kagome guessed it was Lucius who had started laughing first.

"Silence!" the Dark Lord bellowed and the laughter stopped. There was amusement in his eyes as he spoke.

"Kill us all? My, that's quite the ambitious goal; you would've made a good Slytherin if you didn't posses the stupidity of a Gryffindor. Do you have any idea whom you are dealing with?"

"I know all I need to know. I know that you are ugly and smell of the grave and that if you aren't careful I'll send you back to it!" Kouga had by now turned so that he was facing the Dark Lord.

"Such strong words coming from someone so young. I don't even feel any magic coming from you. And yet you don't seem to be a muggle either. . ."

"My Lord, if I may," Lucius began, "I don't believe he looks entirely human. Just look at those ears, and the way he simply jumped over our death eater circle. . ."

"Yes, Lucius, you're right. He's probably not human at all. However, he also seems to have forgotten that there are two of them and thirty of us in the circle, not to mention the servants I have positioned around the perimeter of the park."

"What do you mean there's two of them!" came a cry from the back.

"Hey, that's right!" came a second. Everyone turned around in time to see Ginta and Hakkaku stomp up to the death eater circle.

"Out of my way!"

"Move!"

Death eaters went flying as the two wolves literally picked them up and threw them out of their way. Then they took their places on either side of Kouga and Ayame and put their hands on their hips in anger.

"As you can plainly see there are four of us," said Ginta who was on the left, beside Kouga.

"Plus Kagome-neechan, who is also very powerful," added Hakkaku from the right, next to Ayame.

Kagome nearly laughed at the two of them. While they were taller and burlier than they had been in the feudal era, they still had the same hair styles, which combined with the identical jeans and leather jackets they were wearing, made them look like street thugs. And yet Kagome knew that, really, they were absolute sweethearts.

"Hey, Kagome," Ron whispered, "why do they have tails?"

"Umm. . . well, you see, they're . . .uhh. . ."

"We have tails," Kouga answered for her, looking over his shoulder at Ron with a predatory look on his face, "because we're wolves."

"What!" several voices exclaimed at once.

"But. . . but, Remus doesn't have a tail and he's a wolf!" Harry exclaimed. Kouga scowled at the boy.

"Don't mistake us with common werewolves, boy. We are wolf demons and there's a big difference."

"Wolf demons?" laughed Lucius and Kouga turned his attention back to him. Kagome could tell just by his stance that he was sending the sorcerer a challenge.

"Yes," he answered calmly, "I am Kouga, Lord of the Mountain Lands."

She hoped Lucius had enough sense to back down. It was Ayame however, who interrupted the staring match.

"Kouga, darling," she purred, "leave the poor humans alone. We are far away from our territory and this place reeks of them. I want to go."

Her mate looked into her eyes and Kagome smiled at the softness she saw in them.

'They make such a wonderful pair,' she thought dreamily.

"Yes, run away," Lucius taunted, "it's the only way to avoid dieing a slow and painful death you pathetic half-breeds!"

Kagome winced.

'Idiot! Actual half-demons usually get upset when you call them that, let alone full demons!' Kagome thought.

Now Kouga was growling very loudly.

"Get the children out of here," he commanded and Ginta and Hakkaku nodded in response.

Ginta, being closer to Kagome, scooped her up and ran, leaping over the now restored circle of sorcerers. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Hakkaku grab Harry and Ron and do the same.

They didn't get far. Suddenly, she felt Ginta stagger as something hit him in the back. It was a curse, a dark curse. It felt similar to the ones that had hit Kirara, only not nearly as strong. Ginta made it over to a nearby tree, before collapsing.

"Ginta!" Kagome cried. "Are you alright?"

The wolf didn't answer, but instead slowly got up and shook himself off. He was joined by Hakkaku, who looked absolutely livid.

Then Ginta slowly raised his eyes and Kagome's breath caught. He looked dangerous, like the predator he was. She'd seen that look on Kouga before, even on Ayame, but never on Kouga's two loveable companions.

Just then Hakkaku sniffed the air and looked up into the tree. Kagome stiffened as she felt youki coming from it.

"Well, it's about time you got here!" he snarled in Japanese into the tree's branches. Kagome, Harry and Ron all looked up, trying to figure out who he was talking to.

"Oh give me a break," a strange voice answered, "do you have any idea how bad traffic is in this city?"

"You're a demon, you could've just flown here," Ginta accused.

"And risk someone stealing my convertible?"

Kagome yelped as something fell out of the tree and landed next to her.

"Well, since you're here. . ."

"Yeah, yeah," the stranger waved them off, "I'll protect them and make sure nothing happens to them."

The wolves nodded to him and ran back to rejoin Kouga. Kagome noticed that Ginta had a slight limp when he ran.

"Hey Kagome, it's been a while!" the stranger turned to her with excited eyes.

He looked younger than Kouga and the rest of the wolves, but he was definitely a demon. His hair was slightly more orange than Ron's was and it formed a shaggy mop on top of his head. He wasn't very tall, in fact Kagome guessed he was a little shorter than Kouga.

"Oh wait," he said, as if suddenly remembering something, "this will probably help."

She heard Harry and Ron gasp as his body began to morph. A bushy orange-red tail appeared, his hands and feet became paws and his face became longer, until it had a small snout. He noticed the boy's startled glances and grinned widely at them, showing off his impressive set of sharp, pointy teeth.

Kagome, however, gasped and put a hand to her mouth in surprise. It was undeniable now: he was definitely looked more than just familiar.

"Shippo?" she asked quietly. The joy that appeared on his face told her she was right.

"Kagome!" he cried and pulled her into a fierce hug. She hugged him back.

'This is my little Shippo?' she thought in amazement. The change was incredible.

"Well Kagome, I must say, you have the most interesting friends," a familiar voice drawled.

Kagome's eyes shot open.

She carefully unravelled herself from Shippo and then slowly turned around.

Leaning against another tree was a smirking blond sorcerer wearing black robes and with a two-tailed cat perched on his shoulder.

"Draco!" she cried and dashed to him, throwing her arms around him. She was so happy to see that he wasn't dead.

The boy stiffened in the embrace, sort of like Inu Yasha usually did. As if he wasn't used to people hugging him. . . or maybe just not used to strange girls hugging him. Eventually he relaxed and patted her on the back.

"Umm. . . this might be the stupid question," Ron's voice interrupted, "but. . . weren't you dead Malfoy?"

"'Were' being the operative word, Weasel," Draco stated as Kagome broke away from him. She looked from one boy to the other, making sure no one was going to cause any trouble. Ron, however, seemed genuinely curious. And now that she thought about it, so was she.

"Do you actually expect us to believe that someone just happened to get past all the death eaters surrounding this place and then walked up to you, took out their wand and preformed a powerful resurrection spell without anyone noticing?" Harry asked sceptically.

"No, not a wand," Draco drawled and pretended to be examining his nails, "a sword."

Kagome's eyes grew wide. She looked at Draco in surprise.

"Sesshoumaru's here?" she asked. Draco grinned and nodded.

"Umm. . . who's Sesshoumaru?" asked Harry, confused.

"Someone that makes Kouga over there look like a sweet little puppy," Shippo said in English, with a surprisingly American accent.

"So he's a demon?" Ron asked.

"Not only that, he's a demon lord."

"Yes, and after all I've read about him, I definitely don't want to miss his meeting with the Dark Lord," Draco added, not bothering to hide the excitement he was feeling, "so can we please get a bit closer to the action."

"Woah, hang on there," Shippo put a hand up to stop him, "I'm supposed to be keeping you safe and I don't think that includes running off to where the danger is."

"What's the danger?" Draco asked. "We've got two powerful demons with us and to top it off Kagome's a miko and I'm quite handy at curses."

"Hey and what are we, hippogriff feed?" Ron cried.

"Naturally."

Ron glared at the blond, but he didn't see him because he had already turned and started walking in the direction Ginta and Hakkaku had taken off in.

"He's right, you know," Kagome told Shippo, "I've been up against worse things than a couple of sorcerers. Besides, Kouga and Sesshoumaru have a knack for overkill. I don't want to see everyone there die."

Shippo sighed and shook his head.

"All right, all right. Kouga's going to kill me if anything happens to you, but all right, let's go."

And with that they all followed Draco back towards the battlefield.

They easily caught up to the blonde, who didn't seem to be in any hurry to get anywhere anyway with the way he was so easily strolling through the park.

Kagome was looking straight ahead, willing her eyes to spot the group so that she could find out what was going on. She yelped in surprise when a strong arm grabbed her around the middle without warning. Before she knew it, she was staring at Shippo's back.

Shippo standing in front of her protectively and snarling. Kagome peeked out from behind him.

Standing there were more sorcerers, the one in front being quite possibly the oddest looking man she'd ever seen in her life. His face was covered in scars, he had a wooden leg and a fake eye that looked like it could be made of wood and was definitely magical. Kagome found the eye quite creepy, the way it didn't keep still and was constantly spinning around in circles.

With him was a set of red-headed twins as well as two other red-heads, all of whom looked like they could be related to Ron. There was also a tall, stern-looking woman who reminded Kagome of every single picture of a western-style witch she had ever seen, right down to the pointy hat on her head.

They all had their wands trained on Shippo.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, we are glad to have found you so quickly," she said in a relieved and heavily accented voice.

"Yeah, mum's going to rip your heads off when you get back to Headquarters. . ." one of the twins said.

"She went ballistic when you didn't arrive with the others. . ." the second one added.

"What I'd like to know is what in Merlin's name you two thought you were doing!" the one with the creepy eye growled. "No, actually, first I'd like to know, who in Merlin's name those two are. . ."

"And why Malfoy's with them," one of the other two red-heads said. Unlike the other three, his hair was long and Kagome saw a fang of some sort dangling from one ear.

By now, Shippo, having figured out that these people were friends of two of the boys he was supposed to be protecting, had stopped snarling, but remained in a defensive stance, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Oh, this is Cho's cousin Kagome," Harry began quickly in an attempt to diffuse the tension, "and this is her friend. . uhh. . ."

"Shippo," Kagome stepped in front of her friend, "this is Shippo. We are old friends."

"Yeah," Shippo smirked, "we go waaay back."

Kagome glared at him.

"Okay. . ." red-head with the fang said, "so here's the next question then. What is he?"

Now Shippo's posture relaxed and he crossed his arms.

"I'm a fox," he stated proudly.

Everyone stared at him in astonishment.

"Great," mumbled Ron, "we've got wolves and a fox. . . now all we need is a dog."

Shippo gave him a sly grin.

"Be careful what you wish for kid," he said. Kagome put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

"What do you mean wolves?" the woman of the group demanded.

"Oh, the Dark Lord and my father thought it would be a good idea to hurt Kagome here and thus greatly annoy the Lord of the Japanese Wolf Youkai," Draco stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes, and then he got the even better idea of calling Kouga a half-breed," Kagome added.

"He what!" Shippo's head snapped to look at her. Then he shook his head. "What a moron."

Draco snorted.

"Sounds like my father," he said, "insult first, find out who you've insulted later."

"Speaking of which, you Mr. Malfoy are under arrest," growled the odd-looking man.

"For what?" Draco demanded.

"For being a death eater."

"Except that I'm not."

"We know you were initiated young man, you can't possibly deny that."

"And you're planning to prove this how?"

"With the Dark Mark on your forearm you insolent brat!" The man was clearly getting agitated now and Kagome could tell that Draco was revelling in it.

Draco rolled up both his sleeves and then extended both his arms for everyone to see.

"What Dark Mark?" he asked innocently. The other sorcerers gasped.

"That's impossible!" "How!" "But, but. . "

Draco smirked and Kagome rolled her eyes. Harry and Ron both gave him annoyed looks.

"He was initiated," Harry finally said, "Kagome removed the Mark earlier today."

As one, the group of sorcerers turned to stare at Harry. Then they looked at Kagome, who had the sudden urge to go back to where she was before, behind Shippo. Then she felt something to her left. She looked in its direction.

"Everyone get down!" she yelled and threw herself to the ground. She saw Draco immediately follow her example and thus just barely avoiding the green flash of light, that Kagome now knew was a curse, that streaked past him.

It took a few moments for the other sorcerers to pick up on what was going on and by then Shippo had positioned himself between the group of humans and their attackers.

"Stop hiding like cowards and come out and face me!" he cried.

'Yup, he definitely grew up around Inu Yasha,' Kagome thought as she got up.

Another curse flew through the air, this time aimed at Shippo. The fox demon easily dodged it.

"You call that magic?" he taunted and then reached into his jacket pocket. "This is magic."

With those words, he threw something small in the direction of where the curse came from. The object began growing mid-air and the next thing everyone knew, two masked sorcerers were running for their lives away from a huge, red dragon that was breathing fire at their heels.

"Look out behind you!" Draco yelled.

Shippo whirled around with his arm extended.

"Foxfire!" he cried and flames erupted from the ground, forming a line that led towards the tree that the third sorcerer was hiding behind.

Within seconds, all that was left of the tree was a pile of ashes and a slightly singed black-robed figure with half a stick in his hand that he had pointed at Shippo.

Shippo growled and the man dropped the stick and ran.

"Bloody. Hell." stated Ron.

"That. . ." began one of the twins.

". . . was bloody amazing," finished the other.

"You know, that dragon isn't acting like any I've ever seen before," the fourth red-head, who hadn't spoken yet, said with a frown.

Shippo rolled his eyes.

"Of course it's not acting like a real dragon. I'm a fox remember? Foxes are tricksters. The dragon's an illusion. . . though a pretty impressive one if I do say so myself"

That caught the twin's attention. They looked at each other and grinned.

Just then Shippo sniffed the air. His eyes went wide.

"Shit," he cursed, "this can't be good!"

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked.

"I smell blood. . . and it's not all human."

Well, hope you enjoyed that. The next chapter might take a while to write, 'cause I really have to get back to my other fic and update it first. Please review!

Author's Notes:

Kouga - yes, I have given him two different titles in this fic: the Lord of the Mountain Lands and the Lord of the Wolf Youkai. In the series, Kouga is the leader of the uh, Western wolves (I'm not sure about this one) and Ayame is from one of the other packs. A third pack gets slaughtered by Kagura when they attack Naraku's fortress. But anyway, I'm assuming that just like Sesshoumaru is Lord of the Western Lands, because Kouga and the wolves live in the mountains, Kouga, as leader of the wolves is essentially Lord of the Mountain Lands. Also, remember that when Ayame came to Kouga to ask him to marry her it was to make him leader of her pack as well as his. I'm thinking that since they are married/mated now he has become a powerful leader and unified all the wolf packs. So, he's now the Lord of the Wolf Youkai too.

Shippo - I just know someone is going to point this out: Shippo seems a bit out of character when he first appears. Don't forget that the Shippo we all know and love from the series is just a child. He's grown up since then. And he knew that the wolves were going to be there and that Kagome would therefore be safe. And there is a sort of additional background story as to how he knew that (apart from the fact that they all seem to be there together), but I won't be returning to that 'till later.

And is it just me or is Ron getting some of the best lines. . . of the wizards I mean?