Dinner that evening was traditional Japanese fare. Harry had never tasted most of what was eaten but decided he loved it. The conversation at dinner was lighthearted. Inu-Yasha told the story of how he first met Kagome and mistook her for his ex-girlfriend. Harry could sense there was more of the story to tell but didn't pry. He could also feel the tension in the air all throughout the evening. He just hoped it had nothing to do with him.
After the meal, Harry helped Kagome clean up as Inu-Yasha made smart-ass comments from his seat on the counter. Pulling a cake out of the fridge, Kagome lead the way into the living room. With great pomp and circumstance she christened the house and left a small slice of the cake and a saucer of sake in all four corners of the room. This finished, she bowed to the fireplace and recited a brief sutra of good luck.
Smiling, she turned back to Harry who was sitting on the couch with a confused look on his face.
"What exactly was all that?" he asked puzzled. "Inu-Yasha mentioned something about welcoming the house gods but I thought he was just talking."
Inu-Yasha coughed in an embarrassed manner. "You see Harry, me and Kagome are a mix of Bhuddist and Shinto. Basically that means that we honor the gods that are in all living things. Because a house becomes a living thing, it is terribly bad manners not to introduce yourself to the spirits that are already here."
"Spirits?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. He had thought that the Japanese couple was far too modern to believe in anything so archaic and occult.
Kagome smiled softly from her seat in the large armchair. "Spirits among other things. Shinto also believes in demons and ogres and all sorts of not so friendly manifestations."
"Not so friendly manifestations my ass." Inu-Yasha spoke up from where he was slouched on the floor. "Remember Yura of the Hair? Down right evil manifestation she was."
"Yura of the Hair?" Harry inquired looking from one to the other. Kagome was glaring at Inu-Yasha in a frustrated manner while her husband just gazed innocently back at her.
"Err.." Kagome started out looking for Inu-Yasha to help out. "Yura was a demon…"
"A demon?" Harry asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah," Kagome continued. "A demon who was the manifestation of the ill will of a woman who used a comb to brush the hair of dead people."
"Brush the hair of dead people? That's disgusting." Harry managed to gasp out, picturing in his mind a fat toad like woman yanking a bright pink comb through the little hair left on an old man's corpse.
"You have no idea." Inu-Yasha mumbled from the floor.
"How did you guys hear that story?" Harry asked intrigued about hearing some new interesting 'fairy tales'.
Kagome and Inu-Yasha threw half-pained glances at one another. This was the best opening they had gotten all evening.
"Well, Harry let me ask you if you believe there could be another world coexisting with this one?"
"Another world?" Harry was getting an odd sense of déjà vu. Except sitting in the place of Hagrid was Inu-Yasha and Kagome. "Yeah, I could believe that," he answered warily, thinking of the world of Wizards he inhabited.
Kagome chewed on her lip for a moment. "And if all those creatures I mention existed in that world?"
"You mean demons, monsters, and the like."
Kagome nodded sheepishly.
"Well, it seems more likely then a world filled with bunnies and fluffy cute animals with sunshine and rainbows."
Inu-Yasha nodded from the floor. "I thought you might say that. You don't exactly have a very cheerful outlook on life."
Harry rolled his eyes. "You try living with the Dursley's for sixteen years. See what kind of outlook you end up with." He muttered darkly.
Inu-Yasha laughed shortly. "I didn't have the Dursley's but I had my crackpot family. They were bad enough."
"So what does this have to do with another world and with the weird tension I've felt in the air all evening?" Harry asked looking from one to the other.
Inu-Yasha ran his hand over his face. "Shit, this is hard." Harry felt his stomach sink. He had a really bad feeling about this.
"Harry what we're trying to tell you is that there is another world coexisting peacefully along side this one." Kagome took up the narrative now.
Harry's premonition of doom continued to deepen.
"And well, we're part of that world and…"
"And?" Harry questioned feeling he knew where this was going.
"And soareyou." Kagome burst out all at once.
Harry stared at Kagome for a minute. She was staring at her hands as she wrung them together. Her face was pained and regretful.
"It's just that you see, I've had this bad feeling for the past several weeks and then we come here and we find you and the seal on your power is about to break and I knew that it would break on your birthday and I really didn't want it to break without someone there because it will be really painful and I'm really really sorry. I don't want this to happen to anyone but you are really going to need those powers otherwise there's a really good chance that you'll die and I really don't want that to happen because I really like you and no one deserves to die this young and…and…"
Kagome was going a mile a minute, surpassing even Hermione for the fastest speed talker. She had also just broken the record for the number of 'really's used in one breath. She was wringing her hands faster and faster, her face was getting more and more distressed. It looked like she was about to cry.
"Wait, wait." Harry held up a hand to stem the flow of words. "I am a WHAT?" unconsciously echoing his statement of five years before.
"Harry, you're a demon." It was Inu-Yasha who answered the desperate question. He was looking at the boy with sympathy in his violet eyes.
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"You're joking right?" Harry's voice was pleading. It was the only sound in the house.
"I wish I was." Kagome's voice was equally soft. It sounded pained, as if what she had just revealed hurt her as much as it hurt him.
"How can you be sure?"
"I set that seal down. Five hundred years later it is still my power. No other person, demon, or priestess has that power signature. I'm sure."
Harry started at the couple in shock, his hands slack in his lap with shock. Kagome was still staring at her hands. Inu-Yasha had moved to sit on the arm of her chair, his arm around her shoulders.
"How do I know this isn't some huge joke?" Harry asked disbelief clear on his face. "If that world is full of monsters how do they keep from being seen? And five hundred years ago? Nice one you two, but really, what are you getting at?"
Inu-Yasha sighed. "I though you might react that way." He mumbled something under his breath and Harry watched in surprise as the Japanese man he had knew faded. His hair turned white and long, his eyes switched from purple to gold, and two dog-ears appeared on the top of his head. To top it all off, Inu-Yasha now had claws instead if fingernails. Very sharp looking claws. As the demon smiled sheepishly Harry could see two gleaming fangs in the man's mouth.
Fuck. No joke for Harry.
"My life sucks." Harry moaned into his hands. "Isn't it enough that I have an evil wizard after my blood, my godfather dead, and a stupid prophecy hanging over my head? No now I have to find out that I'm a freaking demon as well!"
"Well look at it this way, at least you can make a good book out of this." Kagome suggested in an attempt to console the angsting teenager. The absurdity of the situation seemed to be getting to her.
Harry looked up from his hands and glared at the two people sitting in the armchair. "Explain. Everything. Now."
Inu-Yasha smirked. "Well to start out with, I'm not a full demon and when I said I had issues with my family it was more they had issues with me. See, I'm a half-breed and from my first memories both my human and demon family have been trying to kill me…"
The pair went on to explain about how Inu-Yasha fell in love with a priestess who had a jewel with the ability to turn him human, how he was tricked by an evil demon, and ended up sealed to a tree. Kagome then took up the story and told how she was from this time period, fell down a well into the past of five hundred years ago, unsealed Inu-Yasha and broke the jewel that was hidden inside her body. Together they explained their adventures looking for the jewel shards, Kagome as the reincarnation of Inu-Yasha's dead love, the resurrection of his dead love, meeting his brother, fighting the evil bastard who tricked Inu-Yasha fifty years before, meeting others who had had their lives turned to shit by the evil demon, and eventually coming to the completion of the jewel, defeating the Big Evil, and the meeting with Harry's great-however many times-grandfather.
"By this time I had gained quiet a reputation in Japan. I was a priestess who would willingly help demons-not something that anyone ever saw. So, your whatever times grandfather came to me with a problem. He was in love with a human who did not want to have the life-span of a demon-the result when a human and demon mate. So he asked me to seal his demonic powers away in him- turning him into basically a human. He was a bit of a seer, and knew that one day his descendents might need his power. I, not thinking I would ever have to deal with the aftermath of this decision, helped him and sealed away his power. He and his wife then traveled away from Japan-I think he had really pissed off one of the more powerful demon families- and I guess ended up in Europe."
Harry's mouth had fallen open at some point during the tale and was still open. "Sweet Merlin!" he took some solstice in the fact that someone's life was worse then his. "And I thought my life sucked. But how did you end up here if all that happened five-hundred years ago?"
Kagome blushed as Inu-Yasha smiled proudly at her. "It was Kagome's idea. She used the jewel to wish us all into her era. Even my older brother. Except he was dropped off about a hundred years before us with strict instructions on what to invest in. He is now the richest youkai in the demon world and one of the richest men in the world. He's still pissed off that he didn't put more money in Microsoft. Kagome thought that by the time it came into being he would be savvy enough to buy it. She still teases him about it."
Harry smiled at the thought of the slight priestess teasing the man who sounded like the most powerful demon in the world. "So what kind of demon blood am I going to be getting?" He asked pulling the subject back on course.
Kagome shrugged. "I have no idea. Nor do I have any idea how much of a demon's power you are going to be getting. I've never dealt with a seal like this before. I don't know how intact his powers are."
"Great." Harry deadpanned.
"You seem to be taking this all rather well." Inu-Yasha observed. "I thought that you were going to rant and rail for hours about how it wasn't possible and how you never wanted this and why was life so unfair."
Harry gave a barking parody of a laugh. "I always knew life was unfair. I've gotten used to that. Besides I've already had someone come and turn my life upside down. A bunch of times. More times then I want to remember. Just before school let out the Headmaster went and screwed my life over again. So one more shock isn't going to make me descend into a puddle of babbling goo."
Inu-Yasha smiled. "Good to hear that. Goo isn't fun to clean up after."
Harry joined in the grin.
Kagome looked hopeful as she listened to the conversation. Glancing over at the clock, she blinked in surprise at the time. It was nearly ten-thirty. Harry would have to go back to Number Four soon.
Standing up, she motioned for Harry to do the same. "Now, I'm going to break the seal and it is going to hurt, but it is going to hurt a lot less then if you waited for it to break naturally. This way, we can help you through it."
Harry cocked his head to one side. He looked long and deep into Kagome's eyes. They only showed regret for the pain she was about to cause him and affection. There was no malice or taint of evil.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded.
Kagome also took a deep breath and motioned for Inu-Yasha to stand behind Harry. "To catch you when you fall," she explained.
"That's comforting." Harry quipped.
"It should be," Inu-Yasha replied.
All attention was brought sharply to Kagome as she stared chanting. A bright pink glow sprung up around her. The feeling of power intensified as she brought her hands out in front of her. Only Inu-Yasha behind him kept Harry from backing up as she started moving toward him.
When she placed her hands on his chest, Harry felt an electrical shock run down the length of his body. He started to shiver as she once again started chanting. A sudden pain in his chest region called his attention away from her face, which was awash with power, to her hands. One hand was placed flat on his chest and the other seemed to be pulling something away from his heart. The pain intensified as her hand got further and further away from his body.
Harry was no stranger to pain. Broken arms, re-growing bones, Unforgivables, basilisk fangs, falling off broomsticks, and recently possession, he knew them all, so he didn't scream. But nothing prepared him for this. It was like Kagome was actually pulling part of him out with her hand. His last coherent thought before blacking out was if this is what it felt like when a Dementor kissed you.
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At first there was darkness and it was good. And then God said let there be light, and there was light but it wasn't as good as the dark. Harry was forced to agree as he opened his eyes. He seemed to be staring at the ceiling and it hurt. In fact, everything hurt. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to blink, it hurt to swallow, it hurt to think and most of all it hurt to move.
"Sorry about that." Kagome's face appeared in the middle of the white that was the ceiling. Her voice, unnaturally quiet, still pounded in Harry's ears as if she has shouted.
Note to self, wincing hurt. For several minutes Harry lay on the floor. It took his head that long to stop spinning wildly every time he blinked. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the pain, Harry propped himself up on his arms. The whole room swam before his eyes, but before he could collapse again, strong arms wrapped around his shoulders.
Turning to look at the shape, Harry noticed that it was blurry, hell the whole room was blurry, and it was making his head hurt more to have to look at it.
"Where are my glasses?" he managed to mumble out. It took several tries before his brain properly connected to his mouth.
A blob, vaguely recognizable as Kagome, moved closer. "You have them on," she said still speaking softly.
It took a while for the information to sink into Harry's brain. Once it did, he frowned. Were his glasses dirty or something? Leaning more of his weight on the person supporting him-it must be Inu-Yasha- Harry reached up and removed his trademark spectacles from his face. He blinked rapidly as the entire room came into sharp and painful focus.
"Blrugh…" He groaned as he once again shut his eyes.
"Sorry." It was Kagome again. "You should get over the disorientation in a few minutes. It was a pretty big piece of yourself that I removed when I took that seal. It was in your body from birth. Just close your eyes and wait for it all to pass."
Harry took her wise advice as the world once again started to pound as he opened his eyes. "What kind of demon am I?" he asked with his eyes firmly closed.
"I don't know," Kagome offered a pensive tone. "We won't really know we take a closer look at you. When you get a little more comfortable we'll take a look. Do you want me to get a mirror so you can see your new additions?"
Kagome's words filled Harry with an odd sense of dread but his curiosity won out and he made an agreeing noise from his throat.
She giggled slightly as she got up from the floor. Inu-Yasha lifted Harry up off the floor and deposited him back on the couch, with several pillows to keep his head up.
"Man, I'm glad my transformations aren't like that," he commented as he sat back down on the floor.
Harry made another noise in his throat.
Inu-Yasha gave a small laugh. "Every new moon my demon power fades and I become human. I'm just lucky I don't have to go through that kind of pain each month."
A patter of footsteps heralded the arrival of Kagome with the mirror. Soft steps made their way to the couch and it dipped as the priestess sat down on the edge.
"I think you can open your eyes now."
Harry complied warily and the first thing he saw was green. Bright glowing green eyes. When he blinked in surprise and the eyes blinked back, he realized he was looking at his own reflection. Taking the mirror from Kagome, who gave a small giggle at the befuddled look on his face, Harry took in his new 'additions' as Kagome put it.
His eyes were even more of a bright green and the pupils seemed to be slits. His nose was slightly darker and twitched as he looked at it. The most striking change he could see was his ears. In place of the normal, round, HUMAN ears he had had for the past sixteen years, were delicately pointed demon ears. Although he didn't know it they looked a lot like Sesshoumaru's, except Harry's were tipped in fur. Silky, black, FUR. The ends even had little tufts, like some kind of bobcat.
Raising a hand to touch the fur in horror, Harry noticed his hands were now tipped in claws.
A smothered laugh caught his attention and he turned away from the mirror to see Kagome hiding her face in a pillow to stop her giggles.
At his baleful glare she stopped trying to hide and just laughed. "I'm sorry, Harry," she managed to get out, "It's just that your eyes…. when they saw your ears…. got so huge. And the look on your face…" once again she dissolved into laugher. Inu-Yasha sent her a quelling look, but his face was amused as well.
"You try waking up and finding that the ears you spent sixteen years with are now pointed and covered in fur. See how you'd like it!" Harry grumbled half-heartedly as he went back to looking at himself in the mirror.
One of the first things he noticed this time was his hair. It was all over the place! And so messy! Not realizing what he was doing, Harry started trying to smooth his hair down. When his bare hands didn't work, he stared licking his hands and trying to use his saliva to help control the bird's nest on the top of his head.
A sixth sense alerted him that he was being watched. Turning away once again from the mirror, Harry saw that Inu-Yasha and Kagome were looking at him as if he just sprouted tentacles.
"What?" he asked uncomfortable with the scrutiny.
Kagome was again trying to hide her mirth. "I guess that answers what kind of demon you are."
Inu-Yasha nodded looking slightly disgusted at the sight he had just witnessed.
"What?" Harry asked again extremely worried by this time.
"Harry, if that action is any indication, you're a cat demon." It was Kagome who answered. Inu-Yasha still looked too disturbed.
"A cat?" Harry cocked his head to one side.
Kagome nodded and looking at Inu-Yasha, broke into another fit of giggles. "Oh this is going to be so much fun!" she giggled gleefully, clapping her hands together. "Inu-Yasha, just keep from chasing him up a tree."
Inu-Yasha turned a withering glare on Kagome. "I think I can restrain myself better then that."
"I should hope so!" Kagome said. "But it would still be so funny."
Harry and Inu-Yasha exchanged looks as Kagome went off into giggle-land once again.
As Harry tried to stand up and then nearly fell over, Kagome regained her composure. Steadying him and sitting him back down on the coach, she sat down beside him and looked him in the eye. Understanding he was tired and had taken in too much information for the night, Kagome skipped the explanation about concealment spells and just gave him some basic information and some words of encouragement.
"You are probably in a bit of shock right now." Kagome said all traces of laugher gone. "By morning, all this will have sunk in. Come back here tomorrow and we'll get you a concealment charm. For now I'll put a concealment spell on you. That will keep your relatives from going through the roof. " Kagome's voice had turned serious, but she tried to sound as understanding as possible. "Remember you are not alone. There are thousands of other demons out there and even more humans who have discovered that they are going to long outlive their family and friends."
Finished, Kagome nodded to Inu-Yasha who helped Harry up from the coach. In truth, he was starting to feel overwhelmed. All he wanted now was to go back to his room and sleep for hours. He knew that he was in slight denial and half thought this was a dream. Sleep seemed to have all the answers. The nervous energy that came from the transformation was nearly gone and Harry wanted to just curl up here in this couch.
He was so intent on his tiredness that he didn't even realize he was back at his aunt and uncle's until Inu-Yasha asked him what room was his. Looking up at the darkened house, Harry pointed to the side window that still showed signs of having bars ripped off it.
"Is your window open?" Inu-Yasha asked gauging the distance with his eyes.
"Yes but what…"
And they were in the air. Holding Harry over one shoulder like a sack of rice, Inu-Yasha grabbed the top of the sill with his other hand. A quick swing and they were inside Harry's room. 'I'm glad I left the window open,' Harry thought abstractedly as he stumbled toward the bed.
"Come back over whenever you wake up. We'll explain concealment spells then." Inu-Yasha reminded Harry. A leap out the window, and he was gone.
Too tired now to sleep, Harry stared, dazed, at the ceiling. Too much had happened that day. Demons, jewels, evil monkeys, foxes, cats, Harry's brain just couldn't take it anymore and sent Harry to sleep out of self preservation.
AN: And chapter 3. So like? No like? Have something that is bugging you about it? Please hit that little button and tell me all about it.