AN: Yeah yeah I don't own anything. Thanks for continuing to read. Ummmmm. Let me see, concealment spell and tattoos. Yup.If you have any suggestions please tell me. I like to hear constructivecriticism. Flames not so much. One more chapter after this and Harry goes back to school. I'm leaning towards SLASH, so if anyone really objects please let me know. It just works for the story. Oh and next chapter the wonderful hotness of Sesshoumaru Fluffy-sama makes an appearance. I love Fluffy-sama. Anyway. On to the story!
The explanation about concealment spells was one Harry was really looking forward to. He had, over the course of the night, discovered that being a demon had a lot of advantages. He could smell better, see better, hear better, and best of all his visions of Voldemort were practically blocked. He just got the important details instead of the useless torture images. He now could concentrate on finding out who exactly was attending the meetings instead of being focused on who Voldemort was venting his spleen on.
However, walking around with pointed fur-tufted ears, fangs, claws and glowing green eyes was not something he was looking forward to. Harry had done a lot of soul searching during the wee hours of the morning and had come to the decision that his parents and ancestors would come down and haunt him if he threw away the gift that had been dropped into his lap. He now had a real chance of killing Voldemort and surviving the action. He got the feeling that his parents would probably kick him out of heaven if he showed up dead because he refused the gifts given to him. Besides, this could be the 'power he knows not' that the stupid prophesy had spoken of.
The idea of outliving his friends was a frightening one. For too long he had expected them to outlive him, now, when it looked like he would not only survive the war but also all of them, he had no idea of what to think. Considering Kagome and Inu-Yasha, he realized the future could be a lot of fun if he found the right person to spend it with. Besides, if it all became too much he could always just ask Kagome to reseal the power; she had done it once she should be able to do it again.
When he arrived at Number Nine, Inu-Yasha and Kagome were sitting in the living room. With them was a shriveled old man, who was carving something in what looked to be an earring. Inu-Yasha looked up and smiled as Harry opened the door.
"Harry! Happy Birthday!"
Looking into those golden eyes, Harry now realized why this man felt so like Sirius. The dog-like eagerness in both of them bubbled over into the room, spreading over everything and everyone. He smiled tentatively back at the couple on the couch.
The old man looked up from his work. "So this is the new one? Take down the spell if you please, Lady Kagome."
Kagome bowed her head to the man and turned back to Harry who was standing awkwardly in the doorway to the living room. She motioned for him to come closer.
"I'm going to take off the spell so that Totosai," she jerked her head at the old man "can see what kind of cat demon you are and what kind of concealment you'll need." With a frown of concentration she made a slashing motion in front of Harry. He felt a tingle cross his skin as once again his demon form appeared.
"Lady Kagome?" Totosai was looking at Harry in surprise "Who did you say his ancestor was?" his voice was rough but not low.
"I didn't." she replied raising an eyebrow. "Why?"
"It's been quite a long time since I last saw a cat demon with those markings."
At this Inu-Yasha looked up from where he was studying a piece of paper. "Well old man, are you going to tell us or just sit there and sound mysterious?"
Totosai leveled a glare at the dog-demon. "Respect for your elders would not be misplaced. Do you remember the war against the great cat demons?"
"You mean the time when those idiots tried to resurrect their father, and me and Sesshoumaru had to kick their asses?"
"Yes that. Well his ancestor was one of that family. I remember the scandal well. The youngest son fell in love with a human and disappeared. No one knew what happened to him until now. The family was quite annoyed. They were looking forward to killing both him and his human bride."
Harry was feeling distinctly uncomfortable with the eyes of Totosai on him. They felt far too similar to the eyes of Ollivander.
"Well boy, it seems we have some work to do." Totosai continued completely ignoring his previous statements. "You do know what the concealment spells are, right?"
"Um..no. I just found out that I was a demon a few hours ago." Harry answered completely confused.
Totosai's face went blank and he looked at Harry in confusion. "Who are you again?"
Harry started in surprise. Inu-Yasha just rolled his eyes and whacked Totosai over the head with his fist. That seemed to reconnect the smith's brain and he started talking where he had left off, never missing a beat.
"Concealment spells are what keep us demons from being discovered. With them we look completely human. There are two types of concealment spells. One is the type Lady Kagome put on you last night. They are temporary and can be easily broken by pretty much anyone with the power to do so. The other type is much more permanent and can only be broken and recast by the demon wearing the spell. Inu-Yasha, show the boy yours."
Inu-Yasha complied with a shrug. With a muttered word, the Japanese appearance faded into a demon. Totosai pointed to one of Inu-Yasha's ears, which contained a small earring.
"That is his concealing spell. Basically, it is a spell carved into that earring with the commands Inu-Yasha wants."
Inu-Yasha demonstrated. With one word his eyes went to purple, another word and his hair faded to black, another word and his ears were gone replaced by human ones on the side of his head. Another word and he was completely demon again.
"As you can see, there are a variety of commands on the spell object. One for each feature wanted to be concealed, one to conceal them all and one to release them all. It really depends on the demon in question. Some have commands to block hearing and smell, some to conceal everything but eyes. The options are endless. One thing they all have in common is that the spell is either tattooed on their skin in their own blood, or pierced using a ring carved from some part of their body."
Harry was sure his face showed his disgust at that part. Kagome had to look suddenly out the window to keep her mirth from showing. Harry gaped at Totosai in surprise. "In their own blood?"
"Yes, the spell must be written in some part of their body. Inu-Yasha gave a tooth for this earring. It's no big deal- it grew back soon enough. Other demons use claws, spines, scales and even bone. For any spell that is contained in a carving, it must be pierced into the body. The spell must touch the body at all times. However, once concealed it cannot be removed even if you know where it is. If anyone were to touch Inu-Yasha's head looking for his ears they would find nothing. The concealment acts as…a suit of armor with the image wanted painted over it. Demons with no human form have to choose something close to their original form. You and Inu-Yasha are lucky that you have a human image to call forth."
"This spell will conceal anything, right?" Harry asked intently, the rest of the explanation forgotten for a moment. He had ideas of walking around unrecognized flashing through his head. The idea of being unnoticed was wonderful. If he could get rid of that scar he could go anywhere he wanted and never worry about being mobbed for pictures or anything!
"Well no." Harry's heart sunk. "There are somethings that are too powerful for the concealment spell to cover. And for a demon like you who stated out life as a human, any thing on your original human body will be present on the image of the concealment spell. For example, that scar of yours is present in any form you have. There is no way to mark a scar to be concealed. If you get a tattoo come to me and I will add a mark that will allow it to be concealed, same with any other piercing you might get. They may not be seen but they are on your body and there is nothing you can do about that. The concealment spell doesn't change what you look like, it merely hides demonic characteristics that could get you noticed by the wrong people."
Harry sighed angrily. His dream was once more squashed. Thus was his life. Pulling his attention back to the explanation, which would no doubt save his life, he asked: "You explained about the earring but what about the blood?"
Totosai nodded. "Basically, you get a tattoo of your own blood. Instead of having the spell carved into the bone, or tooth or what ever, it is drawn into your skin. The pattern is the same as the carving only in your skin."
Harry nodded, it made a surprising amount of sense. Though he still had more questions. There was no way in hell he was going into this thing without every little kink ironed out. "Why could I not understand what Inu-Yasha was saying?"
Totosai grinned happily. "Good question! The spell is written in the language of your choice. This is another safety method to keep us safe from detection. The more archaic the language is the better. Inu-Yasha used the language of dog-demons. That being said, only once has a concealment spell like this been broken. Your body knows itself, it also knows it voice. The spell won't react for anyone else."
"Well, that's a blessing at least. Keeps the crazies from finding out what I am."
"That is the general idea." Kagome said dryly.
"What language were you thinking in using?"
Harry grinned. He was getting used to this whole demon idea. "Something no one else can speak, let alone understand. Parseltongue."
"Parseltongue?"
"Snake language." Harry took a certain amount of pleasure in seeing the blank looks on the faces of the adults in the room. "It's a gift I got from the bastard who killed my parents."
Still the blank looks persisted. Harry sighed. It looked like he was going to have to put all his cards on the table. It was only fair after all; they had spilled their stories to him, he should return the favor.
"One of the reasons I took the whole demon world thing so well is because it happened to me before. Not the turning into a demon, but being told that there was a whole other world hiding from this one. You see, I'm a wizard." Harry explained. He ended up looking at the floor, waiting for the demands for an explanation. When nothing came, he looked up. Kagome was sitting with a satisfied look on her face, Inu-Yasha looked as if a puzzle had just been solved and Totosai just looked uninterested.
"This doesn't surprise you?" Harry asked in disbelief.
"Well, no." Kagome answered. "I knew there was something off with your power signature. It felt so much like a priest's. And that scar of yours just reeks of evil power. So I did a little research, and found Harry Potter The Boy Who Lived. It did surprise me that you are so famous."
"When did you find this all out?"
"This morning. Last night when I removed the seal, I could really sense the taint of that scar and while I was breaking the seal, something in you was fighting me back. I looked through some books, and lo and behold…"
Inu-Yasha smirked in a satisfied sort of way. "From the first time I met you, you smelled of a power beyond that of the seal or a demon. It took me a while before I remembered where I had last smelled power like that. Us demons don't tend to hang out around wizards that much, they are the closest to finding out our secrets."
"The demon world knows of the wizarding world?" Harry asked in amazement. Yet another curve ball thrown his way.
"Of course. We have to. But they know nothing of us. If they did they would treat us the same way they treat werewolves and vampires and other magical creatures. So we keep to ourselves and deal with both worlds without them knowing about us."
"This should surprise me but for some reason it doesn't." Harry remarked.
Kagome and Inu-Yasha smiled. "Maybe you should take up Buddhism." Kagome suggested.
"Why?" Harry asked, confused.
"They have a belief in living for the moment, there is no future and no past."
"Sounds like they have rather short life expectancies." Harry replied thinking of where living in the moment would have gotten him.
"Exactly."
Inu-Yasha cleared his throat. "As much as this philosphical discussion is amusing, shouldn't we get back to the matter at hand? The longer Harry is without this spell the more chance of him being discovered. His guards have got to be suspicious about him always coming over here. I wouldn't put it past them to start spying on us."
Harry jumped at the thought and looked around the room in fear. "How do we know that they haven't already done that?"
Inu-Yasha raised an eyebrow-looking for a moment like his brother. "Use your ears and nose, tell me if you can sense anyone but us."
Harry closed his eyes and listened. There was Inu-Yasha's breathing, Kagome's, the scrape of Totosai's tools on the bone, the hum of the refrigerator, the buzz of the lights, a slight roar of traffic, the movement of air but nothing to suggest that there was anyone else near by. Next he concentrated on his nose again only the smells of the house permeated his nostrils.
"I can only smell this house, same for hearing." Harry answered.
"That's good. Kagome put a slight block on your ears and nose. Not enough to deaden them completely but enough to keep you from being overwhelmed. Most demons have to use blocks all the time- the smells and noises of this world are just too much. Once you get your spell put on, I'll start training you on how to deal with both."
Harry glanced over to Inu-Yasha in shock. He was going to be trained to deal with his new abilities? "But…"
"Don't say anything. Did you think that we would just leave you to muddle through everything on your own? It's our duty to help any new demon. Besides, I like you. I want to help you out."
Harry was taken aback by this generosity. If only there was someone like that for him in the wizarding world. He offered a shaky smile at Inu-Yasha, who seemed to know exactly what was going through his mind.
A sharp clap by Totosai, brought everyone back to the real world. Kagome let the soft smile fade from her face. Her mate really was a fluffy puppy under that gruff exterior.
"So first what you must decide is what your commands are going to be," Totosai restarted his explanation as if there had been no interruption. "The commands are your own, but I would recommend a conceal and reveal everything. Sometimes you get in a jam and to conceal everything then reveal what you need is quicker then going the other way."
Harry nodded at this logic. With his luck, he was going to be caught at the worst possible times with his ears exposed.
"Will wizards be able to tell that I have a spell up? There are some places that automatically remove concealment spells when you enter the building."
Totosai shook his head. "No one will be able to tell in anyway that you have any sort of spell on at all. Because we use your blood or your teeth, revealing spells skip right over them."
Harry filed this information away for further use. If that was possible, would it also mean that you could anchor a normal concealment spell to a tattoo or earring and the same would be true? He would have to investigate it at a later date, for now he pulled his brain back to the present.
"What I want concealed hmmm…" Harry stared off into space. "Well, first off there's these ears. If fur isn't unnatural then I don't know what is." Inu-Yasha cracked a smile. "But what else…" he nodded in thanks as Kagome handed him a pad of paper and a pen.
For several minutes, there was silence in the house as Harry constructed his list. When he was finished, he turned to Inu-Yasha and Totosai. "You've been doing this for a lot longer then I've lived, so do you have any suggestions?"
Inu-Yasha grabbed the list from Harry. "Eyes, ears, teeth, claws. Looks like you got the main ones. How about half hearing and smell?"
"Half?" Harry looked at Inu-Yasha questioningly.
"Yeah," Inu-Yasha replied noting down the additions, "There are times when you want to block all your smell-around dead bodies or in the middle of rush hour- or your hearing but there are also times when you want to just halve them. It comes in handy around a lot of people. Also have one for revealing just the concealment spell. It comes in handy around other demons who want to see the workmanship but you don't want to reveal everything. Are there any other markings that you have? Like a tail or something?"
Harry looked at Inu-Yasha in surprise. "A tail?"
"Yeah my brother has one, it really stands out so it gets concealed."
"That fluffy thing is a tail?" Kagome looked like a two year old just told that Santa doesn't exist.
"What did you think it was?" Inu-Yasha asked looking at her askance.
"I thought he was carrying around a fur boa." She mumbled in a small voice, still looking crushed.
"A fur boa? I know my brother is effeminate, but a boa?" Inu-Yasha looked as if he didn't know whether to start laughing or be outraged on his brother's behalf. Laughter won. After several minutes of rolling around on the floor laughing his ass off, he managed to control himself. Wiping the tears from his eyes, he turned back to Harry. "You really should check to see if you have any markings or odd patches of fur in other places. It could really lead to a rather embarrassing situation." Here Inu-Yasha raised both eyebrows and leered suggestively. Kagome hit him over the head.
Harry blushed as Inu-Yasha's innuendo sank in. Mumbling something in reply he left the living room and made his way to the bathroom. Several minutes later a shriek broke the light conversation of the demons and the priestess. Fearing Harry indeed had grown a tail, Inu-Yasha and Kagome sprinted down the hallway to the bathroom, Totosai sat undisturbed on the sofa, carefully carving his spells into the bit of earring.
Coming to a sudden stop in front of the bathroom -Inu-Yasha's nails scrapping on the wooden floors- Kagome cautiously opened the door. Harry was standing in front of the mirror with no shirt on. His green eyes were wide and looked suspiciuosly like he was about to start crying.
"Harry?" Kagome ventured in a soft voice.
He turned to face them; it really did look like he was about to cry. "I have fur." He wailed in a despairing voice.
Kagome and Inu-Yasha exchanged bewildered looks. He had taken all this so well, and now having fur was setting him off?
Kagome put a gentle hand on his shoulder and slowly turned him around. Indeed Harry Potter had fur. Black fur. Black fur that ran down his spinal cord along his back and disappeared below his pants. Like the fur on his ears it was short, black and silky smooth.
Inu-Yasha struggled to turn his laugh into a cough. All this over a bit of fur. Calming Harry down took a long time. Every time he seemed to be okay, something else would send him off into hysterics. He cried, yowled, and even shed a few tears. Kagome sat and patted his back the entire time. She had muttered something about the shock wearing off and had sent Inu-Yasha to make some warm milk.
Upon the appearance of the dairy product, Harry calmed down instantly and went back to making his list of spell components like nothing had happened. Inu-Yasha sent Kagome a baffled look. She just smiled and lead the way back to the living room where Totosai was still carving away, completely oblivious.
Sitting down next to the smith, Harry watched for a minute the delicate carvings that the demon was putting into the bit of tooth.
"Which would you recommend?" His question brought Totosai out of his trance. For a minute he looked around confused.
"What's this? Who are all of you?" He kept looking from Inu-Yasha to Harry to Kagome and back.
Kagome sighed deeply. Harry didn't know what to think. Inu-Yasha threw a shoe at the smith's head. It connected. Totosai blinked.
"Oh right. Ummm. What was the question again?"
Harry felt his head have a sudden attraction to the floor. Raising it back up and glaring at the old demon, he repeated his question.
"Which ever you prefer." And Totosai went back to his carving.
Harry glanced helplessly over at Kagome and Inu-Yasha. Kagome shrugged.
"He does that all the time. Ignore it."
"But I don't know which one to get. I'm going to need it soon because the Order is going to come and check up on me and Moody has this eye that can see through anything. I'm afraid that he'll see through this as well."
"Moody? Alaster Moody? Old beat up man with a magic eye?" Inu-Yasha looked interested.
"Yeah that's the one."
"He won't see anything."
"How do you know?" Inu-Yasha sounded so sure but Harry still had his doubts.
"That eye is a demon part, although he doesn't know it. It can see through human magic just fine but has no effect on demon magic." Inu-Yasha explained in a completely confident voice.
"How do you know that?" Harry was still unsure.
"Because Sesshoumaru was the one who sold the eye to the person who sold the eye to Moody. I was there where he picked it up. I was also there when he got it placed in his eye. We like to know that the parts we provide are going to the people they say they are going to."
"Oh. So I don't have to worry about that, but I still don't know…"
"If you want my advice," Kagome spoke up. Harry looked at her pleadingly. "You should get the tattoo. Of the two it will be the strongest. Because it's in your blood," she continued, "There's always the chance that you take out the earring for some reason or another, but you can never get the tattoo off. If someone chops off your ear the concealment spell goes too, but if the spell is on your back they can't remove it."
Harry was slightly unsettled by the thought of someone casually chopping another person's ear off but agreed with Kagome's logic. Especially with the freaks chasing him he needed all the safe guards he could get. He nodded in agreement.
Totosai immediately clued into the conversation. "Alright then. We can get started. The first thing we need to do is choose a place for the tattoo."
Harry thought for a moment. "Shoulder blade. Someone will have to take my back off to get the tattoo off that way."
Nodding in agreement, Totosai riffled through his bag. Pulling out a bottle of some liquid, a small paintbrush, a stick of ink, a small saucer and what seemed to be a knife of some sort, he motioned to Kagome.
Kagome went into the kitchen and came back with a washcloth and a large piece of rice paper.
Totosai explained the process of the tattoo making as he ground some of the ink into the saucer. "What we are going to do is design your tattoo first. The ink I'm using will allow me to paint in the commands as you say them. Because they are in a different language, I won't understand but the ink will. What you say will appear on your shoulder. So come up with the words that you want to say. Make them more then just 'conceal all, conceal eyes' put some twist like 'pink conceal eyes' so that you don't accidentally say something if you happen to start ranting in your chosen language."
Harry raised an eyebrow at Totosai's choice of example but he understood what the smith wanted. Taking the pad of paper from before he started organizing the items in the order he wanted and settled on his command.
By the time he had finished arranging everything to his liking, Totosai was finished with the ink. "Right," the smith said, "now practice saying those words in that order several times. Get comfortable saying it and then we'll start on the tattoo."
Harry nodded. Closing his eyes, he drew into his mind the image of a snake. Opening his eyes, but keeping the image, he ran through the list several times. A sudden thought struck him and he looked up from the paper. Kagome was helping Totosai with drawing a complex array on the paper with the ink, while Inu-Yasha looked on.
"Did that sound alright?" he asked remembering all the times when he thought he was speaking English but was instead speaking Parseltongue.
Inu-Yasha looked up. "What? That hissing? If that was what you were going for then you got it. If you were trying for something else, keep working."
Harry grinned. This part, at least, was going to be easy. As long as he kept that image of snake in his mind, he would be able to speak it with no problem. Confident in his ability, he was content to watch Kagome and Totosai work on the design that was turning out to be as large as Inu-Yasha's hand. Finished they turned to Harry.
"Right." Totosai was suddenly all business. "Take off your shirt and lie down on your stomach." Harry complied, feeling the gurgles of nervous anticipation start to stir in his gut.
Kagome and Totosai wiped down his shoulder with the liquid from the bottle and spread the paper over the still wet flesh. The rice paper stuck like a second skin.
"Now we are going to need some of your blood." Totosai explained as he pulled out the knife like blade. It looked like a cross between a knife and a straw. "Just hold out one arm."
Harry unconsciously held out the one that Peter had taken blood from, the arm that the basilisk fang had stabbed, the one that Lockheart had removed the bones from. 'Poor arm,' he thought to himself. 'Everything seems to happen to it.'
Totosai arranged the limb so that the forearm was facing up by Harry's side. "I'm going to cut you now. Then I am going to spread the blood over the paper. When the blood and ink mix together they are going to start burning through the paper onto your skin. When that happens start saying your commands. When you get finished, stop. The burning will continue for a bit after that, try not to pass out."
'Oh great,' Harry thought to himself, 'Just what I need more pain, but whatever. I asked for this.'
Taking Harry's nod for a signal to begin, Totosai slit a neat cut all the way up Harry's forearm. As he used the saucer to catch the blood, Kagome spread the rest of the cut with a poltice to keep the wound from bleeding anymore. Lying on his stomach, Harry could only listen as Totosai chanted something and then started to brush the blood on to the rice paper.
The burning started immediately. Ignoring his impulse to gasp, Harry pulled the image of the snake into his mind and started reciting his commands for concealing and revealing his demon form. It took several minutes before he was finished. The pain of the tattoo burning into his back was distracting but no where as bad as some of the curses Voldemort threw at his followers and Harry had the privilege of catching second hand. As Totosai had explained, the burning did continue for a while after he had finished speaking.
As the pain faded, Harry could feel a slight tingling on his left shoulder blade as the tattoo settled into his skin. Kagome's sigh was echoed by Inu-Yasha.
"I knew there was a reason I didn't want the tattoo."
Harry raised an eyebrow at the dog-demon from his place on the floor.
Inu-Yasha gave a twisted smile. "You have no idea how creepy it was to watch that tattoo burn itself into your back as you sat there hissing at it. I'm going to stick with my earring for a while longer I think."
Kagome seemed to agree if her shaking hands were any indication. Shaking hands or no, she still cleaned up all the blood from Harry's shoulder and arm where he now had a long silver scar running it's length.
Only Totosai seemed unaffected by the site he had just witnessed. "That went extremely well." He commented. "Most times I have to stop spreading the blood as the demon screams."
'Oh that's comforting,' Harry grumbled to himself, 'I'm glad he told me that after the damn thing was finished.'
"This is going to be red and sore for sometime." Kagome stated as she moved to the kitchen and returned with a bundle of herbs and a jar of something. The something turned out to be a cool jelly that felt blissful on Harry's hot skin. Taking a clean strip of cloth, Kagome crumbled some herbs over the jelly and put the bandage over the top. Another piece of cloth and the tattoo was covered.
"The tattoo will have to sit for an hour before you can activate it. For the first time you have to go through all the commands, it just makes sure that everything is working." Totosai explained as Inu-Yasha helped Harry onto the sofa where he sat with his shoulder propped away from the back. "I must admit youngling," he continued looking deep into Harry's eyes, "I did not expect you to take the pain so well. I fully expected you to pass out. Even for a demon having a tattoo burned into them is not something to taken lightly. You hold many surprises."
Staring into the old smith's eyes, Harry was once again reminded of Ollivander. Gone was the forgetful rather senile demon and in his place was a great and powerful smith who had served some of the greatest demons of all time. Harry was struck with an odd sense of being young and weak. It lasted only a moment before the foolish mask returned to the smith's face.
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Harry must have dozed off because the next thing he knew, there was the smell of food invading his nose. A growl from his stomach reminded Harry that breakfast had been a long time ago and he had burned a lot of energy what with his haywire emotions, nervousness, and blood letting. Not to mention getting that tattoo burned into his shoulder. Speaking of the tattoo, Harry's sudden movement sent a jolt of pain through his arm.
'I guess moving is out of the question,' Harry thought as he gripped his arm and clenched his jaw.
Peeling his eyes slowly open, Harry looked around the living room and found it empty. There was no sign that a complex concealment ceremony had just taken place. Sounds from the kitchen indicated the whereabouts of Inu-Yasha and Kagome, but Totosai was no where to be seen or heard.
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