"Aw'right ev'yone, gather 'round," Hagrid called. "We're gonna be startin' our transformer reports te'day, so when I call yer name, yeh tell me what yer gonna research, kay? 'ermione?"
"Fish transformers," Hermione answered easily. Hagrid asked some other students for their assignments, while Ron leaned over and whispered, "Fish? Why a fish?"
"Fish transformers have got to have some talent," Hermione pointed out. "I mean, how else would they be able to change their scales and tails to skin, and their gills to lungs?"
"I don't know, and I don't care," Ron said simply.
"Ron?"
"Birds," he called, then lowered his voice so that only Harry, Hermione, and Kurama could hear him. "They're gonna be easiest. I can make stuff up if gets too bloody confusing."
"'arry?"
"Horses," Harry shouted. He looked to his friends. "Why not?"
"Shuuichi?"
"Dog transformers," Kurama replied.
"Oh yeah, you're training one of those creatures, aren't you?" Ron figured. "You mean that little puppy-kid thing that Hagrid showed us a while ago."
"Right," Kurama said. "Cyrus is really quite-"
"Hold up now. Who's Cyrus?"
"The dog dem- transformer," Kurama explained. "He's not too old at all, but he listens quite efficiently, and I've recently taught him a few human words. I'm hoping he'll be able to speak the human tongue fluently as time progresses; he'll be able to tell me more about his family then, and I'll have research information for my report." Of course, the fox already knew about the dog demon tribe from his visit to Demon World, but this explanation was very believable as a cover up. "Now that I think about it, we've got a free period after this class. Would you three care to join me while I visit Cyrus?"
"Sounds wonderful!" Hermione blushed.
"Great," said Ron and Harry.
"I'll go ahead and tell you this for future reference- Cyrus is very shy around people, so I'll go ahead first and show him to each of you individually," Kurama explained in a hushed tone. "Hermione, you can come with me first." He took her gently by the hand and led her a short ways into the Forbidden Forest.
"Cyrus," Kurama called after walking silently for a few minutes. "Cyrus, it's Kurama. I brought a good friend of mine with me. Her name is Hermione and she wants to meet you."
The dog demon, now in his childish human form, stepped out shyly from behind a tree.
"Ku.wa.ma," he said slowly, looking curiously at Hermione. "That Hermineee?"
"That's right, this is Hermione," soothed the kitsune. "She's a friend."
Cyrus's eyes lit up so much with joy that one would think the kid had just been told he'd won a bucket of Galleons. He transformed into his original puppy form and playfully nipped at Hermione's feet.
"He's so adorable!" cooed Hermione, patting the little fellow on the head. "And you taught him to talk all by yourself, Kurama? That's amazing!"
"Cyrus is a very quick learner," Kurama replied modestly. "It didn't take him much at all to catch on to the more simple words. I'm hoping he'll be ready by the end of the school year."
"Ready for what?"
The fox just smiled mysteriously. "You'll find out."
After that, Harry and Ron got to meet Cyrus, but the puppy seemed to enjoy the first encounter with Hermione the best. Afterwards, Ron said that the only reason the "pooch" liked her was because she kept calling the thing "sweet" and "cute" and "adorable" a countless number of times.
"I've got Herbology next," said Kurama.
"So do I," added Hermione.
"We don't," Harry said. "Ron and I have to go to History of Magic next. But is it okay if we meet back up after our classes are over?"
"Sounds like a plan," said Kurama. "Have a good time."
"Yeah, fat chance," Ron snorted.
Kurama and Hermione entered the greenhouse full of an exotic variety of plants. The demon felt at ease the most during the class, seeing as it was about the one thing he used the most when fighting.
To the Griffindor's dissapointment, Slytherin was joining them in class today.
"Bookworms still together now, I see," observed Malfoy, smirking at the duo. He glanced at Hermione. "Tragedy your house got stuck with such a dull transfer student. At least Slytherin got someone good." He, of course, was talking about Yusuke.
"I could say the sameabout you, Malfoy," Hermione glared.
"Where'd you come from anyway?" Yusuke asked, mimicking Malfoy's smirk. "With hair like that, I'd think you were from some poor Muggle family."
This surprised Kurama much more than he thought it would. Yusuke wasn't talking about Hermione; Yusuke was looking straight at Kurama.
'He's lying of course,' the fox assured himself quickly. 'Although...' Something seemed different. There was a different look to his friend's eyes. Even though he couldn't put his finger on what it was, he was almost positive it was there.
"You really are stupid," Yusuke said smugly, intruding on Kurama's thoughts. "I asked you a question. Now are you gonna stand there or are you gonna answer me?"
'He sounds as if he really intends on offending me,' Kurama noticed, still keeping a straight face. "I transferred justrecently thisyear from Japan."
"Like we care about your life story," Malfoy butted in. "Come on, we don't want to be near these Mudbloods when class starts."
"What was that all about?" Neville asked nervously.
"Just Malfoy being his usual self," sighed Hermione.
"Class, today I'm going to need you to take the poison out of the stems of these Contaminated Flowers today," announced Professor Sprout. "If you don't succeed in getting most of it out, your plant will turn brownand die from its own poisons. We need to keep these flowers alive so that Madam Proferry can growmore medicine from them."
As expected, Kurama had no trouble whatsoever in completing the assignment. The first coat of green on the flower was poisoned, so all that needed to be done was to simply remove that coating. Hermione, Neville, and the kitsune were first to finish. A few unfortunate students developed a burn on their skin from too much exposure to the toxins- "Serves them right for not wearing gloves like Professor Sprout instructed," said Hermione- and they had to be sent to the Hospital Wing for treatment.
"Mr. Minamino, may I have a word with you?" Professor Sprout asked politely after the class had ended.
Kurama nodded and told Hermione not to wait up for him. "It's not a problem, is it professor?" he asked.
"Oh, heavens no!" Sprout exclaimed. "You're an excellant student, indeed, excellant. One of my star pupils infact! I was just wondering if you would happen to be interested in earning extra credit by tutoring a few students of mine that are... particularly struggling in my class a tad."
"That would be fine with me," the demon answered. "Who will I be helping?"
"These young men," the Herbology teacher replied. Behind her was none other than Malfoy, Yusuke, Crabbe, and Goyle. She continued talking while the two houses exchanged glares. "I'll leave the greenhouse open on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. You'll be allowed to tutor them whenever you find fit on those three days."
"Of course the bookworm's going to teach us, he knows all," Malfoy muttered sarcastically.
Either pretending she didn't here the comment or not have heard it at all, Professor Sprout asked, "Will that be alright with your schedule, Shuuichi?"
"Yes, I suppose it will," Kurama replied half-heartidly.
AN: YAY! Another six reviews for chapter 11! I know this chapter and the last weren't exactly the most interesting chapters so far, but I'll go ahead and tell you this: Chapter 13 (which also happens to be my favorite number) is going to be all about the Halloween Dance at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry! I'm going to try really hard to update it in sometime this week, but I'm not going to make any promises. Just know that it's going to be really interesting.
Oh yeah, and another thing: Cyrus (sigh-russ is how it's pronounced) is how I thought Sirius Black's name waspronounced before I watched the movies, and I thought it'd be cool to name the dog demon after that!
Thank you Marikalay, kyo's little koneko, bissek, Animefouryou,Maki-sama, and Kemiko3955 for writing reviews last chapter! And yes, I will be attempting to write longer chapters from this point on. I'm glad you like this story! TTYL!