Disclaimer: Neither Inuyasha nor Harry Potter and all characters contained within said works belong to Sessha-chan. It tears me apart to admit it but it is the truth.

Chapter 9

And Now, to Finish the Term…

Kagome was released from the hospital wing a week after little Izayoi was born. Izayoi was an instant hit in the Gryffindor common room. She looked just like her mother with the exception of the silver fuzz that covered the top of her head and the tiny claws she sported on the ends of her fingers and toes. Little Izayoi had her mother's blue eyes and near bipolar temperament. With the help and advice from her mother Kagome soon had her newborn sleeping through the nights within three weeks after Sesshoumaru had taken the Doctor and the Higurashi family back to Japan.

Classes were difficult to handle now. Kagome had to get her mother to send baby formula and diapers so that Inuyasha could look after Izayoi while she attended classes. The poor boy got a crash course on what it was like to be a mother. Thankfully, he had calmed down quite a bit after Izayoi was born and Kagome could go to class alone now.

Final exams, the NEWTs they called them, were coming up. Kagome spent every waking minute pouring over books and practicing on various unfortunate objects she found lying around their dorm. Several times Inuyasha had to rescue something right out from underneath her wand before she turned it into a teapot or something.

Izayoi grew rapidly. In two months the little baby was starting to crawl around, usually after one of her baby toys. Kagome had to be reminded by Inuyasha that youkai children, of any percentage, grew faster while they were young. They did not slow until they looked about three or four years old and then they slowed to almost no aging at all. Kagome had smiled, suddenly understanding why Shippou looked only six when he was already ten.

The day for the first of the two weeks of NEWT examinations had arrived. Kagome was admitted into the great hall. She was to take the exams with everyone else. The written examinations were something she was used to doing so she was not worried. In fact, she and Hermione finished about the same time.

After the written exams came the practical examinations. The students were admitted into the great hall in groups of twelve. Kagome was nervous, but still managed to please the examiners she was assigned to.

Her Defense Against the Dark Arts examiner seemed extra upbeat and just a little loopy.

"Missus? You're married at your age?"

"Yes ma'am," Kagome nodded.

"Well, Mrs. Taisho, I have heard that you have just had a child," the jolly looking woman giggled. Kagome nodded.

"Yes, a little girl,"

"Well, congratulations. Imagine, you have a new child yet you are still in school. Admirable, Mrs. Taisho,"

"Thank you,"

"Well, well, we best not waste time lollygagging. I want you to describe the three ways you could stop Margleflunker,"

Margleflunker? Kagome froze. What was that again? Oh, right!

"Well, one, I could use a shield charm like so," she twirled her wand and created a shimmering shield between her and the world, "Two, if the timing was right I could try and hit it with a freezing spell to counter the flames it likes to use so much and three, I could bind it in a spell of eternal sleep, a spell that is only useful when used on creatures less powerful than yourself. As a fourth option, if I had lost my wand I could call upon my mikoki and purify the low class stinker,"

The examiner looked impressed. And intrigued, "Mikoki? What is that?"

"Well," Kagome said and put her want down on a desk, "Mikoki, or houriki, is a holy magic that I, as a Traditional Shinto Priestess, possess. It's most basic function of to purify evil, such as Dark Creatures," she released her hold on her power just enough to allow a soft pink glow to envelop her.

"Well," the examiner rubbed her hands together, pleased, "Well, I am most impressed, Mrs. Taisho. You seem to know what you are doing,"

"Well, I should think so," she whispered sarcastically to herself when she was excused, "After all the fighting I did,"

Inuyasha was waiting for her, sitting on the stairs leading to the second story. Izayoi was cradled in his lap, sound asleep and snoring gently.

"Hey Kagome," He called quietly, not wanting to wake their daughter. "How'd it go?"

"In the bag," she slid onto the stair beside him and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing, "I'll be glad when this is all over though,"

"Yeah, then we can go home," Inuyasha said wistfully.

"Back to the shrine. Back to the village," Kagome agreed.

"The first thing I'm going to do when we get home is take a nap in the goshinboku,"

"Oh really?" Kagome arched an eyebrow, "You're not going to have me make you some ramen? You're not going to torment Buyo?"

"Nope. It's the tree for me," Inuyasha insisted.

Kagome smiled, "Alright then,"

"Come on," Inuyasha started to his feet, careful to not wake Izayoi, "Let's go take a walk,"

Kagome followed him outside into the sun. She almost laughed when the tension that had been knotting up his shoulders visibly fled the moment his bare feet touched the grass. Obviously, Inuyasha had been indoors for too long, waiting for her to finish up with her exams. Now that she was done Kagome was sure he was going to stay outside for as long as she would let him get away with.

They wandered over to the lake and Kagome took a seat in the cool shade of a waiting tree. Summer was rising and the heat, though not as intense as Tokyo, was stifling. She took Izayoi from Inuyasha and settled the child on the grass beside her.

"Why don't you go for a swim, Inuyasha?" she suggested. Inuyasha looked at the clear, sparkling water of the lake, "I'll watch Izayoi, don't worry,"

The hanyou shrugged and took off his gi, baring his chest. He tossed it back at his mate as he waded into the cool water. In seconds he was under.

Kagome watched from the shore, her gaze wandering between the lake surface and the shore and the other students. Inuyasha surfaced several hundred feet from where he went under.

"Wow!" Ron breathed from behind her, catching her attention, "He can really swim, can't he?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed.

"Well, he is half inuyoukai," Kagome reasoned, "Have you ever met a dog that couldn't swim?"

"Good point," Harry laughed, sitting next to her, but a respectable distance away. "How'd you do?"

"The tests here aren't nearly as scary at the ones I had to take back home," she laughed.

"You're kidding!" Ron looked horrified, "They were horrible! I'm sure I failed,"

"I'm sure you didn't fail, Ron," Hermione reassured. Kagome held her tongue. And it did not go unnoticed.

"Kagome doesn't think so," Harry laughed. Kagome smiled innocently at her friends. Ron huffed indignantly, crossing his arms across his chest. Now Hermione and Kagome joined Harry in laughter, waking Izayoi. The little quarter-inuyoukai girl complained loudly at the affront. Her mother smiled and picked her up, settling her in her lap with a kiss on her round cheek.

"Sorry Iza-chan," she apologized, "Mommy didn't mean to wake you,"

Of course, the little girl was not mollified but did eventually calm down under the persuasion of being allowed to splash in the shallow water of the edge of the lake. Kagome kept a watchful eye on her daughter, making sure that the child did not crawl out too far. Inuyasha surfaced again, this time closer to the center of the lake. He waved, a small white speck in the distance. Kagome waved back and watched as he went under once again.

"What is he doing?" Harry asked.

"Swimming," Kagome shot the black-haired boy a look that clearly was asking where his wits were, "Isn't that a bit obvious?"

Harry flushed, "Well, yeah. But why is he under water for so long?"

"Don't ask me," Kagome shrugged, "He's probably exploring the lake bottom,"

"The lake bottom?" Hermione asked.

"But there's things like merfolk down there! Not to mention the squid!" Ron protested.

Kagome smiled at them, amused, "Don't worry about Inuyasha. He once fought a water dragon youkai that was toting himself up to be a lake god. Let's just say that Inuyasha didn't loose," she winked, "After that I'm sure that there isn't much more that could faze him when it comes to things that live in water,"

"Lake god?"

"Water youkai?"

The boys looked so confused. Kagome caught the back of Izayoi's pants and pulled her closer. "That's right. We ran across a lot of them during our travels around Inuyasha's homeland. And honestly it was a good thing that Inuyasha was there since he was the best fighter out of all of us and I was only half trained at the time," she laughed and pulled Izayoi back again. "Iza-chan, no going out so far. Daddy will come back, don't worry,"

Izayoi gurgled at her and splashed her hands in the water. Inuyasha didn't come back for another fifteen minutes and when he did he was tired and out of breath. He flopped beside Kagome, setting Izayoi on his bare stomach so that he could tickle her under her chin.

"Have fun?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha grinned, stretching.

"You know they got a whole village of water youkai down there?" he said.

Kagome nodded, "They call them 'merfolk' here. Harry and Ron were telling me about them,"

"You met the merfolk?" Ron leaned forward.

Inuyasha shrugged, "Yeah, so what?"

"You didn't fight, did you? Are you hurt?" Hermione asked and looked him over with a critical eye. The hanyou just snorted and tickled his daughter under her chin again.

"Like something as weak as them could even scratch me," he boasted, "I'm not some weak, lowclass. I could be a Taiyoukai if I wanted to be,"

"Then why aren't you?" Harry asked, curious.

"Because he can't be bothered with dealing with other youkai," Kagome smiled.

"It's better being the younger brother," Inuyasha agreed, "Less responsibility. All I have to look after is my forest rather than a whole island,"

"Island?"

"Sesshoumaru's lands consist entirely of the main island of Japan," Kagome explained, "Hokkaido is the Northern Lands, Honshu the Western Lands, Shikoku the Southern Lands and Kyushu the Eastern. That takes care of the four major islands of Japan, dividing the country neatly enough so the there is less warfare between the four Lords. It a handy way to keep the borders and no one bothers Sesshoumaru about having the bulk of the lads because they know that they wouldn't stand a chance against him. He's just that good,"

Inuyasha snorted. "Good thing he's not here to hear you. He doesn't need a bigger ego than he already has,"

"But Inuyasha's on par with him despite being half human," Kagome continued, "It's nice because now practically no one picks on him, especially since he made up with Sesshoumaru and they're on the same side now,"

Inuyasha snorted again. Izayoi curled up on top of her father and started nodding off.

"Does being half human make such a difference?" Harry asked. Inuyasha tensed and Kagome bit her lip.

"Life is hard for hanyou," she said slowly, "Most aren't allowed to survive past birth if the pregnancy is even allowed. If they are permitted to live then they grow up in a world where neither of their base species will accept them. Humans hate them for their youkai blood and youkai look down on them like they are nothing more than scum. Most hanyou don't make it for that reason,"

"Sounds rough," Ron whistled in amazement.

"That's an understatement," Inuyasha said sarcastically.

"At least you had Sesshoumaru on your side, even if it did look like he was trying to kill you," Kagome reasoned.

"It didn't look like he was trying to kill me, he was trying to kill me," the hanyou protested vehemently.

"If he really was trying to kill you back then, then why aren't you dead? It's not like you could have stood against him when we first met," Kagome said tartly. Inuyasha scowled. "And don't you dare forget all those times that he left you alive, Inuyasha, when he could have killed you,"

"I still hate him," Inuyasha insisted, glowering.

Kagome smiled, "Sure you do,"

"Didn't look like you hated him when he visited," Hermione pointed out thoughtfully.

The hanyou scowled at her. No one was impressed by his meager display of temper.

"Oh, come on," Kagome said brightly, "let's enjoy our time off while we still have it!"

"I'm up for that," Ron agreed.

"Sounds good to me," seconded Harry.

"I guess I can read out here," who else but Hermione said.

"Whatever. Wake me up for dinner," Inuyasha stretched out and closed his eyes.

Kagome laughed. If only her life was always this peaceful.

Kagome and Inuyasha bid everyone farewell at the train station – Kagome doing more of the farewelling than Inuyasha. They caught a taxi to the airport, arriving with just enough time to check in, deal with their luggage and board. Izayoi got to sit on Kagome's lap during the entire trip, thankfully sleeping through most of the flight.

Kagome's mother was waiting with Takiko when they disembarked in Japan. Takiko had brought one of her cars, picking Mrs. Higurashi on her way. There was much oohing and ahing over little Izayoi she was looking almost twelve months old already despite being only four and a half months. Her feathery silver hair had grown long enough that the back was brushing the nape of her neck and Kagome was having to cut it to keep it out of the way.

Takiko had thought to bring along one of her old car seats and showed Kagome how to strap Izayoi in properly. Inuyasha had the luggage in hand and was deftly stowing it in the trunk. Soon the entire group was piled in the car and on their way home.

Kagome sighed and closed her eyes, breathing in the less-than-pure Tokyo air she considered home.

Tadaima, minna-san.

AN: And we're done! There, that wasn't so bad, was it? Probably worse. Oh well. Thanks for suffering through this self-indulgent fic. I'll try not to write too many more purely selfish fics like this. Isn't Izayoi cute? They named her after Inuyasha's mom, for anyone who doesn't already know. I thought it was appropriate. I know the story's not all that great and could use some serious work, but I don't really care right now. Maybe I'll work some more on it later. We'll see.