A/N: Wow, such chapter, very fourth, much written. Wow.

I'm in doge mood right now.

Whatever. Wow! We're already at the fourth chapter?! I never thought somebody would actually like this story!

Remember when, in the last chapter's A/N I told you it was going to be mostly Link's?

...well, I lied. Without wanting, actually, but I lied. Shame on me.

Anyway, I finally found out the second year DADA teacher's (Gilderoy Lockhart) name. As I already said, Italian translators are jerks. In Italian his name is Gilderoy Allock. Though, this time I can understand why, since the word "allocco" is used both to indicate a kind of bird or an (human) idiot. Heh. Random fun fact.

Reader314: I actually never played Portal XD

though, one of my friends did. He, once, told me about the "cake is a lie" scene, and, well, it stuck into my mind.

P.S: I hope you get an account soon! ;-)

grandshadowseal: Yep, Hylians sure have a lot of hearts XD

It's a quote to the health bar in the Zelda games, but I think you already figured that out... about the "where should they fit" thing, well, they are lightly smaller than a human heart. Besides, Hylians lack some organs that humans have, because they don't need them, and some other are way different. Anyway, I had thought of making Harry say what you suggested, but then it occurred to me that in the letter Hermione said quite adamantly that the owl was hers... heh.

Chapter four:

Shopping and slaughters

"Cassandra Portale, Cassandra Portale... let's see..." mumbled Harry, looking at the bookshelves, a frown on his face.

Ron scratched his head. "The darn book is nowhere to be seen! Are we sure it even exist?"

The two continued searching for a while, before Hermione's enthusiastic cry made them perk up.

"I found it!"

The bushy haired girl appeared from behind an enormous pile of volumes, waving a book with a leather cover, a golden dragon with six wings chiseled on the reddish animal skin.

She ran to her friends, and opened the book at the first page.

"Everyone knows what Demonology is. The science that studies demons and other incredible creatures. Fascinating, surely. But what about Xenodemonology?

As this is supposed to be a schoolbook, I can imagine your perplexed, maybe uninterested faces. Well, Xenodemonology is as interesting and fascinating as Demonology, if not more: it studies creatures not known on this planet, or universe. Other worlds exist, we know that for a fact. And, if you want to go there, and see the otherworldly beauty of those places, you'll have to know what you'll found, and how to defend yourself, even without your beloved wands..."

Hermione stopped reading. Her eyes were shining brightly, and a huge smile was plastered on her face.

She looked at her friends. "This woman is a genius! Only twenty-three years and she is already graduated in Demonology! And, those ideas! Wandless defense, interworld journeys, Xenodemonology..."

Harry and Ron stared, speechless. It wasn't unusual for Hermione to be all hyper on a book, but to see her so excited about a person she had just heard of was just... weird.

"Well, at least now we know that the new professor is not a complete idiot like Lockhart" Observed Ron. "If he was he wouldn't have chosen this book..."

Harry grinned, looking at the beautiful drawings on the pages. "I bet Shadow would love this book." He said, almost to himself.

His friends looked at him.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Ron, puzzled.

Harry looked up. "Huh?"

"You said that Shadow would love this book." Explained Hermione. "Who is Shadow?

"Right, you don't know. Shadow is my new neighbour. He's a goth. You know, always dressed in black and purple, interested in occult, loves role playing games like Dungeons & Dragons..."

While Hermione just nodded, Ron (who had no idea of what a goth was), paled. "Sounds scary... you sure he isn't a dark wizard or something?"

Harry chuckled. "No, Ron. He's just some muggle with a passion for dark colors and occult-based stories. I'm sure, because he didn't even flinch when I told him my name. Besides, he's not a bad guy. A little weird, but kinda cool actually. He absolutely loves reading, and his interests are all about ancient myths. You would become instantly his friend, Hermione, believe me."

"I wouldn't trust him, if I were you." Ron looked away stubbornly.

"Ron..."

"No good person likes dark and occult so much, I'm sure of that."

"Ron..." Hermione's tone was threatening.

"And, Dungeons and Dragons? What kind of muggle would like dragons?"

"Ron, shut up!"

Hermione and Harry's exasperated cry managed to make stop the redhead's complains. They payed the books, exited the bookstore, and headed toward another shop.

"And what kind of name is Shadow, anyway?"

"RON!"

xxx

"WATCH OUT!"

Severus Snape looked up. His eyes widened but, before he could react, at least ten books about malicious creatures tumbled on him.

He fell on the floor with a strangled cry, and the person who was on the ladder until a moment before hurried near him, helping him stand.

"I'm so sorry, professor! Are you okay?"

Snape glared. "Do I look okay, Professor Avalon?"

"Errr... yes?"

The man grumbled. "It's the third time this week you cause an accident here at the castle. What are you, an ambulant disaster-maker?"

The Hylian laughed awkwardly. "I'm sorry, professor. I think I'm coming up with a fever, or something... and the stress of having to document myself before the start of the year is really not helping."

"You decided to become a teacher. If you don't mind, your worries about not being good enough for teaching are not my business." Snarled the man. "Surely you'll understand that it's no good excuse to crush me under a pile of books, completely destroy my best cauldron while trying to create a morphing potion, and almost killing me with an exploding wand!"

Link looked at the greasy-haired man, curious. "Oh, the cauldron was yours? Weird, one of the ghosts had told me I could use it, because it was nobody's. Sorry, by the way."

Snape sighed. "Whatever. Just... let me go."

Link obeyed, chuckling. That Snape reminded him a little of one of the court's mages, some guy named... Raven? Was it? Whatever.

The guy was a good enchanter, but he always had that "I'm-better-than-you-and-I-don't-make-you-notice-it-just-because-I'm-polite-but-you-better-notice-it-anyway" aura around him that always made Link laugh under his breath.

He looked at the man going away (still chuckling, as on his head was forming a visible bump), and started taking all the books off the ground.

He'd already read all the books about gnolls, hobgoblins, werewolves, bugbears and quite a few other monsters, and now he was practically devouring all the books he could found about undead creatures.

If you looked at the titles, you could read things like:

Zombies, ghosts and ghasts, Vampires do not sparkle, How to kill your undead monster, What to do when you're running low on garlic and... quite other few. Other eleven, to be precise. Oh yeah, fourteen books in total, and he was going to read them all in less than three weeks. Or, well, so he wanted to do. Actually managing to do that, heh, that wouldn't be easy.

But, hey: at least he was trying. He was doing all he could, to become a good teacher, and if it wasn't enough... well, he could always fake a sickness and just give up. After all, he did feel a little light-headed. However, he would've preferred remaining. He never was one to give up so easily (unless it was the star game in Castle Town. Stupid game).

He smiled, and opened the first book.

Xxx

Shadow yawned. The Potter brat hadn't shown up yet, that day. So, obviously, he'd slept in. Till evening. When he'd woken up, it was 18:40. Aaaaah, sweet, sweet evening shadows. No pun intended, obviously.

He stirred, smirking. He opened the fridge, searching for a chocolate bar.

Candies. One of the few things he actually appreciated of that alien world.

The boss never gave him any.

He took the chocolate, bringing it at his mouth, and... ew. What was this terrible smell? He thought chocolate couldn't rot.

Wait. In fact it couldn't.

It didn't come from the bar.

It came from the street.

His eyes widened, and he ran toward the window.

Bokoblins.

What were bokoblins doing in Little Whinging?

And why were they heading to Harry's house?

He exited his house, heading for the little pack of monsters.

"Hey! What are you doing here, you oafs?" He bellowed, disgusted by the creatures' smell, something like a mix of rotten meat and a middle school's toilette (A/N:I don't know how middle schools are like in America or wherever you are from, but here in Italy if you enter a toilette you risk fainting like a Pokemon).

One of the bokoblins snickered. "Why do ya wan' to know?"

Shadow stopped. Indeed, why did he want to know? It was none of his business. All the monsters under the boss' orders would never attack him. And some humans' well-being wasn't his business.

Okay, okay. Maybe he didn't want the Potter brat to get hurt. So what? The guy was sometimes a pain in the ass, but it was nice to have someone to talk to. Maybe, just maybe, he'd end up considering him a... friend?

…Like hell he would admit that. Let's just say a friendly acquaintance. It still was more than he ever had before.

Friend, acquaintance or what else, he was determined not to let those primitives harm his only distraction.

Yep, that's what it was. A selfish desire, like any respectable demon.

"That's my own business. Now answer me." He growled.

The creature he was speaking to stared at Shadow's, nails that were lengthening and sharpening into their original form of claws.

A drop of sweat ran down the monster's temple, and the others shifted uncomfortably. "We know the humans here have some nice stuff. Just a little hunt, nothing more. It'll be a good job, no human will remain to tell what happened. Don't worry 'bout that."

Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You ain't doing anything."

"And why is that?" Taunted the creature. All the fear for the young demon seemed having disappeared, as it stared at Shadow derisively, a sneer on his wrinkled face.

"Because I say so."

"Oh, 'cause ya' say so? Well, ya know what? We don't give a shit 'bout what ya say. Let us pass."

"Go away, motherfucker."

"And what if I don't? What will ya do? Will ya kill meh?"

"Maybe." He stated, coldly.

"We're eleven. And ya are one. Ya would never win."

"Let's see."

xxx

Shadow frowned, looking at the ground.

Not nice. Not nice at all.

He would end up in trouble with the commander for sure, because of that little... inconvenient.

Besides, now he had to clean the asphalt from all the bokoblins' corpses.

A/N: Yes, yes. Here you go your stupid notes. ;-)

Xenodemonology: From Demonology (that actually really exists) and Xeno, that means different in ancient Greek. Or something like that.

Shadow's interests: As he couldn't really train with magic or else, while in England, Shadow started reading, and found really interesting the old legends. Also, while I was writing this, it came to my mind that a lot of people have written crossovers where Bakura moves (more like is dragged by his yami, actually) into an abandoned house in Little Whinging, and I simply had to make Shadow interested in role playing XD. Not to mention that I finally got the Player's Handbook of 3.5 version of D&D! Woppedoo! Though, it's in English, and I paid it a lot. Like, fifty euros. It's really a lot. Whatever.

Ron's dislike for Shadow: Meh. I needed one of the Golden Trio antagonizing the boy, and here you go. Let's just pretend he's jealous, for some reason not even he knows. Maybe he has a crush for Harry- I'm joking. Harry x Ron would be creepy. Not as much as Harry x Draco, but still... creepy.

Snape's relation with Link: Snape doesn't like Link, indeed. The problem is that, for the first time, he can't take points to whatever house Link would be in (probably Griffyndor... I mean, he has the Din-dammit Triforce of courage!), so he has to cool down. If it looks like he likes the Hylian because he doesn't treat him too bad, well, he doesn't. He's just trying to be polite with a workmate.

Raven: A little quote to a character from Overworld (it should be translated to English soon), by Licia Troisi.

Vampires do not sparkle: Sorry. I simply had to.

The star game: I never, never managed to complete that minigame, and every time I try, I feel like strangling the goddamn keeper of the tent! WAAAAAGH!

Anyway, no. I'm not pairing Shadow with Hermione. Actually, I'm simply not pairing him with anybody. I don't like crossover pairings, even more so since this Shadow Link is almost an OC. Almost.

On a separate note, did you notice? Redhead is written in same way of ReDead, just plus an "h" XD

If you read that Ron or one of the Weasleys has became Ghibdo-like, that's probably because of a typo XD