i'm so, so sorry ((sob)) but this time there is no excuse. i haven't been writing because...because...oh, forgive me, Kenshin, i have left you for another fandom! no, don't worry, it was only momentarily. yeah. ((nervously fidgets)) it's true, i've been completely immersed in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist all summer. but i have returned! i promise! i will keep writing this. this fic's been my best one so far, so i can't abandon it. i'll finish this one and the other one first before delving into FMA fanfiction. turns out i can only keep one anime mindset at a time, or at least if i want to keep everyone IC (one of the things i've got going for me) so i'll leave off it for awhile.

therefore, sorry if this chapter seems less IC than the others. i have to get back into the RK/HP mindset. if the chapter's bad, though, don't give up on me! i shall return!

P.S: i might misspell some names, sorry, i can't spell to begin with and i don't have the book with me for reference.

Chapter 6

"So you were pushed all the way back against the wall, but he didn't touch you?" Hermione said carefully, helping herself to the stack of toast.

Ron nodded. "It was like some kind of spell. Like Expellarmus except he didn't say anything."

Harry and Hermione had stayed up after Ron had left, chatting, and it wasn't until they had gone to bed that they realized Ron's abscence. Now they were at breakfast, and he was filling them in on what had happened.

"Well, it is possible to cast a spell without speaking." Hermione said with a shrug. "You just startled him, Ron. You should've knocked first before just barging in."

"Maybe." Harry said. "But that's a pretty advanced trick for a new wizard."

"Well, Lupin's bound to have taught him something, and that spell's basic. Besides, Harry, Lupin taught you the Patronus Charm in third year, remember? None of us can do it yet. It just takes enough natural talent and the right teacher, is all. What," she added, sounding annoyed, "do you think you have a better explination? You've been so suspiscious of Kenshin from the very beginning."

"Well, maybe so." Harry said. "But it's better to be careful, don't you think? We've seen that it's possible to even fool Dumbledore, with that fake Moody last year."

"Yeah, speaking of Moody, the two of you could be best mates with the way you've been carrying on lately." Hermione said crossly. "If you're that concerned, why don't you just go to Lupin about it? Or just talk to Kenshin yourself."

"Well, I've tried that, but..." he drifted off as he saw that Hermione suddenly had a very odd look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"Ron..." she said slowly. "Do you remember that package my parents sent me a couple of weeks ago? The one with the electric toothbrush in it that you thought your dad would go crazy over?"

"Sure." he said, confused. "But what's that got to do with anything?"

"Kenshin thought it was interesting too. In fact, he acted like he'd never seen such a thing before. He kept flipping it on and off."

"Yeah, so? I'd never seen one either."

"But wouldn't something like that be pretty normal to him?" Hermione said, "If he was raised by Muggles?"

They sat in silence for a moment.

"So...are you saying you think he could be lying about that?" Harry said. "But why would he? Seems kind of like a pointless lie to me."

"It would explain why he could do that spell." Ron said reluctantly. "But Harry's right, it seems like the kind of thing that it would be useless to lie about...in fact, most people, if they lie about their lineage, it's usually the other way around. They try to make themselves sound pureblood."

"No, you're right, that wouldn't make sense." Hermione said. "But what if there was another reason...what if he came from a place that doesn't have those kind of things, or maybe a time that doesn't..." she abruptly stood up and was mumbling to herself. "Himura...I knew that name was familiar...but he couldn't be...why would Dumbledore...? But he doesn't seem like it either..." she picked up her bags and rushed out, leaving her half-eaten breakfast and the other two staring after her.

"What was that about?" Ron said, bewhildered.

"No telling, but i'm sure we'll know soon enough." Harry said, pouring some more sugar over his corn flakes. "You know it's best to leave her to her own mad way of doing things until she's ready to spell it out for the rest of us."

Breakfast came and went and all too soon it was time for the first class of the day: the worst possible prospect for a Monday morning, double Potions. Nothing was better than the cold chill of Snape's dungeons and Malfoy's smug face for two full hours in the morning. Other than, you know, getting shot in the head. Harry and Ron found themselves at Snape's dungeon door, but Hermione was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe she got in already?" Harry said.

"No, look, here she comes." Ron looked behind them as Hermione came running up, short of breath. "Where were you? Snape's going to kill me already for not having his essay done...much less if we're late for class in the bargain..."

"Don't worry about that now." Hermione said, panting. "Listen, Kenshin-"

"Inside." Harry said, pushing her in. "I don't want a detention, thank you."

"Well, it's good to hear that, Mr. Potter."

All three of them stopped abruptly when they saw the entire class looking at them. A cold smirk was playing across Draco Malfoy's pale, pointed face. But that's not what really made them stop so suddenly. It was that, instead of the looming bat-like figure of Snape sitting at the front desk, it was none other than Professor Himura Kenshin.

"Take your seats, please." he said pleasently. "Unless you really do desire a detention- then, by all means, continue standing there like a flock of wide-eyed pigeons."

Huh? When did Kenshin all of a sudden decide tostart acting like a real teacher? And where was Snape?

They all took their usual seats, Hermione looking fit to burst with what she wanted to tell them, but remaining silent.

It was odd, but the natural prescence Snape used in order to effortlessly keep his class quiet seemed to be a trait also had by Kenshin, despite the fact that his stature was far less impressive and he was overall less intimidating.

"Good morning, everyone." Kenshin said, standing from the desk and walking in front of it. Lupin's training seemed to be doing him a lot of good- he actually seemed like a real teacher and wasn't afraid of being in front of a class anymore. "For those who don't know me, I am Professor Himura, the new substitute, and I have been splitting subbing duties with Professor Grubbly-Plank this year as training for my own teaching career." he told the story he and Lupin had formulated together sosmoothly that even Harry almost believed he was nothing more than a teacher-in-training. "My native language is Japanese, and I use a Translating Charm to communicate, so if I ever say something strange that you do not understand, tell me and I will try to be clearer. Many of you have seen me in Professor Lupin's class, but this is the first Slytherin class I have been to, so I know that half the class has never met me before. Professor Snape," he went over to the chalkboard and wrote a number on it. "Has given a lesson for you to do on this page of your books...a basic Sleeping Potion. He realizes that this is quite a simple potion for 5th year, and has told me to tell you that he will be adding another two feet to yourhomework essay from last Friday. He doubts my ability to teach you anything too complicated, and as such, he decided to give you more homework instead."

Several groans were heard from the crowd, except from Ron- at least they didn't have to turn in the essay today- and Hermione, who had done well over two feet more than the essay had originally called for anyway.

"Where is Professor Snape anyway?" Dean Thomas asked. "I thought he'd have to be dying of the flu or something before he let anyone take over his class."

"Professor Snape has kindly allowed me this oppertunity. He is taking the day off in order to plan lessons and catch up on paperwork."

Silence. Not a one of them believed it, but nobody said anything. Not out loud, anyway.

"I bet he's really gone on a mission."Harry whispered. "There's no way I could see him actually willingly letting Kenshin take over his class for a day."

Nevertheless, this was an interesting turn of events to what had previously seemed like a doomed morning, and so without any further adothe class started, most feeling as if Christmas had come early. An easy lesson and a changed due date for an assignment! For Snape's class, this sort of break was simply unheard people turned in their books to the indicated page, a small buzz of chatter went up and finally they could ask Hermione what was going on.

"Not here." she said so quietly that they could barely hear, even standing next to her. "Later."

"...Seems like they'll let anyone or anything become a teacher these days." Malfoy was saying to Pansy Parkingson in an unnecessarily loud tone of voice. "First that half-giant half wit, a werewolf, and now some kid who's probably not even qualified. He looks like they just took somebody off of the street and gave him the job. Or wait, maybe judging by the secondhand robes and red hair he's actually one of Weasley's distant relatives?After all it seems Weasley himself has barely mastered the English language."

"Why you-" Ron started, and Harry grabbed his shoulder in warning. His outburst wasn't necessary, however, because Kenshin was all over it.

"Oh no, Draco, this potion is all wrong." Kenshin said, causing Malfoy to jump-he hadn't realized that Kenshin waslooking over hisshoulder. Kenshin took the book from his hands and looked at it carefully. "I don't think you've been reading it correctly. I see you've added unicorn hair when it says very clearly in this text that you must use the hair of the person the potion is intended for."

"Ow!" Malfoy said, his hands flying to the top of his head as Kenshin, much too swift for him, had plucked one of his hairs out and dropped it in the cauldron.

"Though I do hope that your excessive use of hair products does not cause an adverse effect on the potion, because that would effect your grade."

"But...it does say to use unicorn hair." Hermione commented in a puzzled voice, looking down at her book. Harry couldn't help but grin. He knew exactly what Kenshin was up to.

"And if I'm reading this correctly, which I sure I am, it says to use baking soda...where you actually about to put in powdered chamomile? Do you know how dangerous it is to put in the wrong ingredients into a potion without know what kind of effects it will have? You need to pay more attention to your work than socializing." Kenshin said, sprinkling baking soda into Malfoy's half-formed potion. "Now then, if you think you can continue the right way, then I'll be off observing the rest of the class." he walked away, leaving Malfoy to stand in a sort of stunned confusion.

Exactly five seconds later...

Acrid black smoke filled the dungeon. Malfoy, Pansy, and a few other Slytherins were sent to the hospital wing with minor burns, and Malfoy's cauldron was now a melted, misshapen lump on his table. Kenshin had profusely apologized, saying that he didn't know a word of English and must have misread the whole thing after all.

"Kenshin..." Ron said in amazement and awe. "I didn't know you had it in you."

"Oh, well..." Kenshin laughed. "Sometimes I rather think I've spent too much time in Sirius' company...I'm sure he'd love to hear about this..."

"You could have really hurt them!" Hermione said shrilly. "It IS dangerous to be messing up potion ingredients like that!"

"Oh, don't worry, Hermione. I know that. I wasn't going to put in anything that would end up seriously injuring them." he frowned. "I do kind of feel bad about it now, though...I'll get Dumbledore in trouble." he was quickly drawing out of his mischevious mood.

"Aw, don't worry about that, they more than deserved it anyway. Especially Malfoy." Harry said.

"Oh yes, and I am also sorry if I seemed strange earlier." Kenshin said. "I am not supposed to act too friendly toward you three around Malfoy and a few other Slytherins that might put two and two together and figure out I'm in the Order." he looked over to where people where still fanning black smoke around, making doubly sure no one could overhear."It's suspiscious enough, what with Lupin. Oh, he's not going to like this..."

"Hey, we didn't know you knew Sirius, we've never seen you around his house before." Ron said.

"I go there often, now." Kenshin said. "And I was there a few times over the summer, when you all were sleeping. Sirius didn't like me very much to begin with, but we're actually pretty good friends now."

"So it was you, after all, just likeRon thought." Hermione said quietly.

"Huh?"Ron said, looking from Hermione to Kenshin, who had suddenly become very still.

"Class is dismissed!"Kenshin called, turning to the other students. "I will call Filch down here to clean up this mess. I advise everyone to use the remainer of the class time to return to their common rooms and complete that extra homework." and with that he walked into Snape's office, closing the door behind him.

"What was...that all about?" Ron said, confused. He looked at Hermione. "What's going on?"

"Come on." Hermione said grimly. "I'll tell you when we get to the common room."

"It all has to do with this book." Hermione said, plopping it down on the table. "Ron, you were right. It was Kenshin that Lupin and Sirius were arguing about this summer."

"What?" Harry said. "But I thought we agreed that couldn't be right...for one thing, Kenshin's not dangerous, and for another, he's not a Muggle."

"Yes, he is." Hermione said. "In fact, I think he's probably the only Muggle seriously considered dangerous in the Wizarding world." she opened the book and started turning through the pages.

"Alright, you're going to have to explain this one to me." Ron said, crossing his arms. "This is pretty far-fetched, even for you."

"Well, firstly..." Hermione picked up the heavy book and moved it to her lap. "For a long time I kept thinking that his last name was really familiar, though I couldn't think of from where, because I haven't really heard of that many Japanese people. Then this morning I thought of that electric toothbrush, and it suddenly occured to me...what if Kenshin was actually from a time before things like that were invented, and not only that, but was the only Himura I've ever heard of? Somebody that happens to be in the same book Sirius and Lupin were talking about- and you heard Kenshin say himself that Sirius didn't like him at first, right?"

"Yeah..." Harry said slowly. "But even if, for some reason, Kenshin really is from the past- it wouldn't make sense for a Muggle to be sent to a magical school. Besides, Ron said he did magic, right?"

"Well, I don't know what else it could have been." Ron said. "But like I said, I didn't hear him say anything, and there was no flash of light either."

"And I've never seen him carrying a wand." Hermione said. "I don't know what he did. Maybe it was just Ron's imagination. But listen. If I'm right...well, just read this." she shoved the book into Harry's hand. Ron stood up to look over his shoulder. Harry gave Hermione a questioning look once before deciding to just humor her. He bent his head over to read.

i know. another short chapter, and even worse, this one's probably bad. i just know i'm going to fanfiction hell for this. but i do have plans for the story ahead, and i do intend to shape up and get my act together. i understand if anyone has the urge to flame me. but i will return in full glory! ((strikes heroic pose- pulls a muscle)) oh, the agony.