I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter the both belong respectively to Tite Kubo and J.K. Rowling


The next few days passed without incident with Harry getting more sleep thanks to Yoruichi secretly dealing with any Hollow alerts while he slept. Though things were about to get a bit more interesting as the fourth year Gryffindors were about to begin their first DADA class with Prof. Moody.

The class was eagerly anticipated, prompting the entire class to wait outside Moody's classroom, long before the bell had even rung. The only person lagging behind was Hermione, who had turned up just as the bell rang.

"Sorry" Hermione gasped, out of breath from running. "Been in the…."

"Library" Harry finished her sentence for her.

"C'mon, we don't want to lose any good seats" said Ron, pushing his friends into the classroom. His new goal to become an Auror aside, it seems the incident of the bouncy ferret had made the Weasley boy very eager to see Moody's teaching style.

Finding seats right in the front row, the golden trio took out their texts books and waited, unusually quietly. Soon enough they could hear Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming from down the hall, shortly before he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever.

"Put the books away. You won't be needing them" Moody growled, taking a seat at his desk.

Harry couldn't help but notice this seemed to increase Ron's excitement. Moody quickly went through the register, his magical eye swiveling around, fixing upon each student as they answered. Once attendance was complete Moody addressed the class.

"Right then, I've got a letter from Prof. Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a thorough grounding in tackling dark creatures. But you're behind, very behind on dealing with curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark…"

"What aren't you staying" Ron blurted out.

Ron looked extremely nervous as Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at him. But after a second, Moody smiled, the first time anyone had seen him do so. Despite making his face look more twisted than ever, it did also easy the class and relieve Ron that the retired Auror could do at least attempt to look friendly.

"You're Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" said Moody. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago. Yeah I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore. One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So straight into it. Curses; they come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. But Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, recons you can cope, and I say, the sooner the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Ms. Brown, when I'm talking."

Does he mean us or me? Harry thought bitterly, thinking this was just another manipulation by the headmaster.

Elsewhere in the castle Yoruichi once more felt a small shift in Harry's spiritual pressure.

"So do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" asked Moody.

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was focused on the now blushing Lavender.

"Er, my dad told me about one." Ron said tentatively. "Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes" Mood said appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody then opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar, containing three black spiders. Harry felt Ron flinching slightly next to him, reminding him of his best friend's fear of spiders.

Reaching into the jar, Moody held one of the spiders in his palm up for the class to see. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backwards and forwards, as though it was on a trapeze, before flipping through the air to land on top of his desk. Moody then jerked his wand, compelling it to start tap dancing.

Everyone started laughing, that is everyone but Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter stopped almost instantly. The class listened in stunned silence as Moody explained that the Imperius Curse granted the caster total control of their target and how during the war with Voldemort many witches and wizards were controlled by the curse.

"Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll teach you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody barked, and everyone jumped.

Moody picked up the spider and threw it back into the jar.

"Anyone else? Another illegal curse?"

As expected Hermione's hand flew into the air again, but the real surprise was so Neville's did too. The shy Gryffindor usually only volunteered information in Herbology, which was easily his best subject. Neville himself seemed surprised by his own daring.

"Yes?"

"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse" said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody looked over Neville intently with both eyes.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, magic eye checking the register.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further queries. Once more he took a spider from the jar, this time placing it on his desk, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse, needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the point" said Moody, casting the enlarging charm on the spider. To Ron's horror the spider grew until it was the size of a large paperweight. "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon itself; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure if it had a voice, it'd be screaming. Moody didn't seem to care as he continued the horrific display, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.

"Stop it!" Hermione shrieked, not looking at the spider but at Neville. And Harry following her gaze saw that his hands were clenched, knuckles white, his eyes widened in horror.

Moody thankfully stopped the spell, but the spider continued to twitch. Returning the spider to its proper size, he placed it back in the jar.

"Pain" Moody said softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. That one was very popular once too. Right anyone else?"

Hermione raised her hand shakily. Getting the go ahead from Moody, she whispered the curse the most infamous of the unforgivable curses. "Avada Kedavra."

"Yes the last and the worst" said Moody, a slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "The Killing Curse."

By this point it came as no surprise that the final spider was to be used as a demonstration. Sensing its impending demise, the spider frantically tried to move away from Moody's grasp, but he trapped it, placing it on his desk. The spider scuttled frantically across the wooden surface.

Moody raised his wand "Avada Kedavara!"

There was a flash of blinding green light and just like that the spider's life was snuffed out.

"Not nice. Not pleasant. And there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one person is known to have ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry could feel every eye in the room focus on him, but all he could focus on was that, that was the curse that had killed his parents. Even knowing the truth about his mother's identity as a Soul Reaper, and her defeat of Voldemort did nothing to comfort him. In the end he was left with the credit for his mother's work and Harry was forced to grow up without them, and no amount of trips to the Soul Society would change that.


The rest of the class passed with the students taking notes on the three Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang, but that all changed once Moody dismissed them and they had left the classroom.

As he heard their classmates speak excitedly about the class but Harry, Ron, and Hermione couldn't bring themselves to agree. For them especially after the last summer that sort of display was just disgusting.

"Hurry up" Hermione said tensely, having spotted Neville ahead of them.

"Not the library" Ron complained.

"No" she snapped, pointing up side hallway. "Neville."

Neville was standing alone, halfway up the hall, staring at the stone wall with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had when Moody demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.

"Neville?" Hermione said gently.

"Oh hello" he said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm-I'm starving aren't you?"

"are you alright?"

Oh yes, I'm fine" Neville continued to speak in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner. I mean lesson. What's for eating?"

Ron gave Harry a startled look, neither of them knew how to help their clearly traumatized friend.

"Neville, what…?"

But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, as expected they turned to see Prof. Moody limping up to them. All four fell silent, watching him nervously, but when he spoke, it was in a much gentler growl than they had yet heard.

"It's alright, sonny" he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on, we can have some tea."

This actually seemed to frighten Neville more, as he neither moved nor spoke. Moody's magical eye then focused on Harry.

"You alright, Potter?"

"Yes" Harry said, almost defiantly.

Moody's blue eye surveyed Harry for a few moments.

"You've got to know. It seems harsh maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending. Well come on, Longbottom. I've got some books that might interest you."

Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they didn't say anything, so Neville had no choice but to let himself be steered away, one of Moody's scarred hands on his shoulder.

"What was that about?" Ron questioned, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.

"I don't know" said Hermione, looking pensive.

Silently they headed off to the great hall. Hermione didn't join in with Harry and Ron's conversation during dinner. Instead she just ate her meal in record time and left for the library, leaving her friends to wonder just what she was working on.

"Guess I better get my Divination stuff" said Ron, as they headed for the Gryffindor Tower.

"Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore be in trouble with the Ministry if they knew we'd seen the curses?" Harry asked as they approached the Fat Lady.

"Probably but Dumbledore's always done things his way. And Moody's been getting into trouble for years. Attacks first and asks questions later. Balderdash."

The Fat Lady swung forward to reveal the entrance hole, Ron and Harry climbed into the Gryffindor common room, which was crowded and noisy.

"Can't believe they're still going on about Moody's class" Ron muttered. "Nothing funny about suffering."

Admittedly, Harry believed that if they hadn't had their run in with the Fullbringers, Ron probably would've been more excited about the demonstration. Still he wasn't about to say that out loud, more mature or not that would definitely set his friend off.

Entering their dorm room, Ron and Harry found Neville sitting on his bed reading, looking a great deal calmer, though his eyes were rather red.

"You alright, Neville?" asked Harry.

"Oh yes" said Neville. "I'm fine thanks. Just reading this book Prof. Moody lent me…"

He held up the book: Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean.

"Apparently, Prof. Sprout told Prof. Moody I'm really good at Herbology. He thought I'd like this."

Once Ron grabbed his Divinations supplies, they returned to the common room, grabbing a table in the corner where he could work. Which basically meant he'd be bouncing prediction ideas off of Harry.

"What do you think of next Monday, I'm likely to develop a cough?" asked Ron.

"Sounds good but you need a reason" said Harry, prompting his friend to look through his text book.

"Got it. I'll be caused by the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter."

For the next hour, Harry helped Ron come up with predictions for Trelawney's class, as the common room slowly emptied as students went to bed. At some point, Crookshanks and Yoruichi wondered into the room, getting comfortable in an empty chair, and the windowsill respectively; the former glaring at Ron in a manner similar to his master, should Hermione find out he wasn't doing his homework right. While the latter simply looked bored, though was keeping a subtle eye on Harry.

"Hey what about…." Harry was cut off as his combat pass went off. "How about a Hollow attack while I'm trying to give you an idea. You good to watch Mick?"

"Yeah sure" said Ron, wondering if the mod soul would have any ideas.

As he turned back to his assignment, Ron failed to notice Yoruichi vanish in a burst of speed.


The Hollow's spiritual pressure led Harry to the mountains surrounding Hogsmeade. But what he found was far from the usual Hollow.

"Bloody hell" Harry gasped, frozen in shock as the sky was actually torn open by what was easily the largest creature he had ever seen.

The Hollow stood at least 6 stories tall, it's mask possessed an elongated nose, while its entire body was wrapped in what appeared to be a black cloak. If the size of the creature didn't clue him in, it's immense spiritual pressure certainly told Harry, he was about to have his first run in with a high level Hollow.

Steeling his nerves, Harry decided his best course of action was to charge straight for the monster's head. He flew at it at top speed, Nakatsukasa at the ready to split the Hollow's head in two, only be caught off guard as the Hollow opened its mouth and fired a devastating crimson blast of spirit energy.

With no time to dodge, Harry brought up his zanpakutō in an attempt to block the blast, but the force of the energy proved too much for him as it sent him flying, before crashing painfully into the ground.

"Ugh" Harry groaned, as he tried to force himself to his feet. Despite not being able to defend against the full force of the Hollow's attack, he did manage to at least reduce the damage.

The ground shaking beneath him, was all the warning he had as Harry flash stepped into the air, just avoiding being crushed under the Hollow's foot.

Determined not to allow the Hollow to take another step towards Hogsmeade; a blinding pillar of light rose from Harry's body as he focused all of his spirit energy.

"Let's see how you like this. Ain-Soph-Aur!" Pushing his spirit energy to the max, Harry released the largest surge of energy he could muster, easily dwarfing any display of power he'd shown so far.

Once again the Hollow's mouth opened as it released another blast of blast energy. The Hollow's attack met Harry's dead on in a massive explosion as they cancelled each other out, leaving the monster still standing and one exhausted Substitute Soul Reaper.

Harry couldn't help the cold chill of fear as the Hollow prepared to launch another attack. But like a proud Gryffindor he was determined to face his end without fear, or at least as well as he could manage as the Hollow fired once more.

But to Harry's confusion the pain never came as suddenly a mysterious woman stood between him and the Hollow's attack, actually stopping it with her bare hand.

The woman had dark skin, long purple hair kept in a ponytail. She had a slender build, dressed in an orange sweater over a black shirt and black pants. Lazily knocking the blast away, she turned to face Harry revealing herself to have golden eyes, and she was easily one of if not the most beautiful woman, he had ever seen.

"Who are you?" Harry asked, awed but the casual display of power.

"Guess you aren't ready to deal with a Menos Grande, yet" said the woman, an oddly placed mischievous twinkle in her eyes, given their current situation.

The Menos as the woman called it let out a fearsome roar at the appearance of a new enemy. Harry saw over her shoulder that it was preparing for another attack, but before he could say anything the woman was already all over it.

In the fastest burst of speed, he'd ever seen the woman went from standing in front of Harry, to under the Menos' jaw line, sending it reeling back with a solid uppercut.

"Bloody hell" Harry gasped, sounding a lot like Ron. From the use of flash step, Harry now knew her to be a Soul Reaper but he still never expected such a display of strength.

Before the Hollow could right itself, the woman darted behind it knocking it to the ground with a powerful kick to the back of the head. With the Hollow now lying helpless with its face in the dirt the woman dive bombed it, sending her fist clean through its skull.

"Well that takes care of that" said the woman.

"Who are you?" Harry asked again. But instead of answer the woman just flashed stepped away, moving far faster than he could ever hope to match. With no hope of catching up to the woman, Harry flash stepped back to Hogwarts at a much slower speed.


Harry returned to the common room to find Hermione talking to Ron and Ginny.

"Harry, you ok?" asked Ginny, the first to notice his return.

Waving off his friends' concerns, Harry returned to his body.

"Yeah I'm ok. Just a tough one" he then explained about his run in with the Menos Grande and the mysterious woman that saved him.

"Bloody hell" said Ron. "I'm starting to miss when we didn't know about this stuff."

"Can't believe something like that's been wondering around without anyone noticing" said Ginny. With each new revelation she and Ron were starting to understand a bit more how muggleborns and their parents feel when they learn about the magical world.

"I'm just glad they sent someone to help you" said Hermione, fully supporting the Soul Society's support.

"Yeah but she could've at least told me her name" Harry sighed. "So, what were you talking about?"

This seemed to make Hermione's day, she smiled brightly as she handed him a badge bearing the letters S.O.M.E.

"Some? Some what?"

"Not some. It's S-O-M-E. Stands for the Society of Magical Equality."

"It's her new club" Ron explained. "She's just started it."

"How many members have you got?" asked Harry.

"Well if you three join it'll be four" said Hermione. "But I've been researching a lot of former muggleborn students. I'm hoping to get in contact with them soon, and I plan to talk to Dobby…"

"Wait, why Dobby?" Harry had assumed this was Hermione's plan to fight bigotry against muggleborns. Why would she need a house elf's help?

"To represent the house elves of course."

"Hermione, what happened to one fight at a time?" asked Ginny, she thought they'd have more time before Hermione went back to the whole house elf slavery situation.

"Oh well I thought about it and it's really not two fights" said Hermione. "It's actually one big one. Ron gave me the idea over the summer to form a union ("I did?!") for the muggleborns but then I thought why not expand it. That way I wouldn't need to form a second group. It's one union meant to fight against all forms of bigotry."

Hermione went on to explain S.O.M.E.'s goals and assigned Ginny and Ron roles in the developing organization: Ron (treasurer), Ginny (secretary), and Harry she understood was busy with his Soul Reaper work, though she did ask that he help her with handing out flyers and other campaigning strategies in his free time.

As the first meeting of S.O.M.E. took place unbeknownst to them, Harry's mysterious savior was standing on top of Gryffindor Tower, speaking on a soul pager, the cell phone of the Soul Reaper, speaking to Kisuke Urahara.

"Any news?" asked Urahara.

"His spiritual pressure seems to shift almost at random" said the woman. "Doesn't seem to change when in battle. But if I had to guess it's based on his emotions."

"Strange his emotions shouldn't be having that effect." It's not uncommon for someone's spiritual pressure to flair wildly in response to the owner's emotions but to actually change the signature was unheard of. "That's good work so far. Keep me updated, Yoruichi."

"Yeah, yeah" Yoruichi said casually. "I know what to do. Talk to you later."

Transforming into the cat, Harry had called Felix, the transformed Soul Reaper dropped down onto an open windowsill before slipping into Harry's room, making herself comfortable on the pillow he had turned into her bed.