I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter the both belong respectively to Tite Kubo and J.K. Rowling
Having had her fun, Yoruichi got dressed, allowing Harry and Ron to relax a little; though they probably would be dreaming about her for weeks.
"Now are you ready to listen to the rest?" asked Yoruichi, smirking at the still noticeable blushes on the boys' faces.
"Yes please continue" said Hermione, gritting her teeth, annoyed by the boys' reaction.
"Since the increase in Hollow activity seems to be centered around Europe, we've been slowly increasing our presence."
"But you were already here, waiting for me" said Harry, finally finding his voice.
"Yes it was thought that given your obligations as both a student and a Substitute Soul Reaper, it'd be best if you had some support" Yoruichi lied.
As former commander of the Stealth Force, Yoruichi knew how to fool just about anyone. Though it wasn't a total lie, she just didn't bother to mention the reason Kisuke wanted her there. Plus, her presence would leave it unnecessary to plant a reaper from the Gotei 13 and risk someone a little less subtle blabbing about the strange changes in Harry. It was best to wait until Kisuke actually knew for certain what it was.
"Now if we're done. Why don't we head back" said Yoruichi, transforming back into her cat form, she started to walk back up to the castle.
Satisfied for the moment Harry and the others followed after her though there was something that bothered the Substitute Soul Reaper.
"If you're here to help me, why hide?" Harry questioned.
"What I'm not allowed to have a little fun?" Yoruichi replied sarcastically, flash stepping away before Harry could think to question her further.
After sending off a letter to Sirius and Remus, letting them know that Harry had found a way past the dragon, along with his new status as an animagus, he and his friends started to head back to the Gryffindor Tower; on the way he explained what Bagman said about the golden egg, and that the second task would be held on the morning of February 24, and that the egg contained a clue to the task.
"You know you have to register yourself at the Ministry" said Hermione. "Everyone saw you transform; you'll get in a lot of trouble if you don't."
"Relax, Hermione; I asked Sirius and Remus to register me" said Harry.
"Great so let's go" Ron said impatiently. "I bet they've got a party started in the common room."
Sure enough, Ron was right. When they entered the Gryffindor common room it exploded with cheers and yells. There were mountains of cakes and pumpkin juice and butter beer on every surface. Lee had let off some fireworks so that the air was thick with stars and sparks. Dean had put up some impressive new banners, depicting Harry zooming around the Horntail, first on his Fire bolt, and then in his new raven form.
Wordlessly Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sat down and helped themselves to some food.
"Blimey, this is heavy" said Lee, picking up the golden egg, that Harry had left on a table, and weighing it in his hands. "Open it, Harry, go on! Let's just see what's inside it!"
"He's supposed to work out the clue on his own" said Hermione. "It's in the tournament rule."
"Funny, wasn't he supposed to get passed the dragon on his own, too" Ginny whispered, her voice so quiet that only Hermione could hear her.
The Weasley girl smirked victoriously at the guilty grin on Hermione's face.
"Open it, Harry!" several people echoed.
With the entire room now focused on him, Harry silently accepted the egg back from Lee, digging his fingernails into the groove running all the way around it, and pried it open. But the moment he did, a loud screechy wailing, filled the room.
"Shut it!" Fred demanded, hands over his ears.
"What was that?" said Seamus, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. "Sounded like a banshee. Maybe you've got to get passed one of those next, Harry!"
"It was someone being tortured!" said Neville, who had gone white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor. "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"
"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal" said George. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing…maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry."
"Percy in shower and singing?" said Ginny. "It'd be kinder just to shoot curses at them."
While George was enjoying his sister's joke at their older brother's expense, his twin approached Hermione with an offering.
"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" Fred asked, offering her a plate with a grin on his face. Hermione looked suspiciously at the offering, expecting the worst from the infamous prankster. "It's alright, I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch out for."
Just then, Neville surprised everyone, including himself by transforming into a giant canary. It was the Weasley Twins' newest creation Canary Creams, thankfully even Neville himself found the experience funny as he joined in the resulting laughter.
It was nearly one in the morning when everyone finally went to their dorms. With no sign of Yoruichi in the room, Harry assumed she had decided to go out for the night, something he was very grateful for. The knowledge that he'd been sleeping in the same room as the beautiful woman, even woke to find her in his bed, even if he thought she was just a cat at the time, left Harry a little flushed.
As he went to bed, Harry's mind flashed back to when he opened the golden egg. Though no one else could make sense of it, he was able to hear its' words:
Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching ponder this;
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour, the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.
For the life of him, Harry didn't have a clue as to what it meant. Sure the taking something he'd miss part was easy enough but he didn't have a clue as to where the screeching voice would normally be heard.
"Well doesn't this look like fun."
Rita Skeeter was leaning against Hagrid's garden fence, watching at the mayhem the skrewts were causing the students. December had arrived with biting chilling winds, making the already miserable creatures even harder to bear.
"Who're you?" asked Hagrid.
"Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter" she replied, gold teeth gleaming as she smiled up at him.
"Thought Dumbledore said you weren't allowed inside the school anymore."
Rita acted as though she hadn't heard him.
"What are these fascinating creatures called?" she asked, still beaming widely at Hagrid.
"Blast-Ended Skrewts" Hagrid grunted.
"Really?" said Rita, apparently full of lively interest. "I've never heard of them before…where do they come from?"
Harry noticed a dull red flush rising up out of Hagrid's wild black beard, and his heart sank. Remembering how Hagrid had gotten Norbert, it probably wasn't legal. Hermione was thinking along the same lines.
"They're very interesting aren't they? Aren't they, Harry?" she said quickly.
"What? Oh yeah…ouch…interesting" said Harry, as Hermione stepped on his foot.
"Ah, you're here Harry!" said Rita, as she looked around. "So you like Care of Magical Creatures, do you? One of your favorite classes?"
"Yes" Harry said firmly. In the back of his mind, he knew he shouldn't answer her but Harry couldn't help but speak up for Hagrid.
"Lovely, really lovely" said the reporter, before turning her attention back to Hagrid. "Been teaching long?"
Harry noticed her eyes traveling over to Dean (who had a nasty cut across his cheek), Lavender (whose robes were badly singed), Seamus (who was nursing several burnt fingers), and then to the cabin windows, where most of the class stood, their noses pressed against the glass waiting to see if the coast was clear.
"This is only my second year" said Hagrid.
"Lovely…I don't suppose you'd like to give an interview, would you? Share some of your experiences with magical creatures? The Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday, as I'm sure you know. We could feature these-err- Bang-Ended Scoots."
"Blast-Ended Skrewts," he said eagerly. "Err, yeah why not?"
Hagrid and Rita made arrangements to meet in the Three Broomsticks for a good long interview later that week. Then the bell rang at the castle, signaling the end of the lesson.
"Well, goodbye, Harry" Rita called merrily to him as he, Ron, and Hermione set off towards the castle. "Until Friday night, then, Hagrid!"
"I've got a bad feeling about Hagrid's interview" said Harry, as they entered the castle.
"Just as long as he didn't import those skrewts illegally or anything, he should be fine" said Hermione.
The trio traded looks as they realized that was definitely something Hagrid would do.
"Hagrid's been in loads of trouble before, and Dumbledore's never sacked him" said Ron. "Worst that'll happen is Hagrid will have to get rid of the skrewts. Sorry…did I say worst? I meant best."
They all laughed, and went off to lunch, feeling more cheerful.
While Ron and Hermione were busy with classes, Harry decided to put his free period to good use and sought out Yoruichi, whom he found in the kitchens enjoying a feast from the house-elves.
Wow never thought I'd see someone eat more than Ron Harry thought to himself, watching as the thankfully clothed woman ate bowl after bowl of food. For a moment, he wondered if she hadn't noticed him enter, when suddenly she waved him over, gesturing for him to join her.
"So this is where you've been disappearing to" Harry said casually, politely refusing an offering of food from an elf, saying he had already filled himself at lunch.
The house-elves seemed to take pride in the fact that they had already taking care of his needs, well in advance of his arrival.
"Oh yeah" said Yoruichi. "Elves are some of my favorite magical creatures. They could stand to loosen up a little though."
The praise certainly pleased the elves as Harry noticed them beaming with pride, a few even had tears in their eyes. Though her 'loosen up' comment made Harry suspect that if she could Yoruichi would side with Hermione on house-elf civil rights.
"So what's on your mind?" she asked, already guessing that Harry sought her out for a reason.
"I was wondering, if you'd train me" Harry asked. He hadn't forgotten that he wasn't powerful enough to defeat the Menos Grande, if Hollows that powerful existed he needed to get stronger.
"You know you really shouldn't feel bad about the Menos" said Yoruichi, having guessed what was bothering Harry. "Gillians like that are strong enough to challenge Lieutenant class Soul Reapers. At your peak you're a fourth maybe third seat at best."
"Gillians? I thought it was called a Menos Grande?"
"Sorry, Menos Grande is just the umbrella term for high class Hollows and are further categorized into three classes."
Yoruichi then explained just what a Menos was. Menos are created when an ordinary Hollow's hunger grows so large Human souls aren't enough, at which point it begins devouring its' fellow Hollows. Drawn together by this mutual desire to consume each other, they eventually meld together to form a Gillian; the lowest class of Menos. The class that Harry had run into the night he first saw Yoruichi's human form.
What was truly frightening was that there were still two other classes beyond Gillian. The second class was called Adjuchas. Smaller than the Gillian class, more intelligent, much fewer in number, and vastly more powerful making them a challenge for even high level Soul Reapers.
Finally, the highest class the Vasto Lorde; roughly the same size as a human, extremely rare, and possess powers said to be above that of even the Soul Reaper captains.
Harry hated to admit it but the thought that creatures like that existed frightened.
"Thing is, Menos rarely leave Hueco Mundo: the world of the Hollows" said Yoruichi. "So you can see why, we're interested to find out what could've drawn a Gillian."
"Which is why I have to get stronger" Harry urged. "I don't know what's going on but if something's attracting the stronger Hollows, I want to, need to be able to do something."
For a moment, Yoruichi felt like she was talking to Ichigo, it seemed he and Harry both had a 'saving people' thing.
"Fine I'll train you" said Yoruichi. "I'll warn you now, I'm not an easy teacher."
"I'll handle it" said Harry.
Their conversation was then interrupted as the kitchen door opened revealing, Ron and Hermione. Harry had been so focused on their talk he hadn't noticed how much time had gone by.
"Harry? Yoruichi?" said Hermione, surprised to find them there. "What're you doing here?"
"Well I'm getting a bit to eat and he's asking for lessons" said Yoruichi, jerking her thumb at Harry, while she returned to her meal.
"Yoruichi's agreed to train me" Harry explained. "What're you doing here, Hermione?"
"I came to check on Winky" she replied.
"And she dragged me along" Ron added.
"Winky's here?"
That was when Dobby decided to literally pop in, having chosen to keep his distance while the two Soul Reapers were talking.
"Yes sir, Soul Reaper Harry Potter" said Dobby.
"Hey Dobby" Harry greeted happily.
Hermione had told Harry how the kitchen house-elves had been giving Dobby a hard time due to his free status and that he was getting paid. Those same elves were now staring at him in awe, unable to believe that one the deemed an embarrassment was being treated as an equal by something as illustrious as a Soul Reaper.
To the watching elves amazement, Harry let Dobby lead him by the hand towards the back of the kitchen, stopping in front of a brick fireplace.
"Winky, sir!" said Dobby, pointing to where the elf in question was sitting on a stool by the fire, drinking a butter beer.
Freedom clearly wasn't doing Winky as much good as it did Dobby. Her clothes were unkempt marred with soup stains and burns.
"Hello, Winky" said Harry.
"Harry Potter, sir" Winky slurred, before breaking into tears" "I sorry sir, that you be having to see such a pathetic disgrace of a house-elf. Winky is nothing but a failure to Mr. Crouch, her beloved master, and she let, she let, Winky cannot be saying but she failed Mr. Crouch."
"Would Harry Potter and friends like a cup of tea?" Dobby squeaked loudly, over Winky's drunken sobbing.
"Yeah sure" said Ron, as Harry was occupied with the crying drunk house-elf.
Instantly, about six house-elves came up from behind, each bearing a large silver tray laden with cups for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a milk jug, and a large plate of biscuits.
"Good service!" said an impressed Ron.
Hermione frowned at him, but the elves all looked delighted; they bowed very low and retreated.
"How long has Winky been here, Dobby?" asked Harry, as the house-elf handed around the tea.
"Only a week, Harry Potter, sir!" said Dobby. "It is very difficult for a house-elf who has been dismissed to get a new position, sir, very difficult."
At this, Winky howled, as she started crying even harder.
"Dobby has been working at Hogwarts since summer" Dobby said happily, though his friends already guessed as much given his presence at the school during the Fullbringer incident. "So when Dobby finds out Winky has been freed too, I bring her to Prof. Dumbledore, sir, and Prof. Dumbledore took her on!"
At this point it was getting difficult to hear Dobby over Winky's tears had stopped for the moment as she returned to her drunken ramblings, going on about how she was a disgrace, and wondering how Crouch could possibly survive without her help.
"Winky" Hermione said firmly. "I'm quite sure Mr. Crouch is getting along just fine without you. We've seen him, you know…"
"You is seeing my master?" Winky slurred, her head bobbing as she struggled to remain sitting up. "You is seeing him here at Hogwarts?"
Dobby quietly explained that Winky was having trouble accepting that she wasn't bound to Mr. Crouch anymore, thus all the crying and drinking. Apparently butter beer had enough alcohol in it to effect an elf.
"Yes, he and Mr. Bagman are judges in the Triwizard Tournament." Hermione explained.
Mr. Bagman comes too?" To their surprise Winky suddenly appeared angry at the mention of the other Ministry representative. "Mr. Bagman is a bad wizard! A very bad wizard! My master isn't liking him, oh no, not at all!"
"Bagman, bad?" asked Harry.
"Oh yes," said Winky, her drunken state fueling her anger. "My master is telling Winky some things! But Winky is not saying…Winky-Winky keeps her master's secrets."
It was finally too much for Winky as she fell off her stool, landing gently on the floor thanks to some last minute intervention from Dobby, before being carried away by some very embarrassed looking elves.
With Winky being taken cared of for the moment, Dobby started chatting happily about what he planned to do now that he was free.
"Dobby is going to buy a sweater next, Harry Potter" he said happily, pointing to his bare chest.
"Tell you what, Dobby" said Ron, who had taken a liking to the elf. "I'll give the one my mom knits me this Christmas; I always get one from her. You don't mind maroon, do you?"
Dobby was delighted.
"We might have to shrink it a bit to fit you" Ron told him. "But it'll look great on you. Besides I owe you for getting us to Harry this past summer."
As they prepared to take their leave, Yoruichi mentioned that she'd meet Harry later about when they'd begin their training. Dobby walked them out as he had a small request of his own to make.
"Harry Potter…can Dobby come and see you sometimes, sir?" he asked tentatively. Harry was surprised by the request given that he knew Dobby would visit Hermione from time to time, as the house-elves' representative in S.O.M.E.
Now that I think about it, I've never actually seen Dobby outside of an emergency. "Of course you can" said Harry, and Dobby beamed.
"So how long have you known, Winky was here?" asked Harry, as they started to walk back to the common room.
"Not long, Dobby told me about it at our last meeting to discuss how to help abused house-elves" Hermione explained. "I hope Dobby can show her how much better off she is away from Crouch."
"She seems to love him" Ron said thickly, having started on a cream cake an elf had given him as they left the kitchen.
"Doesn't think much of Bagman though, does she?" said Harry. "Wonder what Crouch says at home about him?"
"Probably says he's not very good at his job" said Hermione. "And let's face it…he's got a point."
"I'd still rather work for him than old Crouch" said Ron. "At least Bagman's got a sense of humor."
"Don't let Percy hear you saying that" said Hermione, smiling slightly.
"Yeah well, Percy wouldn't want to work for anyone with a sense of humor, would he? Percy wouldn't recognize a joke if it danced naked in front of him wearing tea cozy."
