Chapter 3
Harry's eyes widened as #12 Grimmauld place materialized. The old brickwork building seemed to push the space, the very air around it. The muggles that occupied the buildings on either side didn't even notice.
After the initial shock of watching the house push itself into existence Harry really looked at it; noticing that the masonry was black and sooty, it stood four stories tall, grungy windows looking down at him.
Before any questions could form themselves into words Mad-eye was pushing him across the street. Lupin went ahead and tapped the battered wooden door. The black paint was peeling off of it. In the middle was a tarnished silver snake door knocker. This is where Lupin placed the tip of his wand. Harry heard multiple metallic clunks from behind the door accompanied by the sound of a chain. Harry imagined a large snake uncoiling. He shook his head, a scowl on his face.
The sounds ceased and the door creaked open. Harry was led into a dimly lit hallway. He looked around, assessing these unknown surroundings. He did not like what he was seeing at all.
Harry had stopped once he was inside and something bumped into him. He startled and spun around. The stranger's head was at his waist level, it was creepy how the boy was just floating there, lifeless. Mrs. Weasley's, tired face was illuminated by wandlight before she folded Harry into a hug instantly. "You look famished Harry darling! Unfortunately you'll have to wait upstairs with the others." She whispered, pulling back and looking over his shoulders. "Perfect timing, he's just arrived…" she trailed off, because it was just then that she noticed the unknown boy hovering behind Harry. Her eyes widened and then narrowed. Harry wished he could slip away. "And what is this?"
The adults shifted, hesitant to explain. Lupin sighed and stepped forward. As he explained, also entirely in a whisper, Harry saw some of the others roll their eyes. One whose name Harry couldn't quite remember stated, "well if we didn't have to obliviate him before we sure will now."
When Lupin was finished Molly put her hands on her hips. "Really Alastor? He's just a child!" Moody grunted and pushed past them all. Molly's shoulders slumped, "At least Dumbledore will know what to do with him."
"Who Moody?" Tonks snickered and began to lead the procession on down the hall, interrupted by a sudden crashing sound. Tonks lay sprawled on the floor, her legs and cloak tangled up in an ugly grotesque….thing. Harry couldn't quite tell what it was. The color was grey, the texture was wrinkled and the shape was indiscernible. He thought that maybe it was an umbrella stand. Silence rang loud after the deafening crash and everyone, including Harry, though he didn't know why, held their breath. As if waiting for something. After a couple of moments when nothing jumped out of the shadows and screamed "boo!" Harry began breathing again. Tonks began apologizing and surprisingly her hair had turned a deep red to match her face.
Harry went to follow Lupin when Molly caught him, "No honey, I'm sorry you can't come with us, order members only, you don't want to listen to a bunch of old folks waffling on. Besides Hermione and Ron are waiting upstairs for you. I'm sure you've missed them. They've missed you terribly. Go on, 2nd landing first door on the left."
Harry had clenched his fists, the old anger returning. He needed to speak with Dumbledore. Now. He opened his mouth to say as much. Molly simply shushed him and ushered him up the stairs. He began to stomp his way up them, this new indignation fresh in his mind when he heard another whisper behind him.
"Oh and Harry," he looked down at her and maybe it was the different angle that the stairs offered him, but for the first time since seeing her Harry noticed that Molly Weasley looked thinner, a little grayer than she had been.
"Yes?" he tried not to let his voice betray his irritation.
"Please be quiet in the hallways."
"Why?"
She had begun to walk away, but turned slightly at his inquiry. "Don't want to wake anything up."
BREAKBREAKBREAK
The strange boy with the orange hair levitated over the table, oblivious to the world. Around him the members of the order of the phoenix argued. Voices drowned each other out. Fingers were being pointed and no sense could be made out of the jumble of sound. There was an undertone of fear which never seemed to leave their midst.
Dumbledore sat quietly and studied this being that Alastor claimed was not human, contemplating over his steepled fingers. He calmly withdrew his wand from the sleeve of his navy blue robes. He began muttering to himself, prodding the boy at random intervals and in seemingly arbitrary places. Twice on his head, once on his forehead, chest and stomach, twice on each hand. A small frown creased his own forehead, though his blue eyes never once stopped twinkling.
Slowly the others noticed and by the time Dumbledore leaned back in his chair with a perplexed smile on his face the room was quiet.
Moody had his arms crossed and the usual scowl on his face one eye was looking at Dumbledore, but his magical one was trained on the boy. Lupin shifted from foot to foot, then decided to sit down. Snape sat next to Dumbledore, straight as a rod, eyeing the group with disdain. No one could read his face. He hadn't spoken yet either. Molly was red in the face and Arthur stood next to her wringing his hands. Dumbledore, however, said nothing for quite a few moments. He simply sat there, tapping each individual finger on his left hand with his wand absentmindedly.
Snape opened his mouth, "this muggle boy has no relevance to this meeting and is of little consequence-"
"Oh but he is," Dumbledore's soft voice interrupted. Everyone's eyes snapped immediately back to him, "Alastor is correct. This boy is not human."
Mouths dropped all over the room and Moody smirked.
"W-well what is he then?" Molly stuttered out. Dumbledore leaned forward once again.
"I don't know."
A thoughtful look came over Snape's face, but no one seemed to notice it.
"Why not?" someone else asked.
Dumbledore sighed, "because none of my diagnostic spells appeared to work on him at all."
"That's the problem we had with the disillusionment charm!" Tonks exclaimed.
Many of the order members had puzzled looks upon their faces.
"Then what should we do with him?"
"I have an inkling," Snape stood up and silence fell almost instantly. He fought the smirk that wanted to show itself at the fact that he struck almost the same amount of terror in these adults that he did in his students. "One of the topics of this meeting, besides discussing the prophecy and the fact that the dark lord still wants very much so to get his hands on it, is; the other night two death eaters scouting the perimeter of the dark lord's lair had stumbled across two unconscious muggles, that's what they thought at least. However when they performed the avadra kadavra curse…" multiple people around the room cringed, "the two men remained alive." There were gasps from everyone save Dumbledore. "We brought them before the dark lord, who seemed very interested. He had them shackled…" whispering had broken out around the room, Snape continued unhindered, "when they woke they broke from their chains with no visible effort. They dodged the spells that were cast at them easily, and when a stunning spell grazed ones arm its effect lasted for less than a minute." The audience listened in silent horror as Snape went on. Dumbledore's eyes had lost some of their twinkle, "the Dark lord has made an alliance with these creatures, for they did say that they were not human, though they refused to name what they were, save for repeating some foreign word… shinego… shina-"
"Shinigami." Dumbledore whispered, though everyone heard him clearly.
"What does that mean?" Lupin asked, for a knowing look had passed over the old man's grandfatherly face.
Dumbledore waved the question away and signaled Snape, who had a sour look on his face for being interrupted, "they introduced themselves as Geen Eecheemoroo and Sosooka Aeezin." Dumbledore cringed, very slightly, at his pronunciation of the names.
"And you say they have allied with Voledemort?" Sirius asked, ignoring the wizards and witched around him who flinched.
Snape raised his lips in a disgusted snarl, "yes that is what I said."
"Dumbledore do you think that this boy is one of those… shini-things?"
"I could not say, but we have other business to attend to," he prompted Snape once again to finish his report.
"The Dark Lord is still very much interested in the prophecy. He believes that whatever knowledge it holds will help him win." Snape went on, over viewing things that the gathered members already knew, the precautions and the protections around the prophecy. The moves that Voldemort was going through to get it. No one looked at Snape as he spoke, their eyes were on Dumbledore, the same question written on their faces.
What did the prophecy say?"
They all knew only the bare minimum, that the prophecy was about Harry Potter and You-know-who but Dumbledore chose not to share the contents. There was no doubt in any members' mind that he did indeed know. There was a short discussion on what they could to beef up defenses though little effort was put into it. Frustration was almost tangible. At the end Dumbledore stood up and straightened the brim of his hat, walking towards the fireplace. "I know you have plenty of mouths to feed Molly, so I will leave you too it…"
"Wait! What are we supposed to do about the boy?" Arthur asked, "You just told us that he wasn't human!"
"Not that we could shackle him, if he is indeed similar to the two men we found." Snape replied snidely.
Molly bristled instantly. "We will not be tying this boy up, no matter what he is. Really we'd be no better than the death eaters!"
"Dear," Arthur cleared his throat, but Lupin interrupted.
` "We will put him in an empty room away from the other children and simply put a locking charm and an alarm on the door."
Dumbledore nodded in approval and gave Molly a smile, "I'm sure your hospitality will be to his liking." He turned to Moody. "You will need to stay here, around the boy, just in case."
Sirius snorted, "as if we couldn't handle it." He muttered just loud enough for everyone to hear.
But Dumbledore made no sign as to having heard the animagus. He bid his fair wells and with a swirl of his cloak and green fire he was gone.
BREAKBREAKBREAK
The party of uninjured soldiers' shunpo-ed through the dangai, moving swiftly despite the kouryus absence for Aizen was heavy on their minds. Led by Yamamoto, who simply ignored the severity of his burns. There were less able bodies than what the captain commander had hoped for, and Unohana had stayed behind to continue her work, though she had send her lieutenant.
In a flash of light they stood in the skies above Karakura town with swords drawn, bankai's released and battle ready.
But there was no battle ground waiting below them. There was no smell of blood and no sound of screams. There was no spiritual pressure besides their own.
The mortals ran their lives as they did every day. Unaware of the battle that was supposed to be being fought over their souls right now.
Caught off guard and unbalanced Yamamoto was silent.
"Sir," his first lieutenant stepped up to him, "Orders?" the rest of the shinigami stood around him.
He barked out orders, regaining himself, a search party was formed in case this was one of Aizen's tricks. They disappeared and Yamamoto was left to wait alone. He spread his senses out, attempting to catch a sign of any anomalies.
A few minutes passed until he noticed a body, no three bodies, stoop atop a roof, the tallest one was waving at him. He disappeared from his position only to reappear beside the three people. He had never met them but he knew who they were.
"Captain commander Yamamoto I presume." The largest one said, "how fairs the battle?"
"Yeah, have we won yet?" an obnoxious boy asked loudly. The small girl with the black pigtails stood silently and looked at her feet.
Yamamoto ignored the boy, "we were not fairing well, Aizen had an opportunity to advance to Karakura town."
The loud boy snorted, "He hasn't showed his face here yet, or I would've kicked his ass already!" he pumped his fist in the air.
"Is there anything wrong?"
Yamamoto had narrowed his eyes, scanning the horizon, "I'm not sure yet."
He shunpo-ed back to his position and waited in silence. The three were waving at him again, but he ignored them.
One team returned, slightly out of breath and clutching at their freshly healed wounds.
"There was no sign of him in the eastern quadrant, nor any destruction."
As each team returned they gave similar stories.
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The sky above an older portion of London than where Grimmauld place stood hidden began to distort itself. From this distortion a woman fell, her hair layered and the color of an autumn leaf as if drifts to the ground. What she wore was tattered and foreign to both the time and the place. Her skin was stained with drying blood.
She landed, unconscious, with a dull thud on the sidewalk. Though there were few passer by a couple still dared the light drizzle. None of them seemed to notice the unconscious woman. They passed her by with their heads down and their umbrellas up.
Down the street from the woman two girls turned the corner. No one responded to one's bright hello, no one said excuse me when they splashed the shorter one with rain water. They passed almost as ghosts down the walk.
One skipped along, her brown skirt already soaked through. Her dark shoulder length hair seemed to gleam purple under the street lamps. The yellow ribbon she wore in her ponytail flowed behind her like a beacon for the other, shorter girl to follow. This one's hair was long and had multiple layers, the rain darkened the sun ray blonde and held down the curls. Her attire was more old fashioned.
Both girls' eyes landed on the blood and rain soaked woman at the same moment, and they shared a secret sort of smile.