Chapter 6:

"I would like to offer you a specialized foreign exchange scholarship to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, of which I am the headmaster." Dumbledore continued to smile through the chaos that this one statement created.

Ichigo had to wait for the cacophony to die down before he could respond

"I'm sorry what?" Ichigo finally choked out after a moment of biting his tongue so hard that it bled and clutching his sides as if that would help him hold the laughter in.

"(Would it help if I repeated myself in Japanese?)" Screw Yamamoto's constant scowl, this old man with his open smile and perpetually twinkling gaze was much trickier to handle. For a moment Ichigo was simply at a loss for words.

"Not really." He sighed and plopped down in a chair, leaning back and propping his feet up out of sheer habit. Molly flicked her wand lazily and his feet flew from the table. He tottered for a moment, flailing his arms before righting himself.

Lupin turned to the old man imploringly. "Dumbledore, I really believe we should discuss this before-"

"Whatever for? There is nothing to discuss!" He seemed pleased with himself. "Well Ichigo, do you accept this invitation?"

Ichigo focusing on the table for a moment. The laughter had spoiled in his gut. The rest of the group waited with baited breath, and he could feel their uncertainty. But the boy had other things to worry about, other things to consider. Like if he had a choice in this matter at all. Ichigo was hesitant to bring this up. Throughout the day he had tried to find an opening to slip away, but there had not been one. In the room with the strange little blue creatures he had tested a window and felt a strong resistance, much like the room where he had first woken up, but stronger, something he could not break by simply flexing his reitsu, which was still difficult to gather. Of course he could have tried, but Ichigo didn't want anyone to get hurt, these people didn't seem bad. But that didn't change the fact that, despite all pretenses, Ichigo felt as if he were a prisoner here.

And what of his own world? For the majority of the day Ichigo had been able to keep thoughts of Aizen and his father from his mind but now they struggled to the surface. He attempted to beat them down along with the feeling that he needed to get out of here, he need to run, but it would be pointless right now, to get lost in a foreign country, in a foreign world. These people, these "wizards" might be able to help him. Once he felt he could trust them.

He looked up at Dumbledore, realizing with a start that the old man had been waiting quite patiently, for an answer.

"I thought you said we had other things to discuss." Ichigo played for time, still having a hard time imagining himself in a school for young witches and wizards. It's not like he had even been to Shinigami School.

"All in good time my boy, all in good time."

"And what if I were to say no?" Ichigo stated this as nonchalantly as he could.

Dumbledore seemed unruffled by this however and responded in the same light tone as before, "well that is of course your choice entirely, that's why I asked. I would just think that wandering around this house with no one to talk to for hours on end wouldn't quite be something a young man such as yourself would enjoy too thoroughly, though I myself do enjoy a good silent wander every now and again." Ichigo could feel the tension in the room grow, and he fought not to rise to this, to play it just as calm as this old man. Ichigo rolled some choice words around in his mouth, along with many questions, deciding to swallow them for now. Whatever was going on here the old man would not be forthcoming with information, but Ichigo could play that game too. And the boy understood that people had their secrets, he just knew that not all secrets were safe to keep. Some secrets could be deadly.

Ichigo stretched his arms up and yawned, "Fine, sure, whatever. It might even be interesting."

"I'm very glad to hear that." With that Ichigo knew that he had accepted the old man's challenge.

BREAKBREAKBREAK

Finally Harry had a free moment with Ron and Hermione away from others listening ears. It was the one and only reason he was grateful for missing the order meeting.

"So who do you think that guy was?" Ron asked after Harry had finished recounting everything that had happened at the ministry.

"I think the more important question would be what he is." Hermione was pacing the room. Harry's leg was twitching from just watching her.

"I don't know. It was just so weird. He seemed really… nice actually. But there was still something off about him." Harry shivered at the memory of the man's eyes on him. "What I want to know is," Harry continued, trying to chase away the chill with more anger (this was beginning to be a bad habit for him) "Is what's wrong is Dumbledore right now?"

Ron and Hermione shared a look, "well Harry he is really busy with all the order stuff, and outside the order stuff." Ron started.

"Yes and it must be very stressful to go from being considered one of the greatest wizards of our time to being thought of as crazy."

Harry clenched his fists. "Yeah I wonder what that feels like. Hermione will you STOP PACING?" He struggled to keep the volume of his voice under control, his last outburst had woken Sirius's mother.

"Anyway 'Mione," Ron spoke jovially, which did not fit the situation at all and just served to intensify the awkwardness. "What d'ya reckon huh?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" The girl had thrown herself in the moth eaten chair. "I don't know what's wrong with the headmaster! I don't know who this Japanese diplomat is or why he was with Lucius. I don't know what Ichigo is!" She was breathing heavily, though ever thoughtful, had been sure not to raise her voice.

Harry and Ron, both speechless, were saved the necessity of responding by Ginny who had poked her head into the room. "You ladies having a cat fight?" Not waiting for a reply she continued, "Come out into the hall and be quiet." She emphasized the last bit.

"You're starting to sound more and more like Fred and George." Ron grumbled.

"And that's a bad thing?" Ginny's smile was the one thing that was able to list Harry's mood, if only slightly.

At the end of the hall where the stairway began sat the twins. Each had an identical evil smile upon their features and was holding out flesh colored strings with buds on the end. The strings unraveled down the stairwell and out of sight. "Don't worry-"

"You haven't missed much."

"Gross what are these?" Hermione took the one they had offered her and held it at arm's length between her forefinger and thumb.

"Extendable ears." Ginny supplied and the three of them placed the buds. Harry shrugged and did the same. Instantly as Moody's voice as clear as if he were standing right next to Harry sounded. The boy almost jumped and turned.

"-the boy helped Molly clean, but his attitude was too weary, to keen, to be innocent-"

"They're just reporting on Ichigo to Dumbledore right now." George sighed.

"These are amazing!" Ron exclaimed. Harry had a wide smile on his face as well, the movement pulling at his skin as if it were dry and he wondered at how little he had been using this facial expression as of late.

"Yes indeed, quite impressive."

"Why thank you-"

"-they're gonna be a part of our- "

"Shop." The twins looked pleased with themselves as Lupin's voice replaced Moody's.

"Why didn't we do this the other night?" Harry asked. His small twinge of irritation did little to negate his current elation.

"Not that we would have been able to sneak around after that boy showed up."

"Yeah and we couldn't." Fred added.

"Mum found out about these-"

"-And boy did we get an earful!"

"So she confiscated the ones she was able to find." They paused to snicker.

"Well, anyway, Mum still knows us too well."

"Quite a wonderful woman really, when she's not yelling at us-"

"-So she's been casting a imperturbable charm on the door most nights."

"Today was so busy she must have forgotten." Ginny finished.

Harry had so many questions but the excitement running through his veins tied up his tongue.

"OOOH! Hush hush!" Hermione was waving her hand and they all fell silent, their eyes trained down the stairs as if they would be able to see through the wall by sheer will.

BREAKBREAKBREAK

Snape stood with the rest of the death eaters awaiting the news that the Dark Lord had called them here for. The room they sat in within the halls of the Malfoy manner was extravagant. The walls were a dark gray stone inlaid with silver intricacies that seemed to shift and move with the dancing candlelight. Ornate tapestries hung from the wall with depictions of epic battles whose origins were legends almost forgotten by time. The tables and chairs were spindly things with curving designs and scales. The colors in the room were all cool green, blues, and grays, even the candles let off a black light that gave off no warmth.

The silence that permeated the room was tangible and Snape wished that it would stay that way, but Bella was on her way, he could already hear her coming to the door. She opened it and in walked Bellatrix and Narcissa. The former was complaining loudly about the two "foreigners" as many of the death eaters had now taken to calling them, and how they were getting too close to her Dark Lord. Narcissa as always was silent and watchful. Snape met her eyes before both of them turned. Bella's incessant yammer had broken through the tension that was always present before a gathering and the others muttered amongst themselves.

A deeper silence fell than that of before as Voldemort swept into the room, his robes billowing around him in a move Snape felt he should have sole rights too. Yet it served the same purpose that it did whenever Snape entered a room full of cowering students and all eyes trained onto him. The man known as Aizen followed behind him, entering with less grandeur but with just as much, if not more poise. The man oozed of confidence and power, it radiated off of him, and though many of the death eaters could not consider the foreigners much more than muggles they still eyed him wearily. The other was nowhere to be seen, and Snape logged this information away.

Without being prompted, save for a red eyed glance, a masked figure stepped forth and began speaking of the prophecy that was still locked within the walls of the department of mysteries. How they were still trying to figure out what room it was even in, and how to get there, but the revolving floor and ever changing doors prevented too much exploration at this time. Snape sighed inwardly, Voldemort was being just as cryptic about this prophecy as Dumbledore was. When the man was done speaking Voldemort hissed and the entirety of the room flinched as one. But to everyone's surprise the hiss had turned into a high pitched laugh.

"The prophecy at this moment is of little consequence, I do still wisssshhh for it, but I no longer need it," He gestured to Aizen who had been watching the proceedings with a cool calculating gaze, as emotionless as it was steadfast. "Our new … friendsssss have some interesting ideas to share with usssss, A new item that he has requested our help to find. An item of immense power, power that they are willing to sssshhhhare of courssssse." Here Voldemort's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, but Snape had trained himself to notice these things. So the Dark Lord did not place full trust in these foreigner's either." They alssso have interrogation methodssss they wish to use to our benefit. .." The Dark Lord continued to speak, and Snape dedicated it all too memory, his blood growing colder with each word. The Order had thought Voldemort to be bad alone, but this man, this Sosuke Aizen, had not only given the Dark Lord new material, new concepts to work with, but had changed their game plans, and end game as well. Snape pulled on every ounce of training he had to stay calm and collected.

No one else spoke, this was not like an order meeting, where every member had a say, and Snape could see some of the other's twitching with the new information. There were some, Like Bellatrix, who looked excited by these new renovations however.

Before they were dismissed Voldemort called for Severus to step forward. "You know what information to feed to Dumbledore and his merry band?" Snape did not want to raise his gaze, he could feel his mental defenses wavering under all the pressure, but he knew he must. The Dark Lord's probing was always painful, and left a dark tainted feeling between his thoughts. These were things Snape had been forced to grow used too, but today seemed especially horrible. The Dark Lord's eyes seemed a deeper red, as if his new depths of evil had been manifested within his gaze.

"Good, you are disssmissssed." The sound of cloaks whipping around was all that was heard before the room was emptied, before Snape left the room he chanced a glance back, Voldemort was already walking from the room, but Aizen stood, his steady eyes boring into Snape's own. The potions professor suppressed a shudder and continued out. He walked at a slower pace than normal, he now had an order meeting to attend, but he did not want to be the bearer of bad news, as he always was. He exited the Malfoy manner and took the back alleys. He stopped in one that smelled much worse, behind a burcher's shop, the sharp metallic tang of blood mingled with the too sweet sickening smell of decay and rot to create a spot no muggle, or hopefully wizard with prying eyes would venture. Too bad that didn't include insurance against shinigami. He was about to start a fire, floo powder ready and in hand, when he spun, eyes scanning the shadows.

"Ooooh what a terrifying glare." A white robe formed from the shadows as if made of mist and out stepped the creature known as Gin Ichimaru. His white blonde hair that could rival the Malfoy legacy shone under the crescent moon's light, and the edge of his smile was as sharp as an assassin's blade.

"What do you want?" Snape bit out, cutting off another statement saturated in sarcasm from him.

"Come now, no need to be rude, we are allies aren't we?" His question seemed double edged and Snape didn't dine to answer. "I was just curious about all the double agent stuff you're up too, I love betrayal in any form, I was hoping for some juicy details." He took another step closer, but Snape did not back away, though his legs itched from the effort it took to not.

"All details I share with the Dark Lord and no one else, if he chooses to share with you, that is his business."

An indescribable look passed over the other man's face. But was gone before Snape could name it. "We should have more talks like this, I do rather enjoy them, have fun at your good guy meeting!" and with that the man was gone, leaving Snape with more questions than before about these foreigners, these "shinigami."