Chapter 33
Because they still hadn't seen Hermione, Harry was forced to wear gloves all throughout dinner. Late that night there was a soft knock at the door which turned out to be Hermione. She walked in talking about the tour, but as soon as the door was closed along with the shades she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Harry's hands.
The bandages fell off to reveal Harry's pink fingers. Hermione did a complicated wave with her wand and the skin started to turn back to Harry's normal color. To make sure she had fixed it he poked his skin. No blood poured out but it still hurt.
"Thanks." Hermione smiled and turned back to the door, when she reached it she started talking about the tour again and walked back down the hall.
Kagome stayed in the corner staring out the window.
"Hey, what's the matter?" Harry said walking over to her. He was taken aback when he saw tears rolling down her face.
"Its, just I can't do anything can I?" She moved away from the window and lay face down on the bed. Harry moved to sit next to her as she cried into the pillow. "I spent hours trying to fix your hands and she, she comes in and fixes it in seconds." Kagome started to rant getting angrier and angrier. She froze when arms moved around her waist and shoulders.
Harry said nothing but held her tightly, within seconds Kagome was calm under his touch.
"She didn't do much, all she did was thicken my skin, you were the one who made it grow back." Harry whispered, after that the pair stayed silent, quietly falling asleep enjoying having the company.
When Kagome woke the next morning she saw Harry and Shippo eating and watching cartoons on the television. When she got up and saw what they were eating, and knew in an instant why Shippo loved Harry more than Inuyasha. It seemed the pair had gone early to the breakfast the hotel provided, and got everything and anything covered in sugar.
Harry glanced sheepishly up at Kagome as Shippo started to grab for another doughnut.
"Whatever, I don't care, just remember he's" she pointed at Shippo, "your responsibility for the day." Harry only smiled back, grateful he hadn't gotten yelled at.
As Kagome walked to the bathroom to get ready for her shower she looked back to see the two boys arguing over which superhero was greater on the show they were watching. It was then Kagome knew the answer to her decision.
Most of the rest of the day was spent on the bus, half way through the day, however, all chaos broke loose. Harry was trying his hardest to get Shippo to calm down on the way to the bus, but the sugar high had kicked in. It was only until Harry challenged the Kitsune to a coloring contest did the demon settle down. When Shippo was scribbling with all his might Harry mouthed a 'thank you' to Kagome, for she provided the coloring books, over Shippo's head. Midway through his fourth picture Shippo dropped his crayon and fell face first into his drawing. Harry started to panic but Kagome only laughed.
"I was wondering how long it would take." She said, as Harry frantically tried to revive the kit. When the other passengers started to stare she looked up and said "Sugar rush." All the mothers nodded in recognition.
"You knew this was going to happen?" Harry looked up at her.
"Yeah, but I didn't think he would last this long. I figured he would pass out right before we boarded the bus but you guys must have pigged out more than I thought." She laughed at him. He only stuck his tongue at her and went back to his coloring.
Yes I'll have to tell him soon, I'm going to miss smiling like this. Kagome thought sadly.
The real problem came later, when they were crossing a giant field on their way to some town in the north. Harry, Kagome and Shippo knew nothing of what happened but the bus before him was in an uproar.
It seemed Inuyasha with his superior hearing abilities overheard some guy asking Ron and Koga who the girl was sharing a room with Harry. Before waiting to think about how this boy knew about Harry and without remembering he had come on with Koga saying he was Koga's brother, Inuyasha turned and yelled at the young man who dared to threaten Kagome.
The boy of course was Chi and being a king of anything makes you a tad bit more confident than other normal people. Chi didn't feel the need to yell back at Inuyasha he just raised a fist and punched the hanyou across the face.
Subsequently both groups were kicked off the bus and Harry and Kagome were forced to watch them as the bus drove past, Shippo was still sleeping off his sugar. Before knowing what she was doing Kagome grabbed Harry's face and started to make out with him like there was no tomorrow.
Mutterings cropped up all around them, until the original wish of Kagome's plan was achieved. The bus slowed to a stop and the tour guide walked back and kindly told them if they weren't going to pay attention to the trip then they would have to leave.
Kagome put on a wonderful show of being apologetic and embarrassed and she cleaned up Shippo's coloring things all the while saying she was sorry and telling Harry to get the bags down.
When Harry was at the front of the bus, just as he was getting off, he swore he heard somebody whispering.
"I bet that's how they had the first one." Harry was able to make it out of the bus and waited until it drove past until he burst out laughing. Kagome looked at him in surprise until he told her what he heard. She then burst out laughing and they had to clutch onto one another before they fell over.
"You mind telling me how you two got off that bus?" Inuyasha said standing over them, the laughing took the better of the two they fell over.
"Oh, Harry picked a fight with a biker about twice his size, and I was just telling him how funny it would be to see that fight." Kagome said wheezing out the last few words. At this Harry stopped laughing and glared at his companion. By that time the rest of the others had caught up with Inuyasha as he was helping Kagome up. The hanyou turned and grabbed Kagome's bag and then turned his back on Harry. Ron helped his friend up and Harry turned back to catch his bag. They all thought the best thing would be to set up the tent and decide what to do next. Kagome and Hermione had a fun time watching a few of the boys try and set up the tent, but because Inuyasha hated Harry, and Koga hated Ron the progress was slow.
After about two hours the boys finally had the tent up, with no help from the demons mind. Harry walked back to the girls and ask them what they thought.
Hermione tilted her head to the side, "Is that supposed to be an artists interpretation of a tent," the other two tilted their heads as well. Harry had to admit, it did look better that way.
Both Inuyasha and Koga were able to royally lose their tempers and broke a few of the major poles, but they refused to let the wizards fix it so the tent now had a slight dent in the roof and was leaning on one short leg.
All three of them started laughing as they tried to envision what the inside of the tent would be.
"So Kagome where's Shippo?" Harry said still smiling.
Shippo started to come off of his sugar low and woke up from his curled up position under Harry's chair. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes. He looked around for the familiar jeans and sneakers, but when he didn't find them he crawled up on the seat. Both Harry and Kagome were nowhere to be seen so Shippo figured they were probably kissing in the bathroom. He sat down next to the window and started to stare out of it. After a while when the two didn't come back Shippo saw all of their things were gone and he was the only one left. He didn't know what to do exactly. Kagome was gone, Harry was gone and he was in the middle of no where.
Shippo went up to the front of the bus and asked the tour guide where Harry and Kagome were, with tears running down his face.
"Oh you mean you're parents. I can't believe they left without you!" The guide stared raving about leaving children in foreign places and that made Shippo cry even louder.
"Ok, ok, we can let you off but I don't recommend it, there may be some dangerous things out there. Are you going to be ok or do you want to come with us?" She said smiling sweetly at Shippo.
"I wanna get off!" Shippo cried causing a great disturbance. The bus doors opened and Shippo jumped off the few feet to the ground. The area where the bus stopped was a tall grass plain. Shippo started to get afraid as the bus drove past him. He started to hate Harry for taking Kagome away, oh well he was going to have to use his nose to get back.
"Shippo!" A voice called out behind the bus, as it drove away Shippo saw Harry standing there looking at him.
"I knew you would be smart enough to get off that bus." He said smiling at the kit. Shippo ran up and punched Harry as hard as he could in the knee. "OW! What was that for?" Harry said glaring at the kit from his kneeling position on the ground.
"That's for leaving me!" Shippo said glaring at him, then he ran to hug Harry's neck, "and that's for finding me." He said as he clung to the seventeen-year-old.
"C'mon lets go back." Harry said, they started to walk back along the road together.
Shippo soon fell asleep on Harry's shoulders not that the wizard minded, he was happy he was able to apparate to the place where Shippo was. He actually surprised himself when he opened his eyes and saw the dirt flying up from the road the bus was driving on.
After three more hours he was finally able to reach the small campsite the others had set up. When the two of them walked through the tent flap the entire crowd burst into different noises.
Harry set the Kitsune down on one of the beds and then went back to the table. The tent was pretty much the same as it was before, the giant round table next to a kitchen, five doors surrounded the walls, and the ceiling just a little lower.
Harry didn't feel like answering questions and thankfully he didn't because the main topic was what was going to happen after Voldemort/Naraku was destroyed. All Harry had to do was sit back and let the conversation wash over him.
"Oh Harry!" Said Hermione causing him to jump, "I forgot to tell you, Chi asked if when you got back if you would go out and speak with him." Harry nodded wearily, wanting only to sleep, and got up to leave. When he reached the back of the tent Chi was nowhere to be found.
"Chi?" The python slithered next to Harry's feet.
"I can change if you would like," the snake said turning its head to meet Harry's.
"Whatever is best for you." Harry said hoping the snake would change.
"I will stay in my human form from now on, I only changed because I was hungry." Harry was about to ask but then decided against it.
"Um, I was told you wanted to see me?"
"Yes, the Dark Lord mentioned to my father, the previous king, about five other objects when he came to my clan to ask if we would protect the goblet." When Chi started explaining the different objects Harry recognized them to be the different Horcruxses.
"Do you know what the last one was?" Harry questioned. He realized now, he and with the help of the others had now killed off five pieces of Voldemort's soul. Chi watched Harry's face carefully before he made any comment.
"No but the Dark Lord did mention he was close to finding the last object. Now you will tell me how a half-breed like you are able to speak the ancient language of Parseltongue."
Harry had no idea why but he found himself telling Chi everything about his life and history. He left almost none of it blank, and never once did Chi ask a question. The fifteen year old simply stared and listened. At the end Harry felt sad his story was coming to an end, because Chi was such a very good listener.
When Harry finished Chi stared at a spot on the ground. He had a hard time to sympathize with most humans, but this one sitting next to him wasn't asking for sympathy but just for him to listen.
"I cannot say what the last object is, but after hearing your life I may be able to say what it might be. The Dark Lord loved to take items, tokens if you will from his conquests. When my father met with the Dark Lord nearly sixteen years ago he mentioned he was on his way to see, what I believe is, you. When he arrived at your house that night he found his last piece for his soul." Harry looked up when Chi made this last statement.
"You think he took something from my house and turned it into a Horcrux?" Harry asked with a disgusted look on his face. Chi stayed as impassive as ever, still staring at the same spot on the ground. "Where do you think he would hide it though?" Harry wondered. At this Chi's eyes opened wide.
"Harry, I believe I know, give me time." Before Harry answered the snake king was gone. He could hear the king calling over the grass. "Brothers, sisters, I call to you!" There was a scream and then the wind picked up Chi's voice and carried it away.
Harry sat for less than twenty minutes before Chi returned.
"I have informed my brothers and sisters to find the last item and return to me. All we have to do now is wait." Chi seemed to want to only sit against the back of the tent, but he turned to Harry with closed eyes, "Go inside, they're waiting for you." Was the last thing he said before Harry turned and went back. When he was back inside Harry noticed two of the main people were gone.
Before Harry returned from finding Shippo, Kagome took Inuyasha aside and they traveled far away from the encampment. When they were a safe distance away Inuyasha set Kagome down and stood for a while just staring out at the grass.
"This looks just like the ocean," He commented, "The way the wind moves and the grass… What did you want to talk about?" He questioned turning to face her.
"Oh, do we have to do this now? I mean can't it wait for a little while longer?" Inuyasha sensing he knew what Kagome was going to tell him wanted only to prolong their time together.
"Yeah, well, do you know what this reminds me of? The time Mirkou decided he would claim a field as his kingdom." Kagome looked at Inuyasha as he sat down "I don't think we told you that story. Well he got pretty drunk and stumbled out of the place we were staying and found this field, it was there he decided he would live on that spot and become a king. He passed out after deciding where his palace would be put." Kagome laughed at the sight of the monk dreaming of palaces and pretty girls.
"I wonder how he and Sango lived after….after it all." She glanced at Inuyasha.
"Hey don't look at me," the hanyou said as he threw his hands up, "I don't remember a thing after it happened, I just woke up and the time was, well I guess now. No, wait…" He said sitting up, "I do remember something. Just before I woke up I saw you, and your mother, you were in your kitchen and then you fell to the floor, I think you were in pain. And then something went off in your mind and I woke up." Inuyasha stopped. "You were the one who put me to sleep," he said slowly turning to her, "you put a protective shield around me where I stayed for five hundred years, and I would have stayed longer if you hadn't been triggered into waking me up." The half-demon spoke faster and faster, "Kagome I think you're the unspeakable power the prophecy spoke of. You're the one who has to figure out what to do."
Kagome stayed silent for a few moments, she had no idea how to respond to Inuyasha's new statement, it was the same thing Kin had said. Inuyasha knowing he had upset her changed the subject back to their fallen friends.
The conversation was pleasantly forced for a few hours as the two reminisced and thought about Kagome's reason for bringing them both out there. Finally after about three hours Kagome was able to call up her nerve and do what she wanted to do all day.
Inuyasha was taken by surprise when Kagome grabbed him and pulled him into a deep kiss. They hung there for a while until Inuyasha came to his senses and pulled Kagome closer.
Again Kagome knew in her heart where she truly belonged. She brought her arms loser to his neck and refused to let go.
Just sit here with me Inuyasha thought; even if you're going to leave I want to have a good memory, just one last time. His eyes flashed back to the last time he saw Kikyo and how this felt somewhat familiar.
"Inuyasha, I have to tell you my heart lies with-"
A note from your Author: Yup I really got you guys there. I am sure I will finish this before the 7th book comes out!