Chapter Two

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny made their way to the Leaky Cauldron, all four of them loaded with heavy, bulging packages. They had been instructed to meet the new transfer students at the bar. Mrs. Weasley was back at the Burrow preparing the house, Mr. Weasley, the twins, and Charlie all were too wrapped up in work, and Bill and Fleur were on their honeymoon. So, the four were on their own.

They all sat down at a table. When Tom dropped by to ask if they wanted drinks, Hermione had to stop Ron from taking advantage of the fact that he was of age and ordering a Firewhiskey, while Harry hastily ordered four butterbeers. Hermione scanned the room, looking for some kids who might be Japanese or at least someone who looked like they weren't British. No one caught her attention until three teenagers came through the door with a gust of hot summer air. To be truthful, only one actually looked like a stereotypical Japanese student with his black hair and brown eyes. One of his friends was rather short with unusual flame-shaped hair and red eyes. He seemed to have some sort of bandana tied across his forehead. The other one – was it a girl or a boy? The lack of chest pointed to the latter, while the long red hair and effeminate features supported the former.

Hermione elbowed Ron, the person unfortunate enough to be sitting closest to her. "I think that's them." She pointed at the group of new kids. "So that's who they are, huh?" he asked, staring across the room at them.

"Ron, that's rude!" Hermione exclaimed, slapping Ron's hand lightly to emphasize her point. He shrugged sheepishly. "Sorry…"

"Guess I'll go introduce myself to them and bring the lot over here," Hermione informed the table at random.

She pushed back the chair and walked over to where the three transfers were talking to Tom the barman. Hermione ran over their names in her mind, careful not to fumble in her pronunciation. Yusuke Urameshi, Shuichi Minamino, Hiei Jaganshi. Yusuke Urameshi, Shuichi Minamino, Hiei Jaganshi.

Kurama glanced up from his conversation with the barman, who was currently asking how they enjoyed their first taste of England. A teenaged girl with bushy brown hair, perhaps a year or two older than his human self, was walking towards their little party.

"Hiei, Yusuke? I believe that this might be one of our hosts who is approaching. What do you say? Should we go greet her?"

"Sure," Yusuke agreed.

"Hn," was Hiei's affirmative reply.

The three got up and walked towards the quickly approaching girl.

Hermione waited nervously as the three transfer students walked closer to her. As they drew to be several feet away, she nervously asked, "Are you Yusuke Urameshi, Shuichi Minamino, and Hiei Jaganshi?"

The redhead nodded and stepped forward, although he (or was it she?) seemed to be silently laughing at some sort of inside joke. Due to the long hair and feminine facial features compiled with a slender yet masculine body, Hermione was hard pressed to differentiate the line between male and female with this new arrival. Then the person spoke. Oops! Definitely male. "Yes, and hello. I am Shuichi, the one on my right is Yusuke, and the one on my left is Hiei. Who are you, if I may ask? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch your name the first time."

"Oops! Sorry about that; I didn't say. I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione blushed.

Kurama eyed Hermione, finally having gotten over the fact that Jaganshi had somehow been mistaken purposely or accidentally for Hiei's surname. He could tell that it had bugged the little fire youkai as well, though Hiei's expression was hardly different from the normally annoyed look his features were usually set in.

"I take it that you are the person we will be staying with," Kurama stated. He wasn't entirely sure, though. When explaining the mission, Koenma-sama had mentioned that they were staying with a family called the Weasleys; this girl was a Granger.

"No, actually I'm not. You're going to be staying with the Weasleys. My friend Harry and I are staying with them as well, so they sent me to bring you over. Ron and his sister Ginny, the redheads over there, are your hosts." Hermione pointed over towards the table where Harry, Ron, and Ginny were waiting expectantly.

"Well, Ku–Shuichi, it seems like you'll fit in all fine and dandy," Yusuke smirked, directing the comment towards Kurama's unique hair color, although the fox was clearly lacking the trademark Weasley freckles.

"Yusuke," the annoyed kitsune threatened, "Do you really want to die so young?"

"It was just a joke!" he protested, laughing nervously. After seeing a good deal of Kurama in action, Yusuke had learned to treat the fox with as much respect as Hiei in a bad mood. "No harm meant," he apologized, attempting to make amends.

Kurama inclined his head slightly, indicating his acceptance of the apology. Adverting his attention to Hermione, who had become slightly entranced by the strange argument, he asked, "Care to introduce us to your friends?"

She quickly jerked out of her stupor, nervously glancing at him and then at Hiei, whose red gaze was pointedly focused away from the current proceedings and on a scratched up spot of wood on the bar's wall.

It would be uncovered years later that those markings were actually an exact replica only seven millimeters by seven millimeters large of the manuscript of the as of yet unpublished seventh Harry Potter book. This meant that the scratches revealed all the secret futures of Harry Potter and the rest of the wizarding world and could have made the trio's task a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, this was only for Hiei and the author to know.

Hermione led the three tantei over to where Harry, Ron, and Ginny were waiting. "Ron, Ginny, these are the three transfer students from Japan that will be staying at your house."

The introductions began all over again.

"I'm Shuichi Minamino. Pleased to meet you."

"Yo! I'm Yusuke Urameshi."

"…"

Hermione watched as Harry and the rest of the gang stared at Hiei, waiting for his name. In the end, Shuichi sighed and ran a hand through his long red hair. "And this is Hiei. I'm sorry if he's a bit unsociable. He isn't intentionally being impolite."

Kurama resisted the urge to chuckle as Hiei's voice rang through his mind. Are you so sure about that?

Now, it was Harry, Ron, and Ginny's turn to introduce themselves. Kurama eyed the three levelly. So the two redheads were the ones they were staying with? As far as he could tell by sight, both of them seemed to be good kids. Kurama reviewed the teenagers' reiki levels. The red haired boy was nothing special. Neither was his sister, although she did have a tad more reiki than the average wizard. Still, it was nothing compared to even half of Yusuke's energy. Now, the glasses kid had something extraordinary. He had massive amounts of reiki, but it seemed to be sealed behind some sort of barrier. It still was nothing compared to that of any of the Tantei, but it bore investigating all the same.

Kurama's train of thought came careening of the tracks when the boy with the mysterious power began to talk. "Hi, I'm Harry Potter," he paused, as if waiting for some reaction. Receiving none, he continued. "I'm a friend of the Weasley's, so I'm going to be staying with them for the rest of the summer as well." He stopped to allow the boy next to him a turn.

"Ron Weasley here. It's my house your going to be staying at." He stopped, allowing his sister a turn to speak.

"Hi, I'm Ginny Weasley, Ron's little sister. It'll be nice having some new faces around. What year are you in? I'm sixth year, and the other three are seventh."

"Hmm…what year? I think that the toddler said we'd be seventh year," Yusuke replied as he, Hiei, and Shuichi pulled up chairs to the table, which was growing more cramped by the minute.

"Really?" Hermione asked, filing Yusuke's comment away for later reference. Who was this 'toddler' person, anyway? "If you don't mind me saying, you look a bit young to be seventeen."

At this comment, Shuichi laughed. As Hermione was in the process of wondering what was so amusing, he clarified. "That's because we aren't. I'm fifteen, and Yusuke and Hiei are both fourteen. Magical instruction in Japan works a bit differently than that of western schools.

"For example, we start younger, at seven or eight. We also are trained in three areas: mind, body, and spirit. With a sharp mind and fit body, we can use our magical, or spiritual energy to perform wandless magic. It's not as useful for precise little things, but we can generate huge blasts of raw energy or control objects or elements that rest within or specialized area. Because of this achievement, channeling our energy through a amplifying wand is a simple task, placing us on a slightly higher level among your wizards. We do have to be careful not to use too much energy and blow up our wands, though.

"Another difference is in how we are taught. Each student learns at his or her own pace, progressing to new material as soon as they have learned the old. We work free of any restraining or dictating curriculum."

"Wow…" Hermione breathed as Shuichi finished his explanation. Harry, Ron, and Ginny all shared her look of amazement, while Yusuke and Hiei just seemed bored.

"That's amazing!" Ron exclaimed, released from the trance.

"I wouldn't mind transferring to Japan for a year," Harry said. "Your description makes even Hogwarts at its most exciting seem dull."

"No, you wouldn't want to. The teacher's idea of a good education involves putting your through hell," Yusuke informed them seriously. "My sensei made me scale cliff faces, float in the air, and balance on a spike with one finger using only raw rei-magic. It was not a pleasant experience."

Sweat dripped from the faces of the Hogwarts quartet in copious amounts.

"I just noticed something," Ginny realized. "All three of you, although I can't really tell with Hiei, since he hasn't spoken much, speak English better than even some native speakers I know."

"Well, I speak fluent English, having learned it in school. Yusuke and Hiei are using translation potions. They have to drink the concoction every week. The nicest thing, though, is that they can still switch back to Japanese anytime they want to."

"Well," Hermione said, "if were all done here, we'd better get going. I'd better go ask Tom if we can use his fireplace."

She pushed back her chair and went off in search of the old barman. She found him drying some glasses back behind the bar.

"Need to Floo home?" he questioned. "Feel free to use the fire at any time. Need Floo powder?" Hermione nodded. "How many?"

"Seven."

"It'll be two sickles and one Knut for the lot."

"Thanks." She pulled out her purse any began to rummage through it in search of some change. She was startled by a tap on the shoulder. Apparently Shuichi had followed her over.

"I'll pay," he offered.

Hermione began to stutter. "Oh, no! It's fine. You needn't really!"

Kurama assured her that she needn't worry and that he had plenty of money. Truthfully, Koenma had granted them full use of the Reikai treasury for mission expenses only. He had announced this very forcefully when Yusuke had gotten an evil gleam in his eye just thinking about the massive amounts of riches. Of course, if it was a souvenir for Koenma, they were encouraged to spend as much as they wanted to.

He pressed the money into the barman's hand, accepted the pouch of Floo powder (Koenma had explained the concept earlier), and ushered Hermione back to where Ron was scowling in annoyance at Kurama's attentions.

"I believe that Yusuke, Hiei, and I need to run up to our rooms to grab our bags. We'll be down in a moment," Kurama announced. The three took off up the stairs before the Hogwarts lot could offer any protestations.

"What did you think of them, Kurama?" Yusuke questioned in Japanese. "I thought they were trustworthy."

"They seemed to be harmless as far as I could tell," Kurama replied. He hesitated mentioning the strange suppressed reiki he had sensed from the Potter boy. That could wait until they had more time. "Hiei? What do you think?"

"Hn. No weak humans cause me any worry." Kurama knew that Hiei, despite his careless answer, had sensed Potter's reiki, too.

"Well, that settles it," Yusuke concluded cheerfully. "We can trust these guys for now."

The Japanese trio came down the rickety old stairs, each carrying two small bags. Shuichi handed Ron the Floo powder. "I believe that you know our destination a bit better than I do," he said.

It seemed to Hermione that he sounded friendlier and more open than before, if that was possible. Yusuke too seemed to have softened up a bit. Hiei showed no sign of change.

Ron threw a pinch of the pale green powder into the large fireplace. As the flames turned green and leapt to lick the mantelpiece, Ron stepped in, ducking his head lightly, and shouted, voice slightly muffled by the crackling of the fire, "The Burrow!"

Harry and Hermione followed his example, and Hiei, Shuichi, and Yusuke stepped in after them. Ginny had offered to go last, just to make sure every one got to the Burrow okay.

Final Word Count: 2,286

Disclaimer: YuYu Hakusho belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi and all related industries. Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and all related industries. I make no profit off this work of fiction.

Jaganshi is not Hiei's actually last name. It is a title of sorts. By saying "Hiei Jaganshi", Hermione is saying something akin to "Hiei of the Evil Eye/Jagan", even if she doesn't realize it. You can see why Kurama might be amused.

A/N: No, I don't have anything against Kurama (I couldn't! He's one of my favorite characters!). It's just that everyone takes a crack at his appearance in these types of fanfics. It almost seems traditional. I felt I had to do it. I hope the format didn't confuse anyone too much. I kept switching between Kurama and Hermione's 3rd person POVs. To make it easier to tell, I left a larger space between paragraphs when I switched. Another thing that should tip you off is that when one of the Reikai Tantei has the current POV, our favorite kitsune will be referred to as Kurama, but if one of the Hogwarts kids has the POV, he will be called Shuichi. If you need a more obvious marker, just tell me and I'll put one in.

Glossary

Not all have these words have come into commission yet; just check back here for reference.

-chan – Affectionate/familiar honorific used mainly with young girls

Hai – Yes

Makai – Demon World

Ningen – Human(s)

Ningenkai – Human World

Oi - Hey

Okaa-san/Kaa-san – Mother/Mom

Rei - Spirit

Reikai – Spirit World

Reikai Tantei – Spirit Detective(s)

Reiki – Spirit Energy

-san – Respectful honorific, equivalent to Mr/Mrs/Miss

-sama – Respectful honorific, equivalent to Lord/Lady

Tantei – Detective(s)

Youkai – Demon

Youki – Demon Energy