Chapter Seven

Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I'll update, tomorrow! It's only a day away! Sorry, guess all the Annie rehearsals are getting to me.

"What was that all about?" Harry demanded as Hiei, Shuichi, and Yusuke emerged from the empty classroom.

"Yeah!" Ron inserted, his suspicion clear in his voice. "We heard raised voices. Were you all arguing in there, or something?"

"Actually," Shuichi corrected with a nervous chuckle, Hiei and Yusuke watching the other boy warily, "I had received a letter from our old, er, headmaster last night and found it to contain some very important information. I only just remembered, so I had to talk to Yusuke and Hiei immediately. However, we were in slight…disagreement…over the contents of the note."

Hiei snorted contemptuously at this comment. "That's an understatement," he muttered.

In Harry's opinion, it hadn't been necessary to leave the scene; if they had spoken in Japanese, he and Ron wouldn't have been able to understand a word, anyway, unless Shuichi had just considered that speaking in a foreign language in front of their friends was simply impolite. He also noted that throughout the entire hurried explanation, all three of the foreigners staunchly—and suspiciously—refused to meet his eyes, attempting to focus their gaze on anything but his face, including the worn patch of wall behind him.

Before Harry and Ron could continue the interrogation with some of the questions that they were aching to ask, Shuichi wrecked their plans by saying, "Why don't we continue our tour? Unless my watch is wrong, we still have over an hour left."

"Where to, then?" Harry asked wearily, sounding slightly defeated. The mystery of the Japanese exchange students, which no longer seemed as farfetched as Hermione had originally made it out to be, would have to wait until a later date, but it certainly wouldn't be forgotten.

The tour continued on around the castle, but the mood had darkened considerably compared to its start. The change bewildered Harry and Ron, who couldn't fathom what had been contained in the foreign headmaster's letter to have such an effect on his students. Fortunately, the dreadful silence that ensued as they wandered through the quiet and for the most part, empty, halls of Hogwarts was broken by the loud, raucous ringing of the bell indicating that first period had ended and that it was time for students to rush to their next class.

The small group walked with Shuichi to Slytherin's first class of the year, History of Magic. "Er—so I guess we'll leave you here…" Harry was rather hesitant, not entirely sure of the proper way to address the boy after the mysterious incident earlier that day.

Much to his great relief, Shuichi gave a grateful, and even more importantly, genuine smile. "Doumo arigatou," he said graciously. "Thanks a lot."

"Erm, okay," Harry stuttered, stumbling over his own words. Was it truly so surprising that this was the first eye contact that either Shuichi or his two friends had made with Harry or Ron since the previous…occurrence? "Well, see you later—at lunch, I suppose. We're gonna go meet up with Hermione out at the greenhouses now."

"Bye, Yusuke, Hiei, and you, too, Harry and Ron," Shuichi called back, one hand already on Room 230's doorknob.

As the remaining Gryffindors hurried down the hall towards the staircase—they still had two floors and a good deal of lawn to traverse—Harry could have sworn that he heard Shuichi mumble something along the lines of, "Now, as long as Binns-hakase doesn't decide to cover 'Youko Kurama's Grand Theft of Hogwarts!' today, or even more preferably, all year, I should do fine…"

'There's that "Kurama" name again,' Harry thought. 'I should ask Hermione to look him up when she goes to research Horcruxes.' Shaking his head at stupid could-be-leads that refused to leave his brain alone, Harry hurried to catch up with the rest of the gang.

Urameshi Yusuke's first impression of the Herbology greenhouses was, "Kurama would love this."

Six massive glass structures were situated in a neat 3 by 2 rectangle on the precisely trimmed green grass of the lawn. They were systematically labeled from '1' to '6' with large, very visible, white numbers on their doors, emphasized by the predominately green background. This type of classification also seemed to refer to the number of safeguards applied to each. Greenhouse 1, for example, was secured by a simple muggle padlock, if you ignored the anti-alohamora charm placed upon it. It served its purpose against ordinary wizarding children, unless—though Yusuke seriously doubted it—any of them could pick a lock. However, the ominous Greenhouse 6 was covered with everything from, locks, bolts, and chains, to what, for all apparent purposes, seemed to be an invisible, magical shield that was simply crackling with energy. It would appear nonexistent to the majority of the students, but although Yusuke's spirit awareness was obviously no match for Kuwabara's, it was a great deal more finely honed than that of most of his peers.

Behind the clear glass of Greenhouse 6 that was designed for maximum photosynthesis processes, as well as preferable temperature and humidity regulation, a wide variety of flora was visible. Though the landscape was predominately green, the swath of color that cut through it was remarkable. If one were to judge by appearance alone, it would be easy to tell that the greenhouse contained everything from venomous, thorny vines to delicate flowers of healing.

Thus the comment, "Kurama would love this." Unfortunately, Yusuke had made this statement out loud. Fortunately, Yusuke recognized his mistake almost immediately. "Uh, I mean Shuichi would love this!" However, it was still not soon enough to dissuade the questioning looks sent his way by Harry, Ron, and even Hermione.

"Yes," the aforementioned girl agreed, her voice absolutely dripping with liquid suspicion (—Golden Trio's Magical Mix: Drink It, Ladle It, Do As You Wish!—), "Shuichi has proven himself to have quite an affinity for plants, wouldn't you agree, Harry, Ron?"

"Erm, yes, I suppose he has," the two boys echoed disjointedly. Truthfully, they had noticed nothing of the sort, besides the fact that Mrs. Weasley's garden had seemed unusually organized after the other boy's stay.

"The kitsune's personal preferences disregarded, it would appear that Sensei has arrived."

Hiei's short comment brought the curious trio's gazes up to the narrow alley between Greenhouses 5 and 6. There their teacher, the plump old Professor Sprout, was awaiting the attention of her chatting class.

"Ahem!" Professor Sprout cleared her throat in a manner that, to the great relief of her students, was not at all reminiscent of the former Professor Umbridge as she waited for silence to overcome her students.

As the class quieted down, the professor began her beginning of the year lecture.

"Welcome back everyone, and congratulations on making it to your seventh year and Advanced Herbology. I even more so applaud your bravery for returning to school in such dangerous times. However, I must tell you that this year, I will not tolerate any more of the playing around that has occurred in my class up till now. This precaution is merely for your own safety. I have had accidents occur in this class, and let me say that they were not pretty. Greenhouse 6, the one that you are about to enter, contains my most dangerous and powerful plants. Some here I am allowed to keep with only very strict, regulative permission from the Ministry." With that said, Professor Sprout withdrew her wand from the folds of her dirt-smudged robe and carefully undid the safeguards surrounding the greenhouse.

As the teacher ushered them in, Yusuke murmured to Hiei, who had fallen into step beside the tantei, "How much do you wanna bet that Kurama's gonna be collecting seeds from half the stuff in there when he has Herbology?"

In response, Hiei replied, "If you're worried, I am willing to spar with him first."

"Hey, if you guys are done talking," Ron interjected, "we're supposed to start de-thorning the venomous dart-shooter plant. In pairs." He was with Hermione, while Harry had been lucky enough to grab the Herbology-minded Neville.

After one look at the green, goop-oozing plant, with its serrated leaves sharp enough to sever bone, Yusuke turned to Hiei and said, "Midgets first."

"Ahem, class. We will, uh, be discussing, erm, the history of Hogwarts this year. We will begin with, uh, major breaches in, er, security, following up with, um, famous headmasters and notable graduates…"

Professor Binns' voice droned on, oddly echoing within the History of Magic class room. Fortunately, it served to mask the strangled groans of one redheaded student.

'I have the worst luck, don't I?' Kurama wondered as his teacher continued on about the year's course aims. 'Breaches in security mean thefts, and thefts mean thieves, and thieves mean…wait for it…'

"We, will, er, be starting the year off with the study of Youko Kurama and several other thieves, who, throughout Hogwarts' history, have…"

'…ME! Do you truly hate me this much, Inari?'

Binns' voice went on to boast of Hogwarts' defenses, and then proceeded to tell of some insolent and vain demons—'Oi, I'm not that bad!'—who were bold enough to breach the illustrious Hogwarts' grounds—'What! I had to make a living somehow!'—and then proceeded to steal some of the castle's most sacred treasures. 'Hmph! They were asking for it!'

Meanwhile, Kurama was attempting to sink into his seat, torn between embarrassment over the whole situation, relief that Hermione was the only member of the curious Trio still taking the course, and attempting to struggle to contain the Youko-ish side of him who wanted to jump up and correct the Professor saying, "That's not how it happened!" Really, the ghost had a knack for making even the most wonderfully exciting events seem mind-numbingly boring.

Poor Shuichi attempted to uphold his image of 'perfectly attentive student' for a few seconds more before giving in and following the example of his fellow classmates, who had nearly all sunk into their seats with their books propped up on their laps, reading material of a slightly…different content secreted within.

Kurama himself surreptitiously slid the latest issue of Shounen Jump out of his schoolbag (Kuwabara mailed new issues to the other Reikai Tantei weekly) and dug into the thick volume of manga. He did feel a small bit of guilt mixed with remorse, but he knew the subject from back to front, probably a great deal more than the professor himself.

So it couldn't hurt, could it?

Meanwhile, Hiei and Yusuke weren't faring much better in terms of luck. Quick reflexes and a good deal of shouting had resulted in the following score of venomous dart-shooter plant: 11, Tantei: 2. Translation: Hiei and Yusuke had managed to remove two thorns…but the plant had landed eleven hits, the deeper four of which had required Professor Sprout's immediate attention with a beaker of antidote.

Off to their left, Harry and Neville had ended up faring a bit better. Their de-thorning was almost half-way done, and neither sported any major blemishes.

On their right were Ron and Hermione, who seemed to be arguing over the proper way to remove the most thorns with the least amount of pain. All the same, they had still managed to get farther than the unfortunate Hiei and Yusuke by three additional thorns.

The required process involved catching the thorns with a small screen reminiscent of an embroidery hoop. This was fairly difficult because the plant could shoot any number of thorns in any direction, which made it impossible to catch them all. As the thorn passed through the screen, the venom was drained into a small vial, while the now (mostly) harmless spines dropped into an attached sack.

Currently, the clock at the back of the greenhouse, which was partially submerged in leafy green vines, stated that there were about fifteen minutes left of class. Yusuke and Hiei were sadly facing what looked to be a failing grade for class participation on their first day. Even some of the more unfortunate students had fared better than the pair. "This is ridiculous!" Yusuke complained in Japanese. "You're a youkai and I'm a reikai tantei. We ought to be faster and more attuned to dodging and catching pointy objects than anyone else in here!"

"Agreed," Hiei growled, attempting to ignore the stinging pain from a shallow cut on his cheek. "And what do you propose that we do about it, Tantei?"

Yusuke thought for a moment, subconsciously ducking to the side of a thorn that the plant sent whizzing his way. "I know! Let's propose a competition! The one who collects the most thorns by the end of class wins! Looser has to face Kurama first after Herbology!"

"Hn. Don't see what you're so worried about. After all, the plants in here are only from Ningenkai. I assure you that the kitsune has far more dangerous ones from Makai secreted within his hair. But all the same, I accept."

"Ready… Set…" Yusuke grinned. "Go!"

"Minnymiyo!"

It took Kurama a few minutes to recognize Binns-hakase's awful mangling of his name. When he did, however, he shot up straight in his seat, one hand carefully slipping Shounen Jump back into his schoolbag.

"Ah, would you care to enlighten us on how historians believe that Youko Kurama managed to get past Hogwarts' defenses?"

'Ah, good. That's a simple one,' Kurama thought, relieved. Out loud he recited, "Youko Kurama is believed to have entered the school through a secret tunnel leading from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade Village. The tunnel was designed so that a messenger could escape without notice if the school was under siege. Because of this, it could not have had any of the numerous wards against youkai and the like, for although effective, any youkai or enemy wizard could pick up on their scent a mile away. It is believed that Kurama entered somewhere between the two official entrances, while out of sight from both school and town."

Professor Binns stared down at the ex-thief through dead, tired eyes. "Huh? Young man—Mayomana, was it?—I have no idea where you heard of such a preposterous thing! I can assure you that no such tunnel was ever built."

'Eeh?!' Kurama gasped. 'You mean they never figured it out? I was sure that they would have gotten it by now; I didn't really bother to disguise how I got in…or out, for that matter.' "I'm sorry, Professor, I must have confused this for something else. Could you tell me the correct answer, please?" 'It'll be interesting to see what ridiculous stuff they managed to come up with.'

"Ah, yes…We think that Kurama, being a kitsune--" 'It's youko! I'm way more powerful than a kitsune!' "—who are known to possess shape-shifting abilities—" 'That's a stereotype, and we all know that stereotypes are bad. I, for one, possess talents with flora.' "—turned into either one of the students or teachers, and snuck past the wards and into the castle that way." 'Gaah! It wouldn't mask my youki since it's only an illusion. Get your facts straight, baka!'

"Professor!" A girl in the back of the room raised her hand. "It's time to leave."

Binns glanced up at the clock. "I suppose so," he mumbled. "For homework I want a foot-long essay on Hogwarts' security and how it has been and can be improved. Due next class period. You may leave now."

'Finally!' Kurama groaned. He grabbed his books and rushed out of the classroom as quickly as possible.

"Bwahaha!" Yusuke cackled, "I beat you! Guess the 'super fast hiyoukai Hiei' isn't so fast after all! So it wasn't a fluke that I beat you at the warehouse after all!"

"Correct. That was Kurama," Hiei informed him coldly. "And half a thorn is nothing to be proud of."

"You're just angry that I got 42 thorns and you only caught 41½," Yusuke sniffed, sounding a bit miffed. Neither of them noticed that halfway through their contest, nearly all of the class had turned to watch them in amazement (and therefore abandoning their own plants), stunned by the speed and ferocity with which the duo were catching thorns. Amazing what a bit of competition can do, isn't it?

"If you hadn't shoved me out of the way, that thorn wouldn't have broken off and it would have been a tie. Anyway, I swear that the plant was aiming high."

"Hah! Stop trying to make excuses, Shorty! You know that I won fair and square. Don't deny it!"

"Class dismissed. You may leave!"

Yusuke and Hiei continued to argue out the door and up to the castle, where a nice lunch awaited them.

"So…" Kurama asked, "What brought this argument on? I don't think I've heard Hiei talk this much in weeks. Not that it's a bad thing, of course." He was sitting at the Gryffindor table again, much to the disgust of his housemates and discomfort of the Gryffindors.

"I'm not entirely sure myself," Harry admitted. "I don't even know what they're talking about (it's not like they're speaking in English, after all). All I know is that in Herbology, they suddenly started catching loads of thorns and when Professor Sprout told us to pack up, Hiei didn't sound too happy and Yusuke seemed to be gloating."

"Catching thorns?" Kurama asked, sounding a bit too interested. "What were you all doing?" His eyes seemed to gleam with a violent light.

"De-thorning venomous dart-shooter plants," Harry answered. Kurama could tell that he was wondering why 'Shuichi' would want to know.

"Would they happen to be extremely sharp and poisonous?" Kurama queried.

"Yeah… Why do you ask?"

"I think I might know what those two might be arguing about," was all that the kitsune gave in the form of explanation.

Leaning across the table to where Yusuke and Hiei were still bickering (though they would probably have chosen to use a slightly more masculine word, had they been given a choice), Kurama interrupted by saying, "Would you two happen to be arguing over who gets to fight me this evening? I assume that that's what the competition was about earlier."

Hiei and Yusuke both broke their glares at each other in order to turn them to Kurama.

"I assume that this means that I am correct?" Kurama asked.

"Hn," Hiei confirmed.

"I assure you that I'll go easy on either one of you," the kitsune assured, "though I'll bet that the discussion has by now degraded to Hiei being unable to accept the fact that he lost yet again to a mere human, and Yusuke gloating because it's true. Am I right?" The annoyed grunts that followed were more than enough to tell him he was.

"Oi, oi, what's with the 'mere'?" Yusuke demanded, glaring at the redhead over a plate of chips.

"You must admit, Yusuke," Kurama said, smirking slightly, "that humans are clearly inferior to youkai."

"Oi, you ought to be thankful for us, Kurama!" Yusuke defended. "After all, if it weren't for us, you wouldn't still be alive."

"True," Kurama conceded, "but the only reason I'm stuck in this week mortal body still is my mother."

"Your human mother," Yusuke muttered under his breath, but he let the subject drop, deciding to instead dig in to the large sandwich awaiting consumption.

Meanwhile, Kurama, who had opted to eat a nice green salad, looked up to find that Hiei had somehow sat down beside him.

"Hai, Hiei ka?" he asked with a sigh.

"You seem depressed, kitsune. What's wrong?"

"Aa," Kurama said, with a half-hearted chuckle, "It's not so much depressed as annoyed and embarrassed, I'm afraid."

"Naze ka?" Hiei asked.

"Why?" Kurama echoed. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait; I don't particularly feel like recounting this morning's episode right now. You'll find out in History of Magic, I'm sure. "

"That's two periods from now," Hiei pointed out dryly.

"I suppose that's true," Kurama pondered, munching on a leaf of lettuce. "You'll just have to be patient, won't you?"

Both remained silent for several minutes. Finally, Hiei spoke first. "The tantei appears to be enjoying himself." Yusuke was engaged in an involved conversation with the trio on some sort of discussion about the harshest punishments they'd ever received. Yusuke was insisting that some of Genkai's tortures could not be beat, while Harry described the harsh treatment of the Dursleys, Ron detailed life with five older brothers, and Hermione watched in disdain.

"He can't use that potion forever, you know," Hiei stated.

"I don't see you offering to help teach him English," Kurama pointed out dryly.

"You'd be better at it than me."

"True…"

Changing the subject, Hiei asked, "Do you know where we're going to spar tonight?"

"Koenma-sama mentioned that McGonagall-hakase had said we could use the quidditch pitch after curfew, as long as one of us was patrolling the school at all times. I was thinking about tutoring Yusuke in English then."

"How does that brat expect us to find, seek out, and destroy those 'Horcrux' things if we're busy attending classes in the day and patrolling the stupid school all night?"

"Truthfully?" Kurama sighed, "I have no idea. But I suppose that we'll have to cope. I was thinking that, to lighten our own workload, we could just follow Harry and his friends."

"You seriously think that they'll make any progress?" Hiei wondered doubtfully.

"You've overheard them just as much as I have," Kurama said. "They know at least as much, if not more than we do."

"It'll be awfully hard to pull off without breaking our cover," Hiei pointed out.

"I know," Kurama admitted. "I'm still working on it, you know."

"Hn."

"I wouldn't be worried too much about detection if I were you, though," Kurama assured. "After all, I'm a worlds famous thief, and you aren't so bad yourself. We pilfered Reikai's vaults together with that idiot Gouki and didn't get caught, did we not?"

"Hmph," Hiei snorted. "Reikai's security is nothing compared even to a couple of paranoid ningen teenagers. Don't get too complacent, kitsune."

"I won't, Hiei, don't worry. Anyway, are you going to eat?"

"No."

"You know," Kurama said, reaching for a pitcher of water, "if you feel that Western foods are too rich and fatty, you could always go for a salad like me."

"Don't be stupid, fox. I'm a youkai, not a rabbit."

"Heh. I used to say something similar when my mother would try to make me eat vegetables. It takes a while to adjust to long term life in Ningenkai, doesn't it?"

"I suppose."

"Ah, well. I suppose I ought to tell Yusuke about our plans for the evening. I assume that he'll be taking first patrol?"

"Correct."

"Alright."

Kurama leaned over to where Yusuke, Ron, and Harry were still having a heated discussion, with Hermione observing from the sidelines. "Excuse me," he said in English for the benefit of the Trio. "May I borrow Yusuke for a second, please?"

Yusuke rolled his eyes. "What is it? Hiei isn't being a stubborn jerk, is he?"

"Far from it," Kurama sniffed. "We were discussing our plans for the evening. You'll be taking first patrol as soon as curfew begins for the rest of the students. You still have your special pass, I hope? Meanwhile, Hiei and I will spar in the quidditch pitch. At eleven, you and Hiei'll switch off. I'll take the last round from two to five. We'll rotate our hours through the week, though? Do you have it?"

"Yeah, yeah." Yusuke waved it off. "I understand. And when are we supposed to do our homework? (Not that I care, of course.)"

"Ask Koenma-sama," Kurama said. "He's the one who got us into this mess."

"Keh," Yusuke growled angrily. "I'm gonna give that kid a pretty loud piece of mind when he calls next."

"I have no objections to that," Kurama agreed.

"Is that all?"

"It should be."

"So," Harry asked Yusuke as the tantei turned back, "what did he want to talk to you about?"

"Oh, classes and stuff like that," Yusuke responded vaguely. "You know, things."

"Yeah, speaking of classes, don't we have next period with the Slytherins?"

"Yes, you do," Kurama piped up from beside Hiei.

"Oh, no!" Ron groaned. "Shuichi, you may be pretty decent, but I can't say the same for the rest of your housemates."

"What class is it, anyway?" Yusuke wondered.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts."

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.

Notes:

-Shounen Jump, for those of you who didn't know, is a very popular weekly manga magazine in Japan. YuYu Hakusho was originally serialized in it back before I was born.
-Okay…Hiei was beaten by Kurama when they first met, and I don't think they've fought since. Yusuke and Kurama haven't had a chance to fight at all yet. Kurama is extremely persistent and has cool plants. That's why neither Yusuke nor Hiei really want to fight him.
-The translation potion: this is a really complex potion that only works for a week at a time. It can only be brewed by a master (i.e., Slughorn or Snape). If taken for prolonged periods of time, it becomes toxic. Though you can mentally switch between both the new language and your native one, you can only understand the language you have selected. For example, if Yusuke has 'English' mentally selected and Kurama says something to him in Japanese, Yusuke won't understand it. He must recognize that Kurama is saying something in Japanese, mentally switch to that language, and then he won't be able to understand any English. Why? Dumbledore and Barty Crouch Sr. wouldn't bother learning 150-200+ languages and there wouldn't have been that confusion with the Bulgarian Prime Minister at the Quidditch World Cup if there was a simple solution. However, this is magic, so there's gotta be something.

A/N: I'm sorry I took so long to update!!! Life has been hectic with spring break, school, standardized testing, loads of new manga, piano recital, jazz show, projects, and a new fanfiction. So yeah, no time to write this. Hopefully this long chapter will make up for it, though. Anyway, I again attempted to get the remainder of the school day into this chapter, but I again failed. Coming up is DADA and (possibly) Herbology with Kurama! Filler chapters might begin in Ch. 9 if I'm lucky (thanks to everyone who submitted and/or reviewed, by the way), although they will include plot details, too, so don't think that they're entirely pointless. …Anyway, be sure to check out my new fanfiction once it's up. It's called Culminations and is an HPxFMA crossover.

Oh, and my brother and I decided that Kurama is the most beat-up upon character in the series. Why? Hiei generally wins physically inclined fights with relative ease. Yusuke gets beat up a bit, but it's generally a straightforward physical/spiritual fight. Kurama, however, gets mixed up in psychological torture/tricks, blackmail, knife wounds/cuts from other sharp objects, bombs, etc., and he's still in a human body. So, in keeping with this pattern, I plan to torture him a lot later on. Sorry! 