Last Time

Harry was so embarrassed he didn't pay attention to that new voice as he, it was a male voice, seemed to wonder off. 'Wonder if Zangetsu is up to a game of chess...?'

Now

After a moment of looking like two deer caught in the head light, Harry and Hermione bolted out of the room as fast as they could, the sound of applause cat calls and whistling following them.

"Who knew our relationship was such a big deal to other people?" Hermione asked darkly.

"The curses of fame..." Harry answered, just as darkly.

They slowed their pace to a fast trot, but neither spoke the rest of the way to the Gryffindor Tower. Turning a corner, the Fat Lady came into view and the two slowed to a normal pace walk.

He stopped silently, letting Hermione get a foot or two ahead of him. "Hermione..." Harry spoke, breaking the awkward silence, stopping Hermione from waking the portrait and quietly enough he didn't either.

Hermione stopped where she was, but she kept her face looking away from Harry. ''Hermione'?' She thought dejectedly, thinking the use of her real name was a sign of rejection. She turned to face him; he was looking down at the floor and refused to meet her eyes.

"I've been thinking on our way up..." Sighing, he looked up and met her eyes. "And I've decided..." He took a step closer to her; they were now only half a foot apart. "That I don't want to be 'even more an idiot then Ron'..."

Leaning forward, he placed a kiss on her lips. This was a quite different kiss from the one they had shared earlier; unsure that headed straight to possessive, this one was still possessive, don't get me wrong, but it was more gentle. Despite the difference, Hermione got what he wanted her to out of it; the feelings he wanted conveyed were.

After a minute, Harry pulled away and looked her in the eyes, both his emerald eyes and her chocolate eyes slightly glazed from the kiss. "Will you be my girlfriend, Hermione?"

The shocked expression on her face was quickly replaced by a broad smile as she jumped forward and wrapped he arms around Harry. "Of course!"

The somber and serious look he had been trying to keep fell instantly, replaced by a grin as he wrapped his arms around his new, and first, girlfriend.

"And so ends the biggest relationship betting pool in over three hundred years..." George moaned. "So, who won it, brother?"

Fred, who stood next to his twin as they looked around the corner to spy on the new couple, straightened up and pulled a scroll from inside his costume. Unrolling it and scanning the parchment several times, Fred sighed. "It's a three way tie..."

"Let me guess, Dumbledore is one of the three…?"

Fred rolled his eyes. "Of course he is… the other two are us and Vecter."

George sighed. "Why did we let the teacher's in on this one again?"

"They had the money, and it was the only way to keep them from stopping the pool." Fred answered with a shrug.

Harry and Hermione separated from their hug.

" Willow." Harry told the Fat Lady, smiling slightly. The Fat Lady looked fit to complain about being woken up, but decided against it when she saw the new couple.

"That's right, dearies..." She answered sleepily, swinging open admit them.

After climbing through the portrait hole, the portrait swinging close behind them, they decided they weren't tired enough to go to sleep, cuddled on the love seat from from the night before. They sat there for a while in a relaxed silence, they couldn't help their groan as the portrait hole open, revealing the Twins Ginny Katie and Angelina; all of whom were smirking at the two sitting next to the cracking fire.

"Well, well." The Twins sing-sang together. "Came as 'just friends', left as a bit more, eh?" The new couple could only blush. "Well, we'd normally be pranking you, we'll give you two a break; we'll start that later!" Laughing maniacally, those two headed for bed.

"Good job, getting Hogwarts most eligible bachelor to be as your boyfriend, your first boyfriend to boot!" Katie told Hermione, clapping cheerfully.

Harry blushed. "I doubt I'm the most eligible bachelor in the school, present or future."

Angelina wagged her finger at him. "Harry; you're a nice guy, a celebrity, and a member of and Ancient and Noble house! The only reason you're not on Witch Weekly's 'most eligible bachelor list', which by the way includes bachelors from all over the world not just England, is that to be an official bachelor you have to be of majority age! But you are in their 'bachelors of the next decade list'."

"Uh, wow, didn't know I was that popular..." Was all the raven-haired boy could say.

Bidding their final congratulations, the girls headed up their own stairs and disappeared.

An hour later the fire was down to glowing embers and Harry felt they needed to head for bed. "We should get going…" He said, though he didn't

"Yeah…" Hermione agreed, though she didn't make move to get up, but actually snuggled closer to his warm body. Ten minutes later they actually got up and headed for the stair cases and, after sharing one more hug and kiss, headed up to their, sadly, separate dorm rooms.

Harry was half way up his staircase when he heard a scream. "What the…" He muttered, turning around and running back down the stairs and into the common room. "Empty…" He muttered, looking around the empty room cased in flickering shadows by the last embers in the fire.

He blinked as he felt a weight drop into his left hand, closing his hand around the hard surface on reflex. He looked down in bewilderment at his zanpakutō that had somehow magicked itself into his hands. 'How the Hell…?'

'Relax, boy, a zanpakutō is part of your soul; it will always come to your call, whether or not it you consciously call for it.'

'Who are you?' Harry asked calmly as belted his sword.

'I am Zangetsu, Refero's zanpakutō avatar.'

'Were you the voice from the dance…? No, he sounded different…'

'That would have been me.'

'And you are?'

'I am your zanpakutō avatar.'

'You're talking to me?' Harry was shocked at this; Refero had estimated another week or so before his sword spirit would start talking to him.

'I wanted to prove Refero wrong; it'll be amusing later when he gets back. Besides, it's only polite to answer someone whose been trying to talk to me for a little more less then half a year. I have question though, how could you possibly not know what to do in that situation?' The entire time the sword spoke, he had kept his voice bland.

Harry blushed. 'Either tell me your name or shut up!'

'That's not a very polite way to ask for someone's name, now is it? But I am curious can you hear it? It's ------.'

Harry shook his head; he couldn't hear the name that was spoken by this guy who seemed to always speak in deadpan. 'Guess I'm not ready yet...' His thoughts were cut off by another scream. He looked towards the stone surrounding the portrait hole in surprise. 'How can I hear so clearly through the stone?' He wondered, running over to the hole.

He pushed it open and came almost nose to nose with another man. They blinked at the other, black irises so ebony you couldn't tell where pupil met iris staring into dark emerald, before they yelped and backed of from one another. Now that they had some space between them, Harry took in the man's appearance; worn out clothes, black hair, the aforementioned black eyes that looked slightly mad, starved looking, and a wicked looking dagger in his right hand. When Harry saw the weapon, he immediately fell into a ready stance; right hand ready to draw his sword while his other hand snapped his wand from it's holster and aimed it at the man.

"Who are you?" They demanded at the same time.

Sirius blinked, not having expected the kid to have such a commanding presence, and answered despite himself. "Sirius Black."

Harry tensed. 'So that's why he looks familiar; his wanted poster.' "Since you answered me, I'll answer you. I'm Harry Potter."

The black eyes widened. 'This is Harry?' "Where're your glasses...?" He found himself asking, realizing that, though the Potters were notorious for eye problems, there was no glass in front of this Potter's radiant green eyes.

Harry blinked, bringing his right hand up to touch the ridge of his nose. 'That's actually a good question, I've always been blind as a bat with out them, but I haven't worn them for the last day...'

'Tch, a gift from me to you; I fixed your eye sight for ya. Consider it a reward for having your avatar wake up, though he's an annoying bastard! '

"None of your business, Black." 'It's good to hear from you again, Refero, its strange going so long without your voice these days.' "Here to kill me?"

'Glad to know I'm missed!' The spirit laughed.

Sirius shook his head hurriedly. "No!"

Harry frowned; he didn't detect any deceit in the man voice. "Are you here to kill somebody?"

"Yes." Harry had to do a double take; the convicts grin had looked way to much like the one belonging to the Hollow spirit in his mind, though Refero's was of course much more… perfected.

"Who?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Who the Hell is Peter Pettigrew?" 'Sounds familiar...'

Sirius raised one as well. "Aren't you a bit calm considering who you're talking to?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Tom's fives time freakier then you and he is nothing compared to Refero."

'I am insulted you'd even compare me that bastard.' Refero sneered.

Black blinked. "Who's Refero? Doesn't that mean echo?"

Harry grinned, his answer was sure to confuse the other man. "A Hollow." He answered simply.

Black's face showed more then surprise at the term, it showed absolute shock mixed with a bit of fear. "An H-h-hollow?" He stuttered. "What's a Hollow doing in this dimension?!"

Now Harry's eyes were the ones to widen. "How do you-?"

He was cut off by a shrill voice. "Hello there, Paddy, how's you?" The two black haired men looked up see Peeves floating above them, grinning in a way only the Cheshire Cat from Alice's wonderland and Refero without the blood lust, if you could imagine such a thing.

"Shit." Sirius whispered. "Now, Peeves, please. I'm talking to my godson." Harry's eyes snapped from the floating poltergeist to Sirius in shock.

'He's my... Godfather?'

"Now now, Pady, you pranked me last times you were here, consider us evens now!" He sing-sung as he flipped to face down the corridor and taking a deep breath. "BLACK SIGHTING IN FRONT OF THE FAT LADY, GRYFFINDOR TOWER!!" He bellowed, loud enough to wake the entire castle, which was of course his objective anyway. Grinning at the other two, Peeves took a bow and left

"Damnable poltergeist... 'with friends like him who need enemies', indeed..." Black growled to himself, before dropping his eyes to look at Harry, who had long since fallen from his ready stance and was simply standing dazedly. "I'll see you again, Harry." After saying that, Sirius ran off.

Harry blinked as the sound of approaching foot steps snapped him from his daze and he hurried back into the common room, closing the portrait behind him. 'Godfather...' He thought as he ran up the stairs.

'Don't dwell on it, Harry, think only of your woman, let only her pervade your thoughts.' The nameless zanpakutō spoke in Harry's mind as the boy placed it inside his trunk. 'Save this Godfather thing for another time. Oh, and Refero says you can have a break from training tonight.'

Harry nodded, thankful for his swords advice and for Refero understanding that he need a break tonight.

Whispers followed Harry and Hermione as they walked to the Great Hall for breakfast the next day, word of Black's breaking last night had gotten around fast so everyone was in a panicked hush and they apparently found speculating about the new relationship a good way to relieve the stress.

"You OK, Harry?" Hermione asked, looking at the boy she had fingers interlocked with worriedly.

Harry smiled, giving her hand a soft squeeze. "I'll tell you when we have some time alone later, 'Mione."

Hermione frowned, but nodded. "I'll hold you to that, Mr. Potter."

Walking into the Hall, they sat across from Ron. "Where were you guys last night?" The red head asked, sounding annoyed.

"Honestly, Ron, we were wearing costumes, we could've been right next to you and not have known it." Hermione answered, rolling her eyes.

Ron ignored her in favor of looking at Harry. "Did you see that really hot looking girl?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Care to be a bit more specific, I saw a few." Here he looked over at Hermione and Ginny with a wink. "I particularly liked the blue and red angels." Both girls blushed a light pink at his teasing.

Ron shook his head. "I wouldn't mess with those two, Harry, didn't see who they came with?"

The metamorphagus hook his head in amusement. "Nope."

"How could you miss him?! The man wearing that mask!"

"There were several people wearing masks, Ron." Hermione interjected.

Ron carried on as if Hermione had never spoken. "Did you hear what he did to Malfoy when he tried to make a move on those two?"

Again, Harry shook his head.

"He threatened to blow his head off! The guy must've been a advanced seventh year, he used some spell I've never seen or even heard of, and he did it wandlessly!"

Harry shrugged, still looking amused and mouthed towards Hermione. 'Well, Ron's talking to us again,'

'That's a good thing... right?' Hermione replied in kind.

Harry just laughed; glad he had his best friend back.

'I still say he's and idiot.'

'Agreed.'

Harry sighed; his sword and Refero seemed to share a dislike for Ron. 'Quite, you guys.' His mind was suddenly much more crowded then Harry'd like, at least Zangetsu left him alone for the most part.

"Harry, mate, you in there?"

He blinked, Ron snapping him out of his daze. "Heh, sorry, zoned out."

Ron looked at him incredulously before shrugging and repeating his question. "Who'd you dance with last night?"

Harry lips parted in a broad smile.

'This is going to be... vexing.'

'That's an understatement.'

"Ron, I'm happy to tell you that I'm now dating 'Mione!"

"Wha...?" Ron whispered, face slack in surprise.

"Harry and I are dating, Ron." Hermione responded, smiling a softer version of Harry's broad grin.

Ron's eyes went from slackened wideness to narrow as he began to glare at the two smiling people in front of him. The entire hall had seemed to sense something about to happen, and had turned just in time to see Ron launching at Harry across the Gryffindor table, fist raised.

Harry's body was frozen, everyone could tell he was in no condition to react, so his right hand snapping out and catching Ron by the wrist, stopping the fist an inch from his face, came as a surprise to them all. "Tch." The grin on Harry's face, it hadn't even been dropped yet, changed, it became the grin that could only be used by one person in this dimension, and the echo in the voice served to remove any lingering doubt. "I told you, Harry, that he'd be a pain in the ass!" Laughing like the mad man he is, Refero used Ron's momentum to pull him across the table and slam the poor red head flat on his back on the rock floor.

The Hall could only watch frozen as Refero stood from his seat to tower above Ron's gasping form. "Look here, ginger." The expression on Refero's borrowed face changed, becoming a sneer. "I should do Renji a favor and cero your ass before you can bring any more shame to the title of 'red head' or 'best friend'!" Sighing in disgust as he looked down at Ron, Refero delivered a 'light' kick to the gut that sent Ron rolling to the foot of the staff tables raised platform. Sneer still in place, Refero began to raise his arm, pointing his open right palm at Ron.

"Stop this!"

Refero paused, not even looking at Dumbledore, who was standing with magic aura pulsing and glaring down at Refero. "Do you think to command me, you Yama-ji wannabe?" He kept his gaze on on Ron, right arm pointing straight at the boy's face, but didn't do anything else.

The entire Hall gasped at 'Harry' calling Dumbledore a 'wannabe'.

"And don't you dare ask what/who I am; I've heard that question way to much in my life!" Refero cut Dumbledore off before the old man could even fully open his moth to form the first syllable. "Just call me Refero; it's the name Harry gave me when I met him." He raised his head to lock eyes with Dumbledore, who gasped as he felt a pressure begin to press down on his spirit when he met Refero's sunlit yellow eyes.

There's was a tense silence in which no one moved the students and teachers could only watch as the two held their private staring contest; Refero broke it after a few minutes with a low growl. "Stay out of my mind, Dumbledore, there's things in there that would simply love to have an excuse to wipe you away; myself for example."

Dumbledore retracted his mental probe, perplexed. "An Occlumens?"

Refero raised an eyebrow. "What the Hell is an 'Occlumens'?" He asked, finally dropping his arm.

'A natural Occlumens? No human has been one of those in the last several decades...' "You... are not human?"

"It took you this long to figure that out?" Refero asked incredulously. "And I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius or something, Jiji!" The Hollow laughed, his echoing voice echoing across the Hall.

'Jiji, Yama-ji... I believe that's Japanese...' "You are also foreign?"

Refero smirked. "You could say that." He was, after all, foreign to the entire dimension. "Shall we finish this in your office; I think I'm scaring the gakis." He gestured around to all the students and teachers.

Snape, of course, had finally reached his limit with putting up with the possessed Harry. "Who are you calling a brat!?" He roared, standing up.

Refero let his gaze wonder over to the potions teacher with a raised eyebrow. "You know some Japanese then, Snape? To answer your question; everyone in this room, I'm older then all of you, so it's in my right to call a brat a brat." The tone was biting and Snape sat back down fast under a sudden increase of spirit pressure.

"Yes, I think that is a wise idea, we shall adjourn to my office." Dumbledore agreed, seeing that the staff, as well as some of the students, was becoming restless, and he didn't want any one to get hurt or worse thinking they could take on this 'Refero'. 'He's beyond everyone in here, perhaps even myself.' He thought as he descended from the head table. "Follow me." He said as he passed the creature wearing Harry's face.

"Hermione and Ginny are also coming."

Dumbledore paused. "Why?"

"Harry was going to explain this to them tonight any way, might as well save him the trouble." He paused, like he was listening to something or someone no one else could. "Hahaha, that's a good idea!" Closing his eyes, Harry's body morphed. His body shot up, taking advantage of the baggy wizard robes so that the now six foot body didn't tear any of the clothes on it, his skin paled and his hair became snow white. Refero reached up with one hand, showing his nails were now black, to tug down a strand of hair. "Hahaha, thanks to Harry's ability I can look like my human self when in control, yes!" The Hollow laughed, licking his lips with his blue tongue. Raising a hand into the hair, he called. "Come on out, Zangetsu!" A sheathed katana appeared in his open hand.

Everyone watched in shock as this transformation took place, feared fascination etched on their faces.

He turned to Hermione and Ginny, giving a mock bow. "Hello, girls. This is our first," He paused, looking more exactly Ginny before looking at them both again. "Real meeting." His grin showed ebony colored teeth, but the sheen and unblemished condition of them implied his teeth were supposed to be black. "My name is Refero; I'm Harry's sword instructor."

Hermione blinked. "Douzoyoroshiku (pleased to meet you), Refero-san." Hermione answered, she took Japanese over the summer breaks, figuring it polite to greet him in his first language. "What happened to Harry?"

"HAHAHAHA! 'San'? I think that's the first time in my life I've been addressed with that honorific! As for Harry he's fine, the shock of his second ever friend being such a prat was just a bit of a... shock to his system." Refer shrugged. "He just needs time to himself at the moment."

Hermione frowned. "He doesn't have to deal with this alone. I'm his girlfriend, I'm supposed to be there for him, and even before that I was his friend."

"Yeah, he has us, he doesn't need to be alone to deal any more." Ginny agreed.

Refero smiled. "Hai, he does indeed have you two and other friends to help him deal, but he's still not quite used to that fact, and Ron was supposed to be his 'friend' too, so that isn't helping." He offered the each a hand. "So, coming?"

They nodded, each taking a hand and being pulled up from their seat. The girls fell into step behind Refero as he walked up to Dumbledore. "I believe 'Obliviate' is apropriate, wouldn't you say, Headmaster?" Refero whispered as he passed the old man.

Dumbledore, to the two girls surprise, nodded. "A splendid idea." He waited until the three were behind him before he discretely pulled out his wand, and called the Hall's attention to him. "Obliviate!" He bellowed, a burst of light came from his wand as his spell wiped out and rearanged their memories, even the Occlumens in the room escaped. Sighing, Dumbledore holstered his wand and walked out of the Hall.

Seeing the looks on Hermione and Ginny's faces, Dumbledore smiled wryly. "Don't worry, that's the first time I've wiped the entire schools memory before." He turned to face Refero. "Follow me, please."

The Hollow nodded. "Lead the way."

(A/N)Yo. I had originally planned to have this chapter include the talk with Dumbles, but I wanted to post this this month, so there it was!

Laters