Magical Rackets

Summary: "Not all wizards use wands, some use their magic through other mediums. Swords, brushes, pencils….and in your case, tennis rackets." HPXover

Author's Notes

I'm sorry about the last chapter. I don't know how happy I am that no one's expectations have been ruined…yet. Even though I'm supposed to be taking notes for this book "Gone with the Wind" I'm here on my computer writing fanfiction. I can feel tomorrow's evil glare that my teacher will be giving me.

Situation

Fuji mustered the energy to turn toward Echizen and stare. It was surely a tiring day. First, energy consuming tennis games; second, sudden dementor attacks; and third, mind boggling puzzles. He was a genius alright, but even genii have had times they wanted to just put their heads down and rest. Nothing was really correct anymore. After both he and Eiji confessed that they overheard an old man talk to Echizen, Atobe suddenly breaks the news and tells them that Dumbledore died a month ago. Furthermore there was a sudden urgency to go to this school called Hogwarts.

Everything was coming to him in broken pieces, but attempting one last time to straighten things out he came to this conclusion. Voldemort was a madman who liked to terrorize and kill people, Dumbledore was something like a principle of a magic school and was the only person Voldemort was afraid of, and Hogwarts was this magic school somewhere in Europe. Within this school, there is a boy, Harry Potter, who is supposed to be some savior, and everyone has their hopes that this boy with a lighting shaped scare (so a scar decides all?) can kill Voldemort. Nothing was making sense at the moment, but he still gave the smile that stated 'I know a secret that you don't.' Fuji wasn't a person who usually pretended to be smart, but at the moment he didn't know what else to do.

Tezuka and Atobe seemed to be having their own debate, phrases such as 'no more time' and 'have to leave soon' were widely used even if they were just worded differently. Inui had calmed down enough to begin writing notes in his trusty data book while Momo and Kaidoh seemed to be mentally at war with themselves wondering if what going on was true. Eiji was doing what he could to brighten up the dim atmosphere, even without the dementors the situation on hand had brought everyone's spirits down. The most asked questions, even if it was in their minds were:

Why is this happening? How is this happening? Am I hallucinating? Atobe, Tezuka, what is your connection to this?

The two that know don't seem too keen in talking about it either. When the last question was asked, both just looked at each other as if telling the other to answer. In the end, the question was just met with silence. The silence that was broken by Echizen, who took out a newspaper article, proving that the whole magical society was in a dire situation, that's when they got to this point with everyone in their own little worlds.

Fuji slipped out of the tension filled classroom excusing himself that he needed a drink. He needed time to think by himself.

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Tezuka really didn't talk about his adventures back in the magical school. He doubted Atobe ever shared them with anyone else either. After all, these secret adventures were something special both of them and would like to hold to themselves. Friends that he had, all the firsts that happened, and even all the detentions he served from sneaking out after the curfew. He gave a quirk of the lips remembering walking down the stairs only to have them change and get lost, not knowing how to get back. This of course was in the time, when Voldemort had suddenly been rumored to have returned. It was a rumor that had changed everything that went on in Hogwarts when he was there.

The name Voldemort irritated Tezuka, it was the first thing he used to hear. A blank accusing of being in a league with him, just because he was Japanese, just because no one kept track with the purebloods in Japan, because Voldemort was rumored to have escaped death. True that it was said that ten years before his first year at Hogwarts Voldemort died, but some created fear using Voldemort's name. It was also then that he got into tennis and became friends with some of the regulars. He never went to his second year, but instead enrolled into a local elementary. He was surprised to hear that by December, Atobe also came back, for what reason Tezuka could only say were similar to his but with different circumstances.

It was kind of lonely to be only one of two native Asians. There was supposed to be a third native of Japan that was supposed to have come, but apparently he was needed back home to look after a younger sibling. What that person's name was he couldn't recall, Dumbledore himself only mentioned it once.

Looking back at the situation at hand, they should be going to Hogwarts now. Thinking to the dementor attack, if those creatures were to attack people at malls or shopping centers, then who would stop them? Tezuka knew he didn't have enough powers to place a ward around Japan or even just around his family. However with the vast magical resources that just the regulars had could probably protect just Tokyo for fifty years. There has never been a place outside a magical school where, by random, a group of magically blessed teenagers gathered together, in the same club as well, without knowing their magically backgrounds.

To protect everyone, they needed to learn how to control their magic, whether through a medium or none at all. The fastest way to learn, was to go to Hogwarts.

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Both Momo and Echizen were walking home after they were dismissed. The final decision was to contact the new head mistress of Hogwarts and explain their situation with her. Apparently everyone wasn't needed to compose the letter, so everyone just left. Fuji never did return from his water break but nobody really asked where the genius went. Echizen was still confused since he never did get to see those creatures and everyone's description of them were just so diverse. Momo was just stunned to see things that had stunning resemblance to a reaper, when he saw the dementors he thought death had come early.

Ryoma just couldn't understand what Tezuka and Atobe were planning, heck, Momo had no clue when he asked. What did they mean by placing a 'protective barrier' around the city? Why should they be the ones doing that? The quiet walk back to their respective houses was uneventful. The usual barter and small conversations between the freshman and the second year was missing, both just kind of tuned into to their own worlds. Even though it was just five, the sky looked dark as if it were already seven.

Back in America, Ryoma had lots of experience with daylight savings, where they move the clock back by an hour, but that usually happened when fall was almost over, not when summer starts. The change of weather was a grave concern among the scientists, after all, what if global warming has caused such a discrepancy? Both he and Momo knew better, it was whatever was going on with this Voldemort guy that is causing all this. The sullenness, the temperature change, and the change in weather. They weren't clueless to the point they were ignorant to everything.

They arrived at Echizen's house first, no one was home, only a note gave him any idea where his cousin and his father was. Apparently, they went to a new shopping mall that had many discounts because of their grand opening. It was said, they went out to also get some groceries that were lacking and wouldn't be home until late at night. Momo had decided to stay over at Ryoma's place just long enough for a tennis game back out in the courts, but it was unsaid that the older boy was slightly worried that if those creatures came again their tennis prodigy wouldn't be able to defend himself. After all, everyone who was in the classroom at that time knew that Echizen couldn't sense or see the dementors.

The game started as the sun was setting further into the sky. A dull roaring was heard from above and all but ignored by the two tennis players, but even if they noticed without careful scrutiny no one, not even Kikumaru, would see the small motorbike hovering in the air.

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Atobe was a careful person, sometimes to the point of paranoia. Everything had to be perfect, his plans, his studying, even his looks. Not a strand of hair could be out of place, not a single detail not included. Sometimes it because so detailed, the main idea was lost in the details. Apparently, that's what went wrong with his plan. Everything from the talk with the headmistress, the slight flattering to the minister, and even the arrangement of their classes, it was all planned to the tiniest detail. What he forgot was that the dementors were still at large, and that their trip to Hogwarts was to find a way to stop these dementors.

Atobe also hated to be wrong. If he ever were, he'd just cover it up with some lie and be done with it. He also hated the fact that it was Tezuka who proved him wrong. Just an hour ago, both were arguing about the procedure they were going to do everything. Tezuka prompted that the dementors could attack at any moment in places were no one could see them. Atobe argued that it was ridiculous, the dementors would be laying low after the stunt at Seigaku. Of course, if these were Death Eaters, then Atobe would have been correct.

Dementors did not have what normal people call emotion, they didn't care. It was harder to destroy a dementor than to force one back. They were attracted to happiness, which made them extremely dangerous. Who could help being happy? If your friend tells you a funny joke, you crack up in laughter. If your parents are coming home from a business trip, you can't help but be giddy. If you just helped some one and they thank you, you usually feel accomplished if not happy. All over Japan, these things are happening.

However, from reports, Tokyo is the only place infected with sullenness. Osaka is fine, Hokkaido is positively beaming, while Tokyo is just the opposite. Abnormal temperature changes, spreading depression, and the two second sunny-to-cloudy weather. Atobe was just pondering such things when the nightly news came on, when Tezuka's hypothesis became a reality.

"In the grand opening of this shopping center in Tokyo, shoppers have been complaining that the air conditioner was turned on too cold, after that people have just been dropping dead, literally. No one knows why, investigators have asked all shoppers and workers to evacuate the building just in case it was a case of poisoning."

"Well, as head of the investigation team, we are sorry to say that we don't have any clues that anything went on. Nothing on the security cameras, and in case the poison was still trapped in the building, no one has dared enter yet."

"However there has been an eye witness, a teenage boy from a local school."

Atobe watched as a teenage boy, with a short crew cut and a scar of an 'x' on the right side, come into view with some people, who were supposedly his friends, in the background. Carefully looking at the uniform, he saw the small lettering of 'St. Rudolph' on the emblem. That was weird, didn't Tezuka mention that Fuji's younger brother went to that school?

"These things with large black hoods were going toward the shopping center while we were leaving. Clammy hands, hoods all the way over their faces, I doubt they had faces, and a kind of sucking noise as if they were sucking in air forcefully. Passing them made the air seem colder…"

Atobe knew a headache was coming along, and he didn't have to be telepathic to know that Tezuka must be having one as well.

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Fuji Yuuta thought it was strange that hundreds of people died in that shopping center for an unknown reason. If he still believed in fairytales, he would say a monster came and killed them all. What made this event even stranger was that he saw the hooded figures, but no one else did. He went to the shopping center because Hajime didn't want to return to the dorms immediately and suggested that they go out somewhere. Most of their regulars ended up going, only their captain and his double's partner didn't.

Everything was going as normal as they could ever, with some fooling around and other just conversing with each other. Everybody was in their own little comfort zones, and nothing too silly was going on that would turn heads. Just some small chatting about training, pro tennis, and just what to do in the shopping center. When his cell phone rung, Yuuta didn't think much about it. After all, it wasn't strange that his sister would call him or some times his brother would just give him to surprise calls.

"Aniki?"

"Yuuta, go home now."

When his brother said that, it was in an air that just meant 'do it and don't argue back.' The voice was defiantly his brother's, but those words and the commanding presence didn't seem to be like the Syusuke he grew up with, nor the Syusuke that he sees with his occasional visits home. Whatever that was about, Yuuta didn't know, but he did end up going the opposite direction back to the dorms. That's when all this happened.

Fuji Yuuta just looked toward the sky. What is happening?

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A list of victims glowed on the television screen. Those that were dead, and those in critical condition. Of those that Tezuka's eyes were brought to, he saw some names that made him slightly cringe.

"…Echizen Nanjirou…" Ryoma's father.

"…Kaidoh…" From his memory, that was Kaidoh's younger brother.

"…Oishi…" The name of Oishi's mother.

"…Tezuka…" Tezuka had to look away, while the others were in critical condition, his father was gone. A bitter laugh came to his lips, it was his father that originally encouraged him to go to Hogwarts. In the end, his father was the one killed because of it.

Dementors usually couldn't kill, they'd just suck out your soul and leave you with just a body. Apparently, now dementors could do much more with the help of Voldemort. Kunimitsu felt like cursing Voldemort, but doing that wouldn't help the fact that tomorrow someone would probably come to inform his mother that her husband was gone. Tezuka wasn't about to tell his mother when she was stressed with fever, that would kill her.

All he could do was make sure no more casualties like this would happen again. That's what his father would have wanted. It was ironic that those who felt the least willing to go were had family members attacked. Tezuka didn't want to return to Hogwarts for a certain amount of reason, some logical and mostly selfish. Echizen would probably go now for his father, Kaidoh was pretty loyal to his family no matter what was seen of him, and Oishi. What Tezuka was hesitant about most was Oishi. His friend has a big heart, sometime larger than he thought.

This will not be pretty.

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What Tezuka wasn't informed of was what happened also that night, which would have changed everything if he bothered to give Atobe another call.

" 's been a while, 'Tobe," the half giant greeted the smaller of the two.

"Hagrid, it is delightful to see you too, I see that you didn't try to improve your Japanese at all," Atobe said dryly. Hagrid had always had pronounced his name kind of like 'Toby' which didn't make Atobe too happy at times. Tezuka's name was even more hilarious under Hagrid's pronunciation.

However, this was no time for reminiscing about the past, he knew what happened to Tezuka's father, and there was no point of stressing the Seigaku captain even more when Tezuka also had his own teammates to confront. "You told Headmistress McGonagall right?"

" 'ye," Hagrid nodded.

"I suppose we're going to have to move faster than I planned."

"Japan's no longer safe for you or 'our friend's," Hagrid said heavily accented.

"What do you mean by that?"

"He's 'ere, You-know-who's in Japan."

A/N: And I will stop it there. I'm sorry about Hagrid, I don't know how to do his accent. I'm trying, but it's just not working sometimes. I don't like how this chapter ended, it just seems so sudden as if like it's just there. I'm supposed to be doing history homework and the notes for Gone with the Wind.

Well, here's the main motivation and problem. This will be interesting if I just let the story flow on its own. Hm…it's worth the risk. This story is having a mind of it's own, I can't do anything about it anymore. I'll just let it go on it's own until I decide it is time to stop.

I appreciate all your reviews, they lighten up my day just like that! Thanks for reading and please review!

I won't be able to update for a while since I did two chapters in like a month and Valentine's Day is coming up and I still have to finish that story. Thanks for waiting!