Dislaimer:I dun own anything but the general plot and the odd character.
In answer to the questions from my reviewers: a) yes, that was yusuke, he was checking out the area because they found residual energy reminiscent of Kurama's. b) hiei will either turn up soon, or way way way later. and c) it is unlikely that either suichi or youko will get any permanent body.
The ten-year-old Fox-Child, known to most as Harry Potter but known to demons everywhere as Whisper, lay on his bed in the smaller upstairs room of Number 4 Privet Drive. Due to his acting and manipulation skills learnt from Suichi and the Fox, whom he had learnt was named Youko Kurama, as well as his almost inhuman beauty and intelligence, Whisper had secured a place in the Dursley family through his aunt, via a well-timed teary "Why don't you like me? Did I do something wrong?" after a few well faked bad reactions to anything out of the 'norm'.
Therefore, while he wasn't treated as well as his cousin Dudley, Whisper had achieved a degree of affection from his Aunt Petunia and even his Uncle Vernon. He was top of his class and was offered to be put up a grade (which he declined), but to ensure no animosity, he had gone out of his way to help Dudley with his schoolwork, homework and assignments, leaving Dudley at second in the class.
After some subtle manipulations and hints, both boys had been granted permission to choose an extracurricular sport. Predictably, Dudley had chosen boxing while Whisper learnt the one skill his other selves couldn't teach him. Kendo.
However, Whisper's nightlife was very different from the life he led during the day. About once or twice a week, Whisper would climb out the window after releasing a sleeping spore he had acquired during one of his first forays into the Makai and Youko's lair to get some seeds for defence, offence and neutral purposes as well as any books and scrolls pertaining to water-affinity black kitsune and their abilities. During these night wanderings, Whisper would seek out and steal items of interest or gather any information he thought might be profitable. By eight-years-old, Whisper was questionably the most successful dealer in artefacts and information in England, gathering an estimated million a year.
Of course, he couldn't have done anything as a human child, so he was forced to seek out another means of doing business. Whisper's chance came when he learnt by fluke that he could shift to boy-fox form for a few hours before he ran out of energy. His plans were furthered but a potion that aged the subject ten years by human standards. However, since Whisper never did anything openly illegal, kept out of the slave trade and kept his business exclusively in the Human World, the British Reikai Tentai couldn't actually bring him in on anything, so they just kept an eye on his activities when they could and sometimes even bought information off him.
But that's not the point. The point is that the ten-year-old Fox-Child, known to most as Harry Potter but known to demons everywhere as Whisper, lay on his bed in the smaller upstairs room of Number 4 Privet Drive. He was in still the house at 3:37AM for two reasons. The first was that today was his eleventh birthday. Which led to the second reason. His Aunt and Uncle had been acting weird lately, so weird, in fact, that even the usually oblivious Dudley had noticed.
Since he had developed his ki and both ordered and untangled the threads of power, which usually took a decade to do, Whisper had found that he didn't really need all that much sleep unless he was hurt or over-worked, so he got up and turned on some soft music; Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory.
Whisper shook out his just below shoulder-length hair, grabbed a brush and a book, and settled back onto his bed. It had taken him ages to convince his Aunt Petunia that maybe his hair wouldn't be so messy if long hair held it down. He had barely gotten away with it, and he made sure his other selves knew how unhappy he was about causing possible trouble with his relatives. Suichi and Youko had been totally unsympathetic of his plight as both of them had longer hair than he did while in physical form in order to hide and store their seeds in an inconspicuous place. That and it was traditional for kitsune to have hair past their shoulders.
The longer the hair, the stronger they were. Hair length and colour could also be used to distinguish caste, status and race in come cases. As host to a silver, as well as being a black water-affinity, Whisper was supposed to have hair past his waist, but on a human child it would be considered out of the norm, eradicating any chance of acceptance from his relatives.
So here Harry Potter, the Saviour of the Wizarding World, the Boy-Who-Lived and Defeater of He-Who-Must-Not-Be named sat, reading the twelfth Anita Blake Vampire Hunter book by L. K. Hamilton, which should have been R rated, and eating toffee-coated grasshoppers taken from his store under a loose board in the closet.
So much for the normal and innocent façade he worked to uphold
"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Harry! Happy Birthday to you!" Once the Dursleys and the kids from school who had been invited to Harry's Birthday Party finished singing, Whisper blew out the candles and made a wish in a highly exaggerated fashion before grinning at the people around him as he started opening the presents from the guests, wondering all the while what it was that had his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon so worked up. Though he had a sneaking suspicion that it had to do with the letters Uncle Vernon had burnt or shoved down the food disposal the last few mornings
Whisper was curious as to what was in the letter, it had to do with being a fox, but he let it go because of self-preservation. It was severely frowned upon in the Dursley family to question the actions of either of the adults, so both cousins usually kept their mouth shut. So Whisper, for the most part, forgot about it and revelled in the party the Dursleys had thrown just for him as a thank you for getting not only himself, but also Dudley into a highly acclaimed boarding school that had a 98 rate of graduating into Oxford University, called St Peter's School for Extraordinary Young Gentlemen.
Truth be told, Whisper didn't really want to go to St Peter's School for Extraordinary Young Gentlemen. Whisper wanted to go to Japan and see if the Japanese schools were as challenging as Suichi said they were. He'd also be lying if he said he didn't have a more illegal interest in Japan. The demon population in Europe wasn't really all that big; less than a twelfth of the overall population. In Japan it was closer to a fifth being a demon, a human with demon blood or a human with an above average reiki level, meaning a whole new turf and better business options. And it would be easier to get toffee grasshoppers. Never forget the toffee grasshoppers.
Everything was going splendidly at the party. Until there were a series of loud 'CRACK!'s out the front of the house. There were a fair few shouts as the adults got the children into the house while Vernon and Petunia Dursley went around the building to see what the sounds were. Whisper, however, bolted up to his room with Dudley in tow where he silently slid the window open enough to hear what was being said.
"-He will not be going!" Whisper frowned when he heard his uncle's voice. If he had been yelling at Whisper, Whisper would most defiantly have backed down and done as told. The elderly male voice who answered, however, sounded like a parent scolding a particularly stupid naughty child.
"Now, now, Mr Dursley. It is what his parents wanted for him. It was decided before he was even born. Harry will attend Hogwarts come September and he will be returning here each summer." Green-gold eyes narrowed, causing Youko and Suichi to waken and shift to the surface to find out what had their usually even tempered host so ticked. Dudley glanced at his cousin, then prudently edged away. He knew from experience that that look meant the apocalypse was imminent. Last time Harry had beaten down and totally humiliated seven kids older, stronger and bigger than him.
"Now you see here, you freak. Harry is going to a highly acclaimed boarding school he himself chose. That boy is a certified genius who worked his arse off to get the marks required to get into the school. And I will not let you ruin my nephew's chance at having a normal, magic-free life!"
Whisper was touched at the passion in his usually gruff uncle, which only served to send his already formidable wraith into a spiralling inferno of rage.
"That is no longer an option, I'm afraid. The application to St Peter's School for Extraordinary Young Gentlemen was cancelled this morning. Now if you would call the boy, we shall take him to get his school belongings and place him with a wizarding family to get settled in."
'Ouch.' Was the only comment Youko got out before the boy with blue-black hair strode over to his study desk, his cousin watching with wide-eyed disbelief and not a little fear.
Whisper stalked down the stairs and down the hall, ignoring the guest's questions except to tell them to stay inside. Reaching the door he opened it, but was somehow ignored as purple-faced Uncle Vernon and a pale Aunt Petunia argued loudly with an old man who looked like a stereotypical Merlin. Around him were several other people he identified as wizards, but since he hadn't really dealt with these people, he had no idea what wizards were really like.
'Arrogant and biased.' Suichi put forward, sounding surprisingly disdainful. Always willing to believe the worst of normal people, they think they're the top of the food chain and everything else is lower and therefore stupider, because wizards have magic. The truth is that wizards generally can barely use proper grammar and math, their spells are ineffective against youkai and people with high reiki. Not to mention they're still stuck in the middle ages.'
'Tasty though.' Suichi gave Youko the mental equivalent of a whack.
The older wizard looked sternly down his nose at the Dursleys. "You will bring Harry out here and we will take him and teach him what he needs to know to fulfil his destiny."
Petunia clutched Vernon tighter, terrified that the only thing left of Lily's that she had was going to be taken away and warped like his mother had been.
Vernon rallied together to protect the boy who had become his favourite nephew. "We will not allow you to destroy the life of the boy you left in our care! We will not permit it!"
Dumbledore narrowed his eyes at the muggles. "The choice is not yours to make."
"And neither is it yours." All eyes turned to the doorway and the beautiful boy with long black hair who was closing the door behind him, his gem-like green-rimmed gold eyes regarding the wizards with what could only be called distain.
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Quote: Isn't it funny how your best friends can turn out to be the best friends of your worst enemy.