EDIT: 3/09/10. Poor Mrs. Norris… read on…
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter
The sun had just started rising when Harry woke up. Groaning, he kicked his feet off the bed, got changed and made his way sleepily down the stairs. As Wood's desperate attempt to finally win the House Cup this year, all the Quidditch team members were now required to wake up at the crack of dawn to practice. Of course, Harry liked Quidditch, in fact, it was one of the things he looked forward to most when he was stuck at the Dursley's over the summer. But still, it was a bit too irritating to have to wake up this early, even for Quidditch. Still, as long as they didn't have to suffer it everyday, that'd be fine.
After breakfast he made his way to the pitch, his broom slung over his shoulder. It was still a little early but a few minutes wouldn't really make a difference. Wood was drawing out plans on the whiteboard, filling it with squiggles that were supposed to represent either the players or the balls, although at this stage it was near impossible to tell. He was tapping them with his wand every so often, making them shoot across the pitch he had drawn, supposedly making it easier to see, when in reality it just made it look even more meaningless than it already did. Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell were also there, sitting on a bench and having an animated conversation about love potions.
"Harry!" Wood said when Harry set his broom down. He clapped him on the back and said, "Well, now that you're here we just need to wait for Fred and George. Oh… and…" he looked at Harry at said, his voice dripping with grief, "I trust you heard about the incident with Alicia?"
Blinking, Harry shook his head.
"Well, that foul cockroach Montague from Slytherin, jinxed her yesterday with a very badly performed spell so she is now recuperating in the hospital wing." He shook his head, looking as if he had just lost his wand or something. "We are now short one Beater, but we're looking for a new one. If you could help…"
"Oh yeah… sure. Is Alicia okay though?"
Katie looked up. "Yes, she's fine, but her eyebrows have grown so large that she can't see anything behind them, and every time we try to cut it off it just grows back again. Her teeth have also grown so big that they're hanging off her face now, and it's taken a while looking for a counterspell."
"Well!" Wood said, clapping his hands together and looking quite pleased with himself, "Let us forget the sadness for now and… wait for our two Beaters…"
Angelina looked up at the mention of Fred and George and muttered under her breath, "There's no need to wait for them, Wood, they'll probably be here two hours late."
Pretending to ignore her, Wood finished off his 'foolproof plans' with a flourish of his wand, and color spread across the whiteboard, filling the pitch with a bright green and the squiggles with red. Looking very pleased with himself, Wood clapped his hands together and announced. "So, team, I trust you know why we are all here on this fine morning,"
"Of course we do, Wood, you were the one who dragged us out of bed to look at your fine artwork." Katie scowled, yawning slightly to prove her point.
"Well," Wood said, puffing himself up. "We want to win this year, Katie, and this," he gestured at the whiteboard "is how we will achieve that. Now…" he continued to explain everything about the squiggles, and Harry felt himself drift into a deep sleep…
Hitsugaya had only just sat down for breakfast when the Weasley twins (Forge and Greg or something) picked him right up again, looking up and down at him.
"What?" he barked, looking annoyed, mostly at the fact that they were able to pick him up so easily.
"I think this one will do, don't you George?" one of them asked the other.
"Yes, he'll be perfect for the job." George replied.
"For what job?" he demanded, releasing himself from their grip and glaring at them.
"I think we'll take him with us." The first one mused, completely ignoring him.
"What the hell are you talking-" He hadn't even managed to finish his sentence when he was picked right up again dragged out of the hall.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" Hitsugaya shouted, wriggling out of the twins' grasp once more. Sighing in mock exasperation, they turned to face him.
"We're short one Chaser since Alicia was jinxed and is in the hospital wing right now." George or something said.
"And we need one if we want to win the Quidditch Cup," his twin said
"So Wood asked everyone to look for someone who would be able to play Chaser,"
"And we've decided that you can fill in for her!" they finished together, with a look on their face that suggested confetti was about to rain on them.
"Well, you can forget it." Hitsugaya answered at once, quite aware that they had not asked his opinion on the matter.
"You don't have much of a choice, mate." George said, shaking his head. "Right Fred?"
"Yup. Couldn't have said so any better myself." The other twin, now identified as Fred, answered.
"Well, firstly, I have no idea what 'Quidditch' is, or what a Chaser is, and frankly I neither have the time or interest to bother playing whatever game it is that you're talking about. I also do not belong to you, so I do have a say in what I'm going to do, so goodbye. I have more important matters to attend to."
"You don't know what Quidditch is?" Fred asked, his jaw hanging open. "Blimey, and I thought only your hair was weird!"
Hitsugaya opened his mouth to rebut that comment, but was cut short by George.
"Quidditch is like, only the greatest sport ever known to wizardkind! Everyone knows what it is!"
"Evidently, not everyone." Fred sighed, looking at Hitsugaya pitifully and shaking his head in disbelief.
"And you're not helping me understand the big deal." Hitsugaya shot back, getting impatient now.
The twins looked at each other, then nodded. "Fine." Fred said
"Quidditch is a sport played on flying brooms." George explained
"And there are seven players on one team." Fred continued before Hitsugaya could comment on the flying brooms.
"Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and a Seeker."
"There are three different balls- one red Quaffle, two Bludgers and a Golden Snitch."
"The Chasers shoot by throwing the Quaffle into the goal hoops at the opposition's side of the pitch. The Keeper's job is to stop it from going through."
"The Beaters' jobs are to bat the Bludgers, which chase you around and konk you on the head, far away from their own team mates and at the opposition's team. That's us."
"The Seekers job is to catch the Golden Snitch, which is a tiny golden ball," George held his index finger and thumb together to show how small it really was.
"Once the Seeker catches the Snitch, the game is over and their team wins one hundred and fifty points, which usually means they win."
"And that's it. So you can come with us now…"
"Wait!" Hitsugaya shouted, slapping the twins' hands away. "You expect me to believe that this entire game is played on flying broomsticks? Like, old-witch-with-cauldron-cackling-away-with-warty-toad broomsticks?"
"You're from a wizarding family and you have never heard of flying brooms?" George gasped, staring at him like he was mental. "Fred, if we're really going to have to get a Chaser let's at least get a smarter one."
"What-"
"I think we should at least show him first. I mean, you are a very skeptical little boy, so let's open up that mind a bit."
"I agree." George said, drowning out Hitsugaya's "Little? I'm not little!" Chuckling, they grabbed one arm each at dragged him to the pitch.
They arrived about half an hour into Wood's lecture, grinning from ear to ear.
"Have you looked at the time, Fred, George?" Wood yelled, positively steaming.
"Yes we have, Wood, and we have a surprise for you."
"Please, if it's Dungbombs again I swear-"
"We found a new Chaser!" they said in unison, stepping aside to reveal the last person Harry wanted to see. Hitsugaya was scowling, looking as if he wanted nothing better than to kick both twins in the shins and stomp away. He did neither of these things, however, but managed to glare at everyone with such force that they all backed away. Everyone except Wood. He was examining him, looking up and down like Fred and George, and Hitsugaya felt the need to swipe him away.
"Have you ever flown on a broomstick before, …"
"Toshiro Hitsugaya. And no."
"Hitsu- oh right! Aren't you in first-year, though?"
"He's not." Harry said, looking fiercely at Hitsugaya, as if he could just stare him away. He had not forgotten his theory. "He's in my year."
"Oh, then that's fine, but if you haven't flown before…"
"Ol' Toshiro here didn't believe us when we told him about flying brooms." George claimed.
"But look at his weird hair and everything! It's perfect Chaser material!" Fred smirked.
Pursing his lips together, Wood looked first at Hitsugaya, then the twins, and finally the lonely looking squiggles. "But…"
"Oh, don't worry Wood!" Angelina chirped, looking absolutely delighted. "We'll do just fine without your perfect plan!"
Looking rather hopeless, Wood finally gave in to the increasing begging from his team and they made their way out to the pitch.
"Okay, so first you need a broom." Wood mused, picking one out from the cupboard. This one'll do. Try flying on it first." He threw it over to Hitsugaya, who caught it and stared at the thing, doubting with every fiber of his body that the thing in his hands would never even be able to hover for a millisecond.
"Hint, you mount it first." Fred whispered into his ear, grinning widely.
"Look, this is stupid, there's no way-"
"Are you scared?" George taunted, grinning just as widely.
Abandoning all doubt, Hitsugaya swung one leg over the broomstick (muttering "this is stupid" under his breath), took a deep breath, and kicked off. To his utter surprise, the broom actually shot upwards and started flying. Despite himself, a smile broke out as he easily maneuvered around the pitch and did a loop-the-loop. Of course, he had flown before, his Bankai gave him wings after all. This wasn't too different, and the speeds weren't too fast.
"I guess it shouldn't be too surprising." Hitsugaya muttered as he managed to take control of his boyish desire to whiz right through all the hoops.
"Isn't a silly game like this going to waste your precious time?" Hyourinmaru's voice echoed somewhere within the depths of his mind as he hovered a few feet from the ground.
"Hn. Who said I was actually going to play?"
"Well, you fly pretty well, Toshiro!" Wood shouted, now mounting his own broomstick. "This is your first time?"
"Hah, and the little twerp didn't believe us when we said you could fly on broomsticks." George chuckled, instantly regretting it after he got a hard beating in the head from the 'little twerp'.
Wood threw the Quaffle at Hitsugaya, who managed to balance on his broom without his hands long enough to catch the red ball. He noticed, mildly surprised, that even though he wasn't gripping it very tightly, it seemed like he was still holding it very firmly as if there were finger holes. He suspected it had been enchanted or something.
"Okay, so basic practice, we're just going to fly around and you can throw the Quaffle between Angelina and Katie and try getting it through the hoops."
It was incredibly easy, compared to everything else he had ever handled it was like breathing, really. Fred and George seemed to have noticed, and decided to spice up the game by batting Bludgers everywhere. Once one of the black iron ball had come so close to Hitsugaya that he had to, while clutching the Quaffle under his arm, hang off his broom and dangle there like a sloth while the Bludger whizzed past the spot where he had been half a second ago. This was subject to awed staring as Hitsugaya spun back upright again, looking puzzled.
"What?"
"You just did the Sloth Grip Roll!" one of the twins exclaimed, his jaw hanging open yet again. It sure was unsightly. "You sure you've never flown before?"
"Sloth wha?"
"Well, I think this settles it. Welcome to the Gryffindor team, Toshiro!" Wood declared, hardly suppressing a grin. Hitsugaya had opened his mouth to say something when he was interrupted by Katie, who pointed at seven green dots striding across the pitch.
"Oh, I don't believe this," Wood exclaimed in exasperation, landing. The Slytherin team were making their way across the pitch, sneering. Looking sorely annoyed, Wood approached them and said firmly, "We've reserved this pitch, Flint,"
"The Slytherin Quidditch team sneered. "Yeah, we know, but we have a note from Professor Snape, requesting that we use the court. Although it's not much of a request, more of an order, Wood." He waved a small piece of paper in front of his face, still grinning. Wood snatched it from his hand and started reading. After a while he muttered,
"You've got a new Seeker. Who?"
If Harry had been displeased to see the Slytherin team here, that was nothing compared to the fury he felt when he saw who emerged from behind the captain.
Draco Malfoy, with his infuriating haughty expression and slicked back blond hair, clutching a new broomstick most probably given to him by his father. He smirked at Harry, looking very pleased at his triumph.
"And that's not the only thing that's new, Potter." Malfoy goaded, bringing his broom forward so that everyone could see it. The rest of the Slytherin team followed suit. Ron and Hermione had come down from the stands and were now rushing across the pitch. Ron noticed the gold engraving near the end of the broomstick and gasped as he looked at all the other brooms.
"Those are Nimbus 2001's!" he exclaimed, looking greedily at them. "Where'd you get those?"
"A gift from Draco's father." Flint smiled smugly.
"At least no one in the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in." Hermione piped in, "They got in on pure talent."
Malfoy looked at her in revulsion. "No one asked for your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood."
Hermione suddenly looked furious and was about to open her mouth and respond when Ron pulled out his wand and yelled, "Eat slugs!"
Unfortunately for Ron, the spell never reached its intended target, but instead turned around at the spot where it had been taped together and rushed back to its caster. Ron was sent flying backwards, and, like he said, started belching slugs. Harry, Hermione and Hitsugaya (all H's :D) rushed over to help him, pulling one arm each and tugging him up, Hitsugaya helping Hermione, who was having troubles supporting Ron's left arm.
"Let's take him to Hagrid's" Hermione huffed as she jumped left to avoid another slug. "He'll know what to do." Harry nodded and together they heaved Ron away from the pitch, which was now filled with crawling slugs.
Hitsugaya had never been to this part of the grounds before, but upon remembering that the forest bordering the castle was called the Forbidden Forest, he made a mental note to visit again, after Weasley had cleaned up the trail of slugs.
They had managed to slam the door open and heave a green Ron into the small hut where the person called Hagrid lived. Hitsugaya soon found out that Hagrid was a huge man at least three times taller than him, much of his face concealed by a thick and hairy beard, "Blimey, wha' happened to Ron?"
"Backfired jinx." Harry groaned as Ron settled onto a nearby bench. Hagrid looked worried at Ron, then his eyes slid over to Hitsugaya, who had not sat down, but stayed standing by a wall, glaring a drooling dog that was barking at his feet. A question formed in his eyes, but he didn't voice it.
"How'd it backfire?" Hitsugaya inquired quietly. He knew spells could go wrong if not performed properly, obviously, but the way at which Ron's spell had backfired was quite peculiar.
Hermione sighed. "His wand is broken, you see. It got broken in their reckless trip in that car. He hasn't really been able to fix it since."
"Why am I not surprised?" Hitsugaya sighed.
"Well, this requires specialist equipment…" Hagrid grunted, turning and shifting through some things in another corner of the house. "Who's your new friend, Harry?"
"He's not my-" Harry stopped mid sentence as Hermione stepped on his foot and said cheerfully,
"This is Toshiro. A new student," she answered happily, edging out of the way of a multicolored slug, which had just erupted from Ron's mouth. "I didn't know you were so good at flying, Toshiro, you're better than Harry!"
"Nearly as good as him, more like. Can't really fill in Alicia's place with only that." Ron grunted, heaving out yet another slug. Hagrid returned, thrusting a bucket at Ron, who caught it just in time before another slug came up. "I heard Alicia was jinxed, so you've taken her place, eh Toshiro?"
"No, I… I don't have the time…" Yes, the game certainly was pretty interesting, but it would be a waste of time, after all, he was here on a job, not to throw some ball around like a twelve-year-old.
"What're you talking about? We don't really have that much homework." Ron grunted, evidently forgetting that just moments ago he had been all against Hitsugaya joining the team. "And besides, you're probably another Hermione, you'll get your homework done in about two seconds and you'll have loads of time to do everything else."
"I see you a lot in the library though." Hermione murmured as Ron shut up to throw up another batch of crawlies, ignoring his comment on her getting her homework done in two seconds. "What do you do there?"
"I read." Hitsugaya stated in a monotone, giving her an obviously look. Hermione flushed slightly but ploughed on. "About what?"
Hitsugaya sighed, uncrossing his arms and bending forwards. "This and that."
"But seriously, you can't spend all day in the library or you'll become Hermione!" Ron piped up, avoiding her annoyed glare. "You've got to relax a bit sometimes."
Hitsugaya sighed. Yes, he was busy, but wasn't trying the game out another way of investigating? Previously he had thought that flying brooms were a silly fairytale, but now he discovered that they did exist. Besides, he couldn't spend all day on the ground, with the Bankai of a flying ice dragon he was born for two main purposes, to love the cold, and to love the sky and the feeling of soaring through it.
"I guess I could try it out…"
"That's great!" Hagrid beamed, trying to make it look obvious through his thick mane of hair. "I mean, the Gryffindor team is grea', but some fresh blood woul' do it some good."
Hitsugaya nodded and they sat in silence until Ron vomited another slug. Deciding that if he saw another slug again he'd probably start vomiting as well, Hitsugaya stood up and bowed. "It's been nice meeting you, Professor Hagrid. I have some matters to attend to, so I will be going." He left.
"Why, he was a respectful one, wasn' he?" Hagrid mused, beaming. "You kids shoul' learn from him, but calling me a Professor was a bit much, don't you think?"
Hermione chuckled weakly, while Harry was still having an inner conflict with himself as to whether or not he should tell his friends about his suspicions. Deciding it wouldn't hurt to tell, he whispered,
"Guys, I've been thinking..."
He explained his theory as quietly as possible so as to not let Hagrid hear, occasionally cut off but Ron's belching. When he finished, he was not surprised to see Hermione raising her eyebrow skeptically and Ron looking at him as if he were nuts.
"Harry, I understand that Toshiro is quite… strange, given his hair and eyes. But just because he looks a little different doesn't mean he'd be working for You-Know-Who…"
"Yeah Harry, do you really think You-Know-Who would recruit someone like him? Sure, he's a total freak-" Hermione glared, "but you know, not even he would be crazy enough to get a boy to work for him."
"Yeah, but what if this is exactly what Dobby warned me about last year?" Harry hissed, annoyed at his friends' stubbornness. "What if he is actually here to kill me?"
"And what would he achieve by doing so?" Hermione asked, "I mean, he didn't even know who you were, remember? Back at the bookstore? Most people would go, 'Mr. Potter, what a pleasure it is to meet you' but he just looked at you as if you were nothing special!"
"Well, what if he met Voldemort after that, say… before he came to Hogwarts?" Ron and Hermione winced at the mention of his name, but Harry ignored them.
"Harry look, I know you started feeling sick when Toshiro came into the hall, and I know you think he must have cast some sort of spell on you or something, but he never reached for his wand, I saw both his hands clearly, with no hand in either! I mean, if you were a really skilled wizard you might be able to cast a simple spell like accio without a wand but a second-year like him would not be able to even make a spark without a wand!"
"Then what if he really is a skilled wizard, disguised as a twelve-year-old?"
"It would still be incredibly hard to do something like that even if you were Dumbledore!"
Harry crossed his arms and grumbled as Ron vomited out another slug, this time multicolored. While he was still feeling quite sick, the intervals between each slug were getting longer, and the color was returning to his face.
"'Arry, trust me," he muttered weakly as he spat out some slime. "Dad says that You-Know-Who is much weaker than he ever was right now, and he wouldn't just give his life to some boy, and there isn't even anything that can make you look so much like someone else!"
"Actually," Hermione cut in, "there is."
"What?" Harry asked, looking eagerly at her. "What is it?"
"It's called Polyjuice Potion." Hermione muttered, looking rather abashed at helping Harry prove his point. "When its correctly brewed, you can look like whoever you want to be, provided that you have a bit of them, say… hair for example."
"So," Harry announced triumphantly. "Like I said, if he really was a skilled wizard in disguise, all he'd need is that Potion and a bit of someone's hair and he'd look like an innocent little boy!"
"Yeah, except that you'd need an incredibly large supply to look like that for an extended period of time, and you'd need to keep drinking it within an hour, and we've seen Toshiro go on for more than an hour without drinking anything." Hermione snapped.
"And if he really was one of You-Know-Who's cronies come to kill you in disguise, he would have at least chosen someone with normal hair; someone who would fit in." Ron said. "And besides, he's had plenty of chances to kill you, but you're still sitting in front of us."
Looking defeated, but still determined that Hitsugaya was, indeed, bent on murdering him, he grunted once and changed the subject, asking if Ron was okay.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he groaned, looking down at the slugs sloshing in the bucket. "Thanks a lot Hagrid. I think I should be fine now."
Hagrid nodded as they left. "Well, see you later then."
Harry had just come back from detention with McGonagall, having sorted through different colored centipedes, formerly scorpions, left over from the previous third-year transfiguration class. Some had not completely transformed into centipedes and still had stinging scorpion tails, leaving Harry with painful blisters and boils on his hands. He started making his way back to the common room, thinking about how hungry he was, when he heard a strange voice.
Kill
Harry stopped walking and around. The hallway was empty.
I smell blood…
He started running, dinner forgotten. Rounding a corner, he heard the voice again, and it sounded more eager, more excited, as if it had found its target…
Kill
"Potter."
He stopped to find Hitsugaya standing in front of him, supposedly just coming back from dinner. He looked quite surprised; maybe it was because of Harry's sudden presence or… had he been the one….
"What are you doing here?" Harry panted, glaring at the shorter boy. Looking rather annoyed, he answered,
"I just finished dinner. What are you doing here?"
Harry looked around. Apart from the white haired boy, there was no one in the stone corridor. The fire flickered slightly, casting shadows on both their faces, making Hitsugaya look creepy (not that he wasn't anyway).
"Were you… doing anything?"
Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. "Doing… anything?"
"I-I heard… voices…" He was suddenly aware that he felt completely fine. Had Hitsugaya abandoned that ploy? Was he doing something else now?
"Voices?"
"Harry!" Hermione and Ron were running towards him, Ron still looking slightly green. He had not eaten dinner of course, having served detention with Filch cleaning trophies in the trophy room.
"We've been looking for you everywhere, where've you been? Oh, hi Toshiro!" Hermione smiled, looking nervously at Harry as if expecting him to do something. Hitsugaya looked questioningly at her.
"As a matter of fact," Hitsugaya cut across Hermione, clearing his throat slightly. "I think I did hear someone speaking, although I wasn't able to completely tell the exact nature of the words."
"You heard voices?" Hermione asked sharply, looking at Harry again.
"Yeah… I was coming back from McGonagall's detention when I heard-" He stopped as the voice burst out again, ringing in his ears.
Blood…
"Did you hear that?" Harry whispered as Hitsugaya turned, supposedly he had heard the voice too. "It's moving. I think it's going to kill."
"Kill?" Ron squeaked as Harry continued to run, following the strange voice. Ron, Hermione and Hitsugaya followed him.
As they ran (quite slowly; Hitsugaya would have shunpoed had it not been for the Harry and his friends, after all, it would be quite unnerving to see someone just disappear before your eyes, probably even in the wizarding world) Hitsugaya started inspecting the walls, pretty sure that the voice had come from them, or within them. He wouldn't be surprised if it had been the walls themselves that had talked, but given the circumstances; Harry, out of breath and acting as if nothing like that had ever happened before, hearing a voice that neither Ron nor Hermione could hear, but one that he could… Maybe it was just because his hearing was better, but had not thought of Potter as one with great hearing; it seemed as normal as anyone else's. And then the voice… it was really quite strange, it didn't seem to be speaking in English or Japanese, at least not directly, but it seemed that Hitsugaya's brain had worked past the original sound that had issued from the speaker and translated it into a comprehensible language, in his case, Japanese. But then, there were some parts where he could not totally understand, although the sentences were generally quite short. Instead of a word, he heard some hissing, similar to that of a snake. Almost identical, actually.
"I wonder if Hyourinmaru (sp?) has anything to do with this…" he murmured, dismissing the thought almost immediately when he remembered that Potter did not have an ice dragon as a sword.
They reached the end of a corridor to meet a flooded hallway.
"There's probably been a leakage. There's a bathroom not far from here, I suspect it could have come from there." Hermione muttered, looking at the water. Her eyes traveled further down the hallway, and they heard a sharp intake of air as her eyes focused on something reflected in the water.
"It's Mrs. Norris." Hitsugaya muttered tonelessly, looking at the cat. It was stiff and lifeless, the reason for its stiffness being that it was incased in a large block of ice. Its eyes were bulging, the tongue stuck out in a way that would have been comical if it wasn't real. Hermione yelped and jumped back, a hand over her mouth in horror.
"Someone's written something." Ron squeaked. "In blood."
Sure enough, someone had written some words in what Hitsugaya had initially thought were red paint, now identified as blood, on the wall. Whether it was human or not, he could not tell. The words read, 'Enemies of the Heir, Beware." Apparently someone had dipped their finger in the blood and had written the warning, or more of a threat.
"The cat is still alive." He said, looking at it. He could still sense some of its life energy, suggesting that the cat was paralyzed or something similar. How it could stay alive while stuck in ice, he wasn't sure.
"Still alive?" Ron asked, looking very pale. "But... it looks dead! Plus it's frozen!"
"Who would have done this…?" Hermione asked quietly, the fear in her eyes reflecting onto the other two.
Just then, people who had just finished dinner were making their way back to the common rooms. People were muttering "Ugh... water," and "Ew... the toilet's been leaking," but when they saw the cat and the writing and the four second years standing underneath the horrible scene they all fell silent.
"'Enemies of the Heir, Beware?'" someone sneered at last. Hitsugaya turned his head and saw Malfoy, smiling his usual unpleasant smile. "You'll be next, Mudbloods."
There was some commotion and Filch, the owner of the ill-fated cat, pushed his way through the terrified and confused students and stopped when he saw his beloved cat hanging frozen on the wall. When the initial shock wore off, however, he eyed the four, fury in his eye. "You have killed my cat!"
"It wasn't us!" Harry exclaimed, looking at Hermione and Ron for help. They both nodded. "we were going back to the common room when we... found Mrs. Norris."
There was a pause as Filch tried to see if they had told a truth or a lie when Dumbledore emerged from the crowd, followed by Snape, McGonagall and... Matsumoto. She looked, quite terrified, at the cat and the writing, then looked at Hitsugaya asking him what the heck was going on. Dumbledore's eyes wandered to the words, and McGonagall gasped.
"Everyone," Dumbledore announced, "Follow your Prefects back to the dormitories." Relieved, the students almost pushed people over as they scrambled to get away from the flooded corridor. "Everyone except," They stopped. "You four."
It seemed that Potter and his gang were constantly the center of attention from everyone's faces as they looked at them, but Hitsugaya was quite reluctant to become part of it. Regardless of that, he stopped walking and turned around.
"They have killed my cat." Filch growled, furious. "I want to see some punishment!"
Dumbledore inspected the cat, running a finger over the cold ice. Somehow it had not started melting yet, despite being next to a torch of fire. A frown appeared on his face, but that was replaced by a look of reassurance when he turned to the caretaker.
"She has been Petrified, Argus, but she is not dead. You need not worry, Professor Sprout tells me she has a batch of Mandrake roots that will be able to revive her. But as for you four..."
"It could not have been Potter, Albus." McGongall said, her face very anxious. "He was serving detention with me. As was Weasley, with Mr. Filch in the trophy room."
"I was at dinner." Hitsugaya said, "As I said, I was returning to the common room and bumped into Potter, who was running to this site."
"I was with Toshiro." Hermione mumbled, "We met Harry when he said..."
"When he said...?" Snape inquired.
"When I said I wasn't hungry." Harry lied, looking straight at the greasy man's eyes.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus," Dumbledore said, looking at them. "Very well, you may return to your common room."
"P-professor?" Harry stammered as the teachers left. Dumbledore turned.
"I-I have something I... wish to tell you." Hermione and Ron looked at him and then Hermione pulled him closer and whispered something in his ear. She looked quite agitated, but Harry seemed to have a retort for her and she fell back.
"I'll... just go." Hermione mumbled. Ron followed her.
"Me too." Hitsugaya said, giving Matsumoto a look that said, "I'll meet you at your office later." She nodded.
The mission had seemed simple enough for the past few days, with nothing out of the ordinary apart from talking pictures and flying candles. But then of course, missions like these were never easy, or they would have just sent an unseated officer, not a captain and his vice-captain. With the incident of the cat, things were definitely going to get rather… out of hand.
"Toshiro, you said you heard the same voice as Harry did?"
"I take that hearing voices isn't a good sign."
"No it's not." Ron said, almost angry.
"What did the voice say?"
"Well… I couldn't understand some of it, but it was mostly talking about blood and killing, I think."
"It wasn't English?" Hermione asked.
"Well…" there was a pause. "I didn't actually hear it in English, but rather in Japanese. But there were some times when the comprehensible language was just cut off and was replaced by hissing.
"But Harry doesn't understand Japanese!" Hermione said, her voice getting more agitated by the second. "And now he's gone to talk to Dumbledore about…" She stopped abruptly when Ron stepped on her foot.
"Talk to Dumbledore about…?"
"About the toilets!" Hermione almost squealed in a desperate attempt to cover up her mistake. Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow.
"Potter is going to talk to the Headmaster about the toilets?"
Hermione chuckled uneasily. "Well, yeah… Harry is… quite… fascinated in … toilets… and you know, with the… leakage…."
"I did not realize that toilets were such a big issue in the wizarding world."
"Oh, are you from a Muggle family then?" Ron asked quickly, both of them red in the face.
"A Muggle family?"
"Y-yeah… non-wizards."
"Er… well my mother is a witch but my dad has no magical powers… whatsoever." Hitsugaya lied, still staring at the pair as they tried very hard to make him forget about Harry talking to Dumbledore. They were failing miserably.
"Oh, so where'd you get your freaky hair from?" Ron asked. Hitsugaya glared at him until he realized his mistake. "Sorry."
"Well, if you must know," There was a pause as Hitsugaya went through all the possible excuses he could use and chose the most likely one.
"Some genetic thing from my grandfather, passed on from my father. My case is more serious but it just… gives me white hair. It does not affect anything else though"
"Oh, so you're not an albino or anything?"
Hitsugaya flushed in anger. Pride really was quite troublesome sometimes. "No I am not."
Ron whimpered as the temperature lowered slightly and the candles flickered.
"Well, we'd better hurry; if Filch catches us out of bed at this hour he'll skewer us for sure." Hermione announced, turning and hurrying up the stairs. The two boys followed, and Hitsugaya made a mental note to find out exactly what it was that Potter was trying to tell Dumbledore.
"Harry, what is it that you wanted to tell me?" Dumbledore asked as the three others disappeared around the corner.
"It's about… Hitsugaya, sir." Harry said, looking sideways at Matsumoto, who was standing next to McGonagall, who was cleaning up the writing and taking Mrs. Norris down. Matsumoto was supposed to be returning to her office but when she heard the mention of her captain she stopped and pretended to clean up the water (unsuccessfully).
"Mr. Hitsugaya?" Dumbledore asked, "Our new student? What about him?"
"Well… he…" Harry stopped, looking uncomfortably at the teachers who were all trying to clean everything up.
"Could I speak with you alone, sir?" he asked finally as Matsumoto slipped as she attempted mopping up the water with her robes. She landed on the floor with a splash and a rather painful sounding splat, got up quickly, and grimacing at the other exasperated teachers and excused herself, muttering about paperwork and other things. Strangely enough, Harry had been feeling rather strained for a while, a little like when, according to him, Hitsugaya had cast a spell on him, but now the weight that he had felt seemed to lift. Was this his doing again? Flushing slightly in anger, he wondered if the guy really was determined enough to try the same trick again.
"I'm sorry Harry, but I have some things to attend to at the moment, as you can see. Maybe you could find me again later?"
"But Professor, this is very important!" Harry said desperately. "You see, I- I think Hitsugaya is behind these attacks!"
McGonagall had overheard and gasped as she turned away from the blood stained wall. "Mr. Potter, that is a very serious accusation; and Mr. Hitsugaya already said that he had been in the Great Hall at the time of the attack!"
"Yes, but I don't think he is as he seems!" Harry persisted. He turned back to Dumbledore. "Professor, during breakfast yesterday I fell very sick the moment Hitsugaya entered the Great Hall, and he wasn't with Hermione when he first bumped into me! He might have had enough time to-"
"Mr. Potter, I did not see Mr. Hitsugaya pull out his wand during breakfast yesterday and it is simply impossible for a-"
"Minerva." Dumbledore interrupted, silencing them both. "Harry, I shall look into this matter, it does, after all, sound suspicious, but I suggest you go back to your dormitory, after all, growing children need their sleep, and I do not think that in his present condition Argus would feel agreeable enough to let you off without punishment, despite our deepest reassurances, don't you think?" He smiled again, and patted him on the shoulder. Harry bit his lip in frustration, but nodded anyway and turned, walking back to the common room.
"Matsumoto, why are your robes all wet?" Hitsugaya asked, looking at her tiredly.
"Well, I was trying to mop up the water with these horrible robes, but I slipped and got everything wet!"
"You're just trying to get rid of them, aren't you?" Hitsugaya sighed, shaking his head. "Anyway, did you manage to make anything of the paralyzed cat?"
"No… although that Potter boy did have something to say about you…"
"About me?"
"Yeah… but I didn't manage to hear much." Hitsugaya looked at her exasperated. "Well, you know, the other teachers were all staring at me like I was weird or something so you know, I just left!"
He sighed again. "I thought it might have been because of the food, but now I'm pretty sure that Potter can sense reiatsu, at least to some extent; he fainted yesterday; probably from the lack of air, and he's been looking rather pale for a while. His friends said that it's unnatural for him to act like that, so I guess we have to attribute it to his ability to sense reiatsu… Although…"
"But our reiatsus are sealed! Not to mention that they're hidden behind our gigais!" Matsumoto finished for him, looking worried now.
"Well, we have to be more careful from now on. Given the present circumstances, Potter will most definitely become suspicious if he associates my entering the Great Hall and his sudden falling ill. Although I hope he is not foolish enough to think I have anything to do with the cat, or maybe too foolish to put together the evidence. Anyhow, we must investigate this incident, despite it being merely a cat we must not rule out if whatever happened might happen to any of the students."
Matsumoto nodded. "Does that mean we have to control our reiatsus even more?"
"Well, until we have anything proving that Potter's illness was not caused by our reiatsus, yes. Who knows, the other students might be able to sense reiatsus as well, and it'd be quite troublesome if Hollows started appearing. And dry your robes because you are not spending any more of our money buying more."
Another nod. "Okay, taicho!" she grinned, giving him a thumbs-up. "Now be a good boy and hurry to bed before I give you a detention!"
A vein started pulsing and he grimaced at her. "I am still your superior, Matsumoto."
"Not here you aren't!" Her grin grew wider. "Good night, taicho!"
"Whatever. Good night," he muttered, closing the door behind him.
Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! They really do mean a lot to me! Please review this chapter as well, it'd be much appreciated!
FallenSnow12