ranchan: I'm sooooooo sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I swear I've gotten 6 projects and about 75 assignments in the past 5 weeks.
D: Don't exaggerate.
ranchan: I'M NOT EXAGGERATING!
D: You don't have to scream.
ranchan: YES I DO! DO YOU KNOW HOW STRESSFUL SCHOOL CAN BE!
D: No, not really.
ranchan: Then maybe I should enroll you.
D: I wouldn't do that. Remember what happened last time.
ranchan: You tried to burn down the school, didn't you?
D: And you want that to happen?
ranchan: - Very much, why?
D: --; Never mind. Just do the disclaimer.
ranchan: What am I, your maid? Do it your self!
D: -exasperated sigh- Fine.
Disclaimer: ranchan does not own any of the Harry Potter or Inuyasha characters mentioned in this story. At least not that I know of.
Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass and the Mysterious Girl
Almost ten years had passed since the Dursley's had awoken to find their nephew on their doorstep, but Privet Drive hadn't changed much at all. The sun rose one the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number 4 on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which looked almost the same as it did that fateful night ten years ago. Only the pictures around the room really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been a bunch of pictures of what looked like a big pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets--but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the pictures showed a big blonde boy playing at a park, playing on his computer with his father, riding his bike, etc. As a matter of fact, you'd never know another boy even lived in the house.
Yet Harry Potter still lived with his aunt and uncle, evil though they were, and at the moment was sound asleep, but soon he would be awoken by the screeching of his aunt. 5, 4, 3, 2, "Get up! Now!" Right on time.
Harry awoke with a start. His aunt rapped at his door again. "Get up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking to the kitchen and putting a frying pan on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember what he had dreamed. It had been a good one. There was a flying motorcycle and a baby girl in it. Remembering he got that weird deja vu feeling, like he'd had the dream before.
His aunt was back outside his door. "Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Almost," said Harry.
"Well, hurry up, I want you to look after the eggs and bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything to be perfect on little Duddy's birthday." Harry groaned. "What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.
"Nothing, nothing..."
Dudley's birthday. How could he have possibly forgotten? Harry slowly rolled out of bed and started searching for his socks. He found some under his bed and pulled a spider off of one of them. He was used to spiders since there were a lot in the cupboard under the stairs and since that was his room, he had to get used to them.
When he was finally dressed, he walked down the hall to the kitchen. The poor table was almost hidden under all the presents. Imagine how heavy they must be. Looked like Dudley finally got that new computer, and the bike, and the DVD player...Why he wanted a bike was a complete mystery to Harry since Dudley was very fat and despised exercise. Unless by 'exercise', you meant beat up someone, mainly Harry. Harry was Dudley's favorite punching bag...when he could catch him. Although Harry might not look it, he was very fast.
Maybe it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier then he really was because all his clothes were Dudley's size since they used to be Dudley's in the first place, and Dudley was maybe, what, 5 times bigger than Harry?
Harry had a thin face, bright emerald green eyes, and messy black hair. He wore glasses that were constantly being taped together because of all the times Dudley's punched him in the face. The only thing Harry actually liked about his appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was strangely shaped like a bolt of lightning. He's had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.
"In the car crash that killed your parents," she had said. "And don't ask questions."
Don't ask questions. That was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursley's.
Uncle Vernon walked into the kitchen just as Harry was turning over the bacon.
"Comb your hair!" he barked. This was his usual morning greeting.
About once a week, Uncle Vernon would lower his newspaper and bark that Harry needed a haircut. Harry had probably had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it didn't make a difference, his hair just grew that way--all over the place.
Harry was almost done with breakfast when Dudley arrived in the kitchen along with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like his father. He had a large pink face, small watery blue eyes, not much of a neck, and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his fat head. Aunt Petunia often said he looked like a baby angel--Harry on the other hand, often thought that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Harry put the plates, full of eggs and bacon, on the table, which was pretty difficult considering there wasn't much table to put them on. Dudley meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.
Looking up at his mother and father, he said, "Thirty-six, that's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Aunt Marge's present, see, it's right under the big one from mommy and daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven." said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming, started shoveling his food into his mouth before the table was flipped over. Aunt Petunia, obviously sensing the same thing, quickly said, "And we'll buy you another 3 presents while we're out today. Is that all right?"
Dudley thought for a moment. I think it pained him to do so. Finally he slowly said, "So I'll have..."
"Forty, sweetums." said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest present.
At that moment the phone rang and Aunt Petunia went to go answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap a golden wrist watch, a new printer, some new computer games, and a remote control car. He was ripping the paper off of a digital camera when Aunt Petunia came back with a sour look on her face. The kind of look you get when you eat a lemon.
"I have some bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg broke her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head at Harry.
Mr. Dursley's face was overcome with horror, Harry on the other hand felt his heart leap. Every year for Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day. They'd go to restauraunts, amusement parks, and every ear Harry was left with Mrs. Figg. He gated it there. The whole house stunk of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at pictures of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what?" asked Aunt Petunia, glaring at Harry as though this were some kind of plot he came up with. Harry knew he should feel sorry for Mrs. Figg, she had broken her leg, but then again it'd be a whole year before he'd have to look at Snowy, Princess, or Taffy.
"We could ask Marge." Suggested Uncle Vernon.
"Are you crazy? She absolutely despises the boy."
The Dursley's often spoke about Harry as though he wasn't even in the room, even though he was. Or maybe they thought he was something ugly and horrible, like a slug. That was probably it.
"What about your friend what's-her-name--Yvonne?"
"She's on vacation in Italy." snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave me here." Harry suggested hopefully. Maybe then he'd be able to watch whatever he wanted to on the TV.
Aunt Petunia snarled at him. "And come back to find the house in ruins?"
"It's not like I'd blow up the place." he said, but no one was listening to him.
"I guess we could take him to the zoo...and leave him in the car..." said Aunt Petunia.
"That car's new, there's no way he's sitting in there alone."
Dudley began crying--not really, mind you. He hadn't really cried in years.
"Don't cry. I won't let him ruin your special day!" said Aunt Petunia. Harry was tempted to roll his eyes.
"I d-don't want him t-t-to c-come. He always r-ruins everything." he said through fake sobs.
Suddenly the doorbell rang-- "They're here!" cried Aunt Petunia frantically.-- and not long after, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was very scrawny and had a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held peoples arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry almost instantly.
Half an hour later, Harry, who had to stop himself from pinching his arm to see if this was a dream, was sitting in the back of the Dursley's car with Dudley and Piers, on the way to the zoo for the very first time in his 10-year-old life. His aunt and uncle couldn't think of another place to put him so they brought him along, but before they left, Uncle Vernon pulled him to the side and said, "If anything happens today--anything at all--you'll be in the cupboard until Christmas."
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry. "Honest..."
But did Uncle Vernon believe him? Nope. No one ever believes him.
The problem was, weird things happened regularly around Harry and it was no use telling the Dursley's that he didn't make them happen.
For example, one time Aunt Petunia was tired of taking Harry to the barbers only to have his hair grow back and decided she'd cut it herself. So she got a pair of scissors and cut of his hair. Well except his bangs which she left to 'hide that horrible scar'. Dudley had laughed himself silly when he had seen Harry and Harry found it hard to sleep that night because he dreaded going to school the next day, where he was already made fun of because of his taped glasses and baggy clothes. However, the next morning he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before his aunt had chopped it off. He had been given a wee in the cupboard even though he tried to explain that there was no way to make his hair grow back.
Example 2: Aunt Petunia tried to force him into a hideous sweater that used to belong to Dudley. What happened to the sweater? The harder she tried to pull it over Harry's head, the smaller and smaller it got until it could fit a hand puppet, but not Harry. Aunt Petunia decided it must have shrunk in the was and Harry was not punished.
On the other hand, he'd gotten into huge trouble when he somehow ended up on the roof of his school.
Dudley and his group of goons had been chasing him when, much to Harry's surprise (and everyone else's), he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursley's had gotten a very angry phone call from Harry's headmistress stating that Harry had been climbing the school buildings. But all he had tried to do, as he had said to his aunt and uncle over and over again to no avail, he had just been trying to jump behind the school dumpsters. Harry thought that perhaps the wind caught him mid-jump.
But today nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers. He wanted to go somewhere besides his cupboard, school, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling house.
As he drove, Uncle Vernon kept complaining to Aunt Petunia. He loved to complain about things: the bank, Harry, young people, Harry, the people at work, and Harry were just a few of his favorites. Today it seemed to be motorcycles
"...roaring along like maniacs, the young idiots," he said as a motorcycle passed them.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," Harry said, "It was flying."
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car behind them, he stopped so suddenly. He turned himself around and screamed at Harry, "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers snickered.
Harry once again was tempted to roll his eyes, but decided not to.
"Of course they don't," he said. "It was a dream."
He now wished he hadn't said anything. Not only do the Dursley's not like to be asked any sort of questions, they also don't like to hear Harry talk about anything acting in a way he shouldn't. It didn't matter if it was a dream or a cartoon. They seemed to think he'd get dangerous ideas.
It was a sunny Sunday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursley's bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van asked him if he wanted anything before the Dudley's had a chance to drag him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It was pretty good, too, Harry thought, licking it while watching a gorilla scratch his butt. It looked an awful lot like Dudley, only it wasn't blonde and it might have been a bit smarter.
Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. The ate at the zoo restaurant where Dudley threw a tantrum because his ice cream sundae apparently didn't have enough ice cream, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was able to finish the first one.
After lunch they went to the reptile house. Dudley wanted to see one of the large snakes move so he told his father to 'Make it move!' as he so kindly put it. Uncle Vernon tapped the glass, but the snake paid no mind.
"Again!" said Dudley. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass a little harder, but the snake continued sleeping.
"This is boring!" Dudley moaned and shuffled away.
As he left, a girl basically ran over Harry.
"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! Are you alright?" she asked while holding out her hand to help him up. He gratefully took her hand and she hauled him up.
The girl, in Harry's opinion, was beautiful. He had hair as black and shiny as a raven's wing and beautiful blue-gray eyes.
She had a twinkle of humor in her eyes as she said, "You know, it's not polite to stare."
Harry immediately snapped out of it and said, "Sorry." a slight red tint was appearing on his cheeks.
"It's fine. My name's Kagome Higurashi, what's yours?" she said while grinning.
Harry grinned as well. "Harry Potter."
"Nice to meet you, Harry."
"Same here." he said.
She looked at the snake. "Do you like snakes?" she asked.
"A bit."
"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if the snake has died of boredom." she said.
"I know what you mean," said Harry. "It has no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long."
The snake suddenly opened it's beady eyes and slowly, oh, so, slowly, it raised it's head until it's eyes were leveled with Kagome and Harry's.
It winked.
Kagome and Harry stared at the snake and then at each other.
"Did you see that?" asked Kagome.
Harry nodded.
"What should we do now? Should we wink back?"
"We've nothing to lose." he said.
The looked around to see if anyone else saw the snake wink, then looked back at the snake and winked right back.
The snake jerked it's head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised it's eyes to the ceiling. It was giving them a look that clearly said: I get that all the time.
"We know," murmured Harry through the glass.
"It must be really annoying." murmured Kagome.
The snake nodded it's head vigorously.
"Where do you com from?" asked Harry.
The snake jabbed it's tail at a small sign next to the glass. He looked at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil
"Was it nice there?" asked Kagome.
The snake once again jabbed it's tail at the sign and Kagome read on:
This specimen was bred in the zoo.
"Oh, I see--so you've never been to Brazil?" she asked.
As the snake shook his head, a loud shout behind Kagome and Harry made the trio jump.
"MR. DURSLEY! DUDLEY! COME QUICK! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT THE SNAKE'S DOING!"
Dudley waddled towards them as fast as he could.
"Get out of the way." he said, punching Harry in the ribs.
As she saw this, Kagome became very angry.
She was about to give Dudley a piece of her mind, but Harry grabbed her hand. She looked at him and he shook his head signifying that he didn't want her to beat up Dudley. Well, he wanted to see her do it, but he'd probably be blamed for it later.
What happened next came so fast that no one saw how it happened. One second Dudley and Piers were leaning on the glass, the next, they had leapt back howling in terror.
Kagome and Harry gasped. The glass window of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. Like it was never truly there. The snake was quickly uncoiling itself, slithering onto the reptile room floor. People throughout the entire room screamed and ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
As the snake slithered past them, Harry and Kagome thought they heard a hissing voice say, "Thanksss amigosss.
Kagome stared after the snake and said, "Harry, it was wonderful meeting you, but I think I should go."
She wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to Harry.
"This is my number, if you ever need to talk don't hesitate to call. Bye!" She walked to the door and stopped briefly to flash him a smile. He looked at the piece of paper in his pants and shoved it in his pocket.
The reptile house keeper was speechless to say the least.
He kept saying, "But the glass, where'd it go?"
The zoo director made a cup of strong tea for Aunt Petunia himself, apologizing repeatedly. Piers and Dudley could only babble. As far as he'd seen, the snake had only playfully snapped at their heels while passing, but, by the time they were in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley swore it had almost bitten off his hand and Piers was saying how the snake had almost squeezed him to death. But the worst thing that happened, to Harry anyway, was when Piers calmed down enough to say, "Harry and that girl were talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was gone before turning on Harry. He was so angry, it was hard for him to speak. "Go--cupboard--now--stay--no meals." was all he managed to say before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to go get him a large cup of brandy.
Kagome closed the door behind her and called out. "I'm home!"
Hermione came down the stairs smiling. "How was your day?" she asked.
Kagome smiled back. "Great! I met this really nice guy, Harry."
Hermione grinned like a Cheshire cat. "Oh, really? What was he like?"
Kagome walked into the kitchen and began taking out ingredients for a chocolate cake before answering.
"He's a little taller than me, looks 9 or 10, has pretty green eyes, messy jet-black hair, and a nice smile. He's pretty small if he's 9, but then again so am I." she then mumbled, "I wonder when I'll hit that stupid growth spurt."
"So is he cute?" asked Hermione.
Kagome, becoming suspicious, answered cautiously.
"You could say that." she cast a suspicious look at Hermione, "Why?" she asked. More like demanded, buy you know what I mean.
Hermione laughed nervously and glanced at her watch.
"Is it that time already?" she asked in mock surprise. "Well gotta go, see ya!" she dashed out of the door before Kagome could stop her.
"What is she up to?" she wondered out loud. Shrugging it off for now, Kagome continued making her cake.
Harry lay on his bed in his cupboard some time later, wishing he had a watch. He couldn't tell what time it was and wasn't completely sure if the Dursley's were asleep yet. Until they were he couldn't go into the kitchen to sneak some food out.
Harry had lived with the Dursley's for almost 10 years, 10 long and miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he was a baby and his parents died in that car crash. Obviously he couldn't remember much about the car crash since he was a baby, but sometimes, when he was locked up in the cupboard for hours, he'd try to remember it and he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light, and a burning sensation where his scar was. This, he imagined, was the car crash, though he didn't know where the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents. Not a single thing. His aunt and uncle never spoke of them and, of course, he wasn't allowed to ask questions. He didn't even have a picture of them.
When he had been younger, Harry hoped with all his heart that some unknown relation would come and take him away, but it never happened; the Dursley's were the only family he had left. Yet sometimes he though (or possibly hoped), that people in the streets knew him. Very strange people too. A tiny man in a blue top hat bowed to him once when he was out shopping with Dudley and Aunt Petunia. After asking Harry furiously many times, Aunt Petunia left the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking young woman in a red cloak had waved happily once on a bus. A bald man in a dark green coat had even shaken his hand in the middle of the street then walked away without a word.
With Kagome similar things were happening. An old woman dressed all in blue actually hugged her. To say Kagome was confused was a definite understatement.
She had walked home only to run into a young man who kissed her hand before walking away. Now bewildered (and a little freaked), she ran home and slammed the door shut.
"What's wrong?" asked Aunt Sarah.
"Nothing, Aunty." she said before walking up to her room to try to figure out what exactly had happened.
'The strangest thing about these people,' thought Kagome. 'Is that they seem to disappear whenever I try to get a better look at them.'
At school, Harry, unlike Kagome, didn't have anyone. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter with his taped glasses and baggy clothes and no one liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
ranchan: Well that's that. For those of you who are wondering, Aunt Sarah is Hermione's mom. I don't think they ever mentioned her name so I just thought one up. I'll try to post the next chapter ASAP.
D: She'll probably take another month.
ranchan: I will not!...At least I hope not. Anywho, I would like to thank the people who reviewed: kira-knuppel (thank you), RoaringWind (you make me feel so special -), Kill-All-Flamers (you really think so?), Tenseiga15 (Thanks!), IYGURL (so do I!), animewolfgurl, Kagome-reincarnation, hermonine, Kapt. Nemo, Kariisme (The Inu gang might wiggle themselves in there, but I'm not sure yet), korokochan18 (sorry!), Kurama'sFoxyMiko (I think this chapter answered your question), moonlover825 (aww, you made me feel so special), Aubrin Xerva (I'm gonna try), Yumiko-Emiko, Taeniaea (I'm glad you like it), and Flower Kid. Your reviews make me feel loved and I promise that if you keep reviewing I'll most likely update sooner. Ciao.