While Harry was currently learning more about Japan's many legends, Snape was trying to figure out why his daughter had fallen for a hanyou of all things.

His only comment about the Jewel of Four Souls, (which he learned Kagome accidentally shattered), was this.

"Great...my daughter is a bloody Gryffindor."

Inuyasha kept hanging around a small shrine past the tree of ages. So Harry, following his usual Gryffindor creed, went to see why.

He found a small well, completely dry and giving off a weird aura.

Inuyasha came up behind him.

"Try not to fall in."

"Why?"

"When Kagome and I go in, it leads to the feudal era of Japan. But if you fall in you might break your leg."

"Thanks for the advice."

Harry went to the conference and did his guest speaking bit, and needless to say the organizers were thrilled to not only have someone who knew what it was like to face Dark creatures and survive, but was also the boy-who-lived. The fact that he had gone against the resident dark lord and come back practically unscathed made him a big hit.

Harry left the place with quite a few people who were willing to join him in the fight against the dark lord, provided they didn't have to join Dumbledore and his band of misfit idiots.

Meanwhile Harry made sure to explore Tokyo with the help of Kagome and her school friends. Who had no idea she was a witch and could travel into the past.

Thanks to them he had a completely new wardrobe, and a new appreciation for music. He even had a few Japanese CDs which he loved, even if he could barely understand them. To top it all off, he now had a large amount of scrolls and books that had Japanese spells and theory to read later.

He enjoyed his stay, for however brief it would be.

Or so he thought. The morning they were about to head back to England, Harry found himself being a referee between his beloved owl and Inuyasha.

Now that was the most amusing thing he had seen in a long while. His owl from what he could tell was berating the half demon while Inuyasha argued in Japanese.

He wasn't the only one who was amused by the scene. Snape and Kagome were trying not to laugh as it became clear that Inuyasha was losing an argument to an owl...badly. Judging by the glare he was giving them both they weren't very successful in hiding their laughter. Even Sota was cracking up at the sight.

Eventually Inuyasha left with a huff, having clearly lost the argument. Harry was snickering as Hedwig looked particularly smug about that.

Suddenly she lost that smugness and went on alert, beginning to screech loudly. Harry, while caught off guard by the sudden change knew immediately something was very wrong.

Snape took a quick glance outside before hissing Dumbledore.

At least they were prepared in case something like this happened. Snape had told Harry the day after they arrived at the shrine exactly what to do if Dumbledore or one of Voldemort's minions arrived. He grabbed his bag, pulled out his cloak and went out back to the small shrine where the well stood.

Kagome and Inuyasha went down first, heading for the past. Sota and Harry followed, and as soon as they were on the bottom, spoke the illusion spell which would make it appear as though the well was covered and nailed shut by boards. Harry pulled out his cloak and pulled it over them both just in case.

Footsteps approached, and somehow he knew it was the old man. He went to draw the cloak tighter around them, and instead found himself bathed in a blue light. He opened his eyes to see...blue sky above. And he heard Kagome and Inuyasha.

He went to stand up, and felt the cloak still around him.

"Kagome-san? Inuyasha-kun?" he called out tentatively.

"Wait...was that Haru-san?"

"You heard it too? That sounded exactly like Haru!"said Kagome.

Inuyasha peered over the lip of the well, and said loudly "I can't see him."

Harry belatedly realized he still had the cloak on. He pulled it off and stuffed it into his bag.

"Down here!"

Kagome looked down this time, and gaped in shock.

"Haru, what are you doing down there?"

"I have no idea. I was with Sota hiding in the well when this light surrounded me and I heard your voice."

"Can you climb up?"

"Hang on."

Harry grabbed the nearest foothold and began to climb. It was slow, but eventually he got to the top. Inuyasha was very surprised to see him.

"How did you get here? This is the feudal era! And it would have been faster if I had carried you up myself."

Harry smirked at him, and said "This coming from the half demon who just lost an argument with an owl?"

Four pairs of eyes stared at Inuyasha in disbelief.

"Hey, she started it!"

"What on earth were you two arguing about anyway?"

Inuyasha blushed. Kagome gave him an odd look.

"She happened to mention off hand that it was odd that I didn't have a leash tied to Kagome."

Harry laughed.

He saw there were others in the clearing with them, and he looked at Kagome.

"Oh, right. This is Miroku, Sango, Shippo and Kirara."

"Hello. My name is Haru."

Shippo, the small fox demon decided to look closer at him. Clearly he had never seen someone with such green eyes before. Harry noticed this, so he bent down to look at Shippo at his eye level. Shippo took this as the invitation it was, because he immediately climbed on his shoulders without prompting. Since Harry kept the grin on his face, it was clear he didn't mind having the tiny kitsune climbing on his shoulders.

"So where did you met Haru, Kagome?" asked Miroku.

"My dad brought him along after he got a letter from my mother about missing a lot of school. Mom forgot to include why I was missing it."

"Your father? I thought he was..."

"We only say he's dead in case the people who are after him come around. He's been away for so long to protect us."

"Not surprising, with the war going on. If the dark tosser found out about you and your family he would use it against it him," said Harry.

Kagome looked at him oddly.

"You know the people after my dad?"

"Know them? They're after me too. Snape is a greasy jerk, but I can understand why he would hide the fact he has a family from Voldemort."

"Who names their kid Voldemort?"asked Inuyasha.

"He named himself that. It's supposed to mean 'flight of death' or something. And he has a tendency to torture people as a hobby, especially his followers."

Kagome winced.

"The snake freak also has an unhealthy obsession with killing me, and if he found out I had become Snape's ward he would have ordered him to bring me to wherever he was hiding to kill me on the spot. I have no idea why he is so determined to kill me either."

Kagome lead him to the village, and was not surprised in the least when Kaede looked at him suspiciously. But what she said next did surprise her more than she would admit.

"If ye are a demon, ye have the strongest light I have ever seen."

Why did Kaede think Harry was a demon?

"What do you mean Lady Kaede?"

"He radiates light. It's almost like he has the powers of a very strong monk or miko. He even eclipses your own light Kagome."

Several pairs of eyes looked at him.

"I have no clue what you're talking about."

Kaede looked at him and said again," You, child, must be a natural born monk. It seems like Kagome you possess strong spiritual holy powers."

Harry blinked, then said in disbelief " You have got to be kidding. Even in this era I have trouble fitting in?"

Much to his surprise, soon they were sitting down and having tea. Kaede had him explain his comment, and wasn't surprised to find out he was from the same era as Kagome in the least. Since he did know how to channel his powers to a point, Kagome promised to teach him how to shoot an arrow later.

She later regretted it, because it turned out Harry was a much better shot that her, even with his newly found powers working. Inuyasha couldn't help but comment about that every time he saw Harry was about to shoot.

Which resulted in Harry laughing when he found out about Kagome's invisible leash on said hanyou.

If someone had asked him if he thought he would travel in five hundred years in the past, he would have given an extremely odd answer in response.

(Sango was the one who asked.)

"Meh. Compared to what has happened to me for the past four years, this is normal. At least here I can fit in to a point."

Several pairs of eyes stared at him for that odd answer.

If someone had asked Kagome if she had known she would be getting a new traveling companion from her era who knew her dad, she would have given them an odd look.

Now they had a new person to talk to, and he could cook. Shippo absolutely loved him, because Harry was a natural prankster. Inuyasha had woken up more than one time with a snake on his head. It was never poisonous, but still.

After the first time Harry did that, the Kagome had yelped and Sango had drawn her sword in shock. Harry on the other hand had burst out laughing, because he had a good idea why that snake had come.

For some odd reason, certain nights he tended to hiss in his sleep.

Shippo treated Harry like an older brother, which had an unexpected affect on the normally silent teen. He began to laugh more, and sometime he would hum a tune for them. He had a very pleasant voice, and could hold a tune.

"Nureta hitomi no oku

aoi tsuki wa shizuka ni kobore ochite yuku

azayaka na sekai wa

oto mo naku shizuka ni yami ni keite yuku

byou yomi no naka kake meguru yami no nake o

soshite arata naru toki o mukau ima

kizutsuita kuroi tsubasa

tsuki no akara ni terasarete

utsukushiku maiagare

shinkou no kuchizuke ga ima

kokoro no oku ni nagare komu

soshite yume no naka e."

Inuyasha would often find himself humming along with Harry, though he rarely knew the words. Occasionally they would run into Naraku, the one who pursued them for their shards. Harry only had to meet him once and he immediately pegged him as someone with an aura like Voldemort.

Needless to say he didn't like him at all.

He turned out to be a valuable asset in a fight, because of his training with magic.

He also had a rather interesting reaction to Koga, a wolf demon who often lusted after Kagome, and Sesshomaru, Inuyasha's older brother.

"Cool."

Still, Harry watched with interest as Inuyasha barely beat Sesshomaru again. His first question after the other demon left was to ask why his older brother wanted to kill him so badly. His next was why he didn't use his left arm at all.

Inuyasha told the tale with an unholy amount of glee. Harry listened with interest, before saying "So basically you two are arguing over who inherits what?"

Kagome laughed over the look on Inuyasha's face as Harry put to words the root of the problem.

"No that isn't how it is at all!" said Inuyasha.

"So you and Sesshomaru aren't squabbling over the swords like children?" remarked Harry with a raised eyebrow.

On the sidelines Shippo, Sango and Miroku were trying very hard not to let Inuyasha hear their laughter as Harry bluntly called Inuyasha and Sesshomaru squabbling children.

Inuyasha sputtered, then tried to come up with a comeback.

"Exactly how old are you two anyway?"

That ended that conversation, as the only one not laughing was Inuyasha. Needless to say Inuyasha was sulking for days. Even beating Naraku and Sesshomaru in less than two days didn't improve his mood. Normally it would have, but Harry had inadvertently brought up his argument within Sesshomaru's hearing.

Sesshomaru was not as amused as his brother's companions were. Nor did he like the fact that Harry compared the two brothers as 'squabbling children'.

Sesshomaru initially was going to skewer Harry through with his katana, until Harry mildly pointed out "You're trying to solve the issue with brute force. How is that not child-like?"

Kagome was cracking up for days as she asked Harry how he got Sesshomaru to back off without force.

"Clearly he's never come across someone who is so used to being threatened with death and combats it with logic. I've gone up against a giant snake that can kill you by looking you in the eye when I was twelve. A jumped up puppy with a sword that can't kill when swung isn't going to scare me."

Inuyasha choked on his ramen, and said incredulous "Jumped up puppy?"

"He's not a wolf demon is he?"

"He's Inu Youkai, dog demon."

"Which makes him a jumped up Puppy."

Inuyasha kept twitching for hours at that. Kagome and Sango on the other hand kept giggling.

Shippo decided to change the subject. Unfortunately for Inuyasha, it was something near and dear to Harry's heart.

PRANKS.

For the next week, the others would wake up to various pranks that went off. From their clothes and hair changing colors at random (Inuyasha spent an entire day with green hair and purple clothes) to fireworks going off at night. Not that they minded the fireworks.

How Harry had managed to have fifteen boxes of Filibuster's wet start fireworks and four of the twins experimental ones they didn't want to know. Even if they were rather impressive to watch before bed.

(Inuyasha was the only one to complain, and that was because of the gunpowder in the fireworks.)

Still, they did enjoy having Harry around with them. He attracted trouble like flies to honey, but he also knew how to handle himself in a dangerous situation. Something that endeared him to Inuyasha, though he did wish the boy wasn't such an imp. He was learning how to handle his natural energy, which seemed to draw demons in the same way the Jewel Shards did. His magic seemed to amplify his purifying powers.

One day he was scouting ahead, mostly to get away from Kagome and Inuyasha who were arguing loudly enough to give him a massive headache. There was a large field full of flowers. And in that field was a small girl. She wasn't of nobility, that was for certain.

The moment she spotted him she froze. It was quite interesting actually, as she had one foot high in the air and was still as a statue. That was when he spotted him. The same Inu youkai he had called a spoiled child when he learned of the argument between brothers. And Inuyasha was nowhere near enough to help if Sesshomaru wanted payback.

Sesshomaru on the other hand had no idea the boy had already seen him. He was more interested in how he reacted to Rin to care.

Haru saw this, and carefully went up to the girl and held out his hand. She had excellent balance, and had managed to stay up right despite having one foot in the air.

"My name is Haru. What's yours?"

Sesshomaru gave an imperceptible nod, and the girl brightened up. Clearly this boy wasn't a demon, or her Lord wouldn't have given her the go ahead.

"I'm Rin!" she said cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you Rin. What are you doing out here alone?"

She held up the flowers up as the answer. And suddenly Haru had the strangest image of Sesshomaru with flowers in his hair and tried not to laugh. Rin mistook the silly grin on his face as a sign for her to explain.

Which is when his impish side kicked in. He cheerfully helped her pick flowers, and then let her show him how to braid them together. It was a rather pretty circlet, though it would be somewhat embarrassing to have a boy wear it.

Sesshomaru finally came into view, and had a rather strange look on his face. One that gave him a hint of foreboding.

He told the girl something and she beamed at him. Then she put the circle of flowers around his head and not the dog demon! Somehow he knew Sesshomaru was the one who convinced her to do it.

Not that he really minded, once he thought about it. The little ring of flowers had lilies in them, so he honestly didn't care.

He parted ways with them, and gave Sesshomaru a nod of acknowledgment which he returned. Haru was telling the inu youkai that he knew the girl was his and wouldn't take the child from him. Sesshomaru was returning the gesture, meaning he didn't mind if Rin and Haru became friends, provided the boy remembered the girl was his.

Such a simple gesture, but it was simple and to the point.

When he reached the next town, he found six surprised travelers who promptly asked what happened while he was gone. He compared it to how his friends reacted if he so much as left them alone for more than fifteen minutes.

And realized he preferred these people who he barely knew to Hermione and Ron.

Where his former best friends insisted on knowing where he went and what he had done, these people only wanted to know if he got into trouble, and respected his privacy. They didn't care whether he had taken a little walk for a few hours, so long as he didn't get into a fight with a demon or worse Naraku.

Haru lay down in the mattress that night and realized how much he liked the feudal era. No Dark Lords after his life, no overbearing friends who insisted on knowing everything he did, no old men who planned on using him for a dubious greater good, and more importantly no Dursleys!

That was when he realized something.

He had forgotten to cast the translation charm that morning. And yet he had spoken to the others with ease. He even understood Rin and hadn't realized it. Did that mean he had learned Japanese and didn't know it?

And yet to him it felt like he was speaking in plain English. So the next morning he decided to test his theory and asked a simple question to Kagome.

"What are we having for breakfast?"

Only Inuyasha heard his question, and since he was usually the first to go to the table, he gave him an odd look. Kagome yawned and told him...in Japanese.

Haru couldn't believe it. He had learned Japanese without knowing it! Somehow that made him grin.

Once they set off, Haru realized he barely even scratched the surface when it came to learning about Japan.

So before the others left the town, he turned to Kagome.

"I think I'll go exploring by myself for a while. Mind if we meet back up at Kaede's village?"

Inuyasha snorted in amusement.

"I seriously doubt you'll make it that far. You always attract demons!"

Haru glared at him.

"I can shoot an arrow just fine. Besides, I can handle myself!"

Shippo was torn. On one hand he wanted to stay with Kagome. But on the other he wanted to stick with Haru. Haru could tell, since he looked at the tiny kitsune and told him he would accept whatever choice he made.

Shippo looked at Kagome and then at Haru.

"We'll meet up at Kaede's?"

Haru nodded. He planned on heading back to check on Hedwig.

Shippo looked at Kagome. Who smiled and put him on Haru's shoulder.

They left the tiny village together, determined to see more of Japan and possibly find more jewel shards before they returned.

The song above is the Japanese translation to Yami no Matsuei, or Descendants of Darkness. Look it up if you want to read the ENGLISH translation.