A/N: Here's chapter six, but just to let you guys know, the rest of the chapters may not be posted on the set days that I mentioned. I'm having trouble with my computer right now, so I'll only be able to type when it lets me. And I don't like using other computers because this one is where I have all of my documents saved. So yeah, it may take a while. I'm working on chapter seven right now and I will write it on paper first and type it when I can. That way I don't lose the ideas I have and such.
Hope you guys get the reference between this chapter's title and the movie called 'Pleasantville' when you read about Privet Drive. Lol If you've never heard of the movie "Pleasantville" consider yourselves lucky. My mom made me watch it with her. BOOORING!
Chapter Six: Welcome to Pleasantville
Ichigo gazed around at the alleyway he and his group were in, his nose wrinkling in disgust at the smells of rotting garbage and sewage radiating from the dumpsters. The alley was dark and damp, even though it was obviously day time, if the light blue blanket above the alley was anything to go by. Neither of the buildings surrounding them had windows facing the alley and graffiti decorated the single door a little ways down the alley, heading away from the mouth and the pedestrians leisurely passing by.
"I don't like this place." Rangiku complained, placing her hand in front of her nose. "It smells. If this is how all of London smells, than I won't like it here at all."
"Well, I'm no scientist but I think the smell is coming from the dumpsters surrounding us." Ichigo said sarcastically. "Unless there are dumpsters scattered around town at random, I don't think it'll smell this bad unless their entire sewer system is jacked up."
"Ew." Rangiku said disgustedly. "Humans get more and more disgusting as time progresses."
Before anyone could respond, two large spots of white light emerged from the back of the alley, followed by a loud roar as a large black truck headed towards them, occasionally scraping against the sides of the buildings and making the unbearable metal against metal sounds. The five Soul Reapers subconsciously moved their hands down to their waists, clutching for their Zanpaktou and realizing that they had put them in their trunks in order to keep suspicion off of themselves. Rukia, being almost an expert in kido, stepped forward and prepared for her first attack.
"Wait!" Toshiro called, throwing an arm out in front of Rukia to stop her. The five of them watched as the truck slowed to a stop in front of them, the dark windshield hiding the driver from view. The driver's side door opened and a single black shoe stepped out of the truck and onto the silver metal step nearly a foot above the ground, followed by a second shoe. A pale hand reached out and placed itself on the top edge of the door as the shoes leaped to the ground, followed closely by a soft "oof!" and then a tall white haired man with pale skin and a kind face emerged from behind the door, a gentle smile placed on his face. "Captain Ukitake." Toshiro greeted.
"Well, hello there, Toshiro, Rangiku, Renji, Rukia." He turned to Ichigo. "And you must be Ichigo Kurosaki; Rukia has told me much about you. You're somewhat of a nuisance, right? Or did she say novice?"
Ichigo glared at Rukia, who seemed to be quite pleased with her sum up of Ichigo. Ukitake laughed well naturedly. "Well, now, let's see. You can place your trunks in the back and climb on in. Kenpachi found this gentle giant in a used car lot and effectively persuaded the dealer to part with it at a reasonably discounted price." Ukitake patted the truck while the non-captain soul reapers gave each other knowing looks. "So, let's climb aboard and I'll drive you all to your new home. I'm not a very good driver I'm afraid, but I must say I'm a bit better than Kenpachi was."
"A bit?" Ichigo asked as he and the others tossed their trunks into the bed of the truck and attempted to climb into the seats behind the driver and passenger seats.
Ukitake chuckled as he pulled himself into the driver's seat. "Let's just say it's a good thing there weren't many people on the street I came down before getting here."
"Toshiro, let me sit up front." Rangiku whined.
"It's Captain Hitsugaya." Toshiro snapped, climbing up into the passenger seat and crossing his arms over his chest. "And no. I'm not sitting in the back with those three." He said, jerking his thumb back towards Ichigo, Renji and Rukia, all of whom were currently arguing over who sits in the middle.
"But four full grown teenagers won't fit back here." Rangiku pouted. Toshiro glared at her comment, knowing full well what she was getting at. Suddenly she had an idea. "I know; I'll sit with you."
And before Toshiro could protest, he was shoved into the middle of the front seats and nearly into Ukitake's lap, as Rangiku leaped into the passenger seat beside him. "Matsumoto." He growled as he pushed himself into a sitting position.
"Well, you only take up half a seat anyways." Rangiku said. Then she closed the door and pulled the seat belt over her shoulder and snapped it in around herself and Toshiro, making the young captain growl again. "Now we have three in front and three in back."
"So are we all ready?" Ukitake asked cheerfully.
"Ready." Rangiku replied. Toshiro just grunted, his arms across his chest almost in a pouting gesture.
"Ready." Echoed Renji. He and Ichigo had convinced Rukia to sit in the middle since she was the smallest and reasonably the best person for the middle because she wouldn't block Ukitake's view of the rear-view mirror. Since she was all about reasoning, Rukia had been unable to come up with a counter-complaint before they had strapped themselves in on either side of her, forcing her to take the middle.
Ukitake pulled out of the alley and onto the main road, carefully driving down the street while he tried to remember which way to go to get back to the house. As he passed a small, shabby-looking bookstore and a shabby-looking record store, Ukitake slowed to a stop and pointed to a dark, empty-looking shop nestled tightly in between, the windows covered with dust and dirt and giving the place a desolate appearance. "That is a pub called the Leaky Cauldron. It's a pub and Inn created for the wizarding population; no Muggles are able to see it and none of them even realize that it's there; all they see is a record store and a bookstore. The Leaky Cauldron is where you guys will stay the last couple weeks before school. From here you will take a taxi to King's Cross Station. Your train, the Hogwarts Express, leaves at eleven o'clock, so make sure you're through the barrier and on the train before it leaves."
"And how do we get on the train?" Rangiku asked. "I read through Toshiro's notes-"
"Hitsugaya." Toshiro snapped.
"-and it says that there is a barrier that only wizards can get through." Rangiku said, ignoring Toshiro's remark. "So how do we get through it?"
"I'm surprised you actually read something." Renji said teasingly.
Toshiro smirked and Rangiku frowned at him but Ukitake spoke first, cutting off the likely argument that was sure to start by the comment and the young captain's reaction. "The barrier is pretty easy to get through if you know where to look. You five should be able to get through with little to no problem. Just walk up to the barrier, best to go one at a time so you don't cause suspicions when you disappear at random, and just walk through. That's about it but I suppose I could tell you that you should probably go at a bit of a run if you're nervous; it does look like you're walking directly into a solid brick wall, after all."
"What's the train's platform number?" Ichigo asked from behind Ukitake.
"Nine and three quarters." Ukitake said. He looked in the rear-view mirror at the startled reactions he knew they would get at the peculiar number, and chuckled. "Yes, I know it seems a bit strange to say platform nine and three quarters. I suppose they just like to be unique."
"Or difficult." Renji said. "Why do these people have to make everything so complicated? They have all this magic stuff and yet they make everything so complicated, it's practically considered stupid."
"I agree… with whatever Renji just tried to say." Rukia said. "They have the power to make things simpler for themselves and yet they make it worse. Why?"
"I don't really care why they do what they do." Toshiro said. "Let them. I just want to know where we're supposed to get our supplies."
"Yeah, I want to try out a wand." Rangiku said. "I wonder if I can create sake with a wand. I could have all the sake in the world!"
"I thought I told you no sake for a month because you never did your paperwork when I told you to." Toshiro reminded her.
"Aw, but Toshiro." She whined.
"Captain Hitsugaya!" he snapped.
"Well," Ukitake said, stopping the argument before it started. "This is where you will be getting your supplies." He pointed back to the Leaky Cauldron. "You come here in about two weeks and there's a, sort of, back yard you go to that ends in a brick wall. All you have to do is go there and have someone open the gate for you. You'll need a wand to open it yourselves but for now you'll just need to ask someone, probably the innkeeper. There's a whole other town back there called Diagon Alley. It's almost like a wizarding version of the street you see now; it's full of wizard shops and items and animals and who knows what else. I'm afraid I don't know much about it; all I know is what I learned based on what Captain-General Yamamoto told me."
"That's fine." Toshiro said. "We can just see for ourselves when the time comes. And if we need to, we can ask the innkeeper when we get here."
Ukitake nodded in agreement and pulled away from the shops and back into traffic. "Right. Well, how it will go is that in about two weeks you will all take a taxi from your home to the Leaky Cauldron. There, you will go into Diagon Alley and first go into Gringotts, the wizard bank. There you will go up to one of the goblins, yes goblins, and give them this." He handed Toshiro a small, silver key with the handle shaped like that of a sword's hilt. "It's the key to vault 728; Head-Captain Yamamoto's vault. It's highly protected for reasons known only to the Head-Captain; in order to access it, you will need that key, a signed permission slip from Head-Captain himself, which I'm assuming you have, Toshiro?" Toshiro nodded. "And you will need one of the goblins to open it themselves. From what I heard, if anyone else tries to open a vault that's not theirs other than a goblin, something unpleasant is supposed to happen. Don't try."
"Why would we?" Rukia asked. "We're supposed to be the good guys. Stealing is not a good guy asset." Renji rolled his eyes behind her to Ichigo, who mimicked his action.
"After you get to the vault, just put a small handful of each coin into your money sacks." Ukitake continued to instruct. "You don't need much for your sacks to get familiar with the wizarding money. There are three types of coins for wizarding money and I'm not familiar with how it works but basically there is a coin called a Galleon, a coin called a Sickle, and a coin called a Knut. I believe Galleons are gold and are worth more and Sickles are silver and sort of like the middle coin, and a Knut is bronze and sort of like the most common and worth the least."
"I'm sure we'll figure it out." Toshiro said.
"Yes, I'm sure you will." Ukitake said. Ukitake pulled off the main road and drove down another street, passing a large park with a small play area near the other end of the grassy field, and then another street similar to the first but without the park.
Toshiro glanced passed Rangiku and out the window, trying to memorize which way led where and noted a street sign that said Magnolia Road with a cross sign that read Magnolia Crescent, which they passed, before they turned at another cross street called Wisteria Walk and finally down a final street called Privet Drive. What surprised Toshiro, and the rest of the Soul Reapers except Ukitake, was that every house on each street was eerily similar; each one was a large similar square-shaped house about 36x18 yards in diameter and each one surrounded by a well-manicured lawn and either a low brick wall, a short white picket fence, or a low-cut hedge. "They're all the same." Toshiro muttered in bewilderment.
"Yes, I noticed that too." Ukitake said. "The only thing distinguishing each house from its neighbors is whatever car is in the driveway or whatever decorations are around the house, as well as the brass number displaying which house number is which." Ukitake drove down the street, passing a couple of houses, and coming to a stop in front of a house with a ripped up lawn and a brass number 8 on the door, the half of the picket fence closest to the driveway in shambles. "Welcome home." Ukitake said cheerily.
The five Soul Reapers and Ukitake climbed out of the massive truck and looked around. The streets were unusually quiet for being so early in the day, several of the driveways empty, indicating that the owners must be at work about now. A single woman headed down the street with a small child in one arm and a dozen shopping bags hanging from the other, both of them with their backs to the new comers.
"This place is hideous." Rangiku said. She reached down and picked up a piece of the broken fence. "And what's up with this fence?"
Ukitake chuckled. "Actually, you have Kenpachi to thank for that. Although he didn't do so badly for his first time driving, don't you think?"
Rangiku raised a single eye brow as she and the other Soul Reapers surveyed the damage. "Riiiight." She said, precariously dropping the piece back on the ground. "Well, not to worry. I'm here and that means a total home makeover, courtesy of yours truly. I'll fix this place up, no sweat."
"Why would you bother fixing this place up anyways?" Renji asked. "We won't be here long enough for it to matter."
Rangiku looked at him like he was an insane. "I am not going to live in a hideous place like this, no matter how long or short it's going to be. What would people say if they saw me in a dump like this?"
"Who do you know here?" Renji asked incredulously. "No one knows you here so they're not going to care."
"I'll care." Rengiku said. "Besides, if we're going to have a drinking party every Saturday, we'll need to make good impressions on the neighbors or else no one is going to want to come."
"No parties." Toshiro said. The others turned to see him leaning against the back of the truck, his trunk leaning beside him, and his arms across his chest in a bored manner. "We want to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. That means no parties, not too loud of noises, no explosions, no fighting," he eyed Renji, Ichigo and Rukia, all of whom were already arguing about who got which room. "And no disturbing the neighbors. Obviously this is a peaceful and well-mannered neighborhood and we stand out enough as it is with this giant hunk of tin here." He tapped a knuckle against the side of the truck.
"Oh, you're right." Ukitake said, looking around at the few cars that were still in their driveways, all of which were small, simple and dignified, proclaiming self-importance. Then he glanced back at the large, monstrous black truck and grinned. "Well, then I guess I better get going before I cause a problem, huh?"
Quickly the rest of the Soul Reapers grabbed their trunks from the bed of the truck and headed up the driveway towards the front door, passing a pile of powdered clay that gave them the impression that it was once a garden gnome. Half way to the door, Toshiro paused and looked over his shoulder, peering across the street at the house in front of theirs and then turned his gaze to the house next to it.
"What's wrong?" Rukia asked. The others paused and looked around themselves.
"You sense him?" Ukitake asked softly.
Toshiro turned to the older captain and nodded. "Do you see him?"
Ukitake nodded. "I do. He was watching us yesterday, too. Kenpachi saw him, frightened him actually, as Yachiru put it. He was hiding behind the low wall around his front yard when we came to furnish the house."
"Who are we talking about?" Rangiku asked in confusion.
Toshiro jerked his chin in the direction of the house he was casually watching, number four. "Act normal and pretend you're just looking around. The house numbered 'Four', across the street from us; in the second window, the small one on the second floor, there's someone watching us. It's Harry Potter."
Ichigo casually glanced up at the window mentioned and noted the small head staring out at them curiously. "That's him? I can't see anything but his head but with what I can see, he looks pretty small. Are you sure that's him?"
"Yes." Ukitake said without nodding. "It's him. The scar we saw when we first saw him was proof; thin, shaped like a bolt of lightening, as the description proclaims."
Toshiro nodded and turned, the others following suit, and continued to the front door. Ukitake maneuvered his way to the front and unlocked the door before handing the key to Toshiro and stepping back to let them inside. Ukitake followed the last person through the door, turned and glanced back at the window of their one-man audience, locking eyes with Harry and giving him a small kind smile before shutting the door.
Harry stared from the small bathroom window on the second floor down to the house across the street a ways. So they did decide to move into number eight. Harry thought, watching the white haired man usher the odd-looking teenagers away from the enormous black truck and towards the house. Actually, Harry could have sworn that the smallest one, the boy with spiky hair, white like the older man's, seemed to be in charge, as the others seemed to respectfully let him through to the front of the group and into the house first, not to mention that they didn't even seem interested in entering the house until he had started to head in first.
Harry positioned his feet at different angles on the edge of the bathtub and continued to peer out as they headed up to the front door. Suddenly he ducked as the shorter boy paused and glanced over his shoulder. After a few seconds, Harry peered back out the window to see the others turning around to peer around themselves and Harry could barely make out the shorter boy's lips moving as he spoke to them. Occasionally the others would pass their gaze over his window, but none of them seemed to linger on him long enough to make Harry think they had seen him. He stood up straight again as they continued to head to the door and he watched as the white haired man unlocked the door and handed the key to the shorter boy before moving out of the way to let them through. Before the man shut the door behind him, he glanced up at Harry's window and even though he gave Harry a kind smile, it still made his heart skip a beat when he realized that they had seen him.
Suddenly the bathroom door burst open with a bang and Harry whirled around, forgetting he was standing on the edge of the bathtub, and slipped into the tub with a painful thud as his knees hit the bottom. Before he could get back to his feet, a hand reached out and grabbed him, lifting him into the air and out of the tub and throwing him out into the hallway. Harry landed on his rump, bruising his tailbone, and turned to see his cousin, Dudley, standing in the doorway, sneering at Harry. "I have to get ready." He said scornfully. "We're going to another amusement park when dad gets back from work for my birthday. And you don't get to come. Ha ha." Then he slammed the door shut.
Glaring at the closed door, Harry stood and brushed at his pants, checking that his kneecaps were still in tact, before heading into his room and quietly shutting the door. He knew his aunt would be on him in an instant if he slammed the door. He sat on the edge of his bed and peered out the window and down into the back garden, Hedwig staring at him with her large eyes, squeaking occasionally. Who cares if Dudley goes to the amusement park again for his birthday? So what if he got stuck with Mrs. Figg again while everyone else was out having a good time? At least there was one thing Harry had to look forward to. Harry thought about the people he had seen and his heart soared. At least four of the people moving in were around his age, though he wasn't entirely sure about the shorter boy; he might be older than Harry thought, since he seemed to carry himself with the air of someone more mature for his age. And then there was the large, terrifying man he had seen the other day with the little girl. He hoped they weren't moving in as well. The girl might not be so bad but Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be anywhere near that house if that man was going to be there.
Suddenly Hedwig screeched, spreading her wings wide and rattling the bars of her cage. Harry leaped to his feet and rushed to her cage, trying to soothe her as she continued to rattle the bars. "Shh." Harry said, leaning down to look at her at eye level. "What's wrong with you?"
Hedwig screeched again, pecking at the door of her cage and the padlock that had been attached after Harry had returned home. Harry sighed. "I know you want out but I can't. Uncle Vernon won't let you out. There's nothing I can do." Hedwig screeched loudly and Harry winced. She had screeched like this twice yesterday and now she was doing it again. Harry knew that if she kept this up, his uncle would make him get rid of her and he didn't want that.
Harry's heart leaped to his throat as a pounding was suddenly heard on his door, followed by the shrieking voice of his aunt. "Boy, you keep that wretched bird quiet or I will do it myself, you hear? Keep that bird quiet! I will not have you doing anything to disrupt Dudley's birthday!"
Harry shushed Hedwig again, who listened this time, and then waited until he heard his aunt head back downstairs before he sighed in relief and slumped into his desk chair. Then he glanced back up at Hedwig, looking at her sorrowfully. "I'm sorry, Hedwig. You know that if I could let you out, I would. You don't deserve to suffer being locked up because of me. If I could just convince them that you will be better off being let out…"
Harry sat at his desk for a few more moments before getting up and heading over to his bed and flopping face down over the comforter. "Is summer over yet?" he asked, his voice muffled against the mattress. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and placed his chin in his hands, glancing up at the now silent owl. "Do you think they'll like me?" he asked her.
"Boy!" his aunt called up the stairs. Harry got up off of his bed and headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. His aunt turned from the sink and pointed a soapy spatula at him and then up towards the bathroom. "Go get washed up; even though you're going to Mrs. Figg, I will not send you there looking like a slob. How do you think that would make us look?" She turned back to the sink and Harry headed back up the stairs. "And do something about your hair, for crying out loud!"
"All of the bedrooms are up stairs along with two bathrooms, one of which is in the master bedroom, and the dining room, kitchen, and living room are down here on the first floor." Ukitake said. He stood in the middle of the living room with the younger Soul Reapers standing around him. "Each room is furnished with the basics: beds in the bedrooms, blankets on the beds, pillows on the beds, extra blankets in the cupboard under the stairs, couches in the living room, toilet paper in the bathroom, towels and shower supplies in the bathroom, food and dishes in the kitchen, a table for six in the dining room, things like that. If there's anything you think of later that isn't here, just take a taxi into main London and buy it. And I don't think I have to tell you not to go overboard?"
"Yeah, yeah, we know." Ichigo said, sounding bored and uncaring.
Rukia glared at him and then bowed to Ukitake. "Thank you for everything, Captain Ukitake." She said. She added an extra bow, mostly because he was her Division's captain, and then looked towards the staircase leading up to the second floor.
Ukitake laughed. "Well, I better get going. I'll see you all as soon as I can. Until then…"
After Ukitake had left, Toshiro turned to his group. "Alright, I'll give you all about an hour to pick a room and unpack. Afterwards, I want all of you to meet me in the dining room." He eyed each of them, making sure they paid enough attention to listen to his instructions, and then nodded. "Go."
He had barely said the word before the living room was empty and he could hear shouting from upstairs as the other Soul Reapers fought over who slept where. Toshiro sighed in exasperation, once again cursing Soul Society for putting him in charge of this motley crew. Then he headed up the stairs with his trunk, spotting Rukia, Renji, Ichigo and Rangiku near the landing, the four of them arguing over the corner room above the kitchen and away from the location of the front door, no doubt the master bedroom. Letting them argue, he decided to spite them all and slipped, unnoticed, into the room and slammed the door in all of their faces and locked it.
Smirking at the sudden silence, the four of them no doubt stunned silent, he turned and tossed his trunk on his bed and began pulling out his clothing and placed them in the closet and everything else into the drawers in the night stand. He sighed when he pulled out the large stack of paperwork he had decided to take with him, which had turned out to be nearly half the stack that had been on his desk in his office. Figuring he might as well get started as soon as possible, he placed them on the night stand for after the meeting and then headed back downstairs and into the dining room. He was surprised to see Ichigo already there, drinking out of a cola can.
"I would've expected you to still be arguing with the others over the rooms." Toshiro said as he took a seat at the head of the table.
Ichigo shrugged and took another drink before answering. "Neh, I figured I'd take a leaf out of your book and head into one room and close and lock the door behind me. Then I hurried up and unpacked before they could chase me out."
Toshiro nodded. "Smart. I get the impression that you're a bit smarter than you let on."
Again, Ichigo shrugged. "I guess. I'm not a genius or anything but I do know about common sense and all that. It's not that I don't know something when I answer in a way that makes people think I don't know what I'm talking about; I just don't give a damn."
Toshiro smirked. "That's a great way to think about things."
Ichigo smirked back. "I guess. But it pisses the hell out of Rukia. She's such a pain in the ass sometimes."
Toshiro's smirk deepened. "I don't know; you two seem awfully close." Ichigo glared at him. "But then again, so does she and Abarai. But what do I know? I'm just a genius."
Ichigo scowled. "Whatever." He mumbled. The two of them sat in silence a moment more before he spoke again. "So what do you think of this Harry Potter kid? From what I saw, he didn't seem so special to me."
"I know but I guess appearances aren't everything. Each of us should know something about that." Toshiro said. Ichigo scoffed. "We'll discuss it more in a few minutes, when the others get down here like their supposed to!" he shouted. The silent arguing upstairs paused at his shout and then the two of them heard several pairs of feet thundering down the stairs. Toshiro rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose when the others burst from the hallway through the dining room door, nearly slamming it off of its hinges. "You're late."
Rangiku glanced around and spotted the clock above the other dining room door that lead into the kitchen. "We're only late by two minutes." She argued.
"But you're still late." Toshiro retorted. "I said one hour, not one hour and two minutes. Now take your seats so we can be done with this."
"And what exactly are we doing?" Rangiku asked as she took a seat on Toshiro's right. Renji sat next to Ichigo, who was seated on Toshiro's left and Rukia sat across from him next to Rangiku.
"We're going to discuss what we need to do the weeks that we're here before we go to Diagon Alley." Toshiro said. "First off, now that you all know what Harry Potter looks like, it will make it that much easier to keep an eye on him. I know he doesn't seem like much but there may be more under the surface. And if I'm correct, which I believe I am, today is his cousin, Dudley's, birthday. Which means that Harry will be shipped to his neighbor's house, Mrs. Figg, who lives on Wisteria Walk; that was the street we were on before we turned onto Privet Drive. Someone will need to keep an eye on him for that time. I'll be doing that. For the rest of the summer, we'll be watching him as often as we can when we can. When the time comes for us to go to Diagon Alley, someone will need to stay behind or go on ahead with Harry but make sure he doesn't know you're tailing him."
"I have a question." Ichigo said. "What's his name, Ukitake. He said that we'll be going to Diagon Alley in two weeks to buy our stuff. What exactly are we buying, besides a wand and spell books?"
"Those are the only things we'll be buying." Toshiro said. "We're buying our wands and our spell books; that's all. All of you have a list of items that are needed for the school year, which you got in your letters. We will buy everything else after we move from here to the Leaky Cauldron. During the time between our stay here and our move to the Leaky Cauldron, we'll be practicing with our wands, doing everything we can to catch up with everyone else. We will not be using kido. Use that, and your Zanpaktou, only in cases of emergencies. I will also talk to this Albus Dumbledore person when we get there about being able to carry our Zanpaktou during the day somehow. I will explain more about our jobs for protecting the school when the time comes. Until then, our initial objective at the moment is to keep an eye on Potter. Understood?" The others nodded. "Good. Dismissed."
Several minutes later, Toshiro sat on the roof above his room, a few pages of the paperwork he had brought with him in his lap. As he finished the sheet he was currently working on, he glanced up when he heard the sound of a car door slamming and he saw a large, beefy man stride up the walk way of Number Four and entered the house. Toshiro assumed it was Harry's uncle and turned half of his attention back onto his papers, keeping the other half on the house, just in case. Five minutes later, the man re-emerged from the house with Harry, a porky boy fatter and taller than Harry, whom Toshiro figured was the cousin, and a tall, thin, horse-faced woman that Toshiro guessed was the aunt. The four of them entered the car and drove down Privet drive until they got to Wisteria Walk. Then they pulled over in front of a house and the man dragged Harry out of the car and up the walk to the front door.
Toshiro set the papers aside, glad that there was no wind today even if it was a bit hot for his liking, and leaned forward a bit to get a better look. An elderly woman opened the door and greeted them rather pleasantly. Toshiro didn't need sound in order to guess that the man, the uncle, hadn't replied nearly as politely as he shoved his nephew into the house and walked back to his car and drove out of sight. Toshiro watched as Harry started to enter the house and then turned his head towards Toshiro's house. He knew Harry would be pretty surprised to see him sitting on the roof and sure enough, Harry did a double take and stood rooted to the spot, gazing up at Toshiro in, what he assumed was bewilderment. He smirked when the woman tapped the boy on the shoulder and Harry jumped before heading into the house.
Toshiro waited a beat and, sure enough, Harry was seen in front of the window in, what Toshiro assumed was the bathroom on the second floor, judging on the texture of the window compared to the rest of the house's windows. Toshiro watched as Harry hesitantly raised a hand and timidly waved. Toshiro quirked an eyebrow but decided to humor the boy, and waved back. Besides, it might help him gain the boy's trust. He figured gaining his trust would make keeping an eye on him all the more easier. At least, he hoped so.
A/N: Oops, sorry everyone. I didn't mean to go this long. Twelve pages! It was an accident, I swear. I got carried away, I guess, and didn't pay attention to how many pages I was doing. Oh, well. I'm sure you guys will enjoy this at least. Hopefully. And about the whole cupboard under the stairs of the Soul Reapers' house; I figured since the houses are the same on the outside, they might be the same on the inside as well except for the occasional extra bedroom or something. So… yeah. Please don't forget to review and I'll see about posting the next chapter early. Thanks for reading!
P.S. since we will be getting further into the main storyline, it's going to be difficult being creative and stuff so please bear with me and be patient if the chapters start skipping the days they are supposed to be posted. I'm doing my best but Fall classes are starting and I must focus on those first. Thanks for the understanding.