A/N: I meant to upload this tomorrow but I won't be in town for the weekend and I know you guys really want to read more chapters so I'm posting it now. It's early, but at least you don't have to wait as long as before. The next chapter will take a while to go up because of the details I still need to put in, but at least you got these last two so quickly to hold you over. Thank you.

A Quick Question: one of my wonderful reviewers, who shall be nameless unless they say otherwise, told me that Renji's birthday is in January but at the end of volume nine, in the character profiles, it says it is in August. It also says that on the Bleach wiki website. But I'm not sure which is correct. Could some one please let me know which is right? Thanks.

Disclaimer: Just a reminder that I do not own Bleach, its characters, or any scenarios mentioned that happened in the original story arcs. I also do not own Harry Potter, its characters, or any scenarios mentioned that happened in the original story arcs. I own whatever is made up by me. Including Toshiro's cat.

Chapter Ten: Harry

"D-do I know you?" Harry asked. Then his eyes widened. "You're one of them. One of Toshiro's friends, right?"

Ichigo nodded and gently pushed the smaller boy off of him. "Yeah, something like that."

Harry scrambled off of him and stood up, offering his hand to help Ichigo to his feet. "Sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over. I was just-"

"Where are you, freak?"

Harry froze and turned to face the way he came, instinctively backing up. "You better go." He said to Ichigo. "If Dudley catches me with you, we'll both be in trouble."

"Dudley's your cousin, right?" Ichigo asked as the sound of running feet got closer.

Harry looked up at him with startled eyes. "Yeah, how did you know? Did Toshiro tell you?"

Ichigo didn't answer, instead grabbing Harry by the arm and turning him around, twisting his arm roughly behind his back and making Harry yelp in pain. "Hold still!" Ichigo shouted loudly. "If you struggle, I'll break your arm!"

Harry froze, his heart pounding painfully in his chest. What was going on? Why was he doing this? Had Dudley already recruited him into his gang? Had Harry walked right into a trap? Before Harry could think any further, Dudley and his gang rounded the corner and froze, taking in Harry, his face contorted in pain, and Ichigo standing behind him with one hand against Harry's back, obviously holding Harry's arm in place.

"What the hell are you punks staring at?" Ichigo shouted. "Can't you see I'm busy here?" He gave Harry's arm a firm yank, making Harry cry out in more pain and causing Ichigo to shake him roughly. "Quiet, you, or I'll really give you something to cry about!"

"You can't do that!" Dudley yelled at Ichigo. "He's my cousin, so he's ours! We got dibs!"

Ichigo cackled loudly, throwing his head back with a nasty sneer on his face. "You've got dibs, eh? Well, in that case, it looks like I'll need to eliminate the competition then, don't it?"

Ichigo roughly shoved Harry to the ground and placed a foot on his chest. "You stay here. If you so much as wiggle, I'll bash your skull in." He grabbed Harry by the front of his shirt and lifted him up, bringing his face inches from Harry's. He glared at him threateningly. "Got it?"

Harry nodded, too terrified to speak. This kid couldn't be one of Toshiro's friends. He wasn't just mean; he was evil. He threatened to kill Harry. He was a murderer. There was no way Toshiro would be friends with him. Toshiro was too nice. Maybe this kid bullied Toshiro too? But Harry didn't say anything. He knew by now that talking back to a bully did no good. It was best to just stay quiet.

Ichigo shoved Harry back to the ground and turned to face Dudley and his gang, a nasty grin spreading across his face. "Now, gentlemen. Let's dance."

Ten minutes later, Dudley and his gang ran out of the park, all of them bruised and terrified but otherwise unharmed. Ichigo smirked as he lazily blew on his knuckles, as if blowing off any dust or human bits. Once they were out of sight, Ichigo turned and looked down at Harry, who was curled up in a fetal position with his sore arm held protectively against his chest and eyes filled with fear and uncertainty.

Suddenly Ichigo burst out laughing and slumped to the ground, placing a hand over his stomach as he lay on his back in the grass. "Man, that was hilarious! Did you see the way they ran? Like a bunch of fat chickens being chased by a wolf. And their faces; priceless!" Ichigo sat up and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, still chuckling as he turned to Harry. "That was fun."

Harry blinked. What just happened? As suddenly as this guy had turned from nice to mean, he had suddenly changed from mean to nice. What was with this guy? Harry stared at him, thoroughly confused, and watched as he turned his head towards the direction Dudley and his gang had gone before turning his head back to Harry with a grin, this one friendly and cheerful instead of mean and menacing.

"Did I scare you?" Ichigo asked with a chuckle. He held out a hand and Harry flinched. "Sorry. I just had to make it look convincing and if I had told you what I was going to do before I did it, your reaction wouldn't have been as convincing if it wasn't sincere."

Harry hesitated before tentatively taking the other guy's hand with his good arm. "I think I understand. So, um, you're not going to hurt me then?"

Ichigo shook his head. "Nah. Not unless you seriously piss me off. But even then, I guess I wouldn't. Especially since Toshiro would kick my ass if I did."

Harry raised an eyebrow and couldn't help blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "How could he do that? He's like half your size."

Ichigo snickered. "I know. But your cousin on the other hand…" Ichigo let the idea create itself. "Anyway, I know your name but you obviously don't know mine. I'm Ichigo."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the unfamiliar name. "Itchy go?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "I forgot you gaijin can't pronounce our names. It's pronounced 'Ee-chee-go', spelled I-c-h-i-g-o with the letter I's pronounced with the E sound. Get it?"

"Yeah." Harry said, wondering what in the world a 'guy-geen' was. "So, Ichigo, did you have to pull so hard?" He asked as he massaged his aching shoulder and forearm.

Ichigo blinked and shrugged. "Sorry. Didn't mean to pull that hard. But like I said, I wanted to make sure it was convincing, including genuine pain and fear. By the way, they think I'm going to beat you up. You can't exactly go home seemingly unscathed, now can you?"

Harry's eyes widened in horror. "I thought you weren't going to hurt me." He said almost pleadingly.

"I'm not. Relax, geez." Ichigo rolled his eyes. He pushed himself to his feet and reached down to pull Harry up by the back of his over large shirt. "Come on."

Harry hesitated a moment before following along after him. Ichigo dragged him back to the store he had been to earlier with Rukia. Then he stopped and pulled his money bag out of his pocket. He fished out some money and handed it to Harry. "The lady in the store already saw me once today and she's a pain in the ass. So I want you to go in there, go to the far isle with the make-up and grab a small plastic rectangle container with a brown square, a purple square and a red square. And grab a small bag of cotton balls. I know they're there because I saw them earlier. Get them and bring them out here. Got it?"

"Yeah, but I can't buy make-up." Harry said indignantly, his cheeks tinting pink. "I'm a boy. It would look weird."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Just pretend you're buying it for your mother or something. It's not that hard, I've done it a few times for my own mom when I was younger. Just say your mom is busy and wants you to buy them for her."

"But –"

Ichigo growled and lightly smacked the back of Harry's head. "Just do it, damn it! Unless you want real bruises, a real black eye and a real bloody nose."

Harry sighed and headed into the store, rubbing the back of his head as he did. He headed to the isle he had been instructed to and was a bit surprised to find the mentioned items quite easily. Grabbing the intended items, Harry quickly made his way back to the front of the store and paid for the items. He was surprised that the lady had asked if his mother was making him run errands for her, as Ichigo had obviously expected her to. "Yeah, she's busy at home right now and asked me to do it." He told her.

"That's nice of you." She said as she handed him his change and placed the items into a back before handing them to him. "Have a good day."

"You too." Harry said as he headed out the door.

"Finally." Ichigo snapped as Harry approached him. "What is it with you people and making small talk with everyone? First Rukia does it and now you."

Who? "I was trying to be polite." Harry said as he handed Ichigo the bag and followed him back to the park. He wasn't sure he liked Ichigo too much. He was different; blunt and a bit rude. But then again, Toshiro had kind of been like that too. Maybe it was a Japanese thing.

"Whatever." Ichigo led him to the picnic table he had stopped at earlier and sat on the table with his feet on the bench. "Okay, come here and sit down."

Harry sat down on the bench beside Ichigo's legs and turned to him. Ichigo reached down and took his chin in his hand, tilting his head up and turning it this way and that, examining his face. "What are you doing?" Harry asked.

Ichigo didn't respond; he nodded to himself and let him go. Then he reached into the bag and pulled out the bag of cotton balls and the make-up. He opened the container and then the cotton balls and pulled one out. He placed the cotton ball onto one of the squares and then placed the same cotton ball onto another square, mixing the colors, before turning to Harry and tilting his face up again. "Don't move and don't speak." He instructed. Then he started gently dabbing at Harry's lower eyelid, softly smudging the dark powdery stuff along his skin.

After Ichigo finished with his eye, he continued along Harry's cheekbone, occasionally adding more powder to the cotton ball, and then pausing to move down and repeat the process against the side of Harry's neck and along one side of his jaw line. Once he finished, he placed the cotton ball on the table and grabbed another, adding colors to it and then reaching down and grabbing the wrist of the arm he had twisted earlier and pushing the sleeve of his large t-shirt up to his elbow and adding the dark smudges along the marks his fingers had made when he had grabbed him.

"Okay, now lift up your shirt." Ichigo said as he applied more powder to the cotton ball.

"My shirt?" Harry asked in confusion. "Why?"

Ichigo looked at him like he was an idiot. "Because if I was going to beat you up, I wouldn't stop with just your face, you know. If I really wanted to beat you up, I would have slugged you in the stomach and maybe along the ribs. I'd probably even break a few for good measure, you know?"

"Oh." Harry said. Silently he turned his body to face Ichigo and lifted his shirt up, exposing his smooth stomach and ribs.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow before he started adding the powder to Harry's stomach, slowly forming the shape of a fist. "Don't you eat? I can see your ribs through your skin."

Harry started to shrug before stopping himself as he remembered Ichigo telling him not to move. "Sometimes. I don't eat too often if my aunt and uncle can help it. Especially if I get in trouble. Then I get sent to my room without food and I have to wait for everyone to go to sleep before I can sneak down for food. But I'm *gasp* used to it."

Ichigo paused and narrowed his eyes at him. "What's wrong with you?" he asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nothing."

Ichigo rolled his eyes and resumed adding the powder, this time along his lower ribs. "Then hold still."

Harry tried to hold still but it was becoming extremely difficult with Ichigo rubbing the cotton ball along his ribs. He bit his lower lip to keep from laughing and turned his head away, trying to find something else to grab his attention. Before he could focus on any one thing, Harry yelped and his body instinctively jerked backwards as Ichigo rubbed the cotton ball along the bottom edge of his lower rib. Harry shoved his shirt down and blushed, avoiding looking Ichigo in the eye.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Ichigo snapped. He frowned at Harry, noting the pink tint to his seemingly bruised cheek and the way he kept biting his lower lip. Adding those facts to the way he reacted while Ichigo applied the powder to his ribs, Ichigo realized what was wrong and rolled his eyes. "Oh, I see. Why didn't you tell me it tickled? I would have been more careful, probably."

Harry shrugged. "Sorry. I couldn't help it."

Ichigo rolled his eyes again. "Well, whatever. It's good enough, I guess. Just one more thing." Ichigo placed the power and the cotton ball down on the table and pulled off a small sliver of wood from the edge of the table top. Then he pulled up Harry's arm and, before Harry could react, Ichigo sliced the sliver along Harry's arm.

"Ow!" Harry cried as he tried to jerk his arm back. Ichigo held on and examined the inch long cut he had just created along the inside of his forearm below the 'bruises' he fingers made. "What was that for?" Harry demanded.

"Oh, hush." Ichigo snapped. "You complain worse than my twelve year old little sister." Ichigo pinched the area around the cut, causing it to bleed more and then used his index finger to scoop up some of the blood and dab it under Harry's nose, despite Harry's protests. "There. Done."

He stood up and pulled Harry to his feet. Then he ripped off a piece of Harry's shirt from the bottom and rolled it up into a ball before placing it on the table. "Now what are you doing?" Harry asked exasperatedly. He figured it did no good to tell him to stop. Ichigo seemed to like doing things his way and no amount of protesting would help change his mind.

"You can't go home looking like your body got beat up but your clothes remain in one piece." Ichigo said as he ripped off half of Harry's sleeve, exposing the fake bruises and cut along his forearm. Then he ripped a hole into the front of his shirt, making sure to expose some of the bruises along his stomach. Then he stood back to examine his handiwork. "That should do it. Come here." He picked up the used cotton balls and tossed them into the trashcan beside the picnic table and collected the rest of the cotton balls and the left over powder and headed towards the public bathrooms.

Harry trudged along, feeling that Ichigo wasn't giving him a choice, and followed him into the bathroom. Ichigo pulled him in front of the mirror and Harry's eyes widened at the sight of himself. He really did look as if he had been beaten up. He was sporting a well-made shiner and a nice-looking bruise along his right cheekbone. Another good bruise lined his lower right jaw and the blood under his right nostril did look convincing. The 'bruise' along his jaw continued down under his chin and another bruise marked along the side of his neck, making him look as if he had been grabbed by the neck. Harry lifted up his shirt and gazed at his discolored skin in the mirror. His ribs and stomach definitely looked bruised and looked quite nasty. Harry almost winced at the sight. He turned and looked at Ichigo, who looked rather pleased with himself.

"How did you do that?" he asked in awe. "It really does look like I was beaten up."

Ichigo shrugged and leaned back against the bathroom door, his arms crossed over his chest. "My sisters went to a costume party once and one of my sisters wanted to dress up as a corpse. My family runs a small clinic in our home, so we're all constantly exposed to sick patients and stuff. And she wanted to dress as a corpse. My dad is an idiot and ended up making her look more like a slaughterhouse than an actual corpse. He got carried away with the red. So I did it instead. I figured I did a pretty good job when she came home later that day and said that her costume scared the crap out of all her little friends."

"Oh." Was all Harry could think of to say. He studied himself in the mirror for a moment longer before turning back to Ichigo. "Well, thanks. This might convince my aunt and uncle that I wasn't trying to instigate you into beating up my cousin or something. Knowing Dudley, he'd probably make something like that up or he'll tell the truth and throw my aunt and uncle into a rioting frenzy. And if that happens, I'll never be allowed out of the house again. They'll order the both of us to stay as far from all of you as possible."

Ichigo scoffed and rolled his eyes. "I could give a rat's ass what your aunt and uncle think of me." He said.

Harry smiled. "You know, Toshiro said the same thing when I told him they would be really angry if they found out he was sneaking into my room right under their noses."

"That's because he doesn't care what they think any more than I do." Ichigo said. He glanced down at his watch and straightened up. "We better get going. If you stay out any later, they'll get suspicious. And I need to go home and practice or else I won't get dinner."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked as he followed Ichigo out of the bathroom.

Ichigo shrugged. "Nothing you need to worry about. Listen, you should go home first. If you're seen with me, the whole plan will be ruined. You go home first and after your aunt and uncle get a good look at you, pretend to wash off but don't wash off any of the bruises. You can't do anything stupider than that."

Harry nodded. "Got it." He said. Then he headed down the street ahead of Ichigo and rounded the corner into the alley leading Magnolia Crescent to Wisteria Walk. Perhaps he liked Ichigo after all; he was different and a bit mean but he was honest. A bit rude and very blunt, but honest nonetheless. Harry continued on until he got close to his house. Quickly, he switched to a slight limp as he approached the house and walked through the front door.

"Boy, where have you been?" His uncle demanded from the kitchen.

Harry sighed, knowing he'd have to endure a bit of attention from his aunt and uncle so they could see the 'evidence' of his fight with Ichigo. Harry slouched into the kitchen and stood before his uncle seated at the kitchen table. His aunt stood at the stove, cutting up vegetables and adding them to a boiling pot, and his cousin was seated at the table, shoveling food into his large mouth. Harry was pleased to see a light bruise along Dudley's pudgy left cheek. Other than that, Dudley looked unscathed compared to Harry.

"I got beat up by one of the kids from the house across the street." Harry said, knowing which words to say to distract his uncle from him to the 'unruly' group next door.

As he had expected, his uncle frowned, his angry face going a shade of red. "Is that the boy who hurt Dudley?" he asked. "I knew those blasted freaks would be trouble, didn't I?" He turned to Aunt Petunia, who pursed her lips and glared at the wall, as if she could see the house across the street that way.

"I'm going to file a formal complaint against them." Aunt Petunia declared angrily. "They should not allow such barbaric children loose on a proper neighborhood like ours. I'll have them removed from that house within the week."

"I'm going over there and giving those freaks a piece of my mind." Uncle Vernon said, surging to his feet.

Harry's eyes widened. He hadn't expected this. He was hoping they would rant and complain to themselves and each other, but he never expected his uncle to decide to go over there. His uncle usually avoided being anywhere near odd people, as if oddity was a contagious disease. He watched as his uncle headed into the hall and slammed the front door shut behind him. Without a second's hesitation, he, Dudley and his aunt had rushed to the living room and peered out the window, watching as Uncle Vernon crossed the street in the direction of Toshiro's house just as Ichigo was spotted heading down the street.

Dudley pushed Harry out of the way so he could see better and Harry glared at him before turning and heading out the back door and rounding the corner until he was in front of the wooden fence that separated the front yard from the back. He stood on one of the large rocks that separated each rose bush from its neighbor and peered over the fence. He had a clear view of the front yard and could see Uncle Vernon pointing a finger at Ichigo. Harry was amused in seeing that instead of looking scared or ashamed at being yelled at, he looked down right bored, as he listened to Uncle Vernon shout at him, his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.

Harry could just make out what his uncle was saying.

" – And don't think I'll let you slide just because you're a foreigner, boy! Where do you get off attacking a harmless boy like my son, eh?"

Harry rolled his eyes. Harmless. Right. Harry strained to hear what Ichigo said but was unable to catch anything other than a slight mumble.

"I don't care what you think he did!" Uncle Vernon shouted. "You freaks stay away from him or I'll see to it that you and your whole family are deported back from wherever you came! You see if I don't!"

Harry suddenly smiled as he saw the front door open and Toshiro walk out, flanked by an older boy and girl and a girl who also looked a bit older than him, though not by much. The group headed down the walk way and stopped beside Ichigo and Uncle Vernon. Harry had to admit, even though they were all younger than Uncle Vernon, with Toshiro down right tiny compared, they seemed pretty intimidating. And Harry could tell that Uncle Vernon thought so too, by the way he backed up a step when they approached.

"Now, see here, all of you!" Uncle Vernon shouted, gaining his balance. "I want to speak to your parents right now! Where are they? That freak old man with his long white hair like a woman's! Where is he?" Uncle Vernon glanced at Toshiro. "He's your parent, isn't he? I want to speak to him! This has gone on long enough!"

Harry could just make out Toshiro's mouth moving but couldn't, for the life of him, make out what he was saying, though he thought he saw the word 'gone' and maybe the word 'alone' but he couldn't be sure. Whatever it was, though, was enough to make Uncle Vernon furious. "Is that so? Well, then see here, boy! You tell your friend to steer clear of my son! If he lays a hand on him again, you'll all pay dearly!"

Toshiro turned and spoke to Ichigo. Now Harry couldn't make out a single word, as both Toshiro's and Ichigo's mouths were moving much too fast for him to follow. Apparently Uncle Vernon couldn't understand them either, for he immediately started shouting again. "Don't you speak to each other in your foreign language like I'm not here! I know what you're doing! You're plotting against me! Otherwise you'd be speaking about me in English! What are you freaks hiding?"

Harry gasped and covered his mouth with his hands, his eyes going wide at what he saw next. Uncle Vernon had jabbed a finger hard into Toshiro's chest at the word 'freak'. Instantly the oldest girl, whom Harry was surprised to see was very pretty and very well developed, pulled her hand back and brought it hard across Uncle Vernon's face with a resounding slap! The whole street froze, going eerily quiet, and Harry held his breath as his uncle stood rooted to the spot, his hand going up to touch his cheek as his wide eyes stared at her in shock.

The girl maneuvered herself in front of Toshiro, who looked like he was struggling to keep his expression smooth, unlike Ichigo and the other two, who were all sniggering behind Toshiro with their hands over their mouths, and place one hand on her hip and jabbed her own finger into Uncle Vernon's chest. She was shouting loud enough for Harry to hear perfectly from where he stood.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT AND ASSAULT US! HOW DARE YOU INSULT A CHILD YOUNGER THAN YOU! HOW DARE YOU LAY A HAND ON HIM! LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, BUSTER! YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO TREAT PEOPLE THIS WAY AND I PROMISE YOU, IF YOU SO MUCH AS LAY A HAIR ON HIM OR ANYONE ELSE BELOW AGE AGAIN, AND I FIND OUT, I WILL HAVE YOU ARRESTED FOR CHILD ABUSE! AFTER I TEACH YOU A LESSON MYSELF, YOU UGLY, PATHETIC, POOR EXCUSE FOR A HUMAN! DO! I! MAKE! MYSELF! CLEAR?"

The girl jabbed her finger into Uncle Vernon's chest with each word she spoke at the end, forcing him to take a step back each time. Uncle Vernon truly looked terrified at the furious look in the girl's eyes, which Harry himself could easily see from his distance. She reminded him of Mrs. Weasley when one of her children were being threatened. She seems very protective of him. Harry thought curiously.

"YOU WILL SHOW HIM THE RESPECT HE REQUIRES, OR SO HELP ME…!"

Toshiro reached out and placed a hand on her forearm. She turned and frowned at him when he spoke. "But taicho," she began.

Tie-chow? I thought his name was Toshiro?

Toshiro spoke again and the girl huffed and glared at Uncle Vernon, who hadn't moved an inch, before saying, "Fine!" and heading back into the house. Toshiro watched her leave and turned back to the rest of the group. He spoke again, this time to Ichigo and the others, and then watched them head inside as well, before finally turning his attention to Uncle Vernon. Again he spoke, his eyes narrowed dangerously, before turning on his heel and heading back into the house, leaving Uncle Vernon staring after him for a moment before coming to his senses.

Quickly, Harry ducked behind the fence as Uncle Vernon turned and headed back to the house. Harry ran back into the house and up the stairs, softly shutting his door behind him at the same time that Uncle Vernon burst into the house and slammed the front door hard enough to make the window in Harry's bedroom rattle and startle Hedwig. Harry winced and walked over to his closet, opening the door and examining himself in the mirror attached to it. Harry pulled off his ruined shirt and used it to dab at the blood under his nose.

Suddenly his door burst open and his uncle entered the room. Harry froze and stared at his uncle, trying not to notice the fresh handprint on the side of his face. His uncle stared at the 'bruises' along Harry's torso and then looked him in the eye. "Anything broken?" he asked.

Harry knew his uncle wasn't asking out of concern but more because he didn't want to bother with taking him to the hospital. Harry shook his head. "No, Uncle Vernon. Just bruises."

Uncle Vernon nodded firmly. "Good. Now, you are to stay away from those freaks over there. I'm going to call a meeting soon and we're going to get those freaks out of here. In the mean time, you keep your distance. You hear?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, Uncle Vernon."

Uncle Vernon nodded and left. Harry sighed in relief and turned back to his reflection in the mirror. This time he winced at the smudges that looked so convincingly like bruises. He knew that normally, if he had gotten beaten like this for real, he would have several broken ribs, if not internal bleeding. Ichigo really did a number on him. But he didn't do anything. He reminded himself. It was hard to convince himself that he wasn't really injured; the bruises looked so convincing.

"That looks like it hurts."

Harry jumped and whirled around to see Toshiro sitting on his windowsill, staring at Harry's bruised torso curiously. "Don't do that!" Harry hissed, subconsciously bringing his shirt up to cover himself. "What are you doing here? What did you say to my uncle? I can't believe that girl hit him!"

Toshiro didn't answer. His eyes surveyed Harry's torso and then traveled along to the hand shaped bruise on his arm and then up to his neck and finally resting on his fake black eye. "Who did that to you?" he asked, his voice going dangerously soft and his eyes narrowing to slits. The temperature in the room plummeted a few degrees and Harry shivered. "Was it your uncle?"

Harry shook his head. "No, it was Ichigo." Toshiro's eyes widened and Harry quickly rushed on. "I mean, he did this but he didn't hurt me. What I mean is," Harry paused and listened for his relatives. He could just make out their voices in the kitchen. He turned to Toshiro and lowered his voice. "I mean that he used some kind of make-up, some kind of powder stuff, and colored the skin to make it look like a bruise. But they're not real. It's fake, see?"

Harry used a corner of his shirt and carefully wiped at the edge of one of the bruises on his stomach. The 'bruise' smudged and started to disappear. Harry looked up and showed Toshiro the dark powder that had appeared on the shirt. "It's fake. It's just a cover. Ichigo thought of it when Dudley tried to pick a fight with me." Harry quickly explained what had happened between him and Ichigo, how Ichigo had suddenly twisted his arm behind his back without warning, how he chased away Dudley and his gang, not even hurting them much more than a bruise or two each, and then finally ending with Ichigo's idea to make it look real by using the make-up. "I'm sorry." He said at the end.

Toshiro looked at him in confusion. "For what?"

"For causing you trouble." Harry said, his head hanging. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I-I told Uncle Vernon that Ichigo had done this. I didn't use his name, but I told him that one of the boys across the street had beaten me up. And since I'm assuming that Dudley had told him that someone beat up both of us, he sort of put two and two together and figured out that Ichigo had beat up Dudley too, but all he did was give Dudley a light bruise. You can hardly tell and it'll probably be gone by Monday, Tuesday the latest. And then he said he was going to give you guys a piece of his mind and…" Harry shrugged, knowing that Toshiro probably knew the rest.

Toshiro didn't speak for a moment. He stared at Harry, his eyes traveling up and down from the bruises along his torso to the bruises on his face. Harry felt himself blushing at the inspection, feeling extremely self-conscious. Finally Toshiro spoke. "He really did a number on you, didn't he?" Harry looked up to see a smirk playing at Toshiro's lips. "I'll have to remember to give him props for this. He did a good job."

Harry shrugged. "I guess. He said something about doing this for his younger sister when she went to a costume party as a corpse or something like that. So… can I put a shirt on now?"

Toshiro's smirk deepened. "I never said you couldn't. I just assumed you liked parading around half naked."

Harry blushed and frowned at him. "Oh, shut up." He snapped. He quickly reached into his closet and pulled out a clean shirt, tossing the old one onto the floor of his closet, and carefully pulled the new one over his head, making sure he didn't mess up his fake bruises. Then he closed his closet door and sat on the edge of the bed near the window. "You really like windows, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Toshiro asked, raising an eyebrow.

Harry shrugged. "You're always sitting on the windowsill. Only once have you ever sat on anything else in here. And at your house, I've seen you sitting on the roof a few times."

"Oh. Well, sometimes I sit on my bed, sometimes I sit on the couch in the living room, sometimes I sit at the table when I'm eating. But most of the time I do like to sit outside. I just feel freer when I'm outside. Plus I like the cold more than heat. If I start to feel too stuffy and hot, I have to get out. I'm not very fond of hot weather. I don't mind it, but it's not my forte." Toshiro shrugged. "Everyone has their elements."

Harry nodded. "I guess that makes sense. So, what happened out there?"

Toshiro smiled. "I thought you knew. You were watching, weren't you?"

Harry chuckled softly. "All I saw was Uncle Vernon yelling at Ichigo but I couldn't hear what Ichigo was saying. Then I saw you and the others come out, and then Uncle Vernon yelled at all of you, then you and Ichigo started talking, in another language I'm assuming by my uncles shouting, and then jabbed a finger at you, and then that girl… um… slapped him. And she started yelling at him. The whole neighborhood could have heard her perfectly. And then you said something and she left. And then the others left and then you left after saying something to my uncle. That's about it."

Toshiro nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that about covers it."

"But what happened?" Harry asked. "On your end, what happened?"

Toshiro shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"Yes it does." Harry insisted. He frowned. "It matters because it's my fault. I shouldn't have said anything. I should have said it was an accident or that I fell or something. But I didn't and then it caused problems for you guys and now you guys are going to have to move and I'll lose the only friend I have here and-"

"Wait a minute." Toshiro said with a frown of his own. Harry looked up to see the confusion in Toshiro's eyes. "What are you talking about? Why would we move?"

"Because Uncle Vernon is furious." Harry said as if that explained everything. "He's angry at all of you and he told me that I needed to stay away from you and that he was going to get a meeting together soon and he was going to make sure you guys got kicked out of the neighborhood. And if that happens, I'll be miserable again. You guys are the only people around my age here on Privet Drive that aren't influenced by what Dudley and his gang think. You're the only ones who don't treat me like a freak of nature. You have no idea what I go through every day. I hate summers because that means coming back here for two months. I hate it. But when I met you, I was hoping that maybe this summer wouldn't be so bad. I know you're only going to be here for the summer and you're most likely not coming back next summer, since you'll be in some other country or wherever exchange students go, but I was hoping that at least this summer would be okay. But if you leave, I'll be all alone, and I know I sound extremely selfish right now but that's because out of the entire twelve and a half years that I've been here, you're the only friend I have." Harry shrugged and looked down at the carpet. "I don't know what I'd do if you left." He said softly.

Toshiro stared at him a moment, inwardly working on making a decision. Harry was freaking out and seemed close to having a nervous breakdown at the thought of Toshiro and the others moving away before the end of summer. Everything seemed to be happening too fast for Toshiro's liking. After debating with himself for a few moments, Toshiro finally came to a decision. He'd just have to make sure to let the others know about it when he got back and he also needed to make sure to watch what he told Harry.

Taking a deep breath, as though he were about to do something difficult, Toshiro spoke. "We're not moving. At least, we won't until September 1st." Toshiro paused, waiting for Harry to either catch on or at least look up. "Then we're going to take a train to the new school we're headed to."

At this, Harry froze. What did he say? New school? A train? September 1st? He couldn't mean… could he? Harry hesitantly looked up and met Toshiro's teal gaze. "What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

Toshiro pretended to hesitate. "I have something to tell you and you're probably going to agree with your uncle and wish I moved after you hear it." Toshiro waited for Harry to refuse to hear what he had to say but Harry seemed to be listening with rapt attention, so Toshiro continued. "Do you believe in magic?"

Harry felt his heart leap into his throat. Magic? Did he say magic? Does he mean…? Could he be…? Harry took a breath and nodded, not able to speak past the lump he swore his heart was making in his throat.

Toshiro took another deep breath before speaking. "Magic is real. And I can do it. So can my friends. We're not just normal study abroad students. We… we're wizards. Well, us guys are wizards. The girls are witches. But they do exist. And so does magic. There's a whole other world dedicated to it. And there's a school somewhere in this country, I think, that students go to in order to practice their magic and learn to control it. The school is called –"

"Hogwarts." Harry finished softly. "And the train is called Hogwarts Express. It's on Platform 9¾ and it's full of students going there. I know. I know all about it because… because I'm a wizard too. I'm going into my third year at Hogwarts."

Toshiro raised an eyebrow. "You're a wizard too?" Harry nodded numbly. "Well this is unexpected. Unexpected, yet not unpleasant." Toshiro stood up on the windowsill. "I should go."

"Wait!" Harry cried, barely remembering to whisper. He grabbed onto Toshiro's sleeve and looked at him pleadingly. "Take me with you. Please! I don't want to stay here. I hate it here. Please, let me live with you guys. I'll earn my keep, I promise. Please!"

Toshiro looked down at him and almost felt bad for him. If he didn't already know that they weren't planning on leaving him alone this summer, he would have taken Harry with him at that moment. Instead, he shook his head. "I can't. Wait." He said as Harry opened his mouth to plead again. "Let me talk it over with the others. It's their home too, you know. And they're just as much involved in this as you or I. Let me speak with them and I'll see what I can do. Okay?"

Harry hesitated, not wanting to wait any longer but knowing that it was only fair to let them talk it out amongst themselves. After all, he was basically shoving himself on them. The least he could do was wait a while. Finally he sighed and let go of Toshiro's sleeve. "Okay. I guess I can wait. How long do you think it'll take?"

Toshiro thought about it for a moment. "I'm not sure. But whether they say yes or no, I will come back and let you know. Don't think anything just because I don't come back right away. We have to be careful not to draw attention to ourselves, you know? But I'll be back as soon as I can. Keep the window open, just in case."

Harry nodded. "Okay. I'll keep it open enough for you to be able to open it on your own."

Toshiro nodded back. "Alright. Then I'll talk to you later." And with that he was gone. Harry sat on the windowsill that was formerly occupied by the boy who had just revealed to Harry that he was a wizard. A wizard, here on Privet Drive! It was more than Harry could ask for. He knew that if they wanted to, they could easily prevent the Dursley's from kicking them out, which meant that they would be staying here the entire summer, which would be great. But it would be even better if they allowed him to stay with them.

"Please." He whispered into the coming night. "Please let them accept me."

Toshiro hadn't returned in almost a week and, despite Toshiro's warning that it was bound to take some time and not to worry, Harry couldn't help feeling anxious. The whole house was on edge because his uncle was constantly furious over every little thing. He hadn't been able to get a meeting together, as he had wanted to, because most of the neighbors didn't want to get involved. Some of them felt that it was none of their business or that it had nothing to do with them. The few who did agree weren't enough to make much of an impression. The only improvement was that on Saturday, July 23rd, Harry's uncle finally gave in and allowed Harry to release Hedwig at night, after promising not to use her for messaging. Not only that, but his aunt, uncle and cousin decided to go for a ride in the new company car, to help ease the tension in the house, and Harry had gone down stairs and picked the lock and grabbed as many of his spell books as he could in one go and hid them in his room. Then, at night, he could work on the mountain of homework his professors had assigned them, not knowing or caring if a student was, for some reason, unable to get to any of their magical possessions, homework included.

Now, Harry sat on his bed, under the blankets, doing his homework by flashlight again. He was just finishing up his Herbology essay, There are several plants in the magical world that are both deadly and extremely useful – List five and explain both their good and bad traits when he heard a grunt from the other side of his wall. Harry paused, listening as hard as he could for signs of his uncle coming to his door. A few seconds later, Harry sighed with relief as his uncle gave another grunt and then resumed his snoring. Quickly Harry jotted down the last few sentences of why Mandrakes were so useful and then closed his Herbology book with a soft snap. Quietly he crawled out of bed and blew on his essay in an attempt to help it dry faster, before rolling it up, recapping his ink bottle that sat on his nightstand, and shoving all of it into the small space beneath the loose floorboard under his bed.

Then he picked up the tiny stub of a pencil and marked off July 26th on his make-shift calendar. It was getting closer to his birthday and closer to the day when Aunt Marge, Harry's uncles sister, came for a week long visit. Harry hoped Toshiro would come by before then and give Harry the good news that he would be allowed to stay with them. He never liked Aunt Marge, and she certainly didn't like him, nor did she ever hesitate to let him know it. Why, just last week, when she had called Uncle Vernon and told him that she was coming over, Harry had been in the room and heard her ask, loudly over the phone, if that boy was still here or if they had finally kicked him out.

Harry glanced at his clock on his nightstand. 1:04 a.m. It was now Tuesday, July 27th. Harry sighed and walked over to his window, gazing up at the dark purple sky, unable to see the stars through the heavy clouds coating them like a thick wet blanket. Harry wondered what could possibly take them so long to decide if he could stay or not. He already agreed to do what he could to earn his keep and he'd be more than happy to sleep on the couch if they needed him to. He habitually didn't eat much during the summer anyways, so food wasn't a problem. What could possibly be going on over there? "I wonder if they think it would be too much of an issue to let me stay. And after how pathetic and desperate I acted before, maybe Toshiro just didn't want to break the news to me."

"Didn't I say I would come whether or not we agreed?"

Harry jumped and whirled around before remembering that it was Toshiro's voice he heard, and turned back to the window in time to see Toshiro pull up the window and crawl, cat-like, into his room, one hand curled against his chest. He straightened up and handed Harry a small blob of soft pink fur. "Hold her for a minute." He said and quickly straightened his dark blue polo shirt, quietly examining in and the skin underneath. "I hate it when she digs her claws into my shirt. It hurts like hell."

Harry looked down at the ball of fluff in his hands, which popped a head up and blinked at him with big purple eyes. It mewed softly and licked the center of his palm with it's rough, sandpaper-like tongue and causing his hand to twitch reflexively as he chuckled and moved her head. "Stop that. It tickles." The kitten mewed again and resumed licking his palm. Harry chuckled again and picked her up with his other hand.

"She won't listen." Toshiro said as he watched Harry interact with his kitten. "She barely listens to me. She's a spoiled brat." The kitten looked at him and mewed indignantly. "Oh, be quiet, you know you are."

Toshiro rolled his eyes as the kitten mewed again and held his arms out to her. Immediately the kitten jumped from Harry's hands into Toshiro's arms. "Ouch! Enough with the nails!" he snapped as he pulled her off of his chest. Harry noticed the cloth sticking to the kitten's paws as Toshiro pulled her away. Quickly, Toshiro unhooked his shirt from her claws with one hand while holding her away with the other. "You're going to rip my shirt, and then I'll have to hear it from Rangiku about ruining her clothes."

Harry smiled, wondering who Ren-gee-coo was, as he listened to Toshiro, the boy who had a bit of an antisocial vibe about him, speak to the kitten as if it were a real person. Harry didn't see a problem with it, as he spoke frequently with Hedwig, his owl. Somehow, seeing him with the kitten just seemed to fit with the boy. He sat on the edge of his bed, near the window, and watched until Toshiro had finally unhooked his entire shirt free from the kitten's grasp. "So, what's her name? I'm assuming she's not a normal kitten, by the pink color of her fur."

Toshiro nodded as he backed up and sat on the windowsill. "She's not. I got her at a pet shop called Magical Menagerie in a place called Diagon Alley. You know it?" Harry nodded. "She's from there. The shop keeper said that she was the only one of her litter who had already tapped into her color changing powers. They're not supposed to be able to do that until they're at least six months but she's only 2½. They change their color depending on their mood and according to the color coding on the slip of paper the shop keeper gave me, pink means she's calmly excited, if that's even possible. I normally don't let her outside for obvious reasons but since I was going to the house of another wizard, I figured I'd let her come with me. And her name is Setsuna, which means 'calm snow' in Japanese. I shortened her name to Suna, which means 'sand' because, in a way, she's like sand. You can hold her in your hand, but eventually she's going to slip through your fingers and get away. She's done it several times already and we had to start making sure all doors, windows and anything else stayed closed and locked, just in case."

Harry nodded in understanding. His classmate, Neville, had a toad for a pet and he knew based on watching Neville that it was very easy to misplace a pet that small. And Setsuna was almost the same size as the toad. Harry waited for Toshiro to continue speaking but when he didn't, Harry asked the question he had been dying to ask since Toshiro left his room almost a week and a half ago. "So, can I stay?"

Toshiro chuckled. "You really are impatient, aren't you?"

Harry blushed, glad that it was too dark to see it. "Sorry. I just really want out of here. I'd have left in a heartbeat ages ago if I had anywhere else to go."

"So we're like your escape route." Toshiro said.

"No, no. That's not what I meant. You're not just a means of escape. You're my friend. I'm not trying to use you or anything." Harry said hastily.

Toshiro laughed softly and waved his hand at him. "Relax, I was kidding. You take things too seriously. And that could become extremely dangerous if you're not careful." Toshiro gave him a meaningful look and then shrugged. "Lighten up a bit. I've been told to do the same several times. I'm working on it and if I seemed as uptight as you do now, then I can understand what everyone was so worried about."

"Sorry." Harry said again.

"And stop apologizing." Toshiro said.

"Sor- um, right." Harry stuttered.

Toshiro resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead decided to go ahead and answer Harry's question before he really did have a nervous breakdown. "Well, we talked it over. This was really unexpected and sort of threw us all for a loop. No one was sure what to do at first. Should we let you stay or not? We've never actually done anything like this before. But after talking if over for as long as possible, I think we've finally come to a decision but it's a bit complicated and you might not entirely like it."

"What is it?" Harry asked nervously. He didn't say no but he didn't say yes either. Yet he did say that whatever their answer was, he might not like it. What did that mean?

"We've decided to let you stay with us, but we can't do it right now. Like I said, we've never done anything like this before. We need to speak with our teacher and see what he thinks." Toshiro shrugged. In reality, he had already sent a letter to Captain-General Yamamoto and they all agreed to put it off for as long as possible while they continued to practice their spells. That way, when Harry did move in with them, he wouldn't become suspicious with them trying to learn spells they should already know. "It shouldn't take too long and I have a feeling I already know how he'll react. He can be pretty easy going once he learns of a situation. My estimate would be sometime between the rest of this week and sometime next week. August 7th, Saturday, would probably be the latest, depending on how soon our teacher can get back to us. So just in case he says yes, make sure to be packed by August 7th the latest. Okay?"

Harry frowned and inwardly deflated. He really wanted to go with them right now. But he knew how difficult it was sometimes to make sudden changes and sending letters to all the people involved would indeed take time. He knew that. But still, waiting any longer felt extremely difficult for him to imagine doing. But Toshiro had said there was a good chance that their teacher would agree. So there was hope for Harry. He looked up and slowly nodded to Toshiro. "Okay. I think I can hold off for a little while longer. It'll be hard, mostly because my uncle is furious with the world because he can't seem to get rid of you guys, but I think I can manage. I'll just have to make sure to stay away from him and the other two as much as possible."

Then Harry groaned. "But I'm not sure about Aunt Marge."

"Who's that?" Toshiro asked. "What's wrong with her?"

Harry sighed. "She's my uncle's sister. She's mean and nasty. She breeds bull dogs and she's always bringing her favorite dog, Ripper, whenever she stays for a while. She called last week, about a day after you left, and said that she was going to spend the week here. She's coming on Saturday and she won't be leaving until Saturday of next week; that's the 7th. She hates me, and she never lets me forget it. And worst of all is when she brings Ripper, because once, Ripper chased me up a tree after I accidently stepped on his tail and she didn't call him off until well past midnight. She insults me to no end and is always trying to talk my aunt and uncle into getting rid of me. I can never help controlling my temper with her. She just gets me so mad."

Toshiro frowned. If Harry lost his temper with his aunt, there was bound to be consequences. But they couldn't risk bringing Harry into their home just yet. As difficult of a decision as it was to make, Toshiro couldn't allow Harry to move in just yet. He'd have to wait. And that meant he'd have to endure his unpleasant aunt for as long as possible. Maybe they could work double time with practice and try to finish up faster and then maybe Harry could come sooner. "Okay, we'll try to see if we can't get our teacher to respond sooner and hopefully he'll say yes sooner. But like I said, it's going to be difficult. Just keep packed until the 7th at least. Try to endure your aunt for as long as possible and try not to let her get to you. I know people like that and she seems to enjoy getting a rise out of you. If she can't, she's going to keep trying. Don't give her the satisfaction of losing control. Be the bigger person."

Harry smiled. "You know, that sounded weird coming from you. 'Be a bigger person', I mean." Harry chuckled.

Toshiro frowned. "Do you want to live with us or not?" He snapped.

Harry quickly straightened his face. "Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. It just seemed a bit ironic."

Toshiro rolled his eyes. "Regardless, that's what we've decided for right now. I know it doesn't seem like much has been accomplished, since it took us so long to get to this agreement, but you have to understand, it's all new to us. This will be the first time in two and a half years that anyone has joined our ranks without an invitation. Our ways are complicated and we don't learn magic the same way your school does with years and such. It's complicated."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? How do you do it?"

Toshiro shook his head and stood up. "Like I said, it's complicated. Maybe, if you do get to stay with us, I'll tell you sometime. But for now, it's getting late and you need to sleep."

Harry sat up and turned around to see his alarm clock. It was almost 2 am. He turned back to Toshiro and grimaced before letting out a large yawn. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty late."

"You think?" Toshiro asked sarcastically. He jumped up onto the windowsill and turned back to Harry. "Again, keep your window unlocked and I'll come by as soon as I get an answer. It shouldn't take longer that a week or so. Like I said, keep your things packed just in case."

"Wait, my stuff." Harry said suddenly. "All of my school supplies, my trunk, my broom, everything I have is locked in the cupboard under the stairs. I can't get to it while my aunt and uncle are home."

Toshiro thought for a moment. "Your stuff is still in your trunk, right? Even though it's all locked in a cupboard, it's still in your trunk?" Harry nodded. "Then just leave it all there. Don't worry about it. When the time comes to come and get you, we'll just come in and take your stuff out of the cupboard and take it all with us." Toshiro shrugged. "Shouldn't be too difficult."

"Yeah, I guess that could work." Harry said.

Toshiro nodded. "Right. Then I'll see you within this week or the next at the latest." Then he jumped out of the window, Suna in hand, and disappeared into the night.

Harry sighed and got into bed. He still had to wait but at least this time he had a time line to go by. Hopefully he would be allowed to go before Aunt Marge gets here or at least soon enough that he won't have to endure too much time with her. The less time he spent around her the better they all would be.

Toshiro hadn't returned until well past the time Aunt Marge had arrived. She had appeared at the train station the day of Harry's thirteenth birthday and his uncle had gone to go get her. That night, Harry had felt a balloon swell inside of him when he had received a birthday gift from his friend Ron, along with another from his friend Hermione. He felt happy that he wasn't forgotten by his wizarding friends. And the gifts came in handy over the week that Aunt Marge stayed. Hermione's gift of a broom service kit had kept his mind occupied while his aunt berated him for every little thing. Normally, he would have at least snapped at her but this time he was even more on his best behavior and only he and his uncle knew why.

The night he had received his birthday gifts, he had also received a letter from the school with a permission slip to attend the occasional trips into Hogsmeade. He needed to get his uncle to sign the form and Harry knew that the only way his uncle would ever do anything pleasant for Harry was if he had something his uncle wanted. And what his uncle wanted at the moment was for Harry to act as normal as possible while Aunt Marge was here, in order to keep her from figuring out what Harry was. So Harry had made a dangerous deal with his uncle: He would be on his best behavior and let her say whatever she wanted to him, and in return, as soon as she walked out of the door, Uncle Vernon would sign the form.

Today, August 6th, was the last day of Aunt Marge's stay. Tomorrow morning, she and Ripper would be on their way back to the hellhole they crawled out of and Harry would get his permission slip signed before going with Toshiro and the others; hopefully. So Harry sat in the kitchen, eating with everyone else, while Aunt Marge talked about who-cares-what and chugged her third glass of after dinner wine. As his mind wandered, Aunt Marge suddenly realized that Harry was being too quiet for his own good, and began rebuking him. Harry tried his hardest to block out her words but her voice penetrated his brain as if there were a dozen mosquitoes buzzing and poking around in his head. Harry focused on the broom kit in his room, trying to remember the instructions in the booklet about proper maintenance when polishing the handle, occasionally turning his attention to the thought that he might be going to live with Toshiro and the others by tomorrow at the latest, and then going back to the service kit. But eventually Aunt Marge's words became too personal for Harry to ignore any longer.

"- no doubt a lazy lowlife scoundrel." His aunt was saying.

"He was not!" Harry snapped. How dare she talk that way about his father? She didn't know him; how could she base her opinion of someone solely on her own theory? It was wrong. It was unfair. And it was more than Harry could tolerate. "My father was nothing like that!"

The kitchen had gone silent and everyone who wasn't involved was staring back and forth between Harry and Aunt Marge as if they were watching a tennis match. Finally Uncle Vernon cut in. "Boy, go to bed!" he shouted.

"No, Vernon." Aunt Marge said. She held up a hand towards him but kept her eyes on Harry, who was fuming in his seat. "Proud of your parents, eh boy? Of your lazy father and pathetic mother? If they had been half the decent folk as the rest of the world, they wouldn't have gotten themselves killed in that car crash-"

"They didn't die in a car crash!" Harry shouted, already on his feet.

"They did too!" Aunt Marge yelled back. Her face was a deep shade of red, a mixture of both anger and the wine. "They died in a car crash and left you here on the door step of their respective relatives. And obviously the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, seeing their spawn here before us, all insolent and ungrateful. You are-"

But what Harry was, no one ever found out. The next few moments happened so suddenly that at first, Harry wasn't sure he had done anything. His aunt suddenly began inflating like a large, humanoid balloon, growing bigger and bigger and lifting off of the ground to hover along the ceiling of the kitchen. Everyone went into a panic, Uncle Vernon grabbing onto his sister, trying to pull her down, while Aunt Petunia and Dudley screamed and scrambled out of the way and Ripper barked madly in all directions and eventually sank his teeth into Uncle Vernon's leg.

During the commotion, Harry ran out of the kitchen and sprinted upstairs to his bedroom, where he grabbed everything he had tossed into the small space under the floorboards when Aunt Marge had arrived, and grabbed Hedwig's empty cage from it's hiding place in his closet, and sprinted back down stairs. He grabbed his trunk from the already opened cupboard and tossed everything inside before grabbing it and dragging it to the front door. At that moment, Uncle Vernon burst through the kitchen door and bore down on Harry.

"Fix her!" he shouted. "Put her right!"

"No!" Harry shouted. He quickly reached into his trunk and pulled out his wand, pointing it threateningly at his uncle. "She got what she deserved and if you don't back away from me right now, you'll get what you deserve too! I'm done!" Then Harry whirled around and yanked open the front door, grabbed his trunk and sprinted outside and headed down the street, ignoring his uncle's demands to come back. Harry was more furious than he had ever felt in his life. He headed down the streets, not once thinking about heading to Toshiro's house, too furious to think much of anything beyond getting out of there. But once the initial shock wore off, Harry began to panic.

He had used magic! That meant he was going to be expelled from Hogwarts because underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. He would be an outcast forever, and Toshiro and the others would all go on to Hogwarts and leave Harry behind and he'd never see any of them ever again. And why didn't he just go to their house to begin with when he first left the Dursley's? Because he wasn't thinking. All he wanted was to leave Number Four and now look where he was. Wandering around on Magnolia Crescent in the middle of the night, alone, with no money, no food, nothing but a trunk load of magical items that would no doubt get him into even more trouble if a muggle found them.

Harry sighed and sat down on his trunk, trying to think of something he could do. As he sat, he suddenly got an odd prickly feeling on the back of his neck, as if someone were watching him. But who? Who would be out so late, besides him, and wandering the streets in the dark? Harry stood up and turned in a circle, scanning the streets for any signs of a person. But the streets were too dark and the nearest street lamp was three houses down in either direction. Quietly, Harry reached into his pocket, never taking his eyes off of his surroundings, and pulled out his wand. He turned at the sound of a snapping twig and glanced in the drive-way of the house across the street. In the shadows between the house and the low wall beside it, Harry could make out a darker shadow moving around.

Quickly, Harry raised his wand above his head and muttered, "Lumos." His wand tip lit up, casting a light on everything within range. As light shone along the drive-way of the house across the street, Harry got a glimpse of the large dark shadow as it moved away from the house. It was a massive black dog, huge compared to other dogs Harry had seen around town, and it looked mean and menacing as it took another step toward him. Harry instinctively backed up, not sure what he'd do if the dog attacked. Should he stun it? Freeze it, maybe?

"What the hell do you think you're doing!"

Harry yelped and whirled around to come face to face with Toshiro, a scowl plastered across his face as he glared at Harry. "You scared me!" Harry yelled, lowering his wand. Harry turned back to the house across the street but it had gone. He turned back to Toshiro. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Toshiro snapped. "Oh wait, I did! What were you thinking? I told you not to lose your temper, didn't I?"

Harry frowned. For some reason, he suddenly felt like a child being scolded for disobeying his parent. "It's not my fault!" Harry snapped back. "I tried! But she started insulting my parents, and calling them lazy and pathetic and-"

"Are they?" Toshiro demanded. "Are they pathetic and lazy and worthless and whatever else she claimed they were?"

"No!" Harry yelled angrily.

"Then why the hell does it matter what she thinks?" Toshiro shouted. "You idiot! If you had let your brain think for you instead of your pride, we wouldn't be in this situation! But no, you had to go and take what she said personally! What the hell were you doing when I was telling you not to let her get to you because that's what she wanted? You played right into her hand! Congratulations!"

"You don't understand!" Harry yelled. "You don't know what it's like not to have ever met your parents and have your entire life be a lie until two years ago! You don't know what it's like to grow up not knowing anything about your parents and yet hear people talk about them like they're trash!"

"I don't know what it's like?" Toshiro yelled incredulously. "News flash, Harry. You are doing the same damn thing your aunt was doing just now! You're assuming things about people you don't even know! My parents are dead, Harry! They died years ago! I don't know anything about them any more than you do about yours! No one speaks about them! No one cares! And now, neither do I! I'm over it! Because I know that no matter what anyone says, no matter what I or anyone else does, they are dead! End of story! And nothing can bring them back! I know that and I've accepted it! It's time you did the same! Quit taking everything so personal! In case you didn't know, you aren't the only person who's lost family, Harry! Every single person in our group is missing one parent or both! So I don't want to hear about how your life sucks more than everyone else's but last I checked, the world did not revolve around Harry Potter!"

Harry turned away, not wanting to look at those teal eyes that were boring angrily into his skull. Toshiro was right. He knew he wasn't the only person in the world who had lost family. There were several students at school who either had a parent walk out on them when they realized their offspring was abnormal or had walked out on them before they were even born because their spouse was abnormal. He knew he was being selfish. And Toshiro had just confessed that he didn't have parents either. None of them did. Now that Harry thought about it, he realized that Ichigo had spoken of his father and younger sisters but not once did he mention his mother. Did he even have a mother? What about the others? The girl that had hit Uncle Vernon? The girl that looked to be a little older than Toshiro? The boy with the spiky red hair? Toshiro said that each of them are missing one parent or both. Was that what made someone like Ichigo be friends with someone like Toshiro? Because they all have that something in common? Or was there more?

"Besides." Toshiro continued in a softer voice. Harry looked up to see him staring up at the sky, gazing at the stars twinkling down on them. "If you had stayed at your uncle's house for at least ten minutes more, you would have been there to hear that we got an answer back from our teacher saying that you could stay with us. I left our house to tell you when I heard shouting from your house and when I went to the window in the living room, I saw the kitchen door open and something that looked like a human sized balloon floating on the ceiling. And then I saw you round the corner further down the street and followed you. I hate to say this, Harry, but one of these days, your impatience and recklessness with be the death of you or someone close to you."

Harry stared at him, his eyes going wide. What? What kind of thing is that to say? "What do you mean?"

Toshiro shrugged but didn't look at him. "Trust me. I've seen it happen plenty of times. People get cocky and let pride control them and the next thing they know, they're knocking on Death's door. Is that how you want to end up?"

Harry didn't answer. How could he have seen anything like that? What had he seen? What had he and the others been through? Could Harry even imagine?

"If your done moping, I need to head back to the house and let everyone know what's going on." Toshiro finally tore his gaze from the sky and turned to Harry with a smirk. "Now that you know I can blow up like this, do you still want to live with us?"

Harry gave a small smile in return. "More than anything." Mostly because now, he really didn't have anywhere else to go. But also because perhaps he could learn more about Toshiro and Ichigo and the others.

Toshiro nodded and headed back the way he came. "Then let's go before any more people decide to stare at us out their windows." Harry looked around with a start and noticed that people were indeed staring out their windows at them. They must have been making quite a racket with their shouting match but Toshiro didn't seem to care much. "And just to let you know, if you bitch like that at the house, you'll be in serious trouble. The others aren't as tolerable as I am. Remember that."

"Right." Harry mumbled, wondering what the heck he had gotten himself into. Well, this has been an eventful summer so far.

A/N: Well there you go guys. Sorry this chapter was hell-a long but I was determined to make every scene in here fit into one chapter like I had intended on doing in the first place. I just didn't expect to type as much as I had. And Rangiku's situation with Uncle Vernon wasn't even on the list of things to put in here. But I thought it added a little touch, don't you think? Sorry if Harry seemed a bit out of character but he just strikes me as a bit selfish and stuff, with all the me, me, me and I, I, I and stuff like that. So…yeah.

I decided to skip the Knight Bus scene so that the rest of the story could fit in the way I had planned. At first I thought about having Ichigo or Renji follow Harry onto the Knight Bus and keep an eye on him at the Leaky Cauldron until the others got there but then I decided against it. So I'm doing it this way instead. And I know that there were a few scenes in here that either didn't happen in the book or else didn't happen exactly the way it did in the book but that's because the book belongs to J.K. Rowling and I am not J.K. Rowling. Nor would I really want to be because then I'd have the large responsibility of pleasing readers instead of just writing for fun on here. You know what I mean?

Well anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you'll all review and let me know what you thought about this. Was it too long? Thanks!