A/N: Hope you guys are having a great time reading this story. I just want to give a special thanks to all of you wonderful reviewers for sticking by me and reviewing my chapters. I also want to thank any anonymous reviewers and anyone who read but didn't review. Thank you all. You've inspired me to keep writing and work hard to get this out there. Now let's get on to the next chapter.

BTW, I actually decided to put one more chapter up before they go to Hogwarts. So basically, there is one more chapter before the Hogwarts Express ride. I forgot I needed to put a few things in this one that I felt would explain a lot of useful things. And thank you to one of my reviewers who pointed out the little confusion about Toshiro telling Harry that Ukitake was his dad and then saying that his parents were dead. I wanted to go somewhere with that idea but I completely forgot about it and my idea ended up abandoning me without a word of goodbye. So I wrote in a little something here and in the next chapter. Hope it explains that bit a little better. Thanks again.

Chapter Eleven: Questions & Another Mission

Harry followed Toshiro down the street and back onto Privet Drive. He avoided looking in the direction of Number Four and Toshiro didn't comment as he led Harry up the walkway to his home. As soon as the door opened, sounds met Harry's ears, causing him to pause before heading in. The house was nothing like Number Four, even though it was build with the same format. The place was warm and bright, feeling pleasantly homey instead of uptight and over proper. The walls were painted a pale green and the carpet, deep reddish brown, like rust, led from the front door to the living room and up the stairs.

Toshiro pulled off his black leather jacket and hung it on a peg by the door before bending down to remove his shoes. "Take off your shoes when you're in the house." He told Harry. He pointed to a low shelf with rows of square holes, each with a pair of shoes poking out. "We keep with some of our traditions, including the Japanese custom of removing shoes when you enter a house. Just put them in one of these shelves. It keeps the carpet clean and helps keep things sanitary."

"Oh, okay." Harry quickly removed his shoes and placed them in one of the shelves, as Toshiro had done and dragged his trunk into the living room after Toshiro.

Toshiro turned and spotted the trunk. He pulled out his wand from his pocket and pointed it at the trunk. "Wingardium Leviosa." He muttered. The trunk lifted into the air and hovered above their heads an inch or two. "Wait here. Don't move and don't touch anything." Then Toshiro headed up the stairs with the trunk ahead of him and rounded the corner. Harry waited anxiously, unsure of what to do if someone came out of the kitchen towards him, where the sounds of voices and banging pots and pans were coming from. He surveyed the area around him. The living room was full of at least three couches, one long one, and two shorter ones, all surrounding an average sized TV and looking quite comfortable. A small table stood between two of the couches, a large vase full of multi-colored roses sitting grandly in the center. A low coffee table sat in front of the couches, decorated with magazines, comic books in what Harry guessed was Japanese, an odd assortment of candy bars and packets of gum, and a large glass of what Harry figured was Cola, along with a small pot of pansies in the middle.

A moment later, Toshiro came back down and stepped up beside him. He looked at his face and then turned back to the stairs. "Actually, come on. You better come with me and get cleaned up."

"Wait, what about the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry?" Harry asked nervously. He stared around himself, as if expecting government officials to swarm down on them at any moment.

"Don't worry about it." Toshiro said.

"But you did magic!" Harry exclaimed as he followed Toshiro up the stairs. The walls upstairs were painted a deep purple and each door was painted a different color. Harry followed Toshiro to an ice blue door and entered the room after Toshiro used a key to unlock it. The walls were painted a mixture of white and light blue, giving one the feeling that they had walked right into a hollow block of ice. Harry nearly shivered at the cold feeling the walls gave off and instead looked down at the carpet. The carpet was pure white and felt remarkably soft and fluffy under Harry's socked feet. It gave Harry the feeling of walking through snow but without the stinging coldness snow brought when touched. Despite the cold feeling the room brought, the temperature was actually quite comfortable. A bit chilly, as if the window had been left open too long, but not entirely unpleasant. "Um, I like your room."

Toshiro gave him an odd look before shrugging and heading towards the door on the far side of the room. "Thanks, I guess. Everyone put a little bit of themselves into their room, giving them a sort of homey feeling, I guess. Letting them feel more comfortable for being away from home for so long."

"How long have you been away from home?" Harry asked curiously.

Toshiro shrugged again, stopping in front of the door. "Not long. We usually go home after being in one country for a while. And then we stay there for a while before moving on to the next. But this year, we'll be gone for the entire year, which is completely new to us. This will be the first time we've been away from home for so long. It's unnerving, to say the least. But at least we'll be able to stay in contact with our homeland for the entire trip."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I guess that would be difficult. So, what are you going to do when the ministry gets here?"

"Nothing." Toshiro said. He pushed the door open and shoved Harry into the bathroom. The bathroom made Harry feel as if he had walked right into the ocean. The walls and ceiling were painted a deep blue and life-like paintings of a kelp forest were etched along the blue walls, with scattered amounts of bubbles flowing around them. The blades of the kelp were decorated with sea stars, sea urchins, abalone, and an odd assortment of crabs, along with several other sea critters scattered around. Dark blue coverings were wrapped around the toilet lid and seat and deep blue rug pieces wrapped around the bottom of the toilet and around the sink, as well as a single rectangular rug laid out in front of the dark blue shower stall. All of the rugs were soft and fluffy like the carpet in the bedroom, with the tiles on the floor colored a soft blue like a robin's egg.

"Wow." Harry said as he looked at the bathroom in awe. "You really went all out."

"I didn't. Rangiku did. She's the designer of our group." Toshiro rolled his eyes and reached out to turn on the water in the white porcelain sink. "She felt that it was an insult to live in such plain conditions as the house had been before we got here. I told her not to go overboard but she never listens to me unless it really matters. As for the whole ministry and wizard law thing, they don't know that we use magic here. There's a sort of spell that our teacher placed on this house that allows us to practice magic without being detected by your wizard police as long as we stay within these walls."

"Really?" Harry asked incredulously. "So does that mean I can use magic in here without getting caught too?"

Toshiro nodded. "Yep. Anyone who comes in here can use magic, whether or not they're allowed. It's an old spell that was invented by a wizard in our country that only a very select few even know about. The last thing we need is for someone evil to know about it and misuse it."

Harry gulped. "I see what you mean. But can't anyone just walk right in and use it after you leave?"

Toshiro shook his head. "There's a timer on the house. Next Sunday, we're planning on packing up and heading to the Leaky Cauldron on Monday, and staying there for the rest of summer. Once the day comes for us to move there, the spell, along with any that was used during our stay, will deactivate and everything will return to its original form and appearance. It will be as if we were never here."

"Wow." Was all Harry could say. What else was there to say to something like this? I bet Hermione would be going nuts with questions if she found out about this. Maybe it would be best if she didn't know just yet.

"Right, well now we need to work on getting you cleaned up, because now that we know you aren't really hurt and you no longer live with your aunt and uncle for now, you would look stupid if you kept walking around with those fake bruises." Toshiro grabbed a washcloth from a shelf across from the toilet and dumped it into the sink full of warm water. After ringing it out, he handed it to Harry. "Wash it all off and then meet me in the kitchen. You can change your clothes if you want before you come down. Your trunk is at the end of my bed next to mine. Just do what you need to."

"Um, thanks." Harry said.

Toshiro grunted and made his way out of the bathroom. Then Harry heard his voice float from the doorway of the bedroom. "Do not touch anything in here that is not yours, don't go into anyone else's rooms, especially since they're all locked, don't touch my trunk, and lock the bedroom door when you leave."

"Okay!" Harry yelled back. Harry sighed and began working on removing the make up he had tried to keep from washing off for the past few weeks. Several minutes later, when he was sure he had gotten all the make-up off of his face, neck, arm and torso, he stripped off his shirt and headed towards the end of the bed. Spotting his trunk, Harry crouched down and lifted the lid, pulled out a clean t-shirt, and pulled it over his head. After he closed his trunk, he started to stand when he spotted the other trunk. It was completely different from his and made his look plain and ordinary in comparison. It was nice and fancy and must have cost a fortune. The name on the top said Toshiro and had a picture of a dragon etched into the metal. There was also weird writing on it that Harry assumed was Japanese and when Harry placed a hand over the piece of metal where a lock should have been, a sudden painful jolt of electricity shot through his arm, from fingertips up to his shoulder, causing his entire arm to go numb for a second before taking on the pins-and-needles feeling.

Harry winced and bit his lip to keep from crying out in shock and pain. He shook his arm slightly, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling before standing up and backing away from the trunk. He rubbed his arm and headed out the door, remembering to lock it before shutting it and heading down the stairs into the living room. Voices were heard from the kitchen again and this time Harry could make out odd words in a language he didn't recognize. Harry waited a moment, unsure if he would be interrupting or not before shrugging and heading in.

The sight before him nearly made him laugh out loud. All five of them, Toshiro included, were covered in food particles and several strings of noodles were hanging from their clothes and hair. Harry looked up at the ceiling to see several swirly looking flat noodles stuck to the ceiling, along with a few vegetables and a few white flower looking things. One flower slowly fell from the ceiling and landed on the head of the dark-haired girl that Harry guessed was a bit older than Toshiro. The girl turned and glared at Ichigo, who was closest, and began yelling at him in the different language, pulling the flower from her hair and brandishing it in front of his face. Ichigo began yelling back in the same language and snatched the flower from her and tossed it into the sink. The dark haired girl turned her back on him and began adding more noodles to a boiling pot on the stove.

Harry turned his gaze to the spiky red headed guy, who was a few inches taller than Ichigo, and watched as he picked up a large bowl full of water and turned at the same time as the busty girl who had slapped Uncle Vernon. Both of them collided with each other, slipped and both fell to the floor with the water spilling onto both of them. Harry's eyes widened and his cheeks turned a violent shade of red when he noticed that the water had soaked into the girl's shirt, outlining every curve of her bust and abdomen. Quickly he turned his gaze away and looked at Toshiro instead. Toshiro looked down at the two with an irritated look before shaking his head and resumed his task of cutting up vegetables. Harry was surprised to see Toshiro was skilled enough with a knife to slice through potatoes while the potato rested in his palm without cutting his hand off.

Harry decided to use this moment to step forward and speak, letting everyone know that he was there. "Um, hey. Is there anything you want me to do?" he asked.

Toshiro paused in his cutting and turned to him. He glanced around at the messy kitchen and the food covered people he worked with, who stared at Harry as if they hadn't seen him before. Well, half of them hadn't seen him before now. Then he turned back to Harry and said something in the different language.

"Er, sorry. What?" Harry asked in confusion.

Toshiro blinked and then placed the half cut potato and the knife on the counter, wiped his hands on a dish towel and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a small silver ring and quickly slipped it onto the middle finger of his right hand. "Can you understand me now?"

Harry quirked an eyebrow and nodded. "What is that?" he asked, indicating the ring.

Toshiro looked down at it. "It's a translation ring. We each have one and we can use it to speak and understand English. Once we take it off, we'll speak only Japanese and understand only Japanese. Same with people on the outside. With the ring on, you can understand me. If the ring is off, you can't. And somehow we're able to speak other languages too if we needed to. We'd just have to cast the spell for which ever language we need to speak on to the rings. It's complicated to explain but we don't really plan on speaking to anyone other than the English population, specifically everyone in the castle. We'll worry about other creatures over there when the time comes. For now, you wanted to know what you could do to help? You can start by taking the completed food into the dining room and placing them on the table. We're almost finished here. And then you can help clean up."

Harry nodded. "Okay." Toshiro indicated to Ichigo and said something in the other language. Ichigo replied and picked up a bowl. He handed it to Harry with a comment in Japanese, and then indicated towards the door that Harry assumed led into the dining room. At the same time, the boy with the spiky red hair handed him another larger bowl filled with those same odd flowers in a type of syrupy soup."Right." He headed into the dining room and placed the bowl filled with odd looking chicken chunks onto the table and then set down the bowl of the weird flowers. A ball of white fluff popped up onto the table and began eating the flowers out of the soup. "Suna?" The ball of fluff turned its head at Harry and gave a small mew before returning to its task of fishing out the flowers.

Harry smiled and headed back into the kitchen. "Hey, Toshiro. What are those flower things?" Harry asked.

Toshiro turned to him, the potato and knife back in his hands but with the potato in his left hand instead of his right. "What flower things?" he asked.

Harry pointed to one of the flowers sticking to the ceiling. "Those. What are they?"

Toshiro glanced up and then smirked. "Those aren't flowers. It's squid."

Harry paled. "S-squid?" he stuttered. "You eat squid?"

"Duh." Ichigo jumped in. He had placed his ring on his finger when he realized that he couldn't understand what Harry was saying. "Most Asian countries eat sea food. Squid, fish, oysters, crab, lobster, things like that. Haven't you ever heard of sushi? Most types are made with raw fish and rice. Some are made with sea weed, and others are made without the fish. It all depends on your preference. There are even some people who eat puffer fish, even though they're poisonous. If you don't eat them properly, you could die."

"Then why eat them at all?" Harry asked incredulously. Seriously, if something is poisonous, why eat it?

Ichigo shrugged. "Because they taste good. If you eat them properly, they're not bad. Although, sometimes people eat them the wrong way on accident. Again, it all depends."

"Don't worry." Rangiku said, as she placed her ring back on her finger and jumped into the conversation. "We'll get you used to Asian food with no problem. Just you wait."

"I'd rather not, thanks." Harry said nervously. "I don't think I'd want to eat something poisonous."

"You don't have to." Rangiku said. "Not everything we eat is fish. We eat a lot of vegetables, too. Like miso. It's a type of soup with chunks of tofu and stuff. And there are a few different foods made with soy bean paste and chicken and rice and different types of meat and a whole bunch of different things. You'll see. And you can teach us about the different foods people here eat."

Harry shrugged. "I guess. But I don't think I'd be too fond of fish and other sea foods."

"That's fine." She said. She picked up a large metal pot with wooden handles and handed it to Harry, who took it gingerly by the handles. "Put this on the table. There's a metal tray sitting on the table. Put this on there so it doesn't burn a hole through the table."

Harry followed instructions and placed the pot on the tray in the dining room. Suna was sitting at the head of the table and eating the flowers that Harry learned was squid, lifting her head to stare at him, as if daring him to take them away, before turning back to her food. "She seems to behave the same way as Toshiro." Harry muttered.

"Is that so?" Harry jumped and whirled around to see Toshiro standing in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest. "You scare easily. You need to learn to be more on your guard. It's acting like that that'll get you killed, you know." Toshiro walked into the dining room and began placing the silverware he had been carrying on the table. He glanced down at Suna as he passed. "Stealing food again?"

Suna mewed at him as if to say "Yeah, so what?" and continued eating. Harry chuckled. "She has quite an attitude." He said.

Toshiro rolled his eyes and headed back into the kitchen, Harry at his heals. "I know she does." He handed Harry a broom. "Knock the noodles and stuff off of the ceiling and the walls. Let them fall to the floor. We can sweep them up easier than trying to hand pick them from the ceiling."

Harry nodded and did as he was told without complaint. He had never actually had to clean food off of the ceiling before and found the task to be quite interesting. At one point, he ended up stepping on one of the pieces of noodles after it fell and ended up slipping and landing hard on his backside. His pride didn't last much longer when Ichigo and the red headed guy started cracking up while the dark haired girl glared at them and helped Harry up. After all of the food had been swept from the floor, everyone washed their hands and headed into the dining room. The smells from the food made Harry's mouth water and his stomach growl, realizing that he hadn't actually eaten much of the dinner Aunt Petunia had made while he was enduring Aunt Marge's wrath.

"If you're hungry, then sit down." Ichigo said. As if to emphasize his point, he steered Harry to the only empty seat and shoved him down while Rangiku and the other girl, whom he learned was named Rukia, piled food onto a plate, minus the fish and squid, and set it in front of him.

"Um, thanks." Harry said. He tentatively took bites of his food, surprised that a lot of it wasn't so bad. Unlike Mrs. Weasley, who would watch him with eyes like a hawk to make sure he ate, he was grateful that the others dismissed him and began eating their own food, trusting him to eat on his own. He pointed to one of the chunks of chicken. "What's this?"

"Chicken teriyaki." The red headed boy, Renji, told him as he shoved some of it into his own mouth. He used his fork to point at different foods on his plate. "This is sukiyaki and this is obviously fried rice. And this soup stuff is called miso. And these are octopus balls." Renji smirked and picked up a chunk of dark brown meat chunks. "And this is human liver."

Harry coughed and choked on a grain of rice. Renji burst out laughing while Rukia pounded on his back and offered him a glass of water. After taking a few swallows of the water, Harry turned to Renji. "You're not serious, are you?"

Renji chuckled and shook his head. "No. We're not cannibals, you know. I was kidding. It's just spicy chicken. I just wanted to see your face." He chuckled again. "I should try that when we get to the school. If they serve Japanese food, I mean. But don't tell anyone. I don't want to spoil the joke. I wonder how many people I could make vegetarians with that joke?"

Toshiro sighed. "We are not going there to upset the students, Abarai."

Renji coughed and smirked down at his plate sheepishly. "Yeah, I know. Sorry, Cap… uh, I mean Toshiro."

The others paused at the near slip and turned to Harry, who looked around obliviously. "What?" he asked.

The others shook their heads and Renji sighed in almost relief before turning his attention back on his food. Toshiro shook his head and turned to Harry. "Harry, what type of homework do they give students?" He asked, skillfully changing the subject.

Harry paused and thought about it before answering. "A lot of the teachers give essays. Like one essay, where I had to list five plants that are considered deadly but still useful and list and describe their good and bad traits; that was for Herbology. Though, some teachers will make you practice a spell that you didn't get right during class. Mostly Transfiguration and Charms."

"What are the classes like?" Rukia asked.

"Well, from what I've had, Transfiguration is pretty hard and the teacher, Professor McGonagall, is pretty strict, if not fair. She's my head of house." Harry tapped his finger against his chin. "History of Magic is extremely dull. It's the only class that's taught by a ghost, but I don't think he realizes he's dead. And he's soo booring! He drones on and on in a really dull tone and after five minutes, the whole class ends up falling asleep. What?" he asked, seeing their startled looks.

"You can see them?" Ichigo asked almost suspiciously. "You see ghosts? And spirits?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. We all can. They're everywhere. The worst is Peeves. He's a poltergeist and he's pretty nasty. He plays pranks and stuff on the students. The caretaker, Mr. Filch, has made it his life mission to get rid of Peeves; he doesn't listen to anyone except Professor Dumbledore and the Bloody Baron. That's the Slytherin ghost. He's pretty scary. He's tall and silvery and has hollow black eyes and he's covered in silver blood and just looks really creepy, like he was a victim of a brutal murder or something. He's the only one Peeves will listen to. But not all of the ghosts are mean. There's Sir Nicholas, whom we call Nearly Headless Nick because whoever tried to decapitate him while he was alive didn't do a very good job because his head didn't come off all the way. It's hanging by a few strands of skin on his neck. But he's pretty nice and is always willing to help a fellow Gryffindor, especially the new students. And then there's the Fat Friar, who is the Hufflepuff ghost. He's pretty friendly, mostly to the Hufflepuffs but he's pretty nice to everyone else too. I don't know much about the Ravenclaw ghost, though. And there are a few others who wander around too. They don't really belong to any house but they do hang around a lot. Mostly in the high towers, but away from the owlery because of the school owls. Don't you have ghosts where you're from?"

The others exchanged uncertain glances and then turned to Toshiro for instructions. Toshiro cleared his throat and then nodded. "We do have ghosts but where we're from, not everyone can see them. Only a select few can. It's one of the reasons we're in this sort of group in the first place." The others nodded vigorously.

"Oh." Said Harry. "Well we have plenty but not all of them like to be seen."

"I see." Toshiro said. Soon the table lapsed into silence, except for the slight tap of silverware against plates and glasses being placed on the table. Harry, feeling as if he said something wrong, ate in silence, occasionally looking up to survey the group's expressions. There was a tense feeling in the air and everyone looked different but they all seemed to be frowning slightly, seemingly bothered by something. Toshiro was glaring at his food as his frown deepened occasionally. They all seemed to be worrying over something but Harry couldn't tell what. Something about what he had said seemed to be bothering them. What did he say? Was it the ghosts? The classes? The teachers? Was it any ghost in particular? Peeves perhaps? Harry wasn't sure but he hoped everything would be okay when they got to the school. He didn't want there to be any problems for them on their first day. That wasn't fair. It was one thing to be new to the whole wizarding thing and then going to a wizarding school for the first time. It was another thing entirely to be dumped into an unknown country and all of a sudden have things you thought you knew about magic turned around and flipped upside down. Introduced to something new.

Suddenly Ichigo dropped his fork onto his plate and stood up, picked up his dishes and headed into the kitchen. A few moments later, Harry heard Ichigo stomping up the stairs and then a door slam shut. Harry turned to the others, none of them seeming to have moved from their previous positions of frowning down at their plates, though Renji and Toshiro looked like they wanted to follow suit. "D-did I do something wrong?" Harry asked softly. Toshiro glanced up at him in confusion. Renji glanced sideways at him before looking back down at his plate. Neither Rangiku or Rukia moved. "Did I say something that upset you guys? Are you mad about something?"

"Why would you think it was something you said?" Toshiro asked.

Harry shrugged. "It just feels like you guys are mad about something. And you guys didn't start acting like this until I told you about the ghosts. I think. Was it the ghosts? Or the teachers or something? Whatever it was, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend or anything."

"You didn't." Renji said solemnly. "It's nothing like that. It's… complicated." Then Renji picked up his dishes and headed into the kitchen.

"Well, it looks like dinner is just about over." Rangiku said. She smiled cheerily at Harry but Harry saw through it. She was upset too. "Would you mind helping me clear the table?"

"Sure." Harry stood up and helped Rangiku clear the table. Toshiro and Rukia handed them their plates before heading out of the dining room, Toshiro carrying Suna. As soon as they were gone, Harry turned to Rangiku as he followed her into the kitchen. "Are you sure I didn't do anything to offend you guys?"

"Of course not, silly." Rangiku said as she turned on the water and began washing the dishes. "It's just that a lot of what you said brought back memories that some of us would rather forget."

"So it was something I said." Harry said mournfully as he dried the dishes and placed them on the dish rack.

Rangiku shook her head. "Not really. Besides, it was better to hear it from you before we got there. The last thing we need is for everyone too act all moody and stuff while at the school. Wouldn't want to scare all the little kiddies, now would we?"

"I guess not." Harry frowned as he continued to helped her with the dishes. "What was it that I said that upset you guys?"

Rangiku shrugged. "A bit of everything, I guess. You have to understand that this is all new to us. A lot of this stuff that's over there isn't stuff that we spent too much time around. Either that, or we spend way too much time around it for comfort. Some of us more than others. Especially taicho."

"You mean Toshiro, right?" Harry asked as he finished drying the last of the dishes and then dried his hands. "I heard you call him that before. What's tie-chow?"

Rangiku giggled at his mess up. "Taicho. It's pronounced tie, as in the tie you wear around your neck, and cho, spelled c-h-o. Taicho. It's a little nickname I use. I'm pretty much the only one who says it but since the others spent so much time around me, they started calling him that too."

"What does it mean?"

Rangiku placed a finger over her lips and winked at him. "It means 'captain'. But don't tell him I told you. The last thing he wants is for the whole school to start calling him that. But he does act like a leader, doesn't he?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that. You all seem to show him a lot of respect. And you listen to him a lot."

"That's because Taicho is ranked the highest out of all of us in our group. He's the smartest, even though he's the youngest, and most advanced. He first tapped into his powers when he was half way through the age of twelve and he's thirteen now and he'll be fourteen in a few months. He's learning quicker than everyone else and eventually he's going to pass us all before he even gets to his next birthday." She placed her finger over her lips again and whispered into his ear. "And I'm going to throw him a birthday party at the school when we get there. But don't tell him or else he won't let me. 'Kay?"

Harry chuckled. "Okay."

Rangiku headed out of the kitchen and Harry followed. "So when is your birthday?" she asked.

"It already passed." Harry replied. "It was last week, July 31st."

"Aw, really? And we missed it?" Rangiku asked, pouting.

"T-that's okay." Harry said hastily. "I don't mind."

"Nonsense. Don't worry. You'll get a party too." Rangiku promised.

"No, that's okay. Really. You don't have to." Harry said almost pleadingly.

"Have to what?" Toshiro said from the stairs.

"We're going to throw Harry a birthday party!" Rangiku said before Harry could respond.

Toshiro raised an eyebrow and turned to Harry, who was blushing madly and looking extremely uncomfortable. Toshiro smirked. "If you're going to be living here, you have to endure everything we have to, and that includes Rangiku and her embarrassing obsession with parties. After yours, consider yourself temporarily one of us." Harry groaned and covered his burning face with his hands. "Now, come on. We need to get you ready for bed."

Harry looked up as Toshiro pulled his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at the longer couch. He muttered the Levitation Spell and immediately the couch rose into the air. "Let's go." He said and headed upstairs with the couch. Harry followed as Toshiro steered the couch into his room, easily maneuvering the couch through the doorway, and placed it down beside his own bed, which had been rearranged, along with the rest of the furniture in the room, to accommodate another bed.

"You don't have to go through all this trouble." Harry said hastily. "I don't mind sleeping on the couch in the living room."

"Don't worry about it." Toshiro said dismissively. "We're not staying here long enough for it to matter much anyways." Once the couch was properly placed, Toshiro muttered another spell, which Harry didn't catch, and suddenly he was staring at, not a couch, but a bed similar to Toshiro's but with scarlet bed clothes instead of an ice blue. "I saw the colors of parts of your uniform in your trunk earlier. I figured it had to do with this 'house' situation at the school. Thought you might be more comfortable with these colors instead."

"Thanks." Harry said quietly. Toshiro muttered another Levitation Spell and placed his trunk at the foot of his new bed.

"We have a few rules at this house." Toshiro said as he closed and locked his bedroom door before getting ready for bed. "First, everyone is to wake up and be down for breakfast between 7 and 7:50 a.m. Practice starts at 8. Then everyone has to complete an hour and a half of practice sometime before lunch, which is at 12 noon. No practice, no food. I know it's strict but those are the rules. Same with dinner. Dinner is at 7, except for tonight because of a few issues we had to deal with that made dinner late. Again, no practice, no food. You can practice an hour and a half right after breakfast and have the rest of the afternoon off until lunch or you can practice for the remaining hour and a half just before lunch; same with dinner. Your choice but you must practice and I will check. You must sign a sheet of paper that's taped to the wall beside the top of the stairs. The paper has a spell on it that will detect lying. After dinner, you're free 'til after breakfast the next morning. Got it?"

Harry stared at him for a moment, wondering if he was serious or not, before deciding that he was. Then he nodded and got into bed. "Yeah, I got it. It's actually not much different from how it is at the school, except without the no food thing."

"I know. It's mostly to make sure that the others practice. But I have to include you too, just to be fair." Toshiro walked back to his bedroom door and unlocked it before going back and climbing into bed. Immediately, Suna jumped up and curled herself onto one side of his pillow. At the questioning look Harry gave him, Toshiro said, "I lock the door when I change and unlock it before I go to bed. There are five of us, so I keep my bathroom and the others share the main one. But because there are so many of us and those four act like a bunch of premature monkeys in the morning, Rangiku uses my bathroom to shower and the other three share the main bathroom. Sometimes she'll shower before I get up, so I keep my door unlocked so she doesn't have to use a charm to unlock it. She's pretty dangerous with Charms for some reason. But so far, she's been pretty good with Transfiguration spells."

"Oh." Harry said. "Do you guys practice on one specific thing or do you practice on everything at once?"

"One at a time. First two weeks were spent working on Charms, the second two weeks were spent on Defense Against the Dark Arts and now we're currently working on Transfiguration." Toshiro answered. He reached up and turned off the light on his bed side table, plunging them into almost complete darkness. Harry looked up at the ceiling to see hundreds of twinkling stars shining down on them.

"That's cool." He whispered.

"What is?" Toshiro asked softly.

"The ceiling. The stars." Harry clarified. "That's cool. It almost feels like we're sleeping outside. It's kind of cool in here and then adding the stars…"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

Harry settled back against the pillow, liking the comfortable feeling of his new bed, and allowed his mind to unwind. As he lay thinking, he couldn't help thinking back to all of his encounters with Toshiro over the weeks. Suddenly, something didn't quite click. He wasn't sure what it was at first, but as he continued to think, he remembered what seemed to off. Toshiro had told him, when they first met, that the white-haired man who had bought their house, was his father. Yet, when he was scolding Harry earlier about families, he told Harry that his parent were dead. How is that possible? Harry thought. Either he is his father, or he's not. But if not, then who is he really? And why did Toshiro lie? But if he is Toshiro's father, then does that mean he lied about his parents dying? Why would someone want to lie about something like that?

Slowly Harry drifted off to sleep, once again glad that he had met Toshiro, even if has a bit suspicious now, and Ichigo and Rangiku and Renji and Rukia and even Suna. So far, this has been my favorite summer. And maybe in the morning, I'll ask him about it.

The next few days were some of the most interesting days Harry had ever experienced on Privet Drive. Toshiro made breakfast every morning, though he himself didn't eat much, and again on Sunday, everyone pitched in to make lunch and dinner. On Monday, Harry was a bit surprised to find Renji alone in the kitchen, making several different sorts of jelly while white rice cooked in a rice cooker. "What are you making?" Harry asked, looking at some of the dark purple jelly.

"Onigiri." He said simply. "Ever had one?"

Harry shook his head. "What's oh-nee… um, oh-nee…?"

"Onigiri." Renji said. "Oh-nee-geer-ree. Onigiri. It's a ball of rice filled with a type of filling, usually fruit, called an Umeboshi, on the back. Quite a few are made the basic way with salmon and cod roe instead of fruit. It's pretty simple to make for lunch, sometimes for a snack. There are some desert types too. They're balls of rice and covered with a chocolate shell, also with a fruit Umeboshi, usually strawberry. I'm making regular ones. Some will be grape flavored, some strawberry, some plum flavored, and some filled with chocolate. Toshiro hates those ones."

"He does? Why?" Harry asked in bewilderment. They sounded a bit odd, especially the chocolate ones, but he thought that was just him.

"Toshiro's not very fond of sweets. Not sure why; he just isn't. Must have been something in a past life or whatever." Suddenly Renji froze and glanced at Harry, who was staring down into a bowl of strawberry filling and didn't seem to notice or catch the slip. "So, anyways, aren't you supposed to be practicing?"

Harry shrugged, still staring into the bowl of strawberry filling. "I finished. I've already done most of these spells, so I didn't have much to practice for. I just worked on the ones I needed to and that was it."

"Huh. Well, in that case, want to help?" Renji asked.

Finally Harry looked up at him. "Help how? I don't have a clue how to make o-ni-gi-ri." Harry said, saying the name slowly.

"It's not very hard." Renji assured him. "For now, just keep stirring this bowl." He handed him a bowl that smelled strongly of plums. "After it becomes nice and thick and creamy, it'll be done. Then just stick it in the fridge and I'll take care of the rest. By then, the rice should be done too. Then all you have to do is wait for the rice to cool a bit, enough for you to touch with your hands without burning yourself, and then mush chunks of rice into a sort of triangular ball, using your hands as a sort of mold. That's it. I'll add the Umeboshi myself when it's done."

"Okay. I can do that." Harry said and began stirring the filling in the bowl. Several minutes later, with Renji's help and coaching, Harry had finished stirring the filling and had already made several balls of rice, which he realized was a bit sticky after being cooked. He and Renji were just finishing up molding the last of the rice balls when Toshiro entered the kitchen, carrying a large white bird on his forearm. "Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed happily.

"She was sitting on your bed after I finished showering." Toshiro said as Hedwig flew from his arm and landed on top of the fridge. "Apparently, she knew you weren't with your uncle anymore. She's pretty intelligent."

Harry nodded proudly as Hedwig puffed up her chest, apparently feeling just as proud. "She's the smartest bird I've ever met."

"Well why don't you go play or something while I finish these?" Renji said.

Harry started to turn from the counter but stopped with a frown when Renji's words sunk in. "I'm not a child, you know." He said indignantly.

Renji smirked. "Compared to us, you are. And you don't have to be a child in order to play and have fun. I mean, look at Ichigo's dad. The guy constantly attacks him as soon as he walks through the door, according to what Rukia told us. And some of the other Cap-, I mean, teachers in charge of our groups act kind of childish, too."

"Try to pay attention to the way you speak, Abarai." Toshiro said to Renji in Japanese. "We can't afford any slip ups at the school. I have a feeling that not everyone will be as naïve as Harry. We all need to watch what we say."

Renji nodded. "Yes, Captain. I keep forgetting. It's difficult but I can do it. I've been catching myself before I slip completely but with a bit more practice, I can catch myself before I slip at all. I'll work on it."

"See that you do." Toshiro said. Then he turned to Harry, who was staring back and forth between the two, looking thoroughly lost. Toshiro smirked and headed out of the kitchen without another word. Harry paused for a moment, contemplating, before running after Toshiro.

"He's like a baby chick." Renji chuckled in amusement. "He follows after Toshiro like a lost baby chick. He's got to be driving Toshiro nuts."

Harry continued to practice with the others as the days went by, occasionally stopping to help whoever was making lunch or dinner for the day. By Friday, he had completely finished all of his homework, without having to worry about spilling ink on the sheets or having to study by flashlight or candle light. Toshiro occasionally read through Harry's essays, determined to learn as much as possible before going to the school themselves. The only thing Harry wished he had the freedom of doing was riding his Nimbus 2000 around the back yard. But Toshiro had told him that the spell on the house didn't extend past the walls, so Harry couldn't ride. He did go outside to help Rangiku with the garden, however, and soon had the entire back yard looking like something out of a fairy tale. Later that day, Toshiro had gone out after breakfast and hadn't returned until well past lunch. When Harry had asked where he had gone, he had shrugged and said 'just out'.

Saturday morning, Toshiro was alone in the kitchen, setting the tea on the stove while the eggs cooked and the potatoes fried for breakfast, when a slight tapping was heard above the sink. Toshiro turned and noticed a large brown owl fluttering outside the window. He wiped his hands on a dish towel and opened the window. The owl flew in and landed on the counter, placed its letter onto the countertop and flew back out of the window, seemingly proclaiming self-importance. Toshiro reclosed the window and picked up the letter, which, oddly enough, was addressed to him.

Hitsugaya, Toshiro

Kitchen

Number Seven of Privet Drive

Little Winging

Surrey

Toshiro quirked an eyebrow and opened the letter. There were two different letters; one was from Captain-General Yamamoto and the other was from Albus Dumbledore. Toshiro skimmed through both letters, growing more annoyed the further he read. Finally he rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly, refolding the letters and placing them in his pocket before turning on one of the burners on the stove and burning the envelope the letters had arrived in.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he stepped into the kitchen in time to see the remains of an envelope turning to ash in Toshiro's fingers.

"Burning a piece of paper." Toshiro answered tersely.

"I can see that. But what I meant was why?" Harry replied.

Toshiro shrugged. "Because I felt like it. And no, I didn't think simply throwing it in the trash would suffice. Otherwise I would have." Toshiro snapped irritably.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked with a frown, a bit surprised with the bad temper Toshiro seemed to have develop all of a sudden.

Toshiro shook his head, forming a frown of his own. "Nothing. It doesn't matter. What do you want?"

Harry hesitated, unsure if he should stay. He had decided that today would be the day he confronted Toshiro about whether or not his parents are dead, and if so, why he lied. But something told him now wouldn't be a good time to ask. Obviously Toshiro seemed to be upset about something, possibly with whatever was on the paper he had just burnt, and Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be around in case he made something worse. What's made his so angry all of a sudden? Harry thought. Well, he doesn't really seem angry. More like annoyed, maybe a little irritated. But why?

"Well?" Toshiro snapped impatiently. "What do you want?"

"N-nothing. Never mind." Harry stuttered and quickly backed out of the kitchen.

Toshiro sighed and leaned back against the counter, rubbing a hand over his face. Those old geezers are determined to make my life miserable. He thought irritably. According to the letters, Yamamoto had placed Toshiro, the Captain of the group, onto a separate mission on his own. He wanted Toshiro to use this opportunity to gather more information on wizards and the whole magical world. He felt that there was a possibility that, if the need should arise, Soul Society and wizards would need to combine forces to defeat Aizen, and Toshiro was the perfect tool to use in order to gather as much information as possible. Then Dumbledore had offered to enroll Toshiro into a few extra classes that he felt would help with his investigations of gathering information, feeling that the best way to learn about wizards was through their textbooks.

So now, not only did Toshiro have to deal with the classes the rest of his group had, but now he had two more classes he had to attend: Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes. Both old men figured Muggle Studies would be a good way to learn the ways of muggles through the minds of wizards, to understand how they thought; and Ancient Runes was a good way to learn more about their historical lands and languages scattered around the globe. How the hell am I going to fit all of these classes into one week? Toshiro thought furiously. Why just me? Wouldn't it be easier to have at least the lieutenants in on this as well? But he knew why Yamamoto had volunteered Toshiro. Because Toshiro was never one to back down and say he couldn't do something. Because Yamamoto knew that for Toshiro to say he couldn't handle it, would be for Toshiro to admit that everyone was right and he was too young to be a captain. That he was in over his head and should step down as captain and let someone older and more experienced take over. Because, no matter how hard it was, Yamamoto knew that Toshiro wouldn't say no to the task. Just as he hadn't refused this mission, not because he didn't want to feel degraded about being thrown into this mission because he fit the part, but because he didn't want the rest of Soul Society to look down on him as just a child with too much to handle.

Damn those bastards! Toshiro thought furiously, clenching his fists. Both of them! It would be a good idea to learn more about these magical people incase Aizen decided to go psycho and create an army to attack Soul Society. But why did they decide to shove me into this by myself? Well, it won't matter. I'll do it. I'll show them that I can. I'll show them all. I will not fail either of these missions. I won't!

"Taicho?" Toshiro turned to see Rangiku poking her head around a frosted kitchen door. Toshiro blinked and looked around himself, realizing that half of the kitchen was covered in sleet. Puffs of frosted air appeared in front of Toshiro's and Rangiku's faces as they breathed. Quickly, Toshiro forced himself calm and gathered his power back into his body, bringing the room's temperature back to normal. As soon as the sleet began to melt, Rangiku stepped into the kitchen and stepped up beside him, leaning a hip against the counter and crossing her arms over her chest. "What happened?"

Toshiro pulled his ring off his finger and shoved it into his pocket, bringing the letter back out at the same time, and shoving it at Rangiku. She took it and began reading the pages that had upset her captain. After she was done, she pulled off her ring and spoke. "What are you going to do?" she asked in Japanese.

Toshiro shrugged. "There's nothing I can do. I have to do it. Captain-General Yamamoto's orders."

"But Captain, this is too much for you to do by yourself." Rangiku protested. "Why didn't Head-Captain assign all of us? Or at least Renji and I? It seems like a bit too much for a single captain. Or even a captain type mission in general. As lieutenants, Renji and I should be doing this."

Toshiro shook his head, his frown back on his face. "No. It's my mission. I won't fail. And I won't refuse. Head-Captain knows this. That's why he assigned it to just me. He knows I won't refuse. I can't refuse."

Rangiku frowned and then smiled slightly. "You know," Rangiku started thoughtfully. "Captain Ukitake wouldn't be very happy if he found out that Head-Captain was manipulating you like this. He's quite fond of you, you know. He's told me so a few times. It would be interesting to see what his reaction would be."

Toshiro looked at her, a ghost of a smile playing at his lips. Captain Ukitake was indeed fond of Toshiro; even he knew it. "You're not going to tell him. He doesn't need to know. Besides, I already made my decision. You're not helping. Neither is anyone else. I'll do this on my own, just like I always do. I can do it."

Rangiku looked at him sadly. "I know you can; I don't doubt that. I just wish you would let us help."

Toshiro shook his head firmly. "No. I don't need help. I'll do it all on my own, just like Head-Captain expects me too. Just like everyone in Soul Society expects me to. If I fail, which I won't, but if I do, at least it will be on me, and not on any of you."

"Captain." Rangiku said.

Toshiro shook his head again. "No. As captain, it's my responsibility. Mine alone. And nothing you say can change my mind. You should know that by now. If there ever was a time for you to listen to me and do as I say, do it now."

Rangiku sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't like this. Not at all."

Toshiro shrugged, almost helplessly in Rangiku's eyes. "Neither do I. But what choice do I have? Don't say it." He said as Rangiku opened her mouth to give him the other option again.

Rangiku snapped her mouth shut and smiled. "Are you going to tell the others?" she asked as she slipped her ring back on her finger.

Toshiro shook his head, pulling his ring back out of his pocket. "No. It's on a need to know basis. The only reason I'm telling you is because you're my lieutenant and I trust you not to run your mouth about this. Otherwise, I wouldn't have told you unless it was necessary. Which, at the moment, it's not. If things change while we're there, then I'll consider letting the others know."

"I wonder how they would react if they found out about the way he was treating you?" Rangiku said thoughtfully.

"Don't." Toshiro said in English after putting his ring back on. "I mean it. I don't need a pity party."

Rangiku shook her head. "Don't worry. That's one party I wouldn't want to throw. Especially for you; you've had enough of that already."

"Matsumoto." Toshiro said warningly.

"I know, I know." Rangiku waved her hand idly and turn to the frosted stove, the pan of eggs and the pan of potatoes slowly defrosting from the extinguished burners. "So what's for breakfast?"

A/N: So what did you think? Me and a few of my friends made Onigiri together once or twice and they came out pretty well but I'm not entirely sure if I described making them properly. We just made them based on memory but it there is a proper Japanese way to make them, could someone please let me know? Thanks.

Also, after the story arc with Bleach, where Ukitake and Shunsui fight Yamamoto, (for those who have no idea what I'm talking about, I recommend watching the anime Bleach) I felt that Yamamoto was acting very unreasonable. And since I hadn't seen anything past where Ichigo and the others went back to the living world when I wrote this, I didn't have a very high opinion of him. So I felt that he was a bit unfair and, like many high leaders, would be willing to use his subordinates, in this case, the other captains, for his opinion of "the greater good". And since the other people in Soul Society treat Toshiro like a child in over his head, I figured Yamamoto would use that to his own advantage. If I'm wrong, please let me know but that's the impression he left on me. But I felt it fit a bit with this story. Not sure why. Maybe I'll make something out of it later on. Any suggestions?

Thanks for reading and having patience with me. Make sure to review and I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Until then…