A/N: Sorry for the wait. I had a nasty stomach virus that just snuck up on me last Friday morning and kept me incapacitated until Halloween. By then I was so weak, I could barely walk straight, much less pick up my laptop and continue writing my chapter. But I was well enough to start writing the next day and I've been working double time to get this chapter up. This was a bit harder to write, since there were more details that needed to be addressed. And I decided to do the class schedules partly the books way and partly my way where I deemed them useful. Hopefully I did a good job. Thanks to everyone for the wonderful reviews. You guys are amazing. I get new readers all the time too. And thanks goes out to my readers who haven't updated but have stuck with the story. Now let's see what chapter fifteen offers us, shall we?

Disclaimers: I own nothing but my chaotic overactive imagination. I take full credit for that. The rest is obviously not own by me and I fully admit that, so there is no reason to sue me. Don't bother. Plus if you make a big deal about this and I get forced to take this down for nothing, you might have A LOT of angry readers at your throat. Just a small warning.

Chapter Fifteen: And Term Begins

The next morning, Toshiro awoke to the sound of a groan from the bed beside him, followed by the sound of rustling cloth. Quickly, he strained to hear as Neville's sleepy voice floated over to him. "I hate the first day of classes. I'm always afraid that Potions would be first on the list."

Harry's voice floated towards him from the other end of the room. "Unfortunately there's not much we can do if it is. Snape will be unbearable though. He usually is on the first day back."

Toshiro rolled over and poked his head out of his bed curtains as Ron groaned, his voice muffled as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Don't jinx it. The last thing we need is Snape first thing in the morning."

Neville nodded and picked up his tie, glancing up towards Toshiro when he noticed that he was awake. "Oh, hey. I was just about to wake you in a few minutes. It's just about time to be getting up for breakfast. We just learned to start getting up a bit earlier on the first day of school, since it takes us longer to actually wake up. You know, getting back into the swing of things." He shrugged.

Toshiro nodded and got out of bed, silently grabbing his new bag of bath supplies Rangiku had gotten for the shinigami while in Muggle London, a towel and his clothes and headed to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later, Toshiro returned, fully clothed except for his socks, shoes and robes, to find the room partially empty except for Neville, Harry, Ron, and the two sleeping transfers.

"That was a fast shower." Neville commented as he finished putting his supplies into his school bag.

Toshiro shrugged, eyeing the two beds. "It doesn't take long to bathe. It's just water, soap, water, done. That's it."

Neville exchanged odd looks with Ron but Harry shrugged. "Technically it's true. But Rangiku told me once that if you bathe the traditional Japanese way, that it takes a lot longer. She said that you're supposed to clean your body first with soap, rinse off, and then get into the water."

"That's only if you're going to bathe in a tub." Toshiro said, still eying the beds. Toshiro frowned and finished placing his things into his trunk, draped his damp towel over the rail in front of the heater, and approached the space between the two occupied beds. "I know you two are awake. I can hear the difference in your breathing. Get up."

There was a rustle of bed clothes and Ichigo poked his scowling face through the curtains. "Why do they get up so early on the weekend? It's Saturday for crying out loud."

"It's eight o'clock." Toshiro told him.

"Exactly." Ichigo said with a frown as he got out of bed, Renji following suit. "It's too freaking early for a Saturday."

"I woke you guys up between 7 and 7:15 every morning." Toshiro snapped. "Be grateful you get an extra hour before breakfast on the weekends."

Ichigo continued to grumble as he gathered his clothes, bath supplies, and towel and headed into the bathroom, Renji right behind. Toshiro sighed and finished getting ready and gathering his things. Harry and Ron left several minutes before Renji returned, a bundle of clothes in his arms and his towel and bag of toiletries hanging from one hand. He tossed the towel onto the grate beside everyone else's and dumped his clothes in a pile on the floor beside his trunk. Ichigo returned, mimicking Renji by tossing the towel over the grate, before grabbing his socks and shoes and shoving them grumpily onto his feet.

Once everyone was finished getting ready, the four of them headed down to the common room and out the portrait hole, following the slow trickling of students staggering sleepily down to the Great Hall. Once there, they quickly took their seats at the Gryffindor table and waited for the dishes to fill themselves with food. As the last few stragglers entered the Great Hall and took their seats, Dumbledore rose to his feet and addressed the crowd.

"Now, before we dig in to our breakfast, I would like to announce the arrival of our new Japanese professor and his own personal students." The students turned as the double doors opened and in strolled a man with short, straw-colored hair cut just below the chin, wearing a green and white striped hat, a strange-looking green robe, and the most peculiar-looking wooden sandals. In one hand was a long black cane, and in the other was a wooden and white papered fan with a large red circle in the center when opened.

"Greetings, children." The man said pleasantly, waving the fan cheerily around the room. "I, am your new temporary professor, straight from the lovely country of Japan. You may call me Urahara. No 'Professor' necessary." He waved his fan behind him. "And these are my own personal students."

Toshiro peered past Urahara from his seat and groaned. Ichigo's friends, whatever their names were, were hovering behind Urahara, all three of them dressed similarly to Urahara, with the exception of the Quincy, whose robes were white with that ridiculous blue stripe pattern he was known to wear. Toshiro was not looking forward to spending this year with them as well as the others. So far Ichigo was bad enough by himself but give him back his lackeys and there was sure to be chaos.

"Do you know them?" Neville whispered beside him, having heard Toshiro's groan.

"Unfortunately." Toshiro muttered. What was Soul Society thinking, sending them here? This is none of their business. "They're part of the groups we were talking about on the train yesterday. They're more Ichigo's friends than anyone else's however."

Urahara cleared his throat. "Allow me to introduce my students. This is Yasutora Sado, but you can call him Chad or Sado, though he is mostly known as Chad." He patted the large, mocha skinned boy on the shoulder, who stood at least about 6'5", with his dark brown hair falling messily over his eyes, hiding them from view. Then he tapped the other tall, thin boy with short raven black hair and square glasses, wearing the white robe and standing at about 5'7". "This is Uryu Ishida, just known as Uryu." Then he waved his fan at the timid-looking girl behind, and nearly hidden by, Chad. She stood at around 5'2", with long straight, orange hair reaching mid-back and a bust almost, but not quite, as large as Rangiku's. "And this lovely young lady is our own Orihime Inoue. You can just call her Orihime. She specializes in healing magic, though she is still learning. I believe she will be spending much of her time in the hospital wing, if I'm not mistaken."

Professor Dumbledore picked up the narrating. "Professor Urahara has also been traveling abroad with his students and has decided to spend the year studying our western magic. In exchange, he has agreed to teach eastern magic to those who wish to learn. His students, as will the other exchange students, will be required to take this class; however, as I said last night, the option for the rest of the school is yours. You may sit in on their classes before making a decision if you'd like. They will be held Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30 to 7:00 pm, just before dinner, in the unused classroom on the fourth floor, next to the statue of Dorris the Dimwitted*. His students will also be sitting in on our lessons whenever they can, though they will not be learning the same way as our other transfers. They are not students, but more as assistants to him. They will be staying at the inn in Hogsmeade for the duration of their visit; however, they will be dining with us. Please make them feel as welcome as our other transfers." He turned and nodded to Urahara, who turned and spoke quietly to his students before heading up to the teacher's table. His students fanned out, Chad heading for the Gryffindor table to sit beside Ichigo, Uryu wandering to the Ravenclaw table to sit beside Rukia, and Orihime going to sit beside Rangiku, though she did cast a longing look towards the Gryffindor table, unnoticed by all.

Once the new arrivals had been seated, the food appeared before them, western food mingling with the eastern. Toshiro noticed that a lot of the westerners looked relieved to see that a Japanese breakfast can be similar to their own in some respects. Toast was served along with different styles of egg, including raw egg, as well as different types of cereal, both hot and cold, and green tea. However, there were also a few types of cooked sea food and vegetables, along with rice, which they figured was a natural food for all occasions. Toshiro sipped at his tea while Ichigo and Renji spoke to Chad, several of the closer Gryffindors listening in, including, Toshiro noticed, Neville, Harry, Hermione and Ron.

"I totally forgot you guys were coming." Ichigo muttered around a mouthful of rice. "Sorry about that. But it looks like you guys got here just fine with Old Man Hat-and-Clogs. So what are your dog duties consisting of, eh?"

Chad looked Ichigo's way before answering. "He told us to help out in class. We're going to train as well." He suddenly pulled off a small silver ring from his large middle finger and looked to Toshiro, speaking in short and quick Japanese sentences. "He also told us to assist in any way we can. We're going to be doing security checks. Soon. At night. He needs to speak with the other teachers first."

Toshiro sipped from his tea again before setting it down and pulling off his own ring with a nod. "Good. I was planning on starting it myself. Glad we're on the same page. It'll help greatly." He said, meeting Chad's short, quick bursts of Japanese.

"What are you saying?" Ron asked curiously.

Toshiro gave a meaningful nod to Chad and slipped his ring back onto his finger. "If we wanted you to know, we would have said it with our translators on. There is a thing called privacy, you know."

Harry nodded to his friend. "I learned that the hard way. After a while, I just learned to dismiss it when they spoke to each other in Japanese. They never told me when I asked anyways. And I know that if we could do it too, everyone would be speaking in languages everyone else can't understand."

"Oh!" Hermione said suddenly. "Like coded messages. And using metaphors instead of regular words to trick others from understanding."

"Exactly." Ichigo said with a nod.

At that moment, McGonagall swept down the table, handing out sheets of parchment as she went. She handed two sheets of parchment to each of them except the Japanese students. Toshiro glanced down at his own single parchment, noticing that it was a list of his classes and their day and times. He glanced up when Neville spoke beside him, showing him the second parchment.

"Hey, look. It says here in the description of the class that this is a two-parter." He said, pointing down at the small paragraph under the title of the class: Eastern Magic. "It says it runs Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30-7; just before dinner. According to this, part one, Fridays, will be mental and magical exercises and Saturdays will be magical and physical exercises. How does that work? And it says something here but I can't tell if I'm reading it right."

Toshiro glanced at the word and scowled. Kido? What the hell is he thinking? He cleared his throat before answering tightly. "It's pronounced 'Kee-doh'. Kido. It's … a form of magic we … Japanese use." He noticed Renji and Ichigo pause and glance apprehensively in his direction. "It's used with your spiritual strength instead of what you're used to. It's complicated but I'm sure Urahara will be able to explain it more if you decide to attend his class."

"Sure, I wouldn't mind going." Neville said with a shrug. Then he shrugged apologetically. "But I'm not sure I'll do very well in that class. I'm not very good with magic period. Except Herbology. And I'm a disaster in Potions."

"How would you know what you are and aren't good at unless you try?" Toshiro asked. He held up a hand as Neville made to speak. "And I mean try as in because you want to do well, not because you have to. If you keep doing it with someone constantly breathing down your neck or with a tremendous amount of pressure riding on you, you're not going to succeed. Tell me, how is your class conducted in Potions?"

"Horribly." Harry answered at once.

"It's terrible." Hermione said with a nod.

"It's a nightmare is what it is." Ron added.

"Professor Snape teaches it." Neville said miserably. "And if it's even a tad off from what it's supposed to look or smell like, then he thinks it's completely wrong."

"But it's just fine when the bloody Slytherins completely screw it up." Ron snapped angrily. "Once, Crabbe nearly melted his whole cauldron and Snape didn't do a thing. But when I made my potion blue instead of green, which was pretty darn closer to green than a few others, he docked five points and completely erased my potion. He didn't even let me test it."

"I remember that." Harry said with a nod. "One of the Slytherins had made his potion orange and Snape still gave him marks for it."

"He's totally unfair towards everyone except the other Slytherins." Hermione replied earnestly. "He's absolutely horrid."

"Yeah, he didn't really give off much of a good first impression last night." Ichigo muttered. He glanced down at his schedule. "And it looks like we've got him first thing tomorrow morning."

Neville paled and Ron groaned. "Great."

"At least it's not today." Hermione said as she quickly signed the enrollment form for the new class before going back to her schedule. Ran glanced over at hers and did a double take.

"Hermione, you're schedule's all messed up. Look, it says you've got Divination at ten and Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes." He narrowed his eyes quizzically. "Weird. But the rest is normal. You can't go to three different classes at once, can you? There isn't time."

"Don't worry about it." Hermione said dismissively. "I've already fixed it with McGonagall."

Neville peered at his own schedule while Ron and Hermione bickered and then down at Toshiro's schedule and his eyes widened. "Yours is like that too. You're taking Muggle Studies and Ancient Runes?"

"You are?" Ichigo asked. He peered down at his own schedule. "It's not on mine."

"Come to think of it, those weren't any of the classes we practiced for over the summer." Renji commented.

"My reasons for these classes are my own." Toshiro answered curtly. "Don't bother asking."

Just then, nearly a hundred owls swarmed into the Great Hall, each of them carrying everything from packages to letters to newspapers. Several owls swooped down and landed in front of Toshiro, knocking over plates and cups and a tea pot. Neville grabbed a tipping pitcher of pumpkin juice before it toppled over as Toshiro grabbed a large stack of letters from one of the owls, allowing it to eat some of the food that had fallen to the table top before taking flight. The other owls scooted closer, waiting their turns. Toshiro grabbed packages from the rest of the owls and then a single letter from the owl he himself had purchased in Diagon Alley before the rest of the owls flew away, leaving his own owl standing beside his miraculously upright tea cup.

"Who are all these from?" Neville asked in wide eyed fascination at all the odd packages and large stack of letters. Several heads were also turned towards Toshiro, including those from other houses.

Toshiro pulled off the dark brown string holding the letters together and sifted through them. "These are for you." He said, handing four letters to Ichigo. He picked out three more and handed them to Renji. "There are yours." He separated another small pile and held them up with a glance toward the Hufflepuff table. Rangiku headed over and took the letters from him. He repeated the action towards the Ravenclaw table and handed Rukia her mail, before placing his own beside his plate. Then he began sifting through the packages and handing them out to their respective owners.

"Why didn't whoever sent these just address them to whoever they belonged to?" Neville asked in confusion.

"It's easier this way." Toshiro answered as he handed a small box identical to four others, three of which he had already handed to Ichigo, Renji and Rukia, and a box of clinking glass to Rangiku. He held onto the clinking box with a glare to her. "This is from Professor Shunsui. It better not be what I think it is."

Rangiku winked and waved her hand. "Of course not, taicho. Would I be that irresponsible?" Toshiro's eyes narrowed further. "Don't answer that."

Toshiro shook his head but allowed her to take the package. He opened one of the remaining packages addressed to him, the one similar to the others, and scowled in distaste, handing the box over to Neville. "Here, you can have this."

Neville peered inside and looked up at Toshiro in shock. "Are you sure? There's a lot in here."

Toshiro's scowl deepened. "I know. Do with it what you will. I don't care."

"What is it?" Ron asked curiously.

Neville reached into the box and pulled out several small boxes with the words Pocky© written on the front, each a different color. "'Chocolate covered biscuit sticks'. 'Almond covered biscuit sticks', 'Strawberry covered biscuit sticks'." Neville read curiously. He set them down on the table and pulled out several bags decorated with pictures of strawberries, green apples, purple grapes, oranges, mangos and bananas, with the words Hi-Chew© on the front and back. He set these down beside the Pocky© and continued to pull out boxes and bags of an assortment of sweets before a small pile sat before them. "Wow. This is a lot of candy."

"Um, can I…" Ron asked, eyeing several of the brightly colored packages. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Ask Neville." Toshiro said indifferently as he began opening another package. "They're his now."

Neville smirked and handed a pack of Hi-Chew© to Ron with the instructions to share with Harry and Hermione before packing the rest into his school bag. "So what's in that one?" he asked Toshiro.

Toshiro pulled out several small cases of strangely shaped glass bottles, each case a different color with a lime green cap atop each bottle. "These are a kind of drink called Ramune. It can be pronounced rah-moo-nay, or rahm-n-ay, depending. It's a kind of soda." He pushed several cases to Neville. "You can have these."

"Why do they send you sweets if you don't like them? Don't you tell them?" Neville asked as he looked over one of the bottles.

"He knows." Toshiro said with a sigh. "He's our teacher." He glanced at Harry and grimaced. "And my father. He gives them to me anyways, knowing that I don't like sweets much."

"Your dad is your teacher?" Hermione asked excitedly. "That must be so strange being taught by your father but I suppose most magical families have to learn some way before Hogwarts."

"My mum taught us." Ron said. "She taught all of us up until our letters, including Bill and Charlie."

"If he knows you don't like a lot of sweets, why does he send them to you?" Neville asked as he unwrapped one of the glass bottles. The lime green cap fell off, revealing a small marble stuck in the bottle's opening. "And how do you open this?" he asked as he tried to push the marble with his finger.

"Don't." Toshiro said quickly, stopping Neville's hand. "That's carbonated. If you release that too quickly, it'll either pop or shoot that marble into your eye or something." Neville glanced at the bottle wearily and allowed Toshiro to take it. "This is how it works. Pay close attention." He picked up the lime green cap and pushed out the center piece, placing it in the bottle's opening and on top of the marble. He placed his palm over the flat end of the cap. "This piece is used to push down the marble. You need to put both power and speed into it. Just shove down hard and fast, before the built up carbonation can do any damage." He demonstrated by shoving down on the cap, causing the marble to fall into the bottle with a pop. He handed the bottle back to Neville. "That's it."

Neville looked at the marble rolling around inside. "How do you get the marble out?"

"You don't. Just leave it there." Toshiro said with a shrug.

Neville eyed the drink before taking a small sip. "Hey, this isn't bad."

Toshiro tuned them out, as Neville began handing bottles out to Ron, Harry and Hermione, in order to open his letters. After reading one particular letter from Ukitake regarding their swords, Toshiro quickly pulled out a fresh roll of parchment, wrote a quick response, and sent the owl on its way. Then he leaned over and spoke to Renji and Ichigo. "We need to talk later. We have a break between lunch and our next class. The three of us, including Rangiku and Rukia, need to get together for an important conversation regarding something at home."

The two nodded and Toshiro stood up. "Isn't class starting soon?"

Hermione looked down at her schedule. "You're right. We better go."

"First class is Divination." Ron said as everyone began gathering their things. "Since it's in the North Tower, we'll have to hurry."

After Chad regrouped with his fellow classmates, telling Ichigo that Urahara wanted them all to stay together for the first day of classes, the others headed out to Divination. Neville, who had been to North Tower before with Luna the time he decided to help her find her Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook after several of her dorm mates hid it from her, easily led Toshiro, Ichigo and Renji up a narrow spiral staircase and onto a small landing with a trap door above them. Harry, Ron and Hermione had pulled back to speak to each other, telling them to go on ahead, and had appeared nearly three minutes before class was due to start, all three of them out of breath and shining with a thin layer of sweat on their faces.

Before anyone could ask them where they had been, the trap door above them fell open and a silvery ladder fell at Harry's feet. After some encouragement from Ron, Harry began climbing first, followed hesitantly, by the rest of the class. As soon as Toshiro entered the room, he sneezed and groaned. The room was disgustingly stuffy and filled with the scent of waaay too much perfume, causing him to sneeze once more as he followed Neville to one of several low round tables, each surrounded by hideous pink, purple, orange and pastel red poufs and chintz armchairs. Several reddish scarves and shawls were draped over every single lamp, giving the room a faint red tint. A softly roaring fire sat in the fire place at the front of the attic-like room, radiating with the perfumed aroma.

Toshiro made sure to sit at a table right beside a window and immediately perched on the sill and popped the window open, welcoming the rush of cool air. Neville, Ichigo and Renji plopped down into the overstuffed poufs and armchairs while Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at a table next to them. Toshiro scrunched his nose as the pouf Neville had plopped into puffed up more of the perfumed scent, causing him to sneeze again and glare at the infuriating furniture piece.

"Where is she?" Ron whispered behind him to Harry and Hermione.

"Greetings, children." Said a soft misty voice from the shadows of a part of the room. "It is so nice to finally meet you all in the physical world."

A tall woman with large spectacles, causing her eyes to seem twice as large as normal, and wrapped in several layers of thin shawls, despite the unnatural heat of the room, emerged from the shadows, almost magically to those without a trained eye. She practically glided around the room like an overgrown moth with too many colors and more than enough beaded necklaces around her neck. She turned her large eyes to Toshiro's table and her misty smile grew dramatically. "And welcome, at last, to our new transfer students. I knew this year would be quite unique, for I have foreseen your arrival. Welcome to the wonderful Hogwarts."

Toshiro resisted the urge to roll his eyes, though Renji and Ichigo failed to restrain themselves and started sniggering to each other as the professor glided away, fluttering her hands dramatically and giving her the appearance of someone attempting to fly away. Ichigo smirked and leaned over to whisper to Renji, loud enough for Toshiro and Neville to hear. "How much you want to bet I can manipulate her into thinking everything that happens is part of her 'predictions'?" Renji and Neville smirked and even Toshiro had to crack a small smile at the thought.

The fluttery woman continued to speak, oblivious to the plot forming against her within the skulls of Ichigo and Renji. "My name is Professor Trelawney, and as you may have guessed, I am the Divination teacher, your instructor into the Other Plane. You may not have seen me before, for I find that descending too far into the school clouds my Inner Eye, thus my refrain from leaving my quarters."

She eyed each of them in turn, her eyes lingering a few seconds longer on several of the students, including the transfers, Neville, and Harry. Then she whirled around and fluttered to the front of the class and began speaking again. "Now, you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of the magical world. For I regret to say that not all of you will be able to learn. There are many who do not possess the right mind set needed, and most importantly, the Inner Eye. There is very little I can teach those who do not possess the Sight. Books can only take you so far…"

Toshiro turned his head at the silent chuckle from Harry and Ron, who were looking slightly smug at the look Hermione had on her face, obviously feeling startled at the news that books wouldn't be able to help her much in this subject. Toshiro turned back to the front as Professor Trelawney continued.

"It is a Gift given graciously to a very few. You boy," she glanced suddenly at Neville, who shrank so far back into the pouf nervously that he nearly toppled off the other side. Toshiro shot a hand out and caught the robes around his shoulder, keeping him upright. "Is your grandmother well?"

Neville blinked nervously. "Um, I…I think so." He stuttered, glancing around in confusion.

"I would not be so sure if I were you, dear." Professor Trelawney said mystically. Neville whimpered and gulped fearfully.

Toshiro narrowed his eyes at him, frowning slightly. Ichigo and Renji mimicked him and Ichigo spoke to Trelawney. "Did you just threaten him? Or his grandmother?" he asked suspiciously.

Trelawney blinked in surprise at the sudden accusation. "Of course not." She huffed in offense. "I merely informed him that his grandmother may not be as well as he may think and to be careful."

Renji spoke up, sounding just as suspicious. "How would you know? I mean, I get that you may have 'seen' it, but the way you said it made it sound like her life was on the line."

"Just what the hell are you trying to pull?" Ichigo asked with narrowed eyes.

Trelawney appeared taken aback, most likely unused to students addressing her in such a way, or taking her predictions as personal threats. "I have foreseen it." She said, as if that were obvious.

"If you've foreseen it, then you should be able to tell him what's going to happen to her." Ichigo said slowly. "I mean, it is his grandmother, after all. If it was life threatening, he has a right to know, wouldn't he?" Neville looked fearfully between Ichigo, Renji and Trelawney, the class as a whole sitting with rapt attention on the scene before them, wondering what would happen. No one every argued with a teacher before, no matter how nutty.

Trelawney drew herself up and wrapped the shawls around her tighter, frowning at Ichigo. "The Inner Eye cannot be manipulated, my dear." She said tightly. "And to reveal everything one Sees could cause great catastrophes for the future."

"So you won't even tell him if it's life threatening or not?" Ichigo demanded almost furiously. "What's up with that?"

"I cannot." Trelawney said dramatically, almost mournfully. "It is too risky."

Ichigo scowled and narrowed his eyes at her, not liking the idea of someone hinting that something may be wrong with a loved one but not being told how or why. Almost as if they were dangling the information in a teasingly sinister manner. "Well, if she dies or something just as bad, we'll know who to blame, then, won't we?"

"Ichigo." Toshiro muttered quietly, looking pointedly at Neville. He seemed to be cowering into his pouf, looking fearful at the thought of something bad happening to his grandmother and appeared about ready to bolt from the room. Toshiro looked at Ichigo, who had followed his gaze to Neville. "That's enough."

Ichigo's expression softened at the horrified look on the boy's face. Then he scowled and sat back in the armchair, crossing his arms over his chest and glowering at the flustered professor, who quickly blinked several times before abruptly changing the subject. She began explaining the layout of the year's coursework to the class, avoiding eye contact with the transfers' table and Ichigo in particular. After warning a girl about a red-haired man, causing her to look at Ichigo, Renji and Ron with a startled look before scooting her seat away from Ron's, then predicting the leave of one of their classmates, and then predicting the something a girl was supposedly dreading happening on the sixteenth of October, she finally instructed the class to divide into pairs, grab a teacup from the back of the class, and bring it to her to be filled.

"Drink only until the dregs remain; then swish them around the cup three times with your left hand before turning it upside down and letting the excess moisture drain from the cup." She instructed. "Once the last of the tea has drained away, switch it with your partner's, and then interpret the patterns using the guide on pages five and six in your copies of Unfogging the Future. I shall instruct where I can." As everyone rose from their seats and began heading towards the back of the room, she glanced at the transfers hesitantly before taking hold of Neville's hand as he passed. "And dear, after you've broken your first cup, please select one of the blue ones. I rather like the pink."

Ichigo smirked at Renji when he heard this and winked. Neville headed to the shelf with the tea cups just as Ichigo picked up a pink cup and psst! at him before carelessly tossing the cup to him. Neville reached out to catch it, the cup bounced off his fingers and landed on the floor with a soft chink of braking china. Ichigo and Renji snickered as Trelawney came fluttering over, brush and dust pan in hand. "One of the blue ones, then dear." She said airily, obviously pleased that her 'prediction' had come true. Neville frowned at them as he grabbed a blue cup.

Once they had returned to their seats, the four of them began working, Neville paired with Toshiro and Ichigo paired with Renji. Next to them, Harry, Ron and Hermione worked together, Harry passing his cup to Ron, who passed his to Hermione, who in turn passed hers to Harry. Toshiro passed his now drained cup to Neville and took his in turn. "You know," he started, looking pointedly at Ichigo and Renji. "Technically, you made her prediction come true with the tea cup. She predicted the cup breaking at Neville's hands. She did not specify how. And technically, the cup did break at his hands, because he touched it last before it broke. If you were trying to mock her, it would have been a better idea to not throw the cup at him and let him break it. Just a thought." He said with a shrug.

Ichigo and Renji blinked at each other before realizing that he was right and scowling. Neville snickered, his earlier gloom vanishing slightly. They continued working, Toshiro predicting Neville to become ill and suddenly fine himself lost in the near future. Neville, to the alarm of the three Soul Reapers, predicted ice storms in Toshiro's future, along with the betrayal of one he called a friend. Toshiro didn't like the sound of the ice, but figured it had something to do with Hyorinmaru. As for the friend turned enemy, Toshiro wasn't sure if Neville was talking about the past with Aizen or the future with one of his own companions or if the prediction was just coincidental.

He was broken out of his musings by the snort of laughter coming from Harry, apparently finding whatever Ron had said amusing. As he expected, Professor Trelawney glided over and snatched the cup from Ron. The class leaned in to listen as she began examining Harry's cup, though Ichigo and Renji had decided it would be more productive to talk about what was for lunch later. Neville found it difficult to keep a straight face as Ichigo threatened to stab Renji with a fork during lunch and Toshiro rolled his eyes. Suddenly Trelawney gasped and screamed.

Neville jumped beside Toshiro, his cup falling from Neville's hands and smashing on the surface of the table. Trelawney sat dramatically into her seat, her hand flying to her chest and her eyes closing mournfully. "Oh, my dear… my poor dear… such ill fortune… no, it is better not to say… don't ask me…"

"What's wrong, Professor?" a boy asked, as if he could refrain from asking with the crazy lady being so dramatic. The majority of the class, with the exception of the transfers, and Neville when he noticed that Toshiro showed no interest, gathered around Harry's table, eager to see what was in Harry's cup.

Trelawney opened her eyes and stared dramatically at Harry. "My dear. You have the Grim."

"The what?" Harry asked in confusion. Toshiro frowned, for he had read several books in the bookstore during his free time while in Diagon Alley and had read about the Grim. Apparently it was a sort of death omen, taking the form of a large, massive black dog. Several of the other students, Neville included, gasped and stared at Harry in horror.

"It is an omen of Death!" Trelawney cried.

Hermione looked skeptical as she glanced at Harry's cup. "I don't think it looks like a Grim." She stated flatly.

Toshiro could tell Trelawney didn't approve much of Hermione and was truly glad when she finally released them for the day. Gathering his things quickly, he and the others left the room and headed down the stairs until they reached the landing that signaled the beginning of the main part of the school. Thoughts raced through his mind as he followed Neville down corridors, heading to their next class, Transfiguration. Hopefully this class would be more productive and less upsetting.

A/N: I know there are a lot of readers here who might be a bit upset about my adding Orihime and the others but don't worry. They won't be playing that much of a role here. They're more like support characters. Except maybe Chad cuz Chad is awesome. And I have thought and thought and have decided that there will be NO pairings of any kind whatsoever. I felt that this decision was safest for all of us. As for the new class, I hope this works in everyone's mind. It works well in my mind but it was extremely hard to get it down on paper properly. You know how it is. But basically what I decided was that there will be two half classes, like in real life, sort of. Fridays will be a sort of exercising class that exercises both the mental and magical mind and allows the class to tap into their "spiritual magic". And then Saturdays would be trying to test your "spiritual magic" in an eastern form of magic called "Kido". They will also be trying to channel their "spiritual magic" into a solid object, making an ordinary everyday object more powerful that by itself. I had to think through all this several times and then some before I was finally satisfied with the idea. Hope it works for you and if not, sorry.

Also, I hope I got Chad, Uryu, Orihime, and Urahara down right. I'm not very good with them, mostly because I don't usually pay much attention to them in the anime and manga. Except Chad. Like I said, Chad is awesome. But if there is a better way to write them, please let me know and I'll try my best. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!

And in case you were wondering, Ichigo's letters were from each of his sisters, his father, and Kenpachi once he learned that Ichigo was on the mission; Renji's letters were from Byakuya, Ikkaku Madarame, and Yumichika Ayasegawa; Rukia's letters were from Byakuya (I'm having him be a bit nicer to her in this), and Ukitake (her captain); and Rangiku's letters were from Ukitake, Shunsui (her drinking partner), and a few other random drinking buddies. The box of tinkling glass was also from Shunsui, containing sake, in case you hadn't guessed. And each of the shinigami received a box of sweets and ramune, put together by Ukitake and Yachiru. I've tried every one of these sweets and I love them, so I decided to promote them through this story. I totally recommend them. There's a whole site online that has tons of stuff. It's called www . asian food grocer . com or net, can't remember which (but without the spaces)

*Dorris the Dimwitted: made up, as far as I know, by me.