Chapter Three

Two weeks passed in which the four transfers spent hours in their rooms, learning various spells and hoping not to be noticed. A small accident with Daisuke's flame spell left them all down in the bar while Ishiin put out the fire.

"So…" Daisuke started awkwardly. The tips of his hair were singed and he smelled faintly of smoke. Masaki cleared her throat and Kaien drummed his knuckles on the bar.

"Haven't seen any hollows in a while," Evee quipped, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, neither have I," said Masaki. "That seems a little strange…"

"Yeah…" Kaien agreed. "You don't think there're only hollows in Japan…do you?"

"No," Daisuke said. "I think we just haven't been seeing them because they haven't been around…I mean, maybe there's a Shinigami assigned to this place?"

"You have a point there…"

The four of them lapsed into silence again. Ishiin came down the stairs. His hair was smoking and his face was charred.

"Fire's out!"

"There was a fire?" Tom asked incredulously. He'd just walked in from the bathroom.

"Nope!" said Ishiin quickly before sprinting back up the stairs. Tom seemed like he wanted to follow, when a large group of people walked in the doors. Most of them had bright red hair and the four at the bar recognized the plump woman they'd seen before. She was giving orders to the others around her as they pushed their way into the inn.

"Fred, George, no fireworks! Especially not indoors!" she called to two brothers who must have been twins.

"Right, Mum!" they said simultaneously, walking up the stairs to their room.

"Ron, you and Harry will share a room."

"All right," said another red-haired boy. He was tall and had freckles all across his long nose. The boy was followed by another who was a bit shorter and had messy black hair that came to a stop just over bright green eyes behind round-rimmed glasses. The Shinigami and arrancar assumed the black-haired one was Harry.

"D'you think he's the one we're s'posed to look after?" Kaien asked, nudging his friends to get their attention. Harry turned his head and in the small place where his bangs split they could see the tell-tale, lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

"Yep," said Evee. Harry seemed to notice them staring at him and looked away, following the other boy—they gathered that his name was Ron—up the stairs. A girl with long, red hair walked in the door, dragging a trunk, and was followed by a girl with bushy, brown hair. The second girl was carrying a basket that sounded like it was hissing.

"Ginny, Hermione, your room is on the other side of the twins'," said the woman with a kind smile.

"Thanks, Mum," said Ginny. "Hermione, let's let out your cat before it eats the basket."

"Right, yes…"

Hermione let go of the trunk she was holding with one hand to open the top of the wicker basket. A large, bandy-legged, squashed-faced cat jumped out, landing lightly on the floor. Some of its orange fur stuck to the basket, but Hermione didn't seem to notice. She and Ginny followed the rest up the stairs. They heard Hermione say, "Do you smell smoke?" followed by a small groan from Tom before a door shut loudly. The woman stood by one of the tables with a balding, ginger man who could only have been her husband. She spotted the four sitting quietly at the bar and smiled broadly at them.

"Oh! I hoped the four of you would still be here. We weren't properly introduced last time," she said happily. "I'm Molly Weasley, and this is my husband, Arthur."

"Pleasure," said Arthur kindly, holding out a hand for one of them to shake. They four of them sort of stared blankly at him before Masaki suddenly remembered their English class at school. She shook his hand and the others followed suit.

"I thought you four would like to meet our children and their friends," Molly continued. "It'd be nice to know someone at school beforehand."

"Oh, right," said Daisuke. "You said you had sons our age."

"Fred and George," Arthur nodded. "Ron's about two years younger, and his sister Ginny is only a year below him."

The four of them felt it was safe to assume that the red-haired people were the children that Molly and Arthur were referring to.

"Who were the other two?"

"The girl was Hermione Granger, a friend of Ron's. The other one was Harry Potter," Molly paused as if waiting for some sort of reaction. Receiving none, she continued. "He's Ronald's best friend. The three of them are starting their fourth year."

"Mum!" one of the twins called as the two of them jogged down the stairs. "Fred and I are going to Zonko's. We'll be back in—oh, hello."

The twins caught sight of the transfers. The two of them rerouted their course toward the bar.

"Hey there," said the one on the right. He pointed at his twin. "That's Gred."

"He's Forge," the other one finished.

"We may look like twins," started the first one.

"But, we actually just met on the train," the second finished. The girls laughed while Daisuke rolled his eyes. Kaien feigned surprise.

"Really?" he said, his eyes wide. He wrapped an arm around a still giggling Masaki. "We met in a class at our old school. She set my hair on fire and we've been best friends ever since…"

Masaki snorted, unable to take her brother seriously. The Weasley twins laughed as well, turning to their parents.

"I think we'll get along with them," they said in synch. Fred and George turned back to the transfers.

"We're going to Zonko's Joke Shop. Would you like to come?"

Evee shrugged. "Why not?"

"Excellent," the twins chorused. "We'll show you the way."

The six of them began to file out into Diagon Alley. Kaien caught Harry's gaze as the British boy walked down the stairs, his two friends on his heels.

"Harry!" said Fred.

"Absolutely wonderful to see you," said George, refining his accent.

"Spiffing," Fred agreed, doing the same. The two of them bowed low with a flourish.

"We'll be heading to Zonko's," George began, folding his hands in front of him.

"Care to join us, old fellow?" Fred finished, copying his twin's position. The trio of wizards on the stairs broke into large smiles and agreed.

"Very well then," Fred continued.

"Onward!" they both shouted, half-marching down the cobbled street with their small 'army' behind them.