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Harry waited until their footsteps faded away, before getting up and rushing back to the common room, hoping Hermione was still there. He was in such a hurry that he didn't notice he wasn't the only one who had been eavesdropping.

Kagome was awake.

Chapter 12

Malfoy was confused. Relieved, upset, angry, and confused. The idea was to bring the stuff of nightmares to life. To make her run screaming until it cut her down. Though he'd recently lost all his enthusiasm for his plan, he'd set up the talisman in Hogsmeade at the beginning of the year and had needed to do something. Kagome though, hadn't even blinked twice. She'd run to it instead of away and then destroyed it. Turned it to ashes.

And he was relieved. What the hell was going on? He should be pissed off, frustrated at least.

Arriving back to Slytherin's empty common room, he sighed. He needed to do some serious thinking. Had he really started to like Kagome. I mean, sure she was hot, he'd noticed that the first time he met her, but to actually like her? He supposed he'd accidentally let her become his friend while he was trying to trick her. Was it more than that, though? Did he want it to be?

What was he saying?? Of course he didn't want it to be more. He shouldn't even consider her a friend. He had to kill her! It was her life or his!

Sighing again, Draco decided to just try to get some sleep. He'd think about it later.

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Harry found Hermione still sound asleep in the common room, her pile of books beside her. Shaking her shoulder until she woke up, Harry told her everything he had overheard in the hospital wing moments ago. Hermione looked excited.

"Oh! Don't you see Harry! She must be who I thought she was, though I don't know how it's possible or how she's still alive." Hermione gushed.

"Wait, slow down. What are you talking about?" Harry said, thoroughly confused.

"I've been researching it ever since we heard that demon call her the Shikon Priestess the other day. It reminded me of an old legend I'd read in a book a little while ago. I've spent the past few days looking for the book again in the library, but I couldn't find it until I remembered that Kagome had it last. It was sitting on her bedside table and I picked it up one night to read when I couldn't get to sleep. Anyway, so I got it again and found it! The legend of the Shikon-No-Tama! It's her."

She let out a frustrated huff as Harry continued to sit there confused and handed him the book she had fallen asleep on. "Just read it." she said as he looked down at the story.

"The Legend of the Shikon-No-Tama," he read out loud, before looking at the rest. He skimmed it quickly, nothing catching his attention at first. He'd just finished the part about the priestess, the half dog demon, and the bandit, when something caught his eye.

The half dog demon remained silent against the Goshinboku for many years until the day a strange girl, in even stranger clothing, appeared. No one knew who she was, or where she was from, but she had the face of the village's long-dead priestess.

Harry quickly finished reading about this strange priestess and her companions before looking up at Hermione's excited expression.

"The strange priestess? You think that was Kagome? But how?" Harry wondered out loud.

"I'm not sure how, but I'm positive now that it's her. The priestess is described as wearing strange clothes, speaking with an odd accent, carrying strange items...if Kagome somehow traveled to the past that's how she would be perceived. That, coupled with what we saw the other day and what you heard tonight," Hermione shrugged. "It just makes sense."

Harry couldn't think of an argument to that.

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Kagome wasn't really surprised. Since when had safe had anything to do with her. Ever since the jewel had been torn from her hip her life had been in danger. She'd hoped it was over once she'd come back to the future for good, but of course it wasn't. She had figured as much when she was told about Voldemort and magic.

What bothered her was that Voldemort himself was trying to kill her and she had no idea why. Why hadn't her mother told her that? Had she not known? Or was Kagome actually the reason her father had died in the first place? Had Voldemort been after her even as a child? If that was the case it would make sense that her mother hadn't told her. Satsuki wouldn't have wanted her daughter to feel guilty when it was something she'd had no control over in the first place. Kagome wasn't sure how she felt about that.

Kagome wasn't sure how she felt about anything anymore.

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Kagome was released from the hospital wing by lunch the next day. She entered the great hall to find that the entire student body was staring at her and whispering as she passed. Blushing profusely, she hurried to her friends at the Gryffindor table.

"Kagome!" Hermione said happily, jumping up to give her a hug. "I didn't know you'd be getting out of the hospital wing today! We'd have met you up there before lunch if we'd known."

"It's alright. I thought I'd never get out of there. I had to convince Madam Pomfrey that I felt completely healthy again before she even considered it." Kagome explained, as she sat down. "Err, any idea why everyone's staring at me?" Kagome asked self-consciously as she looked around to see people craning their necks to look at her.

"T'ey awl 'eard abou' wha 'appened," said Ron around a mouthful of food. "There was a crowd of people by the time you'd finished the thing off," he added after swallowing.

"Oh," said Kagome, blushing again.

"How'd you do that anyway?" Harry asked her, though he pretty much knew from the story. He just wanted to see what she said.

"Er, well I originally learned how to use my holy powers, before I knew I was a witch. I grew up on a shrine. I'm a priestess."

Looking around to see if anyone was still paying attention to them and seeing no one close enough to overhear, Hermione asked, "Are you the priestess? From the legend?"

Kagome looked at her startled. "How did you-" she shook her head, looking around and lowering her voice, "you read the book I got from the library didn't you?" she said loud enough for her three friends to hear.

They nodded. Harry and Hermione had filled Ron in that morning.

Kagome grinned, shaking her head again. "Don't know why I bother trying to keep secrets from you anyway," she said, lowering her voice even more. "Yes, that's me. I was transported back in time by a dry well on the grounds of the shrine I grew up at."

"What happened after the fight with the demon bandit?" Harry asked curiously. "All it says is that you and the jewel were never seen again after."

"Well, isn't it obvious? She must have gotten sent back here, to our time." Hermione said, still whispering across the table.

"Well sort of, yea. I got to say goodbye, and I went back through the well. We weren't positive it was going to seal itself, but we thought it might," she shrugged. "We were right." She was relieved she didn't have to explain the entire story. She still couldn't think about her friends from the past without getting teary. She was doing her best to block them from her mind even as she spoke about it.

"But what about the jewel?" Ron asked. "What happened to it?"

"Nothing," Kagome answered with a smile, before digging into her food and leaving Ron to figure it out for himself.

Sorry it's a little choppy. Had to visit all the characters' thoughts! :) Hope you enjoyed it! Review please and let me know what you thought!

LA