Chapter Five
The first week of school crawled by at a snail's pace. Neither Weasley nor Granger had said a word to Hitsugaya after the incident on their first day of classes. Hyourinmaru kept trying to convince him to apologize, but he hadn't seen either of them in a private enough setting for him to do so. He wasn't even sure he wanted to.
He stared at his Transfiguration text in complete boredom. First class on Monday, and it wasn't any better than the first week. It was going to be a long, long year if this kept up.
A folded piece of parchment flew into the classroom then, headed straight for McGonagall.
"Mr. Hitsugaya, the Headmaster wishes to see you in his office," she said, after reading the parchment. "Please see to it that you hurry back to class."
"Thank-you, Professor McGonagall," he replied, not bothering to gather his things.
He quickly made his way to the Headmaster's office, stopping only once he reached the statue guarding the entrance. He opened his mouth and… paused.
What was the damn password?
He frowned impatiently. Dumbledore hadn't given it to him. How inefficient.
He was about to snap something that probably shouldn't have been said anywhere near a school at the gargoyle when his vision blurred and he was sucked into another memory.
He saw himself running toward the statue, Mr. Crouch and Cedric Diggory both waiting near the Forbidden Forest. He watched as Dumbledore disappeared in a flash of Phoenix fire. He saw himself handing over a bloodied Gryffindor's sword, with a torn and stained diary sitting on the headmaster's desk. Dumbledore was at his desk, watching him calmly tear apart the room. A woman, Trelawney, was speaking out of what appeared to be a bowl (a pensieve?). He listened to the words of the prophecy in disbelief.
The memories were coming faster than before, overlapping in some places and throwing his mind into a whirl of confusion. Sounds and images blurred together and he felt like he was going to be sick and he just wished it would stop.
It did.
He vaguely heard a scraping of stone as the gargoyle leapt to the side, and a worried voice called his name. He blinked as the world came back into focus, Dumbledore's face swimming into view.
"Mr. Hitsugaya, are you alright?"
No. "Yes, I'm fine." His head felt like a hollow was tearing it open. Repeatedly. Hyourinmaru growled in frustration in the back of his mind.
Hitsugaya leaned back against the cool stone walls of the castle and closed his eyes for a moment, before realizing that he was on the floor. Had he actually fallen over? Well, duh. Better question; when had he fallen over? He was lucky he hadn't cracked his skull open.
"Are you sure?"
He winced as the sound of Dumbledore's voice made his head pound even more. "Yes," he said anyway, grasping the other's proffered hand.
The aging headmaster smiled, pulling him to his feet with a surprising amount of strength. "Well, if you're sure… we have something important to discuss."
Hitsugaya nodded slowly and carefully followed him into his office. He all but collapsed into the soft-looking chair in front of the headmaster's desk. A quiet, eerie music sounded from the corner, surprisingly making him feel a little better. He glanced over, catching sight of brilliant red and gold plumage. "Fawkes?"
"I'm sure Mr. Weasley will be pleased that you have indeed remembered someone else, even if it is not him," Dumbledore said genially, gently stroking the phoenix.
Hitsugaya frowned. He doubted Weasley would be happy about anything to do with him at all any time soon. In any case, that was not what they were there to talk about. Dumbledore must have guessed what he was thinking about, because he moved the conversation along then. "As you know, Lord Voldemort has multiple Horcruxes. I have since procured a memory from a friend of mine, and I now have a reasonable estimate as to how many, exactly, he made.
"I believe that he has seven in total, including the piece of his soul still residing in his body, and one he made unintentionally."
Hitsugaya nodded, lip curling in disgust.
"We have since destroyed four of them," Dumbledore went on, "the locket that was found at Grimmauld Place, the Resurrection Stone, and a diary you yourself destroyed in your second year."
"And the last?"
"The fourth one was the one he never knew about," the headmaster said, giving him an unreadable look, "your scar."
"Scar?" he thought back. He could vaguely remember a scar that had inexplicably always been there when he was still alive. It had faded and eventually disappeared after he had died. He then paled a bit, realizing that he had been carrying around a piece of some filthy wizard's soul around for who knows how long. "It disappeared when I died."
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. You were never intended to be a Horcrux, but it indeed happened. The piece of the soul that was attached to you died at the same time you did… it could not leech from a body that was not living."
There was silence for a few minutes. "Anything else?"
"Yes. I believe I know what the other Horcruxes are. You see, Voldemort is arrogant. He would never lower himself so far as to put a part of his soul into a common item. No, he would want something of value, something important, whether just to him or to the wizarding world is the question. Though it is likely there will be a bit of both."
"So possibly historically important items? Or objects directly related to him, like the diary?"
He nodded again. "Hogwarts School has always been important to Voldemort. I would suggest researching anything about the Founders of this school you can, to see if they left behind anything that might interest him. The locket Sirius found was one such item; it belonged to Salazar Slytherin," he reached for a piece of parchment and a quill. "To make things easier I will give you a pass into the Restricted Section of the library. It is likely that Madame Pince will be seeing far too much of you this year."
"You also said items that were important to just him."
"I did indeed. The last Horcrux, I fear, will undoubtedly be difficult to access, for it is none other than his familiar, Nagini."
"You are sure of this?"
"Yes. Last year you had a vision from the view point of the serpent, and your visions were directly related to the Horcrux you contained and the other pieces of his soul, though I had not realized it until a short time ago. Also is the fact that he displays an unusual amount of control over Nagini, even for a Parselmouth, or snake speaker," he added upon seeing Hitsugaya's confused look.
Dumbledore pulled a small bowl from a desk drawer. It was fairly plain, though the rim had been intricately carved with runes.
"Lily tells me that you wish to know more of Voldemort's history; a commendable goal, and one that will doubtlessly aid you in his defeat," he said, gathering a set of vials all containing a silvery substance. "This is a pensieve, and these are memories. I will give these to you to view at your convenience," his lips quirked, as if reviewing an amusing memory, "along with a set of instructions on how to properly use the pensieve. Now, I will let you know if I learn anything more, so you had better head back to…"
They both paused as a silvery shape glided into the room. The canine opened its fanged maw and spoke in a girly voice. Tonks's voice.
"Professor Dumbledore! Death Eaters are attacking Diagon Alley! We need backup… they brought those weird hollow things, and dementors, too!" The silvery shape ran off, presumably back to Diagon Alley.
Dumbledore flicked his wand, and a parchment flew out the door. Another wave summoned his own silvery shape, though this time it was a bird. It followed the parchment. He turned to Hitsugaya, who was already out of his gigai and searching the mantelpiece for floo powder.
"I have alerted James and Lily," he said, grabbing the elusive pot of sparkling powder. "Diagon Alley!"
James froze as he felt something tap his shoulder. He grabbed it, discovering that it was a piece of parchment. He quickly unfolded it. Inside was a short message.
'DE's attacking Diagon. Hollows are there.' ~AD
James bit his lip, glancing around the Arithmancy classroom. He needed to leave, fast. But he couldn't blow his cover…
He grinned as an idea struck him like a bolt of lightning. He reached for his bag, glad that he had prepared for incidences like these…
Two minutes, five dungbombs, and sixteen fireworks later and James was being sent to the Headmaster's office. Perfect.
He ditched his gigai and grabbed a pinch of floo powder. "Diagon Alley!"
Lily smiled at her class as Dumbledore's patronus flew away, after having quietly relayed his message. "You've all done a wonderful job today, class, so I'll let you leave a little early." Seeing the slightly too happy looks on her students' faces she added, "You can use the time to finish up your essays on vampires. I want twelve inches, due Friday!"
Her students groaned and left the classroom.
As soon as they were gone she hurried to her office's fireplace. "Diagon Alley!"
Hermione traded a sharp glance with Ron as they left Defense Against the Dark Arts an entire thirty minutes early.
Ron licked his lips. "You don't suppose…"
She nodded. "Something's going on. We should ask Professor Dumbledore," she ran in the direction of his office.
"Diagon Alley!"
They got there just in time to see James disappear through a shroud of green flame.
Hermione looked at Ron. He stared back. "No matter what he says, he's still Harry," she said quietly. "And he needs us. We'll help him, just like we always have."
Ron nodded, determination lighting in his eyes. They each took a pinch of floo powder.
"Diagon Alley!"
Hitsugaya tripped gracelessly out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron, which was eerily silent. He got up, dusting himself off and clutching Hyourinmaru. He could feel the hollows… there were so many! What were they doing here?
"Be careful, Dumbledore-san," he whispered. "If you see a hollow, get away as fast as you can. You won't be able to harm them without any reiryouku."
The headmaster nodded, leading the way to the entrance to Diagon Alley. Hitsugaya followed. Screams could be heard, faintly at first, but when they opened the arch they exploded to full volume.
Hitsugaya resisted the urge to plug his ears and flash stepped to the nearest hollow, cutting it cleanly in half. The sight of a child killing a ghostly monster might have been strange, but he had made sure to grab a cloak so that no one could see his face, at the very least. And this way (as the cloak was normal, whereas he would appear to be a ghost), it would look perhaps a little less odd. Maybe.
He swung Hyourinmaru in a broad arc, slicing through the mask of another hollow. Where were the Death Eaters? He felt Lily and then James arrive. Good. They could take care of more hollows…
A pained scream was cut short as a hollow tore through a wizard. There were too many for them to deal with like this… he just hoped he didn't hit any wizards.
"Soten ni zase, Hyourinmaru!"
The long, serpentine shape was comfortingly familiar as it shot through several hollows at once, freezing them to the core. They shattered. His mood blackened. So many… this shouldn't be possible! Hitsugaya paused, realizing suddenly that his dark mood wasn't entirely because of the ridiculous number of hollows.
Then it came, like a sudden wave of black emotion. He gasped and fell to the ground, Hyourinmaru clutched limply in his fingers. Despair…
Green light, a woman screaming. Momo asking him to save Aizen… being torn open by his blade. Cruel, searing flames burning everything to ash; destroying his whole world in a single night. He was cold, colder than he'd ever been in his life and he was dying…
Another memory came, but this time it was something lighter. He wasn't sure how it managed to battle its way through the dark emotion but he didn't question it. He used it.
"Expecto Patronum!" he cried, pointing his Zanpakuto at the foul, cloaked beings drifting through the Alley like monstrous wraiths.
A silver light burst from his Zanpakuto, enveloping it and shooting forth. It wasn't a stag, like he had halfway thought it would be.
No, there was only one thing, one creature, one being that could ever make him feel this protected.
Hyourinmaru roared.
Hermione and Ron arrived just in time to see what seemed to be a freezing wall of water and ice soar past, tearing through a number of the strange ghost-like creatures the shinigami had told them of at the Order meeting.
"Ron… Ron, look!"
He almost wished he hadn't. Dementors were everywhere, gliding through the mass of panicking wizards and almost casually giving them the Kiss. Ron felt himself pale, before he shakily aimed his wand at the teeming mass of black. "Expecto Patronum!"
A silvery, terrier-like dog with a forked tail ran from his wand, following the glistening form of Hermione's otter and tearing a path through the dementors. He panted. Harry had been right; it was loads harder to cast a patronus in the presence of the real thing. And they were on the very fringes of the battle still!
He caught sight of another black figure, and wondered why it wasn't fleeing from the patronus near it. Then he saw it; a white mask covered the Death Eater's (for it couldn't be anything else) face. A crystal was glowing a soft silvery-white against the Death Eater's chest, where it hung from a leather cord.
The Death Eater moved, walking right past a dementor without even pausing. It was as if he didn't feel the thing at all!
He was about to point this out to Hermione when there was a sudden blast of bright light. A huge, silvery-white shape rose above the battlefield, roaring its displeasure. Dementors and hollows alike scattered from what could only be a patronus, shrieking in pain.
A beam of red streaking past his ear brought his attention back to the Death Eater, who was standing in front of him and Hermione, calmly aiming his wand in their direction.
"You missed," Ron jeered, "Stupefy!"
Hermione shouted, "Protego!"
A sickly yellow light slammed into the shield. Ron hadn't even noticed the Death Eater casting the spell! The Death Eater jeered back, "Careful, now, kiddies! You may have blocked that spell, but the next one won't miss; not like my little warning shot!"
The voice, definitely female, was somehow familiar. From the corner of his eye he saw Hermione pale.
"Ron…" she breathed, her voice little more than a whisper but still managing to reach him, "Ron that's… that's Bellatrix Lestrange!"
The witch cackled. "That's right, girlie!" they could practically feel her smirk. "Where's your little playmate? Oh, that's right, poor widdle Potter is dead! I killed him, tossed him through the veil!"
Ron saw red. "He's not dead, you bitch!" he snarled. The next curse he fired at her was decidedly more deadly than a stupefy. "He's alive, alright! And he's gonna kick You-Know-Who's ass!"
Another spell came his way, but Hermione was already casting a curse at the witch, and had no time to shield him. He raised his own wand, an incantation on his lips. But it was too late, the curse was going to hit him. He absently wondered what it would do. Crush his bones? Decapitate him?
It didn't do any of those things, for, standing in front of him, sword drawn and looking absolutely furious, was James Potter.
All of the hollows and dementors had disappeared with that single, gigantic patronus. James didn't stop to wonder at it, instead focusing his attention on the now easily visible Death Eaters. He swung Tatsumaki around, cleaving through a Death Eater's mask. It was just like defeating hollows!
He shook his head to dispel that thought, glancing around for another opponent. His eyes widened when he caught sight of two people that should definitely not be there. He flash stepped in their direction.
"…alive, alright! And he's gonna kick You-Know-Who's ass!"
Oh, no. He hadn't, had he? But there was no time to dwell on it as he saw a flesh-eating curse head in the boy's direction. He performed the fastest flash step he had ever used in his life… afterlife, whatever.
James landed in front of Ron and blocked the curse with Tatsumaki. He waved the Zanpakuto threateningly in the Death Eater's direction. "I think you'd better leave now, Death Eater," he spat. "All of your little friends are gone already." And indeed they were. The battle was already winding down. With the absence of the dementors and hollows, the Death Eaters stood no chance against the combined might of the Order, the shinigami, and Dumbledore himself.
The Death Eater snarled in fury, apparating away.
He heard Ron sigh in what might have been relief. James rounded on him. "And you! You stupid little twit! I cannot believe you… you…!"
The boy frowned. "Well we helped out, didn't we? What are you yelling at me for?"
"Maybe," James hissed, "but Voldemort also didn't know that Harry was back before now, did he?"
Lily walked slowly through the wreckage, carefully feeling for her husband's and son's reiatsu. She couldn't believe how much damage had been done by the combined might of the Death Eaters and hollows. So many had died… and even more were lying soulless, because of the dementors.
She felt Hitsugaya's reiatsu before she saw him. He was speaking with Dumbledore.
"…what were those things? Those dementors?"
"There will be an Order meeting tomorrow to discuss the attack. I will tell you then, because I fear that there is far more than just them we must worry about."
"Yes. Those hollows… they weren't attacking the Death Eaters at all…"
She moved on, deciding to look for James. They would likely be covering everything at the meeting the next day anyway.
She found him soon enough, yelling at…
Was that Ron and Hermione? Oh, dear. Molly wasn't going to be happy. Neither was she for that matter, but she felt that it wasn't her place to say anything. Molly's lecture would likely be more than enough.
They arrived back at Hogwarts shortly before dinner. Dumbledore hadn't been happy with Ron and Hermione, but had declined to punish them, saying that the rest of the students didn't need to know what they'd been up to. He also implied more than said that Mrs. Weasley would probably punish them anyway, seeing as they'd be attending the Order meeting the next day.
Hitsugaya just shook his head. Neither of them knew what they were doing; they may have thought that they were helping, but the Order didn't need constantly guarding two inexperienced teens along with all their other duties.
He gratefully sunk into his place at the Ravenclaw table, declining to answer any questions about where he'd been. He was starving.
The Great Hall's doors banged open, startling many of the students.
"Taaiiichoouuuu~!"
Hitsugaya paused, fork halfway to his mouth.
"Matsumoto?"