Chapter Eight

The next few weeks saw a gloomy student body. Almost every morning after the attacks on Halloween ministry owls could be seen flying toward muggleborn students, black notification letters clutched in their talons. Death notifications to 'express their most sincere condolences.'

What bullshit, James scowled. The ministry didn't give a damn. They were controlled by purebloods and their so-called 'pureblood supremacy.'

"John?"

James blinked as Louis, one of the seventh year boys, called his… well his fake, anyway… name. "Yeah?"

"Uh, you okay, mate? 'Cause I don't think your dinner can take much more of that."

James looked down to where his hand and fork were working in tandem to grind his food into nothingness. He dropped his fork and groaned.

"Is it your detention tonight? You know, if you'd stop pranking anything that moves you wouldn't get into trouble so much."

"Stop such blasphemous words from ever leaving your mouth, you cur! Me not pranking would be practically sacrilege!" James cried, affronted. Stop pranking? Then who would teach that dirty snake Snivellus his proper place?

"Alright! Hell, mate, it was just a suggestion."

James paused at the unexpected response, remembering suddenly that it wasn't Sirius that he was bantering with. This kid didn't even know him that well. "Sorry."

Louis just shrugged and turned back to his friends.

James sighed, wishing that Sirius (who technically was, but it was kind of hard to talk with a dog) and Remus were here. As immature as he was sometimes, there was an entire wealth of difference between him and the average seventeen year old. He just couldn't seem to click with any of them. What was worse was that he couldn't even rant to Lily about it. No, instead he had to wait for a detention with her; and that time would be spent mostly discussing more important things. But she was his wife, for crying out loud!

He paused, recalling the words his son had said to him at Grimmauld.

"But we'd also have to act the parts of students and professor the entire time we would be there. Could you do that, James?"

James groaned again, burying his face in his hands. He ignored the looks he was getting from the other seventh years.

Could he? He hadn't realized exactly how little time he'd be able to spend with Lily, Remus, and Sirius during his time at Hogwarts. He had known it wouldn't be much, but it hadn't really sunk in until now.

Apart from that, James remembered how long it had taken them to get to Diagon during the attack there. If Hitsugaya hadn't been in the office at the time, he would have had to waste time escaping his classmates without suspicion like he himself had. They had been lucky that the Death Eaters hadn't blocked the floo by the time they had gotten there.

And, thought James, we weren't able to respond to the Halloween attacks at all.

"I'm not sure that would be wise. Being there would only restrict our movements."

Was coming to Hogwarts a mistake? They had come here for the research and the fact that Hogwarts was important to Voldemort, but so far the research was a failure and Voldemort had changed his tactics, and priorities, recently. Targeting muggles directly wasn't exactly new, but now Voldemort was focusing almost solely on getting rid of them instead of taking over the wizarding world.

Something had changed.

"John?" Louis was watching him again.

James sighed. "I'm going out for a while. If any of the teachers ask I'm in bed sick, okay?"

"Okay…?"

Maybe a run would help clear his head. Flying might have helped, but the teachers could spot him out there. He'd head to the Forbidden Forest instead of the Pitch.

Besides, he grinned, he'd just mastered changing into Prongs again.

Hitsugaya couldn't believe he had let Ron talk him into this.

They (Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and himself) were all outside, standing by the broom shed. Somehow, he had let Ron talk him into flying. Had he been hit in the head recently? Or maybe he just missed it. He hadn't been able to train his Bankai in quite some time, after all.

Regardless of the reason, here he was, holding a broomstick and feeling, for once, incredibly stupid.

He was supposed to fly on a tool meant for cleaning? He was suddenly quite glad that he had missed flying lessons at the first of the year because he'd been meeting with Dumbledore. Seriously, a broom?

Hermione looked at him. "Don't worry, I think flying on a broom is a bit ridiculous myself," she said, probably in what she thought was a consoling manner. "I mean, I didn't really think it was possible for witches and wizards to possibly stereotype themselves even more, but I suppose all those stories had to come from somewhere."

Hermione was notably the only one not holding a broom. She was just going for 'moral support.'

Ginny (Ron had actually growled at him when he'd called her 'Weasley.' Just how many people was he supposed to address this familiarly?) smiled at him. "Ignore her; she has no idea what she's missing. Besides, you used to love flying. I'm sure you'll have lots of fun."

Hitsugaya stared at the broom again. "…Of course."

Ron grinned and mounted his broom. "I'll meet you at the pitch!"

"Oh, honestly!" Hermione huffed indignantly, walking toward the stands. "He could at least wait for us to get there!"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "C'mon Hitsugaya. Let's fly there too."

"How?"

"Like this!" Ginny replied, slowly mounting her broomstick. She showed him the proper grip and pushed into the air. "What're you waiting for?"

He stared at the broom in his hands again dubiously. It wasn't in as good condition as Ginny's or Ron's; they each had their own brooms to use while he was using one from the school's ancient collection. Technically he had his own also, but a Firebolt was way too flashy. The only student at Hogwarts to have ever had one was Harry Potter, and using it would make the connection between him and Harry too easy to make.

Hitsugaya mounted his broom and leapt into the air, reveling in the feeling of the sharp bite of winter wind. The cold air felt good, though Ginny looked like she was wishing she had worn something warmer.

He dove and spiraled through the sky, marveling at the ease and precision with which the broom flew. The wings of Hyourinmaru gave him more control, but the speed of the broomstick was exhilarating. It wasn't as fulfilling as using Hyourinmaru, though. There was simply no comparison. This wasn't anything like his Bankai, but it was nice to be in the air again.

Ron called out as soon as they neared the pitch. "Hey! This is great, isn't it, Hitsugaya?"

Ginny huffed. "You just want to say 'I told you so!'"

"Well I did!"

"You are impossible!"

Hitsugaya ignored them, instead focusing his efforts on spiraling through the air. He vaguely saw Hermione watching from the stands and pulled sharply up, before twisting into a dive. The old school broom fought with him as he tried to go faster than it was made to go.

He sped past Ginny and Ron, who were looking at him smugly. Yeah, he enjoyed flying. So what?

"Why don't we let out the snitch?" Ron shouted, and flew of to get the Quidditch equipment. In less than three minutes a tiny, winged ball was streaking through the sky. It glinted gold in the sunlight. The snitch suddenly seemed to change, the shape of an egg superimposing itself over the bright ball.

Hitsugaya slowed down, paling slightly when he felt the familiar feeling of a memory. Not now…

He felt the heat of flames behind him as he dove toward a sparkling gold egg. The roar of the beast behind him was terrifying, but the thrill of the chase was exhilarating. The lake was cold, but he went in anyway. He had to find his best friend. He heard the crowds cheering. He clumsily danced in the Great Hall, stopping as soon as possible. Giant, towering hedges formed twisting and confusing pathways around him. He was there, reaching for the Triwizard Cup with Cedric…

Darkness edged his vision. Reality was blurring with the memories. Hermione was there, waving her wand and crying out an incantation. He was in the graveyard, watching the ritual unfold. He felt himself falling... The golden dome of light surrounded him and he saw Lily and James, pearly white and transparent. The last thing he heard was the sound of Hyourinmaru's hailstone roar as he slipped into unconsciousness.

Hitsugaya woke to the sharp scent of antiseptic and bright white sheets. He groaned, drawing the attention of several people inside the Hospital Wing. Lily rushed to his side. "Hitsugaya-kun, are you all right?"

He moaned as his head gave a particularly painful throb. "Will you be quiet?" he whispered harshly. His hadn't had a headache this bad since the memory of the Room of Requirements.

"Oi!" James snapped. "She's only worried about you!"

"And I'm sure you'd love it if I brought a hammer to your head out of concern. Now shut up." Why was James there anyway? He wasn't supposed to know him.

Madame Pomfrey clicked her tongue. "You have a headache? Why didn't you say so? Here, drink this," she said, shoving a vial into his hands. He didn't even glance at it, downing the potion in one swift motion. He felt the sharp pain in his head recede a bit and he sighed in relief.

Madame Pomfrey left the room in a huff after giving him a stern warning not to leave the Hospital Wing early.

Hitsugaya absently wondered where Ron, Ginny, and Hermione had gone. After all, he had seemingly randomly collapsed on them while they were flying.

"I told your friends to wait for you at the dorm," Lily said, catching his look.

Hitsugaya frowned a bit at that. 'Friends' was going just a little too far. In any case, there were more important things to worry about.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Lily asked gently. "This has never happened before, has it?"

"I'm fine. No, it hasn't. I thought that these… episodes… were getting less severe. It seems I was mistaken."

James rolled his eyes. "No kidding."

"Is there any chance of something like this happening again?"

"There might be. The memories need some sort of trigger. If, perhaps, there was something else that was largely connected to another string of memories, it might happen again. I don't know what to watch out for."

"Can it get any worse?"

"In the worst case scenario I could fall into a coma while my mind compensates for a sudden influx of information, but that is highly unlikely. The trigger would need to be connected to an enormous amount of memories. The only thing that would have that many connections that comes to mind would be a person, and I don't seem to recall much, if anything, by interacting with people."

Lily bit her lip. "Have you… thought of anything that could make these episodes stop?"

"Apart from remembering everything completely? No. Not while we still need to be here."

"I've been thinking about that, actually," James interjected. "Maybe we should leave Hogwarts."

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden change of heart?"

James shrugged. "Halloween, amongst other things. I mean, Voldemort's suddenly changed his attack patterns. Right now he's focusing solely on muggles, and he's gotten smarter about how to attack them too. It's hard to defend multiple locations, especially in the muggle world… I mean, how do we know he's even going to attack Hogwarts? That's one of the main reasons we came, right?"

Lily frowned. "He'll have to eventually. Hogwarts still remains one of the Light's strongholds. He will have to attack it."

"But how many muggles are going to die in the mean time?"

"Maybe that's why he's doing it. Maybe he's trying to draw our attention away from Hogwarts."

"Regardless," Hitsugaya interrupted, "I doubt we could get to the muggles in time anyway. When you add a wizard's ability to apparate and create portkeys into the equation, it makes defense that much more difficult. By the time we have the location pinned down and we get ready to go, they've already left. We will stay at Hogwarts for now."

James nodded. Despite the fact that he was the one that suggested leaving, he didn't look all that upset.

"Voldemort," Hitsugaya abruptly changed the subject, "is not really alive, is he?"

Lily blinked. "As far as we know, he is. The Horcruxes kept him alive until he could create himself a new body."

Hitsugaya shook his head. "No. What the Horcruxes did was keep his soul bound to the earth in a way that normal spirits aren't. He had the ability to influence the living, but he was, is, still dead."

"How does that change things?" James asked. "I don't really see how it affects the mission. We still need to send him to Hell."

Lily looked scandalized. "James!"

"Well you didn't think he was going to Soul Society did you?"

"Don't swear."

"It affects the mission," Hitsugaya said loudly, "because Voldemort is not alive."

"You just said that."

"And because he is not alive," he continued, ignoring James, "he is turning into a hollow."

There was silence for a moment. "What?"

"The Horcruxes have mutated and slowed the process somewhat, but he is turning into a Hollow. That's why it has taken well over a decade instead of a scant few months."

"When did you figure this out?"

"Just now. The memories I received were of the Triwizard Tournament and what happened afterward. Harry managed to catch a brief glimpse of Voldemort's spirit as he was making a new body. It was partially a hollow by that point; not that Harry knew it at the time."

"But he has a body doesn't he? Isn't he alive now?"

"Are we? No. All he did was create some sort of gigai using more arcane methods than we use in Soul Society. He's still dead."

"But a hollow? Can he still change while he's in his gigai?"

"Most likely. Either he will shed the gigai or the gigai will change with him. I don't know."

There was silence for a few minutes as they all took the time to absorb that information.

"What's most important," Hitsugaya spoke up, "is that the Horcrux mutated the process. The hollow didn't look like any kind I have ever seen before. There was something off about it. In other words, we don't know when Voldemort will be fully transformed, or what sort of powers he will have."

A few days later saw a relatively excited student body. At least, those who weren't muggleborn were excited. Christmas break was coming, but many of the muggleborns were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays.

After all, few of them had family to return to.

Hermione was one of the fortunate few that still had living relatives, as sadly surprising as it was. She had thought her family would be one of the first attacked, given her position. Luckily they hadn't, and now the Order had set up wards to protect them.

She would be returning to Grimmauld for break, though on Christmas day she would briefly return to her parents' house to exchange gifts. It was safer that way.

Ron and Ginny would both be staying at Grimmauld as well, seeing as their entire family (sans Percy) were living there for the time being.

Hitsugaya supposed that he'd be headed for Grimmauld too… with James and Lily of course. He recalled vividly when Hermione had cornered him and asked what he was doing for break.

"Are you coming back to Headquarters for Christmas?" She decided against using his name. She usually avoided calling him anything, uncomfortable with using his last name but knowing that he loathed being called 'Harry' or 'Toshiro.'

"Christmas?"

She seemed surprised. "You don't know what Christmas is?"

Hitsugaya scowled. "I know what it is, but generally Soul Society doesn't celebrate it. I didn't really think about it."

"It doesn't? Why?"

"Most of Rukongai is too poor to spend any money on such frivolous traditions, and shinigami don't take leave for such things. It doesn't really matter much anyway. Time passes so quickly in Soul Society to those of us that have lived there long enough that we don't really notice when the dates go by."

Hermione didn't look like she knew what to say to that. "But you'll be celebrating Christmas with us won't you? I mean," she added hastily, "you can work from Grimmauld for a while… and you could have some of your friends visit too. Isn't Matsumoto coming for another visit? You could have her stay a little longer." She rambled, slightly nervous.

Hitsugaya didn't really need that much convincing. It was unlikely that Voldemort would attack the castle any time soon; he wasn't at full strength yet. And James and Lily probably needed a break. (He kind of wanted one too, not that he'd admit it.) Only… did he really want Matsumoto around for that long? Well, it wasn't like she'd be doing any work anyway… "I guess…"

"Great!" Hermione beamed. "You'd better remember to tell James and Lily. I'm sure they'll want to get their shopping done soon… Oh, they'll be happy to see Professor Lupin, too. Sirius will be excited to be human again, I'm sure…"

Hitsugaya just shook his head in exasperation.

A/N Whoa, this chapter took forever. I spent like two weeks on it because I couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing. Later!