12/5/07 7/8/08 – 8/17/08 A/N

Kyaaaaah…I'm using my laptop cuz I wanted to work on this chapter while on vacation. The thing is, I worked on a different one…Anyway I had a bit of trouble with it, wanted to eek a few things out since my cliff notes I made don't take me very far xD Alright, review answers!

'you do realize that a shatsu is just a normal shirt right?'

Yes I know. I wasn't a hundred percent sure if haori was what I wanted, so I planned to trick you all by just typing in 'shirt' to a dictionary site until I was sure what I wanted. Next chapter will have better clothes, dun worry, be happy starts singing that song Damn, I have an intelligent audience….If you were all dumb I'd have no problem..lol

'will Sesshoumaru and Natsu deal with Snape? is he going to be an ass all the time?'

You'll find out, but I'll let you all know that I am a Snape fan. I was that kid that snarled when my friend got a bookmark (that had 'Snape, friend,' on one side and 'Snape, foe,' on the other ) and placed it 'foe' side up when she put it on the door. Because I like the snarks, they're just like me.

It always looks longer in the Word Document...

Rating

PG13 for swears and violence, rating may change in certain chapters, you will be informed when such happens.

Summary

Inuyasha/Harry Potter Inutaisho had three sons. One hanyou, two youkai. Seshomaru's second youngest brother, Natsu, was killed as a baby when a miko was sent to assassinate both princes. He's hit with a spell to send him into the future. Natsu's sent spiraling through time and into the body of a witch to be reborn, his true self waiting to be awakened by the familiarity of his past. Unknown to all, there is something inside him that no one fully remembers exists. What if it's something that the darkness can't wait to get it's claws on?

Harry Potter and the Inner Demon

Chapter 16

A half hour later, the two were still sitting quietly on the couch. Natsu had long since calmed down but the puffiness in his eyes were ever present, as well as the heat in his face making him drowsy. "Don't fall asleep yet, Natsu," Seshomaru chastised half-heartedly. "You won't be able to sleep tonight if you take a nap now." Natsu nodded his head against his brother's shoulder. There were a few more moments of silence except for the crackling of the fire and ticking from the clock on the mantle.

"I've been thinking," The older youkai began. "Your hair needs a trim." There was no reply so he continued, "maybe get it cut to you waist, or mid back." Still no answer. "Or shorter if you like." Natsu twitched his head a little from left to right. "Long it is then," Seshomaru muttered.

His voice was hoarse and a little croaky but Natsu managed to ask, "when?"

"When ever you feel up to it" Seshomaru replied gently while petting Natus's head affectionately.

"Can we do it now then?"

Seshomaru nodded and stood up, leaving his brother on the couch. "I'll go get my knife." As strange and somewhat intimidating as that sounded, Natsu felt his heavy heart begin to lighten. He needed to trust his brother not to cut him.

Seshomaru returned with his knife, more like a dagger, and it's quartz handle glowed a faint orange in the firelight. He gestured for the pup to turn so he was facing the arm of the couch before settling behind him. "Where do you want it cut to?" He asked, pulling his own hair out of the ponytail.

"Waist," Natsu croaked, slipping a hand around to press against said body part. "How are you gonna do it with one arm?" He received no reply as Seshomaru currently held the knife in his mouth as he used his hand to collect all the hair. Once he got all of it in one spot, he picked up the tie and stretched it around his fingers, then wiggled the hair through it. Once it was set, he pulled the tie down to where Natsu's hand still sat and let it go.

Removing the knife from his mouth, he settled the blade between his brother's shirt and hair, just above the tie. Seshomaru could see Natsu begin to tense. "Calm down, I won't cut you." The muscles relaxed. Using his knee to trap the hair, Seshomaru pulled the blade toward him, cutting the hair from the tie down clear off.

Natsu felt his red eyes widening. The weight on his head that he'd become used to over the past couple of days seemed to just disappear. It left him feeling light and somewhat airy. The hair, now freed from its bind, lay against his back and he could feel Seshomaru's fingers running through it.

Seshomaru had the knife in his mouth again as looked for strands that may have missed the blade and, finding none, he set the knife on the table. Natsu looked over his shoulder and tried to glimpse his hair, unfortunately for him, that was not possible anymore.

Seshomaru lifted the cut hair up and stared at it almost fondly. "May I hold onto it?" When he received a questioning look from Natsu he continued to say, "I've always wanted to be able to see the changes your hair goes through. I remember in the few years you were with me that your hair darkened and lightened. It was always fascinating to me." Natsu hesitated but nodded as he saw the affection in his brother's eyes.

"Sure."

Natsu returned to his room, and settled on the floor in front of his trunk. He carefully slipped each piece of the mirror into the velvet bag and was surprised it all fit. Tightening the drawstring, Natsu felt the need to keep it close, to keep Sirius close. He dropped it in his lap and returned to sorting through the remaining items in his trunk.

After removed several nastily yellow socks, a sneakascope, and a few owl treats, all that was left was one red letter. He could only stare at it. Was he really ready yet? Natsu stood abruptly, the bag falling from his lap, and stormed to the nightstand. Jerking it open, he shoved the letter into the drawer and slammed it closed again. No, he wasn't ready at all.

Natsu dumped the socks in a trash bin by the door and set the sneakascope on the bookshelf. Glancing at the shelf in front of him, a torn up bunch of bound parchment caught his eye. Tugging it off the shelf he found himself gazing at it's stained, ruddy cover that was just as ripped and ragged as the rest of it.

It sent shock of pity down his spine just looking at it. Black, spidery runes glared up at him, inky strokes spelling out an unknown title. Natsu could hear his brother talking downstairs but chose to ignore it, tenderly flipping through the pages of the book.

It didn't take long for Natsu to realize it was a book of Wizarding Fairy Tales and, like many things he once assumed about the magical world, most were quite grim. One that he found himself drawn to, however, was The Tale of The Three Brothers. A cloak of invisibility that protected the youngest brother from the most malevolent Death. It could not be unlike his own cloak that lay, neatly folded, on his bed.

'How sad,' Natsu thought aimlessly as he skimmed through the rest of the fairy tales. Though not all of them had unhappy endings, the most certainly didn't have pleasant beginnings!

A crash sounded from downstairs, startling him from his musing. Natsu leapt to his feet, book falling to the floor with its pages flying, and dashed out of the room to the landing before the stairs. "What's going on!"

Below him was flustered looking Seshomaru standing amongst a mess of books, parchment, and spilt ink. Beside him, Professor Snape looked at him with a raised brow and an armful of books. 'What the bloody hell is with him!?' Natsu questioned, 'Why is he not the sneering, greasy git that skulks around in the dungeons?'

"Just a few spilt texts," Seshomaru mumbled, rubbing the back of his head irately. "Professor Snape had leant me a number of dark art books to look through. I just have to separate them from the school's library books." Natsu felt a snicker rise in his throat but repressed it, the uncomfortable feeling of black eyes looking through him overwhelming.

"I'll help"

Picking through the books had been a silent affair. The fire seemed content to crackle at the tension that would have taken over them if the merry heat source hadn't been there. Natsu spent this time wondering what the Potion Master was up to.

Severus Snape had never been a pleasant man, from what Natsu had come to see as Harry Potter anyway, and was by no means social. The overgrown bat was always snide to everyone, even the Headmaster at times, but he was downright cruel to the DADA teachers. It didn't make any sense that he would have such an interest in Natsu's onii-san…

Thinking of Defense class made him wonder about Remus. He had been all for the man coming back to Hogwarts, at first. After 'transforming', or whatever he did, into Natsu a lot of things had changed. His family, his knowledge, his magic or lack of…Remus had never come up as something that would change. He hardly knew the man, but for a while he had been the only connection he had to his parents.

'And now Sirius.'

But Lily and James Potter weren't his parents anymore. Were they? Natsu would have to try to find some information in the library and if it was a lost cause there he would ask Seshomaru. He sincerely hoped he'd find a book on it. Seshomaru was already getting overwhelmed by the prospect of teaching, that much was clear as a cool collected Seshomaru would NEVER have knocked those books over, and he didn't need a little brother getting in the way of things.

'Back to Remus,' Natsu hastily thought as a lump rose in his chest. 'What changed?'

The Department of Mysteries? No, it was long after. In fact, it was when he first saw him after his transformation…Could it have caused this? Just another thing to look up.

"Thank you, Natsu."

Natsu nearly jumped in surprise and his hair fell forward into his eyes as he blushed. Pushing it behind his ear he stood with a large pile of library books, their weight causing his arms to throb. There was no way he could complain though, as both Professor Snape and his onii-san had much larger piles to carry.

"Shall I take these to the library then?" He asked, planning to get a head start on that research. With Seshomaru's nod of approval, Natsu carefully maneuvered around the couch and past Snape. The man looked down at him all the while. Once he'd bumped his shoulder against the exit and was stumbling out, he heard the man say rather bluntly to his brother, "Good work raising that one. He's neither outspoken nor spoiled rotten like so many of the brat attending this institute."

As the Statue of the gargoyle settle back into it's place in front of the door, Natsu began to giggle and nearly dropped all the books as his shoulders began to shake.

'Professor Snape, complimenting ME? ' He almost lost it right there. 'He wouldn't have dared say such a thing if he knew I was Harry Potter!' Natsu started off toward the Library.

TBC