A/N:

Mother tongue isn't English. Inform me about any major mistakes if there is, what lazy bastard I am. As always I hope they wont distract your reading experience.

"Thoughts"

"Zangetsu"

"Hollow"

War after the war: Chapter 9

The orange head landed softly in the small, gray room. When his eyes got used to dark, he noticed that it was some kind of office. But it wasn't been in use for very long time. Spider webs covered the corners and tables were covered with dust.

"Where are we?" he asked curiously. Travers just shook his head: "Do you think that we will tell you immediately? It's best that you don't know where we are. We still aren't sure that are you with us or not. Follow me."

Macnair opened old, wooden door and Ichigo followed Travers. He arrived in the huge hallway with fancy interior. Place were filled with statues and old paintings. Painted people watched them while they passed them.

Orange head walked between two guys while passing even fancier dining rooms and halls. He wondered that how rich the owner was.

"Hmph. I really thought that he wouldn't live so extravagantly when he's hiding!" Shiro snorted.

"Yeah, usually when you are hiding, you keep low profile."

Travers and Macnair walked to the end of the corridor and opened two big doors. First thing what Ichigo noticed was huge chandelier which shimmered beautifully. Under that was long wooden table with people sitting around it.

Most of them had long black coats and skull-shaped masks on the table.

"Ah! Finally here! I was thinking that has something happened to you." Ichigo narrowed his eyes. In the end of the table sat skinny man. He had almost white skin, only two slits where nose should be and red eyes.

"Ugliest guy I have ever seen!" Hollow laughed.

"This time I need to agree with you." Zangetsu chuckled: "And that is rare."

"What the fuck happened to his face?" Ichigo wondered: "If I remember right, he somehow created new body for himself. Guess that it's better than nothing."

"Remember that we won't ever try to make body for us if there's need. Let's trust Urahara's gigais."

"Yeah, that's pretty hideous." Zangetsu coughed. Ichigo chuckled mentally, being careful that he wouldn't laugh out loud.

"I am sorry for the delay my Lord!" Travers and Macnair bowed: "He needed to take students to the school before we could leave!"

"Well, apology accepted. It's better this way." Ugly man turned to Ichigo who didn't bow: "My name is Voldemort, the Dark Lord. I suppose that you are the new recruit?"

Ichigo nodded: "Yes, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki," he bowed slightly: "I suppose that these people are the infamous Death Eaters?" heads turned to Ichigo who frowned.

"They are, indeed. So what brought you here?" snake-like man tilted his head.

Ichigo didn't answer straight away. He let his gaze to wander through the faces, and finally lifted his chin and gave Voldemort his infamous scowl.

"I wish to pay for someone who works in the Ministry." he stated simply.

Voldemort raised his nonexistent eyebrows. This man didn't crawl on the floor in the front of him like everyone else. He liked his courage, but in the other hand it meant he was a danger.

"So I came here for a deal." the orange head continued, closing his eyes.

Many bodies twisted at the statement. Ichigo noticed that people around the table twitched like preparing something.

Voldemort in the other hand – froze. He stared at Ichigo.

Then his lips curled upwards: "What did you say?"

Death Eaters turned to look at their Lord who stood up: "Did you hear that?" he walked behind one Death Eater: "What did he say Lucius?"

"H-he said that he wants to make a deal with you my Lord." man staggered. He flinched when Voldemort let go and rubbed spot where he had grabbed him.

"Yes! That's exactly right, dear Lucius: He wants to make a deal with me!" his voice turned to venomous and turned to look at Ichigo again.

Shinigami just crossed his arms and nodded: "A deal."

"And…" Wizard stepped a bit closer: "What do you have to give for us if we… Silence that person in the Ministry?"

Some of the Death Eaters glanced each other and then Ichigo who looked so calm.

"What do I have? A favor for favor they say. But I wish to keep… Low profile." feral smile resembling his Hollow etched on his face.

Voldemort frowned. He couldn't control this person like others. He needed to think something else. Right now he felt frustrated; very frustrated because he wasn't one leading this conversation.

"How can we know that you are able… to do anything for us?" Voldemort walked back to his seat but didn't sit down.

"Well, I don't know what you need, but I am working in the Hogwarts, like you probably have heard." Ichigo shrugged.

"We have our informants in the Hogwarts already…" Voldemort turned to look other way so Ichigo stared his back. Who could he have in there?

"And who's that?" Ichigo asked. Voldemort gave out small laugh: "And why would I tell you? You are playing dangerous game, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Indeed. I just was wondering that who it might be from the persons I know." he thought the staff of the Hogwarts.

"But we haven't still got anything specific that what you would do for us."

Ichigo thought a while. He knew that he couldn't mess with the humans, it was forbidden. But their laws didn't say anything else.

"Can you for an example… get rid of some people for me?" Voldemort asked with quiet voice.

"Everything what doesn't involve killing humans."

Voldemort smiled a little – though anyone didn't see it. That's it! Even if he wants to get rid of some people, he doesn't have guts to kill them! There might be a weak point!

Dark Lord turned back to the Ichigo: "There was one thing I forgot to ask. Which bloodline do you belong?"

Ichigo blinked once; he had heard that they preferred purebloods.

"My bloodline goes back several hundred years." he answered. "Well, it wasn't lying. My dad's definitely that old…" Shiro and Zangetsu chuckled.

"Oh, so you really are from the old families."

Ichigo didn't answer, he just stood there boringly. Others seemed to notice that.

"So confident. But still so young." Voldemort shook his head: "I don't think that we can do anything for you without repay. If you show your trustworthiness, it could help."

Ichigo took a deep breath. He was too tired for games like this. He had stood there for a while, yet they hadn't made any progress.

"If I kill that guy now, would they think that it as killing a human? He really doesn't look like one." He started to get annoyed.

"But basically his soul is still human's. The weird thing is that I can't feel his whole soul. It's like there's only part of it inside him."

Ichigo frowned and sharpened his senses: It was true; there was only small piece of soul. And it was screaming.

"How's that possible?" Shiro frowned. Ichigo shrugged mentally: "We need to investigate it. That's an important matter. Thank you Zangetsu."

"No problem."

Ichigo walked forward: "And what makes you think that I have time for something like that?" he tilted his head.

Voldemort looked almost shocked. No one before hasn't argued with him. Even one of the Death Eaters stood up and walked to Ichigo: "DON'T YOU DEAR TO TALK TO THE LORD LIKE THAT!"

It was woman with brown messy hair. Insanity glowed from her eyes.

Voldemort just looked curiously when woman took her wand out. It doesn't matter even if she kills him now; it was too much bother to try to associate with this noble brat.

But Ichigo lifted other eyebrow tiredly. "Calm down woman, it's not your business." This seemed to give even more fuel for her: "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY!? DARK LORD'S BUSINESSES ARE MY BUSINESS TOO! AVADA KE…"

Suddenly she stopped and grasped her throat. Voldemort who had already lost his interest turned to look at her. Woman tried to breath but collapsed on the ground. Ichigo gave another pulse of his reiatsu aimed only to her and she coughed blood.

Ichigo lowered his spiritual pressure.

"That won't kill her, will it?" Ichigo frowned; he didn't think that much of reiatsu would do something like that.

"No she won't. But try to remember that they are just humans, they can't take much spiritual pressure without dying."

"Who cares even if she dies? She obviously tried to kill us!"

Another Death Eater stood up: "Bellatrix! Are you okay!? Bellatrix!"

"That won't kill her", Ichigo spat: "But if something like this happens again, I don't guarantee what happens."

"What did you do?" Voldemort asked curiously. Orange head didn't use a wand or even a hand for spell. How was that possible?

"It's none of your business." Ichigo turned to look at him and lifted eyebrows: "And it seems that it's impossible to have a decent conversation with you."

Voldemort hurried closer Ichigo. Now when he had seen that power, he just couldn't let go of kid. He needed to know what that was about.

"I apologize her displeasing behavior." Voldemort shot his deadly eyes on the woman: "Take her away."

Another Death Eater who rushed to help her, dragged her unconscious body away.

"Now when we have peace in here…" Dark lord chuckled and turned to Ichigo, tilting his sneak-like head. Ichigo just waited.

"Let's start over."

Next day Ichigo startled awake. He had so tough night that he didn't sleep well. With grumble Ichigo pulled on his clothes and went downstairs to get something to eat.

At the doors of the Great Hall was ruckus. Students stood in the front of the wall where Umbridge had gathered all of the new education decrees she had made. Now there was a new one.

"How can there be so many of them?"

The whole wall was covered with frames of new rules. Ichigo rushed through the students to the board. He calmly read the message and lifted his eyebrows.

It said that all the clubs, teams, societies and organizations will be disbanded. They could continue only with a special permission.

"Now, now… Go somewhere else to discuss about this, you are blocking the doorway." Ichigo turned to kids, waving them away. Slowly students started to flow to the Great Hall.

Shaking his head, Ichigo decided to get something to eat too. He passed the Gryffindor's table and saw how Harry and co. were discussing something. They looked very displeased and Ron looked like he had seen a ghost. Well probably he had seen but it didn't have anything to do with their conversation.

Ichigo took cup a green tea and glanced teachers. Umbridge looked lively as ever, but others just sat there. Minerva was frowning and Severus twitched around uncomfortably. Ichigo stretched his neck from side to side. He should go to rest somewhere.

After the breakfast, Ichigo decided to take a nap on the roof. There wouldn't be anyone else. Ichigo lied down and fell in sleep almost immediately.

He didn't wake up before evening.

Ichigo yawned when he walked through the dark corridors. Damn he was sleepy! It was all because visit to that snake-man.

"Then we have a deal…" his creepy voice still rang in his head. Ichigo frowned and went to see was there anything good for supper.

Weeks went almost unchanged. Only thing was that in the first Quidditch match went for Gryffindor, but it had bad consequences. Harry, Fred and George were banned from Gryffindor's Quidditch team for their life time, and surprise, by Dolores Umbridge.

The whole situation seemed disgusting for Ichigo, since it wasn't their fault at all. But no one didn't have authority to be against the decision.

Ichigo sighed deeply when he walked through the school, making sure that all the students were in their dorms already. He didn't see single soul and was pleased.

Shinigami sharpened his senses, trying to discover location of Harry, Ron and Hermione. He had noticed their mysterious behavior couple days ago and wanted to make sure that they were safe.

Ichigo searched through the Gryffindor dorm, but he was surprised that they weren't in there. But their reiatsu seemed to be only couple corridors away from him.

Scowling Ichigo took a flash step towards their location.

He landed in the empty hallway. There wasn't anyone, but he could feel their reiatsu coming from the stone wall. And they weren't alone.

Ichigo turned to wall and knocked it.

"Sounds like normal wall. What the hell?"

"Maybe it is some kind of magic. Try to put some reiatsu in the wall." Zangetsu advised and Shiro listened curiously.

Ichigo put his hand on the wall and started to pour reiatsu in it. And it really absorbed it like a living being.

"Fascinating. I wonder what kind of magic you need to use to create something like this." Ichigo wondered astonished when a door formed in the wall.

"This would be useful!" He made a mental note to ask Dumbledore about this while pulling open huge door.

He heard one explosion and silence fell over when he stepped inside.

Shinigami saw about twenty eye pairs widening from horror and everyone froze in their steps. Ichigo lifted his eyebrow. He noticed couple Hufflepuffs trying to sneak to the other door. He waved his hand and cast a barrier that they couldn't open it.

"Ichigo!" Harry breathed. He had almost a heart attack when he noticed that someone came in: "It's just you!"

"Harry? What are you doing here?" Ichigo took a look on the destroyed dummies in the corner. One was still on fire.

Harry twitched and Hermione walked forward: "We are practicing Defense against the Dark Arts with ourselves." Some students narrowed their eyes when she told that to him so easily.

Ichigo scowled. It scared couple whispering students and they were sure that now they will get expelled. It was well-known that Ichigo Kurosaki was a good friend of Umbridge.

Harry and Ron stepped forwards and Neville sniffed. His grandma would kill him to get expelled like this.

They all just stood there some time, Ichigo glancing around. He recognized everyone. Then Ichigo sighed: "I was wondering that how stupid you are."

Ron gulped but Shinigami continued: "I thought that you were really wussies that you are not doing anything against that bitch." he gave out a laugh.

Few mouths fell open. They couldn't believe that what they had just heard.

Hope you liked.