Chapter 3 is officially finished! Sorry about the multiple day wait. Once again, like with previous chapters, I'm uploading this right after finishing (5:50 am, yay) so it'll have word/grammar/punctuation errors. Hopefully not though. This, surprisingly enough, isn't the obligatory training montage chapter it's the "Berry Squad talks about shit and Tatsuki gets involved with stuff while Ichigo talks about his problems" chapter. It probably isn't very interesting, but hey too late to change it now, it's already 2000 words worth of work.

Well, enjoy!

DUSCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or Bleach, they belong to J.K Rowling and Tite Kubo respectively.

Uryu knew Ichigo liked trying to get himself killed and getting into situations that would end up worse for him than he believed, but this was absurd. He was going to Scotland. For over a year. To learn MAGIC. WITH WIZARDS. He could barely believe magic existed in the first place, but Ichigo was saying there's an entire civilisation of them with their own government, laws, and they had only just been discovered by the Shinigami? This was absurd.

"Ooh, I wonder if they like wasabi on strawberry pancakes like I do?"

And that was Orihime being herself again. Just thinking of that combination was making him sick.

"Uh… I might have to ask them," Ichigo responded, visibly blanching at the thought. "But then again maybe they do have some odd food preferences."

Uryu looked behind him to check no-one was eavesdropping, and sure enough the door was closed so it was all good. Talking about this in the middle of a school is quite literally one of the worst decisions ever. Kurosaki's an idiot.

"Earth to Uryu!"

"What is it, Kurosaki."

"I was asking if you wanted to come to Hogwarts as well," Ichigo asked, arms crossed and a frown on his face.

Uryu raised an eyebrow and considered his proposal. If he did go to this school and learn this so-called magic, he could learn about an entirely new race of spiritually aware beings, and perhaps form new techniques using their techniques. On the other hand, he would miss a year – or perhaps more – of school, which wasn't exactly a good thing.

"I'll consider it," Uryu answered, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Ichigo scowled at Uryu. "You gotta decide now because if you do, you're going to have 3 years' worth of work to catch up on and read before we go to wherever we need to go-"

"London!" Orihime piped in helpfully.

"How do you know that and I don't? Anyway, long story short it's either yes or no."

Uryu sighed. "Fine. I'll go, if not only for the sake of a new opportunity to scope out potential enemies."

Ichigo nodded and turned to the other two in the room. "Chad? Orihime?"

Orihime nodded excitedly. "I'll come with you! It sounds fun."

Ichigo was tempted to voice his opinion that the wizards were sure to have fun with her less than spiffing food tastes, but kept quiet. He turned to the only one who hadn't spoken yet.

Chad mulled it over for a minute before responding. "Sorry Ichigo, I don't think I'll be able to go this time. This isn't a pressing issue, so I think you, Uryu and Orihime can handle it."

Ichigo nodded to show he understood, which he did. Even if he was a little down at the thought that the other two would be coming and not Chad, he knew Chad had his own responsibilities and if he trusted him with this, he would be accepting of the gentle giant's decision.

"So, you're going to a magic school?" Asked a familiar voice from the door. Looking back, Orihime, Chad, Ichigo, and Uryu could see Tatsuki standing there, arms crossed and an expression on her face halfway between angry and smug.

"Oh, hey Tatsuki!" Orihime beamed at the tomboy.

"Hey," Tatsuki said, walking into the room and closing the door behind her.

Well crap, Ichigo thought as he realised Tatsuki must have heard everything they said and was confronting them about it. It would be a real awkward conversation if she did and asked where he got all this information from, because surely he couldn't just tell her about the Soul Society, could he?

"I'm going to come with you," Tatsuki said firmly, her tone pretty much yelling 'I'm not taking no for an answer'.

"Wait, don't you think-" Ichigo started to say, but was cut off.

"You shut up. You think I haven't seen you running around in those weird robes with a giant sword, fighting monsters no-one can see? Well think again, I can see it, and I want a full explanation. No beating around the bush, just the truth," Tatsuki snapped, getting up in the ginger's face with a flame rising in her eyes.

Ichigo was shocked, to say the least. He didn't think Tatsuki could see Shinigami or hollows, but here she was. How was he supposed to explain everything? He looked to the other 3, but they just gave him a look that told him everything he needed to know before they left, with Orihime mouthing good luck to him right as she exited the classroom. He was on his own.

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain-"

"I don't care, just tell me!"

"Okay, jesus."

Ichigo took a long breath. Just explain it. Shinigami, hollows, souls, all that stuff. Okay. He sat down on the edge of his desk and started to explain.

"You said something about invisible monsters no-one else can see. Those are hollows; souls of the dead that are filled with negative emotions and lose their hearts, becoming mindless creatures that eat souls to fill the empty pit left by the absence of a heart. Shinigami, or Soul Reapers, are spirits who use Zanpakutō to purify hollows and send them to the Soul Society – the afterlife – to re-enter the cycle of souls. I myself am a substitute Shinigami, I'm technically a Shinigami except I'm still alive and I don't work for the Soul Society."

Tatsuki stared at Ichigo for a moment before speaking. "And so what happened during the summer break? Because I know for a fact that you, Orihime, Uryu and Chad did something together and I want to know what."

Ichigo ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. "We went to the Soul Society to save Rukia from being executed for giving me her powers."

Tatsuki raised an eyebrow. "Rukia?"

Ichigo then remembered that almost everyone in their class had their memories of Rukia erased. "Oh yeah, your memories of her were erased so you wouldn't remember her. She was in our class before summer break, and she's an actual Shinigami. She gave me her powers so I could kill a hollow she was struggling with but instead of me taking only half of them, I took all of them, and in turn she had to stay in the World of the Living until they returned to her. Turns out it was a crime though and she got taken back to the Soul Society to be executed."

Tatsuki frowned. "Really? Helping save both her own life and yours was punishable by death?"

"Apparently so."

"So she's alright now?"

"Yeah. We managed to stop the execution, which was apparently orchestrated by the Aizen guy who betrayed the Shinigami and retreated to somewhere after taking a weird rock – I think it was called the Hogyoku – out of Rukia's body. Real weird stuff. The dude also almost split my body in half somehow, so I kind of hate him for that."

Tatsuki nodded until she realised what Ichigo had said at the end. "Wait, he almost split your body in half?! You almost died!"

Ichigo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Ah, yeah. It was a battlefield, Tatsuki, that was always a possibility."

"And just how many times did you almost die?" Tatsuki asked Ichigo with a hint of an accusing tone.

Ichigo took a few moments to think about that. If he was counting the times he literally almost died, not just 'phew, almost died right there' moments, it was about 3. First time was while fighting Kenpachi. He had been stabbed in the chest and Zangetsu had broken. Had he not gone into his inner world and fought with his inner hollow – White, he corrected himself – he would have died and never saved Rukia.

The second time was during his fight with Byakuya on Sōkyoku Hill. Everything was going well at first. He had used his Bankai, Byakuya used his. Ichigo was out-speeding him, and Byakuya was slowly getting tired. But then he had used Senkei and Ichigo had realised that he was being crushed by his own spiritual pressure because he wasn't used to his Bankai yet. That had been the crucial moment, as during his moment of distraction Byakuya used Byakurai on his shoulder and blasted a hole through it. Damn that had hurt. And then came the moment that he was paralysed. He couldn't move, couldn't speak, and couldn't get out of the way of the incoming sword. So to save his sorry ass, White came in and started insulting how weak he was and overwhelming Byakuya as he went. Ichigo wouldn't admit it to anyone, but in that moment he realised just how right the hollow was.

"Hey, Ichigo! Snap out of it, idiot!"

Ichigo looked to Tatsuki and realised he had been staring off into space with a blank expression on his face. "Sorry Tatsuki. What was your question again?"

"Just forget it," Tatsuki responded with a scoff.

Ichigo shrugged at her response and they both stayed there in silence for a few minutes until Ichigo spoke up.

"Hey, Tatsuki."

"Yeah?"

"What would you do if you had a psychotic voice in your head that won't leave you alone?"

It took the tomboy a solid minute to form a response because the question came out of literally nowhere and was frankly confusing. "Uh. Well, I'd tell it to shut up and leave me alone, then kick it's ass to Hell and back. Why do you ask?"

The ginger looked away. "No reason."

Tatsuki looked at Ichigo with suspicion. She knew he was hiding something and didn't want to talk about it, but she didn't know if she should pester him about it. After another moment, she decided that yes, she was going to pester him about it. "Alright, spill it Strawberry. What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"I know that look. You're hiding something and I know it. I'm sick of being left out on these things Ichigo, and I will punch you if you don't answer my damn question!"

Ichigo looked at Tatsuki with surprise written across his face, before sighing and deciding – begrudgingly – to tell her. "You know how I told you about hollows?"

"Yeah, what about them?" Tatsuki responded with a raise of an eyebrow.

"Well I kind of have one in my soul."

It took all of Tatsuki's willpower not to yell out "what the fucking hell" at the ginger in front of her right then and there. "…What?"

"Yeah. He's real annoying too. Name's White."

I still despise that name.

Ichigo scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Shut up."

Tatsuki narrowed her eyes at Ichigo. "Excuse me?"

The substitute Shinigami almost facepalmed as he realised he said that out loud. "Sorry, wasn't talking to you."

"The hollow?"

"Yup."

Tatsuki sighed audibly and sat on a desk across from Ichigo. "Please don't tell me this dude can take over your body like some kind of creepy parasite from an alien movie."

"He can," Ichigo said bluntly. "And has before, during my fight with one of the Shinigami captains."

"Well isn't that fun," Tatsuki commented sarcastically.

"Tell me about it."

Another minute of silence passed before Ichigo stood from his desk and grabbed his things. "Well anyway, I'll see you around Tatsuki. And by the way if you're coming with us to Hogwarts-"

The name's still weird, White deadpanned.

I agree with you, but still shut up.

But not as weird as Strawberry.

Didn't I just tell you to shut up?

"-Then you need to head to the Urahara Shōten and ask for the books. Tell him I sent you and he'll give the right ones to you. It's just stuff you need to know."

Tatsuki gave a thumbs-up. "Cool. I'll remember to do that this afternoon. Thanks Ichigo."

Ichigo nodded and walked out the door, bag over his shoulder. He threw a wave and yelled out, "See you tomorrow!"

"You too!" Tatsuki yelled back before he was gone. Once he was, she let out a long breath and looked out the window. Man, he really has changed, hasn't he? She smiled a bit. But even now, he's still a risk-taking idiot.

So, Chad's not going to Hogwarts, Uryu's being stingy, Orihime likes strawberries (wink wink), Ichigo's an idiot, and Tatsuki found out about White. Cool. Next chapter? Probably the training chapter.

I won't be able to update for about two or three weeks starting next week, I'm heading off somewhere where there's no reception. Sorry. BUT, I will write at least something so when I come back another chapter or two might be done. Oh yeah, and if anyone thinks I should (in future) add one of Ichigo's hollow forms into the story somehow since those haven't actually happened in this universe yet, leave a review and say which one and if you want, an idea of how it should come into play. There's a 60% chance I'll use one of those ideas.

Now I'm imagining Ichigo running around Hogwarts as a hollow terrorising Umbridge. Man that would be funny.

Well, I'm out now. Bye!