Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Harry Hibiki and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Hibiki and the Philosopher's Stone
Disclaimer: Harry Potter © J. K. Rowling and Ranma 1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
Author note: Thanks once again to my beta Blissfull Wulf.
Chapter 12
Harry watched as his parents left with Dumbledore, part of him was worried about what would happen up in that office though if he was worried more for his parents or the Headmaster was yet to be seen. He had heard a number of stories about the man from Remus, who admired the old wizard but at the same time always warned Harry that Dumbledore tended to treat people like chess pieces and he needed to be wary of him. Still his parents were stubborn people and wouldn’t let Harry’s headmaster walk all over them.
“Nii-san,” Yoshi’s little hand patted Harry’s face, trying to get his brother’s attention. Harry smiled, ignoring a few of the girls around him that squealed at how cute the toddler was being, as he gave the tiny boy his full attention.
“Ready for some lunch Yoshi?” Harry asked as he walked into the Great Hall with Yoshi. “Look up at the ceiling,” Harry whispered, pointing up at the enchanted ceiling for Yoshi to see.
“Ooohhhh,” Yoshi’s little eyes, as brown as their mother’s, looked up and his mouth made an ‘o’.
“Neat huh?” Harry said with a laugh.
“NIi-san, clowds!” Yoshi said, pointing up at the fluffy clouds that were a reflection of the real things outside. “Usagi!”
“Yes, it does look a bit like an usagi doesn’t it,” Harry agreed with a serious nod as he sat down at his house table.
“What’s an u-sage-y?” Ron asked as he sat down across from Harry at the table.
“’Usagi’ Ronald,” Hermione said as she sat down beside Harry, carefully adjusting Keiko in her lap. “It’s the Japanese word for rabbit.”
“Well why didn’t he just say so?” Ron asked confused. Harry laughed as he looked at Ron.
“Japanese is Yoshi’s first language, he can only speak English as well as he does because we switch back and forth so often in our house,” Harry explained.
“Oh… I guess that makes sense,” Ron reasoned. Hermione sighed and shook her head, digging around in the bag Ukyo gave her to take out Keiko’s milk bottle. Harry grinned and chuckled under his breath, looking at the selection of food the House Elves had sent up.
“Hey Neville, pass down that plate of chicken fingers,” Harry said, he didn’t know if the House Elves somehow knew that a tiny tot was at the table or if it was just a happy coincidence that there were little finger foods on the table perfect for little hands to hold on to, but Harry was happy to see them.
“So this is your little brother and sister?” Neville asked softly as he handed the plate of chicken fingers over.
“Yep,” Harry said as he put a few pieces of chicken on his plate.
“Yum!” Yoshi said has he grabbed one, bouncing in Harry’s lap. Keiko giggled around her bottle as she watched her brothers.
“This is Yoshi,” Harry ran his fingers through Yoshi’s baby-soft black hair. “And the little princess is Keiko.”
“Oh Merlin, they are so cute,” A girl a year older than Harry with brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail said as she and another girl of African descent sat down close to the first years. “Aren’t you? You are going to be a heartbreaker when you grow up.” Yoshi blushed and shyly buried his face against Harry’s chest.
“Awww,” The other girl said.
“Sorry, he’s a little shy around girls,” Harry said, grinning as Yoshi peeked up at the two girls .
“Too cute,” The first girl said with a laugh. “I’m Katie and this is Angelina.” She introduced herself and her friend.
“Play Chasers on the Quidditch team they do,” Fred said as he and George moved closer.
“These two and Alicia are right scary when they play together,” George added.
“If you two try to get back at me for that prank while my Otouto and Imouto are right here, I’m going to break both of your heads,” Harry hissed softly. The twins quickly held up their hands in surrender.
“Don’t worry Harry-kins,” One twin said.
“We would never,” the other add.
“Involve a little innocent,”
“Like that.” Ron snorted softly into his lunch, the amount of pranks they pulled on him as children said otherwise.
“Besides, it takes out,”
“All the fun if you,”
“Are expecting the attack,” The twins said back and forth, ignoring Ron. Harry eyed both boys then nodded his head as he turned back to making sure Yoshi ate his fill. Fred and George let out a relieved breath, Harry could be downright scary when he was in big brother mode they decided, reminding them a bit of their oldest brother Bill when he got over protective of his younger siblings.
****
Up at the head table, four certain individuals watched Harry and his group.
Minerva watched on with an amused look in her eyes and her lips quirking into a smile. It was nice to see Harry with his little siblings. The boy obviously loved Yoshi and Keiko, looking after both of them as he made sure they were eating enough and were out of harm’s way from certain pranksters. She did feel a pang of loss, she had no doubt that if Lily and James had been alive they also would have provided Harry with little brothers and sisters, Minerva was sure Harry would have been just as a protective older brother as he was now.
Of course if Harry had been raised by his birth parents instead of his adopted ones, Minerva was more than sure that Harry would be a completely different boy. No doubt he would be a prankster on par with the Weasley twins though she liked to think Lily would have curbed some of her son’s actions. Maybe…
At the other end of the table, Severus watched out of the corner of his eye as he slowly ate lunch. He found it…. a/musing/ to see the boy cow the dratted Weasley twins with a look and a few words. The look had made Harry look so much like Lily then that Severus felt a pang of loss for the woman he loved.
/‘At least he gets that from her and not Potter,’ /Severus thought. He was still very much in the air on what to make of the boy. Harry was nothing like he thought the boy would be, that much he had already seen in the last week. He saw more of Lily the more he watched her son, and what he didn’t recognize as Lily’s actions or looks he could only assume Harry learned them from the man that raised him. The only thing that had reminded Severus of James Potter was when Harry turned the Weasley twins own prank against them. It was almost downright Slytherin how the boy did it, Severus was sure Potter was turning in his grave at that thought. And then there had been today’s potions class… Mentally shaking himself, Severus turned back to his meal. He would continue to watch Potter-Hibiki a little longer before coming to a decision on the boy, as hard as it was to let go of the instant hate he had for the name ‘Potter’. Being compared to Petunia had helped knock Severus for a much needed loop and helped keep his mind a little bit more open if only to keep from being in the same boat as that woman.
Beside Severus, Quirrell fought to keep the wince off his face as his master’s dark thoughts seemed to rage in his mind. Though physically he could only see the turban his servant wore, Voldemort was able to see through Quirrell’s eyes as he mentally glared down at the boy that had caused him to be in his current state. The Potter brat, the one who was prophesied to be his downfall, sat down at the Gryffindor table with a smaller little brat sitting in his lap.
‘That boy should have been dead!’ Voldemort thought angrily. But part of him, a part he would only admit to himself if only in the dead of night, was a bit afraid. When he had first heard the prophecy from his loyal spy Snape, he hadn’t thought much of it. It hadn’t even been the whole prophecy but divination was a bunch of hooey and why would a powerful dark lord like him need to pay any sort of attention to it? But… but there was still a nagging piece of him that warned him that he should at least look into it and found there was at least two boys that fit the prophecy as he understood it. The Longbottom boy and the Potter boy had been born a day apart at the end of July.
What had made him choose Potter in the end was not only because the boy was born closer to the end of the month but his cowardly spy Wormtail had brought back reports of magical feats that the babe had pulled off. Nothing compared to an adult witch or wizard but still amazing for a child so young. He knew that with the Potters such supporters of the ‘Light side’, Dumbledore would have been able to take and mold the powerful child into a weapon against him. So once Wormtail had revealed to him that James Potter had foolishly made the rat the secret keeper, Voldemort had waited until Samhain night when he felt the powers of darkness and death would be at its highest to attack.
It should have been glorious, it should have gone all to plan and it had at first. Wormtail had told him where the Potter’s were living and he had blown in the front door, catching the two adults inside by surprise. He could still hear Potter senior telling his mudblood of a wife to run with their brat, the foolish man had tried to hold him off but didn’t last long with no wand to protect himself, just a little wandless magic that wouldn’t have even given Voldemort a nose bleed. Once James Potter was dead, he had gone up the stairs into the nursery where Lily Potter stood protectively in front of her son. Oh he had tried to keep his promise to Snape and offered the woman her life as long as she stepped aside but she had refused and in the end he had snuffed out her life.
Then came time to kill the boy that should have been the highlight of the night! Not only a mighty blow to Dumbledore and his ‘light side’ but he also was making sure that the boy could never attempt to rise up against him. To make it even sweeter, Voldemort had planned on using Harry Potter’s death to create his final Horcrux, making his own death impossible. He had pointed his Yew and Phoenix feather wand at the boy’s forehead, said the words of the killing curse then…. Nothing but a flash of green light and blinding pain. He still didn’t know what had gone wrong, somehow his own spell had been rebounded back at him. If it hadn’t been for the soul anchors he had already created, he would have been dead. As it was, his soul was ripped from his body and he had fled into the night.
And now, 10 years later, he was still without a body and had to share one with this pitiful excuse of a wizard. Why couldn’t one of his other servants had come to find him? Why didn’t they? Because most of his loyal ones where either dead or locked up in Azkaban or like Severus was spying and could not leave his post. Once he had his hands on the Philosopher Stone and created himself a new powerful body, Voldemort swore he would punish all of his useless Death Eaters! But first he would strike down the very boy who had caused him to be in this state, perhaps kill his new family in front of him before dealing the final blow. Starting which those two little brats he could see.
‘Just you wait boy, once I have the stone the death of your family is next,’ Voldemort thought. ‘Quirrell!’
Quirrell jumped slightly as his master’s voice rang inside his mind. The moment caught Severus’s eye and he turned his attention from Harry and his friends to the man beside him.
‘Leave now, I am tired of looking at that boy. I’m sure you have /‘classes’ to prepare for,’/ Voldemort sneered.
“I-I-I’m afraid I-I-I’ll have to cut l-lunch a l-little short,” Quirrell said as he pushed his plate away from him and stood from the table.
“Is everything alright Quirinus?” Flitwick asked.
“Y-yes, just a f-few p-p-papers that need to be graded,” Quirrell said with a nervous laugh then quickly swept from the Great Hall. Snape watched him leave with narrowed dark eyes, something was up with that man.
***
As the lunch hour ended Harry stood and placed Yoshi on his hip.
“Come on, I’m sure Mom and Dad’s meeting with the Headmaster is over with now, we can meet them by the front doors then head down to Hagrid’s,” Harry said.
“That sounds reasonable,” Hermione said as she packed away Keiko’s bottle with one hand then slid the strap of the diaper bag onto her shoulder, standing with the baby girl in her arms.
“You sure Hagrid won’t mind us tagging along?” Ron asked as he and Neville got up to follow.
“I shouldn’t think so, he struck me as very friendly when we met in Diagon Alley,” Harry said.
“Yeah, my brothers did always say he’s an alright bloke,” Ron mused, guessing it would be alright in the end.
“Harry-sama!” Kodachi came up from the Slytherin table with her housemates Daphne and Tracy with her, falling in step beside her friend while the other Gryffindors and Slytherins in the group kinda shied away from each other not sure what to make of the other house except for Hermione who smiled at Kodachi in greeting. “Hermione-san.”
“Dachi!” Yoshi said holding his arms out to the dark hair girl.
“My little Yosh-chan,” Kodachi cooed as she took Yoshi from Harry who laughed. “You awful man, were you going to allow my little Yosh-chan and rose bud to leave without me seeing them?” She said teasingly at Harry. Harry shrugged and grinned as they stopped to the side of the door.
“I knew you would catch up,” Harry said. “You have the afternoon free ne?”
“Yes, the only classes I had were this morning,” Kodachi said.
“Cool, we got an invite to have tea in Hagrid’s hut; you and your friends want to tag along?” Harry offered.
“The Gameskeeper?” Daphne asked as her nose wrinkled slightly.
“Oh! The really tall guy that took us across the lake?” Tracy asked. When Harry nodded the hyper blond grinned. “Neat! I wouldn’t mind going.”
“I think I will decline,” Daphne said, trying to sound polite about it but she couldn’t bring herself to hang around with the help but wasn’t surprised that her friend wouldn’t mind meeting the man. Tracy was strange like that.
“I suppose it wouldn’t harm anyone to meet this man,” Kodachi said with a shrug. She didn’t really care one way or the other but her Harry-sama seemed fond of this man so she felt she should at least meet him. Ron had to bite his lip, he was slowly coming around to the idea that maybe not all Slytherins were evil but it was still his first instinct to yell and say the two girls shouldn’t come. He was getting better about that.
“What about Tachi?” Harry asked.
“I believe Brother-dear still has a class he has to go to this afternoon,” Kodachi said with a sigh.
“Harry!” Ukyo’s voice called behind the group of pre-teens.
“Kasan! Tousan!” Harry said with a grin. “How did the meeting with Dumbledore-sensei go?”
“Oh I think we’ve come to an understanding,” Ryoga said with a fanged smirk while Ukyo looked too pleased with herself.
“Ah! Kasan!” Yoshi said giving his mother a toothy grin.
“There’s my future little okonomiyaki chef,” Ukyo said as she took her son from Kodachi while Ryoga retrieved Keiko from Hermione. Keiko sighed happily as she snuggled up to her daddy’s chest. “Were they good Harry?”
“They were little angels Mom,” Harry promised.
“Ok, hopefully you won’t have any more problems,” Ukyo said, leaning down to kiss Harry’s forehead right above his bandanna while Harry blushed and protested slightly. “We’ll see you when you come home for Christmas.”
“Hai,” Harry agreed. “Bai bai.”
“Bai bai Chibi,” Ryoga said as he ruffled Harry’s hair then let his wife lead him out of the school.
“So… shall we go down to Hagrid’s then?” Harry asked after his family left.
*****
As Harry knocked on the door of the hut, the group which consisted of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Kodachi and Tracy heard a loud booming bark inside.
“Back Fang back!” Hagrid’s equally booming voice said before the door was pulled open. “’Arry!”
“Hello Hagrid-san,” Harry said. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought a few friends that wanted to meet you.”
“Not at al’,” Hagrid said with a large smile and a twinkling in his warm black eyes. “Come in, make yousel’s at ‘ome.” Hagrid stood to the side and let the group of students in. Everyone looked around the hut, it was a large single room with a large fireplace along one wall and a huge bed on another. In the middle of the room was a giant size table and chairs all around it, a perfect size for a half giant. There were rabbits and birds hanging from the roof and everything was a warm brown color.
“This is cozy,” Hermione said as she sat down on one of the chairs. As soon as Ron sat down in another, a large bloodhound came over and plopped his head into Ron’s lap, slobbering happily.
“Ugh,” Ron said softly as he looked at the drool on his pants.
“Don’t mind Fang, ‘e won’t hurt ya,” Hagrid said as he set out cups around the table and poured tea into them. Of course the cups were Hagrid-size so they were like small bowls to the kids. “’e’s a big softy, wouldn’t hu’t a fly. He’e, have some rock cake.” He sat out a plate with little cakes on it then turned back to the fireplace briefly. Everyone took one of the cakes only to discover that the rock cakes were just like rocks, causing everyone but Tracy to quickly hide theirs. Tracy gnawed a bit on the cake, muttering something about a ‘jawbreaker’ while she was at it.
“So, who’s your friends?” Hagrid asked as he sat down at the table with his own cup of tea. As Harry introduced Ron, Hagrid smiled and nodded slightly, “I’ve ha’ to chase your broth’rs out of the forest quite a few times. Hop’ you don’t follow in their footsteps.” Then when Neville’s name came up, Hagrid’s smile became sad. “I kn’w your parents. Fine people, Frank and Alice were.”
“Thank you Sir,” Neville said softly.
“Awww, you don’t have to call me ‘sir’, ‘Agrid is just fine,” Hagrid said with a wave of his hand.
“My name is Kodachi Kuno,” Kodachi said before Harry could introduce her, standing up to give him a little crusty bow.
“I’m Tracy,” Tracy said. “I like your rock cakes, a little hard but good.” The other pre-teens looked at her like she was crazy while Hagrid beamed happily. He honestly hadn’t been sure about the two girls when he first saw them, he knew they were both in Slytherin and his personal experience with Slytherins hadn’t been all that great. It was few and far between that he found nice ones like these girls. Plus he saw the dark hair girl, Kodachi, with young Harry all the time and he was a good kid.
“Pleased to meet all ‘f you,” Hagrid said.
“So what is it that you do Hagrid?” Hermione asked curiously. Hagrid happily told Hermione what his duties were while Harry looked around the hut again. It really was cozy and warm and it seemed to suit Hagrid just fine. As Harry picked up the bowl size cup to drink from, using both hands, he spied a copy of the Daily Prophet sitting on the table. Curious, he reached over and turned the paper slightly so he could read it.
‘Huh, this paper is over a month old,’ Harry thought as his eyes flicked up to the date at the top, the day after his birthday. ‘I wonder why Hagrid has it. Hmm… break in at Gringotts? And the thief got away? Wow, I know the goblins weren’t happy. Vault #713.’ Harry was unable to read further as the paper was suddenly pulled away. He looked up and saw a slightly guilty look on Hagrid’s face and wondered why. And why did that vault number sound so familiar? For how Harry put it out of his mind, if he really wanted to know what the rest of the article said, he could always find a copy of it somewhere and it’s not like it involved him in anyway.
Later that afternoon, as the group of friends headed back up toward the castle, Harry mentioned the paper and the article.
“I remember my Dad and Mum talking about that,” Ron said. “Really big news, first time ever anyone has broken into a Gringotts vault but wasn’t caught.”
“My Gran and my uncle were talking about it too,” Neville said. “I got to read the article, the goblins claim that the vault had already been emptied a few days before anyway.”
“Hmm,” Harry got a thoughtful look on his face, his memory niggling at him. It took a few seconds but he finally remembered where he heard that vault number before. “Oh wait, that’s the vault Hagrid-san went too,” He said with a snap of his fingers.
“Really? How do ya know that?” Tracy asked.
“Me and Dad were there, we rode in the same cart,” Harry explained. “We met up with Hagrid-san when he let us into Diagon Alley, I couldn’t remember the sequence to the bricks so I couldn’t let me and Dad in, and he offered to escort us around since I was ‘New to the wizarding world’. Tried to tell him that I wasn’t but he seemed so happy to help that we went along with it.”
“Did you get a look at what was in the vault?” Ron asked.
“Sorta, it was a really small package wrapped up in paper and string,” Harry said. “Tiny in Hagrid’s hand but I think I could have closed my whole fist around it. I think he was picking it up for Dumbledore-sensei, guess he was tipped off that someone was gonna rob the vault and sent Hagrid to go get it.”
“What day did the robbery happen?” Kodachi asked having not seen or heard about the article herself.
“July 31st,” Harry said.
“Hmm, we were in the alley that day getting our Hogwarts robes and books,” Kodachi said. “I don’t remember seeing anyone shady looking when we were in the bank.”
“Well a good thief wouldn’t stand out,” Tracy said. “After all, if you can tell they’re shady then they would be watched too closely.”
“I wonder if the package Hagrid got is the same thing that Professor Dumbledore is hiding up on the third floor,” Ron said, looking up at the school toward the floor in mention.
“It could be though I wonder why he told everyone where whatever the package was is hidden at,” Harry said. “I mean, why not keep it hidden like in a personal safe or heck even his sock drawer. As long as he didn’t tell anyone where it was, no one would have gone looking for it.”
“Ooo sock drawer, gotta remember that one,” Tracy commented as they entered the school.
***
That evening at dinner the kids sat down at the Gryffindor table. Tracy managed to convince Daphne to sit with them, surprising and making some of the pureblood Gryffindor’s a little uncomfortable. They had slowly gotten use to Kodachi sitting at their table sometimes but this was the first time they had three Slytherins sitting with them at one time. At the Slytherin house table, Draco Malfoy fumed in anger at seeing all three girls sitting at the red and gold table with the bloody Golden Boy. A lot of the older Slytherin students weren’t too happy about it as well since Slytherins weren’t usually friendly with the Gryffindors but some were applauding the three girls for already making connections with someone who was famous and could be a powerful player one day. Plus their head of house didn’t seem too bothered that three of his snakes were spending time with the lions and badgers so why should they?
At the Gryffindor table, once Tatewaki and Justin joined them, Harry and the others filled them and Daphne in on what happen in Hagrid’s hut and about the newspaper.
“So you think the thing in the vault is the reason we can’t go on the right side of the third floor?” Justin asked when the others finished.
“Maybe, the timeing is right,” Harry said. “But for all we know that part of the castle could be condemned and needs repairs that they can’t do right now.”
“Perhaps but I think the first theory is more likely,” Daphne said.
“I do too,” Harry agreed. “But it doesn’t really have anything to do with us.”
“Still curious about what it is though,” Ron said. Harry thought that a lot of people most likely were, nothing got people’s curiosity, especially children’s, like telling them that they can’t be somewhere. Harry would be lying if he said he didn’t wish to know what was going on with the third floor corridor. Just for the sake of having the knowledge if nothing else, you never knew when something like that came in handy.
***
Draco scowled as he sat down in the leather chair next to the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest.
“What’s your problem now?” Blaise asked as he sat down on a couch next to the chair.
“What do you think?” Draco said. “Those three traitors Kuno, Greengrass and Davis, spending time with all those blood traitors and mudbloods.”
“You’re jealous,” Blaise said with a smirk.
“What!? Jealous? I am not jealous,” Draco said his nose in the air. “Why would I be jealous of those three?”
“They did what you tried to do and succeeded,” Blaise pointed out. “I heard about you searching the train for Harry Potter, bragging how you were going to be the one to get him under your thumb. Instead you pissed him off and he’s friends with the girls instead.”
‘And me, sort of,’ Blaise added in his thoughts. He couldn’t say he was friends with Hibiki, not fully, but they were friendly toward each other and Blaise had sought him out a couple of times in the last week for conversation. He had learned a bit about the other boy from Kodachi, she liked to talk about her ‘Harry-sama’ if you caught her in the right mood.
Draco pouted, not that he would call it that, and huffed softly as he turned his head away from Blaise. It was true, he had been looking for Harry Potter on the train. His father had “suggested” that he make “friends” with the Boy-Who-Lived and he knew the man was most disappointed that Draco hadn’t been able to do that, instead becoming rivals with the other boy. At least Draco called them rivals, Harry seemed content to ignore Draco for the most part for now.
“Who wants to be friends with a muggle-loving Griffindork?” Draco asked. Blaise just smirked but didn’t say anything else, he knew he’d won this round.
***
Severus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his hooked nose as he put another progress report to the side. He had gotten into the habit after he had become the head of Slytherin of sending out weekly progress reports to the parents or guardians of his snakes. He did this only with the students of his house, he had no idea what the three other house heads did and it was not really any of his business, nor did he care.
In the reports he sent out how the student was progressing in classes after taking a look into the scorebook in the teacher’s lounge and how they were doing in the school itself. He winced as he thought about all the homesick younger years he had to comfort in the last week. Soon they would get use to being away from their families but it was annoying none the less. He had just finished with Draco’s report, doing well in school but the boy’s attitude…. Draco did not have the same savvy as either of his parents, the boy acted more like a Gryffindor than a Slytherin sometimes with the way he constantly ran his mouth off. Lucius had a way of honeying his words and talking you into anything, the only things that could set the man off was the Weasley’s and in recent years somebody named Saotome. Narcissa on the other hand was a proud daughter of the House of Black, one of the sane members anyway, and was just as sly as her husband.
Seeing Draco act like a constant spoiled brat, and he hated to admit that he was reminded strongly of James Potter at times, Severus wondered how the hat even sorted the boy so quickly into his house. He shook his head, there was nothing for it except to report it to his parents. Hopefully Lucius or Narcissa could curb their offspring’s actions. Sighing again Severus picked up his quill and started on the next progress report, this time on Kodachi. Her grades were up to standard, Potions and Herbology being her best classes, and she got along well with her Housemates only attacking Draco when the boy pushed her too far and so far it hadn’t been anything that would seriously hurt the brat or couldn’t be easily reversed. She surprisingly got along with people outside her house as well at least so far, no doubt a side effect from spending so much time with Potter-Hibiki and her Hufflepuff brother.
After finishing the report, Severus picked up Kodachi’s school records to see who the report needed to be sent too. He gapped and nearly dropped the parchment in shock as he saw the name ‘Remus Lupin’ wrote in the spot of Guardian.
‘Somebody let that flea-bitten wolf have custody of a child!?’ Severus through as he read the record again. ‘Somebody married that blasted werewolf, what was this Kasumi woman thinking?’ Severus quickly realized something else, Kodachi seemed to have known Harry for years, which meant that Lupin had known where Potter was the whole time. He was surprised by this, the werewolf seemed to worship the ground Dumbledore walked on since the man had made it possible for him to attend Hogwarts, Severus would have thought Remus would have informed the Headmaster where the missing Potter boy was.
Then again up until a few days ago he would have thought the same about Minerva and she had known since the beginning and had never once let it out that she knew where Harry was to anyone. Severus tapped his quill against the top of his desk for a moment then wrote out a quick letter to send with Kodachi’s progress report. He was responsible for his snakes and had to make sure the girl was safe with the man, even if his first instinct was to scream that she wasn’t since he was a werewolf. Surely the woman Lupin married had enough sense to keep the Kuno children safe from her husband during the full moons. Severus paused for a moment, he would have to keep an eye on both children during the upcoming full moon just to make sure they hadn’t been turned.
He was also curious as to why Lupin kept Potter-Hibiki hidden and what the man knew.
“I can’t believe I’m willing to spend time with Remus Lupin,” Severus muttered to himself as he worked on the next progress report, Kodachi’s would be sent with the others.
*****
Later that night, Harry stuck his head out of the curtain around his bed. He looked at his roommates’ beds, making sure they were all asleep then ducked back into his curtains.
~I’ll be back in a few hourssss,~ Harry told Diego as he picked up a glass of cold water off his nightstand.
~Where are you going?~ The snake asked as Harry poured the water over his head and in an instant seemed to disappear into his clothing. The top Harry had been wearing wiggled around until Neko-Harry’s head popped out of the neck hole.
~Grandmother wantssss me to go ssssee her,~ Harry explained as he pulled himself the rest of the way out of the shirt. ~For my extra lessssssonssss.~
~Oh yeah, I remember that now,~ Diego hissed as he coiled up into a pile to sleep. ~Try not to wake me when you get back.~ Harry shook his head at the snake then jumped down off the bed. He quickly ran out of the dorm room and down the stairs to the common room. There were a few older students still in the room but no one paid any attention to the small black cat sprinting across the room and if anyone had it was dark enough that no one would have noticed that the cat had two tails instead of just one.
Harry searched around the wall by the door where the Fat Lady hung on the other side. Harry had seen several different pets wandering the hallways and Diego had told him that there was a small pet door that allowed the animals, mostly cats, to enter and exit the common room.
‘Ah ha! There it is,’ Harry thought as he found the door. It was small like Diego had said. Large enough for cats, a certain snake or even small dogs to fit through but not larger dogs. Harry was able to easily slip out of the common room and took off running as soon as he was out. He didn’t worry about being caught, after all he was just a cat right now and cats didn’t have a curfew that they had to live by. Harry cackled in his head as he jumped down the moving stairs to the next floor, he wished he could shift into his larger saber-tooth form but didn’t want to give it away.
A few minutes later, after a lot of running and leaping, Harry made it to the ground floor and started to look for a way out of the school. He found a window in one of the side hallways that had loose hinges that he was able to push the window open enough for him to slip out and sprint across the grounds toward the Whomping Willow.
After dodging and jumping over the thrashing limbs of the willow, Harry dashed into the tunnel entrance hidden in the roots and ran down to the other end of the tunnel where the door was already open for him.
“Took you long enough,” Cologne said as soon as Harry jumped through the trapdoor.
“Sorry, it takes a while to run through the school like this,” Harry said as he shook the dust out of his fur.
“There is hot water and a set of clothing over there,” Cologne said as she pointed toward a corner of the room, turning her back as Harry knocked the kettle over then quickly got dressed. “Tell me how you are adjusting to your new school.” Harry told Cologne about the first week at school as he sat down across from her at a small table that had been set up for them.
“I have a feeling that Snape-sensei doesn’t like me too much, from when Otousan and his friends bullied him, but he’s also confused about me too,” Harry finished then shrugged his shoulders. “He’s really strict but as long as he just teaches me and doesn’t try to get back at me for my dead father, I don’t see any reason to do anything about him.”
“A mature choice,” Cologne noted. “How about your training?”
“I’m trying,” Harry said. “I found a small room to practice in the mornings but it’s really small and not the best. I think Tachi and Dachi are having the same problems. I was going to explore the school more this weekend and see if I can’t find a better place to train.”
“Let’s just see how rusty you’ve gotten then,” Cologne said, standing and beckoning for Harry to follow her outside to a small clearing next to the house. “The village members have cleared this area out for them to practice out of sight of the people in the town. Now, go through your forms.”
Harry spent the next two hours doing his katas, from the easy ones to the harder ones, and then sparred with Cologne who proceeded to wipe the floor with him. A grin spread across Harry’s face, this was the sort of exercise he had been craving all week since he boarded the train. He felt like he was finally stretching his muscles after not being able to properly practice while up at the school.
“Stop,” Cologne said after a few more minutes. Harry leaned forward, bracing his hands on his knees as he panted for breath. “A bit sloppy, find the time to work on the art every day since you don’t have a constant teacher.”
“Hai Grandmother,” Harry said as he caught his breath and stood up straight. “I’ll try to find a place to fully practice.”
“I suggest getting in as much as you can, Son-in-Law plans on testing you himself soon,” Cologne warned Harry.
“When is Sensei coming?” Harry asked as he walked back to the Shrieking Shack with Cologne.
“I told him to hold off a couple of weeks until you have your school life down,” Cologne said. “Ranma may be a fanatic over Martial Arts but that is no reason for him to turn into his father because of it.”
“Just tell that to Uncle Ranma and he’ll have a heart attack,” Harry said with a laugh. Cologne smiled slightly.
“That may be, Ranma has worked hard not to be like that fool Genma,” Cologne agreed. “Head back to the school, I will owl you the next time you need to come down and we will continue your potion lessons. Snape may be a Potion Master but I am better.”
“Hai Grandmother,” Harry said with another laugh, knowing it was true since Cologne had years of experience over Snape, and poured cold water over himself again. Once back in his cursed form, Harry raced back toward the school and slipped in through the same window from before.
Once inside the school Harry took his time to head back up to the Gryffindor tower. It was quiet and the middle of the night, no one seemed to be out wandering the halls giving Harry the perfect time to explore. He poked his nose into different rooms; most of them were old classrooms that weren’t in use anymore. As he neared the third floor, Harry looked down the right hallway, this could be his chance to see what in the world was so important about this forbidden area.
“Rrowww….” Harry stopped in his tracks as another cat stepped out of the shadows. It was a dusty looking Maine Coon with red eyes, Harry instantly recognized it as the school’s caretaker Filch’s cat Mrs. Norris. He also knew that both the cat and her master were known for having a nasty personality and a hatred for the students in the school. Harry had no idea what made anyone think it was a good idea to have somebody like that working in a school full of children.
Harry quickly turned to run the other way but Mrs. Norris was quick to dart forward and pick Harry up by the scruff of his neck.
“Ow hey, watch it!” Harry said as his paws and tails curled up close to his body. Mrs. Norris paused for a moment, she had never heard another cat talk like a human before, then continued down the hallway with Harry hanging from her mouth. “Hey, put me down!” Harry wiggled as he tried to escape from Mrs. Norris’s hold but the larger cat seemed to have a firm grip on him and he was embarrassed that he couldn’t even get away from one normal cat. “Oh Kami-sama…. I hope Spice never learns about this,” Harry murmured to himself as he pressed a paw over his eyes. His best friend would never let him live it down if she knew he had been easily defeated by a cat.
Mrs. Norris continued down the corridor until she found a nice window ledge to sit on. She dropped Harry onto the cool stone ledge then wrapped her paws around them, drawing him close before Harry could escape. Harry worried about what Mrs. Norris was going to do to him as her mouth opened and…. she started to lick the space behind his ears and on top of his head.
‘She… she’s licking me!’ Harry thought in shock. ‘She’s treating me like a kitten… no one in the school would ever believe me…’
Mrs. Norris continued to bath the strange little kitten she found, something about the kitten brought out her motherly instincts. As she turned the kitten onto his back to clean his chest, he pressed a paw into her face.
“Whoa there, you’re not going there,” Harry said as he wiggled and escaped Mrs. Norris’s hold. Harry ran his paw over his fur, trying to smooth it down while the real cat watched him in amusement. “Well this has been fun and all but… bye!” Harry rushed off before Mrs. Norris could reach for him again, taking off down the hallways toward his house’s tower. Mrs. Norris blinked at the spot where the strange kitten had been, wondering what had just happened.
“Mrs. Norris, where are you my sweet?” She stood and stretched, her back arching up high as she did, then jumped down to go find her human pet. The kitten she already decided to adopt was still here in the school, she could easily find him again.
Meanwhile Harry quickly dashed into the pet door that lead back into the tower, by now the common room was empty and Harry collapsed in a boneless heap by the low fire.
‘Whew, I can’t believe that cat thought I was her kitten,’ Harry thought to himself, shaking his head in amusement. He would never tell Spice, or any of his friends, what had happened. He didn’t want them to know that a real cat had gotten the drop on him. ‘Ugh, I need a shower to get the cat spit out of my hair.’ Harry’s nose wrinkled at the thought and he headed up the stairs to the dorms. Inside the bathroom, Harry jumped up and pulled the handle to turn the hot water on.
“Ouch!” Harry hissed as the hot water hit him, turning him back into a human, quickly turning the knobs so the water was warm instead of boiling hot. Harry thought over everything as he quickly washed away the sweat and cat spit from his form, he had to find a better place to train other than a dinky little room. Tomorrow he would properly explore the school, with so many abandoned rooms, there had to be something he could use. Turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist, Harry headed back into his dorm room to finally get some sleep.
“Harry?” Harry stopped and turned toward Neville’s bed as the other teen called out sleepily. “What are you doing up?”
“Couldn’t sleep, sometimes a hot shower helps,” Harry fibbed.
“Oh, ok,” Neville said, blinking sleepily at him then laying down again, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Harry breathed a soft sigh of relief, climbing back into his own bed and redressing in his night clothes.
“That was close,” He murmured to himself as he lay down to sleep.
Across the room, the fat rat that Ron kept as a pet watched the room sleepily. Peter could have sworn that he hadn’t heard or seen the Potter boy exit the room to the bathroom. But then again, he was so tired and had been sleeping on and off so he must have missed it. It was nothing important he decided as he curled back up to sleep again.
****
Kodachi frowned as she looked down at Mr. Green Turtle. Her pet crocodile had grown several sizes over the last few days as the shrinking potion she had fed him wore off. He was now almost too big for his compartment in her trunk.
‘I suppose it’s time for him to live in the lake,’ Kodachi thought, she had hoped Mr. Green Turtle would be small for a little while longer, she liked using him as a teddy bear at night. ”Come on my sweet,” Kodachi cooed quietly, leading Mr. Green Turtle toward the door of the room.
“Holy Merlin, is that an alligator?” A voice hissed from one of the beds. Kodachi stopped and glared at the direction of the bed where Tracy was sitting up staring at the lizard.
“Mr. Green Turtle is a crocodile not an alligator,” Kodachi said.
“Alligator. Crocodile, whatever it’s a big lizard,” Tracy said.
“Tracy, what are you rambling on about,” Daphne asked sleepily as she poked her head out of the curtains around her bed. She took one look at Mr. Green Turtle, blinked, then decided that she must be dreaming. “Never mind, I don’t want to know,” the blond girl said as she quickly lay back down. Tracy snorted in laughter at her friend then slid off the side of her bed.
“Why do you have a crocodile anyway?” She whispered to Kodachi as she followed the Japanese girl and her pet out of the room.
“Mr. Green Turtle is my pet, I’ve had him for years,” Kodachi said, cooing and scratching the crocodile under his chin. “I did not want to leave him behind on our family estate while I am here at Hogwarts so I fed him a shrinking potion and carried him here in my trunk. But the potion is wearing off so he’ll have to stay in the lake now.”
“Wow… I always wanted a pet dragon myself,” Tracy said as they snuck out of the Slytherin common room. Kodachi pressed a finger to her lips for Tracy to be quiet as they snuck through the hallways up toward the doors that lead outside. Tracy wasn’t sure but she could have sworn that Kodachi’s crocodile was getting bigger by the second. Once they slipped out the doors of the school Tracy figured it was safe to talk again. “Say Kodachi, how big is Mr. Turtle anyway?” She snickered softly at the name.
“Mr. Green Turtle is normally between 20 to 30 feet long,” Kodachi said as she wrapped her robes around her tighter as they headed toward the Black Lake. Tracy gapped at Kodachi and Mr. Green Turtle.
“20 feet!?” She repeated. “He’s gotta be huge!”
“Yes, Mr. Green Turtle is quite large,” Kodachi agreed. Once they were at the edge of the lake Kodachi knelt down and took Mr. Green Turtle’s head in her hands. “Now play nicely with the others in the lake, mommy will come to check on you soon.” She pressed a kiss to the end of the croc’s snout, made sure his collar was growing with him and sitting comfortably on his neck, then let the hissing lizard go into the lake.
“You’re crazy Kodachi,” Tracy said as she slung her arm over the other girl’s shoulder. “But a good kinda crazy.” Kodachi stiffened a bit at first as Tracy called her crazy, she didn’t like being called that for some reason, but soon relaxed as Tracy didn’t seem to mean any harm by it.
“My dear Tracy, you have no idea,” Kodachi said with a ‘Hohoho’ laugh as they snuck back into the school.
***
Author note: Yay! A new chapter for Harry Hibiki done and finished.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter © J. K. Rowling and Ranma 1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
Author note: Thanks once again to my beta Blissfull Wulf.
Chapter 12
Harry watched as his parents left with Dumbledore, part of him was worried about what would happen up in that office though if he was worried more for his parents or the Headmaster was yet to be seen. He had heard a number of stories about the man from Remus, who admired the old wizard but at the same time always warned Harry that Dumbledore tended to treat people like chess pieces and he needed to be wary of him. Still his parents were stubborn people and wouldn’t let Harry’s headmaster walk all over them.
“Nii-san,” Yoshi’s little hand patted Harry’s face, trying to get his brother’s attention. Harry smiled, ignoring a few of the girls around him that squealed at how cute the toddler was being, as he gave the tiny boy his full attention.
“Ready for some lunch Yoshi?” Harry asked as he walked into the Great Hall with Yoshi. “Look up at the ceiling,” Harry whispered, pointing up at the enchanted ceiling for Yoshi to see.
“Ooohhhh,” Yoshi’s little eyes, as brown as their mother’s, looked up and his mouth made an ‘o’.
“Neat huh?” Harry said with a laugh.
“NIi-san, clowds!” Yoshi said, pointing up at the fluffy clouds that were a reflection of the real things outside. “Usagi!”
“Yes, it does look a bit like an usagi doesn’t it,” Harry agreed with a serious nod as he sat down at his house table.
“What’s an u-sage-y?” Ron asked as he sat down across from Harry at the table.
“’Usagi’ Ronald,” Hermione said as she sat down beside Harry, carefully adjusting Keiko in her lap. “It’s the Japanese word for rabbit.”
“Well why didn’t he just say so?” Ron asked confused. Harry laughed as he looked at Ron.
“Japanese is Yoshi’s first language, he can only speak English as well as he does because we switch back and forth so often in our house,” Harry explained.
“Oh… I guess that makes sense,” Ron reasoned. Hermione sighed and shook her head, digging around in the bag Ukyo gave her to take out Keiko’s milk bottle. Harry grinned and chuckled under his breath, looking at the selection of food the House Elves had sent up.
“Hey Neville, pass down that plate of chicken fingers,” Harry said, he didn’t know if the House Elves somehow knew that a tiny tot was at the table or if it was just a happy coincidence that there were little finger foods on the table perfect for little hands to hold on to, but Harry was happy to see them.
“So this is your little brother and sister?” Neville asked softly as he handed the plate of chicken fingers over.
“Yep,” Harry said as he put a few pieces of chicken on his plate.
“Yum!” Yoshi said has he grabbed one, bouncing in Harry’s lap. Keiko giggled around her bottle as she watched her brothers.
“This is Yoshi,” Harry ran his fingers through Yoshi’s baby-soft black hair. “And the little princess is Keiko.”
“Oh Merlin, they are so cute,” A girl a year older than Harry with brown hair pulled back in a messy ponytail said as she and another girl of African descent sat down close to the first years. “Aren’t you? You are going to be a heartbreaker when you grow up.” Yoshi blushed and shyly buried his face against Harry’s chest.
“Awww,” The other girl said.
“Sorry, he’s a little shy around girls,” Harry said, grinning as Yoshi peeked up at the two girls .
“Too cute,” The first girl said with a laugh. “I’m Katie and this is Angelina.” She introduced herself and her friend.
“Play Chasers on the Quidditch team they do,” Fred said as he and George moved closer.
“These two and Alicia are right scary when they play together,” George added.
“If you two try to get back at me for that prank while my Otouto and Imouto are right here, I’m going to break both of your heads,” Harry hissed softly. The twins quickly held up their hands in surrender.
“Don’t worry Harry-kins,” One twin said.
“We would never,” the other add.
“Involve a little innocent,”
“Like that.” Ron snorted softly into his lunch, the amount of pranks they pulled on him as children said otherwise.
“Besides, it takes out,”
“All the fun if you,”
“Are expecting the attack,” The twins said back and forth, ignoring Ron. Harry eyed both boys then nodded his head as he turned back to making sure Yoshi ate his fill. Fred and George let out a relieved breath, Harry could be downright scary when he was in big brother mode they decided, reminding them a bit of their oldest brother Bill when he got over protective of his younger siblings.
****
Up at the head table, four certain individuals watched Harry and his group.
Minerva watched on with an amused look in her eyes and her lips quirking into a smile. It was nice to see Harry with his little siblings. The boy obviously loved Yoshi and Keiko, looking after both of them as he made sure they were eating enough and were out of harm’s way from certain pranksters. She did feel a pang of loss, she had no doubt that if Lily and James had been alive they also would have provided Harry with little brothers and sisters, Minerva was sure Harry would have been just as a protective older brother as he was now.
Of course if Harry had been raised by his birth parents instead of his adopted ones, Minerva was more than sure that Harry would be a completely different boy. No doubt he would be a prankster on par with the Weasley twins though she liked to think Lily would have curbed some of her son’s actions. Maybe…
At the other end of the table, Severus watched out of the corner of his eye as he slowly ate lunch. He found it…. a/musing/ to see the boy cow the dratted Weasley twins with a look and a few words. The look had made Harry look so much like Lily then that Severus felt a pang of loss for the woman he loved.
/‘At least he gets that from her and not Potter,’ /Severus thought. He was still very much in the air on what to make of the boy. Harry was nothing like he thought the boy would be, that much he had already seen in the last week. He saw more of Lily the more he watched her son, and what he didn’t recognize as Lily’s actions or looks he could only assume Harry learned them from the man that raised him. The only thing that had reminded Severus of James Potter was when Harry turned the Weasley twins own prank against them. It was almost downright Slytherin how the boy did it, Severus was sure Potter was turning in his grave at that thought. And then there had been today’s potions class… Mentally shaking himself, Severus turned back to his meal. He would continue to watch Potter-Hibiki a little longer before coming to a decision on the boy, as hard as it was to let go of the instant hate he had for the name ‘Potter’. Being compared to Petunia had helped knock Severus for a much needed loop and helped keep his mind a little bit more open if only to keep from being in the same boat as that woman.
Beside Severus, Quirrell fought to keep the wince off his face as his master’s dark thoughts seemed to rage in his mind. Though physically he could only see the turban his servant wore, Voldemort was able to see through Quirrell’s eyes as he mentally glared down at the boy that had caused him to be in his current state. The Potter brat, the one who was prophesied to be his downfall, sat down at the Gryffindor table with a smaller little brat sitting in his lap.
‘That boy should have been dead!’ Voldemort thought angrily. But part of him, a part he would only admit to himself if only in the dead of night, was a bit afraid. When he had first heard the prophecy from his loyal spy Snape, he hadn’t thought much of it. It hadn’t even been the whole prophecy but divination was a bunch of hooey and why would a powerful dark lord like him need to pay any sort of attention to it? But… but there was still a nagging piece of him that warned him that he should at least look into it and found there was at least two boys that fit the prophecy as he understood it. The Longbottom boy and the Potter boy had been born a day apart at the end of July.
What had made him choose Potter in the end was not only because the boy was born closer to the end of the month but his cowardly spy Wormtail had brought back reports of magical feats that the babe had pulled off. Nothing compared to an adult witch or wizard but still amazing for a child so young. He knew that with the Potters such supporters of the ‘Light side’, Dumbledore would have been able to take and mold the powerful child into a weapon against him. So once Wormtail had revealed to him that James Potter had foolishly made the rat the secret keeper, Voldemort had waited until Samhain night when he felt the powers of darkness and death would be at its highest to attack.
It should have been glorious, it should have gone all to plan and it had at first. Wormtail had told him where the Potter’s were living and he had blown in the front door, catching the two adults inside by surprise. He could still hear Potter senior telling his mudblood of a wife to run with their brat, the foolish man had tried to hold him off but didn’t last long with no wand to protect himself, just a little wandless magic that wouldn’t have even given Voldemort a nose bleed. Once James Potter was dead, he had gone up the stairs into the nursery where Lily Potter stood protectively in front of her son. Oh he had tried to keep his promise to Snape and offered the woman her life as long as she stepped aside but she had refused and in the end he had snuffed out her life.
Then came time to kill the boy that should have been the highlight of the night! Not only a mighty blow to Dumbledore and his ‘light side’ but he also was making sure that the boy could never attempt to rise up against him. To make it even sweeter, Voldemort had planned on using Harry Potter’s death to create his final Horcrux, making his own death impossible. He had pointed his Yew and Phoenix feather wand at the boy’s forehead, said the words of the killing curse then…. Nothing but a flash of green light and blinding pain. He still didn’t know what had gone wrong, somehow his own spell had been rebounded back at him. If it hadn’t been for the soul anchors he had already created, he would have been dead. As it was, his soul was ripped from his body and he had fled into the night.
And now, 10 years later, he was still without a body and had to share one with this pitiful excuse of a wizard. Why couldn’t one of his other servants had come to find him? Why didn’t they? Because most of his loyal ones where either dead or locked up in Azkaban or like Severus was spying and could not leave his post. Once he had his hands on the Philosopher Stone and created himself a new powerful body, Voldemort swore he would punish all of his useless Death Eaters! But first he would strike down the very boy who had caused him to be in this state, perhaps kill his new family in front of him before dealing the final blow. Starting which those two little brats he could see.
‘Just you wait boy, once I have the stone the death of your family is next,’ Voldemort thought. ‘Quirrell!’
Quirrell jumped slightly as his master’s voice rang inside his mind. The moment caught Severus’s eye and he turned his attention from Harry and his friends to the man beside him.
‘Leave now, I am tired of looking at that boy. I’m sure you have /‘classes’ to prepare for,’/ Voldemort sneered.
“I-I-I’m afraid I-I-I’ll have to cut l-lunch a l-little short,” Quirrell said as he pushed his plate away from him and stood from the table.
“Is everything alright Quirinus?” Flitwick asked.
“Y-yes, just a f-few p-p-papers that need to be graded,” Quirrell said with a nervous laugh then quickly swept from the Great Hall. Snape watched him leave with narrowed dark eyes, something was up with that man.
***
As the lunch hour ended Harry stood and placed Yoshi on his hip.
“Come on, I’m sure Mom and Dad’s meeting with the Headmaster is over with now, we can meet them by the front doors then head down to Hagrid’s,” Harry said.
“That sounds reasonable,” Hermione said as she packed away Keiko’s bottle with one hand then slid the strap of the diaper bag onto her shoulder, standing with the baby girl in her arms.
“You sure Hagrid won’t mind us tagging along?” Ron asked as he and Neville got up to follow.
“I shouldn’t think so, he struck me as very friendly when we met in Diagon Alley,” Harry said.
“Yeah, my brothers did always say he’s an alright bloke,” Ron mused, guessing it would be alright in the end.
“Harry-sama!” Kodachi came up from the Slytherin table with her housemates Daphne and Tracy with her, falling in step beside her friend while the other Gryffindors and Slytherins in the group kinda shied away from each other not sure what to make of the other house except for Hermione who smiled at Kodachi in greeting. “Hermione-san.”
“Dachi!” Yoshi said holding his arms out to the dark hair girl.
“My little Yosh-chan,” Kodachi cooed as she took Yoshi from Harry who laughed. “You awful man, were you going to allow my little Yosh-chan and rose bud to leave without me seeing them?” She said teasingly at Harry. Harry shrugged and grinned as they stopped to the side of the door.
“I knew you would catch up,” Harry said. “You have the afternoon free ne?”
“Yes, the only classes I had were this morning,” Kodachi said.
“Cool, we got an invite to have tea in Hagrid’s hut; you and your friends want to tag along?” Harry offered.
“The Gameskeeper?” Daphne asked as her nose wrinkled slightly.
“Oh! The really tall guy that took us across the lake?” Tracy asked. When Harry nodded the hyper blond grinned. “Neat! I wouldn’t mind going.”
“I think I will decline,” Daphne said, trying to sound polite about it but she couldn’t bring herself to hang around with the help but wasn’t surprised that her friend wouldn’t mind meeting the man. Tracy was strange like that.
“I suppose it wouldn’t harm anyone to meet this man,” Kodachi said with a shrug. She didn’t really care one way or the other but her Harry-sama seemed fond of this man so she felt she should at least meet him. Ron had to bite his lip, he was slowly coming around to the idea that maybe not all Slytherins were evil but it was still his first instinct to yell and say the two girls shouldn’t come. He was getting better about that.
“What about Tachi?” Harry asked.
“I believe Brother-dear still has a class he has to go to this afternoon,” Kodachi said with a sigh.
“Harry!” Ukyo’s voice called behind the group of pre-teens.
“Kasan! Tousan!” Harry said with a grin. “How did the meeting with Dumbledore-sensei go?”
“Oh I think we’ve come to an understanding,” Ryoga said with a fanged smirk while Ukyo looked too pleased with herself.
“Ah! Kasan!” Yoshi said giving his mother a toothy grin.
“There’s my future little okonomiyaki chef,” Ukyo said as she took her son from Kodachi while Ryoga retrieved Keiko from Hermione. Keiko sighed happily as she snuggled up to her daddy’s chest. “Were they good Harry?”
“They were little angels Mom,” Harry promised.
“Ok, hopefully you won’t have any more problems,” Ukyo said, leaning down to kiss Harry’s forehead right above his bandanna while Harry blushed and protested slightly. “We’ll see you when you come home for Christmas.”
“Hai,” Harry agreed. “Bai bai.”
“Bai bai Chibi,” Ryoga said as he ruffled Harry’s hair then let his wife lead him out of the school.
“So… shall we go down to Hagrid’s then?” Harry asked after his family left.
*****
As Harry knocked on the door of the hut, the group which consisted of Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Kodachi and Tracy heard a loud booming bark inside.
“Back Fang back!” Hagrid’s equally booming voice said before the door was pulled open. “’Arry!”
“Hello Hagrid-san,” Harry said. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought a few friends that wanted to meet you.”
“Not at al’,” Hagrid said with a large smile and a twinkling in his warm black eyes. “Come in, make yousel’s at ‘ome.” Hagrid stood to the side and let the group of students in. Everyone looked around the hut, it was a large single room with a large fireplace along one wall and a huge bed on another. In the middle of the room was a giant size table and chairs all around it, a perfect size for a half giant. There were rabbits and birds hanging from the roof and everything was a warm brown color.
“This is cozy,” Hermione said as she sat down on one of the chairs. As soon as Ron sat down in another, a large bloodhound came over and plopped his head into Ron’s lap, slobbering happily.
“Ugh,” Ron said softly as he looked at the drool on his pants.
“Don’t mind Fang, ‘e won’t hurt ya,” Hagrid said as he set out cups around the table and poured tea into them. Of course the cups were Hagrid-size so they were like small bowls to the kids. “’e’s a big softy, wouldn’t hu’t a fly. He’e, have some rock cake.” He sat out a plate with little cakes on it then turned back to the fireplace briefly. Everyone took one of the cakes only to discover that the rock cakes were just like rocks, causing everyone but Tracy to quickly hide theirs. Tracy gnawed a bit on the cake, muttering something about a ‘jawbreaker’ while she was at it.
“So, who’s your friends?” Hagrid asked as he sat down at the table with his own cup of tea. As Harry introduced Ron, Hagrid smiled and nodded slightly, “I’ve ha’ to chase your broth’rs out of the forest quite a few times. Hop’ you don’t follow in their footsteps.” Then when Neville’s name came up, Hagrid’s smile became sad. “I kn’w your parents. Fine people, Frank and Alice were.”
“Thank you Sir,” Neville said softly.
“Awww, you don’t have to call me ‘sir’, ‘Agrid is just fine,” Hagrid said with a wave of his hand.
“My name is Kodachi Kuno,” Kodachi said before Harry could introduce her, standing up to give him a little crusty bow.
“I’m Tracy,” Tracy said. “I like your rock cakes, a little hard but good.” The other pre-teens looked at her like she was crazy while Hagrid beamed happily. He honestly hadn’t been sure about the two girls when he first saw them, he knew they were both in Slytherin and his personal experience with Slytherins hadn’t been all that great. It was few and far between that he found nice ones like these girls. Plus he saw the dark hair girl, Kodachi, with young Harry all the time and he was a good kid.
“Pleased to meet all ‘f you,” Hagrid said.
“So what is it that you do Hagrid?” Hermione asked curiously. Hagrid happily told Hermione what his duties were while Harry looked around the hut again. It really was cozy and warm and it seemed to suit Hagrid just fine. As Harry picked up the bowl size cup to drink from, using both hands, he spied a copy of the Daily Prophet sitting on the table. Curious, he reached over and turned the paper slightly so he could read it.
‘Huh, this paper is over a month old,’ Harry thought as his eyes flicked up to the date at the top, the day after his birthday. ‘I wonder why Hagrid has it. Hmm… break in at Gringotts? And the thief got away? Wow, I know the goblins weren’t happy. Vault #713.’ Harry was unable to read further as the paper was suddenly pulled away. He looked up and saw a slightly guilty look on Hagrid’s face and wondered why. And why did that vault number sound so familiar? For how Harry put it out of his mind, if he really wanted to know what the rest of the article said, he could always find a copy of it somewhere and it’s not like it involved him in anyway.
Later that afternoon, as the group of friends headed back up toward the castle, Harry mentioned the paper and the article.
“I remember my Dad and Mum talking about that,” Ron said. “Really big news, first time ever anyone has broken into a Gringotts vault but wasn’t caught.”
“My Gran and my uncle were talking about it too,” Neville said. “I got to read the article, the goblins claim that the vault had already been emptied a few days before anyway.”
“Hmm,” Harry got a thoughtful look on his face, his memory niggling at him. It took a few seconds but he finally remembered where he heard that vault number before. “Oh wait, that’s the vault Hagrid-san went too,” He said with a snap of his fingers.
“Really? How do ya know that?” Tracy asked.
“Me and Dad were there, we rode in the same cart,” Harry explained. “We met up with Hagrid-san when he let us into Diagon Alley, I couldn’t remember the sequence to the bricks so I couldn’t let me and Dad in, and he offered to escort us around since I was ‘New to the wizarding world’. Tried to tell him that I wasn’t but he seemed so happy to help that we went along with it.”
“Did you get a look at what was in the vault?” Ron asked.
“Sorta, it was a really small package wrapped up in paper and string,” Harry said. “Tiny in Hagrid’s hand but I think I could have closed my whole fist around it. I think he was picking it up for Dumbledore-sensei, guess he was tipped off that someone was gonna rob the vault and sent Hagrid to go get it.”
“What day did the robbery happen?” Kodachi asked having not seen or heard about the article herself.
“July 31st,” Harry said.
“Hmm, we were in the alley that day getting our Hogwarts robes and books,” Kodachi said. “I don’t remember seeing anyone shady looking when we were in the bank.”
“Well a good thief wouldn’t stand out,” Tracy said. “After all, if you can tell they’re shady then they would be watched too closely.”
“I wonder if the package Hagrid got is the same thing that Professor Dumbledore is hiding up on the third floor,” Ron said, looking up at the school toward the floor in mention.
“It could be though I wonder why he told everyone where whatever the package was is hidden at,” Harry said. “I mean, why not keep it hidden like in a personal safe or heck even his sock drawer. As long as he didn’t tell anyone where it was, no one would have gone looking for it.”
“Ooo sock drawer, gotta remember that one,” Tracy commented as they entered the school.
***
That evening at dinner the kids sat down at the Gryffindor table. Tracy managed to convince Daphne to sit with them, surprising and making some of the pureblood Gryffindor’s a little uncomfortable. They had slowly gotten use to Kodachi sitting at their table sometimes but this was the first time they had three Slytherins sitting with them at one time. At the Slytherin house table, Draco Malfoy fumed in anger at seeing all three girls sitting at the red and gold table with the bloody Golden Boy. A lot of the older Slytherin students weren’t too happy about it as well since Slytherins weren’t usually friendly with the Gryffindors but some were applauding the three girls for already making connections with someone who was famous and could be a powerful player one day. Plus their head of house didn’t seem too bothered that three of his snakes were spending time with the lions and badgers so why should they?
At the Gryffindor table, once Tatewaki and Justin joined them, Harry and the others filled them and Daphne in on what happen in Hagrid’s hut and about the newspaper.
“So you think the thing in the vault is the reason we can’t go on the right side of the third floor?” Justin asked when the others finished.
“Maybe, the timeing is right,” Harry said. “But for all we know that part of the castle could be condemned and needs repairs that they can’t do right now.”
“Perhaps but I think the first theory is more likely,” Daphne said.
“I do too,” Harry agreed. “But it doesn’t really have anything to do with us.”
“Still curious about what it is though,” Ron said. Harry thought that a lot of people most likely were, nothing got people’s curiosity, especially children’s, like telling them that they can’t be somewhere. Harry would be lying if he said he didn’t wish to know what was going on with the third floor corridor. Just for the sake of having the knowledge if nothing else, you never knew when something like that came in handy.
***
Draco scowled as he sat down in the leather chair next to the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest.
“What’s your problem now?” Blaise asked as he sat down on a couch next to the chair.
“What do you think?” Draco said. “Those three traitors Kuno, Greengrass and Davis, spending time with all those blood traitors and mudbloods.”
“You’re jealous,” Blaise said with a smirk.
“What!? Jealous? I am not jealous,” Draco said his nose in the air. “Why would I be jealous of those three?”
“They did what you tried to do and succeeded,” Blaise pointed out. “I heard about you searching the train for Harry Potter, bragging how you were going to be the one to get him under your thumb. Instead you pissed him off and he’s friends with the girls instead.”
‘And me, sort of,’ Blaise added in his thoughts. He couldn’t say he was friends with Hibiki, not fully, but they were friendly toward each other and Blaise had sought him out a couple of times in the last week for conversation. He had learned a bit about the other boy from Kodachi, she liked to talk about her ‘Harry-sama’ if you caught her in the right mood.
Draco pouted, not that he would call it that, and huffed softly as he turned his head away from Blaise. It was true, he had been looking for Harry Potter on the train. His father had “suggested” that he make “friends” with the Boy-Who-Lived and he knew the man was most disappointed that Draco hadn’t been able to do that, instead becoming rivals with the other boy. At least Draco called them rivals, Harry seemed content to ignore Draco for the most part for now.
“Who wants to be friends with a muggle-loving Griffindork?” Draco asked. Blaise just smirked but didn’t say anything else, he knew he’d won this round.
***
Severus sighed and rubbed the bridge of his hooked nose as he put another progress report to the side. He had gotten into the habit after he had become the head of Slytherin of sending out weekly progress reports to the parents or guardians of his snakes. He did this only with the students of his house, he had no idea what the three other house heads did and it was not really any of his business, nor did he care.
In the reports he sent out how the student was progressing in classes after taking a look into the scorebook in the teacher’s lounge and how they were doing in the school itself. He winced as he thought about all the homesick younger years he had to comfort in the last week. Soon they would get use to being away from their families but it was annoying none the less. He had just finished with Draco’s report, doing well in school but the boy’s attitude…. Draco did not have the same savvy as either of his parents, the boy acted more like a Gryffindor than a Slytherin sometimes with the way he constantly ran his mouth off. Lucius had a way of honeying his words and talking you into anything, the only things that could set the man off was the Weasley’s and in recent years somebody named Saotome. Narcissa on the other hand was a proud daughter of the House of Black, one of the sane members anyway, and was just as sly as her husband.
Seeing Draco act like a constant spoiled brat, and he hated to admit that he was reminded strongly of James Potter at times, Severus wondered how the hat even sorted the boy so quickly into his house. He shook his head, there was nothing for it except to report it to his parents. Hopefully Lucius or Narcissa could curb their offspring’s actions. Sighing again Severus picked up his quill and started on the next progress report, this time on Kodachi. Her grades were up to standard, Potions and Herbology being her best classes, and she got along well with her Housemates only attacking Draco when the boy pushed her too far and so far it hadn’t been anything that would seriously hurt the brat or couldn’t be easily reversed. She surprisingly got along with people outside her house as well at least so far, no doubt a side effect from spending so much time with Potter-Hibiki and her Hufflepuff brother.
After finishing the report, Severus picked up Kodachi’s school records to see who the report needed to be sent too. He gapped and nearly dropped the parchment in shock as he saw the name ‘Remus Lupin’ wrote in the spot of Guardian.
‘Somebody let that flea-bitten wolf have custody of a child!?’ Severus through as he read the record again. ‘Somebody married that blasted werewolf, what was this Kasumi woman thinking?’ Severus quickly realized something else, Kodachi seemed to have known Harry for years, which meant that Lupin had known where Potter was the whole time. He was surprised by this, the werewolf seemed to worship the ground Dumbledore walked on since the man had made it possible for him to attend Hogwarts, Severus would have thought Remus would have informed the Headmaster where the missing Potter boy was.
Then again up until a few days ago he would have thought the same about Minerva and she had known since the beginning and had never once let it out that she knew where Harry was to anyone. Severus tapped his quill against the top of his desk for a moment then wrote out a quick letter to send with Kodachi’s progress report. He was responsible for his snakes and had to make sure the girl was safe with the man, even if his first instinct was to scream that she wasn’t since he was a werewolf. Surely the woman Lupin married had enough sense to keep the Kuno children safe from her husband during the full moons. Severus paused for a moment, he would have to keep an eye on both children during the upcoming full moon just to make sure they hadn’t been turned.
He was also curious as to why Lupin kept Potter-Hibiki hidden and what the man knew.
“I can’t believe I’m willing to spend time with Remus Lupin,” Severus muttered to himself as he worked on the next progress report, Kodachi’s would be sent with the others.
*****
Later that night, Harry stuck his head out of the curtain around his bed. He looked at his roommates’ beds, making sure they were all asleep then ducked back into his curtains.
~I’ll be back in a few hourssss,~ Harry told Diego as he picked up a glass of cold water off his nightstand.
~Where are you going?~ The snake asked as Harry poured the water over his head and in an instant seemed to disappear into his clothing. The top Harry had been wearing wiggled around until Neko-Harry’s head popped out of the neck hole.
~Grandmother wantssss me to go ssssee her,~ Harry explained as he pulled himself the rest of the way out of the shirt. ~For my extra lessssssonssss.~
~Oh yeah, I remember that now,~ Diego hissed as he coiled up into a pile to sleep. ~Try not to wake me when you get back.~ Harry shook his head at the snake then jumped down off the bed. He quickly ran out of the dorm room and down the stairs to the common room. There were a few older students still in the room but no one paid any attention to the small black cat sprinting across the room and if anyone had it was dark enough that no one would have noticed that the cat had two tails instead of just one.
Harry searched around the wall by the door where the Fat Lady hung on the other side. Harry had seen several different pets wandering the hallways and Diego had told him that there was a small pet door that allowed the animals, mostly cats, to enter and exit the common room.
‘Ah ha! There it is,’ Harry thought as he found the door. It was small like Diego had said. Large enough for cats, a certain snake or even small dogs to fit through but not larger dogs. Harry was able to easily slip out of the common room and took off running as soon as he was out. He didn’t worry about being caught, after all he was just a cat right now and cats didn’t have a curfew that they had to live by. Harry cackled in his head as he jumped down the moving stairs to the next floor, he wished he could shift into his larger saber-tooth form but didn’t want to give it away.
A few minutes later, after a lot of running and leaping, Harry made it to the ground floor and started to look for a way out of the school. He found a window in one of the side hallways that had loose hinges that he was able to push the window open enough for him to slip out and sprint across the grounds toward the Whomping Willow.
After dodging and jumping over the thrashing limbs of the willow, Harry dashed into the tunnel entrance hidden in the roots and ran down to the other end of the tunnel where the door was already open for him.
“Took you long enough,” Cologne said as soon as Harry jumped through the trapdoor.
“Sorry, it takes a while to run through the school like this,” Harry said as he shook the dust out of his fur.
“There is hot water and a set of clothing over there,” Cologne said as she pointed toward a corner of the room, turning her back as Harry knocked the kettle over then quickly got dressed. “Tell me how you are adjusting to your new school.” Harry told Cologne about the first week at school as he sat down across from her at a small table that had been set up for them.
“I have a feeling that Snape-sensei doesn’t like me too much, from when Otousan and his friends bullied him, but he’s also confused about me too,” Harry finished then shrugged his shoulders. “He’s really strict but as long as he just teaches me and doesn’t try to get back at me for my dead father, I don’t see any reason to do anything about him.”
“A mature choice,” Cologne noted. “How about your training?”
“I’m trying,” Harry said. “I found a small room to practice in the mornings but it’s really small and not the best. I think Tachi and Dachi are having the same problems. I was going to explore the school more this weekend and see if I can’t find a better place to train.”
“Let’s just see how rusty you’ve gotten then,” Cologne said, standing and beckoning for Harry to follow her outside to a small clearing next to the house. “The village members have cleared this area out for them to practice out of sight of the people in the town. Now, go through your forms.”
Harry spent the next two hours doing his katas, from the easy ones to the harder ones, and then sparred with Cologne who proceeded to wipe the floor with him. A grin spread across Harry’s face, this was the sort of exercise he had been craving all week since he boarded the train. He felt like he was finally stretching his muscles after not being able to properly practice while up at the school.
“Stop,” Cologne said after a few more minutes. Harry leaned forward, bracing his hands on his knees as he panted for breath. “A bit sloppy, find the time to work on the art every day since you don’t have a constant teacher.”
“Hai Grandmother,” Harry said as he caught his breath and stood up straight. “I’ll try to find a place to fully practice.”
“I suggest getting in as much as you can, Son-in-Law plans on testing you himself soon,” Cologne warned Harry.
“When is Sensei coming?” Harry asked as he walked back to the Shrieking Shack with Cologne.
“I told him to hold off a couple of weeks until you have your school life down,” Cologne said. “Ranma may be a fanatic over Martial Arts but that is no reason for him to turn into his father because of it.”
“Just tell that to Uncle Ranma and he’ll have a heart attack,” Harry said with a laugh. Cologne smiled slightly.
“That may be, Ranma has worked hard not to be like that fool Genma,” Cologne agreed. “Head back to the school, I will owl you the next time you need to come down and we will continue your potion lessons. Snape may be a Potion Master but I am better.”
“Hai Grandmother,” Harry said with another laugh, knowing it was true since Cologne had years of experience over Snape, and poured cold water over himself again. Once back in his cursed form, Harry raced back toward the school and slipped in through the same window from before.
Once inside the school Harry took his time to head back up to the Gryffindor tower. It was quiet and the middle of the night, no one seemed to be out wandering the halls giving Harry the perfect time to explore. He poked his nose into different rooms; most of them were old classrooms that weren’t in use anymore. As he neared the third floor, Harry looked down the right hallway, this could be his chance to see what in the world was so important about this forbidden area.
“Rrowww….” Harry stopped in his tracks as another cat stepped out of the shadows. It was a dusty looking Maine Coon with red eyes, Harry instantly recognized it as the school’s caretaker Filch’s cat Mrs. Norris. He also knew that both the cat and her master were known for having a nasty personality and a hatred for the students in the school. Harry had no idea what made anyone think it was a good idea to have somebody like that working in a school full of children.
Harry quickly turned to run the other way but Mrs. Norris was quick to dart forward and pick Harry up by the scruff of his neck.
“Ow hey, watch it!” Harry said as his paws and tails curled up close to his body. Mrs. Norris paused for a moment, she had never heard another cat talk like a human before, then continued down the hallway with Harry hanging from her mouth. “Hey, put me down!” Harry wiggled as he tried to escape from Mrs. Norris’s hold but the larger cat seemed to have a firm grip on him and he was embarrassed that he couldn’t even get away from one normal cat. “Oh Kami-sama…. I hope Spice never learns about this,” Harry murmured to himself as he pressed a paw over his eyes. His best friend would never let him live it down if she knew he had been easily defeated by a cat.
Mrs. Norris continued down the corridor until she found a nice window ledge to sit on. She dropped Harry onto the cool stone ledge then wrapped her paws around them, drawing him close before Harry could escape. Harry worried about what Mrs. Norris was going to do to him as her mouth opened and…. she started to lick the space behind his ears and on top of his head.
‘She… she’s licking me!’ Harry thought in shock. ‘She’s treating me like a kitten… no one in the school would ever believe me…’
Mrs. Norris continued to bath the strange little kitten she found, something about the kitten brought out her motherly instincts. As she turned the kitten onto his back to clean his chest, he pressed a paw into her face.
“Whoa there, you’re not going there,” Harry said as he wiggled and escaped Mrs. Norris’s hold. Harry ran his paw over his fur, trying to smooth it down while the real cat watched him in amusement. “Well this has been fun and all but… bye!” Harry rushed off before Mrs. Norris could reach for him again, taking off down the hallways toward his house’s tower. Mrs. Norris blinked at the spot where the strange kitten had been, wondering what had just happened.
“Mrs. Norris, where are you my sweet?” She stood and stretched, her back arching up high as she did, then jumped down to go find her human pet. The kitten she already decided to adopt was still here in the school, she could easily find him again.
Meanwhile Harry quickly dashed into the pet door that lead back into the tower, by now the common room was empty and Harry collapsed in a boneless heap by the low fire.
‘Whew, I can’t believe that cat thought I was her kitten,’ Harry thought to himself, shaking his head in amusement. He would never tell Spice, or any of his friends, what had happened. He didn’t want them to know that a real cat had gotten the drop on him. ‘Ugh, I need a shower to get the cat spit out of my hair.’ Harry’s nose wrinkled at the thought and he headed up the stairs to the dorms. Inside the bathroom, Harry jumped up and pulled the handle to turn the hot water on.
“Ouch!” Harry hissed as the hot water hit him, turning him back into a human, quickly turning the knobs so the water was warm instead of boiling hot. Harry thought over everything as he quickly washed away the sweat and cat spit from his form, he had to find a better place to train other than a dinky little room. Tomorrow he would properly explore the school, with so many abandoned rooms, there had to be something he could use. Turning off the water and wrapping a towel around his waist, Harry headed back into his dorm room to finally get some sleep.
“Harry?” Harry stopped and turned toward Neville’s bed as the other teen called out sleepily. “What are you doing up?”
“Couldn’t sleep, sometimes a hot shower helps,” Harry fibbed.
“Oh, ok,” Neville said, blinking sleepily at him then laying down again, falling asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Harry breathed a soft sigh of relief, climbing back into his own bed and redressing in his night clothes.
“That was close,” He murmured to himself as he lay down to sleep.
Across the room, the fat rat that Ron kept as a pet watched the room sleepily. Peter could have sworn that he hadn’t heard or seen the Potter boy exit the room to the bathroom. But then again, he was so tired and had been sleeping on and off so he must have missed it. It was nothing important he decided as he curled back up to sleep again.
****
Kodachi frowned as she looked down at Mr. Green Turtle. Her pet crocodile had grown several sizes over the last few days as the shrinking potion she had fed him wore off. He was now almost too big for his compartment in her trunk.
‘I suppose it’s time for him to live in the lake,’ Kodachi thought, she had hoped Mr. Green Turtle would be small for a little while longer, she liked using him as a teddy bear at night. ”Come on my sweet,” Kodachi cooed quietly, leading Mr. Green Turtle toward the door of the room.
“Holy Merlin, is that an alligator?” A voice hissed from one of the beds. Kodachi stopped and glared at the direction of the bed where Tracy was sitting up staring at the lizard.
“Mr. Green Turtle is a crocodile not an alligator,” Kodachi said.
“Alligator. Crocodile, whatever it’s a big lizard,” Tracy said.
“Tracy, what are you rambling on about,” Daphne asked sleepily as she poked her head out of the curtains around her bed. She took one look at Mr. Green Turtle, blinked, then decided that she must be dreaming. “Never mind, I don’t want to know,” the blond girl said as she quickly lay back down. Tracy snorted in laughter at her friend then slid off the side of her bed.
“Why do you have a crocodile anyway?” She whispered to Kodachi as she followed the Japanese girl and her pet out of the room.
“Mr. Green Turtle is my pet, I’ve had him for years,” Kodachi said, cooing and scratching the crocodile under his chin. “I did not want to leave him behind on our family estate while I am here at Hogwarts so I fed him a shrinking potion and carried him here in my trunk. But the potion is wearing off so he’ll have to stay in the lake now.”
“Wow… I always wanted a pet dragon myself,” Tracy said as they snuck out of the Slytherin common room. Kodachi pressed a finger to her lips for Tracy to be quiet as they snuck through the hallways up toward the doors that lead outside. Tracy wasn’t sure but she could have sworn that Kodachi’s crocodile was getting bigger by the second. Once they slipped out the doors of the school Tracy figured it was safe to talk again. “Say Kodachi, how big is Mr. Turtle anyway?” She snickered softly at the name.
“Mr. Green Turtle is normally between 20 to 30 feet long,” Kodachi said as she wrapped her robes around her tighter as they headed toward the Black Lake. Tracy gapped at Kodachi and Mr. Green Turtle.
“20 feet!?” She repeated. “He’s gotta be huge!”
“Yes, Mr. Green Turtle is quite large,” Kodachi agreed. Once they were at the edge of the lake Kodachi knelt down and took Mr. Green Turtle’s head in her hands. “Now play nicely with the others in the lake, mommy will come to check on you soon.” She pressed a kiss to the end of the croc’s snout, made sure his collar was growing with him and sitting comfortably on his neck, then let the hissing lizard go into the lake.
“You’re crazy Kodachi,” Tracy said as she slung her arm over the other girl’s shoulder. “But a good kinda crazy.” Kodachi stiffened a bit at first as Tracy called her crazy, she didn’t like being called that for some reason, but soon relaxed as Tracy didn’t seem to mean any harm by it.
“My dear Tracy, you have no idea,” Kodachi said with a ‘Hohoho’ laugh as they snuck back into the school.
***
Author note: Yay! A new chapter for Harry Hibiki done and finished.
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