And so many of you are probably wondering about pairings. We have some excellent ideas for them - we're sure you'll be thoroughly amused.
But I'm sure you'd like to read the long awaited Chapter 5, ne? Well here it is…the story based on things not owned by us. Please give us feedback!. Dreadfully sorry but we thought we might as well let you read what we have anyway. You can make due with a few typos, right?
"Say, uh, Ken-kun. Have you met Professor Snape yet?" Omi asked, stressing the English word. He had better start practicing and getting used to it now.
"No…should I have?" Ken was perplexed. What did it matter?
Omi was usually a reasonable person, but for some reason or other, he KNEW Potions was not going to be a pleasant class and Professor Snape was going to be even less pleasant. "Nevermind, forget I said it."
"Omi!" Omi's eyes widened at the energetic calling of his name from Ron. "You have some kind of connection to Professor Fujimiya, right? Do you know who that girl in the Infirmary is?"
"Ron!" Hermione hissed. "We shouldn't be spreading around that we know about her! We don't even know for a fact that Omi knows the professor anyway!"
"Oh! Aya? She's his younger sister - I don't know if I should be telling you any of this, it's really something you should ask Professor Fujimiya about if you want to know more."
"Oh come on! Please Omi? We really want to know!" Hermione begged. "What happened to her? Is she going to be all right?
Omi turned to Ken to get his opinion. "What do you think, Ken?"
Ken shrugged. "Can't really hurt anything, can it?"
"Well, Aya is Professor Fujimiya's little sister. When she was sixteen she was hit by a car and fell into a coma. No one's really certain why she hasn't woken up yet, actually."
"'Was sixteen?' How old is she now?" Harry asked confused. She looked like she was still his age!
Ken took over there. "I think she's eighteen now. When she was put in the coma, for some reason she stopped aging."
"That's horrible."
"Yeah." Harry and Hermione agreed with Ron's sentiment.
"Losing out on two years of your life… that would be awful." Hermione continued.
Snape patrolled the halls looking for any Gryffindor he might be able to wreck some havoc on. Like maybe that Omi Tsukiyono character. He had some kind of connection to Kudou AND was a Gryffindor. He rated somewhere near Potter for those offenses.
They were from JAPAN! There was a Magic School there, why did they not get/attend jobs there?! He cursed the injustice of it all. How could that Fujimiya have gotten a job here too? He didn't know anything about British Muggles! He didn't look like he knew all that much about people for that matter. Occasionally Snape tried to talk to him, but that Fujimiya just ignored him. But then there was the professor to replace Trelawney. He looked promising, like someone who would be an excellent teacher here at Hogwarts. He didn't care much for the teacher of Telepathy, though. He was a little…what was the word? Playful, maybe? Not serious enough? The Nagi boy was a Gryffindor. That spoke volumes enough.
One thing Snape was curious about was this new ghost they had running around the place. He tried to remember the name…Farfie? Farfello? Farfarello! That was it! Most spirits never leave the place of their death so why was he here? No one had died over Summer Break.
While Snape pondered over his opinion of all the new teachers, Yohji was roaming the halls to see how much Hogwarts had changed since he last attended it. Not too much, even Snape was still the Potions professor. Speaking of which…
Snape caught sight of Yohji at that moment. "YOU! Why are you back here at Hogwarts! I thought I had finally gotten rid of you when you completed your seventh year here and moved to Japan!"
"You mean you've missed me that much, Snape?" Yohji teased in return.
"Believe me Kudou; nothing would have made me happier than to never have seen your face again." Snape snapped, giving him the glare of hatred he reserved for the scum of the earth.
Yohji only smirked in reply. "Well, no such luck. I’m teaching Herbology."
Herbology? That was a stretch from the nosy little brat Snape had known. In fact, if Kudou had paid as much attention in Herbology as he had in Potions, then. . .
"Frankly Kudou, the thought scares me."
Harry had trouble getting Aya in the Hospital Wing out of his mind as the four headed back for Gryffindor tower, but as they got nearer to their destination, that became less and less of a problem. A heated argument was going on in the hall just around the corner from their present position. Two people were involved. Harry recognized one voice as Snape’s.
"Funny. Fujimiya said the same thing." The second voice joked. Hermione and Omi recognized it at the same time.
"Professor Kudou!" Hermione said.
"Yohji-kun!" Omi said.
"Ssshh!" Ron hissed. "They’ll hear you!"
"Don’t you think you should have taken the hint? You couldn’t teach a mandrake to scream."
The tone of Snape’s voice was familiar too. He hated Kudou. But Kudou hadn’t been teaching long enough to make THAT much of an enemy out of Snape, only a few days.
"Don’t worry. I’m perfectly qualified." Kudou answered calmly. Harry thought he deserved credit for keeping his cool this long.
"What makes you more qualified than all the OTHER applicants, then?" Snape countered accusingly.
"Come on, Snape." Yohji said. "You should know very well what makes me more qualified."
At this point, Omi rolled his eyes.
"What?" asked Harry.
"Yohji-kun is teasing him."
The others exchanged nervous glances. It was not wise to tease Severus Snape.
"I don’t care what Dumbledore sees in you. I know you better than that. You’re nothing but a murderer."
Omi’s face drained of its colour. Snape couldn’t possibly know about Weiß, could he? Was that why he hated Omi so much?
"NO way." Ron’s eyes opened wide. "Professor Kudou, a murderer?"
Around the corner, all was once more peaceful and quiet. Snape and Kudou must have gone their separate ways again.
"It can’t be. This is Snape." Hermione pointed out. "Dumbledore wouldn’t have hired Kudou if he was a murderer."
"But what if he DOESN’T know." Ron asked.
Omi said nothing.
That evening, Ken had his first-ever Quidditch practice. So this was why Birman had insisted he buy a broom. It had been expensive, but Birman had told him it was best for his purposes, so he had bought it.
"Who’s this?" One girl asked as Ken took his first steps onto the pitch, his eyes on the goal. He was sure he’d be able to defend it if he managed to not fall off his broom or do something equally stupid.
"He’s our new keeper. We’re going to be unstoppable this year; he’s a professional!" Sean’s face was glowing, but the rest of the team seemed skeptical. And with good reason.
"At football." Ken pointed out. "I don’t even know how to fly."
So Ken’s first Quidditch Practice turned into Ken’s first flying lesson. He felt like such an idiot, puttering around near the ground when everyone else was zipping about overhead. He got the hang of things eventually . . .
Near the end of the evening, Ken put his feet back on the ground, and they let a few bludgers at him. They came in at angles that wouldn’t have been possible on a football pitch, but Ken still managed to stop the ones that came within his normal range. When the evening was finally over, Ken was exhausted, but he felt better than he had since he’d arrived at Hogwarts.
"I think I’m gonna like this game." He said.
All of Schwartz was assembled in Crawford's office again for another meeting of extreme importance - according to him. The room was heavily warded and shielded with all sorts of spells to prevent meddling from unwanted visitors. One could never be certain there weren't any prying eyes or ears around, especially in a place like Hogwarts where certain students were notorious for their spying.
"After meeting with Lord - Farfarello, pay attention. You will play a special role in distracting everyone. Now, as I was saying," He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "After meeting with Lord Voldemort, we've decided that the best time for the summoning ceremony would be during the Christmas holiday when we do not need to worry about any unnecessary annoyances, or at least fewer."
Schuldig grinned from the chair he was sprawled out in. "And ruin all these poor kids' holidays? Where's your sense of holiday spirit?"
Crawford sent a disparaging look to Schuldig and he quieted immediately. "The girl, Abyssinian's little sister, should be easy enough to grab, unless of course her over-protective brother happens to be around. Something tells me she's not going to wake up any time soon." His eyes swiveled around the room taking in his team member's reactions. "Farfarello, when I tell you to, I want you to create the largest disturbance you possibly can to create mass pandemonium. Get some of your fellow ghouls to help you. Nagi, that's when I want you to get the girl and bring her back here. No one should suspect me of anything so there shouldn't be any reason for anyone to come to my office. While you both do that, Schuldig and I will take care of getting the Potter boy. We'll leave some time after that. When we get the exact plans fully arranged I will let you know for certain. This should be an easy mission to accomplish with so few people around. I expect none of us will allow Weiss to pose any threat to our goal. That is all."
To his surprise, Nagi was the first one to stand up and make a break from the room. Usually it was Schuldig ready to be the first to escape and get to his normal mischief. Hogwarts had better not be influencing him away from Schwartz and their ultimate goal.
Nagi hurried from Crawford's office, anxious to get away from all the caution and all the strictness Crawford enforced. He had finally been able to feel like the kid he really was until that reminder that he was actually a cold-blooded killer. With that in mind, he wondered just how he managed to get sorted into Gryffindor. From what he had seen and heard, Gryffindors were loyal and brave and just overly kind and just plain nicer than he was! There was no way to sugar coat it. He had murdered innocent people for no reason at all. What was he doing surrounded by all these pure people that were fighting Voldemort as well as they could?
This whole place was mocking him. The portraits on the walls, so friendly to the students, seemed to smirk at him as he passed. Even they appeared to know that this whole face he had on at this school was just a farce. There was a group here that he believed he could fit in, the Slytherins. But now that the ugly hat put him in Gryffindor, he had no way to earn their trust. He would just have to continue on as he always had, alone.
It took him awhile to find his way back to the Gryffindor common room. He was quite smart, but the maze that Hogwarts was still confused him as it constantly changed during all hours. He approached the rather…large…lady in the hideously colored pink dress with relief, looking forward to crawling into his bed with a good book to drown out the many annoyances all around him.
Except there was one tiny, itsy bitsy problem. He couldn't remember the password. His eyes widened with dismay as it suddenly occurred to him that the one time his memory failed him had to be when he wanted nothing more than a nice break in order to read.
It must have been about three minutes of glaring from the Fat Lady before he heard the loud patter of feet heading in his direction. He earnestly hoped it was someone in his house. A red haired girl came around the corner a moment later. He knew her! She was in his year and in a few of his classes. She was a friend of Potter. Maybe, just maybe, it could help if he tried to get into their little group and earn their trust. Maybe that would be the whole mission easier in the long run.
Ginny was completely out of breath when she got the Fat Lady. She hoped no one else would be around so she could be alone in the Common Room but no such luck. Right in front of the portrait was one of the new students from Japan. The one in her year, come to think of it.
He was watching her as she approached. She nervously held out her hand. "Hi! I'm Ginny Weasely! You forget the password? If you did, don't sweat it, we all do that."
Nagi stared at her for a moment and then shook himself out of it. "Uh, yeah. Nagi Naoe. Nice to meet you." He shook her hand. "Could you, uh, well, remind me of the password again?"
"Oh! Sure! It's 'ferret-boy'! Don't let me forget to tell you the story about that sometime - I bet you'll never forget the password then!" She crinkled her brow in thought. "Well, maybe I should save it for a day when Malfoy's being particularly frustrating. It's more meaningful that way."
The Fat Lady opened the door the moment Ginny said the password and Nagi no longer had to see her scowling expression from his linger in the hallway.
No one was in the Common Room when they entered since it was such a pleasant evening and many of the students hated to be cooped up inside when they could be outdoors enjoying themselves until the sun went down completely. They stood there in silence until Nagi surprised himself by speaking up. "So Ginny, if there was one thing you thought I should know about while being at Hogwarts, what would it be?"
Ginny grinned at him. "Oh that's easy! Know that we in Gryffindor will always be there for you when you need it most."
Nagi felt an uncomfortable feeling in this stomach. Why were they all so nice?!
"And the second thing is, if you ever need to talk to a teacher, talk to Dumbledore. Chances are he already knows what's bothering you anyway."
Dumbledore looked over his spectacles at the four sixth years in front of him. His old withered hands absently stroked his long beard as the students recounted what they heard between Professor Snape and Professor Kudou. Fawkes was in the corner in all its glory.
"…and so we were hoping you could tell us what Professor Snape meant when he called Professor Kudou a murderer?" Harry asked the grandfatherly man hopefully.
He stopped playing with his beard as Harry stopped speaking. "Mr. Potter, I assure you there is nothing to be concerned about. I know exactly what Professor Snape is talking about and can faithfully assure you Professor Kudou is of no threat to anyone at this school. I do suggest that if you would like to know anything about his life, you go straight to him. I will tell you this, however. Professor Kudou has a Muggle life other than his Wizard life. Perhaps if you asked him about some of the Muggle jobs he's had you may find your answer." Dumbledore stood up from his seat to escort the group to the door.
"There are many more things you should be worried about right now. I would imagine you all have quite a bit of Potions homework to get started on?"
The entire group moaned at that reminder as they walked out of Dumbledore's office. Snape was such a slave driver!
Hermione's mind was going a mile a minute. "Omi, what do you know about Professor Kudou's job in Japan?" She asked as they walked back to their common room.
Omi ran what he knew of Yohji through his head. "Well, we worked at a flower shop together right before coming to Hogwarts." He figured that was safe to say. "And before that…" Should he mention Yohji was a private investigator? Wait, maybe THAT was what Snape was talking about! Omi felt weak to the knees as that knowledge kicked in and took a load off his shoulders. "Before that he was a private investigator! That's what Snape was talking about! I knew Yoh- er, Professor Kudou wouldn't have murdered anyone!"
"A PI?" Ron's eyes widened in excitement. "Wicked cool! I wonder what it was like? He was basically a Muggle version of an Auror then, right?" He asked, drawing on his knowledge of the Muggle world through his father.
Omi had no idea what an Auror was. "I suppose so…" He looked at Hermione and Harry for help, but Harry was too immersed in his thoughts to be paying attention, just like Hermione was.
Hermione voiced some of what she was thinking, though. "Well I'm glad there's nothing wrong with him then! We need more interesting professors around to keep the rest of the student body on track and to get them to pay more attention in class!"
Harry broke out of thought right then to catch that sentence and shared a sidelong glance with Ron, both secretly hoping this didn't turn out like with Gildroy Lockhart.