Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction ❯ A Grim's Promise ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter books or Yu Yu Hakusho

Summary: Two years before his death a powerful psychic made Sirius a promise. Now Genkai and Yusuke travel to London to keep it and throw the British magical community for a loop.

A/N: While this chapter once again takes place solely in the HP Universe it is extremely important to the story. However in the next chapter the story will pick up where the prologue left off.

A/N 2: The short dialogue scenes in italics are from the part of Harry's dream that wasn't in the last chapter.

A Grim's Promise

Chapter Two

"You want me to do what?"

"Hey, don't look at me like that! It was the best idea Moony and I could come up with."

"But… I'll look like a girl!"

"It's either look like one or dress like one."

"Fine, I'll do it."

June 21st, Number Four Privet Drive to Horntail Avenue in London, Early Evening

Harry sighed as he looked in the mirror, going over the plan again in his head. Convincing his aunt and uncle to clear out of the house had been easy. All he had had to do was tell them the little lie that Remus, who just happened to be a werewolf, was coming by to check up on him. His so called family was gone in less than thirty minutes for a two day stay in London. The eyesight potion, stolen from the emergency stash at Number Twelve Grimmauld, had hurt like crazy but he was finally able to throw away those horrible glasses. The new clothes were a nice change too. He actually looked good in the new black jeans and button up green shirt. Along with the new clothes Remus had also sent Harry Sirius' old dragon hide coat. He just had to wait for his wand to finish soaking up the potion Remus had swiped from Snape to cast a cooling charm on lining so he could wear it. Of course the potion would only hide his magical signature for two hours but that should be plenty of time to shrink his things, throw everything in to a duffle, cast the cooling charm, cast a few more charms to be less noticeable, slip on his invisibility cloak and head out the door. All in all, his godfather and Moony's plan was a good one. The only problem he had with it was what they had planned for his hair and his scar.

Harry scowled at his reflection as he tied his braid off, freshly grown from another potion stolen from Snape. According to the book on pure blood traditions Remus had sent him in his `escapee care package' he should have grown his hair out before his first year, him being the last male Potter and all. He knew that it was a crucial detail so he now had no choice. But that didn't make Harry like it. It was bad enough he was short; he really didn't need hair down to the middle of his back.

Now for the most important part, hiding his scar. Harry opened the small compact of muggle makeup. After dabbing it lightly with a sponge, he lifted his bangs and applied it to his scar. Nothing, magical or muggle, would hide it completely but this would make it considerably less noticeable, especially with his bangs over it. With one last look in the mirror, Harry figured he was ready. As he walked out of the bathroom to check on his wand and send Hedwig off to Remus he came to the firm decision that the first person to mistake him for a girl was going to get hexed within an inch of his life.

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"Everyone in the Order knows you've only been to Diagon Alley either by yourself or with the Weasleys. Knowing Molly Weasley, she never would have even thought to tell you about Horntail Avenue. It's traditionally used by purebloods and the rich and Molly's well known in the Order for her absolute hatred of pureblood traditions. It's the last place anyone will think to look for you."

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Harry grabbed his black duffle bag and jumped off the Knight Bus, trying his best not to run into the Leaky Cauldron to escape Stan. No matter how cold or rude he was to the man he kept asking questions. He had apparently found it odd that someone who appeared to be a pureblood wizard had needed a ride. Then there was the fact that he was dressed in muggle style clothing. For the last ten minutes of the ride Harry had been forced to restrain himself from hexing the man. It had been bad enough that Snape had shown up for his shift twenty minutes early. Harry had barely snuck past him and Dung. He was sure if it hadn't been for the argument the two wizards had started he would have been caught. Snape's arrival had also forced him to go through the park and four more streets away from his house before summoning the Knight Bus. That had cost him precious time before the potion on his wand wore off but Snape was just too observant in Harry's opinion. Now Harry only had forty minutes before the potion wore off and he still needed to visit the bank and find his hotel.

Harry quickly walked into the tavern and went directly to the entrance to Diagon Alley. As he tapped out the pattern to open the wall he did his best to ignore Tonk's voice as she chatted to Tom back at the bar. He stepped through the entrance way as soon as it opened and went racing towards Gringotts. Normally he would have loved to poke around and find out what Diagon Alley was like at night but he just didn't have the time right now. He nodded his thanks to the goblin that opened the doors and headed straight for the first available teller.

"Excuse me. I'd like to make a withdrawal please." Harry handed the goblin his key when he arrogantly held his hand out.

"Name?"

"Harry Potter." Harry spoke softly, not wanting to be overheard by Bill or Fleur who were just a few feet away.

The elderly Goblin looked at him critically for a few seconds before snorting dismissively and calling for someone to take him down to the vaults. Just getting to his vault and back took another fifteen minutes. He wasted another five minutes asking his goblin guide for directions to the Angelic Halo. He almost smacked himself after finding out the brick wall between the joke shop and the Magical Menagerie was the way to Horntail Avenue. Here he was panicking over running out of time and being caught, and he was less than five minutes away from his destination. Thanking the goblin once more, Harry stowed his money pouch in his duffle and rapidly walked to the new entrance way.

Harry found the black and gold brick the goblin had described and used his wand to tap out the right pattern, four down and three to the left. When the bricks finished shifting into a doorway Harry spent half a second staring in shock at the scene before him. He had gotten used to the wonders of Diagon Alley years ago but this was flat out extravagance. Here the cobblestone streets were completely smooth and the buildings seemed to glow. Every witch and wizard he saw was dressed at the height of wizarding fashion. And unlike the shopping district behind him, there were absolutely no street vendors. The whole street just screamed old money yet somehow managed to have the same other worldly feel to it that Diagon Alley had. But the main difference between Diagon Alley and Horntail Avenue was the absolute lack of Order members. He couldn't see one person that he recognized from his stay at Grimmauld last summer. Harry breathed a small sigh of relief as the doorway closed behind him.

As he walked down the street looking for his hotel he could now see why it had been necessary to grow his hair out. Every wizard he saw had at least chin length hair if not longer. If he hadn't grown his hair out, he would have stuck out like a sore thumb. While his muggle style clothing would label him as eccentric, his long braided hair would give those around him the impression that he, for the most part, adhered to tradition. Sighing, Harry gave into the fact that the hair was a permanent change and set out to find his hotel.

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June 23rd, The Angelic Halo, London

Daily Prophet Special Early Edition

Boy Who Lived Missing?

That's right folks, Harry Potter is missing. Apparently the young wizard ran away from his muggle family sometime last Friday evening. No one knows how he managed to sneak past the wards and guards surrounding his home…

Cringing, Harry looked up from the paper to the concierge behind the desk in front him. "You're not going to tell anyone I'm here, are you?"

"Of course not." The elderly wizard looked quite offended at that. "We take great pride in protecting our guests' privacy. I just wished to inform so you might be careful while you were out today." The man looked at the picture in the paper then back at Harry. "You know your disguise is quite good. Simple, but good. If I hadn't been the one to check you in I never would have known. Although, may I make a suggestion?"

"Umm, sure."

"When your OWL scores arrive, you might want to consider doing something about your eye color. It's quite distinctive."

"Thanks, I'll think about that." Harry fidgeted for a moment, trying to gather the courage to ask something. "I was wondering, about my mail. Are they any, umm…?"

The man gave him a warm smile before standing up to escort the young man from his office. "Yes, Mr. Potter, there are wards around the hotel to prevent tracking charms on the owls. Like I said, we have a great respect for our guests' privacy here. If you like, we will redirect the owls and I or another employee can check your letters personally for any other spells. And after your OWL scores arrive I'll show you how to do it myself."

"Thank you that would be wonderful."

"Not a problem. Now I think you best get going. If we stay in here too long someone might start gossiping."

"Thank you again for warning me Mr. Pierson." Harry stood up from his chair and started to hand the paper back.

"No, I think it best you finish reading that. You might find it interesting," When the man purposely gave the paper a dark look Harry decided to postpone his trip to the bookstore and head to the café next door instead. He wanted to read the article himself and find out what would prompt such a reaction.

June 23rd, Grimmauld Place, London

Snape looked at Lupin in shock as the man began to growl. The full moon wasn't until July first. He had checked, and then double checked again before heading over to Grimmauld for an early breakfast and a brief meeting with Albus about Potter's latest stunt. When the other man threw his paper down and stalked out of the kitchen he quickly picked it up. He had to know what had upset the wolf so much. As he scanned the articles about the Potter boy's disappearance something caught his attention.

…I know for a fact that the Headmaster knew where Harry slept. Harry told me himself that his first Hogwarts letter was addressed to the cupboard under the stairs…

Before the shouting began, Snape briefly wondered if it was in the Potter genes to have traitorous twits like Pettigrew and Weasley as friends.

June 27th, The Angelic Halo, London

Harry smiled as he closed his potions book. For the first time since he had started attending Hogwarts he had managed to get all of his summer work done before the train ride back. Hermione would be so proud and Ron…

Harry's mood darkened considerably as he put his books away. The articles in Sunday's paper had been horrible. One of the articles had been a sensationalized account of his home life with the Dursleys. It seemed Ron had ranted quite loudly about it `being damn bloody time he left those asshole muggles' right in the middle of the twins joke shop. While the twins had managed to shut Ron up what he had said had been enough to spike Rita Skeeter's curiosity. Now the whole wizarding world knew his bedroom had once been the cupboard under the stairs, that his Uncle had put bars over his windows and that he had already been forced at one other time to run away. He didn't even want to think about some of the other things, mostly false, that the article had said. And everyday there was a new article giving away little pieces of his past. Now a good portion of the wizarding population was calling for his relatives to be thrown in Azkaban. He didn't want that. He just wanted to never see them again.

The worst of it was that Ron seemed to think that this would just blow over soon, and that everyone, including him, would forget about it before school started. What Ron didn't understand was that this would not just blow over. This would forever be hanging over his head. And even if he managed to forget about it Malfoy would be sure to bring it up again once they were on the train. Then there was the fact that there were some things he had told only Ron in confidence had somehow made it into the papers. Even if Ron wasn't the original source it meant that he told someone else who had then told Skeeter which was still a major breach of confidence. It would be a long time before Harry would be able to even sit in the same room with his once friend, let alone be civil to him.

However he felt slightly better when one of Moony's letters had told him of the rows that were caused by him kicking Ron out of Grimmauld place. The werewolf had even gone as far to permanently reset the wards so he could never enter it again. Mrs. Weasley had been quite upset by it but there was nothing she could do. Remus had validated his decision by pointing out that one; he had proven himself to be a major security risk for the Order and two; he had just done a remarkable job of impersonating Wormtail by betraying a friend's trust. Surprisingly Snape had backed his decision and had even helped adjust the wards.

Unfortunately the entire Weasley clan was suffering the effects of what Ron had done. They had lost quite a bit of trust within the Order and now were only invited to a meeting if absolutely necessary. Harry had a feeling come September first Ron was going to have forgotten that the whole thing was his fault and blame the entire fiasco on Harry and his fame.

Harry sighed. Sometimes it just sucked to be him.

July 1st

Harry couldn't help but smile a little as he stepped out of the elevator. Yesterday evening he received his OWL results and an official notice from the ministry that he could now do magic and this morning he had finally received the notification about the reading of Sirius' will. While he still missed his godfather greatly he found it kind of funny that the first major prank he had ever helped pull off was one Sirius had planned from beyond the grave.

Pulling his braid out from underneath the back of his godfather's old coat, Harry walked down the hallway and towards the lobby. As he was passing the Apparition room he heard a very loud pop, one usually caused by long distance travel, followed by a young man yelling in what sounded like Japanese. His curiosity getting the better of him Harry peeked into the room and found Mr. Pierson greeting a short, older woman with what looked like pink hair. The odd thing about this was the young man she was with. She had apparently grabbed the young man's ear before arriving and had yet to let go. The teen was objecting quite loudly to this but she still refused to release him. Harry quickly fled the scene before his snickering gave him away. As he was leaving the hotel it finally hit him. Pink hair, short, Japanese. Was that woman Genkai?

tbc…

1) If you noticed every time that Harry's hair was mentioned that it was in a braid instead of a ponytail or just loose there is a reason for that. Originally there was a small paragraph from the book Moony sent explaining that if a witch or wizard was in mourning it was traditional to French braid ones hair. If the person who died was a friend you would wear your hair that way until the funeral or wake. If the person was a family member the mourning period could be anywhere from the funeral to two years. While Harry normally does not follow pureblood traditions, wearing his hair like this is a quiet way of honoring his godfather's death.

A/N: In the next chapter the story will pick up where the prologue left off.