Thanks to all my reviewers, and a sincere apology for the delay in updating. RL and plot bunnies got in the way, I'm afraid. Don't worry though, I'm going to try and stop that from happening again.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Yu Yu Hakusho, and unfortunately, I never will. I'm not making any money from them either.

Year of the Demon

by Evandar

Chapter 5

Dumbledore swept into the Common Room without a care in the world, followed by Kuwabara; the only member of the Tantei with dull enough senses to find the room bearable. At the Headmaster's entrance, the whole of Gryffindor went silent as they all stared at the man who commanded their greatest respect. Yusuke gave a soft sigh of relief and he stepped into the Common Room as well, followed by Hiei and Kurama, who had hopped up onto his mate's shoulder. The portrait swung shut behind them, cutting off their only means of escape.

Everyone's eyes flicked from the Headmaster to them, studying them intently. Yusuke recognised a couple of them from the forest and even more from earlier that day; including the girl that had asked about Kurama. He could see her going up in flames if she tried it on again; Hiei was very possessive.

Dumbledore cleared his throat to regain the students' attention.

"I would like to introduce the Spiritworld Detectives," he said importantly. "They are on a mission here at Hogwarts, and to help them, I have allowed them to become unofficial members of Fifth Year. I am expecting all of you to be on your very best behaviour, and to help them if they ask, as well as respecting their powers and privacy. That is all, thank you."

With that, the old man turned and left the Common Room, leaving his 'guests' to deal with the students' growing curiosity.

"Oh, so he's 'allowing' us, is he?" Yusuke huffed indignantly.

"Probably doesn't want Potter to know that we're his unofficial babysitters," Hiei pointed out, his voice little more than a growl.

The noise had started up again, and was gradually building into the roar that it had been before, only now all of the conversations revolved around them. The students were speculating wildly about what their mission might be, and about their encounter during the first break.

Eventually the Tantei were approached by a girl that they all recognised as the one that had tried to interrogate them that morning.

"Hello," she greeted. "I'm Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Fifth Year Girls' Prefect. Welcome to Hogwarts, and to Gryffindor! Um...I was wondering if you would like to join my friends and I."

"Uh, okay," Yusuke agreed. The girl unnerved him a little, just because she reminded him strongly of Keiko. 'Except this one won't beat the crap out of me because of Kuwa,' he thought to himself.

The girl beamed at him and led them over to where she had been sitting earlier, with a scrawny black-haired boy, a tall red-haired boy, and a younger girl, who had to be the red-head's younger sister. The small group was sat in the prime seats by the fire, with their books spread out over several tables.

"This is Ron Weasley, the Boys' Prefect for our year, and his sister Ginny," Hermione informed them. "And this is Harry Potter."

Yusuke and Kuwabara bowed politely in greeting, while Hiei simply looked bored.

"I'm Yusuke Urameshi," Yusuke replied. "And this is my mate, Kazuma Kuwabara, known by his last name only, by the way. The fox is called Kurama and the short, evil, antisocial one is Hiei."

Hiei glared at him for the less than polite introduction and sat down in an armchair, grabbing one of Hermione's abandoned books as he did so. Kurama took that opportunity to slither down into his lap and curl up. Hiei began to scratch his ears absent-mindedly as he read. The students stared at him.

"Like I said, 'antisocial'," Yusuke reminded them as he flopped down onto a spare sofa and rested his head on Kuwabara's lap. "Although. I had no idea he could read English."

"You don't know a lot of things," Hiei muttered. "I learnt it years ago, moron."

Yusuke rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione, who was sat on the edge of her seat,her eyes gleaming with anticipation. She was going to question them again, and this time, they couldn't run away. Yusuke groaned mentally before muttering; "Ask away."

She needed no more prompting and launched into her questions.

"Are you really demons?" she asked. "How old are you? What types of demon are you? How powerful are you? What are your powers? Why are you here? How did you become Spiritworld Detectives? Is the job very dangerous? Where are you from?"

She continued in a similar vein for quite some time, ignoring the looks that the Tantei, and her friends, were giving her. Eventually she stopped to gasp for breath and think of more things that she wanted to know about them, giving the four Detectives a chance to figure out how to answer her, and not offend her too much.

"That's none of your damn business, you foolish human child," Hiei snapped.

Hermione looked stunned for a moment and opened her mouth to argue, but Yusuke interupted her.

"Hiei's right," he told her. "We can't answer most of your questions because that would mean giving you personal information that could put us, and you in danger. I'll try to answer some though. Stop glaring at me Hiei, they do deserve to know a little bit about what they're dealing with."

"Hn," Hiei replied and returned to his book, although he did keep listening to what Yusuke was saying.

"I'm human," Kuwabara started helpfully.

"Yeah, but the rest of us are demons," Yusuke added. "Kuwabara and I are twenty five, but the other two are way over. Kurama...no one's quite sure how old he is; he lost count somewhere around a thousand, and Hiei so far has refused to tell us, but I think he's over five hundred. We're all different types of demon, and we're all very powerful, but we can't tell you more than that. We're here on a mission. That mission is none of your damn business, so keep your noses out, and yes, our job is dangerous.

"We became Spiritworld Detectives in different ways. I was hired to be one after I came back from the dead, Kuwabara voluteered to become one, for Hiei it's a punishment, and Kurama was assigned to make sure that he doesn't break anymore laws."

"Punishment?" Ron asked. "For what?"

"Theft, conspiracy, murder, kidnapping, travel to the Human Realm without permission and terrorism," Hiei listed. Ron made an odd noise that sounded like someone had stabbed him in the kidneys with an iron bar. "It was either this, or eight hundred years in the Spiritworld prison."

"Hiei used to be a mercenary and an assassin," Yusuke elaborated. "He's a bit of a bastard, really."

"I was a complete bastard when I was torturing your girlfriend," Hiei reminded him, making Yusuke scowl.

"She was not my girlfriend," he hissed.

"You came back from the dead?" Harry asked suddenly, a strange look on his face.

"Yeah," Yusuke replied. "It freaked everyone out, as well. I died in a car accident, but it wasn't my time to die, so Koenma put me through an ordeal that I failed spectacularly, but I'd been noble about it, so he stuck me back in my body anyway. Stuff like reanimation doesn't happen very often."

"Yusuke was the first case of an unprepared death in over a hundred years," Kurama added. The four Hogwarts students turned to him in absolute shock.

"It...talked," Hermione pointed out faintly.