Title: Flawed

Rating: PG-13 or T

Summary: Harry Potter/YYH crossover. When he is targeted by a group of magic-wielding strangers as a prize for their 'lord', Yuusuke discovers a gaping weakness in his demonic defenses. Luckily, Koenma has a plan to keep the Toushin safe, even if it involves sending Yuusuke undercover into a school full of wizards...

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Yu Yu Hakusho.

Pairings: None.

Warnings: Some violence, slight gore, and some smatterings of foul language.

Note: I use italic text to denote either stressed words or Japanese being spoken when the point-of-view is that of someone who knows Japanese and English (if the point of view is from someone limited to Japanese, then there will be no italics). Bold is used when someone is speaking in a Makai dialect ("Mission X" readers will be familiar with this).

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)) Chapter Six: Hallucinogenic Silly Putty ((

)) Previously on Flawed... ((

Yuusuke wrenched the door open, his free hand loaded with enough reiki to blow the entire cabinet to splinters if something meaner than one of those doxy things came out, but he was unprepared for the wave of blue energy that hurled him across the room and onto the dainty lamp-table he had set his book on mere moments before, shattering the wood spectacularly.

The Toushin was moving before conscious thought had caught up with events, rolling to one side, sending splinters of polished wood flying, and getting his feet back underneath himself as he spun to confront whatever abnormality the house had chosen to throw at him now, his arms raised in preparation for an attack.

Narrowed garnet eyes rose and met a feral ruby gaze that was as familiar... as his own.

Yuusuke no longer possessed a human heart, but if he had, he was certain that it would have stopped. "What the hell--"

Across the room, wild hair highlighted in the rays of the afternoon sun falling through the windows, the Toushin chuckled, fangs glinting, as he raised one black-striped arm to lick lazily at the blood staining his hands red.

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Blood...

Yuusuke's disbelieving eyes traced the crimson drops as they slipped down the tan skin, racing toward the open air that separated them from the floor only to be caught short by the pink tongue that lapped at them as though they were the spilled drops of some succulent wine.

A metallic odor permeated the air, turning Yuusuke's battle-hardened stomach through several flips.

Not just blood.

Human blood.

Ruby eyes watched the horror dawning on his face with no small amount of amusement. Lips parted in a manic grin, showing sharp fangs. The mouth moved, shaping words... words from the depths of Makai.

... They were delicious ...

Memories flashed before him: his first transformation, meeting his demon father Raizen face-to-face for the first time, and explanations, so many explanations...

Toushin.

Battle demon.

Son of Raizen.

Raizen, who had starved to death because he had refused to eat the flesh of humans.

Keiko and Kuwabara... Genkai... From beneath the pool of shock and horror weighing heavily in Yuusuke's chest, a small bubble of anger surfaced and began to grow.

The Toushin look-alike started toward him, footsteps making no noise on a floor covered in shards of broken wood.

No noise... Yuusuke's eyes narrowed. No noise, no reiki or youki signature --not even during the earlier attack,-- and no scent save for that of... mist?

Yuusuke bared his own fangs in response to the other's smirk.

"You're not real." Yuusuke gathered fistfuls of his raw reiki in his palms. "You're not me. I'm me, and one me is more than enough!"

Blue-white reiki sizzled through the air... and shattered the cabinet and singed the wall that stood behind where the look-alike had stood a mere second before. Yuusuke blinked, brushing his bangs out of his eyes as he scanned the room.

Surely it could not be that easy...

Icy fingers traced down the vulnerable flesh of his neck, and Yuusuke froze, his instincts of self-preservation screaming that he should submit even as he was pulled forcefully back against a hard, cold chest, strands of long hair that was not his own brushing his cheek. A hand brushed lightly over his hair, and a tattooed cheek pressed closely against his own, lips forming more silent words that rang as loudly as thunder.

... You're so weak ... Little half-breed, little bastard half-breed ...

Breath caught in Yuusuke's chest as icy breath caressed his ear. The grip tightened on his throat, enough to steal air from his lungs and bruise his flesh.

... Didn't you know that playing with humans makes you weak? ...

A thready, defiant growl built in his chest. "Get... your hands... off... me..."

... I'll make you strong, little half-breed ...

A ruby eye appeared on the edge of his dimming vision, blood-red iris alight with laughter.

... I'll let you hear them scream ... All your little human playmates ... I'll even let you taste their blood ...

A hoarse cry of rage tore from Yuusuke's throat even as his mingled youki and reiki flared around his body, flinging the apparition away, but instead of impacting a wall, the look-alike twisted impossibly in midair and regained its footing, fanged smirk still firmly in place. One striped arm rose, and Yuusuke ducked hastily out of the way of a bolt of sizzling blue energy that left heat brushing hungrily at Yuusuke's skin but no trace of youki to the detective's senses.

Yuusuke's skin tingled with a sensation near pain as his demon marks fought to show themselves. Low-class, hissed his demonic instincts furiously. The look-alike was a shape-shifter, or an illusion, and whatever was behind its creation valued its life far too little if it wished to challenge a true child of the battle demon clan!

Yuusuke's own hands rose, but he forced down the youki that was far too willing to answer his call and summoned up more pure reiki than he had had need for since before he had been resurrected as a demon. "Fake!" he spat derisively. "You make ogres look like A-class! You can't even summon real youki!"

The look-alike's smile grew. The not-Toushin's outlined blurred, and suddenly Yuusuke was staring his demon-self in the eye, feeling the chill emanating from its body wafting against his arms and face.

... I'm real to you ...

And then startled ruby eyes darted down to the palm Yuusuke had laid flat on the thing's chest, and Yuusuke smirked. "Not for long."

Blazing white light flared around his hand, and the creature let out an inhuman shriek that outdid Madame Black's by miles. It tried to shrink away, shriveling at the edges like a paper caught in a flame, but Yuusuke's free hand lashed out and gripped its neck, trapping it against his reiki-charged hand. Black-striped arms came up to scrabbled against his wrists, and the tan faded slowly from the thing's skin, becoming pale yellow, then gray, and the entire creature was shriveling away, still screaming.

Yuusuke drew in hissing breaths between his clenched teeth as he fought the painful tingle building in his palm. He was accustomed to channeling massive amounts of energy, but focusing such a high concentration of it continuously through one section of skin was going to leave an irritating burn. Damn this house and everything to do with it!

He dropped the creature when it had become nothing more than a shapeless blob of black putty dangling from his hands; it hit the floor with a squishy thud that was unlike anything Yuusuke had ever heard. He spared a glance at his right palm, frowning at the angry, red skin that glowered up at him reproachfully. "Well, shit," he muttered, and his frown grew when he realized that his throat was sore as well where the thing had gripped him. "Fox's going to have to send weekly shipments of medicine if I keep this up."

He transferred his frown to the quivering, softball-sized mass of... thing... and sneered. "You're lucky Hiei isn't here," he growled. "I'd have him kokuryuuha your ass to Meikai for that stunt... In fact, I'm so pissed off right now I could probably manage it through willpower alone."

The thing shivered and squeaked, shrinking away and curling even smaller. Yuusuke crouched down and prodded it roughly with one finger, making an indent in its side that soon filled in once more. Small tendrils of smoke still rose from it whenever it attempted to move, and the air reeked of burnt tar and fear. "What in Enma's name are you anyway? Hallucinogenic Silly Putty from Hell...?Wouldn't be surprised; you'd kinda' fit in with the rest of the decor."

"A boggart."

A reiki signature seemed suddenly to hover entirely too close for the Toushin's comfort, and Yuusuke found himself rising and whirling around with arms at the ready to face a dazed looking Remus Lupin. The wizard seemed to spare only a mild moment of concern over Yuusuke's jumpiness, instead focusing on the twitching blob of... stuff.

"No one has ever seen one in its original form, though," continued the man in an odd tone of voice. "It normally takes a riddikulus spell to subdue them. Congratulations."

Yuusuke resisted the almost overwhelming urge to say something flippant ("That's me, Yuusuke Urameshi, spirit detective extrordinaire, saving the world and doing the impossible, and not even getting paid for it. Want an autograph?"). Instead, he settled for a dark growl of, "Fascinating things you have lurking around here."

"I thought Severus or Draco would have gotten rid of it. You've never seen one before?"

"Most of what I deal with doesn't screw around with stuff in my head." Except Hiei, that was, but the Jaganshi was a special case.

The older man's tawny eyes were intent. "Boggarts feed off of fear... your worst fear. That wasn't human, I take it?"

Yuusuke's eyes narrowed severely. "You might say that." He found himself thanking whatever normally-incompetent kami was watching over him for ensuring that his demon form and his human form, while similar, were still drastically different to anyone who did not know any better.

The wizard seemed to accept that. Lupin drew his wand and muttered something, and a glass jar of some sort appeared where a splinter of wood had been moments before. The wizard then waved the wand again, and the blob of whatever-the-hell-the-damn-thing-was floated into the air and into the container, which Lupin then sealed with a cork conjured from a piece of lint.

With an amused smile, the wizard offered the jar to Yuusuke. "Did you want it? It would make a unique pet."

Yuusuke grimaced. "That's all right. You can have it."

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It was late on Yuusuke's fifth day at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place when he found himself face to face with none other than Albus Dumbledore himself.

Seated in the downstairs study, Yuusuke was struggling through a rather simple book... a children's book, really, complete with large (moving) pictures on each page and large clear letters. Still, while he was able to make out a few of the Roman letters and decipher a few words, his efforts were mostly in vain. He had thought that continued exposure to written English words would spark some recognition in him from his bygone language lessons, but it seemed that, typically, he would have to go about things the hard way.

The unique rush of someone flooing brushed his ears, and a new energy signature appeared in his mind. The brilliant blaze of reiki paused somewhere in the sitting room and came toward the study, and the scent of lemons and lightning tickled Yuusuke's nose as his ears caught the softest of footsteps and the whisper of robes. He had already turned to face the doorway, one hand hanging casually at his side, free to form a ki blast should the newcomer prove a threat, before the stranger had even rounded the corner.

A mere moment later, Yuusuke found himself looking upon none other than the wizard upon whose protection he would be dependent during the upcoming months... complete with snowy beard, deviously twinkling eyes, and blindingly bright robes decorated with small, animated shooting stars.

A millisecond of consideration flashed by in the Toushin's head before he decided, despite his rather sizeable pride as a Demon Lord, that the humble approach would probably go over best.

He set his book down upon the table and rose to his feet, bowing deeply. "Dumbledore-sama. I'm honored to meet you."

His demonic instincts snarled furiously as he exposed the back of his neck to the wizard, submitting himself, but he soothed his demon side with the rationalization that he was merely bowing respectfully to another Lord while on his territory. Perfectly acceptable from a Makai standpoint. Humiliating and annoying, yes... but acceptable.

That did not change the fact that Dumbledore was human. Yuusuke could respect the special abilities of humans, and he could certainly be wary of them, but demons and spirits did not bend to human law, leaving Yuusuke a lot of leeway as far as his acquiescence to the human's will went.

Respect? Certainly. Yuusuke could easily respect anyone who could wipe the floor with his carcass using only a little magical stick. But obedience?

Yuusuke snorted mentally.

Don't hold your breath, old man.

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Albus Dumbledore took in the sight of the latest addition to his Hogwarts' staff. Severus had been correct in his assessment of the young man's appearance bordering on 'bizarre', but Albus reflected that perhaps a better word would be 'exotic'. Long hair was pulled back in a messy tail, eyes of a reddish-brown shade glimmering beneath dark bangs. The Japanese man's robes were of a unique cut, white shirt and pants beneath some sort of black robe embroidered down one side with vines, and Albus toyed with the idea of buying a set of his own.

Purple, perhaps. With little yellow phoenixes. Fawkes would appreciate the humor, he was certain.

When the other man rose and bowed deeply, Albus hid his surprise as best he could, feeling at the same time a sensation of relief that he was able to understand every word that the other man uttered.

"Now, really, Mr. Urameshi, there's no need for such formalities." Albus smiled, reflecting that it felt truly odd to shape his mouth around syllables that he had never before spoken in his rather long life. "Albus will suffice quite nicely."

He hoped that Filius' language charm held for its full day-long period. It would be greatly inconvenient for the Japanese-English language barrier to suddenly rebuild itself during this interview... but he supposed that if worse came to worse he could call for Draco to translate. Perhaps he should ask whether Urameshi would like such a charm, despite the inconvenience of renewing it frequently. Filius would be on hand and willing to help, no doubt, but Hogwarts was a large place, and the charm would probably be more of a bother than a help.

Oh, well. They would find a solution sooner or later. Magic was a wondrous thing, after all.

Urameshi seemed startled at the headmaster's easy reply, but he recovered quickly, eyes narrowing speculatively. "Nobody told me that you spoke Japanese... but you have no accent, and that's rarer than Hiroseki for foreign speakers. Magic again, I guess? Like the spell Lupin-san used?"

Albus smiled. "Indeed. The charms professor at Hogwarts is quite a gifted fellow. Filius Flitwick, as kind a wizard as you're likely to meet. Lemon drop?" The headmaster pulled a tin of the tiny sweets out of his robes, helping himself.

Urameshi eyed the tin. "No, thank you."

"Are you certain? They are quite delicious." He met the other's gaze, seeing unease and suspicion and so many other emotions behind the garnet eyes, and he delved slowly deeper, looking for something, anything, that would mean the young man was worthy of trust.

He had not delved even deep enough to read surface thoughts before he was brought up short by a blazing, mental shield of blue-white light, and Urameshi was glaring at him darkly enough to set his robes afire, his posture tense and one hand half-raised and... glowing?

"Don't do that again." The young man's voice held oceans' worth of threat. "There is only one person that's able and allowed to pull a stunt like that with me, and you are not him."

Urameshi's glower lost none of its venom as he strode past the venerable headmaster and into the dark, concealing depths of Grimmauld Place, and Albus had a feeling that it was in his own best interest in allowing the boy to go.

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)) To Be Continued... ((

)) Kurome Shiretsu ((