A man stood in an office filled with books and magical artifacts. The man was old, incredibly so, and wore an odd outfit. A purple coat, so long it dragged on the ground gently and he had hit wrapped around him like a cloak, he wore this over top of black dress pants and a sky blue tunic. The entire outfit was covered in thin, delicate, white lines that curved and twisted into a beautiful pattern and served to limit the man's power. Without those tiny white lines it was likely every being within twenty kilometres or so would not only know of the man's presence but would be able to find him from his power alone. The man adjusted his half-moon spectacles happily.

Dumbledore was happy, very wary but equally happy. He was sitting in his office at eleven-forty-five on july 31st. In about fifteen minutes he would personally be delivering Harry Potter's Hogwarts letter.

He had waited four years to find out where Harry had gone and what he had become and now Dumbledore's questions would be answered.

A single thought crossed Albus's mind as the self writing quill wrote down Harry's address. 'Of course it's Japan. Why did I expect anywhere else?' Dumbledore thought sarcastically.

Japan was practically overrun with ghouls. While it may have one of the eleven magical schools, there was a reason Mahōtokoro had the smallest student body of them all.

If Dumbledore was any less confident in his own abilities he probably wouldn't even go there himself. Wizards had been hunted so thoroughly by ghouls because they were incredibly appetizing. The more powerful a wizard the more likely they were to be attacked. Albus sighed and checked the clock again, eleven-fifty it read.

Ten more minutes and Dumbledore would be meeting the boy whose life he had basically ruined. Dumbledore partly blamed himself for Tom's dive off the deep end but Dumbledore had also known that Snape was spying on him the day of the prophecy, he had known and had done nothing because he had thought so little of Sybil Trelawney and his apathy had led to the death of both Lily and James Potter. (Not to mention the longbottoms current mental state.)

Dumbledore looked at the clock once more, eleven-fifty-five. Time seemed to be flying by and Dumbledore could feel that the closer to Harry he got the more his guilt and apprehension would build.

Dumbledore cast a translation charm om himself before he forgot to. 'The last time I forgot I was chased out of a village.'

The clock chimed loudly.

"CRACK!"

~-:-~

Dumbledore hated Apparating from Hogwarts. Even with the Anti-Apparition wards down going from Hogwarts to anywhere left him with a pounding headache and a stomach that desperately wanted to be empty.

That on top of the room FULL of ghouls made him much more than uneasy. If Dumbledore couldn't see Harry, and he could definitely tell which one was Harry, he probably would have left as fast as he could. (For an old man Dumbledore could move incredibly fast.)

Everyone in the room that Dumbledore didn't recognize had red and black eyes. 'How has Harry lived so long here?' Dumbledore had his question answered when his gaze, which had been roaming around the room, finally settled on the bespectacled birthday boy.

It dawned on him that Harry had done more than just integrate into their society when he saw the single black and red eye that glared at him from Harry's eye socket. The-boy-who-lived was a ghoul.

Dumbledore sighed. 'Why did it have to be ghouls?' He thought mournfully. He cleared his throat, then he put his hands up appeasingly. "I mean no harm to any of you. I am merely here on the behalf of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The defensive glares took on a much more incredulous air. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am the headmaster of Hogwarts and I am here to inform you," At this he ignored everyone else for Harry. "Harry Potter, that you have been invited to attend Hogwarts come the start of term in September."

The entire room was stunned into silence. Normally most muggles (ghouls) would be incredulously asking if this was a joke. Seeing as how Dumbledore had apparated directly into the room there were no shouts. Looking around the room Dumbledore saw that most of the ghouls around him just looked stunned.

A teenage girl, with frightening red and black eyes and purple hair spoke up angrily. "The fuck does that mean you shitty old man!?"

Dumbledore was stunned for a moment and gaped like a fish. Not only had this been the first young woman to speak so disrespectfully towards him (not the first disrespectful person just the most.) but all of the other adults didn't react to the level if language spewing from her mouth.

"Touka-chan, be nice. The crazy old man teleported in here. He might just be less crazy than he seems." the black haired ghoul with the tattoos sayed softly. Unlike the other ghouls this one wasn't looking at Dumbledore with much hostility.

Dumbledore smiled warmly at the girl. "It means that Harry here is a wizard." The warmth in his smile carried over to his voice.

Harry was stunned. Was the man just crazy or was Uta right? Was he telling the truth? Was Harry a wizard? Yomo spoke up. his face was hard and disbelieving.

"What is that supposed to mean? For Harry to be a wizard magic would have to exist. Don't you think we'd be aware of it?" Dumbledore's eyes seemed to twinkle with mirth.

The old man turned to face Yomo. "Why would you be aware of it if you aren't magical. We wizards prefer to hide ourselves from the muggles. We don't want a repeat of the witch trials."

Harry saw an opportunity to be part of the conversation and he leapt on it like it was food. "Muggles?" he asked.

"Muggles are what we call people without magic. Most ghouls fall under that category as well, except for you apparently. How did that happen? When I saw you as a baby you were definitely not a ghoul. I watched both of your parents eat lots of human food."

Harry flushed red, he would prefer to not recount his tale, at least not in front of a random man. This man had known his parents though. Maybe there was more to his story than Harry had originally thought. "Were… were my parents wizards?"

Dumbledore beamed. "Indeed Harry My boy. They even went to Hogwarts when they were your age. Hogwarts has never had a ghoul before but I'm sure we can make certain… accommodations."

Harry blinked. Even knowing that Harry was a ghoul this man still wanted him at his wizard school? Odd.

Dumbledore reached into his long coat slowly, when his wrinkled hand came out it was holding a letter. He gently placed the letter in Harry's hand. "Happy birthday Harry Potter." He spoke quietly but he knew they could all hear him. "I will send another of Hogwarts' professors in three days time, if you wish to attend my school he will take you to get your supplies. If not then he will leave to tell me and we will leave you be."

With another "CRACK!" The purple clad sorcerer was gone.

Harry locked eyes with Yomo. The silver haired ghoul knew that in three days time he would be travelling to get Harry school supplies. There was only one question in Yomo's mind.

'Why did it have to be wizards?'

~-:-~

"Where did you say I was going Albus?" A tall, pale man swathed in black robes with greasy black hair surrounding his white face asked.

Albus looked up from the magical tablet on his desk, the African school of magic was enquiring about something. Dumbledore just needed to finish translating the tablet to figure out what.

"Japan." Dumbledore said sounding bored. He turned back to the tablet, ignoring his former student.

Severus Snape felt his blood pressure skyrocket at the nonchalant way he was dismissed, to Japan no less. Did his pottering old fool of an employer not understand how difficult apparating to Japan from Hogwarts was!?

While his potions master mentally hurled insults that he didn't mean at him Dumbledore slid a small bottle filled with an innocent looking liquid forward.

Snape's eyes honed in on the bottle like a hawk to a mouse. "What is this?" Snape's voice was filled with distaste as he picked up the offending potion. 'It had better be a fucking potion.' Snape thought to himself grouchily.

"Well I thought I would wish you luck. That will do it far better than I ever could." Dumbledore said, dismissively motioning to the bottle in Snapes hands.

Snape would never admit to anyone that he had ever gawked at anything. He would do his best to get Dumbledore to sign a non-disclosure agreement concerning the few times Severus Snape had ever gawked.

With that thought running through his head Snape ripped the cork on the bottle off with his teeth and downed the entire bottle in a few quick gulps. "Start working on an N.D.A. while I'm gone." At that Snape confidently Apparated away with a very, very soft "crack." (It was so quiet, in fact, that it could not possibly be given an uppercase letter.)

~-:-~

"crack." Harry had expected the gunshot like sound he and Dumbledore made when they appeared in places and so was caught off guard when the pale man in black appeared with the lightest of cracking noises.

Severus glanced from the boy in front of him to the note in his hand, flipping it over Severus saw that it had the boy's name written on the back. 'Harry Potter.'

A grimace flashed across Severus's face before he shoved the old feelings of resentment for the boys father into the recesses of his mind. Dumbledore wasn't stupid enough to send him to collect the boy if the boy was anything like his father aside from his face.

'Besides,' Severus thought. 'He has his mother's eyes.'

Harry openly stared at the wizard that had appeared in the middle of Anteiku. This man would likely be teaching him sometime in the future, plus he struck an imposing figure.

Severus took stock of his surroundings, he was in what looked like a normal coffee shop, but something was off about it. Snape couldn't place his finger on what it was but something just wasn't right.

"I'm assuming that you shall be joining me to Diagon Alley to pick up your school supplies?" Snape's tone was clipped and concise, no house bias would taint this boy from Snape. (Not until the school year began at least.)

The man in the black robes had stopped paying attention but Harry knew he was listening, he had that look as if his attention was split. "Can Yomo come with us?" Harry asked hopefully and pointed at the ghoul in question, Yomo was standing stoically behind Harry.

Snape raised an eyebrow in silent questioning. "I've lived with him since I was seven." Harry offered the explanation.

Snape blinked. The way Harry looked at the man, it was like a child looking at his father.

Snape took stock of Yomo, the man that had raised James Potter's son it seemed, he was quiet and in control. Most importantly to Snape was that Yomo was quiet.

Snape nodded and Harry's grin widened just a little bit more.

Snape held out his hand for the boy to take, then his other arm for Yomo. "Hold on." Severus said simply.

It was with a much louder "Pop." that the trio disapparated.

From behind the counter of Anteiku Touka glanced at Ayato, the siblings eyes locked and they both nodded. Knowing Harry he would come back with something he could implement into his positively insane fighting style, Touka and Ayato would have to work together if they wanted any wins while sparring for the next week at least.

Touka sighed quietly 'Fucking magic.' she thought incredulously. 'At least it explains a few things.'

~-:-~

Harry will indeed be going to Hogwarts. to that one guy that was like "I hope he doesn't go to Hogwarts." you are correct in that there are other schools, but Hogwarts has had Harry on their future roster since his birth and so basically had dibs. If your interested in the other schools though all eleven of them will be showcased for at least a chapter each.

Tri is such a small number, Eleven is pretty close to what I want but I don't know, maybe there will be twelve.

Later.